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 .
Exterior
Empire State Building
Empire State Building | Exterior
Pre–World War II architecture. Art Deco skyscraper Its height is to its 102nd floor including pinnacle. IT has 85 stories of commercial and office space representing a total of of rentable space.The building has a capacity for 20,000 tenants and 15,000 visitors. The height of the Empire State Building, to its 102nd floor, is , including its pinnacle, the building has 85 stories of commercial and office space representing a total of of rentable space
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
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 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 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
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
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
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
Normally, a building of the Empire State's dimensions would be permitted to build up to 12 stories on the Fifth Avenue side, and up to 17 stories on the 33rd/34th Streets side, before it would have to utilize setbacks. However, the setbacks were arranged such that the largest setback was on the sixth floor, above the five-floor "base", so the rest of the building above the sixth floor would have a facade of uniform shape.
Empire State Building | Exterior
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
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 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
On the third and fourth floors of the Rector Street facade, there is an arcade with Ionic-style vertical pilasters.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Base
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
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
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
without the antenna). The relief, which was intended to provide a welcoming effect, contains an embossing of the building's outline, accompanied by what the Landmarks Preservation Commission describes as "the rays of an aluminum sun shining out behind [the tower] and mingling with aluminum rays emanating from the spire of the Empire State Building". In the background is a state map of New York with the building's location marked by a "medallion" in the very southeast portion of the outline. A compass is located in the bottom right and a plaque to the tower's major developers is on the bottom left.
Empire State Building | Lobby
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
The shaft is twelve stories of a white rusticated granite. The lowest section of the shaft is the 5th floor, which is designed as a transition between the base and the upper floors. The rest of the shaft's facade is composed of band courses that stretch horizontally across the facade on several floors. The facade of the 9th and 13th floors is composed of vertical pilasters rather than rusticated granite, and has arched windows instead of the rectangular windows seen on the other stories. The 7th, 11th, and 15th floors have balconies, while the 5th, 8th, and 12th floors have balconies.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Other stories
Lamb described the other specifications he was given for the final, approved plan:
Empire State Building | Design changes
It has Art Deco architecture.
Empire Manufacturing Company Building | Introduction
The original main lobby is accessed from Fifth Avenue, on the building's east side, and contains an entrance with one set of double doors between a pair of revolving doors. At the top of each doorway is a bronze motif depicting one of three "crafts or industries" used in the building's construction—Electricity, Masonry, and Heating. The lobby contains two tiers of marble, a lighter marble on the top, above the storefronts, and a darker marble on the bottom, flush with the storefronts. There is a pattern of zigzagging terrazzo tiles on the lobby floor, which leads from the entrance on the east to the aluminum relief on the west.
Empire State Building | Lobby
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 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
The buildings are set around a row of three reflecting pools. On the west side are the four 23-story, Agency towers. On the east side is the Egg (Meeting Center) and the 44-floor () Erastus Corning Tower, which has an observation deck on the 42nd floor. On the south end is the Cultural Education Center, set on a higher platform; and on the north end is the New York State Capitol. While the Capitol predates the plaza, it is connected to the Concourse by an escalator which allows underground access to the rest of the plaza, most notably (to the New York State Legislature, at least), the Legislative Office Building.
Empire State Plaza | Layout
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
The height of the Empire State Building, to its 102nd floor, is , including its pinnacle. The building has 85 stories of commercial and office space representing a total of of rentable space. It has an indoor and outdoor observation deck on the 86th floor, the highest floor within the actual tower. The remaining 16 stories are part of the Art Deco spire, which is capped by an observatory on the 102nd floor. The spire is hollow with no floors between levels 86 and 102. Atop the tower is the pinnacle, much of which is covered by broadcast antennas, and surmounted with a lightning rod.
Empire State Building | Architecture
Balazs explains the choice for hinging the slabs as such: "It [allowed] us to squeeze in an extra room per floor, but more significantly, it provides a variety of view corridors while retaining as many views as possible of the Empire State Building." The two prevalent materials used were concrete and glass. Two techniques of concrete pouring were used, pour-in-place and board form. The grid of the concrete serves as a frame for the water-white glass. The combination of the two materials creates a curtain wall for the façade of the structure. "Architype Review" notes that, "the juxtaposition of the building’s two materials…reflects the character of New York City: the gritty quality of the concrete contrasts with the refinement of the glass."
