The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the state of New York. The building has a roof height of and stands a total of tall, including its antenna. The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1970; following its collapse in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the city's tallest skyscraper until 2012. , the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, the 48th-tallest in the world, and the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.
Introduction
Empire State Building
Empire State Building | Introduction
1930 to 1931. 1973 1973 1973
how many floors is the empire state building observation deck
user
3 floors.
assistant
where is it located?
user
Midtown Manhattan in New York City.
assistant
what is the earlier mentioned building used for?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
what kind of architecture does it follow?
user
Pre–World War II architecture.
assistant
did the design have any kind of change?
user
Yes, it was later increased to 60 and then 80 stories.
assistant
the place where you mentioned it is located, what is it's economics?
user
It, along with Lower Manhattan, is one of the world's leading financial centers.
assistant
does it have any kind of headquarters?
user
Midtown contains the headquarters of major companies, including 4Kids Entertainment (formerly), Barnes & Noble, Bloomberg L.P. to name a few.
assistant
the kind of architecture mentioned, does any other structure have the same?
user
Yes, the Willis Tower's and the John Hancock Center's.
assistant
what's the historical importance of the second structure?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
when was the first structure above, built?
user
Viewed as out-of-date and emblematic of the excesses of the 19th century, Second Empire architecture was derided in the 20th century, particularly starting in the 1930s. Of Mullet's State, War, and Navy Building, for instance, Woodrow Wilson commented negatively on the building for displaying "every architectural style known to man" and made plans to remodel it, stripping the structure of its Second Empire features. Expensive to maintain, many Second Empire structures fell into decay and were demolished. Philadelphia's City Hall (1871–1901) was narrowly saved from demolition in the 1950s because of the expense of demolishing it, but New York's City Hall Post Office and Courthouse (1869–1880), termed "Mullett's Monstrosity", was demolished in 1939.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Reception in the twentieth century
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 tower's lines and rise. Four colossal columns, intended for installation in the center of the building site, were delivered; they would support a combined when the building was finished. 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 , up from , thus reducing the amount of steel needed for the building.
Empire State Building | Steel structure
Renwick's gallery was one of the first major public buildings in the style, and its favorable reception furthered interest in Second Empire design. These early buildings display a close affinity to the high-style designs found in the new Louvre construction, with quoins, stone detailing, carved elements and sculpture, a strong division between base and piano nobile, pavilioned roofs, and pilasters.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | History
The European born and trained architect Detlef Lienau, who studied architecture in Paris and emigrated to the US in 1848, is credited with designing the first Second Empire house in the US, the Hart M. Schiff house in New York City, built in 1850. Lienau remained a prime designer of Second Empire houses, designing the Lockwood-Matthews Mansion in Norwalk, Connecticut (designed 1860). Despite Lienau's work, Second Empire did not displace dominant styles of the 1850s, Italianate and Gothic Revival and remained associated with only particularly wealthy patrons. The first major Second Empire structure designed by an American architect was James Renwick's gallery, now the Renwick Gallery designed for William Wilson Corcoran (1859-1860).
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | History
Among the smaller details, yet still prominent, is the railing surrounding the top of the tower. Together, these elements produce the appearance of a Second Empire residence.
Samuel N. Brown House | Introduction
The original structure on the site was built as New York's second City Hall in 1699 - 1703, on Wall Street, in what is today the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. In 1735, John Peter Zenger, an American newspaper publisher, was arrested for committing libel against the British royal governor and was imprisoned and tried there. His acquittal on the grounds that the material he had printed was true established freedom of the press as it was later defined in the Bill of Rights. In October 1765, delegates from nine of the 13 colonies met as the Stamp Act Congress in response to the levying of the Stamp Act by the Parliament of Great Britain.
Federal Hall | First structure
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. The first steel framework was installed on April 1, 1930. From there, construction proceeded at a rapid pace; during one stretch of 10 working days, the builders erected fourteen floors. 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. 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.
Empire State Building | Steel structure
It is one of the earliest skyscrapers built on pneumatic caissons and one of the oldest such buildings that remain standing. The building contains an interior steel frame structure with a curtain-walled facade. The top stories contain a loggia on the facade as well as a large metal cornice above the 20th floor. There are numerous band courses, balconies, and arched windows along the facade. The original Empire Building was a brownstone structure constructed in 1859. Though the politician and real estate developer Orlando B. Potter had acquired the brownstone in 1884, he died prior to the current building's construction.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Introduction
A structural steel contract was awarded on January 12, 1930, with excavation of the site beginning ten days later on January 22, before the old hotel had been completely demolished. Two twelve-hour shifts, consisting of 300 men each, worked continuously to dig the foundation. Small pier holes were sunk into the ground to house the concrete footings that would support the steelwork. Excavation was nearly complete by early March, and construction on the building itself started on March 17, with the builders placing the first steel columns on the completed footings before the rest of the footings had been finished.
