The Empire State Building
Is a huge Art Deco skyscraper in the center of Manhattan:
- It has 102 floors, and when it opened it was the tallest skyscraper in the world.
- The building is primarily used as office space by a wide variety of companies, as well as serving as a popular tourist attraction. There are shops and eateries on the ground floors, as well as observation decks you can visit on the 80th, 86th and 102nd floors.
- It has its own zip code, has featured in numerous movies and TV shows, including King Kong, An Affair to Remember, Sleepless in Seattle, and Elf.
- Construction on the Empire State Building started on the 17th March 1930, and was completed 13 months later on the 11th April 1931. It was opened on the 1st May 1931.
- The building was constructed in record pace, at an average of 4.5 stories a week. During one 10 day period, 14 floors were built!
- The Empire State Building is constructed from a steel frame with a limestone facade. The use of steel frames combined with the invention of elevators is what made it possible to build skyscrapers to such dizzying heights, and the technique is still used in skyscraper construction to this day.
The Empire State Building derives its name from the nickname given to the State of New York, which is the Empire State
- The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet high, measured to the very tip of the building. The roof is 1,250 feet high.
- When it was built it was the tallest building in the world, a title it held until the World Trade Center buildings were finished in 1970.
- The Empire State Building is a huge building. It's so large in fact it has its own zip code.
https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/empire-state-building-guide
The Empire State Building used to have a Skyride video attraction. It was closed on December 31, 2015.
WATCH ELSEWHERE:
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#empirestatebuilding
Excavation of the site began on January 22, 1930, and construction of the building began on March 17. The project involved 3,400 workers, mostly European immigrants, as well as hundreds of Mohawk iron workers. Despite an astonishing lack of safety regulations, only five workers died during construction.
The construction of the Empire State Building was part of a competition in New York City for the "world's tallest building" with 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building. The Empire State Building surpassed both buildings in height upon its completion on April 11, 1931, 12 days ahead of schedule.
Sept. 19, 1930:
"Workmen at the new Empire State building that is being erected on the site of the old Waldorf Astoria Hotel at 34th Street and 5th Avenue.
in New York, by a corporation headed by the former Governor Al Smith, raised a flag on the 88th story of the great building, 1,048 feet above the street.
The flag thus is at the highest point in the city higher than the Crystler Building. Photo shows the workmen at the ceremonies." BETTMANN/CORBIS
https://historycollection.com/20-incredible-photos-construction-empire-state-building
The majority of visitors who come to the Empire State Building are primarily interested in visiting the world famous outdoor observation deck and taking in the views of the city. There are three floors with observatories in the Empire State Building as follows:
- 80th floor indoor observatory. Opened in late 2019, this is the newest observatory. It's an entirely indoor observatory, so the views are through glass windows
- 86th floor indoor/outdoor observatory. The original and most famous of the observatories, this features both an indoor and outdoor viewing area which wraps around the whole building. This is the highest floor within the actual tower, all the height above this is the spire. It's also the highest open-air viewpoint in the city.
- 102nd floor observatory. Found on the highest floor of the building, and fully refurbished in 2019, this floor now features floor to ceiling glass windows offering spectacular views over the city.
https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/empire-state-building-guide
Design-wise, it is an undistinguished building, a typical skyscraper built for corporate purposes. The most significant aspect of the Empire State Building is that it was tall for its time and that it was engaged in a race to the top with the Chrysler Building at the beginning of the Depression decade. The extent of the frantic efforts to add height can be read by the almost hasty stacking of tier upon tier, following the rules of the "set-back" law used to gain height. Its rival structure also climbing up in the clouds, the Chrysler Building, was a much more graceful building, designed with wit and elegance When it was completed, the Chrysler Building lost the race to be tall but it is remembered and cherished because the crown is a tribute to the automobile–a mixing of metaphors and the Crystler Corporation's homage to chrome.
https://arthistoryunstuffed.com/the-skyscraper-race-the-empire-state-and-chrysler-buildings
Chrysler on Left (1,046 feet)
Empire State on Right (1,454 feet)
Worlds Tallest Buildings 1908-1974:IMAGE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tallest_buildings_1908_-_1974.svg
Race to build the World's Largest Skyscraper:
In the late-1920s, as New York's economy boomed like never before, builders were in a mad dash to erect the world's largest skyscraper.
The main competition was between 40 Wall Street's Bank of Manhattan building and the Chrysler Building, an elaborate Art Deco structure conceived by car mogul Walter Chrysler as a "monument to me."
Both towers tried to best each other by adding more floors to their design, and the race really heated up in August 1929, when General Motors executive John J. Raskob and former New York Governor Al Smith announced plans for the Empire State Building.
Upon learning that the Empire State would be 1,000 feet tall, Chrysler changed his plans a final time and fixed a stainless steel spire to the top of his skyscraper. The addition saw the Chrysler Building soar to a record 1,048 feet, but unfortunately for Chrysler, Raskob and Smith simply went back to the drawing board and returned with an even taller design for the Empire State Building. When completed in 1931, the colossus loomed 1,250 feet over the streets of Midtown Manhattan. It would remain the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years until the completion of the first World Trade Center tower in 1970.
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-facts-about-the-empire-state-building
When he drew up its plans in 1929, architect William Lamb of the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon is said to have modeled the Empire State Building after Winston-Salem, North Carolina's Reynolds Building — which he had previously designed—and Carew Tower in Cincinnati. The two earlier Art Deco buildings are now often cited as the Empire State's architectural ancestors. On the Reynolds Building's 50th anniversary in 1979, the Empire State Building's general manager even sent a card that read, "Happy Anniversary, Dad."