The Standard, High Line | Design
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
The chapel-like three-story-high lobby, which runs parallel to 33rd and 34th Streets, contains storefronts on both its northern and southern sides. These storefronts are framed on each side by tubes of dark "modernistically rounded marble", according to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and above by a vertical band of grooves set into the marble. Immediately inside the lobby is an airport-style security checkpoint. The walls on both the northern and southern sides of the lobby house storefronts and escalators to a mezzanine level. At the west end of the lobby is an aluminum relief of the skyscraper as it was originally built (i.e.
Empire State Building | Lobby
The neo-Renaissance building building is adorned in terracotta Gothic Revival ornamentation. The exterior of the first two floors used limestone and were adorned with cast-iron ornamentation and green marble-clad pillars. The lower story exterior features Medieval figures, canopies, and gargoyles, as well as "cavaliers and courtesans". Exterior columns span between the fourth and eleventh floors. The lobby was adorned with Sienna and Numida marble, mosaic floors, and bronze elevator doors and surround. The facade underwent restoration in 1991. The fifth edition of the "AIA Guide to New York City" speculates that the design of the building may have been inspired by the Woolworth Building.
Emmet Building | Architecture
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
An eclectic combination of Victorian styles can be seen in the Vassar Institute building: the decorative cornices of Italianate buildings, the heaviness of Victorian Gothic and the mansard roof common on Second Empire buildings. Many features are similar to designs by James Renwick, Jr., for the early buildings of Vassar College in the 1860s. The colorful exterior recalls the polychrome brick buildings of the preceding decades as well.
Vassar Institute | Aesthetics
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
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
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
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
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
Important interior features of the building include the rotunda, with its glass-and steel-dome, and the reading room, with its large arched windows. The rotunda also contains barrel-vaulted glass skylights and a mural depicting "man's quest for education."
New York State Education Building | Architecture
The remaining nearby buildings are in a more modernist late 20th-century style. On the west, past a plaza with a small fountain, is the large building that houses the New York State Museum, library and archives. Erastus Corning Tower, the centerpiece of Empire State Plaza and the tallest building in upstate New York, rises to the north behind a high retaining wall. East of the cathedral is a parking garage for state government workers.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Albany, New York) | Building
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
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
There are two variations of Second Empire ornamentation: the high style, which followed French precedents closely and employed rich ornamentation, and the more vernacular styles, which lack a strongly distinctive ornamental vocabulary. The high style is mostly seen in expensive public buildings and the houses of the wealthy, while the vernacular form is more common in typical domestic architecture. The exterior style could be expressed in either wood, brick or stone, though high style examples on the whole prefer stone facades or brick facades with stone details (a brick and brownstone combination seems to be particularly common). Some Second Empire buildings have cast iron facades and elements.
Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada | Ornament
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
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 remodeled entrance has a stainless-steel transom band directly atop the doors with the stainless-steel text "71 Broadway 71", as well as a round-arched stainless-steel spandrel panel at the top of the arch, with the number "71" in stainless steel. Staircases to the Wall Street subway station flank the arches at the main entrance. On the corner of Broadway and Rector Street, there is a chamfer that used to have an entrance at the first floor. Along Rector Street, the facade of the base is divided into three parts, and the full basement has storefronts. An entrance arch was located in the middle of the facade.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Base
They responded by firing 16 shots, killing him but also wounding nine bystanders. Most of the injured were hit by bullet fragments, although three took direct hits from bullets.
Empire State Building | Shootings
The stone exterior of the building is reminiscent of an early Italian Renaissance palace, such as Florence's Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Vecchio, a deliberate choice so as to inspire trust and confidence in the institution within. The horizontal and vertical joints of the facade's stones are deeply grooved or rusticated. Other features include lanterns and window grills constructed of wrought iron.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building | Building and architecture
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
The building is built of light colored brick, in the geometric spirit of Art Deco, with decorative elements of red brick and white stone for the sculptures and the large cornice in cavet that crowns the top of the building.
Athénée Robert Catteau | Architecture
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 building itself is a three-story, 11-by-7-bay structure with a wing on the north, two small wings on the east and a larger addition from the exposed basement on that side. It is faced with load-bearing marble blocks, laid as thick as five feet () at the basement level, on a concrete foundation. At the top is a flat roof with a copper-sheathed dome in the center. In the middle of the east (front) facade is a five-bay projecting portico. Six round fluted Ionic columns support a pediment with plain entablature. On the building itself 12 square smooth Doric pilasters divide the bays.