Empire State Building | Steel structure
Nationally renowned architect Horatio Nelson White was the designer of this French Second Empire structure. Peck died May 17, 1883, in Syracuse and is buried there in the Oakwood Cemetery.
Jesse Truesdell Peck | Syracuse University
Public buildings constructed in the Second Empire style were especially built on a massive scale, such as the Philadelphia City Hall and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and held records for the largest buildings in their day. Prior to the construction of the Pentagon during the 1940s, for example, the Second Empire–style Ohio State Asylum for the Insane in Columbus, Ohio, was reported to be the largest building under one roof in the U.S., though the title may actually belong to Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, another Kirkbride Second Empire asylum.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Key Features
The 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. 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." The facade, too, used a variety of material, most prominently Indiana limestone but also Swedish black granite, terracotta, and brick.
Empire State Building | Steel structure
The Second Empire style building was constructed in 1868 by Isaac Hersam, and is one of three such buildings dating to the mid-19th century that give the town's Central Square its character. It was acquired by a consortium of related Oddfellows organizations in 1878, and housed retail operations on the ground floor, and the Oddfellows meeting space above.
Oddfellows Building | Description and history
Concurrently, Lamb's partner Richmond Shreve created "bug diagrams" of the project requirements. The 1916 Zoning Act forced Lamb to design a structure that incorporated setbacks resulting in the lower floors being larger than the upper floors. Consequently, the tower was designed from the top down, giving it a "pencil"-like shape.
Empire State Building | Early plans
It often featured a low dome, a once complex architectural feat rendered less difficult through the use of iron and reinforced concrete.
Second Empire architecture in Europe | Development
The Empire State Building's art deco design is 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 riveted steel frame of the building was originally designed to handle all of the building's gravitational stresses and wind loads. The exterior of the building is clad in Indiana limestone panels sourced from the Empire Mill in Sanders, Indiana, which give the building its signature blonde color. 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 versus the Willis Tower's and the John Hancock Center's .
Empire State Building | Exterior
The scale of the project was massive, with trucks carrying "16,000 partition tiles, 5,000 bags of cement, of sand and 300 bags of lime" arriving at the construction site every day. 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. Temporary water taps were also built so workers did not waste time buying water bottles from the ground level. Additionally, carts running on a small railway system transported materials from the basement storage to elevators that brought the carts to the desired floors where they would then be distributed throughout that level using another set of tracks.
Empire State Building | Steel structure
Where larger openings like garage doors are required, the tube frame must be interrupted, with transfer girders used to maintain structural integrity. The first building to apply the tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building, which Khan designed and was completed in Chicago by 1963. This laid the foundations for the tube structures of many other later skyscrapers, including his own John Hancock Center and Willis Tower.
Chicago school (architecture) | Second Chicago School
During 1896, the caisson foundations were sunk at a depth of . Construction on the above-ground structure started on June 1, 1897. During the excavation, a cornerstone from the old Grace Church was found at the building site, as well as bones and numerous tombstones. The arcade from the old building was kept within the new building. The facade was completed on April 19, 1898, with the first tenants moving to the new building shortly afterward. At the time of the Empire Building's completion, it was one of the tallest buildings in New York City by floor count. It was among the first of several high-rise buildings that were erected on the southernmost section of Broadway starting in the late 1890s as well as one of the city's oldest steel-frame skyscrapers on pneumatic caissons.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Construction
Eliot Gregory stated in 1899, without mentioning the building by name, that the Empire Building contained a "grotesque resemblance to a waffle iron", which gave it "the impression of instability". The Empire Building was designated a New York City landmark in 1996. It was also added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Critical reception and landmark status
It was also referred to as "the counting house." It was 16 by 8 feet wide. It appears to have been a model for the Second Meeting House, constructed 1834-1842. The Second Meeting House was 100 feet long and 50 feet wide, and two storeys high. Its exterior was similar to the study. The interior auditorium was an open space supported by 20 pillars and a 20-foot-high ceiling. The second floor was reached by a circular staircase leading to a 20-by-20-foot room used as a school. The Second Meeting House was demolished in 1912, leading the York Pioneer & Historical Society to preserve the temple as a museum in 1917.
Ebenezer Doan | Buildings
While not all Second Empire buildings feature pavilions, a significant number, particularly those built by wealthy clients or as public buildings, do. The Second Empire style frequently includes a rectangular (sometimes octagonal) tower as well. This tower element may be of equal height to the highest floor, or may exceed the height of the rest of the structure by a story or two. A third feature is massing. Second Empire buildings, because of their height, tend to convey a sense of largeness. Additionally, the facades are typically solid and flat, rather than pierced by open porches or angled and curved facade bays.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Key Features
It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture.
