The site of the Empire State Building, on the west side of
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 Empire State Building is located on the west side of
33rd Street to the south and 34th Street to the north, in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.[17] Tenants enter the building through the Art Deco lobby located at 350 Fifth Avenue. Visitors to the observatories use an entrance at 20 West 34th Street; prior to August 2018, visitors entered through the Fifth Avenue lobby.[1] Although physically located in South Midtown,[18] a mixed residential and commercial area,[19] the building is so large that it was assigned its own ZIP Code, 10118;[20][21] as of 2012[update], it is one of 43 buildings in New York City that have their own ZIP codes.[22][b]
The areas surrounding the Empire State Building are home to other major points of interest, including
Shreve, Lamb and Harmon in the Art Deco style.[30] The Empire State Building is 1,250 ft (381 m) tall to its 102nd floor, or 1,453 feet 8+9⁄16 inches (443.092 m) including its 203-foot (61.9 m) pinnacle.[31] It was the first building in the world to be more than 100 stories tall,[32] though only the lowest 86 stories are usable. The first through 85th floors contain 2.158 million square feet (200,500 m2) of commercial and office space, while the 86th floor contains an observatory.[33][31][34] The remaining 16 stories are part of the spire, which is capped by an observatory on the 102nd floor; the spire does not contain any intermediate levels and is used mostly for mechanical purposes.[31] Atop the 102nd story is the 203 ft (61.9 m) pinnacle, much of which is covered by broadcast antennas, and surmounted with a lightning rod.[35]
Form
The Empire State Building has a symmetrical massing because of its large lot and relatively short base. Its articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital.[33] The five-story base occupies the entire lot, while the 81-story shaft above it is set back sharply from the base.[36][37][38] The setback above the 5th story is 60 feet (18 m) deep on all sides.[33] There are smaller setbacks on the upper stories, allowing sunlight to illuminate the interiors of the top floors while also positioning these floors away from the noisy streets below.[39][40] The setbacks are located at the 21st, 25th, 30th, 72nd, 81st, and 85th stories.[41] The setbacks correspond to the tops of elevator shafts, allowing interior spaces to be at most 28 feet (8.5 m) deep (see § Interior).[33]
The setbacks were mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which was intended to allow sunlight to reach the streets as well.[d] Normally, a building of the Empire State's dimensions would be permitted to build up to 12 stories on the Fifth Avenue side, and up to 17 stories on the 33rd Street and 34th Street sides, before it would have to utilize setbacks.[37] However, with the largest setback being located above the base, the tower stories could contain a uniform shape.[48][49][42] According to architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern, the building's form contrasted with the nearly contemporary, similarly designed 500 Fifth Avenue eight blocks north, which had an asymmetrical massing on a smaller lot.[36]
Facade
The Empire State Building's Art Deco design is typical of pre–World War II architecture in New York City.
Indiana limestone panels made by the Indiana Limestone Company[50] and sourced from a quarry in south-central Indiana;[51] the panels give the building its signature blonde color.[52] According to official fact sheets, the facade uses 200,000 cubic feet (5,700 m3) of limestone and granite, ten million bricks, and 730 short tons (650 long tons) of aluminum and stainless steel.[53] The building also contains 6,514 windows.[54] The decorative features on the facade are largely geometric, in contrast with earlier buildings, whose decorations often were intended to represent a specific narrative.[55]
The main entrance, composed of three sets of metal doors, is at the center of the facade's Fifth Avenue
elevation, flanked by molded piers that are topped with eagles. Above the main entrance is a transom, a triple-height transom window with geometric patterns, and the golden letters "Empire State" above the fifth-floor windows.[56][38][57] There are two entrances each on 33rd and 34th streets, with modernistic, stainless steel canopies projecting from the entrances on 33rd and 34th streets there. Above the secondary entrances are triple windows, less elaborate in design than those on Fifth Avenue.[30][38][57]
The storefronts on the first floor contain aluminum-framed doors and windows within a black granite cladding.[38][57] The second through fourth stories consist of windows alternating with wide stone piers and narrower stone mullions. The fifth story contains windows alternating with wide and narrow mullions, and is topped by a horizontal stone sill.[38]
The facade of the tower stories is split into several vertical
bonding, which would have been required if stone had been used instead.[56]
Lights
The building was originally equipped with white
bicentennial that July.[63][65] After the bicentennial, Helmsley retained the new lights due to the reduced maintenance cost, about $116 a year.[64]
Since October 12, 1977, the spire has been lit in colors chosen to match seasonal events and holidays.[56] Organizations are allowed to make requests through the building's website.[66] The building is also lit in the colors of New York-based sports teams on nights when they host games: for example, orange, blue, and white for the New York Knicks; red, white, and blue for the New York Rangers.[67] The spire can also be lit to commemorate events including disasters, anniversaries, or deaths, as well as for celebrations such as Pride and Halloween. In 1998, the building was lit in blue after the death of singer Frank Sinatra, who was nicknamed "Ol' Blue Eyes".[68]
