It’s hard to imagine the NYC skyline without the Empire State building. For Native New Yorkers, skyscrapers are a dime a dozen but there is something special about the Empire State Building.
It’s iconic. It’s been the backdrop or even the star of a number of films over the years. If you traveled back in time to 1928, you wouldn’t see this famous building. Instead, you would see the original Waldorf Astoria hotel. If you went back even further in time it was the farm of John & Mary Murray. Perhaps you may have heard of Murray Hill in NYC, that’s the family it was named after. It was purchased by the Bethlehem corporation for 20 million dollars in 1928. You may be thinking why would they sell one of the most popular and largest hotels in the world? Well the who’s who of NYC moved uptown and the hotel followed eventually reopening at its current location on Park Ave in NYC. The Bethlehem Engineering Corp originally planned to build a 25-50 story office building. Fate would have different plans. The company defaulted on the bank loan and the land was resold to the Empire State Incorporation. The building was the brainchild of John J. Raskob who along with Pierre Du Pont who had purchased General Motors. He hoped to build the tallest building in NYC. It was an added bonus that his rival Walter Chrysler was hoping to do the same thing and the two men set out to outdo each other. Raskob financing the Empire State building and Walter Chrysler, the Chrysler building. Empire State, Inc. purchased the property along with some adjacent properties to ensure they had the 2 acres needed to build the base of the building. Construction began on March 17, 1930. It was the first building in the world to have more than 100 floors. A number of companies put in bids to do the construction but ultimately Starrett Bros. & Eken were given the job. They understood that this was not going to be a typical job and that items had to be made off site and be ready to be put in place upon its arrival on 5th Ave. They hired out companies who could do that. Each step of the process was well planned and coordinated. Before the new building could go up, the Waldorf Astoria had to come down. People from all over the country wrote in about how they wanted mementos from the famed hotel and an auction was held. The debris was dumped into the Atlantic Ocean.
Empire state building design
When it was completed, the builders succeeded in building the tallest skyscraper in the world. In fact, it was a title the building held for almost 4 decades. It lost that title to one world trade when it was completed in 1970. Today it is the 7th tallest building in NYC. The design of the building was modeled after a pencil of all things. The design was modified 15 times as they went back and forth competing with the Chrysler building.
500 trucks brought the perfectly prefabricated materials that were brought to the building site each day. 60,000 tons of steel were produced in Pittsburgh and then brought to NYC. A railway was built at the construction site to move materials quickly and cafeterias were set up within the building so that workers would stay on site for their lunch and breaks. Efficiency was key.
3,500 workers from 60 different trades took only 13 months or 410 days to construct this building. The steel workers who worked on the building were known as sky boys. The building has 210 steel columns. The machinery used at the time could only carry beams 30 stories, so a system of derricks was used to bring the prefabricated steel beams to where they needed to go. They are similar to cranes but they have a vertical stationary mast extending from a base and a moveable boom. The system was so awe-inspiring that it would often stop people in their tracks and they would watch the steel beams rise high up into the NYC sky. Sky boys worked in groups to attach the beams together. Amazingly they weren’t tethered to the building nor did they even wear hard hats. That is crazy to me. I can’t even stand on a step stool without starting to sweat so to me that’s outrageous. They were steel workers with absolute nerves of steel. It’s important to note that this building is going up during the Great Depression. You have people desperately looking for work, waiting on lines to get a meal at a soup kitchen, but there on 5th Avenue is this incredible example of American ingenuity and greatness going up higher and higher each day. There are incredible videos that exist that show the construction of this building. The crowds dressed in suits and hats standing on the street to watch this. The police officers on horseback directing traffic and these now vintage cars of the 1930s driving by. The men working on the building walking along the beams so quickly, jumping down to a lower beam, no ropes, nothing, It’s such a beautiful window of an era long gone.
The outside of the building is covered in Indiana Limestone and glass. The materials for the outside of the building arrived precut and ready to go. All the workers had to do was put it in place.
Deep below street level there are Wind tunnels at the bottom of the building – they helped to bring fresh air to the higher floors. Also a river used to run below where the building now stands. Even now, with heavy rainfall water will seep through the floor and need to be drained.