Empire State Building | Architecture
For those officials who needed a dedicated workspace, the first state office building, Old State Hall, was erected in the early 1800s at what is now the corner of Lodge and State streets. In 1833, the occupants complained that the building was running out of space and inadequate in other ways—in particular, they said, the many records kept within it could be destroyed in a fire. The legislature directed the capitol's trustees to find land for a new building. The trustees acquired the current land and commissioned local architect Henry Rector to design the building. According to architectural critic Talbot Hamlin, Rector's design "proclaimed the complete triumph of the Greek Revival in the Albany region." The column bases and capitals on the exterior were copied from the Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis.
New York Court of Appeals Building | 1842–1917: State Hall
The official National Register documentation for the Ivory McKusick House gives a construction date of 1868. However more recent research from the Washington County Historical Society states that the house began as a one-story structure in 1866 and was enlarged in 1872 with the two-story wing that now serves as the main façade. Second Empire architectural elements include the mansard roof with round-arched dormers, and numerous ornate brackets. These brackets adorn the window hoods on the dormers and the first floor, while even larger brackets with pendants support the wide eaves and the hood over the front door. The heavy mansard roof was highly fashionable at the time.
Ivory McKusick House | Description
The site of the Empire State Building, located in Midtown South on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was originally part of an early 18th-century farm. It was developed in 1893 as the site of the 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.
Empire State Building | Introduction
Lamb described the other specifications he was given for the final, approved plan:
Empire State Building | Design changes
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. At one point, over 200 trucks made material deliveries at the building site every day.
Empire State Building | Completion and scale
The original foundations of rubble on clay were replaced with concrete.
New York Court of Appeals Building | 1918–1959: Second renovation
The present Empire Building was ultimately developed by his children as a 20-story structure. The Empire Building was the home of United States Steel Corporation from the company's 1901 founding to 1976, and U.S. Steel owned the building between 1919 and 1973. The Empire Building's 21st floor was constructed between 1928 and 1930 to designs by John C. Westervelt. The building was converted to apartments in 1997. It was designated a New York City landmark in 1996 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Introduction
The Main Building of Vassar College is the oldest surviving building on its campus in Poughkeepsie, New York, and the center of academic life. It was built by James Renwick, Jr. in the Second Empire style in 1861, the second building in the history of what was one of America's first women's colleges. It is one of the earliest, largest, and most important examples of Second Empire architecture in the United States and is a National Historic Landmark for its architecture and educational significance. At the time of its completion, the structure contained the most interior space of any building in the United States, and housed the entire college, including dormitories, libraries, classrooms, and dining halls.
Main Building (Vassar College) | Introduction
Second Empire, in the United States and Canada, is an architectural style most popular between 1865 and 1900. Second Empire architecture developed from the redevelopment of Paris under Napoleon III's Second Empire and looked to French Renaissance precedents. It was characterized by a mansard roof, elaborate ornament, and strong massing and was notably used for public buildings as well as commercial and residential design.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Introduction
A symbol of New York City, the tower has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It was ranked first on the American Institute of Architects' List of America's Favorite Architecture in 2007. Additionally, the Empire State Building and its ground-floor interior were designated city landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1980, and were added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
Empire State Building | Introduction
The original building structure is structural steel columns encased in masonry, with a structural steel floor frame, infilled with wood floor system joists and decking, and exterior brick masonry walls. The ceiling above the attic is wood framed; and the roof is framed with steel trusses, wood purlins, and decked with wood. The 1936 addition structure is structural steel columns encased in concrete; and the first, second and third floors are one-way (ribbed) reinforced concrete over structural steel floor framing. The roof is steel frame with mesh reinforced concrete deck.
Durward G. Hall Federal Building and United States Courthouse | Structure
Similar structures are throughout the United States
Delmar Calaboose | History
The height of the building was reduced and other elements were also reconsidered.
Mariinsky Theatre Second Stage | Building construction history
The second elliptical building was built on top foundations of the first, and although the architect must have been aware of the exact layout of the previous building, the design of the second was slightly modified. Although the it looks very similar to the first, it used different diameters of arc to achieve a slightly 'fatter' design. The second 'elliptical' building was not constructed until about AD 220, and this was confirmed by a coin of Emperor Elagabalus under one of the pavement slabs. It is thought that the second building may have survived until the end of Roman rule and influence in Britain.
Deva Victrix | Elliptical building
If the exact year of initial construction is estimated, it will be shown as a range of dates.
List of the oldest buildings in New York | Introduction
Virginia and Lee McAlester divided the style into five subtypes:
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Plans
After the World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11, 2001, it remained the tallest building in New York City for 13 years until the One World Trade Center was completed. Numerous people have mentioned its similarities in appearance to the phallus, with its "tall and glinting" towers.
