Empire State Building

Empire State Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
NYC Landmark
Location:	350 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10118  United States[1]
Coordinates:	40°44′54.36051″N 73°59′08.35715″W / 40.748433475°N 73.9856547639°W / 40.748433475; -73.9856547639
Architect:	Shreve, Lamb and Harmon
Architectural style(s):	Art Deco
Added to NRHP:	November 17, 1982[2]
Designated NHL:	June 24, 1986[3]
Designated NYCL:	May 19, 1981
NRHP Reference#:	82001192

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.

The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate.^[4] It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.^[3][5][6] In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. The building is owned and managed by W&H Properties.^[7]

The Empire State Building is the second tallest skyscraper in the Americas (surpassed only by Chicago's Sears Tower) and the 5th tallest in the World. It is also the 4th tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.

History

The present site of the Empire State Building was first developed as the John Thomson Farm in the late 18th century. At the time, a stream ran across the site, emptying into Sunfish Pond, located a block away. The block was occupied by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in the late 19th century, and was frequented by The Four Hundred, the social elite of New York.

Design and construction

The Empire State Building was designed by Gregory Johnson and his architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs, for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio, as a basis.^[8][9] The building was actually designed from the top down.^[10] The general contractors were The Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed primarily by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont. The construction company was chaired by Alfred E. Smith, a former Governor of New York.^[11]

A worker bolts beams during construction; the Chrysler Building can be seen in the background.

Excavation of the site began on January 22, 1930, and construction on the building itself started symbolically on March 17—St.Patrick's Day—per Al Smith's influence as Empire State, Inc. president. The project involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with hundreds of Mohawk iron workers, many from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. According to official accounts, five workers died during the construction.^[12] Governor Smith's grandchildren cut the ribbon on May 1, 1931. Lewis Wickes Hine's photography of the construction provides not only invaluable documentation of the construction, but also a glimpse into common day life of workers in that era.^[13] In particular the photo of a worker climbing a stay cable^[14] is talismanic of the era and the building itself.

The construction was part of an intense competition in New York for the title of the world's tallest building. Two other projects fighting for the title, 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, were still under construction when work began on the Empire State Building. Each held the title for less than a year, as the Empire State Building surpassed them upon its completion, just 410 days after construction commenced. The building was officially opened on May 1, 1931 in dramatic fashion, when United States President Herbert Hoover turned on the building's lights with the push of a button from Washington, D.C. Ironically, the first use of tower lights atop the Empire State Building, the following year, was for the purpose of signalling the victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt over Hoover in the presidential election of November 1932.^[15]

Opening

The building's opening coincided with the Great Depression in the United States, and as a result much of its office space went unrented. The building's vacancy was exacerbated by its poor location on 34th Street, which placed it relatively far from public transportation, as Grand Central Terminal, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and Penn Station are all several blocks away. Other more successful skyscrapers, such as the Chrysler Building, do not have this problem. In its first year of operation, the observation deck took in approximately 2 million dollars, as much money as its owners made in rent that year. The lack of renters led New Yorkers to deride the building as the "Empty State Building".^[16][17] The building would not become profitable until 1950. The famous 1951 sale of The Empire State Building to Roger L. Stevens and his business partners was brokered by the prominent upper Manhattan real-estate firm Charles F. Noyes & Company for a record $51 million. At the time, that was the highest price ever paid for a single structure in real-estate history.^[18]

Dirigible (airship) terminal

The building's distinctive Art Deco spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast and depot for dirigibles. The 102nd floor was originally a landing platform with a dirigible gangplank.^[19] A particular elevator, traveling between the 86th and 103rd floors, was supposed to transport passengers after they checked in at the observation deck on the 86th floor. However, the idea proved to be impractical and dangerous after a few attempts with airships, due to the powerful updrafts caused by the size of the building itself.^[20] A large broadcast tower was added to the top of the spire in 1953.^[19]

1945 plane crash

Crash by a U.S. Army B-25 bomber on July 28, 1945

At 9:40 a.m. on Saturday, July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog by Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith, Jr.,^[21] crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 79th and 80th floors, where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located. One engine shot through the side opposite the impact and flew as far as the next block where it landed on the roof of a nearby building, starting a fire that destroyed a penthouse. The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. 14 people were killed in the incident.^[22][23] Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded.^[24] Despite the damage and loss of life, the building was open for business on many floors on the following Monday. The crash helped spur the passage of the long-pending Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, as well as the insertion of retroactive provisions into the law, allowing people to sue the government for the accident.^[25]

Height records and comparisons

The Empire State Building remained the tallest man-made structure in the world for 23 years before it was surpassed by the Griffin Television Tower Oklahoma (KWTV Mast) in 1954. It was also the tallest free-standing structure in the world for 36 years before it was surpassed by the Ostankino Tower in 1967.

