History New York 20th century

[ChihliDog]

Absolutely fantastic thread, erik. I havent enjoyed a thread so much in a very long time. Fascinating. Wonderful photos, they really capture the times so much that it seems like a real glimpse back in time.

I look forward to more, this is the period where it really gets interesting for me with some of the real greats of NYC IMO, 40 Wall, Chrysler, ESB, and City Services/AIG. Those 4 have always been my favorites.

[erickchristian]

1930 Special

The Bank of Manhattan Building

vs

The Chrysler Building

The Battle for the Heights

Hello! We are of return traveling on the history of New York Skyscrapers. Today we landed in the 1930s and we initiated this decade with the battle that occurred between two great skyscrapers for reach the tittle of World's Tallest Building: the Chrysler Building and the Bank of Manhattan Building.

It was a harder battle of rivalries between two great companies, two great architects to built the tallest building ever build on the Earth, title that until that moment showed the Woolworth Building during 17 years. The battle begun in 1928 and finalized in 1930, but finally, the winner did enjoy the tittle for a few time, because at the same time that it was being finished the fight, arises a third party in discord that it will snatch to them, fully the privilege from being highest.

First the contendents:

The Bank of Manhattan Building

vs

The Chrysler Building

The fight begun in 1928, when the architects partner William Van Allen and H. Craig Severances dissolved their society and announced plans to built the world's tallest building for their respective companies who was commisioned. Craig Severances announced the construction of a 67-story skyscraper for the Bank of Manhattan Company, in 40 Wall Street. They go Allen, meanwhile, announced the construction of the 65-story Chrysler Motor Company new headquarters, that would be built in the northeast corner of the Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street.

Originally, the site designated for the Chrysler Building was going to be the place to going to be built the Building Reynolds, a project of the theater empreteneur and real estate development, William H. Reynolds, who, as Robert A.M. Stern says, "(...) stimulated by Larkin proyect, he dreamed of erecting the world's tallest building, one that would top not only the Woolworth Building but Paris's Eiffel Tower as well. Reynolds selected William Van Allen to design his tower, perhaps because the architect had already acquired a certain reputation as a maverick" (Stern, Robert A. M., Gilmartin, Gregory, Mellins, Thomas. New York 1930. Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars. New York. Rizzoli. 1987. Page 606).

Evolution of Chrysler Building Van Alen's renderings: 1928-29.




Finally, in 1928, Reynolds sold the land, that was acquired by the automotive tycoon Walter P. Chrysler, who encomended to Allen the new offices to him of the company. Allen recovery the original Reynold's skyscraper proyect and it made many modifications until reaching the final design. Meanwhile, H. Craig Severances made partner with Japanese-American architect Yasuo Matsui, to design and built the Bank of Manhattan Building. After numerous modifications, a slim staggered skyscraper of 67-skyscraper in Art Deco style was designed that would dominate all the horizon of the Financial District.

The building of the two skyscrapers begun on Autum of 1928.

In may 1929, the Chrysler building rose approximately 10 or 15 stories. It is a view of 42nd Street looking east from the building under construction.



In June, when the steel structure of the Bank of Manhattan Building almost was finished, the steel skeleton of the Chrysler Building was grow quicklied, and was almost in the middle of its installation.

It is a view of 42nd Street looking southwest from the 25th floor. Simultaneously there were the Lefcourt Colonial and Lincoln buildings under construction in the same time.



Midtown Manhattan looking northwest from the 34th floor.



In the autumn of 1929, both skyscrapers had reached their peak altitude. Virtually, the Bank of Manhattan gained the title of the World's Tallest Building. For assure this tittle, Craig Severances and Matsui added a pyramid in the top of the structure that increased its height to 71 floors and 927 feet.





The Chrysler Building on late september 1929. Photo courtesy by Maradona-82



While, Allen had installed the multiple dome, but it did not manage to reach, at the moment, to its rival; but he and Chrysler had an ace under the sleeve: a needle.

Paul Goldberger, in his book The Skyscraper (1981) says about the needle:

"The spire, too, was not part of the original scheme, and it came about as a result of one of the most intense revalries of the period: As Chrysler was under construction, Van Allen's former partner, H. Craig Severance with his partner Yasuo Matsui, was completing a 66-story skyscraper at 40 Wall Street topped by a ornate pyramidal crow, not unlike that of the New York Central Building. Chrysler's originally announced height was 925 feet, and 40 Wall Street, the headquarters of the Bank of Manhattan Company, was set to top off a 927 feet, making it the tallest building in the world. van allen was determined that Chrysler should have the tittle, so he added the spire, wich was secretly assembled within Chrysler's crown and raised into place just as the tower was finished, leaving Severance in a distant second place" (Goldberger, Paul. The Skyscraper. New York. Alfred A. Knopf. 1981. Pages 82-83).