Phallic architecture | Empire State Building
However, two round structures can be seen here as well, but they are smaller and there is no second wall in front. The floors, on the other hand, were formed by carefully placed sandstone blocks.
Hallan Çemi Tepesi | Architecture
The first story was a large and tall fortified wall with a single door and only small windows near the top to light the interior, forum level rooms. The second story featured a Doric arcade (partially preserved) and the third, no longer extant story, had a high Corinthian order colonnade. The upper floors of this structure was much changed in the 13th century, when the "Palazzo dei Senatori" was built.
Tabularium | Architecture
Elements such as the Romanesque entry arch, which is part of the landscaped plaza on Second Avenue, represent a compromise that, though not prevalent today, was often employed in the early years of the historic preservation movement. The footprint of the monolithic building is square; however, the corners are all clipped, resulting in a less angular form on the skyline. The steel-frame building is clad in pre-cast concrete with prominent vertical members and recessed windows that emphasize the height of the structure. Arched entrance arcades on the federal building allude to the Romanesque entry of the Burke Building. The building's elevations are symmetrical and maintain a consistent geometric rhythm.
Henry M. Jackson Federal Building | Architecture
The Empire State Plaza consists of various steel and reinforced concrete buildings, all clad in imported stone (except The Egg, which fully exposes its concrete structure). The buildings are placed on a 6-story stone-clad Main Platform, supported by more than 25,000 steel pilings driven an average of into soft glacial clay deposits underlying the site. The placement of starkly abstract geometric building forms on a monolithic plaza is said to represent Rockefeller's concept of architecture as similar to sculpture. The exterior columns and narrow windows of the buildings resemble the style of the World Trade Center towers in New York City, which were completed around the same time.
Empire State Plaza | Architecture
The Second Empire style, which this house also resembles, would not become popular until after the American Civil War. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Sylvanus Johnson House | Introduction
The mansard roof ridge was frequently topped with a decorative iron trim, known as "cresting". Often, lightning rods were integrated into the cresting, as pinnacles.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Ornament
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the state of New York. The building has a roof height of and stands a total of tall, including its antenna. The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1970; following its collapse in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the city's tallest skyscraper until 2012. , the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, the 48th-tallest in the world, and the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.
Empire State Building | Introduction
On the secondary entrances, Lee Lawrie placed decorations signifying symbols of the empire's power, such as Tudor roses, gilded passant guardant lions, and the wing-footed god of commerce, Mercury. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission added landmark status to the exteriors of all the original Rockefeller Center's buildings in 1985. In its approval of the complex's status, the commission wrote, "Rockefeller Center ranks among the grandest architectural projects ever undertaken in the United States". The roof gardens of the wings were restored in 1986 for $48,000 each.
British Empire Building | Description
According to the official fact sheets the building rises 1,860 steps from the first to the 102nd floor, weighs , has an internal volume of , and an exterior with of limestone and granite. Construction of the tower's exterior required ten million bricks and of aluminum and stainless steel, and the interior required of elevator cable and of electrical wires. The building has a capacity for 20,000 tenants and 15,000 visitors. The building has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. 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.
Empire State Building | Architecture
There is a cornice above the 16th floor. The capital is four stories tall with loggias and a metal cornice above the 20th floor. The loggias, located on the 18th and 19th floors, are composed of Corinthian paired columns that form a colonnade. There are also ornamental panels. The 21st story was added in 1928–1930. Atop the south side of the 21st floor is a small terracotta tower that holds the machine rooms for the elevators.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Other stories
Construction began after some practical changes to the original design (such as the reduction of the columns from 40 to 36) in September of that year with the removal of the dome raised by Charles Bulfinch. A unique scaffold was built inside the rotunda, designed to keep weight away from the weak center area of the floor, and a crane was set within to run on a steam-powered engine (fueled from the salvaged wood from the old dome).
United States Capitol dome | Second (current) dome
The Empire State Building, a 102-story contemporary Art Deco style building in Midtown Manhattan, was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and finished in 1931. It was the world's tallest building for 42 years. The tower takes its name from the nickname of New York State. It was the first building to go beyond the 100-story mark, and has one of the world's most visited observation decks, which sees about 4 million visitors a year. The building was built in just 14 months. Completed in 1930, the Chrysler Building is a distinctive symbol of New York, standing high in East Midtown, Manhattan.
Architecture of New York City | Art Deco
The final stage of the building was the installation of a hollow mast, a 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. The elevators would ascend from the 86th floor ticket offices to a 101st-floor waiting room. From there, stairs would lead to the 102nd floor, where passengers would enter the airships. The airships would have been moored to the spire at the equivalent of the building's 106th floor. On the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building (formerly the 101st floor), there is a door with stairs ascending to the 103rd floor (formerly the 102nd).
