The roof height was now , making it the tallest building in the world by far, even without the antenna. The addition of the dirigible station meant that another floor, the now-enclosed 86th floor, would have to be built below the crown; however, unlike the Chrysler's spire, the Empire State's mast would serve a practical purpose. The final plan was announced to the public on January 8, 1930, just before the start of construction. "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." By this time the blueprints for the building had gone through up to fifteen versions before they were approved.
Design changes
Empire State Building
Empire State Building | Design changes
Yes, it was later increased to 60 and then 80 stories. The original plan of the building was 50 stories, but was later increased to 60 and then 80 stories. Yes. The original plan of the building was 50 stories, but was later increased to 60 and then 80 stories. Yes, the original plan of the building was 50 stories, but was later increased to 60 and then 80 stories
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
Lamb described the other specifications he was given for the final, approved plan:
Empire State Building | Design changes
The original plan of the building was 50 stories, but was later increased to 60 and then 80 stories. Height restrictions were placed on nearby buildings to ensure that the top fifty floors of the planned 80-story, building would have unobstructed views of the city. "The New York Times" lauded the site's proximity to mass transit, with the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit's 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 the Grand Central Terminal nine blocks away at its closest. It also praised the of proposed floor space near "one of the busiest sections in the world".
Empire State Building | Design changes
The Chrysler Building added its steel tip to its roof in October 1929, thus bringing it to a height of and greatly exceeding the height of 40 Wall Street. 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. 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.
Empire State Building | Design changes
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. 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. The 40 Wall Street tower was revised, in April 1929, from to making it the world's tallest.
Empire State Building | Design changes
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
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
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
The roof height was now , making it the tallest building in the world by far, even without the antenna. The addition of the dirigible station meant that another floor, the now-enclosed 86th floor, would have to be built below the crown; however, unlike the Chrysler's spire, the Empire State's mast would serve a practical purpose. The final plan was announced to the public on January 8, 1930, just before the start of construction. "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." By this time the blueprints for the building had gone through up to fifteen versions before they were approved.
Empire State Building | Design changes
Deco theaters in the city included the Ziegfeld Theater, an explicit example of the building-as-set designs with the facade including a proscenium to mirror the one indoors. The rise of the Empire State and new Deco buildings along Fifth Avenue corresponded with its transformation from a "millionaire's mile" of wealthy residences to middle-class commercial business. Tiffany & Co.'s flagship store at 749 Fifth Avenue, built 1940, was designed to feature luxurious amenities including central air conditioning. The old Waldorf Astoria hotel had been demolished to make way for the Empire State Building, and the new building for the hotel drew heavy influence from it.
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Commercial
The facade of the base was also redesigned, and the shops in the Empire Building's arcade were removed. The renovation was completed in 1938.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Early and mid-20th century
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 Chrysler Building was followed by the Empire State Building by William F. Lamb (1931) and the RCA Building (now 30 Rockefeller Plaza) by Raymond Hood (1933) which together completely changed the skyline of New York. The tops of the buildings were decorated with Art Deco crowns and spires covered with stainless steel, and, in the case of the Chrysler building, with Art Deco gargoyles modeled after radiator ornaments, while the entrances and lobbies were lavishly decorated with Art Deco sculpture, ceramics, and design. Similar buildings, though not quite as tall, soon appeared in Chicago and other large American cities.
Art Deco | Skyscrapers
The Chrysler Building was soon surpassed in height by the Empire State Building, in a slightly less lavish Deco style. Rockefeller Center added a new design element: several tall building grouped around an open plaza, with a fountain in the center.
Art Deco | Skyscrapers
On November 18, 1929, Smith acquired a lot at 27–31 West 33rd Street, adding to the width of the proposed office building's site. 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 , higher than the Chrysler's 71st-floor observation deck. The 1,050-foot Empire State Building would only be taller than the Chrysler Building, 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." The plans were revised one last time in December 1929, to include a 16-story, metal "crown" and an additional mooring mast intended for dirigibles.