The longest world record held by the Empire State Building was for the tallest skyscraper (to structural height), which it held for 42 years until it was surpassed by the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 1973. With the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City, and the second-tallest building in the Americas, currently surpassed only by the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) in Chicago. When measured by pinnacle height, the Empire State Building is currently the fifth tallest freestanding structure in the Americas, surpassed only by the CN Tower, the Sears Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower and the John Hancock Center.

1 World Trade Center, currently under construction in New York City, is expected to exceed the height of the Empire State Building upon completion. The Chicago Spire is also expected to exceed the height of the Empire State Building upon completion, but its construction has been halted due to financial problems.

Suicides

Over the years, more than thirty people have committed suicide from the top of the building.^[26] The first suicide occurred even before its completion, by a worker who had been laid off. The fence around the observatory terrace was put up in 1947 after five people tried to jump during a three-week span.^[27] In 1979, Elvita Adams jumped from the 86th floor, only to be blown back onto the 85th floor and left with only a broken hip.

Architecture

Empire State Building
Empire State Building was the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1973.[I]
Preceded by	Chrysler Building (in the background of the picture)
Surpassed by	World Trade Center (1972)
Information
Location	350 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10118  United States[1]
Coordinates	40°44′54.36051″N 73°59′08.35715″W / 40.748433475°N 73.9856547639°W / 40.748433475; -73.9856547639 (Empire State Building)Coordinates: 40°44′54.36051″N 73°59′08.35715″W / 40.748433475°N 73.9856547639°W / 40.748433475; -73.9856547639 (Empire State Building)[28]
Status	Complete
Constructed	1929–1931[11]
Use	Office, observation
Height
Antenna/Spire	1,472 ft (448.7 m)[29]
Roof	1,250 ft (381.0 m)
Top floor	1,224 ft (373.2 m)[29]
Technical details
Floor count	102
Cost	$40,948,900[30]
Companies
Architect	Shreve, Lamb and Harmon
Contractor	Starrett Brothers and Eken
Management	W&H Properties
I^ Fully habitable, self-supported, from main entrance to highest structural or architectural top; see the list of tallest buildings in the world for other listings.

Street level view of the Empire State Building

The Empire State Building rises to 1,250 ft (381 m) at the 103rd floor, and including the 203 ft (62 m) pinnacle, its full height reaches 1,453 ft–7⁹⁄₁₆ in (443.09 m). The building has 85 stories of commercial and office space representing 2,158,000 sq ft (200,500 m²). It has an indoor and outdoor observation deck on the 86th floor. The remaining 16 stories represent the Art Deco tower, which is capped by a 102rd-floor observatory. Atop the tower is the 203 ft (62 m) pinnacle, much of which is covered by broadcast antennas, with a lightning rod at the very top.

The Empire State Building was the first building to have more than 100 floors. It has 6,500 windows and 73 elevators, and there are 1,860 steps from street level to the 103rd floor. It has a total floor area of 2,768,591 sq ft (257,211 m²); the base of the Empire State Building is about 2 acres (8,094 m²). The building houses 1,000 businesses, and has its own zip code, 10118. As of 2007, approximately 21,000 employees work in the building each day, making the Empire State Building the second-largest single office complex in America, after the Pentagon. The building was completed in one year and 45 days. Its original 64 elevators are located in a central core; today, the Empire State Building has 73 elevators in all, including service elevators. It takes less than one minute by elevator to get to the 86th floor, where an observation deck is located. The building has 70 mi (113 km) of pipe, 2,500,000 ft (760,000 m) of electrical wire,^[31] and about 9,000 faucets.^{[citation needed]} It is heated by low-pressure steam; despite its height, the building only requires between 2 and 3 psi (14 and 21 kPa) of steam pressure for heating. It weighs approximately 370,000 short tons (340,000 t). The exterior of the building was built using Indiana limestone panels.

The Empire State Building cost $40,948,900 to build.^[30]

A series of setbacks causes the building to taper with height.

Unlike most of today's skyscrapers, the Empire State Building features an art deco design, typical of pre-World War II architecture in New York. The modernistic stainless steel canopies of the entrances on 33rd and 34th Streets lead to two story-high corridors around the elevator core, crossed by stainless steel and glass-enclosed bridges at the second-floor level. The elevator core contains 67 elevators.^[4]

The lobby is three stories high and features an aluminum relief of the skyscraper without the antenna, which was not added to the spire until 1952. The north corridor contains eight illuminated panels, created by Roy Sparkia and Renée Nemorov in 1963, depicting the building as the Eighth Wonder of the World, alongside the traditional seven.

Long-term forecasting of the life cycle of the structure was implemented at the design phase to ensure that the building's future intended uses were not restricted by the requirements of previous generations. This is particularly evident in the over-design of the building's electrical system.

