Empire State Building

It was built in 1930-1931 as a speculative office building that evolved into the world's premier skyscraper for decades.

The building was the brain-child of John J. Raskob, the vice-president of General Motors, who wanted this new building to exceed the height of the rival car manufacturer's Chrysler Building, still under construction when the plans were released on August 29, 1929. The program given to the architects called for a tight schedule of completion one and a half years after the start of the project.

The site had previously housed the "twin hotel" of Waldorf-Astoria (Waldorf Hotel 1893, Astoria Hotel 1897, both by arch. Henry J. Hardenbergh), both built by the Astor family and eventually connected by a wide hall. In May 1929, the hotel closed its doors after hotel memento had been auctioned off in a last ballroom dinner. The hotel Waldorf-Astoria relocated farther uptown and the site was turned over to a consortium intent on constructing the tallest building in the world.

The demolition of the hotel was begun in November 1929 (16,000 truckloads of debris), pouring of the 210 foundation piers in March 1930, work on the steel framework on April 7, 1930, topping out on November 21, 1930 and the building was completed on April 11, 1931. The title of world's tallest had been passed from the Chrysler Building on September 19, 1930, at the completion of the 85th floor steelwork.

A neck-breaking speed of construction that saw four and a half stories rise in a week was made possible by effective logistics combined with a skilled and organized workforce. The steel for the frame (three times the amount within either the Chrysler or 40 Wall buildings) was manufactured in Pittsburgh and transported immediately to New York, so that often the parts were installed only three days after coming off the roller. The workforce of the construction site, in the overall command of the Starrett Brothers construction company, peaked at 3,439 workers, five of whom died during the course of construction. Because of the reduced costs during the Depression, the construction eventually cost only $24.7 million instead of the estimated 43.

The official opening took place on May 1, 1931 when President Herbert Hoover switched on the building's lights from the White House in Washington, D.C.. The same year, the architects received gold medals for their building from the Architectural League, AIA and the Fifth Avenue Association.

Topped with a sheathed tower, explained as a mooring mast for airships at the time of its construction (and although the prevailing winds alone would have deemed its use as such ridiculous, the Navy played along in providing assistance with the mast design), the 102-story Empire State Building became immediately a landmark and a symbol for NYC and depression-gripped America. At 381 m (449 m after the addition of the TV mast in 1951 -- after antenna modifications in the early 1990s, 443.5 m), the building was the tallest in the world until the 1 World Trade Center tower rose higher 40 years later. (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon in fact made proposals for an extension of the building to 455 meters after the WTC took over.)

The building is clad in Indiana limestone and granite, with the mullions lined in shiny aluminum. There are in all 6,500 windows, with spandrels sandblasted to blend their tone to that of the windows, visually creating the vertical striping on the facade. The windows and spandrels are also flush with the limestone facing, an aesthetic and economic decision.

Because of the Depression, in the beginning it was difficult to get the building's office space rented (a problem it has suffered from until recently) and the building thus got the nickname "Empty State Building"; by the opening day, only a quarter of the total office space had been rented. In fact, the building created no profit until 1948 and in the meantime Raskob had to even use his personal fortune to keep up with mortgage payments.

The high entrance lobby is lined in marble imported from Europe and sports an imposing silhouette image of the building itself in an aluminum relief. There are 73 elevators, and anyone wanting to take the stairs to the top have to negotiate 1,860 steps.

The top is illuminated with floodlights on certain public holidays and other notable occasions. The top was first lit in 1964 for the New York World's Fair and colour lights were first used during the 1976 National Democratic Convention -- an important PR occasion for a city still in the throes of its gravest fiscal crisis. Today's different color patterns mark notable dates and festivities.

Leased already in 1931 for the exclusive TV transmission use of RCA's NBC, the "new deal" of June 1950 replaced the original 20.5 m tall television mast with a 66-meter installation. It originally incorporated five TV and three FM radio station antennas, by 1953 relocating transmitters from atop such buildings as the Chrysler Building (WCBS-TV) and the Daily News Building (WPIX). The WJZ-TV had already earlier relocated from the top of Hotel Pierre. In the late 1960s, as the WTC towers were being constructed, a lawsuit by the ESB broadcaster stations led to the Port Authority, WTC developer, paying part of the bill for relocating these antennas to the top of the 1 WTC tower.

After 9/11, the building received a flow of broadcasters that had used the 1 WTC mast -- in 2003, all the office floors from the 77th up were already in use of the broadcasters. As of May 2003, 11 television and 22 FM radio stations broadcast from the building. (The Condé Nast Building and the future tower on the WTC site will displace most of these; the latter will, according to a preliminary agreement, feature 22 transmission antennas.)

A testimony of the building's structural strength is the fact that when in July 1945 a twin-engined bomber crashed on the 79th floor of the building, killing fourteen people, the damage to the building was confined to the outer wall as well as fires inside, although one engine ripped right through the whole building.

A total of 70 million people have visited the viewing platforms at 86th and 102nd floors, at a rate of 35,000 a day.
(From www.greatgridlock.net)