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-facts-about-the-empire-state-building
Left: Reynolds Building
Right: Carew Tower
R.J. Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina:
1929: 22 stories, 315 feet with 65 foot flagpole
It won the American Association of Architects award for best building in 1929.
https://northcarolinaroom.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/first-days-of-the-reynolds-building
Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio:
1930: 49-story, 574-foot
By far the most unusual aspect of the Empire State Building's design concerned its 200-foot tower. Convinced that transatlantic airship travel was the wave of the future, the building's owners originally constructed the mast as a docking port for lighter-than-air dirigibles.
The harebrained scheme called for the airships to maneuver alongside the building and tether themselves to a winching apparatus. Passengers would then exit via an open-air gangplank, check in at a customs office and make their way to the streets of Manhattan in a mere seven minutes.
Despite early enthusiasm for the project, the high winds near the building's rooftop proved all but impossible for pilots to negotiate. The closest thing to a "landing" came in September 1931, when a small dirigible tethered itself to the spire for a few minutes. Two weeks later, a Goodyear blimp dropped a stack of newspapers on the roof a part of a publicity stunt, but the airship plan was abandoned shortly thereafter.
https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-facts-about-the-empire-state-building
40 stacked, 20,000-lumen projectors placed on the roof a building on West 31st street
https://www.artpeoplegallery.com/the-empire-state-building-light-show
A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal ape who takes a shine to their female blonde star. He is then captured and brought back to New York City for public exhibition.
All goes well until photographers, using the blinding flashbulbs of the era, begin snapping shots of Ann and Jack, who is now her fiance.
Under the impression that the flashbulbs are attacking Ann, Kong breaks free of his bonds and escapes from the theater, as the screaming audience flees.
He rampages through city streets, destroying an elevated train and killing several citizens.
He looks into windows, his glaring eyes looming in the windows of the wrecked elevated train
Kong sees Ann in an upper floor hotel room, he reaches in the window, grabs her, and carries her to the top of the Empire State Building.
The military dispatches four Curtiss Helldiver biplanes to destroy Kong.
The ape gently sets Ann down on the building's observation deck and climbs atop the upper mast, trying to fend off the attackers...
He manages to swat one plane down, but he is mortally wounded by machine-gun fire and plummets to his death in the street below.
Denham picks his way to the front of the crowd, where a cop remarks "Well Denham, the airplanes got him."
Denham replies, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."
Spoiler Alert:
... The next scene shows those last words in lights on a theater marquee.
Along with hundreds of curious New Yorkers, Denham, Driscoll and Ann are in evening wear for the gala event.
The curtain lifts, and Denham presents a subdued and shackled Kong to the stunned audience.
King Kong 1933
Scene: Climbing the Empire State Building
King Kong 2005
Scene: Climbing the Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United StatesEmpire State Building:
- It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931
- Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the state of New York
- The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet (380 m) and stands a total of 1,454 feet (443.2 m) tall, including its antenna
The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1970; following the latter's collapse in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the city's tallest skyscraper until 2012. As of 2020, the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, the 49th-tallest in the world, and the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.
- The site of the Empire State Building, in Midtown South on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was developed in 1893 as the Waldorf–Astoria Hotel
- In 1929, Empire State Inc. acquired the site and devised plans for a skyscraper there
The design for the Empire State Building was changed fifteen times until it was ensured to be the world's tallest building
- Construction started on March 17, 1930, and the building opened thirteen and a half months afterward on May 1, 1931
- Despite favorable publicity related to the building's construction, because of the Great Depression and World War II, its owners did not make a profit until the early 1950s
- The building's Art Deco architecture, height, and observation decks have made it a popular attraction. Around four million tourists from around the world annually visit the building's 86th and 102nd floor observatories. An additional indoor observatory on the 80th floor opened in 2019.
- The Empire State Building is an American cultural icon: it has been featured in more than 250 TV shows and movies since the film King Kong was released in 1933.
- The building's size has become the global standard of reference to describe the height and length of other structures.
- A symbol of New York City, the building has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
History of the Property:
The site was previously owned by John Jacob Astor of the prominent Astor family, who had owned the site since the mid-1820s. In 1893, John Jacob Astor Senior's grandson William Waldorf Astor opened the Waldorf Hotel on the site. Four years later, his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, opened the 16-story Astoria Hotel on an adjacent site. The two portions of the Waldorf–Astoria hotel had 1,300 bedrooms, making it the largest hotel in the world at the time. After the death of its founding proprietor, George Boldt, in early 1918, the hotel lease was purchased by Thomas Coleman du Pont. By the 1920s, the old Waldorf–Astoria was becoming dated and the elegant social life of New York had moved much farther north than 34th Street. The Astor family decided to build a replacement hotel further uptown and sold the hotel to Bethlehem Engineering Corporation in 1928. The hotel closed shortly thereafter, on May 3, 1929.The Empire State Building and its ground-floor interior were designated city landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1980, and were added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Empire+State+Building
The Empire State Building is a huge Art Deco skyscraper in the center of Manhattan: It has 102 floors, and when it opened it was the tallest skyscraper in the world. Used as office space by a wide variety of companies, and it's a popular tourist attraction. There are shops and eateries on the ground floors, as well as observation decks you can visit on the 80th, 86th and 102nd floors. It has its own zip code. Construction started in March 1930, and was completed 13 months later in April 1931.
