Talk:Western Union Telegraph Building

Western Union Telegraph Building has been listed as one of the Art and architecture good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: March 13, 2021. (Reviewed version).

A fact from Western Union Telegraph Building appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 24 February 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that New York City's Western Union Telegraph Building was built on land once owned by Thomas W. Evans, dentist to French emperor Napoleon III?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2021/February. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Western Union Telegraph Building.

Wikipedia

Architecture Low‑importance

	Architecture portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Architecture, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Architecture on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ArchitectureWikipedia:WikiProject ArchitectureTemplate:WikiProject ArchitectureArchitecture articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

New York City Low‑importance

	New York City portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject New York City, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of New York City-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.New York CityWikipedia:WikiProject New York CityTemplate:WikiProject New York CityNew York City articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Skyscrapers Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Skyscrapers, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles that relate to skyscrapers on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SkyscrapersWikipedia:WikiProject SkyscrapersTemplate:WikiProject SkyscrapersSkyscraper articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Telecommunications Low‑importance

	Telecommunication portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Telecommunications, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Telecommunications on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TelecommunicationsWikipedia:WikiProject TelecommunicationsTemplate:WikiProject TelecommunicationsTelecommunications articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Did you know nomination[edit]

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Edge3 (talk) 05:09, 14 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

Western Union Telegraph Building

... that the Western Union Telegraph Building (pictured), one of New York City's first skyscrapers, was intended as "a visible representation of Western Union's virtual hegemony in its field"? Source: Balmori, Diana (December 1987). "George B. Post: The Process of Design and the New American Architectural Office (1868-1913)". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 46 (4): 44.
- ALT1:... that after the top stories of the "fireproof" Western Union Telegraph Building (pictured) burned, it was found that these stories were actually fire hazards? Source: Landau, Sarah; Condit, Carl W. (1996). Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865–1913. Yale University Press. p. 84.
- ALT2:... that New York City's Western Union Telegraph Building (pictured) was built on land once owned by Thomas W. Evans, dentist for French emperor Napoleon III? Source: "The Real Estate Market". New York Daily Herald. March 8, 1872. p. 5.

Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Elizabeth Pulane Moremi

5x expanded by Epicgenius (talk). Self-nominated at 14:28, 1 February 2021 (UTC).[reply]

Article was expanded sufficiently with this edit on 1 Feb. The article has adequate referencing. I'm partial to the third hook, it's the most catchy to me, and can be corroborated with the following source: [1]. Other two sources also look good, my second choice would be the one about the fire. The article did not regster any copyright violations (The higher scoring items there are due to them being quoted directly). I like this one! /Tpdwkouaa (talk) 05:31, 3 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Tpdwkouaa: Thanks for the review. Is the article good to go? If so, it won't register as being approved until you add the code {{subst:DYKtick}} to your comment. Epicgenius (talk) 03:23, 6 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review[edit]

This review is transcluded from Talk:Western Union Telegraph Building/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Ballpointbiro (talk · contribs) 12:18, 13 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I plan to review this article today. Best, Ballpointbiro (talk) 12:18, 13 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The review's complete, and I'm happy to say that I believe this article meets the GA criteria. I really enjoyed reading it, congratulations! Suggestions for improvements are in italics. Ballpointbiro (talk) 13:27, 13 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

0 - Copyvio[edit]

I used Earwig's copyvio detector to check the article, which returned 29.1% similarity to an article in the Real Estate Record of April 25 1891. The reason for this is a section of quoted text in the article, the source and an inline citation are provided. All images in the article are either public domain or self-created work from Wikimedia Commons. I have no concerns over copyright violation for this article.

1 - Writing[edit]

A - Prose, spelling, grammar
- The prose is written in good encyclopaedic style, and flows very well despite being rich in technical information.
- There are no spelling or grammatical errors, and all unit conversions are carried out accurately.

B - Lead section, layout, words to watch, fiction, lists
- The lead section provides a good overview of the article, without being too long or technical. It provides key information about the building and would, I think, satisfy a casual browser who read only this section.
- The layout conforms to MOS:LAYOUT and, I believe, is logical and appropriate.
- There are no examples of MOS:WTW; all assertions and quotations are supported by inline citations.
- This article does not contain any formatted lists or tables outside of the References section. Parts of the Site section could be handled with a list or table of dimensions, but I think that having the measurements embedded in the prose with additional details adds to their value in the article.

2 - Verifiability[edit]

A - References
- The article refers to a wide range of sources including newspaper articles, architectural journals and books. I was not able to verify references to published works that are not available online, but those that I could check supported the section of the article that referred to them. The article does not contain any contentious language or assertions, nor is it the subject of ongoing edit wars, so I am confident that the sources referenced are relevant and reliable.

B - Citations
- The article uses inline citations effectively and appropriately.

C - Original research
- The article does not seem to contain any original research - all assertions and technical specifications are supported by inline citations to reliable sources. There are no long tracts of unreferenced text.

D - Copyvio
- See section 0

3 - Coverage[edit]

A - Coverage
- The article covers all the key information concerning this building, its history, and its historical background. It would be nice to see a section dedicated to the 1890 fire and its causes. It seems that there are enough contemporary reports from newspapers to provide a narrative, and it would be interesting to see the outcome of any investigations into the fire. For example, if it had any effect on the design of other buildings.

B - Focus
- The article stays focused on the building concerned, but provides enough information (particularly in the Design and Usage sections) to provide context to someone unfamiliar with the subject.

4 - Neutrality[edit]

The article is neutral in tone and provides multiple viewpoints where appropriate, the Legacy section deals well with differing opinions on the building's architecture.

5 - Stability[edit]

The article is stable and is not subject to any edit wars. It was expanded recently by the user who submitted the GAR, and has had a few small corrections since.

6 - Illustration[edit]

A - Copyright
- See section 0

B - Relevancy, captions
- All the images provided are appropriate and well placed in the text. There are no "stack-ups" or "sandwiches". The captions are concise and formatted consistently. Some images of the architectural details mentioned in the Design section would be really great to see, I appreciate they may not exist or be available though...