Buried in the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives of the NYU Tamiment Library, lies a faded, typewritten document recounting the origin of the New York Building Congress. It’s a history that is known only in flashes even by the present day leaders of the organization as it prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary.
Current NYBC president Richard T. Anderson says that “the folklore” has it that the idea for the organization – which organizes the various elements of the construction industry under the same tent – originated at an American Institute of Architects convention at Atlantic City.