The structure was lit in red, white, and blue for several months after the
January 2020 death, the building was lit in purple and gold, signifying the colors of his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers.[71]
In addition to lightings, the Empire State Building is able to do immersive visual projections on the building's exterior. Most recently partnering with Netflix in May 2022 to celebrate the return of Stranger Things fourth season by projecting the Upside Down onto the Empire State Building.[72]
In 2012, the building's four hundred metal halide lamps and floodlights were replaced with 1,200 LED fixtures, increasing the available colors from nine to over 16 million.[73] The computer-controlled system allows the building to be illuminated in ways that were unable to be done previously with plastic gels.[74] For instance, CNN used the top of the Empire State Building as a scoreboard during the 2012 United States presidential election, using red and blue lights to represent Republican and Democratic electoral votes respectively.[75] Also, on November 26, 2012, the building had its first synchronized light show, using music from recording artist Alicia Keys.[76] Artists such as Eminem and OneRepublic have been featured in later shows, including the building's annual Holiday Music-to-Lights Show.[77] The building's owners adhere to strict standards in using the lights; for instance, they do not use the lights to play advertisements.[74]
Interior
According to official fact sheets, the Empire State Building weighs 365,000 short tons (331,122 t) and has an internal volume of 37 million cubic feet (1,000,000 m3).[53] The interior required 1,172 miles (1,886 km) of elevator cable and 2 million feet (609,600 m) of electrical wires.[78] It has a total floor area of 2,768,591 sq ft (257,211 m2), and each of the floors in the base cover 2 acres (1 ha).[79] This gives the building capacity for 20,000 tenants and 15,000 visitors.[48]
The
wind loads.[80] The amount of material used in the building's construction resulted in a very stiff structure when compared to other skyscrapers, with a structural stiffness of 42 pounds per square foot (2.0 kPa) versus the Willis Tower's 33 pounds per square foot (1.6 kPa) and the John Hancock Center's 26 pounds per square foot (1.2 kPa).[81] A December 1930 feature in Popular Mechanics estimated that a building with the Empire State's dimensions would still stand even if hit with an impact of 50 short tons (45 long tons).[48]
Utilities are grouped in a central shaft.[37] On the 6th through 86th stories, the central shaft is surrounded by a main corridor on all four sides.[42] Per the final specifications of the building, the corridor is surrounded in turn by office space 28 feet (8.5 m) deep, maximizing office space at a time before air conditioning became commonplace.[82][83][33] Each of the floors has 210 structural columns that pass through it, which provide structural stability but limits the amount of open space on these floors.[42] The relative dearth of stone in the Empire State Building allows for more space overall, with a 1:200 stone-to-building ratio compared to a 1:50 ratio in similar buildings.[84]
Lobby
The original main lobby is accessed from Fifth Avenue, on the building's east side, and is the only place in the building where the design contains narrative motifs.
wainscoting of darker marble, topped by lighter marble. There is a pattern of zigzagging terrazzo tiles on the lobby floor, which leads from east to west.[86] To the north and south are storefronts, which are flanked by tubes of dark rounded marble and topped by a vertical band of grooves set into the marble.[86] Until the 1960s, there was a Longchamps restaurant next to the lobby, with six oval murals designed by Winold Reiss; these murals were placed in storage when the Longchamps closed.[87][88]
The western ends of the north and south walls include escalators to a mezzanine level.[86][e] At the west end of the lobby, behind the security desk, is an aluminum relief of the skyscraper as it was originally built (without the antenna).[89] The relief, which was intended to provide a welcoming effect,[14] contains an embossed outline of the building, with rays radiating from the spire and the sun behind it.[90] In the background is a state map of New York with the building's location marked by a "medallion" in the very southeast portion of the outline. A compass is depicted in the bottom right and a plaque to the building's major developers is on the bottom left.[91][90] A scale model of the building was also placed south of the security desk.[91]
The plaque at the western end of the lobby is on the eastern interior wall of a one-story-tall rectangular-shaped corridor that surrounds the banks of escalators, with a similar design to the lobby.[92] The rectangular-shaped corridor actually consists of two long hallways on the northern and southern sides of the rectangle,[93] as well as a shorter hallway on the eastern side and another long hallway on the western side.[92] At both ends of the northern and southern corridors, there is a bank of four low-rise elevators in between the corridors.[91][55][94] The western side of the rectangular elevator-bank corridor extends north to the 34th Street entrance and south to the 33rd Street entrance. It borders three large storefronts and leads to escalators (originally stairs), which go both to the second floor and to the basement. Going from west to east, there are secondary entrances to 34th and 33rd Streets from the northern and southern corridors, respectively.[86][e] The side entrances from 33rd and 34th Street lead to two-story-high corridors around the elevator core, crossed by stainless steel-and-glass-enclosed bridges at the mezzanine floor.[30][38][91]
