May 5, 2008
Last Wooden Water Tower Builders Vie for Supremacy
New York City’s last remaining wooden water tower builders are like the "Hatfields and the McCoys – and we’re the real McCoy," according to Andy Rosenwach, owner of the Rosenwach Tank Company. In that analogy, his rival would be Isseks Brothers, founded in 1890. The Rosenwach company officially formed in 1896, when Andy’s ancestor Harris Rosenwach, a Polish immigrant, bought the business from the widow of his deceased boss, barrel maker William Dalton.
Indoor plumbing began replacing well-drawn water in the 1840s, and when a post-Civil War housing boom led to higher buildings, water towers became necessary to keep up the pressure. Wooden water towers are still preferred over steel by most building owners because they’re cheaper ($30,000 as opposed to $120,000) and can be built in a day. Approximately 10,000 currently dot the city’s skyline.
Isseks ships the wood for their towers from Philadelphia, while the Rosenwach company mills their cedar wood in Williamsburg, which Rosenwach says gives him the edge because he “can turn around an emergency in 24 hours.” They crank out 200 to 300 wooden tanks a year, generating $6 million of Rosenwach’s total $18 million in revenue (the company also builds cooling towers for air conditioning systems). Scott Hochhauser, vice president of Isseks Brothers, tells the Times his company builds between one and five towers per week. For now, there seems to be enough wooden tower work to go around, since they need to be replaced every 35 years.
Photograph of Rosenwach water tanks by edEx on Flickr
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They're hideous.
There is a pretty cool episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike helps build one of these.
Its not exactly one of his most dirty jobs but it seems pretty dangerous...
I love 'em. From any rooftop, these water towers dot the skyline and give NYC character. At least I don't think THAT'LL be changing any time soon...
I like them, too. They're part of the city's fabric. NYC wouldn't look like NYC without them.
Rosenwach's are the best. And I wish every building had them, including the Citicorp Tower.
Wooden towers are also more efficient. Wood has the capability of expanding and retracting, allowing for optimum water storage.
i like em and the dirty jobs featuring rosenwach's was pretty cool. :-)
Indeed, there would be no NYC skyline without those towers. Wood is more forgiving than metal in our weather - from minus 20F in January to 100F in July. Metal would warp & break.
Poster #1 (thenamesdave) should really examine what his aesthetics are. As the Rosenwach logo states, they are "The Skyline of New York." Water towers are truly the New York skyline's signature, and it would not be the same without them. From my gym window, until yet another oversized, overpriced "luxury" condo went up to block the view, I could count 12 water towers - and that only from the 3rd floor! From a high floor they're almost too numerous to count. And what a brilliant, energy-efficient solution to a problem they are! Pump water up once, and let gravity do the work! And for the architects who don't like the way they look, they have provided the excuse for some of the best building tops in the world - all of those fancy peaks and pyramids and faux Greek temples on top of NY buildings? They serve no purpose other than to mask the towers.