New York Court of Appeals Building | Exterior
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
This was built as a disembarkation floor for airships tethered to the building's spire, and has a circular balcony outside. It is now an access point to reach the spire for maintenance. The room now contains electrical equipment, but celebrities and dignitaries may also be given permission to take pictures there. Above the 103rd floor, there is a set of stairs and a ladder to reach the spire for maintenance work. The mast's 480 windows were all replaced in 2015.
Empire State Building | Above the 102nd floor
"The New York Times" described this as a relatively novel design, which had never been used on such a large scale. The presence of the columns at ground level creates a colonnade around the lobby, which is recessed behind the upper floors. The columns are above steel assemblies some below ground level; these assemblies are square and thick. In total, over of steel were used in 28 Liberty Street; at its completion, it had more steel than any other New York City skyscraper except the Empire State Building and 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The 11th, 31st, and 51st floors and the third basement level are mechanical floors.
28 Liberty Street | Facade
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 architecture of Albany, New York, embraces a variety of architectural styles ranging from the early 18th century to the present. The city's roots date from the early 17th century and few buildings survive from that era or from the 18th and early 19th century. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 triggered a building boom, which continued until the Great Depression and the suburbanization of the area afterward. This accounts for much of the construction in the city's urban core along the Hudson River. Since then most construction has been largely residential, as the city spread out to its current boundaries, although there have been some large government building complexes in the modernist style, such as Empire State Plaza, which includes the Erastus Corning Tower, the tallest building in New York outside of New York City.
Architecture of Albany, New York | Introduction
The plaque at the western end of the lobby is located on the eastern interior wall of a one-story tall rectangular-shaped corridor that surrounds the banks of escalators, with a similar design to the lobby. The rectangular shaped corridor actually consists of two long hallways on the northern and southern sides of the rectangle, as well as a shorter hallway on the eastern side and another long hallway on the western side. At both ends of the northern and southern corridors, there is a bank of four low-rise elevators in between the corridors. The western side of the rectangular elevator-bank corridor extends north to the 34th Street entrance and south to the 33rd Street entrance.
Empire State Building | Lobby
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 exterior of 60-70 Elizabeth Street has retained much of its early configuration and a relatively large amount of early fabric. The configuration of its facades is characteristic of many office buildings erected during the interwar period, consisting of a polished stone base (the ground floor cladding) that is extended into the upper part of the building by means of decorative detailing, a relatively plain shaft of window bays and decorative detailing at the top of the building and parapets. The facades were originally symmetrical and arranged in a tripartite configuration broken into five bays of windows of unequal width, but this configuration has since been obscured by the additions that were erected during the latter part of the 1930s on the southern side of the building.
GIO Building | External fabric
The original portion of the building, known as the War Department Building, is an example of the Stripped Classical architectural style with Art Moderne elements. The steel-framed building is clad in limestone and rises eight stories above the basement and sub-basement. Because it was designed to be expanded at a later date, it was deliberately asymmetrical. A central spine connects a U-shaped configuration to the east with an E-shaped configuration to the west. The east entrance is inspired by the main building of the Sapienza University of Rome campus, designed by italian architect Marcello Piacentini and completed in 1935. The horizontal delineations of the facade reflect the classical precedents of the architectural style.
Harry S Truman Building | Architecture
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
The buildings that would become described as Art Deco shared several elements. The setback laws resulted in three-dimensional, sculptural buildings, with long, uninterrupted piers rising between columns of windows and decorated spandrels. These choices were made to emphasize the height of the buildings as an overriding consideration, a choice mimicked even on much shorter buildings built across town. New York's architects were at the forefront of using new materials, including synthetics like Bakelite and Formica plastics, as well as Nirosta, a corrosion-resistant steel alloy that made exterior metal on skyscrapers more feasible. Aluminum's declining price and lighter weight than steel led to it being a common choice for interior and exterior usage.
Art Deco architecture of New York City | Vertical style
The west facade, on Wall Street, is utilitarian, relatively without ornamentation. The north facade is also mostly bare, save for several windows; part of it is obscured by a building built against it.