Until the 1960s, an
1964 World's Fair, depicting the building as the Eighth Wonder of the World alongside the traditional seven.[94][96] The building's owners installed a series of paintings by the New York artist Kysa Johnson in the concourse level. Johnson later filed a federal lawsuit, in January 2014, under the Visual Artists Rights Act alleging the negligent destruction of the paintings and damage to her reputation as an artist.[97] As part of the building's 2010 renovation, Denise Amses commissioned a work consisting of 15,000 stars and 5,000 circles, superimposed on a 13-by-5-foot (4.0 by 1.5 m) etched-glass installation, in the lobby.[98]
Elevators
The Empire State Building has 73 elevators in all, including service elevators.[99] Its original 64 elevators, built by the Otis Elevator Company,[79] in a central core and are of varying heights, with the longest of these elevators reaching from the lobby to the 80th floor.[37][100] As originally built, there were four "express" elevators that connected the lobby, 80th floor, and several landings in between; the other 60 "local" elevators connected the landings with the floors above these intermediate landings.[49] Of the 64 total elevators, 58 were for passenger use (comprising the four express elevators and 54 local elevators), and eight were for freight deliveries.[42] The elevators were designed to move at 1,200 feet per minute (366 m/min). At the time of the skyscraper's construction, their practical speed was limited to 700 feet per minute (213 m/min) per city law, but this limit was removed shortly after the building opened.[79][42]
Additional elevators connect the 80th floor to the six floors above it, as the six extra floors were built after the original 80 stories were approved.[31][101] The elevators were mechanically operated until 2011, when they were replaced with automatic elevators during the $550 million renovation of the building.[102] An additional elevator connects the 86th and 102nd floor observatories, which allows visitors access the 102nd floor observatory after having their tickets scanned. It also allows employees to access the mechanical floors located between the 87th and 101st floors.[80]
Observation decks
The 80th, 86th, and 102nd floors contain observatories.[103][89][104] The latter two observatories saw a combined average of four million visitors per year in 2010.[105][106][107] Since opening, the observatories have been more popular than similar observatories at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Chrysler Building, the first One World Trade Center, or the Woolworth Building, despite being more expensive.[106] There are variable charges to enter the observatories; one ticket allows visitors to go as high as the 86th floor, and there is an additional charge to visit the 102nd floor. Other ticket options for visitors include scheduled access to view the sunrise from the observatory, a "premium" guided tour with VIP access, and the "AM/PM" package which allows for two visits in the same day.[108]
Interior and exterior observation decks at the 86th floor
The 86th floor observatory contains both an enclosed viewing gallery and an open-air outdoor viewing area, allowing for it to remain open 365 days a year regardless of the weather. The 102nd floor observatory is completely enclosed and much smaller in size. The 102nd floor observatory was closed to the public from the late 1990s to 2005 due to limited viewing capacity and long lines.[109][110] The observation decks were redesigned in mid-1979.[111] The 102nd floor was again redesigned in a project that was completed in 2019, allowing the windows to be extended from floor to ceiling and widening the space in the observatory overall.[112][113] An observatory on the 80th floor, opened in 2019, includes various exhibits as well as a mural of the skyline drawn by British artist Stephen Wiltshire.[114][104] An interactive multimedia museum, with multiple hands-on exhibitions about the building's history, was added during this project.[115] The design of the 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) Observatory Experience was inspired by the plans and designs of the original Empire State Building.[116]
According to a 2010 report by Concierge.com, the five lines to enter the observation decks are "as legendary as the building itself". Concierge.com stated that there were five lines: the sidewalk line, the lobby elevator line, the ticket purchase line, the second elevator line, and the line to get off the elevator and onto the observation deck.[117] In 2016, New York City's official tourism website made note of only three lines: the security check line, the ticket purchase line, and the second elevator line.[118] Following renovations completed in 2019, designed to streamline queuing and reduce wait times, guests enter from a single entrance on 34th Street, where they make their way through 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) exhibits on their way up to the observatories. Guests were offered a variety of ticket packages, including a package that enables them to skip the lines throughout the duration of their stay.[113] The Empire State Building garners significant revenue from ticket sales for its observation decks, making more money from ticket sales than it does from renting office space during some years.[106][119]
A 360° panoramic view of New York City from the 86th-floor observation deck in spring 2005. East River is to the left, Hudson River to the right, south is near center.