Empire State Building | Design changes
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
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
Blanche Potter later recalled that the sale took place at a time when the Potter family had experienced "financial worry", and U.S. Steel's purchase relieved them of such constraints. John C. Westervelt designed an addition to the building between 1928 and 1930. The original parapet at the top of the building was removed, and the 21st story and terracotta elevator room were built above a new steel parapet. In 1937, Walker & Gillette filed plans for major modifications to the Empire Building, which would cost $350,000. The main entrance on Broadway and the Trinity Place entrance was refashioned in an Art Deco style, and the connection to the Sixth Avenue elevated's Rector Street station was removed, as part of the project.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Early and mid-20th century
The plaza has also been criticized for the cost of its lavish architecture (marble and other imported stone are used throughout), its sheer size, and its period architecture. In a sharply critical 1976 "The New York Times" article, architectural reviewer Paul Goldberger described the complex as "a compendium of clichés of modern architecture". He further commented that "Ultimately, of course, one realizes that the entire mall complex is not so much a vision of the future as of the past. The ideas here were dead before they left the drawing board, and every design decision, from the space allocations to the overall concept, emerges from an outdated notion of what modern architecture, not to mention modern government, should stand for." In his 1980 book, "The Shock of the New", Robert Hughes refers to the buildings as being in "The International Power Style of the Fifties", comparing the buildings to those built by Fascist governments (Fascist architecture).
Empire State Plaza | Controversy
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
The building was designed by the Shreve, Lamb and Harmon architectural firm, designers of the Empire State Building. Rosenwasser/Grossman Consulting Engineers, P.C. is listed as the structural engineering firm for the building in 2014. In the year 2000, the owner of the building was Three Park Avenue Building Company LP, but the property formed part of the Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation's portfolio in June 2014. The building's lobby was renovated in 2001. In 2016, Cohen Brothers retained César Pelli's Pelli Clarke Pelli architects to design a renovation of the lobby. Changes included new metal canopies, gray granite, and columns at the exterior plaza, renovations of the of retail space, and new wood paneling, glass walls, lighting, and elevator cabs for the lobby.
3 Park Avenue | Construction
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
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
It borders three large storefronts and leads to escalators that 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 both the northern and southern corridors, respectively, at approximately the two-thirds point of each corridor. Until the 1960s, an art deco mural, inspired by both the sky and the Machine Age, was installed in the lobby ceilings. Subsequent damage to these murals, designed by artist Leif Neandross, resulted in reproductions being installed. Renovations to the lobby in 2009, such as replacing the clock over the information desk in the Fifth Avenue lobby with an anemometer and installing two chandeliers intended to be part of the building when it originally opened, revived much of its original grandeur.
Empire State Building | Lobby
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 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 Empire State Plaza, a collection of state agency office buildings, dominates almost any view of Albany. Built between 1965 and 1978 at the hand of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and architect Wallace Harrison, the complex is a powerful example of late American modern architecture and remains a controversial building project both for displacing city residents and for its architectural style. The most recognizable aspect of the complex is the Erastus Corning Tower, the tallest building in New York outside of New York City. Juxtaposed at the north end of the Plaza is the 19th-century New York State Capitol, the seat of the New York State Legislature and the home of the Governor's office.
Albany, New York | Architecture
The International Style was a groundbreaking exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art that completely changed the face of architecture in New York and the world. Mies Van Der Rohe, a focus of the show, later built the Seagram Building on Park Ave at 53rd Street. One of the most important buildings for modern architecture, the Seagram Building transformed its midtown site, the development of tall buildings, and the history of architecture. Other architects replicated details from Seagram within New York and around the world for decades following its completion in the late 1950s. The bronze extrusions attached to the mullions are exemplary of this trend in tall building design and can be seen in many cities.
Architecture of New York City | International Style
A settlement was reached in 1994, in which the Empire State Building Associates agreed to add ADA-compliant elements, such as new elevators, ramps, and automatic doors, during its ongoing renovation.
Empire State Building | 1980s and 1990s
As the 1930s progressed, the rental market began to improve, and the pace of construction increased. The buildings that went up in this period tended to be more reserved, with grayer, more austere versions of Art Deco; Bletter suggests that this change was due to the lush, colorful look of the earlier style appearing "frivolous" in the 1930s and the influence of mechanization. Terra cotta decoration was replaced with smoother, rounded surfaces, and metal-clad streamlining influenced by vehicular designs. Art Deco was a popular choice for the movie theaters and stages being built at the time, and apropos choice given that Art Deco itself found influence in design from films, from the German Expressionist films such as Fritz Lang's "Metropolis".