William J. Lhota Building | Architecture
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
The 5-story, 3-bay Italianate style cast-iron front facade was originally composed of superimposed arcades, with a 2-story arcade capped by an intermediate modillioned foliate cornice, surmounted by a 3-story arcade. The arcades are formed by elongated fluted Corinthian columns (most of the capitals’ leaves are now missing); rope moldings, which also surround the spandrel panels; molded arches with faceted keystones and molded paneled reveals; and foliate spandrels. The ground floor was first altered in 1919. Between the second and third floors the building featured a series of wreath-encircled portraits of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin cast, like the rest of the facade, in iron.
63 Nassau Street | Structural detail
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 brick and stucco building was constructed in 1908 and is a good example of what has been described as Federation Free Style architecture. It has two major elements, a five-storey tower section and a lower three storey section splayed at a slight angle to follow the change in the alignment of George Street. The building features elements typical of the style in its tower design and the art nouveau and classical motifs in the arched entablature over the balconies of both sections. The remaining heritage fabric is in good physical condition.
New York Hotel | Description
Historic sites which present an homogeneous ensemble, examples of the decoration of interiors of the early 19th century are:
Empire style | Decoration of interiors
These include the engraving of the names of all 62 New York State counties around the street-level facade and an Art Deco lobby with a mural depicting famous New Yorkers. A tunnel connects the building to the Capitol. The skyscraper is constructed of limestone and granite, and has views of Albany and the nearby landscape.
Alfred E. Smith Building | Introduction
The architectural style has been described as Art Deco and modern, and having "a vaguely Venetian or Gothic cast", although "The New York Times" assessed it as "astylar, more 'tall building' than anything else." The flat exterior incorporates brick of different colors to create the illusion of depth.
One Fifth Avenue (Manhattan) | Architecture
The facades of the building are composed with elements of both the Second Renaissance Revival and Neo Classical styles and were designed to be symmetrical about both axes. All four facades are clad with rectangular, buff colored Indiana Limestone. The building has a distinct Neo-Classic styling and composition unlike other federal buildings under James K. Taylor's supervision at the time, which were typically Second Renaissance or Beaux Arts styling. The first story is elevated on a base and approached by ceremonial steps in a classican manner on the three entry sides. The front elevation (east) is organized around a central three story decastyle of engaged (pseudo-peripteral) Corinthian columns which rise from the building base.
Ed Edmondson United States Courthouse | Exterior
The structure's facade was generally intended to harmonize with the designs of mansions on Fifth Avenue, which at the time of the building's completion was largely residential. The design, across the street from the grand residence of department-store rival A. T. Stewart and diagonally across the avenue from the residence of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, was planned to complement the surrounding palatial mansions. The design was characterized in "The New York Times" as "classic", using imported French limestone. The B. Altman Building was the first commercial structure in New York City to use the material, which had previously been used only on residential buildings.
B. Altman and Company Building | Facade
The building has also been featured in other works, such as "Daleks in Manhattan", a 2007 episode of the TV series "Doctor Who"; and "Empire", an eight-hour black-and-white silent film by Andy Warhol, which was later added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.
Empire State Building | In popular culture
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 Empire State Building has 73 elevators in all, including service elevators. Utilities are grouped in a central shaft. On each floor between levels 6 and 86, the central shaft is surrounded by a main corridor on all four sides. As per the final specifications of the building, the corridor is surrounded in turn by office space deep. Each of the floors has 210 structural columns that pass through it, which provide structural stability, but limits the amount of open space on these floors. However, the relative dearth of stone in the building allows for more space overall, with a 1:200 stone-to-building ratio in the Empire State compared to a 1:50 ratio in similar buildings.
Empire State Building | Interior
The exterior has remained largely intact since the building's completion in 1933. The steel-frame building rests on a granite foundation. The exterior is faced with Indiana limestone panels. The facade, which faces High Street, consists of a three-story central block flanked by pavilions. Limestone pilasters separate each bay on the central section, which features a projecting cornice topped with decorative cresting. Aluminum spandrels divide each story's casement windows, and spandrels between the first and second stories contain American eagle motifs. Simple recessed panels separate the second and third stories. Projecting pavilions, each containing two modified, Corinthian order columns, frame the two principal entrances located at each end of the High Street elevation.