New York Skyride
In early 1994, a
Scotty, as the airplane's pilot who humorously tried to keep the flight under control during a storm.[123][124] After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the ride was closed.[121] An updated version debuted in mid-2002, featuring actor Kevin Bacon as the pilot, with the new flight also going haywire.[125] This new version served a more informative goal, as opposed to the old version's main purpose of entertainment, and contained details about the 9/11 attacks.[126] The simulator received mixed reviews, with assessments of the ride ranging from "great" to "satisfactory" to "corny".[127]
Spire
Above the 102nd floor
The final stage of the building was the installation of a hollow mast, a 158-foot (48 m) steel shaft fitted with elevators and utilities, above the 86th floor. At the top would be a conical roof and the 102nd-floor docking station.[128][129] Inside, the elevators would ascend 167 feet (51 m) from the 86th floor ticket offices to a 33-foot-wide (10 m) 101st-floor[f] waiting room.[130][131] From there, stairs would lead to the 102nd floor,[f] where passengers would enter the airships.[128] The airships would have been moored to the spire at the equivalent of the building's 106th floor.[131][132]
As constructed, the mast contains four rectangular tiers topped by a cylindrical shaft with a conical pinnacle.[129] On the 102nd floor (formerly the 101st floor), there is a door with stairs ascending to the 103rd floor (formerly the 102nd).[f] This was built as a disembarkation floor for airships tethered to the building's spire, and has a circular balcony outside.[16] It is now an access point to reach the spire for maintenance. The room now contains electrical equipment, but celebrities and dignitaries may also be given permission to take pictures there.[133][134] Above the 103rd floor, there is a set of stairs and a ladder to reach the spire for maintenance work.[133] The mast's 480 windows were all replaced in 2015.[135] The mast serves as the base of the building's broadcasting antenna.[129]
Broadcast stations
Broadcasting began at the Empire State Building on December 22, 1931, when NBC and RCA began transmitting experimental television broadcasts from a small antenna erected atop the mast, with two separate transmitters for the visual and audio data. They leased the 85th floor and built a laboratory there.[136] In 1934, RCA was joined by Edwin Howard Armstrong in a cooperative venture to test his FM system from the building's antenna.[137][138] This setup, which entailed the installation of the world's first FM transmitter,[138] continued only until October of the next year due to disputes between RCA and Armstrong.[136][137] Specifically, NBC wanted to install more TV equipment in the room where Armstrong's transmitter was located.[138]
After some time, the 85th floor became home to RCA's New York television operations initially as experimental station W2XBS channel 1 then, from 1941, as commercial station WNBT channel 1 (now WNBC channel 4). NBC's FM station, W2XDG, began transmitting from the antenna in 1940.[136][139] NBC retained exclusive use of the top of the building until 1950 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered the exclusive deal be terminated. The FCC directive was based on consumer complaints that a common location was necessary for the seven extant New York-area television stations to transmit from so that receiving antennas would not have to be constantly adjusted. Other television broadcasters would later join RCA at the building on the 81st through 83rd floors, often along with sister FM stations.[136] Construction of a dedicated broadcast tower began on July 27, 1950,[140] with TV, and FM, transmissions starting in 1951. The 200-foot (61 m) broadcast tower was completed in 1953.[129][52][141] From 1951, six broadcasters agreed to pay a combined $600,000 per year for the use of the antenna.[142] In 1965, a separate set of FM antennae was constructed ringing the 103rd floor observation area to act as a master antenna.[136]
The placement of the stations in the Empire State Building became a major issue with the construction of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in the late 1960s, and early 1970s. The greater height of the Twin Towers would reflect radio waves broadcast from the Empire State Building, eventually resulting in some broadcasters relocating to the newer towers instead of suing the developer, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.[143] Even though the nine stations who were broadcasting from the Empire State Building were leasing their broadcast space until 1984, most of these stations moved to the World Trade Center as soon as it was completed in 1971. The broadcasters obtained a court order stipulating that the Port Authority had to build a mast and transmission equipment in the North Tower, as well as pay the broadcasters' leases in the Empire State Building until 1984.[144] Only a few broadcasters renewed their leases in the Empire State Building.[145]
The September 11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center and the broadcast centers atop it, leaving most of the city's stations without a transmitter for ten days until the
television stations and twenty-two FM stations had signed 15-year leases in the building by May 2003. It was expected that a taller broadcast tower in Bayonne, New Jersey, or Governors Island, would be built in the meantime with the Empire State Building being used as a "backup" since signal transmissions from the building were generally of poorer quality.[149] Following the construction of One World Trade Center in the late 2000s and early 2010s, some TV stations began moving their transmitting facilities there.[150]
As of 2021[update], the Empire State Building is home to the following stations:[151]
Thomas Coleman du Pont.[159][160] By the 1920s, the old Waldorf–Astoria was becoming dated and the elegant social life of New York had moved much farther north.[161][36][162] Additionally, many stores had opened on Fifth Avenue north of 34th Street.[163][164] The Astor family decided to build a replacement hotel on Park Avenue[155][165] and sold the hotel to Bethlehem Engineering Corporation in 1928 for $14–16 million.[161] The hotel closed shortly thereafter on May 3, 1929.[63]
Planning
Early plans
Bethlehem Engineering Corporation originally intended to build a 25-story office building on the Waldorf–Astoria site. The company's president, Floyd De L. Brown, paid $100,000 of the $1 million down payment required to start construction on the building, with the promise that the difference would be paid later.[155] Brown borrowed $900,000 from a bank but defaulted on the loan.[166][167]