Empire State Building | Above the 102nd floor
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. The Empire State Building was structurally completed on April 11, 1931, twelve days ahead of schedule and 410 days after construction commenced. Al Smith shot the final rivet, which was made of solid gold. The project involved more than 3,500 workers at its peak, including 3,439 on a single day, August 14, 1930. Many of the workers were Irish and Italian immigrants, with a sizable minority of Mohawk ironworkers from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal.
Empire State Building | Completion and scale
From north to south the building consisted of at least six sections. When first built the building had an undecorated warehouse directly behind the old Federal Building built of reinforced concrete. South of where the warehouse stood begins the current structure, beginning with a square tower with four corner turrets. A 5-story tall "arm" diagonally connects the north tower with the 13-story tall central tower. Those sections were built first, in 1914-5. The building was too small for all the D&H employees and so another "arm" was built south of the tower terminating at another square tower with corner turrets to house the offices of the "Albany Evening Journal".
SUNY Plaza | Architecture
The fire began among some crates in the company's basement shipping room. The collapse was caused when three unprotected 14-inch diameter hollow cast iron support columns buckled because of excessive heat, bring down the eight stories above. Fire-resistant insulation might have prevented the collapse.
New Era Building (New York City) | History
By the 21st century, the remaining Second Empire architecture in the United states was once again greatly appreciated and valued by most for its sense of beauty, grandeur, and quirkiness while ironically the work of architects who originally chastised the style saw even greater criticism.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Reception in the twentieth century
The facades of the Empire Building are arranged in three sections, consisting of a four-story "base", a "shaft", and a four-story "capital" on top, similar to the components of a column. This was a common setup for facades of buildings that were being erected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The original design called for architectural terracotta sheathing, but the Potter family, which developed the Empire Building, switched to granite because they felt the material was "more suitable".
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Facade
Though the Empire State Building had also included escalators between its lobby and mezzanine, 70 Pine Street was modeled on the layout of a department store, the first office building in New York City to be designed in this manner. These escalators were hidden behind a false marble wall. 70 Pine Street also included a hot-water heating system, innovative for its time, which obviated the need for boiler facilities. The building had a "unit ventilating system" as well; this system utilized spaces over the radiators and inside the walls to provide ventilation without any dust or noise. The basement contained a bank vault with the most advanced security systems available during that era.
70 Pine Street | Other features
Also on the top floor was a viewing gallery for the House. On the exterior were ornamental pilasters and two-story porticos on the east and west ends. The building included a lunch counter. Additionally, the building had mullion-windowed wings. The large copper-clad dome was constructed with an iron and steel framework. This dome rose above the rest of the building and was tall. The building was of Renaissance style with Corinthian columns on the front entrance and was patterned after the United States Capitol. At that time, the capitol faced west toward the Willamette River. The government began using the building in August 1876, before the dome was built.
Oregon State Capitol | Second capitol
The mansard roof became popular once again during Haussmann's renovation of Paris beginning in the 1850s, in an architectural movement known as Second Empire style. Second Empire influence spread throughout the world, frequently adopted for large civic structures such as government administration buildings and city halls, as well as hotels and railway stations. In the United States and Canada, and especially in New England, the Second Empire influence spread to family residences and mansions, often corrupted with Italianate and Gothic Revival elements. A mansard-topped tower became a popular element incorporated into many designs, such as Main Building (Vassar College), Poughkeepsie, New York, which shows a large mansard-roofed structure with two towers.
Mansard roof | Second Empire
The Second Empire architectural design, as seen in the Élysée Palace, played a key role in his later designs. He began informal training with fellow Boston architect Alexander Parris, who introduced him to neoclassical design and the use of Second Empire architectural templates. His training under Parris, grounded in neoclassicism, played an important role in his first building drafts. Working primarily as a student in his early days, he quickly a member of Parris' newly opened architectural firm at the corner of Court and Washington Streets. His first achievement was the design for the Broadway Savings Bank, South Boston, in the early 1830s.
Gridley J. F. Bryant | Early career
With the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City, and the second-tallest building in the Americas, surpassed only by the Willis Tower in Chicago. The Empire State Building remained the tallest building in New York until the new One World Trade Center reached a greater height in April 2012. , it is the fourth-tallest building in New York City after One World Trade Center, 432 Park Avenue, and 30 Hudson Yards. It is the fifth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States behind the two other tallest buildings in New York City, as well as the Willis Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.
Empire State Building | Height records
At the time, "The New York Times" said: "the block is now occupied by uniform buildings [...] the front is of iron, imposing in appearance, and the shops and lofts are of the first class." In 1892, the structure burned down in a fire that destroyed everything below the second floor, but only caused minor damage to its neighbors: the Lincoln Building (to the south) and 15 Union Square West. The charred walls of the old building remained standing for several years.
