An Evening Atop the Chrysler Building

[NYatKNIGHT]

From the Municipal Art Society (http://www.mas.org/home.cfm) webpage:

Sky High: An Evening Atop the Chrysler Building

Wednesday, February 4th
The Chrysler Building, 67th Floor
6:30 until 9 pm Cocktails, Music and Panoramic Views
7:30 pm Speaker Neal Bascomb

The Municipal Art Society Urbanists invite you to the former Cloud Club for Sky High: An Evening Atop the Chrysler Building. Join us for cocktails, spectacular views, and remarks by Neal Bascomb, author of the new book, Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City.

Read the invitation for details. (http://www.mas.org/ContentLibrary/Sky_High.pdf)

Anyone going to this?

[TLOZ Link5]

"Festive attire"?

[Jack Ryan]

Everybody has got to wear a hat like the one William vanAlen is wearing in that famous photo taken at the Beaux Arts Ball.

[TLOZ Link5]

For those of you who don't get the joke:

http://www.cala2.umn.edu/aiasm/bab_art/old_cost.2.jpg

Three guesses which one's Bill Van Al. Think it can fit in the elevator?

The players from left to right: A. Stuart Walker as the Fuller Building, Leonard Schultze as the Waldorf-Astoria (one tower), Ely Jacques Kahn as the Squibb Building, WVA, Ralph Walker as One Wall Street, D.E. Ward as the Metropolitan Tower and Joseph H. Freelander as the Museum of the City of New York.

[Jasonik]

I'm glad you found that image TLOZ. I must have spent about 25 min. looking for it online. 8)

[TLOZ Link5]

Shoot, I just went to google.com > Images > "Chrysler Building." In and out in less than five :P

[NYatKNIGHT]

I wound up going to this little cocktail party with a small crowd, there were well over a hundred people attending. It was very cool to be up high in the Chrysler Building. What was once the Cloud Club is now gutted, with pipes and conduits exposed, but we still got a sense of the scale of the room and to look out those triangular windows.

Neal Bascomb, the author of Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City spoke over a slideshow presentation about the race for world's tallest with 40 Wall and the construction of the Chrysler building. It ended with the photo of Van Alen dressed as the Chrysler Building, by the way. And "Festive Attire" just meant dress nice. Philippe Petit was also there signing his new book. But the best part was walking round and round the three stories of the former Cloud Club, floors 66-68, and staring out the windows out on the city.

Some blurry no-flash photos:

Interior shots from the 67th floor:

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781136.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781137.jpg

The Empire State Building was in NY Rangers colors for the retirement of Mike Richter's number. (Usually when it's red, white, and blue the top of the spire is blue.)

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781134.jpg

The windows can easily open, though they say 'please don't', and the lighting is a simple fluorescent bulb.

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781135.jpg


Views from the 67th floor:


http://www.pbase.com/image/55781145.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781142.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781143.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781146.jpg


Grand Central

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781141.jpg

NY at NIGHT

http://www.pbase.com/image/55781140.jpg

[billyblancoNYC]

Any plans to bring the club back?

[NYatKNIGHT]

I really don't know, but I hope so. It's such a great space.

[TLOZ Link5]

No words can describe what I think of those pictures.

Dude, Knight, you should make the last photo your avatar :mrgreen:

[sunfly]

Great space
great pics for great feelings !
Thanks for beeing there and sharing
your impressions.

[Stern]

Superb.

NYatKnight, check your messages.

[Pottebaum]

God, those pictures were magnificent!

[sunfly]

It seems you look a little bit older... :wink:
From the Golden Globe Award:
http://www.fs-sunrise.de/image/billmurray.jpg
Thanks for your great pics from Chryslerbuilding.

[Comelade]

hello, it would be possible to re-examine the photographs which you had put on the Chrysler building ?

Thank You

[NYatKNIGHT]

They're back.

[Scruffy88]

damn. those pics were awesome. Ive dreamt of going up there and seeing that view. Im surprised though that from the 67th floor close to the highest floor there, you barely if even see over the Metlife tower. i thought it would be much higherup. I guess the spire takes up alot more of the 1046 foot height than I imagined. great pics

[Luca]

The Chrysler's soooo cool. To think for 20-30 years it was considered a borderline embarassment by the architectural critics/morons.:mad:

[ablarc]

The Chrysler's soooo cool. To think for 20-30 years it was considered a borderline embarassment by the architectural critics/morons.:mad:
They also thought that about Penn Station and the Singer Building.

They just got through thinking that about 2 Columbus Circle.

Kitsch: that'sthe brush all these buildings have been tarred with.

It's due to the fact that all these buildings rely on fancy dress for their effect (Van Alen even dressed up as his building). Clothing goes in and out of style.

By contrast, the very greatest buildings are more or less naked structure (or at least pretend to be): Chartres, the Parthenon, the Eiffel Tower, almost anything by Calatrava, a villa by Palladio, the Pantheon, buildings by Mies, Nervi and Corbu, much of Foster's work, the Guggenheim NY, even the Taj Mahal.

Gehry: he's nothing but clothes (has to hire engineers to devise the hangers), but those clothes are amazing.

[Comelade]

They're back.

Thank You, I love these photographs

[Funkytown]

The Chrysler building is the most romantic and sexy building in the world.Thankyou so much for those pics.It seems like such a waste not to use the spire for something,such as a small hotel or restaurant.It is so beautiful that it should be enjoyed by all.

[City Spire]

damn. those pics were awesome. Ive dreamt of going up there and seeing that view. Im surprised though that from the 67th floor close to the highest floor there, you barely if even see over the Metlife tower. i thought it would be much higherup. I guess the spire takes up alot more of the 1046 foot height than I imagined. great pics

Same here, I never knew that the 67th floor actually is where the last "normal" windows are.

I´ve never seen pics from the top of Chrysler building. Interesting I must say. Thanks for sharing!

[ablarc]

They should install a fancy restaurant up there, a fitting replacement for Windows on the World.