The instalation of the needle. October 1929.




The Chrysler Building. November 1929.


The spire was assembled and it stayed in the secret, in the crown of the skyscraper: Nobody, not even their rivals, knew of their existence. Finally, in November of 1929, the spire came to the light, giving to the Chrysler Building, with its 77 floors, 121 feet more until very reaching the 1048 feets (319 meters) of height, becoming the World's Tallest Building, leaving in a vergonsous second place to Bank of Manhattan Building. Midtown was surpassed Financial District the kingdom to the skyline.

Chrysler Building nearby completion. March 1930



Finally, the 77-story skyscraper was opened in may 1930.


But the kingdom of the Chrysler Building does not last much time. Shortly after his inauguration, it began to excel, so far, on the Fifth Avenue and 34th Street a new structure, that in few months, would snatch the title to him and it would become the absolute king of the skyscrapers: the Empire State Building.


Next, a 1930 Special about the Chrysler Building facts. If you have any photograph and commentary about the Chrysler Building and Bank of Manhattan Building's construction? Please. Show Here.

[HoveringCheesecake]

I also love this thread. Keep up the great work!

[erickchristian]

1930 Special: The Chrysler Building.

Hello! We`re back again with this trip through the history of the New York's skyscrapers. Now we continued in 1930, and again, continued speaking about the Chrysler Building with this special, where we will see some general aspects of this iconic building through the pictures.

For the begining, it is necessary to affirm that the Chrysler Building were opened in May 1930, has 1048 feet (319 meters) of height and it is located in the northeast corner of the Lexington Avenue and 42nd. Street. It is considered by the New Yorkers like most beautiful of the skyscrapers, followed by the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller Center and the Woolworth Building.



The Building was the tallest building of the world only until late 1930, when the Empire State Building reached 102 stories and 1250 foot hight.

For its location in the heat of financial heart of the Midtown Manhattan, to passages of the Central Grand Terminal, and near new buildings like Lincoln, Chanin and Daily News, and of hotels like the Commodore and the Biltmore, provided to the Chrysler Building of a high capital gain, which meant for the skyscraper and their proprietors, a great economic success, since, besides Chrysler, the oil company Texaco almost acquired half of the space available for its offices and the building was occupied in its totality, almost when finalizing 1930.

The Chrysler Building almost occupied. Late 1930.


In the architectonic aspect it is possible to mention 4 elements that distinguish to the building: the lobby, the facade, the gargoyles and the crown.

The Lobby.
The architectural historians, Cervin Robinson and Rosemarie Haag Bletter, in they book Skyscrapers Style. Art Deco New York (1975), says about the Chrysler's Building lobby:

"The lobby is triangular in shape and and, at exist and above the elevator lobbies, has covered cold-cathode lighting in the form of raised curtains" (Robinson, Cervin. Haag Bletter, Rosemarie. Skyscrapers Style. Art Deco New York. New York. Oxford University Press. 1975. Page 126).



The historian, Donald Martin Reynolds, in his book The Architecture of New York City (1984) says:

"The lobby walls and the octagonal piers are faced with rouge flamme, a variegated red Morocan marble with light accents of beige. Cove lighting from the walls and the piers. There us stainless steel framing around the shop fronts that flank the entrances and the directories in the lobby, as well as around the panel behind the red marble information desk and the doors throughout the lobby. It was manufactured specifically for the Chrysler Building, and its surface reflects a soft glow and complements the subduce tone of the marble of the lobby and the woods used in the elevators" (Reynolds, Donald Martin. The Architecture of New York City. New York Macmillan Publishing Company. 1984. Page. 238).

He continued:

"The Elevator doors are if imported inlaid woods and each has a stylized lotus paterns. Each of the elevator cabs is of a different geometric design, to offer variety and to break the monotony of this space for the tenants who travel them every day. Over the entrances to the four elevator banks are vartical panels of polished Mexican onyx in a overlapped siggurat pattern. In approaching the elevador banks from tha adjacent corridors, these overlapping panels -lighted form behind- look like the curtains over the proscenium in a theater". (Reynolds. 1984. Page. 238).