Spingler Building | Site and previous structures
This use of a structural metal frame was a precursor to the steel-framed skyscrapers that would start to be built in the early 20th century; in fact, some consider it to be the first skyscraper and "the most important cast-iron structure ever built".
E. V. Haughwout Building | Description
It has Art Deco architecture.
Empire Manufacturing Company Building | Introduction
The building officially opened the next day. 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 tower. According to "The New York Times", builders and real estate speculators predicted that the 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 , even with the hardy Manhattan bedrock as a foundation. Technically, it was believed possible to build a tower of up to , but it was deemed uneconomical to do so, especially during the Great Depression.
Empire State Building | Opening and early years
The first themed building that was agreed on was the British Empire Building, the more southerly of the two buildings, which would host the governmental and commercial ventures of the United Kingdom. The cornerstone of the British Empire Building was laid in June, when Francis Hopwood, 1st Baron Southborough, placed the symbolic first stone in a ceremony. The British Building's structural steel started construction in October of that year. The British Empire Building opened by early May 1934.
British Empire Building | Construction
Afterward, work on the building's interior and crowning mast commenced. The mooring mast topped out on November 21, two months after the steelwork had been completed. Meanwhile, work on the walls and interior was progressing at a quick pace, with exterior walls built up to the 75th floor by the time steelwork had been built to the 95th floor. The majority of the facade was already finished by the middle of November. Because of the building's height, it was deemed infeasible to have many elevators or large elevator cabins, so the builders contracted with the Otis Elevator Company to make 66 cars that could speed at , which represented the largest-ever elevator order at the time.
Empire State Building | Completion and scale
During the mid-19th century when Napoleon III established the Second Empire, Paris became a glamorous city of tall, imposing buildings. Many homes were embellished with details such as paired columns and elaborate wrought iron cresting appeared along rooftops. But the most striking feature borrowed from this period is the steep, boxy mansard roof. You can recognize a mansard roof by its trapezoid shape. Unlike a triangular gable, a mansard roof is almost vertical until the very top, when it abruptly flattens. This singular roofline creates a sense of majesty, and also allows more usable living space in the attic. In the United States, Second Empire is a Victorian style.
French architecture | Second Empire
This development allowed Second Empire domestic architecture to assume a new role in the American imagination, that of the haunted house. This may have been prompted by changes in aesthetics in the 1930s, in favor of cold austere functional buildings, the opposite of elaborate, but decaying Second Empire houses. For much of the early and mid-20th century, Second Empire design would be popularly associated with the sinister and haunted houses. Cartoonist Charles Addams, for example, designed a typical Second Empire mansion as the home of his macabre Addams Family, and the similarly spooky family, the Munsters, lived in a Second Empire house during their series.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Reception in the twentieth century
By 1980, there were nearly two million annual visitors, although a building official had previously estimated between 1.5 million and 1.75 million annual visitors. The building received its own ZIP code in May 1980 in a roll out of 63 new postal codes in Manhattan. At the time, the tenants of the tower collectively received 35,000 pieces of mail daily. The Empire State Building celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 1, 1981, with a much-publicized, but poorly received, laser light show, as well as an "Empire State Building Week" that ran through to May 8. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to make the lobby a city landmark on May 19, 1981, citing the historic nature of the first and second floors, as well as "the fixtures and interior components" of the upper floors.
Empire State Building | 1980s and 1990s
! Years !! Building !! City !! Region !! Country !! Height !! Floors !!class=unsortable| Image !1930-1931 !1929-1930 !1928-1929 !1911-1928 !1905-1910
List of tallest buildings in the British Empire and the Commonwealth | Tallest buildings in the Empire
The building consists of a central pavilion with two projecting wings. The entrance, reached by a long flight of steps, has figured prominently in civic events for over a century and a half. There is a columned entrance portico capped by a balustrade, and another balustrade at the roof. The domed tower in the center was rebuilt in 1917 after the last of two major fires. The original Massachusetts marble facade, quarried from Alford, Massachusetts, and complemented with brownstone on the rear elevation, had deteriorated over time from pollution and pigeons. It was completely reclad in Alabama limestone above a Missouri granite base in 1954–56 by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, architects of the Empire State Building.
New York City Hall | Exterior
In 1871, construction began on the Second Empire-style Philadelphia City Hall. The Philadelphia Historical Commission was created in 1955 to preserve the cultural and architectural history of the city. The commission maintains the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, adding historic buildings, structures, sites, objects and districts as it sees fit. In 1932, Philadelphia became home to the first modern International Style skyscraper in the United States, the PSFS Building, designed by George Howe and William Lescaze. The City Hall remained the tallest building in the city until 1987 when One Liberty Place was completed. Numerous glass and granite skyscrapers were built in Center City beginning in the late 1980s.
