The Myth:

The proportions of the UN Building correspond to the golden ratio.

The Reality:

This does not appear to be the case. Markowsky has an excellent discussion of this. The true proportions of the ratio of the height to the width of the building are never closer to   than 1.76, well outside the acceptable range for the golden ratio.

References:

[Bro03] Dan Brown, The da vinci code, Doubleday, 2003.

[Mar92] George Markowsky, Misconceptions about the golden ratio, The College Mathematics Journal 23 (1992), no. 1, 2–19.

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