Floodlights

Empire State Building with red and green lights for Christmas, as seen from GE Building

Empire State Building with normal white lighting, as seen from New Jersey

In 1964, floodlights were added to illuminate the top of the building at night, in colors chosen to match seasonal and other events, such as St. Patrick's Day and Christmas.^[32] After the eightieth birthday and subsequent death of Frank Sinatra, for example, the building was bathed in blue light to represent the singer's nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes". After the death of actress Fay Wray (King Kong) in late 2004, the building stood in complete darkness for 15 minutes.^[33]

The floodlights bathed the building in red, white, and blue for several months after the destruction of the World Trade Center, then reverted to the standard schedule.^[34] Traditionally, in addition to the standard schedule, the building will be lit in the colors of New York's sports teams on the nights they have home games (orange, blue and white for the New York Knicks, red, white and blue for the New York Rangers, and so on). The building is illuminated in tennis-ball yellow during the US Open tennis tournament in late August and early September. It was twice lit in scarlet to support nearby Rutgers University: once for a football game on November 9, 2006, and again on April 3, 2007 when the women's basketball team played in the national championship game.^[35]

In 1995, the building was lit up in blue, red, green and yellow for the release of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, which was launched with a $300 million campaign.^[36]

The building has also been known to be illuminated in purple and white in honor of graduating students from New York University.^{[citation needed]}

The building was lit green for three days in honor of the Islamic holiday of Eid ul-Fitr in October 2007. The lighting, the first for a Muslim holiday, is intended to be an annual event^[37] and was repeated in 2008. In December 2007, the building was lit yellow to signify the home video release of The Simpsons Movie.^[38]

From April 25—27, 2008 the building was lit in lavender, pink, and white in celebration of international pop diva Mariah Carey's accomplishments in the world of music and the release of her eleventh studio album E=MC2.^{[citation needed]}

In late October 2008, the building was lit green in honor of the fifth anniversary of the acclaimed Broadway Musical Wicked by Kerry Ellis and Stephen Schwartz.^[39]

Observation decks

The Empire State Building has one of the most popular outdoor observatories in the world, having been visited by over 110 million people. The 86th-floor observation deck offers impressive 360-degree views of the city. There is a second observation deck on the 102nd floor that is open to the public. It was closed in 1999, but reopened in November 2005. It is completely enclosed and much smaller than the first one; it may be closed on high-traffic days. Tourists may pay to visit the observation deck on the 86th floor and an additional amount for the 102nd floor.^[40] The lines to enter the observation decks, according to the building's website, are "as legendary as the building itself." For an extra fee tourists can skip to the front of the line.^[40]

The skyscraper’s observation deck plays host to several cinematic, television, and literary classics including, An Affair To Remember, Love Affair and Sleepless in Seattle. In the Latin American literary work Empire of Dreams the observation deck is the site of a pastoral revolution; shepherds take over the City of New York. The deck was also the site of a Martian invasion on an old episode of I Love Lucy.

A panoramic view of New York City from the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, spring 2005

New York Skyride

View from Macy's

The Empire State Building also has a motion simulator attraction, located on the 2nd floor. Opened in 1994 as a complement to the observation deck, the New York Skyride (or NY Skyride) is a simulated aerial tour over the city. The theatrical presentation lasts approximately 25 minutes.

Since its opening, the ride has gone through two incarnations. The original version, which ran from 1994 until around 2002, featured James Doohan, Star Trek's Scotty, as the airplane's pilot, who humorously tried to keep the flight under control during a storm, with the tour taking an unexpected route through the subway, Coney Island, and FAO Schwartz, among other places. After September 11th, however, the ride was closed, and an updated version debuted in mid-2002 with actor Kevin Bacon as the pilot. The new version of the narration attempted to make the attraction more educational, and included some minor post-9/11 patriotic undertones with retrospective footage of the World Trade Center. The new flight also goes haywire, but this segment is much shorter than in the original.

Broadcast stations

New York City is the largest media market in the United States. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, nearly all of the city's commercial broadcast stations (both television and FM radio) have transmitted from the top of the Empire State Building, although a few FM stations are located at the nearby Condé Nast Building. Most New York City AM stations broadcast from just across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

Communications devices for broadcast stations are located at the top of the Empire State Building.