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Commercial
The latest revival of interest began in 1977, with a revival of floodlighting. Color has been a major preoccupation, with computerized sequences used and, increasingly, large LED screens. The upper stories of the Empire State Building were floodlighted from 1964 to 1973; on October 12, 1977, using a new lighting installation by Douglas Leigh, they were lighted in blue and white to celebrate the Yankees' World Series win, and since then the building has been lighted in different colors to celebrate a variety of holidays and other special occasions, despite the objections of Paul Goldberger that the colors "turn [it] into a toy".
Architecture of the night | Recent night architecture
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
The Art Deco design of the Chrysler Building (1930) and Empire State Building (1931), with their tapered tops and steel spires, reflected the zoning requirements. The Chrysler building is considered by many historians and architects to be one of New York's finest, with its distinctive ornamentation such as V-shaped lighting inserts capped by a steel spire at the tower's crown. An early influential example of the international style in the United States is the Seagram Building (1958), distinctive for its facade using visible bronze-toned I-beams to evoke the building's structure. The Condé Nast Building (2000) is an important example of green design in American skyscrapers.
Architecture of New York City | Introduction
Art Deco came into style just as New York itself was being rapidly transformed. An exploding population, flush economic times, cheap credit, and lax zoning combined to encourage a building boom. The real estate market was so frenetic that old buildings were regularly torn down for new construction after standing for only a few years. Builders tore down twice as many buildings as went up, with the new buildings occupying two or more old lots. The result was that the amount of office space in New York City increased by 92% in the back half of the 1920s. In New York City specifically, zoning regulations had major impacts on the design of its buildings.
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Introduction
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
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
The Empire Building was designed by the partnership of Kimball & Thompson, composed of Francis H. Kimball and George Kramer Thompson, in the Classical Revival style. It was built by Marc Eidlitz & Son, with Charles Sooysmith as foundation engineer. Though the building faces Broadway, with its main entrance on 71 Broadway, it also has entrances at 51-53 Trinity Place. The Empire Building has also been historically known as the "U.S. Steel Company Building" or "O.B. Potter Trust Building", reflecting its past ownership. As designed, the Empire Building was 20 stories, excluding the full basement on Trinity Place, but this was later expanded to 21 stories plus the basement.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Design
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
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
It has Art Deco architecture.
Empire Manufacturing Company Building | Introduction
His final and decisive break with modern architecture was the AT&T Building (later known as the Sony Tower, and now the 550 Madison Avenue in New York City, (1979) an essentially modernist skyscraper completely altered by the addition of curved cap at the top of a piece of chippendale furniture. This building is generally considered to mark the beginning of Postmodern architecture in the United States.
Modern architecture | Philip Johnson
The impact of the new regulations was not felt until later in the decade, as the entry of the United States into World War I slowed construction.
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Introduction
The building's design is Neo-Moorish and features elaborate interior and exterior polychromed tile work, murals, and a recently restored terra cotta tiled rooftop dome. The wide, tall dome is covered with more than 28,000 individual tiles. The building was designed by architects Harry P. Knowles (a Master Mason), who died before its completion, and Clinton & Russell. The auditorium and three Masonic lodge rooms included four M.P. Moller pipe organs.
New York City Center | Architecture
The contract for the building was awarded to the George A. Fuller Company. Construction of the building did not commence, however, due to the onset of World War II. New plans were drafted by William Haugaard in 1948. The original design was altered, including changes to the outer facade and the addition of the arcades at both ends of the structure. The building was now being constructed as part of the greater Brooklyn Civic Center, with several other government buildings also being erected in the surrounding area. Ground broke on the site on October 8, 1948. The building was erected at a time when many other BOT transit facilities were also being built.
370 Jay Street | Design and construction
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 lowest ten floors span each while the floors in the stories above each measure . Early projections placed the building as having either 47 or 50 floors, but final plans amounted to 51 stories. (the top floor is a mechanical floor, with office space occupying the fifty floors below it). In May 2014, renderings for the building changed for the second time. The building's third plan depicted a facade with a mostly metallic overlay and a base larger than the rest of the building. However, the square footage and height remained the same as in the second plan. The building's facade was based on the cast iron facades of buildings in SoHo.
55 Hudson Yards | Design changes
The lull in construction during World War II and rise of the International Style led to the end of new Art Deco in the city. After falling out of favor and suffering from neglect during the city's downturn in the latter half of the 20th century, New York's Art Deco has been reappraised; among its most treasured and recognizable buildings are the Art Deco Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, and Art Deco skyscrapers formed the core of the city's skyline. Today, many of New York's Art Deco buildings are protected by historic preservation laws, while others have been lost to development or neglect.