He talk about the ciling mural:
"Edward Trumbull, one of the America's leading muralist of the day, executed the lobby ceiling decoration. (...) Trumbull's portrait of the Chrysler Building extends along the ceiling of the main arm of the Y-shaped lobby. Over the rest of the ceiling, images emanate from a colossal personification of Power, embodying man's vision, energy and engineering, the human attributes that made the building possible. in addition to abstract patterns that symbolize the primitive forces of nature, there are also such figures as construction workers and airplanes, representing modern society and technology" (Reynolds. 1984. Page 239).

The facade and the gargoyles.
The facade of the Chrysler Building follows the decrees that the 1916 Zoning Law dictates. One is made up of a base of four stepped bodies that is reduce its height gradually; that it begins of the ground floor to 30th floor, followed of an center body, of approximately 30 floors of height, that separates the base of the crown of the building. The skyscraper is finished off by a crown with seven domes that is gradually diminishing its thickness, that finishes in a slim end.

Showy of base are figures that crowns the fourth link, in the 30th floor, that is to figures of black and white brick mosaic, which they represent automobiles, and its wheels have genuine corks of the Chrysler 1929 in the center. In the four corners of the base they are ended by four winged figures, in stainless steel that represent the wings of the Greek God Mercury, which they adorned the radiators of 1929 Chrysler cars. The facade, of first stage of the base, is decorated with intercrossed lines that surround the windows that remember baskets of overwhelm. However, the facade of the center body, between the 31st to 60th floors, presents displays air lines of black color in the four corners, between the windows. The lateral windows of the center body are covered of black brick, while the games of central windows flow freely in white brick. All a sample of the Art-Deco movement.



Nevertheless, which attracts the glance more are in the eight gigantic Art-Deco eagles that flank, as gargoyles the base of the crown of the Chrysler Building, in he 61st. floor. These stainless steel sculptures were placed, when finalizing the work and almost dominate, with their threatening glance, as if they guarded a medieval cathedral, the horizon of Manhattan.


The Crown

The most emblematic element, and the most wanted by everybody, is the crown that includes last the 16 floors of the skyscraper, that is their sign of identity. As it were said yesterday, the crown as a result of the rivalry between the Chrysler and the Bank of Manhattan by manages to be the Highest Building of the World and was the cherry of the pie that architect William Van Alen realised to give to the Chrysler Building the form that everybody we know.

The crown is constituted of seven domes that begin surrounding last the eight floors destined to offices, including the exclusive Cloud Club, and that is reducing their size until ending in the needle. The domes are made with steel and covered with laminae of a aluminium alloy and nickel, which is considered like the first time that was used aluminum for the facade of a building. Each dome is decorated with triangular windows that simulate sun rays, and that were tried, to illuminate itself at night with neon lights, project that was not realised until 1981.





The architect Robert A.M. Stern says about the Chrysler's top:
"At the top, on the sixty-sixth through sixty-eight floors, was the improbably decorated Cloud Club, wich drew its membership from executives in the automobile, aviation, steel, and oil industries. Van Alen, in association with Myers, Mindt & Company, designed a varied and imaginative suite of rooms: a Georgian lobby, Tudor lounge and coffee rooms, a Breton taproom, and a serie of private dining rooms whose walls were lined with photo murals based on industrial themes. Chrysler's own private dining room was ringed by a frieze of automobile workers executed in polished black glass on a field of frosted blue. The most remarkable interior was the club's main dining room, located within the first of the terraced domes that formed the building's crown. Its faceted columns of blue marble bore sconces of ground and etched glass, while the vaulted ceiling depicted clouds above the New York Skiline" (Stern, Robert A. M., Gilmartin, Gregory, Mellins, Thomas. New York 1930. Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars. New York. Rizzoli. 1987. Page. 609).

The Cloud Club, on Chrysler Building's 68th floor.



Sterns also says about the Observatory Room, on the 71st floor, in the Crown:

"In the design of the public observation lounge, located just above the Cloud Club, Van Alen outdid himself. In all likehood inspired by German Expressionist filmsets, perhaps especially by The Canbinet of Doctor Caligari, Van Alen capitalized on the narrow gallerylike space tucked in under the spire by treating the walls as a series of tilted in angular planes collapsing i9nward toward the ceiling. Above a wooden dardo that sinuosly curved to represent a horizont of rolling hills, the walls were painted with fading sun rays and shaded at the top into a star-studded nighttime sky. The lighting fixtures were miniature Saturns: globes of milky glass ringed in metal" (Stern, Robert A. M., Gilmartin, Gregory, Mellins, Thomas. New York 1930. Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars. New York. Rizzoli. 1987. Page. 609).

