Empire State Building

Empire State Building. Thanks to its familiar silhouette and status as the world's tallest building from 1931 until 1973, the Empire State Building, on New York City's Fifth Avenue between Thirty‐third and Thirty‐fourth streets, ranks as the twentieth century's most famous skyscraper.Designed by the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon, and erected on the site of the Waldorf‐Astoria Hotel, it stands 102 stories (1,250 feet) high, with 85 floors of office space. A tourist promenade on the 86th floor offers a 360‐degree view. The 200‐foot tower, originally planned as a dirigible mooring mast, provides a grand crown. The idea for the building originated with John J. Raskob, chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1928, when Alfred E. Smith was the party's presidential nominee. After Smith's loss to Herbert Hoover, Raskob decided to erect the world's tallest building, with Smith as president. He chose the name to emphasize the relationship between the building and Smith, the former governor of the Empire State. It was the first twentieth‐century building to hold the “world's tallest” title that did not bear a corporate name such as Metropolitan Life, Woolworth, or Chrysler. Planned in the booming 1920s but completed during the Great Depression, the building attracted few tenants and for a time was dubbed the “Empty State Building.” Further bad luck came in 1945 when a B–25 bomber crashed into the seventy‐eighth floor, killing fourteen. Although the building is said to be Art Deco in design, the phrase did not exist at the time; the architects themselves simply described it as “modern.” Seeking a practical, utilitarian structure, they little dreamed that it would become a tourist mecca, the symbol of New York, a national icon, and the setting for many movies, from King Kong (1933) to Sleepless in Seattle (1993).
See also Architecture: Public Architecture.

Bibliography

John Tauranac , The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark, 1995.

John Tauranac