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Introduction
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
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
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 building's Art Deco architecture, height, and observation decks have made it a popular attraction. Around 4 million tourists from around the world annually visit the building's 86th and 102nd floor observatories; an additional indoor observatory on the 80th floor opened in 2019. The Empire State Building is an American cultural icon: it has been featured in more than 250 TV shows and movies since the film "King Kong" was released in 1933.
Empire State Building | Introduction
Roy Shambleau. The building style, sometimes referred to as "Starved Classicism," was just beginning to evolve. Prior to this era, most federal buildings were Neoclassical in design. However, the Modernist movement was gaining strength in federal architecture with ideas of more universal spaces, the flat facade, and the lack of ornamentation. This resulted in a block-form building with fluted pilasters alternating with shallow windows creating virtually flat facades. The internal space often became more open, flexible and interchangeable. The ornamentation - a symbolic classical motif - became more abstract and pared-down.
Robert A. Grant Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse | Significance
For 30 years the converted State Hall served the needs of judges and lawyers alike. But by the late 1940s its age was catching up to it. The state's Department of Public Works reported that the portico was in danger of collapsing, the interior was looking shabby, and the electrical wiring and heating needed to be replaced. Nothing would be done about this situation until Governor Averell Harriman made a surprise inspection of the building in 1956. Two years later another renovation began under state architect Carl Larson and Judge Charles W. Froessel. The work had been delayed while the judges considered, and rejected, building an entirely new courthouse, as their predecessors had in 1917.
New York Court of Appeals Building | 1918–1959: Second renovation
The buildings have distinctive ornamentation, such as the eagles at the corners of the 61st floor on the Chrysler Building, and are considered some of the finest examples of the Art Deco style. A highly influential example of the international style in the United States is the Seagram Building (1957), distinctive for its façade using visible bronze-toned I-beams to evoke the building's structure. The Condé Nast Building (2000) is a prominent example of green design in American skyscrapers and has received an award from the American Institute of Architects and AIA New York State for its design.
New York City | Architecture
The narrowness of the lot resulted in the inclusion of an extensive system of steel skeleton framing and bracing. The foundations were nonetheless designed to accommodate a future expansion of the building. The total floor area is . Due to the irregular shape of the lot area, none of the sides are equal or parallel to each other. Since being converted to a residential building in 1997, the Empire Building has included 238 apartments, which contain between of space. The residential units include studio apartments as well as one- and two-bedroom apartments. Though the interior has been extensively remodeled, the Empire Building still contains one of its original staircases on the western side.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Features
The Empire Building is an office skyscraper at 71 Broadway, on the corner of Rector Street, in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by Kimball & Thompson in the Classical Revival style and built by Marc Eidlitz & Son from 1897 to 1898. The building consists of 21 stories above a full basement story facing Trinity Place at the back of the building and is tall. The Empire Building's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column—namely a base, shaft, and capital—and has a facade of gray granite at its base and white granite on the upper stories.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Introduction
The base is four stories of polished gray granite. Due to the difference in elevation between the front and the back of the building, the site slopes down from Broadway to Trinity Place, and there is a full-height storefront in the basement on Trinity Place. The main entrance on Broadway is based on a triumphal arch, with a main archway that contains three pairs of steel doors, and two smaller flanking ones that lead to first floor stores. The triumphal arch is flanked by two pairs of granite columns, topped by eagles on globes. The entrance originally consisted of three pairs of doors, leading to a portico with a barrel vault; it was modified by Walker & Gillette in 1937–1938 in the Art Deco style.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Base
However, unlike many buildings being built on Park Avenue in the 1900s and 1910s, the Germania Life Building also retained traditional design features. For instance, the building used masonry instead of a terracotta-clad metal structure for fireproofing.
W New York Union Square | Design
Skyscrapers of this period typically lost their ornamental horizontal divisions, being broken up by physical changes in their shape as one looked up the building, the whole forming a striking silhouette. In New York, the 1916 act to allow light and air to reach the streets encouraged a stepped or ziggurat approach to skyscraper design; this "set-back" style often made unrestricted use of the 25 percent of the site allowed by law to complete with a very tall tower. This encouraged a diversity of buildings, while maintaining an element of harmony and consistency of style. The Paramount Building and 120 Wall Street, for example, were constructed in the set-back style without towers, partially because the limited size of the sites would have made the towers relatively narrow and – when packed with the necessary elevators and service facilities – economically unviable.
