Brigadier General William George Steinmetz AIA (c. 1838 – 27 April 1898) was a German-American architect who practiced in New York City as a founding associate of A.B.
He enlisted in the Union Army when the Civil War broke out, rising through the ranks of the cavalry to become a brigadier general.
[4] In Mullet's firm, Steinmetz was the superintendent of construction of Mullet's famous Second Empire-style New York City Central Post Office (near City Hall, demolished 1939) but was dismissed in early 1877 a few months before a section of the mansard roof collapsed and killed four workers.
A grand jury investigation into the accident revealed the roof truss had not been property bolted to the framing.
Oakshott, neither an architect nor an engineer, was apparently uninformed to the construction or placement of the roof truss."