The Observation Room.




Night view of the Chrysler Building. August 1930




You have any commentary or picture about the Chrysler Building, the interior, and the observation lounge and Cloud Club? Please, show here.

[lofter1]

The brickwork at the corners of the tower is brilliantly designed.

[erickchristian]

1930

Hello! We,re back in this trip through the history of New York skyscrapers. After reviewing the history of the Chrysler Building, we are now going to make a general route on the architectonic panorama of the Great Apple of year 1930, before entering completely the count of the construction of the Empire State Building.

The Bank of Manhattan Buiding. 1930. H. Craig Severance and Yasuo Matsui.



The 40-story Fuller Building (Walker & Guillette, 1929), in the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 57th Street. January 1930.



The Merchantil Building or 10 East 40th Street. January 1930





Final rendering for the Empire State Building. January 1930.




Excavation for Empire State Building. January 1930




Park Avenue looking south from 55th Street. February 1930.




The City Hall District and Woolworth Building from Bank of Manhattan Building. February 1930.




Aerial view of Lower Manhattan looking north. March 1930. The Bank of Manhattan tower dominate this skyline.




The Chrysler Building nearby completion. March 1930.



The Daily News Building (Raymond Hood, 1930). April 1930.



The Empire State Building under construction. April 1930. Construction of the 4-story base.



Park Avenue looking south from the Drake Hotel. May 1930



The 57th Street and the Fuller Building. June 1930





The Empire State Building under construction. June 1930.




Times Square looking south from 47th Street. June 1930




The Lincoln Building looking south from New York Central Building, showing the Empire State Building under construction. June 1930




The Empire State Building continues to rises up on early July 1930. View looking southeast from Bush Building, when the Empire State was reach more of 40 stories.





The Daily News Building from Second Avenue. June 1930




The 120 Wall Street Building. (Ely Jacques Kahn). July 1930




Grand Central District Skyscrapers. July 1930. From the left to right: Lincoln Building, Lefcourt Colonial Building, Chrysler Building, Chanin Building and Daily News Building.




St. Patricks Cathedral. July 1930




The Empire State under construction. July 1930




Steelworker take a rest on 50th floor of the Empire State Building. July 1930.







The Bank of Manhattan Building at 40 Wall Street. August 1930. Can see the Irving Trust Building nearby completed at right in background.





The Empire State Building's little sister: 500 Fifth Avenue under construction. August 1930. Photo courtesy by: Maradona-82. Maradona-82
Member





Midtown Manhattan looking west from Chrysler Building. August 1930



Night view of the Chrysler Building. August 1930.




The Daily News Building form Chrysler Building. August 1930




The Empire State Building under construction. September 1930. The building was reach 72 stories




Another perspective of the building. September 1930.




The Chrysler and Chanin Buildings looking west from Daily News Building. September 1930




The Empire State Building under construction looking north. October 1930.




The Daily News Building in October 1930.




The Chrysler Building, looking west from Daily News Building in October, 1930. This picture show the Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's 58-story 500 Fifth Avenue Tower, the Empire State Building's little sister, under construction.




Construction activity on the Empire State Building on November 1930.




Aerial view of 40-story The New Yorker Hotel. November 1930.




The new face of Midtown Manhattan skyline. 42nd Street skyscrapers from First Avenue. November 1930.




Inspector on the Empire State Building. December 1930.

.


The Empire State's Mooring Mast. December 1930.





The top of the Empire State Building, when the mooring mast was under construction. Above it, a U.S Navy's Zeppelin. December 1930.





Next. The Daily News Building.

If have you any commentary or pictures about the city of 1930, please, SHOW HERE.

[erickchristian]

NEXT WEEK

A 1931 special.

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

THE BIRTH OF A ICON.

Coming soon.



August 2009.

[erickchristian]

1930 Special. Daily News Building

Hello! We return with this trip through the history of the skyscrapers of New York. We follow in 1930, and, for say goodbye of that year and to enter completely in the history of the construction and inauguration of the Empire State Building, we presented this small special of the Daily News Building.

Today my College's vacations will to be finish, reason why as of the next week my special articles and picture articles, will be weekly, to be able to dedicate to me to resume my workings with my thesis to be able to me to title for journalist studies.

