Today the Flatiron building is surrounded by the multitude of massive, dramatic skyscrapers that make up the world-renowned Manhattan skyline. The oddly shaped workspaces — many of which are located at the very corner of the Flatiron building — are actually some of the most coveted office spaces in the entire building. Another interesting quirk about the building is that its gendered bathrooms are placed on alternating floors.
Here, the Men’s restrooms can be found on the even floors of the building, while the Women’s restrooms are located on the odd floors. The reason? According to the History Channel, the answer to this question dates back to the first opening days of the building. It was during this time that, the designers of the building realized that they had forgotten to include any ladies’ restrooms. To fix the issue, management resolved to designate bathrooms for men and women by alternating floors.
Shanghai Then
Though today the city of Shanghai, China is widely populated, filled with the bustle of over 26.32 million people (as of 2019), it was not until recently that this city gained prominence and recognition. Before, Shanghai was nothing more than a simple port town. In fact, prior to China’s economic growth in the ‘80s, Shanghai actually experienced three decades of great famine, drought, reform, and suppression—atrocities directly due to the Chinese Communist Party’s establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Things started to change. In the 70s, a cultural revolution was born and people of many cultures started to flood the city. A movement called Shanghai Communiqué made an agreement held between China and the United States, signed by Shanghai’s then-leader Premier Zhou Enlai and then-President Nixon—that this Asian nation would finally begin to see an improvement in the quality of life and wellbeing
Shanghai Today
In present-day Shanghai, the beauty and charm of this once quaint city now coexist alongside industry and commercialism. The progressive, innovative nature of this major present-day Chinese city is due largely in part to the widespread work and efforts of Deng Xiaoping, China’s former leader, elected to office in 1990. In fact, the name Shanghai means “the engine of the country's commercial renaissance.” Sounds fitting!
Xiaoping made it his goal to make the city a major rival competitor of Hong Kong by 2010. Thanks to this progressive Chinese leader, Shanghai has grown greatly over the span of less than 25 years. Today, it is known as the “vertical city”—a nickname earned for famously boasting several of the tallest buildings in the world, most notably of these, the whopping 2,037-foot Shanghai Tower.
Las Vegas's Freemont Street Then
While the Las Vegas Strip is the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Sin City, before this iconic strip of land, there was Fremont Street. Around since Las Vegas’s founding back in 1905, the street became the hub for all of the hustle and bustle of Vegas back in the day. Back then, it was considered to be an incredibly progressive city. By the 1980s, Las Vegas would experience an explosion of unexpected growth in the city’s population.
As a result, the annual population of Las Vegas would increase by an average of approximately seven percent. This rapid rise in population would eventually lead to the nearly doubling of the city’s population between 1985 and 1995—an astounding 97.6 percent from 186,380 to 368,360.
Las Vegas's Freemont Street Today
Of the many present-day developments in Fremont Street, the most obvious is The Golden Nugget, which as you can clearly see above, got a bright, glittery facelift. But above all, perhaps the most striking is the modern-looking barrel vault canopy that now hangs over the street. The spectacular $70-million canopy, which hangs above the mall offers tourists and visitors the chance to witness a mesmerizing show of light and sound
It is the main attraction of the Fremont Street Experience, a pedestrian mall with an array of attractions for those who are knowledgeable enough to venture off the strip and into Downtown Las Vegas.