After Brown was unable to secure additional funding,
1928 campaign had been managed by Raskob,[165][170] was appointed head of the company.[36][166][167] The group also purchased nearby land so they would have the 2 acres (1 ha) needed for the base, with the combined plot measuring 425 feet (130 m) wide by 200 feet (61 m) long.[169][171] The Empire State Inc. consortium was announced to the public in August 1929.[172][173][171] Concurrently, Smith announced the construction of an 80-story building on the site, to be taller than any other buildings in existence.[171][174]
Empire State Inc. contracted
Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, to create the building design.[2][169][175] Lamb produced the initial building design in just two weeks using the firm's earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as the basis.[52] He had also been inspired by Raymond Hood's design for the Daily News Building, which was being constructed at the same time.[169] Concurrently, Lamb's partner Richmond Shreve created "bug diagrams" of the project requirements.[176] The 1916 Zoning Act forced Lamb to design a structure that incorporated setbacks resulting in the lower floors being larger than the upper floors.[d] Consequently, the building was conceived from the top down,[177] giving it a pencil-like shape.[39] The plans were devised within a budget of $50 million and a stipulation that the building be ready for occupancy within 18 months of the start of construction.[36] Design drawings and construction were concurrent. Steel drawings were completed in mid-January 1930, when foundations were underway.[178]
Design changes
The original plan of the building was 50 stories,
34th Street station and the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad's 33rd Street terminal one block away, as well as Penn Station two blocks away and Grand Central Terminal nine blocks away at its closest. It also praised the 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2) of proposed floor space near "one of the busiest sections in the world".[171] The Empire State Building was to be a typical office building, but Raskob intended to build it "better and in a bigger way", according to architectural writer Donald J. Reynolds.[165]
While plans for the Empire State Building were being finalized, an intense competition in New York for the title of "
world's tallest building" was underway. 40 Wall Street (then the Bank of Manhattan Building) and the Chrysler Building in Manhattan both vied for this distinction and were already under construction when work began on the Empire State Building.[31] The "Race into the Sky", as popular media called it at the time, was representative of the country's optimism in the 1920s, fueled by the building boom in major cities.[180] The race was defined by at least five other proposals, although only the Empire State Building would survive the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[36][g] The 40 Wall Street tower was revised, in April 1929, from 840 feet (260 m) to 925 feet (282 m) making it the world's tallest.[182] The Chrysler Building added its 185-foot (56 m) steel tip to its roof in October 1929, thus bringing it to a height of 1,046 feet (319 m) and greatly exceeding the height of 40 Wall Street.[31] The Chrysler Building's developer, Walter Chrysler, realized that his tower's height would exceed the Empire State Building's as well, having instructed his architect, William Van Alen, to change the Chrysler's original roof from a stubby Romanesque dome to a narrow steel spire.[182] Raskob, wishing to have the Empire State Building be the world's tallest, reviewed the plans and had five floors added as well as a spire; however, the new floors would need to be set back because of projected wind pressure on the extension.[183] On November 18, 1929, Smith acquired a lot at 27–31 West 33rd Street, adding 75 feet (23 m) to the width of the proposed office building's site.[184][185] Two days later, Smith announced the updated plans for the skyscraper. The plans included an observation deck on the 86th-floor roof at a height of 1,050 feet (320 m), higher than the Chrysler's 71st-floor observation deck.[183][186]
The 1,050-foot Empire State Building would only be 4 feet (1.2 m) taller than the Chrysler Building,[183][187][188] and Raskob was afraid that Chrysler might try to "pull a trick like hiding a rod in the spire and then sticking it up at the last minute."[42][189][187] The plans were revised one last time in December 1929, to include a 16-story, 200-foot (61 m) metal "crown" and an additional 222-foot (68 m) mooring mast intended for dirigibles. The roof height was now 1,250 feet (380 m), making it the tallest building in the world by far, even without the antenna.[190][42][191] The addition of the dirigible station meant that another floor, the now-enclosed 86th floor, would have to be built below the crown;[191] however, unlike the Chrysler's spire, the Empire State's mast would serve a practical purpose.[189] A revised plan was announced to the public in late December 1929, just before the start of construction.[36][162] The final plan was sketched within two hours, the night before the plan was supposed to be presented to the site's owners in January 1930.[36]The New York Times reported that the spire was facing some "technical problems", but they were "no greater than might be expected under such a novel plan."[37] By this time the blueprints for the building had gone through up to fifteen versions before they were approved.[42][192][193] Lamb described the other specifications he was given for the final, approved plan:
The program was short enough—a fixed budget, no space more than 28 feet from window to corridor, as many stories of such space as possible, an exterior of limestone, and completion date of [May 1], 1931, which meant a year and six months from the beginning of sketches.[83][42]
Construction
The contractors were
Starrett Brothers and Eken, which were composed of Paul and William A. Starrett and Andrew J. Eken.[194] The project was financed primarily by Raskob and Pierre du Pont,[195] while James Farley's General Builders Supply Corporation supplied the building materials.[2]John W. Bowser was the construction superintendent of the project,[196] and the structural engineer of the building was Homer G. Balcom.[175][197] The tight completion schedule necessitated the commencement of construction even though the design had yet to be finalized.[198]
Hotel demolition
Demolition of the old Waldorf–Astoria began on October 1, 1929.