Yet, the Daily News History.




The Daily News Building is located in the 220 East 42th Street, between the Third and Second Avenues. Finished in the spring of 1930, it is the second skyscraper that the architect, Raymond Hood, realised in New York, after the American Radiator Building and this building, with its single-wire lines, modern, and staggered they move away of the gothic style that was characteristic of Hood to experience with the Art Deco and the European modern movement. The stepped and sober style of the Daily News Building, would be retaken by Hood, just a short time later, for the design of the skyscrapers of the future Rockefeller Center.
The skyscraper were commissioner to Hood and his partner, John Mead Howell, by the tabloid, The Daily News (the more popular graphical newspaper of New York, and famous world-wide by its sensationalists news of police facts, crime and politics sacndals), for their offices and presses, and to compete directly with the skyscraper of their competition, The Chicago Tribune, also designed by Hood and Howells.
The architecture historian, Paul Goldberger (1981) , says about the history of the Daily News Building:
"But, if they were expeting another Gothic extravaganza, they were surprised: Hood (along with John Mead Howells, with whom he was again associated for this project) produced a building that broke forcefully with the line of skyscraper development of the previous decade. The elaborate setbacks culminating in a ornamental crown were gone, and in their place was a relatively simple slab, made up of white brick vertical giving a sharp and crisp sense of height, within which were set reccessed lines of windows and spandrels. There are setbacks, but they are carefully positioned to enhance the sense of pure height and provide just a hint of relief from the stark from" (Goldberger, Paul. The Skyscraper. New York. Alfred A. Knopf. 1981. Page 93).
The Daily News modern facade with the zigurat-style setbacks. June 1930.


The Cultural Historian, David Garrard Lowe, in his book, Art Deco New York (2004), says about the News Building:
"Howells & Hood's Daily News Building, 220 East 42nd Street, was begun in 1929 and completed in 1930. The vertical white structure, a brilliant interplay of cubistic volumnes, was the conception of Raymond Hood. It was a revolutionary departure from Howells & Hood's Gothic Chicago Tribune Tower completed in 1925" (Garrard Lowe, David. Art Deco New York. New York. Watson-Guptill Publications. 2004. Page 173. Picture's foot text).

Goldberger (1981) says:

"The building is cool and controlled in a way that none of the flamboyant towers of the 1920's had been. There is a smoothness here, and a sense of an upward driving force, that, for 1930, must have seemed remarkably daring -it is no surprise that compared to the Daily News, Chrysler seemed overblown and showy to the avant-garde. But the Daily News is far from a stark slab of the sort that would become common after World War II; there are sculpted red and black brick spandrels to provide some relief, and the ornate sculpted bas-relief over the front door is particularly rich, a decorative detail that foreshadowed Hood's later work at Rockefeller Center" (Goldberger. 1981. Page 93).



One of the most attractive elements of the Daily News Building, is the black glass rotunda that is in the lobby of the building. In the center is an enormous revolving globe. The Daily News Building and this rotunda that were used more years after, in the DC Comic Superman like The Daily Planet Building.

Garrard Lowe says abot the Rotunda:

"Hood imbuted the Art Deco black glass lobby rotunda of the Daily News Building with a sense of drama by placing at its center a revolving globe lit from below. He would bring that sense of architectural drama to Rockefeller Center" (Garrard Lowe. 2004. Page 174. Picture's foot text).

If have you any commentary or pictures about the Daily News Building, please, SHOW HERE.

[erickchristian]

1931 Special.

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING.

Part 1

The Birth of a Icon.

Hello friends!!! Today we begin the year 1931 with the first part of the epic history of the Empire State Building. As i say in the last post, today, with this article, my participation will be weekly, until probably, December of 2009. Today we are going to speak of the construction del that is, until now, the most emblematic skyscraper of the New York, and without a doubt most popular of all the skyscrapers: the Empire State Building.



The construction of the Empire State Building was a great epic, in hard times, in early 1930s. It was the crystallization of the dream of three visionary men who designed a skyscraper that was the result of the excesses, the speculation and the race for the Tallest Building of the World, in late 1920s; but that when being constructed during the worst moment of the Great Depression, in 1930-31, when using to more than 5000 workers, the majority of them, unemployed people, the Empire State Building became a symbol of optimism, hope and faith in the future.