Early skyscrapers | Art Deco skyscrapers and New York's set-back style
The design of the complex was affected greatly by the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which restricted the height that street-side exterior walls of New York City buildings could rise before they needed to incorporate setbacks that recessed the buildings' exterior walls from the streets. Although the 66-story RCA Building was located so far from the street that it could have simply risen as a slab without any setbacks, Hood decided to include setbacks anyway because they represented "a sense of future, a sense of energy, a sense of purpose", according to architecture expert Alan Balfour. A subsequent change to the zoning resolution in 1931, shortly after the Empire State Building opened, increased the maximum speed of New York City buildings' elevators from to , ostensibly as a result of lobbying from the Rockefeller family.
Construction of Rockefeller Center | Design influences
This ownership and administrative structure has changed somewhat since these early years, for various reasons, but the architectural aspects remains.
Gellerup | History
The George's Block has undergone several changes through the years. Even before the turn of the 20th Century a partial balcony, that had been in place below the second-floor windows of the three story structure, was gone. It is thought that this balcony probably crossed the entire State Street facade of the building. After the turn of the century the balcony had been replaced with awnings. The original brick cornice remains intact. The first floor level once held a variety of storefronts, on both the State and Maple Street sides of the building. Today the building is mostly converted for use as a real estate office.
George's Block | Architecture
This was a reversal from the variety of styles added in the previous 120 years. Winslow incorporated more marble flooring and paneling for aesthetics and ease of maintenance. Some changes requested by the Trumans, such as brightening the State Dining Room by painting the dark wood paneling "Federalist" celadon green, were also popular in the mid-20th Century.
White House Reconstruction | Changes in design
The entries and lobbies of these skyscrapers often drew direct influence from the painted sets and stages of theaters, with framing like hanging curtains. Architect Ely Jacques Kahn commented in 1926 on the emerging style that his brethren were creating with their buildings:
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Vertical style
The total height of the building is . The facade rises straight from street level and fills the entire lot except for two light courts on the south end of the lot. The offices were arranged so that they faced north toward Trinity Church, while utility rooms and elevators are located on the southern portion of the building.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Design
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
In Japan, during the 1920s and 1930s the last buildings with architectural designs drawing from artistic historicism were constructed. This was due to a decline in the strict adherence to the design rules that defined classic historicism in architecture, and allowed for an eclectic architectural style which included aspects of Frank Lloyd Wright, Modernism and Expressionist architecture. This was a compromise made to combine multiple styles into the Classic architectural or simplified classical architectural design within a single building project. In 1911 architect "George" Kikutarō Shimoda who had designed the Tor Hotel in Kobe, received a formal request from General Manager of the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, for a complete preliminary study to be conducted for the rebuilding of the Imperial Hotel.
Imperial Crown Style | Development
On March 21, 1885, a large fire destroyed the State Street wing. Lewis Broome, of Jersey City led the reconstruction of the building. He used a rare pigmented brick from the Lippincott Brick Co. of Farmingdale. The brick used was a one-of-a-kind color for the region. Merchantville architect Arnold Moses reconstructed the Senate wing in the American Renaissance style. The New Jersey State House attained its current size in 1911 when a four-story office block replaced the original 1792 structure. The only major change since has been modernization of the main corridor in 1950. A 1960 plan, called for the replacement of the oldest sections of the structure with modern legislative chambers, however it was never implemented.
New Jersey State House | History
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
Wallace Harrison served as supervising architect for the entire project, with other associated firms as listed below. The buildings constituting the plaza include:
Empire State Plaza | Architecture
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village killed 146 garment workers. The disaster eventually led to overhauls of the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations. The period between the World Wars saw the election of reformist mayor Fiorello La Guardia and the fall of Tammany Hall after 80 years of political dominance. As the city's demographics stabilized, labor unionization brought new protections and affluence to the working class, the city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under La Guardia. Despite the Great Depression, some of the world's tallest skyscrapers were completed in Manhattan during the 1930s, including numerous Art Deco masterpieces that are still part of the city's skyline, most notably the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Manhattan | 20th century
The original design went through significant changes after the Durst Organization joined the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey as the co-developer of the project in 2010. The tall base corners were originally designed to gently slope upward, and have prismatic glass. The corners were later squared. In addition, the base's walls are now covered in "hundreds of pairs of 13-foot vertical glass fins set against horizontal bands of eight-inch-wide stainless-steel slats." The spire was originally to be enclosed with a protective radome, described as a "sculptural sheath of interlocking fiberglass panels". However, the radome-enclosed spire was changed to a plain antenna.
