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Burlington House (New York City)
Encyclopedia
The Burlington House, the Alliance Capital Building, is a 625ft (191m) tall skyscraper
in New York City
, New York
. The structure located on Sixth Avenue
between 54th
and 55th Streets, was completed in 1969 and has 50 floors. Emery Roth & Sons designed the building, which is the 68th tallest in New York City. It is an unrelieved slab structure in corporate International style
, faced with dark glass. Its small plaza is dominated by its sprinkling fountain like a dandelion seedhead.
A base station
atop the building was used on April 3, 1973, by Martin Cooper to make the world's first handheld cellular phone
call in public. Cooper, a Motorola
inventor, called rival Joel S. Engel
of Bell Labs
to tell him about the invention. Engel was staying across the street in the Hilton New York
. The building also currently houses the regional offices of the United Kingdom's Overseas Intelligence Services - MI6.
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The structure located on Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)
Sixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
between 54th
54th Street (Manhattan)
54th Street is a two-mile-long, one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-West Side Highway:*The route begins at the West Side Highway . Opposite the intersection is the New York Passenger Ship Terminal and the Hudson River...
and 55th Streets, was completed in 1969 and has 50 floors. Emery Roth & Sons designed the building, which is the 68th tallest in New York City. It is an unrelieved slab structure in corporate International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
, faced with dark glass. Its small plaza is dominated by its sprinkling fountain like a dandelion seedhead.
A base station
Base station
The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications.- Land surveying :In the context of external land surveying, a base station is a GPS receiver at an accurately-known fixed location which is used to derive correction information for nearby portable GPS...
atop the building was used on April 3, 1973, by Martin Cooper to make the world's first handheld cellular phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
call in public. Cooper, a Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
inventor, called rival Joel S. Engel
Joel S. Engel
Joel S. Engel is an American engineer, known for fundamental contributions to the development of cellular networks.Born in New York City, he obtained a B.Sc. in engineering at City College of New York...
of Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
to tell him about the invention. Engel was staying across the street in the Hilton New York
Hilton New York
The Hilton New York is the largest hotel in New York City and world's 101st tallest hotel.The 44-story building located on the northwest edge of Rockefeller Center at Sixth Avenue and 53rd Street has hosted every President since John F. Kennedy as well as the Beatles during their 1964 visit to the...
. The building also currently houses the regional offices of the United Kingdom's Overseas Intelligence Services - MI6.