Philadelphia | Architecture
Previously, the Place du Carrousel had been swept clear of the old houses that had encroached on it. The prominent roof-lines of the palace and especially its squared central dome were influential prototypes in the Second Empire style adopted for hotels and commercial buildings as well as residences in the United Kingdom and North America.
Tuileries Palace | The Second Empire
The exterior architectural style of Morrill Hall has been alternatively described as Second Empire and Italian Renaissance. The structure was originally divided into three distinct sections: a southern wing containing student residential suites with room for sixty students; a central academic wing for classrooms, the library, and an auditorium; and a northern wing containing offices. Originally, the sections were not interconnected, and moving from one to the other required exiting and re-entering the building. This segmented structure was designed as a safety feature, as a fire in one wing of the building would be less likely to spread to the other two sections of the structure.
Morrill Hall (Cornell University) | Architecture
The building became a National Historic Landmark in 1986 in close alignment to the New York City Landmarks report. The Empire State Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places the following year due to its architectural significance. Capital improvements were made to the Empire State Building during the early to mid-1990s at a cost of $55 million. These improvements entailed replacing alarm systems, elevators, windows, and air conditioning; making the observation deck compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA); and refurbishing the limestone facade. The observatory renovation was added after disability rights groups and the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the building in 1992, in what was the first lawsuit filed by an organization under the new law.
Empire State Building | 1980s and 1990s
The Empire State Building has been hailed as an example of a "wonder of the world" due to the massive effort expended during construction. "The Washington Star" listed it as part of one of the "seven wonders of the modern world" in 1931, while "Holiday" magazine wrote in 1958 that the Empire State's height would be taller than the combined heights of the Eiffel Tower and the Great Pyramid of Giza. The American Society of Civil Engineers also declared the building "A Modern Civil Engineering Wonder of the United States" in 1958, and one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World in 1994.
Empire State Building | Iconic status
The upper ten stories contained a steel skeleton frame, as did the 1907 addition along Frankfort Street. The masonry construction of the original building was deemed to be strong enough to support the steel skeleton of the extra floors. The interior was designed to be fireproof, and contained iron floor beams that generally spaced apart. Flat arches, made of hollow concrete blocks, were placed between each set of beams, molded into angled blocks to resemble voussoirs. The vertical supports were made of masonry and brick, rather than of iron, because of the perceived fire risk of iron columns. The floors were covered in tile, while the interior partition walls were made of tile or plaster.
New York Tribune Building | Structural features
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 . The Empire State Building design has a recessed design, including one major setback and several smaller ones that reduce the level dimensions as the height increases, thus making upper 81 floors much smaller than the lower five floors. However, this design allows sunlight to illuminate the interiors of the top floors and, in addition, positions these floors away from the noisy streets below. This design was mandated as per the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which was intended to allow sunlight to reach the streets as well.
Empire State Building | Exterior
Therefore, traditional medieval design didn't fit new England well in the beginning, adjustments were made gradually by colonists based on local environments until professional architects appeared.
First Period | Introduction
After the construction of the first World Trade Center, architect Paul Goldberger noted that the Empire State Building "is famous for being tall, but it is good enough to be famous for being good." As an icon of the United States, it is also very popular among Americans. In a 2007 survey, the American Institute of Architects found that the Empire State Building was "America's favorite building". The building was originally a symbol of hope in a country devastated by the Depression, as well as a work of accomplishment by newer immigrants. The writer Benjamin Flowers states that the Empire State was "a building intended to celebrate a new America, built by men (both clients and construction workers) who were themselves new Americans." The architectural critic Jonathan Glancey refers to the building as an "icon of American design".
Empire State Building | Iconic status
The first such building was destroyed by fire in February 1845 and a new five-story brick structure was completed at the same location three months later. An annex on Spruce Street, measuring square, was built in 1857.
New York Tribune Building | History
An elevator cab with eggs and light bulbs was experimentally dropped from the top of the shaft on July 18, 1898; despite having fallen past the third floor at , the eggs and light bulbs were found to have been undamaged.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Features
In December 1975, the observation deck was opened on the 110th floor of the Twin Towers, significantly higher than the 86th floor observatory on the Empire State Building. The latter was also losing revenue during this period, particularly as a number of broadcast stations had moved to the World Trade Center in 1971; although the Port Authority continued to pay the broadcasting leases for the Empire State until 1984.
Empire State Building | Loss of "tallest building" title
The canonical example of Second Empire style is the Opera Garnier (formerly known as the "Paris Opera") in Paris. In the United States, the Second Empire style usually includes a steep, mansard roof; the roof being the most noteworthy link to the style's French roots. This tower element could be of equal height of the top most floor. As was done with the Hutchinson House. The mansard roof crest was often topped with an iron trim, sometimes referred to as "cresting". The Hutchinson Mansion also prominently displays 3 separate chimneys extending 10 feet above the roof top. These chimneys service the 5 fireplaces, and stove.