One World Trade Center | Design evolution
U.S. Steel sold the building in 1973. The Empire Building remained U.S. Steel's headquarters until 1976, and the company remained in the building until the mid-1980s. Subsequently, Broadway West Street Associates took ownership of the building in 1984. One of the later commercial tenants at the Empire Building was advertising agency AFGL International Inc., which moved out during 1994. The Empire Building was converted to 237 apartments in 1997 by World-Wide Group of Manhattan, which had purchased the foreclosed property for approximately $10 million. At the time, some 30 tenants occupied in the building. The renovation cost $40 million and was designed by Schuman Lichtenstein Claman & Efron.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Late 20th century to present
One such Art Deco taxpayer was the East River Savings Bank on 22 Cortlandt Street, which replaced a fifteen-story building from the 1890s. The "New York Times" dubbed the lot "the most valuable piece of New York real estate for a tax payer in the city." Despite being a more modest building, the structure is appointed with polished stone eagles, interior marble, and at one time featured a mural of the East River. Completed speculative buildings faced issues in the difficult economy—the Empire State Building took more in as a tourist attraction than from tenants, and office buildings across Midtown felt pinched by the Rockefeller Center's aggressive tactics to lure and keep tenants.
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Commercial
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
Vriesendorp noted that both buildings were built in the 1930s in New York City and were competing to be the tallest in the skyline, however the Empire State building appeared more masculine when compared to the Chrysler building. Koolhaas suggested she add in the Rockefeller Center catching the two buildings in the act, as a reference to Modernity. Her largest artwork was a mural (1987–2015) on the stage tower of the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague, however in 2015 the building and the mural was demolished.
Madelon Vriesendorp | Biography
The north corridor contained eight illuminated panels created in 1963 by Roy Sparkia and Renée Nemorov, in time for the 1964 World's Fair, depicting the building as the Eighth Wonder of the World alongside the traditional seven. 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. 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 etched-glass installation, in the lobby.
Empire State Building | Lobby
The dome and tower were never completed, as it was found the building's weight was causing stress fractures and making the building shift downhill toward State Street. To stop this movement, a large, long exterior Eastern Staircase was added to support the front facade. The Capitol exterior is made of white granite from Hallowell, Maine, and the building incorporates Westchester marble cut by state prisoners at Sing Sing. The granite structure is 220 feet (67 m) tall at its highest point, and it is one of eleven U.S. state capitols that does not have a domed roof. Tunnels connect it to the Empire State Plaza and Alfred E.
New York State Capitol | History
Starting in 2009, the building's public areas received a $550 million renovation, with improvements to the air conditioning and waterproofing, renovations to the observation deck and main lobby, and relocation of the gift shop to the 80th floor. About $120 million was spent on improving the energy efficiency of the building, with the goal of reducing energy emissions by 38% within five years. For example, all of the windows were refurbished onsite into film-coated "superwindows" which block heat but pass light. Air conditioning operating costs on hot days were reduced, saving $17 million of the project's capital cost immediately and partially funding some of the other retrofits.
Empire State Building | 2010s
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
Years later, plans to alter the building were called the erasure "of a rare American modernist." Cloepfil used the same massing and geometric shape as dictated by the city zoning regulations, and carved channels into the structure to bring in natural light. The redesigned building replaced the original white Vermont Marble with a glazed terra-cotta and glass facade. The aim behind the design was to underline the iconic presence of this 10-storey building and respond to the needs of the institution that will occupy it. The terra-cotta and glass covering evokes the principal theme of the collection, a look at different traditions in contemporary craft practice.
Brad Cloepfil | Museum of Arts and Design
The apartment brought with it a myriad of changes, among them a change in family life. One major change in family life brought by apartments is the number of children that one family could bring up comfortably in such space. One technological paradigm shift in design was the vertical construction which had multiple floors. Due to the vertical design of the Stuyvesant apartment, there was now a limited amount of space for each family. Areas such as balconies were now shared and others such as play areas and individual lots were scrapped. People had to readjust and this mostly affected families.