William R. Cotter Federal Building | Architecture
Architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler said that the Empire Building was "one of the best [...] commercial buildings" to be built in New York City to date, and that its value was "immensely enhanced by the open space opposite" which was occupied by the Trinity churchyard. According to Schuyler, the building's value was increased by the fact that the entirety of the Rector Street facade could be seen because of the churchyard's presence. Architectural writer Sarah Bradford Landau stated that the Empire Building "possesses a quite dignity and an assured elegance", unlike Kimball's earlier Manhattan Life Building. Not all critics viewed the Empire Building positively.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Critical reception and landmark status
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 is an excellent example of Romanesque Revival architecture and is a prominent component of the Municipal Center complex. The original portion of the building is four stories in height and the 1933 addition is seven stories tall. The exterior has remained largely unchanged over time. The lively design of the building contains many character-defining features of the Romanesque Revival style. The central structure contains strong, simple forms with powerful arches dominating the first story. Elaborate dormers, iron roof cresting, steeply pitched roofs, and a tower give the building a picturesque quality. The exterior of the building is rich in material, texture, form, and ornament.
Federal Building and Post Office (Brooklyn) | Architecture
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
The eight-story brick and masonry building has been described as a "gem" and a gorgeous example of Art Nouveau architecture. Eschewing the then-popular Beaux Arts style, this is one of the few and possibly the earliest Art Nouveau building in Manhattan still standing. Four squat rounded Doric columns seem to support five stories with three vertical rows of large windows separated by brickwork and iron ornamentation, culminating in three large arches at the sixth floor. This is topped with a two-story copper fronted mansard roof, now coated with verdigris, reminiscent of Parisian architecture. The building is served by a freight elevator and two passenger elevators.
New Era Building (New York City) | Architecture
The facade uses different materials for each of its horizontal sections. The three-story base is clad in stone, the eleven-story shaft is of brick, and the four-story capital is decorated with architectural terracotta. All four sides are decorated. The Broadway–Chambers Building was one of the first structures in New York City to use multicolored glazed terracotta, and the first commercial building in the city to do so. The colored terracotta panels served to highlight the steel superstructure. Communications between Gilbert and Andrews show that Gilbert had initially preferred a single-color scheme for the facade. However, Andrews had convinced Gilbert to add color after they traveled to see the buildings on the Columbia University campus.
Broadway–Chambers Building | Facade
The building contains 3,300 tons of steel and over a million square feet of architectural terracotta. "The New York Times" described the architectural style as "Florentine" below the fifth floor, and "severely simple" above. Another critic called the style "utterly utilitarian," but the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission identified the architecture as palazzo. An entrance was constructed to the New York City Subway's Wall Street station, underneath Broadway, but was later closed.
Adams Express Building | Design
The Empire State Building is a 102-story skyscraper on Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets in Midtown, Manhattan, New York City. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (381 m), and with its antenna included, it stands a total of tall. The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years, from its completion in early 1931 until the topping out of the original World Trade Center's North Tower in late 1970. It has been featured in numerous films, TV shows, songs, video games, books, photographs, and artwork.
Empire State Building in popular culture | Introduction
The plot measures along Broadway, along Rector Street, and on Trinity Place with a footprint of approximately . Because of modifications made to the building after its completion, some portions of the Broadway entrance cross over the lot line. The previous building on the site, a six-story brownstone structure, measured along Broadway, along Rector Street, and on Trinity Place. Along Rector Street, it is adjacent to the churchyard of Trinity Church, providing a dramatic backdrop for the church and ensuring open views for the building. To the south is 65 Broadway, the former headquarters of the American Express company. There are entrances to New York City Subway stations right outside both of the Empire Building's principal facades: two stairs to the Wall Street station () are located to either side of the building's main entrance, while an entrance to the Rector Street station () is located on Trinity Place just outside the building entrance there.
Empire Building (Manhattan) | Site
The building at 6018 Penn Ave was constructed in 1917 in the Commercial Gothic Revival architectural style. The exterior of the building was occupied by a terracotta veneer, and had an ornate design on the second floor, which replaced the original glass façade of the building in the 1950s. The building today no longer stands as it did, and along with several of the buildings next door to it, is now the site of a modern style apartment building.