When the building opened on May 1, 1931, (45 days ahead of schedule) President Herbert Hoover dedicated New York City’s Empire State Building, pressing a button in the White House that turned on the building’s lights for the first time. 350 guests attended the opening ceremony including New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt and former Gov. Alfred E. Smith. In his remarks, Gov. Roosevelt who would go on to become the next President of the USA, stated the building was a symbol of “vision and faith”. The Empire State building would go on to become and remain one of the most famous buildings in NYC.
On July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchel bomber plane was flying from Massachusetts to Newark airport and crashed into the 78th and 79th floors of the Empire State building. The pilot, Lieutenant Colonel William Franklin Smith Jr., became disoriented by the fog and turned right instead of left after passing the Chrysler Building. The fire took 40 minutes to get out and 14 people were killed. The damage cost $1 million to repair. It took only 1 week of repairs to fix the building.
The lobby of the Empire State building was designated a NYC landmark in 1981 and a national historical Landmark in 1986. There is a wonderful article from the Art deco society of New York and is written by Frank J. Prial Jr, who worked on the restoration. In the article, he discusses how Art Deco was based on classical principles but introduced the concepts of speed, energy, efficiency, and the Machine Age, expressed through both form and materials. Since the lobby is a New York City Landmark, any changes being considered required approval from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. The scarcity of historic images of the original lobby made restoration difficult until a series of photographs taken immediately after the building’s completion were made available to the team. The team worked with EverGreene Architectural Arts, who is the preeminent mural restoration firm in the USA. Until the photographs, the team wasn’t even sure the mural ever really existed because the original ceiling had been covered up. Two fortunate events provided important clues. As the team worked, restorers discovered a remnant of the mural. Over time, smoke or water damage had caused the mural to separate from the ceiling, and in the 1960s it had been covered with a lead-based paint, followed by installation of a dropped tile ceiling and a fluorescent light fixture. The original mural depicted the heavens filled with suns, moons, stars, and planets, all against a background of small squares that had not been visible in the photograph. With the aid of a computer, they were able to determine the repeating pattern over the full length of the mural. The design was similar to the constellations on the great sky ceiling at Grand Central Terminal. In the case of the Empire State Building, however, this theme was reinterpreted for the modern age. Stars became gears and planets became wheels. It resembled the machinery found under the hood of an automobile or inside a finely crafted watch. In 2007, artists set out to recreate the mural of the lobby. It took 2 years and 20,000 hours of work and cost 12.5 Million. The full scale restoration project to modernize the building and make it more energy efficient cost over 30 million. Such an iconic building got a much needed update to secure this incredible building into its next 100 years.
Empire state building lights. Today they are LED lights. At one point they had helium lights. Back then to change the colors of the lights took a team of electricians almost an entire day, but today it is much easier. To have the Empire State Building lit up for your organization, you must submit an application on their website and get it approved by a special committee.
When the building opened in 1931, 75% of the offices remained vacant. For the most part, with skyscrapers, the higher the floor the higher the rent. Newspapers dubbed the new building the Empty State building. Between the 1920s and 1930s, so many new buildings had sprung up in the city that there was an abundance of office space available. Couple that with The Great Depression, and you have this incredible building, the tallest building in the world up until 1971, and it was mostly empty. The 1933 film, King Kong would help to cement the Empire State Building’s status as one of New York City’s most iconic buildings. The opening of the observation deck also helped to make the building make ends meet. The main observatory deck is located on the 86th floor. There is another observation deck on the 102 floor. The one of a kind elevator will have you on the 86th floor in less than a minute! It offers 360 degree views of the city and on very clear days, you can see up to 6 states (NJ, PA, CT, MA, & DE) It’s an incredible view, but it will cost ya! At minimum about $50. In 1938, it cost $1. It is a quintessential NYC moment though. One that I think every New Yorker and tourist alike should do. Maybe get a good NYC bagel or a local favorite – bacon egg and cheese on a roll and sip some coffee overlooking the magnificent city. In 1950, a radio antenna 200 feet tall was installed and by 1953, radio stations could now pay a fee to broadcast their shows from the Empire State building! The building was finally starting to turn a profit. In 1980, the building was given its very own zip code. In NYC for example, 42 buildings have their own zip code. This is done because of how much mail tenants in these types of buildings receive.
If you’re in NYC, go to the top of the Empire State building. If you have gone but years ago, go again. NYC is alive, it always changing and it’s a view you just can’t beat.