The Empire State Building was the result of the vision of three powerful men: the president of the General Motors Company, John J. Raskob; Pierre S. du Pont, owner of chemical and plastic company Du Pont (those that years later would create the nylon) and the one that until 1928 was the Governor of the State of New York, Alfred E. Smith, who in that year competed by the Democratic Party by the presidency of the United States.

Due to a heta campaign in his against by his detractors and the Republican Party, who they accused, for being catholic, to agree with the Vatican, Alfred E. Smith, lost the presidential elections, but who influence in New York politic life were high, was invited by Raskob and du Pont to participate and to sponsor the project to construct a building of offices in the 350 of the Fifth Avenue, between streets 33 and 34: the site where the Empire State Building will rise.

The site where the Empire State Building rises today, has a history that to count. The zone where it is located is well-known like Murray Hill, and it was surrounded by hills where the Indians used to defense of their enemies. According to the historians, in the zone where the Empire State rises today, ran a small river.

In 1799 that place it was the Thompson-Lawton's farmland. In 1827, William Blackhouse Astor bought the farmland "as an investment in Manhattan northwar expansion, even the second son of the founder of the Astor dynasty in America could not have anticipated the fame that site would enjoy, nor the legends that would born there" (Reynolds, Donald Martin. The Architecture of New York City. New York. Macmillan Publishing Company. 1984. Page 239).

Soon the zone was completely built-up and during the 19th Century, the Astor built a luxurious mansion in the lands of the old farm. In 1893, in the corner the northwest of the Fifth Avenue and Street 33, one of the Astor familly demolished one of the mansions and built the Waldorf hotel.



And in 1897, on the Southwest corner of the Fifth Avenue and 34tH Street, rises the Astoria Hotel. The two hotels were joined in the world-wide famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.



Donald Martin Reynolds says about the old Waldorf-Astoria:

"The Waldorf was built by William Waldorf Astor and the Astoria by his cousin, the former Caroline Schermerhorn, known for establishing the list of the Four Hundred, New York's most fashionable residents (four hundred was said to be the number of guests who would fit into her ballroom for New York's main social event of the year" (Reynolds. 1984. Page 239).

He continued:

"Becuase relations between the two Waldorfs were strained, Caroline required the architect, Henry J. Hardenbergh, who had also built the Waldorf, to make provisions at each floor to seal off the buildings from each other, if the need to do so ever arose" (Reynolds. 1984. Page 239).

The “Four Hundred” were an exclusive group of prominent businessmen, politicians and dignitaries, who met to talk, to eat for lunch, to present their daughters in society, and to direct their businesses or of holding diplomatic meetings. Thus, the Waldorf-Astoria was considered like the most sophisticated, exclusive and expensive place of the world and their celebrations of were commented in the New York's society of end of the Victorian era.




Donald Martin Reynolds (1984) relates therefore the social life of the Waldorf-Astoria:

“The Waldorf-Astoria procession of guests included nobility, dignitaries, and the most famous people from all over the world. Its conspicuous elegance set standards of taste, and its practical approach to innovative convenience such as room telephones and modernized room service established new trends in the hotel industry” (Reynolds, Donald M. The Architecture of New York City. New York. McMillan Publishing Company. 1984. Page. 240).

But the authentic vocation of the land was to be an active place of businesses. For the end of 1920s the zone of Midtown around the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel had become of an exclusive residential zone to a rising commercial and industrial center, mainly, with the progressive development of the fashion industry in the near Garment District. Thus, the environs of the hotel had been surrounded by department store, like Gimbel's and Macy's, in Herald Square; of hotels like the McAlpin and buildings of offices among 10 and 25 floors. But also the zone had been surrounded by great skyscrapers, like the Flatiron Building, the 52-story Metropolitan Life Tower that had been finished in 1909, and the New York Life Building , with 40 stories.



Reynolds (1984) writes:

“Combined with rising real estate costs, the institution of the personal income tax in 1913, and the competition of the new money from cooper, coal and railroads –these factors forced old money like the Astors to new and quieter quarters uptown. The Thirty-fourth Street area was thus transformed into a progressive industrial and commercial center” (Reynolds. 1984. Page 241).

Finally, the transformation of Midtown Manhattan, that had begun almost 20 years before, with the construction of the Grand Central Terminal, arrived at 34th Street, and caused the closing of the old Waldorf-Astoria. The Hotel finally closed its doors the May 1st 1929 and announced the construction of its new building in Park Avenue, between East 49th and 50th Streets, whose elegant Art-Deco 47-story skyscraper, designed by Schultze & Weaver was finished until 1931.