Broadcasting began at Empire on December 22, 1931, when RCA began transmitting experimental television broadcasts from a small antenna erected atop the spire. They leased the 85th floor and built a laboratory there, and—in 1934—RCA was joined by Edwin Howard Armstrong in a cooperative venture to test his FM system from the Empire antenna. When Armstrong and RCA fell out in 1935 and his FM equipment was removed, the 85th floor became the home of RCA's New York television operations, first as experimental station W2XBS channel 1, which eventually became (on July 1, 1941) commercial station WNBT, channel 1 (now WNBC-TV channel 4). NBC's FM station (WEAF-FM, now WQHT) began transmitting from the antenna in 1940. NBC retained exclusive use of the top of the Empire until 1950, when the FCC ordered the exclusive deal broken, based on consumer complaints that a common location was necessary for the (now) seven New York television stations to transmit from so that receiving antennas would not have to be constantly adjusted. Construction on a giant tower began. Other television broadcasters then joined RCA at Empire, on the 83rd, 82nd, and 81st floors, frequently bringing sister FM stations along for the ride. Multiple transmissions of TV and FM began from the new tower in 1951. In 1965, a separate set of FM antennas were constructed ringing the 103rd floor observation area. When the World Trade Center was being constructed, it caused serious problems for the television stations, most of which then moved to the World Trade Center as soon as it was completed. This made it possible to renovate the antenna structure and the transmitter facilities for the benefit of the FM stations remaining there, which were soon joined by other FMs and UHF TVs moving in from elsewhere in the metropolitan area. The destruction of the World Trade Center necessitated a great deal of shuffling of antennas and transmitter rooms in order to accommodate the stations moving back uptown.

As of 2007, the Empire State Building is home to the following stations:

• TV: WCBS-TV 2, WNBC-TV 4, WNYW 5, WABC-TV 7, WWOR-TV 9 Secaucus, WPIX-TV 11, WNET 13 Newark, WNYE-TV 25, WPXN-TV 31, WXTV 41 Paterson, WNJU 47 Linden, and WFUT-TV 68 Newark
• FM: WXRK 92.3, WPAT-FM 93.1 Paterson, WNYC-FM 93.9, WPLJ 95.5, WQXR-FM 96.3, WQHT-FM 97.1, WSKQ-FM 97.9, WRKS-FM 98.7, WBAI 99.5, WHTZ 100.3 Newark, WCBS-FM 101.1, WRXP 101.9, WWFS 102.7, WKTU 103.5 Lake Success, WAXQ 104.3, WWPR-FM 105.1, WCAA 105.9 Newark, WLTW 106.7, and WBLS 107.5

Empire State Building Run-Up

The Empire State Building Run-Up is a foot race from ground level to the 86th-floor observation deck that has been held annually since 1978. Its participants are referred to both as runners and as climbers, and are often tower running enthusiasts. The race covers a vertical distance of 1,050 feet (320 m) and takes in 1,576 steps. The record time is 9 minutes and 33 seconds, achieved by Australian professional cyclist Paul Crake in 2003,^[41][42] at a climbing rate of 6,593 ft (2,010 m) per hour.

Tenants

Notable tenants of the building include:

• Alitalia, Suite 3700^[43][44][45]
• Croatian National Tourist Board, Suite 4003^[43][46]
• Filipino Reporter, Suite 601^[43][47]
• Human Rights Watch, 34th Floor^[43][48]
• Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Suite 4621^[43][49]
• Senegal Tourist Office, Suite 3118^[50]
• TAROM, Suite 1410^[43][51]
• The King's College, Suite 1500^[52]

Former tenants include:

• China National Tourist Office^[43] (now located at 370 Lexington Avenue)^[53]
• National Film Board of Canada^[43] (now located at 1123 Broadway)^[54]
• Nathaniel Branden Institute ^[55]

Gallery

A view upward of the Empire State Building from Broadway	The top of the Empire State Building	Looking up
Looking Down	Art deco elevators in the lobby	Panoramic view of Midtown Manhattan from observation deck

References

Further reading

• Aaseng, Nathan. (1999). Construction: Building the Impossible. Minneapolis, MN: Oliver Press. ISBN 1-881-50859-5.
• Bascomb, Neal. (2003). Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50660-0.
• Goldman, Jonathan. (1980). The Empire State Building Book. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-24455-X.
• James, Theodore, Jr. (1975). The Empire State Building. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-060-12172-6.
• Kingwell, Mark. (2006). Nearest Thing to Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10622-X.
• Macaulay, David. (1980). Unbuilding. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-29457-6.
• Pacelle, Mitchell. (2001). Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-40394-6.
• Tauranac, John. (1995). The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-19678-6.
• Wagner, Geraldine B. (2003). Thirteen Months to Go: The Creation of the Empire State Building. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press. ISBN 1-592-23105-5.
• Willis, Carol (ed). (1998). Building the Empire State. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-73030-1.

See also

North America portal

• World's tallest free standing structure on land
• History of tallest skyscrapers
• List of skyscrapers
• List of tallest buildings by U.S. state

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Empire State Building

Look up Empire State Building in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Empire State Building, official Web site
• Commercial Construction.com
• Lighting Schedule
• Empire State Building Trivia
• Empire State Building Information
• The Construction of the Empire State Building, 1930-1931, New York Public Library
• VIVA2, The Skyscraper Museum's online archive of over 500 construction photographs of the Empire State Building.
• Empire State Building in the Structurae database

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