The Flatiron Building at 175 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan attracts photographers because of its unusual wedge shape (like an old flatiron from the days when irons were chunks of iron that had to be heated up before they were used to press clothing), because of the iconic 1904 Steichen photo, below, left, next to mine from a similar angle, and because of many other artists’ attempts to capture its arresting shape, as in this week’s New Yorker cover, below. Built in 1902, it is considered one of New York’s first skyscrapers. The elevators ran on water pressure. It sits on a triangular block — the shape of which was the origin of its name — with its prow pointing to the intersection of East 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue, across Broadway from Madison Square Park.  If you get there on a sunny morning, you can sit on the benches in the triangle opposite and watch the sun slip behind it. If you turn north, you see the Empire State Building. The area around it is called, naturally, the Flatiron District. Nearby, across Fifth Avenue, is Eataly, the 50,000-square-foot Italian food extravaganza.
  
 