The Chrysler Building is considered a masterpiece of Art
Deco architecture Designed by architect William Van Alen to house the Chrysler
Corporation
Today asbestos has been found in the muddy debris that was spewed forth in a thunderous steam pipe explosion that jolted Manhattan.
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The Chrysler Building is considered a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture.
Designed by architect William Van Alen for the Chrysler Corporation. When the ground breaking occurred September 19, 1928, there was an intense competition in New York City to build the world's tallest skyscraper. Despite a frantic pace (the building was erected at an average rate of four floors per week) no workers died during the construction of this
skyscraper.
The distinctive ornamentation of the building is based on features that were then being used on Chrysler automobiles. The corners of the 61st floor are graced with eagles, replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood
ornaments. On the 31st floor, the corner ornamentation are replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator
caps. The building is constructed of masonry, with a steel frame, and metal cladding |
In 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City's Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building's lights. Hoover's gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.
The idea for the
Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could erect the taller building. Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building, the gleaming 1,046-foot skyscraper in midtown Manhattan.
Not to be bested, Raskob assembled a group of well-known investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith. The group chose the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. The Art-Deco plans, said to have been based in large part on the look of a pencil, were also builder-friendly: The entire building went up in just over a year, under budget (at $40 million) and well ahead of schedule.
At the time of its completion, the Empire State Building, at 102 stories
- 1,250 feet high (1,454 feet to the top of the lightning rod) was the world's tallest skyscraper. The Depression-era construction employed 3,400 workers on any single day, most of whom received excellent pay, especially given the economic conditions of the time. The new building imbued New York City with a deep sense of pride, desperately needed in the depths of the Great Depression.
The grip of the Depression on New York's economy was still evident a year later, however, when only 25 percent of the Empire State's offices had been rented.
In 1972, the Empire State Building lost its title as world's tallest building to New York's World Trade Center, which itself was the tallest skyscraper for but a year. Today the honor belongs to Taiwan's Taipei building, which
rises 1,670 feet into the sky.
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