By the time the hotel's demolition started, Raskob had secured the required funding for the construction of the building.[203] The plan was to start construction later that year but, on October 24, the New York Stock Exchange experienced the major and sudden Wall Street Crash, marking the beginning of the decade-long Great Depression. Despite the economic downturn, Raskob refused to cancel the project because of the progress that had been made up to that point.[172] Neither Raskob, who had ceased speculation in the stock market the previous year, nor Smith, who had no stock investments, suffered financially in the crash.[203] However, most of the investors were affected and as a result, in December 1929, Empire State Inc. obtained a $27.5 million loan from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company so construction could begin.[204] The stock market crash resulted in no demand for new office space; Raskob and Smith nonetheless started construction,[205] as canceling the project would have resulted in greater losses for the investors.[172]
Steel structure
A structural steel contract was awarded on January 12, 1930,[206] with excavation of the site beginning ten days later on January 22,[207] before the old hotel had been completely demolished.[208] Two twelve-hour shifts, consisting of 300 men each, worked continuously to dig the 55-foot (17 m) deep foundation.[207] Small pier holes were sunk into the ground to house the concrete footings that would support the steelwork.[178] Excavation was nearly complete by early March,[209] and construction on the building itself started on March 17,[210][2] with the builders placing the first steel columns on the completed footings before the rest of the footings had been finished.[211] Around this time, Lamb held a press conference on the building plans. He described the reflective steel panels parallel to the windows, the large-block Indiana Limestone facade that was slightly more expensive than smaller bricks, and the building's vertical lines.[190] Four colossal columns, intended for installation in the center of the building site, were delivered; they would support a combined 10,000,000 pounds (4,500,000 kg) when the building was finished.[212]
The structural steel was pre-ordered and pre-fabricated in anticipation of a revision to the city's building code that would have allowed the Empire State Building's structural steel to carry 18,000 pounds per square inch (120,000 kPa), up from 16,000 pounds per square inch (110,000 kPa), thus reducing the amount of steel needed for the building. Although the 18,000-psi regulation had been safely enacted in other cities, Mayor Jimmy Walker did not sign the new codes into law until March 26, 1930, just before construction was due to commence.[210][213] The first steel framework was installed on April 1, 1930.[214] From there, construction proceeded at a rapid pace; during one stretch of 10 working days, the builders erected fourteen floors.[215][2] This was made possible through precise coordination of the building's planning, as well as the mass production of common materials such as windows and spandrels.[216] On one occasion, when a supplier could not provide timely delivery of dark Hauteville marble, Starrett switched to using Rose Famosa marble from a German quarry that was purchased specifically to provide the project with sufficient marble.[178]
The scale of the project was massive, with trucks carrying "16,000 partition tiles, 5,000 bags of cement, 450 cubic yards [340 m3] of sand and 300 bags of lime" arriving at the construction site every day.[217] There were also cafes and concession stands on five of the incomplete floors so workers did not have to descend to the ground level to eat lunch.[3][218] Temporary water taps were also built so workers did not waste time buying water bottles from the ground level.[3][219] Additionally, carts running on a small railway system transported materials from the basement storage[3] to elevators that brought the carts to the desired floors where they would then be distributed throughout that level using another set of tracks.[217][84][218] The 57,480 short tons (51,320 long tons) of steel ordered for the project was the largest-ever single order of steel at the time, comprising more steel than was ordered for the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street combined.[220][221] According to historian John Tauranac, building materials were sourced from numerous, and distant, sources with "limestone from Indiana, steel girders from Pittsburgh, cement and mortar from upper New York State, marble from Italy, France, and England, wood from northern and Pacific Coast forests, [and] hardware from New England."[215] The facade, too, used a variety of material, most prominently Indiana limestone but also Swedish black granite, terracotta, and brick.[222]
By June 20, the skyscraper's supporting steel structure had risen to the 26th floor, and by July 27, half of the steel structure had been completed.[217] Starrett Bros. and Eken endeavored to build one floor a day in order to speed up construction, achieving a pace of four and a half stories per week;[223][105] prior to this, the fastest pace of construction for a building of similar height had been three and a half stories per week.[223] While construction progressed, the final designs for the floors were being designed from the ground up (as opposed to the general design, which had been from the roof down). Some of the levels were still undergoing final approval, with several orders placed within an hour of a plan being finalized.[223] On September 10, as steelwork was nearing completion, Smith laid the building's cornerstone during a ceremony attended by thousands. The stone contained a box with contemporary artifacts including the previous day's New York Times, a U.S. currency set containing all denominations of notes and coins minted in 1930, a history of the site and building, and photographs of the people involved in construction.[224][225] The steel structure was topped out at 1,048 feet (319 m) on September 19, twelve days ahead of schedule and 23 weeks after the start of construction.[226] Workers raised a flag atop the 86th floor to signify this milestone.[223][227]
Completion and scale
Work on the building's interior and crowning mast commenced after the topping out.