Reymer &amp; Brothers and Bolan's Candies Building | Architecture
There is a flagpole on the southwest corner of the block. Narrow hedges on all but the east side set off the building. The building itself is a two-story steel frame structure faced on all sides by smooth buff limestone topped by a flat roof. Those facades form a roughly square building with the exception of the irregular east. They are 15 bays wide on the south (Main Street) side, 13 on Market Street, 11 on Nepperhan and nine on Buena Vista. Atop is a flat roof. With the exception of the east, which serves as a loading dock, all facades have a similar decorative treatment: flat engaged Corinthian pilasters dividing all bays save those on the corners, which are set off on the non-corner side by paired pilasters.
United States Post Office (Yonkers, New York) | Exterior
The building has a brick exterior with dark grey and gold brick panels between the windows. Shears, staggers, and other components of the building's facade were incorporated into the building’s design to give apartments the most light and views in a part of the city that is densely built. Its general appearance has earned it the nickname "The Post-It Note Building".
15 William | Facade
The 102-story Empire State Building, located in New York City, is one of the city's most famous landmarks, and is generally thought of as an American cultural icon. Cited by Valerie Briginshaw as a symbol of American pride and "the ultimate sign of American phallic power", it was inaugurated on 31 May 1931. Designed in the Art Deco style, it has a roof height of 1,250 feet (381 meters), and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft (443.2 m) high. It stood as the world's tallest building for 40 years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972.
Phallic architecture | Empire State Building
Architect Daniel H. Burnham, assisted by Pierce Anderson, was inspired by a number of architectural styles. Classical elements included the Arch of Constantine (exterior, main façade) and the great vaulted spaces of the Baths of Diocletian (interior); prominent siting at the intersection of two of Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's avenues, with an orientation that faced the United States Capitol just five blocks away; a massive scale, including a façade stretching more than and a waiting room ceiling above the floor; stone inscriptions and allegorical sculpture in the Beaux-Arts style; expensive materials such as marble, gold leaf, and white granite from a previously unused quarry.
Washington Union Station | Architecture
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
The building is wrapped in a skin of stainless steel and glass. It is lifted by a base of four recessed rectilinear marble volumes, resting upon a field of rough cut slate and granite. Walls of glass stretch taut between two larger end volumes, creating an interior lobby and plazas to the east and west with the smaller volumes encasing double-sided elevator shafts.
Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building | Appearance
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 Buildings , also often referred to as the Empire Building, are a group of heritage listed buildings on the corner of Stirling Terrace and York Street overlooking Princess Royal Harbour in Albany in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. The buildings were constructed in 1912, and once comprised a group of shops and a cinema. The buildings have elements of Federation Free Style architectural design such as asymmetry and use of two contrasting building materials of brick and cement render. Replacing a single storied bungalow structure that faced York Street, the Empire theatre was designed by architect Tom Anthoness and was built by J.
Empire Buildings | Introduction
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
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
Above the main entrance is a relief of the state seal. Both stories are set with narrow nine-over-nine double-hung sash windows. Above the columns and pilasters is a plain frieze divided by a small molded cornice. On the portico, the upper portion of the frieze has the legend "Court of Appeals State of New York" engraved in it. Above it is another, broader, overhanging cornice, also found on the pediment. The third story has the same nine-over-nine double-hung sash. Above it is a smaller cornice and parapet. In the middle of the roof is the dome, clad in stainless steel, with an oculus and gold leaf finial at the top.
New York Court of Appeals Building | Exterior
Alfred E. Smith, a former Governor of New York and U.S. presidential candidate whose 1928 campaign had been managed by Raskob, was appointed head of the company. The group also purchased nearby land so they would have the needed for the tower's base, with the combined plot measuring wide by long. The Empire State Inc. consortium was announced to the public in August 1929. Empire State Inc. contracted William F. Lamb, of architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, to create the building design. Lamb produced the building drawings in just two weeks using the firm's earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as the basis.
Empire State Building | Early plans
Architecture critic Martin Filler, quoted in "The Making Of Empire State Plaza", says "There is no relationship at all between buildings and site, neither at grade nor atop the podium, since all vestiges of the existing site have been so totally obliterated. Thus, as one stands on the Plaza itself, there is an eerie feeling of detachment. The Mall buildings loom menacingly, like aliens from another galaxy set down on this marble landing strip."
Empire State Plaza | Controversy
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