page_title: Ernest Flagg
section_title: Professional career
hierarchical_section_title: Ernest Flagg / Professional career
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Singer Building in New York City - VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST
context_page_description: Ernest Flagg was a noted American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility.
context_section_description: In 1891, Flagg began his architectural practice in New York, greatly influenced by his knowledge of the French ideas of architectural design, such as structural rationalism.
  During this time he joined with John Prentiss Benson to create Flagg & Benson, which later became Flagg, Benson & Brockway with the addition of Albert Leverett Brockway. FB&B designed St. Luke's Hospital in New York City.
  In 1894, he established the architectural firm of Flagg & Chambers with Walter B. Chambers, whom he met in Paris. Usually Flagg alone is credited for some of the work he and Chambers worked on together, such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the U.S. Naval Academy, and Pomfret School in Connecticut which he saw as "part of the process of evolution that would contribute to the creation of a national style of architecture.”
  Louisa Flagg Scribner, Flagg's sister, was the wife of Charles Scribner II. Through this familial connection, Flagg designed six structures located in Manhattan for the publishing family.
  Flagg is probably best known for his design of the Singer Tower. Completed in 1908, it was then the tallest office building in the world, at 612 feet. Faithful to his Beaux-Arts training, Flagg allowed space around the tall building for light to enter, which was unusual for the time.
  Though Flagg is best known for his large institutional designs, he was also interested in producing modest, attractive homes affordable to average Americans. He developed innovative techniques toward that end and in 1922 published the book Small Houses, Their Economic Design and Construction. He packaged these techniques and ideas into the Flagg System, and collaborated with builders scattered across the U.S. to build them.
  His contributions to zoning and height regulations were essential to New York's first laws governing this aspect of the city's architecture. Flagg argued in favor of zoning laws which would regulate the height and setback of buildings, to allow light and air to reach the streets below them. He was a president of the New York Society of Beaux-Arts Architects. A small collection of Flagg's personal and professional papers is held in the Department of Drawings & Archives at Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University.
caption: The Singer Building, once the tallest building in the world
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