Otis Elevator Company to make 66 cars that could speed at 1,200 feet per minute (366 m/min), which represented the largest-ever elevator order at the time.[230]
In addition to the time constraint builders had, there were also space limitations because construction materials had to be delivered quickly, and trucks needed to drop off these materials without congesting traffic. This was solved by creating a temporary driveway for the trucks between 33rd and 34th Streets, and then storing the materials in the building's first floor and basements. Concrete mixers, brick hoppers, and stone hoists inside the building ensured that materials would be able to ascend quickly and without endangering or inconveniencing the public.[229] At one point, over 200 trucks made material deliveries at the building site every day.[3] A series of relay and erection derricks, placed on platforms erected near the building, lifted the steel from the trucks below and installed the beams at the appropriate locations.[231] The Empire State Building was structurally completed on April 11, 1931, twelve days ahead of schedule and 410 days after construction commenced.[3] Al Smith shot the final rivet, which was made of solid gold.[232]
The project involved more than 3,500 workers at its peak,
The New Masses spread unfounded rumors of up to 42 deaths.[239][238] The Empire State Building cost $40,948,900 to build (equivalent to $661 million in 2023[9]), including demolition of the Waldorf–Astoria. This was lower than the $60 million budgeted for construction.[8]
Lewis Hine captured many photographs of the construction, documenting not only the work itself but also providing insight into the daily life of workers in that era.[207][240][241] Hine's images were used extensively by the media to publish daily press releases.[242] According to the writer Jim Rasenberger, Hine "climbed out onto the steel with the ironworkers and dangled from a derrick cable hundreds of feet above the city to capture, as no one ever had before (or has since), the dizzy work of building skyscrapers". In Rasenberger's words, Hine turned what might have been an assignment of "corporate flak" into "exhilarating art".[243] These images were later organized into their own collection.[244] Onlookers were enraptured by the sheer height at which the steelworkers operated. New York magazine wrote of the steelworkers: "Like little spiders they toiled, spinning a fabric of steel against the sky".[231]
Opening and early years
The Empire State Building officially opened on May 1, 1931, forty-five days ahead of its projected opening date, and eighteen months from the start of construction.[57][2][245] The opening was marked with an event featuring United States President Herbert Hoover, who turned on the building's lights with the ceremonial button push from Washington, D.C.[246][247][4] Over 350 guests attended the opening ceremony, and following luncheon, at the 86th floor including Jimmy Walker, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Al Smith.[4] An account from that day stated that the view from the luncheon was obscured by a fog, with other landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty being "lost in the mist" enveloping New York City.[248] The Empire State Building officially opened the next day.[248][196] Advertisements for the building's observatories were placed in local newspapers, while nearby hotels also capitalized on the events by releasing advertisements that lauded their proximity to the newly opened building.[249]
According to The New York Times, builders and real estate speculators predicted that the 1,250-foot-tall (380 m) Empire State Building would be the world's tallest building "for many years", thus ending the great New York City skyscraper rivalry. At the time, most engineers agreed that it would be difficult to build a building taller than 1,200 feet (370 m), even with the hardy Manhattan bedrock as a foundation.[250] Technically, it was believed possible to build a tower of up to 2,000 feet (610 m), but it was deemed uneconomical to do so, especially during the Great Depression.[84][251] As the tallest building in the world, at that time, and the first one to exceed 100 floors, the Empire State Building became an icon of the city and, ultimately, of the nation.[32]
In 1932, the Fifth Avenue Association gave the building its 1931 "gold medal" for architectural excellence, signifying that the Empire State had been the best-designed building on Fifth Avenue to open in 1931.[252] A year later, on March 2, 1933, the movie King Kong was released. The movie, which depicted a large stop motion ape named Kong climbing the Empire State Building, made the still-new building into a cinematic icon.[253][254]
Tenants and tourism
At the beginning of 1931, Fifth Avenue was experiencing high demand for storefront space, with only 12 of 224 stores being unoccupied. The Empire State Building, along with 500 Fifth Avenue and 608 Fifth Avenue, were expected to add a combined 11 stores.[255][256] The office space was less successful, as the Empire State Building's opening had coincided with the Great Depression in the United States.[244] In the first year, only 23 percent of the available space was rented,[257][258] as compared to the early 1920s, where the average building would be 52 percent occupied upon opening and 90 percent occupied within five years.[259] The lack of renters led New Yorkers to deride the building as the "Empty State Building"[244][260] or "Smith's Folly".[129]