Early New York Architecture in 19th Century | Family life
Other foreign entities that have a stake in the ESRT include investors from Norway, Japan, and Australia. A renovation of the Empire State Building was commenced in the 2010s to further improve energy efficiency, public areas, and amenities. In August 2018, to improve the flow of visitor traffic, the main visitor's entrance was shifted to 20 West 34th Street as part of a major renovation of the observatory lobby. The new lobby includes several technological features, including large LED panels, digital ticket kiosks in nine languages, and a two-story architectural model of the building surrounded by two metal staircases. The first phase of the renovation, completed in 2019, features an updated exterior lighting system and digital hosts.
Empire State Building | 2010s
Following the destruction of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City, but was only the second-tallest building in the Americas after the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) in Chicago. As a result of the attacks, transmissions from nearly all of the city's commercial television and FM radio stations were again broadcast from the Empire State Building. The attacks also led to an increase in security due to persistent terror threats against New York City landmarks. In 2002, Trump and Yokoi sold their land claim to the Empire State Building Associates, now headed by Malkin, in a $57.5 million sale.
Empire State Building | 2000s
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
As the tallest building in the world and the first one to exceed 100 floors, the Empire State Building immediately became an icon of the city and of the nation. In 2013, "Time" magazine noted that the Empire State Building "seems to completely embody the city it has become synonymous with". The historian John Tauranac calls the tower "'the' twentieth-century New York building", despite the existence of taller and more modernist buildings. Early in the building's history, travel companies such as Short Line Motor Coach Service and New York Central Railroad used the building as an icon to symbolize the city.
Empire State Building | Iconic status
Project architects were DeWolff Partnership Architects LLP. Since the building had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since its last renovation, preservation and restoration were as important as the expansions. The State Historic Preservation Office was closely involved with the process. It mandated that the newly installed wings on the sides of the building be distinguishable from the original facades after the marble was once again replaced with newly quarried Vermont stone, even though they were architecturally sympathetic to Rector's original design. As a result, they have narrower bays and pilasters, smooth at the base rather than fluted, to subtly distinguish them from the original building.
New York Court of Appeals Building | 1960–present: Third renovation
Art Deco architecture flourished in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s, before largely disappearing after World War II. The style is found in government edifices, commercial projects, and residential buildings in all five boroughs. The architecture of the period was influenced not just by decorative arts influences from across the world, but also local zoning regulations. Their proliferation fueled by the Roaring Twenties and commercial speculation, Art Deco buildings in the city range in size and sophistication from towering skyscrapers and office buildings to modest middle-class housing and municipal buildings. First defined by the colorful, lavishly-decorated skyscrapers of Manhattan, the Great Depression and changing tastes pushed Art Deco to more subdued applications in the 1930s.
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Introduction
The building is unusual that it is supported by its central core of four elevator shafts; the rest of the building is cantilevered to this core, like the branches of a tree. Wright originally planned the structure for an apartment building in New York City. That project was cancelled because of the Great Depression, and he adapted the design for an oil pipeline and equipment company in Oklahoma. He wrote that in New York City his building would have been lost in a forest of tall buildings, but that in Oklahoma it stood alone. The design is asymmetrical; each side is different.
Modern architecture | Frank Lloyd Wright and the Guggenheim Museum
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
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
Architectural features include ionic columns, a terra cotta entablature with classical moldings, and a terra cotta cornice with ornate acanthus scrolls and palmettes. On the fifth floor is a skylit studio. The steep gabled roof is made of tin and galvanized iron. By 1977, there had been no major changes to the original building design. At the time it was criticized in an "Architecture" magazine article as "drastically modern". The building, which faces 30th Street, was designated a New York City Landmark in 1977 for its "special character, special historical and aesthetic interest and value as part of the development, heritage and cultural characteristics of New York City." The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 16, 1982.
New York School of Applied Design for Women | 1908 landmark building
In 1935 and 1936, the city alone received one-seventh of all WPA funds. The money went to projects such as a network of public pools across the city, with Crotona Park in the Bronx and Tompkinsville Pool in Staten Island being built with Art Deco flourishes. Art Deco's influence affected many aspects of New York's public works during this period; by the late 1930s, most Art Deco buildings were municipal projects, not commercial ones. The Health Building at 125 Worth Street c. 1932–1935 has metal grillwork and health-related designs around the entrances, designed by German craftsman Oscar Bruno Bach, who produced custom metalwork for the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings.
