ANSWER
The New York Stock Exchange Building, built in 1902
The system was designed in 1901 by Alfred Wolff, who also designed heating and ventilation systems for a number of notable New York buildings, including Carnegie Hall, The New York Public Library, and the Plaza Hotel. His design for the New York Stock Exchange was the first to use refrigeration techniques to cool the air. He went on to design cooling systems for the Hanover National Bank and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1902 was also the year that Willis Haviland Carrier installed his first air conditioning system, for a printing company in Brooklyn. His system allowed the company to produce accurate four-color printing without the problems caused by heat and humidity altering the size of the paper during the printing process. Carrier literally wrote the book on air conditioning. His 'Rational Psychrometric Formulae', published in 1911, contains the fundamental calculations still used today by the air conditioning industry. Legend has it that he came up with his "flash of genius" while waiting for a train late at night in the fog in Pittsburgh.
Neither Wolff nor Carrier originally used the term "air conditioning". That term was coined in 1906 by Stuart Cramer, a textile engineer. Cotton mills were some of the earliest users of air conditioning, since low humidity caused static electricity which wreaked havoc when trying to spin little tiny cotton fibers into yarn. Cramer's air conditioner added humidity to the air, reducing the affects of the static electricity.
One of the first to attempts to use refrigeration to provide cooler air was Dr. John Gorrie, who in 1839 was attempting to cool sick rooms in hospitals in Apalachicola, Florida. While he didn't exactly invent air conditioning, he did invent the ice machine. Besides service as a physician for two hospitals in Apalachicola, he also served at various times as mayor, postmaster, city treasurer, council member, bank director, and founder of a church. He gave all that up to focus on his new invention, however he was never able to raise enough money to successfully manufacture his ice machine. He died a broken man, financially ruined and in failing health, in 1855.
Other trivia: The first automobile to feature air conditioning was the 1939 Packard. The first department store to feature air conditioning was J.L. Hudson Department Store in Detroit, in 1924.
WHO GOT IT RIGHT: Yael Reuben, Marc Quinlivan, JP Weigt, Bob Milligan, Robin Campbell, and Scott Flaxman.