The earliest tenants in the Empire State Building were large companies, banks, and garment industries.[129]Jack Brod, one of the building's longest resident tenants,[261][262] co-established the Empire Diamond Corporation with his father in the building in mid-1931[263] and rented space in the building until he died in 2008.[263] Brod recalled that there were only about 20 tenants at the time of opening, including him,[262] and that Al Smith was the only real tenant in the space above his seventh-floor offices.[261] Generally, during the early 1930s, it was rare for more than a single office space to be rented in the building, despite Smith's and Raskob's aggressive marketing efforts in the newspapers and to anyone they knew.[264] The building's lights were continuously left on, even in the unrented spaces, to give the impression of occupancy. This was exacerbated by competition from Rockefeller Center[257] as well as from buildings on 42nd Street, which, when combined with the Empire State Building, resulted in surplus of office space in a slow market during the 1930s.[265]
Aggressive marketing efforts served to reinforce the Empire State Building's status as the world's tallest.[266] The observatory was advertised in local newspapers as well as on railroad tickets.[267] The building became a popular tourist attraction, with one million people each paying one dollar to ride elevators to the observation decks in 1931.[268] In its first year of operation, the observation deck made approximately $2 million in revenue, as much as its owners made in rent that year.[257][244] By 1936, the observation deck was crowded on a daily basis, with food and drink available for purchase at the top,[269] and by 1944 the building had received its five-millionth visitor.[270] In 1931, NBC took up tenancy, leasing space on the 85th floor for radio broadcasts.[271][136] From the outset the building was in debt, losing $1 million per year by 1935. Real estate developer Seymour Durst recalled that the building was so underused in 1936 that there was no elevator service above the 45th floor, as the building above the 41st floor was empty except for the NBC offices and the Raskob/Du Pont offices on the 81st floor.[272]
Other events
Per the original plans, the Empire State Building's spire was intended to be an airship docking station. Raskob and Smith had proposed dirigible ticketing offices and passenger waiting rooms on the 86th floor, while the airships themselves would be tied to the spire at the equivalent of the building's 106th floor.[131][132] An elevator would ferry passengers from the 86th to the 101st floor[f] after they had checked in on the 86th floor,[130] after which passengers would have climbed steep ladders to board the airship.[131] The idea, however, was impractical and dangerous due to powerful updrafts caused by the building itself,[274] the wind currents across Manhattan,[131] and the spires of nearby skyscrapers.[275] Furthermore, even if the airship were to successfully navigate all these obstacles, its crew would have to jettison some ballast by releasing water onto the streets below in order to maintain stability, and then tie the craft's nose to the spire with no mooring lines securing the tail end of the craft.[16][131][275] On September 15, 1931, a small commercial United States Navy airship circled 25 times in 45-mile-per-hour (72 km/h) winds.[276] The airship then attempted to dock at the mast, but its ballast spilled and the craft was rocked by unpredictable eddies.[277][278] The near-disaster scuttled plans to turn the building's spire into an airship terminal, although one blimp did manage to make a single newspaper delivery afterward.[36][131]
On July 28, 1945, a
B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 79th and 80th floors.[35] One engine completely penetrated the building and landed in a neighboring block, while the other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an elevator shaft. Fourteen people were killed in the incident,[279][193] but the building escaped severe damage and was reopened two days later.[279][280]
^"The AmericasArchived October 20, 2012, at the Wayback Machine." Air China. Retrieved on October 15, 2012. "New York AIR CHINA Ltd.(New York) Empire State Building 350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 6905 New York, NY 10118"
^"Empire.html". YWCA of the USA. July 1, 1998. Archived from the original on July 1, 1998. Retrieved April 25, 2021. YWCA of the U.S.A. Empire State Building, Suite 301 350 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10118
^"Contact Us". YWCA. Retrieved April 25, 2021. Connect With YWCA USA! 1400 I Street, Suite 325 Washington, DC 20005
^Stepansky, Joseph; Kemp, Joe; Calcano, Bryan; Beekman, Daniel (April 25, 2013). "Man tumbles off Empire State Building". New York Daily News. Retrieved April 25, 2013.