The iconic Madison Square Garden, designed by architect Stanford White, featured a tower modeled after Giralda and became a celebrated landmark upon its opening in 1890. Giralda tower is itself a twin of Morocco's Koutoubia mosque built by the Almohads Koutoubia minaret is a triplet, not just a twin. The mosque, founded in 1147 by the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min right after he conquered Marrakech from the Almoravids, served as the model for the Giralda mosque of Seville, in al-Andalus during the reign of the Almohad dynasty. The third identical tower, this time not a mosque nor a converted church, is located in the heart of Manhattan, in the Big Apple. The Koutoubia tower's sister is part of the iconic Madison Square Garden, a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City, known as one of the most famous entertainment and sports venues in the world. Located in Midtown Manhattan, the venue is the chef-d'œuvre of renowned architect Stanford White. Opened in 1891, the building replaced the first Madison Square Garden, hosting numerous events. The arena is a Beaux-Arts structure with a Moroccan touch, visible in its minaret-like tower. The tower is initially modeled after Giralda, the bell tower of the Cathedral of Seville, which was once a state-of-the-art mosque in Al-Andalus. Giralda is itself modeled after its twin sister, Koutoubia, in Marrakech. Koutoubia's minaret also served as a forerunner for Rabat's Hassan Tower, begun by Ya'qub al-Mansur but never finished. Madison Square spanned over 200 feet (61 m) by 485 feet (148 m) with its main hall, which was the largest in the world, measuring 200 feet (61 m) by 350 feet (110 m), with permanent seating for 8,000 people and floor space for thousands more. The Garden's Koutoubia minaret-twin tower was topped by a statue of Diana, an iconic statue by sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. «Stanford White designed the structure — one of the most impressive of its day», mentions New York City Guide: A Comprehensive Guide to the Five Boroughs of the Metropolis: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Richmond. «Its beautiful tower, copied from the Giralda in Seville, was surmounted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens' statue of Diana», the guide noted. The tower, however, faced a couple of unexpected hurdles. Sources mention that the syndicate showed «great skepticism over the profitability of the tower». White told a New York Times reporter in March 1888 that there had been «some objection to the proposed tower» and that he had to fight for the tower in the arena of public opinion. The Times supported White, comparing the proposed tower to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, suggesting that New York deserved a landmark of its own. «The abandonment of the tower as a means of obtaining a bird's eye view of the city… and as the one thing which dignified and made important the main building, is a fact somewhat crushing… If New York is proud of the new Madison Square Garden as a work of art, everything connected with it will succeed», wrote the newspaper in his defense. Despite this strong defense, investors remained hesitant, and securing funding took months. Madison Square Garden was completed first, with its 304-foot tower featuring an observation deck. It was inaugurated on June 16, 1890, with a grand gala attended by 12,000 people. White fought hard to get his Koutoubia-inspired tower design realized, but he met a tragic death in the same building. On the roof garden, White was killed in 1906 by Harry K. Thaw, son of an American coal and railroad baron, and the murder developed into one of the outstanding scandals of the era. Sadly, Madison Square Garden closed in 1925. During an official state visit in March 1963, King Hassan II visited the third version of the arena, which was located at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street in New York City, to attend a performance of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. This version opened in 1925 and was not designed by Stanford White—his version of Madison Square Garden (the second one) was demolished in 1925 to make way for the New York Life Building, the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company.