Hutchinson House (Tampa, Florida) | Architecture
In a separate transaction, the land underneath the building was sold to Prudential Insurance for $29 million. Helmsley, Wien, and Peter Malkin quickly started a program of minor improvement projects, including the first-ever full-building facade refurbishment and window-washing in 1962, the installation of new flood lights on the 72nd floor in 1964, and replacement of the manually operated elevators with automatic units in 1966. The little-used western end of the second floor was used as a storage space until 1964, at which point it received escalators to the first floor as part of its conversion into a highly sought retail area.
Empire State Building | Profitability
It is structural."
New York Tribune Building | Legacy
Scranton's first post office opened in 1811, but utilized rented space until the city's first federally owned post office building was erected in 1894. The Second Empire-style building soon proved to be too small for the city's needs, an issue compounded by the establishment of the Middle District Federal Court. Following numerous efforts to obtain funding for a new building, the federal government appropriated $2.5 million in 1926. The 1894 building was demolished in 1930. In 1929, chief of architectural design Louis A. Simon at the Office of the Supervising Architect under James A. Wetmore, completed plans for a new building on the site.
William J. Nealon Federal Building and United States Courthouse | Building history
By 1900, the Empire Building had over 3,000 employees. One of the earliest tenants at the Empire Building was the U.S. Steel Corporation, which was founded in the building in 1901. Kimball & Thompson also took offices in the Empire Building. In 1903, Kimball considered a proposal to add five stories to the Empire Building, bringing its height to 25 stories and , and making it the city's second-tallest building after the Park Row Building. The proposal was not undertaken. By 1908, the Empire Building had some of the most desirable office spaces in the city, with space renting at rates of , equivalent to in .
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Early and mid-20th century
The largest building contains the presentation of the history of arms and explosive materials since 15th century.
Exploseum | Introduction
The Empire State Building was the first building to have more than 100 floors. It has 6,514 windows; 73 elevators; a total floor area of ; and a base covering . Its original 64 elevators, built by the Otis Elevator Company, are located in a central core and are of varying heights, with the longest of these elevators reaching from the lobby to the 80th floor. 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.
Empire State Building | Interior
Inside was a superstructure of wrought iron columns supporting steel girders, which collectively weighed over . The columns tapered upward, from at the base to at the top. Flat arches, made of hollow concrete blocks, were placed between the girders. The dome's frame was designed as if it were a separate structure. The dome measured across at its base and measured from the main roof to the lantern. The dome consisted of a wrought-iron framing with double-diagonal bracing between every other pair of columns. The ribs supporting the dome were placed on top of iron columns that descended directly to the building's foundation without intersecting with the rest of the superstructure.
New York World Building | Structural features
After the American Revolution, in 1785, the building served as meeting place for the Congress of the Confederation, the nation's first central government under the Articles of Confederation. With the establishment of the United States federal government in 1789, it was renamed Federal Hall, as it hosted the 1st Congress and was the place where George Washington was sworn in as the nation’s first president. It was demolished in 1812. The current structure, one of the best surviving examples of Greek Revival architecture in New York City, was built as the U.S. Custom House for the Port of New York.
Federal Hall | Introduction
The second bank building, opened in April 1887, was described as being fireproof, with brick floors, iron structural beams, fire-clay partitions, and marble ceilings and walls. The facade was made of granite, rusticated at the base, and was topped by a mansard roof.
49 Chambers | Previous structures
High-style Second Empire buildings took their ornamental cue from the Louvre expansion. Typical features include quoins at the corners to define elements, elaborate dormer windows, pediments, brackets, and strong entablatures. There is a clear preference for a variation between rectangular and segmental arched windows; these are frequently enclosed in heavy frames (either arched or rectangular) with sculpted details. Another frequent feature is a strong horizontal definition of the facade, with a strong string course. Particularly high-style examples follow the Louvre precedent by breaking up the facade with superimposed columns and pilasters that typically vary their order between stories. Vernacular buildings typically employed less and more eclectic ornament than high-style specimens that generally followed the vernacular development in other styles.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Ornament
Baltard also used a steel frame in building the largest new church built in Paris during the Empire, the Church of Saint Augustine (1860-1871). While the structure was supported by cast-iron columns, the facade was eclectic. Henri Labrouste (1801-1875) also used iron and glass to create a dramatic cathedral-like reading room for the National Library, Richelieu site (1854-1875).
Paris during the Second Empire | Architecture of the Second Empire
The structure, which was built between 1813 and 1815, contains 22 monolithic columns.
Thomas Harrison (architect) | Chester
The bank built a significant Second Empire early skyscraper at 214-18 Broadway – opposite St. Paul's Chapel – designed by New York architect Griffith Thomas and finished in 1868.
National Park Bank | History