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Public works
The Empire State Building is undergoing a deep energy retrofit process that is projected to be completed in 2013. Upon completion, the project team, consisting of representatives from Johnson Controls, Rocky Mountain Institute, Clinton Climate Initiative, Jones Lang LaSalle, and NYSERDA will have achieved an annual energy use reduction of 38% and $4.4 million. A notable achievement of the project is that instead of replacing the chillers as originally planned, the design team were able to first reduce the building's required cooling capacity by 1600 tons, allowing for a chiller retrofit instead of replacement which would have been $17.3 million more in capital costs.
Deep energy retrofit | The Empire State Building
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. In 1932, the Fifth Avenue Association gave the tower 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. 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.
Empire State Building | Opening and early years
In 1961, the same year that Helmsley, Wien, and Malkin had purchased the Empire State Building, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey formally backed plans for a new World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The plan originally included 66-story twin towers with column-free open spaces. The Empire State's owners and real estate speculators were worried that the twin towers' of office space would create a glut of rentable space in Manhattan as well as take away the Empire State Building's profits from lessees. A revision in the World Trade Center's plan brought the twin towers to each or 110 stories, taller than the Empire State.
Empire State Building | Loss of "tallest building" title
Perry (1883–1899). Fuller, the initial architect, was an Englishman who also designed the Canadian Parliament buildings of Parliament Hill, Ottawa. The state capitol's ground floor was built in the Classical/Romanesque style. Lieutenant Governor William Dorsheimer then dismissed Fuller in favor of Eidlitz and Richardson who built the next two floors in a Renaissance Classical style, noticeable on the exterior two floors as light, open columnwork. The increasing construction costs became an ongoing source of conflict in the legislature, and it was difficult to secure the necessary funding. Eidlitz and Richardson were dismissed by Grover Cleveland upon his election to governorship and his review of the increasing costs of construction.
New York State Capitol | History
One notable exception is a large turning staircase in the central section, which was removed in 1893 as part of a library expansion that became known as "Uncle Fred's Nose", after Fred Thompson, whose name adorned the annex that was added at that time. That annex was removed in 1959 during the restoration process, but the stairs were not rebuilt.
Main Building (Vassar College) | Architecture
The Empire State Building's owner, Anthony Malkin, asked the City Council on August 24, 2010, to deny permission for the construction of the Vornado Tower. Malkin's reasoning is that the new building would alter the skyline and obscure the view of the western side of the Empire State Building. Located at Seventh Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets on the site of present-day Hotel Pennsylvania, opposite Pennsylvania Station – a major transit hub for the Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak and the New York City Subway – the proposed building would add a concourse improving access within Penn Station and adding several new subway entrances.
15 Penn Plaza | Controversy
The interior space is open and flexible. Administrative offices have low partitions near the perimeter and the only full height walls are for meeting spaces and building services. The original interiors had warm striped yellow and gold carpeting with blue upholstered seating, which was later replaced. The exposed white ceilings with exposed white structural steel and green ductwork painted ductwork remain as originally designed.
Michigan City Public Library | Building design
From 1916 on, the 1916 Zoning Resolution increased the number of skyscrapers being built in New York. Buildings were also meant to convey a strong corporate identity through architecture and ornaments. The prevalent architectural Art Deco style was characterized by the variety of materials used (steel, concrete, aluminium, stone, brick, ceramics, glass, etc.) and its exotic inspiration. John de Cesare created sculptural ornaments or bas-reliefs sculptures with motifs such as fruits, grapes, animals or humans, for the following buildings: the Verizon Building in Lower Manhattan (1923–27); the 1 Wall Street building (1929–32); and the Empire State Building (1927–29).
John De Cesare | Sculpture
The problem was typology: Being as long as the Empire State Building is tall, the shotgun building was unremittingly linear, with only one jog breaking the monotony of its quarter-mile length." Another review called wrote: The recombinant building is a lesson in engineering and architecture. Thirty thousand square feet of studios and seminar spaces, a workshop, a thesis pit and a bridge to the library have been stacked, cantilevered and suspended to form an open-ended, permissive, flexible space. It seems that anything can happen within these walls. Enter a studio through its doorway (which has no door), and you are standing on what is more like a stage, looking out through a proscenium framed by new steel posts and girders set parallel to and in tandem with the old concrete columns and beams.
Santa Fe Freight Depot | Conversion to SCI-Arc's campus