With the change of the Waldorf-Astoria to Fifth Avenue and 34th Street to actual site on Park Avenue, the way for the construction of the Empire State Building was open. When the demolition began in October, it had announced in the means that were going to be constructed in their place, a 50-story building.

Here a rendering of the 50-story building that proposed for Empire State Building. 1928




Early sketches for the proposed 50-story tower for the site of old Waldorf Astoria. December 1928.





Designing a skyscraper.

As it were mentioned before, the Empire State Building was the result of the vision of three powerful men: two industralists: John Jacob Raskob and Pierre DuPont, president and partner of the General Motors respectively; a politician: Alfred E. Smith, charismatic ex-governor of the State of New York in four followed times, and prominent political figure very loved by the New Yorkers because his immigrant origin, his proximity with the working-class and his love by social justice. One decade before, during its mandate, he promoted a labor rights law that guarded by the wage, sanitary conditions and of security of the workers, as a result of the investigations that realised of the fatal fire that killed more than 140 girls who worked in a clothes factory, near Washington Square, in cruel conditions.

Raskob and DuPont financed the presidential campaign of Smith, by the Democratic party, in 1928. Smith lost the elections in front of the republican Hebert Hoover, but was was designated president of the “Empire State Inc." In order to finance the real estate project of Raskob. Alfred E. Smith became thus, in the great promoter of the future Empire State Building.

Raskob, as president of the General Motors, applied its successful experience with the automobiles in its new real estate experience, when understanding that, like the automobiles, the skyscraper most that to be a high quality product. Reynolds (1984) explains that:

“Raskob understood the importance of producing a superior product, the complexities of merchandising it, and the necessity of having the right people to achieve these ends. He applied his formula for success to the new building at Thirty-four Street and Fifth Avenue at a time when the country was experience its worst financial crisis, and he produced not only the tallest building in the world, but the most famous and revered skyscraper yet to be built. Even now that other commercial structure have reached far greater heights, the Empire State Building remains an icon that refuses to relinquish its special meaning” (Reynolds. 1984. Page. 241).

Is necessary to indicate that the Empire State Building was conceived in 1929, at the end of a age of apparent economic prosperity and real estate speculation. When the skyscraper was in the design table, the United States enters the Depression, the worse financial disaster than has experienced the country in its history and soon the lack of money would affect the construction industry. There was no money, and therefore the capital one was little. The capital was obtained thanks to the sponsorship of Smith and to the General Motors, but suddenly the technical problems arose.

The land that the Waldorf-Astoria left was very small for the spread of the project, and the local laws prevented that the construction absorbed streets adjacent. In addition, the 1916's Zoning Law stipulated serious restrictions for the construction of buildings, because it allowed the construction of up to 38 meters of height. The peak altitude could only be reached in center of the surface bases, on a little more than a quarter of the same; what meant that to construct a skyscraper of 40, 50 or more floors, the zoning law indicated that this one had to be staggered to allow the passage of the solar light. Finally, considering the problems of surface and design, it seemed impossible to construct a so high building in a very small surface with a budget of approximately 60 million of dollars.

Raskob, knew of these problems and for this he was very careful when selecting to the architects and engineers who were going to construct their work. In order to solve the technical problems, to design and to construct the Empire State Building, it contracted the services of a new architects firm: Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associated Architects, that calculating the total surface of the land, that was of 200 feet in the Fifth Avenue, by 425 feet in 34th Street , by the real cost of each cubic meter, they obtained that the new building would have 36 million cubic meters. That is to say, that was possible, with the specifications of the Law of Zoning of 1916 and with the size of the surface, to construct a building of more than 80 stories, that is to say, that the Empire State would be the tallest building of the world.

Elevation that showed the possibilities to build a great tower with a 1916's Zoning Law for the Empire State. 1929




A new design for Empire State Building. Plan K. June 1929.




Reynolds (1984) escribe sobre Shreve, Lamb & Harmon:

“To produce this superior product, Raskob select the architecture firm of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. A fairly new partnership, the group had good credentials and a practical approach to building that appealed to him. William Frederick Lamb was the designer of the building. The son of a New York builder, he had studied architecture at Columbia University in New York and the Ècole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and had been a partner with Richmond Harold Shreve in Carrère and Hastings, Shreve, and Lamb. Shreve had studied architecture at Cornell and had taught there, before joining Carrère and Hastings. Arthur Loomis Harmon joined them in 1929 to form Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. Harmon studied architecture at Columbia University and had been a designer with McKim, Mead and White before practicing independently” (Reynolds.1984. Page 242).

Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, when solving the technical and budgetary problems, now faced another challenge: the Empire State Building had of being beautiful. The firm was inspired, for the facade in the modernist design of the Raymond Hood's Daily News, in that then, still in construction, and after presenting 15 proposals, the final design of the building appeared at the end of 1929: a very big 86-story skyscraper, with the form that all we know, and more than 1050 meters (320 meters) of height. In this original version, the Empire State Building was a little higher than the Chrysler Building. When seeing the scale model, Raskob suggested the architects who “the unique that needs east building is a hat” (Conti, Favio. El Símbolo de la Ciudad de Nueva York. En Las Maravillas del Mundo. Enciclopedia Salvat del Universo Monumental. Volumen 6. Tema. El Empire State Building. Spain. Salvat Editores. 1985. Page 646. Translation of Erick Christian Alvarez Soto).

The Empire State Building elevation rendering without mooring mast. Late 1929




The famous “hat” of Raskob turned out to be a needle Art Deco that was designed as mooring mast for dirigible, and which when being finished the building was not used for anything (from 1950 a gigantic television antenna is boasted it), but it considerably increased the height of the building until obtaining the 102 floors and the 1250 feet (381 meters) of height, surpassing with ample advantage to the Chrysler Building, assuring to it to the Empire State, when being finished in 1931, the title of the highest building of the world for more than forty years. Reynolds (1984) says about the height of the Empire State:

“A limestone tower rises from a 5-story base to the 86th floor observatory and is capped by a monumental spire, “mooring mast” of metal and glass for dirigibles (which proved too dangerous to be used as such), and the television antenna added much later. Atop the 5th-story base is a 60-foot-wide terrace created by setting the tower back to fulfill the zoning requirements. The terrace setback emphasizes the tower and its unprecedented height of 1,250 feet. Although is has 86 floors of offices, the Empire State Building is often described as being 102 stories high, because the mooring mast is equivalent in height to 14 stories and when the building’s two basements are also counted, the total comes to 102 stories” (Reynolds, Donald M. The Architecture of New York City. New York. McMillan Publishing Company. 1984. Page. 244).

He continue:

“The grandeur of the Empire State Building –its height, materials, and design, and the technological skills that produced it- immediately captured the minds and hearts of all Americans. To watch the building’s steel skeleton rise 102 stories into the sky in just over eight months was even starling to the construction workers who put it up, as Harold L. McClain wrote in his ‘Recollections of Working on the Empire State Building’” (Reynolds. 1984. Page 244).

For January of 1930, the final design of the Empire State Building was appeared.




The next week we will speak of the construction of the Empire State Building in the second part of this special. If they have some commentary or they want to raise to photos of the Empire State Building during his stage of design and construction, please, show in this thread.

[Alonzo-ny]

It's amazing to see the ESB rise without massive tower cranes attached to it the way it would be these days. Almost looks as though the building is growing organically out of the city. Something that is helped with the cladding being attached very close to the top of construction.

Thanks for these wonderful pictures and the brilliant thread.

[erickchristian]

1931 Special: The Empire State Building. Part 2. Building a icon.

Hello! We are here again in our trip through the history of the New York skyscrapers. We continue in 1931 and with this special about the Empire State Building. Now we presented the second part of this history, that speaks of the process of construction of the world tallest building, that when shaping itself in the lens of the camera of Lewis Hine, speaks to us of the epic that was the construction of this skyscraper.

Afther the architects and developters published the building's final design, and after collecting approximately 60 million dollars, thanks to the support of Alfred E. Smith, the construction of Empire State Building was begun.

The construction of the building was realised in stages. First of them it consisted of the demolition of the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, in the mid-October 1929. The demolition lasted almost three months and in January 1930, the foundations of the hotel had been removed. While the rubbish was removed, the works of laying of foundations, the positioning of piles and the bases of concrete and steel to maintain the structure already began.

Excaving for the foundations of the Empire State Building. January 1930.



In a simple ceremony the first stone of the Empire State Building is placed on March 17, 1930, and for April 7, the first steel columns of the main section was installed.



For build the Empire State Building, there needed more than 60.000 tons of steel, sufficient like build a double-line New York-Baltimore railway. The problem that faced Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, that was how to provide and to unload the material, was solved of the following way: the steel made in Pittsburgh, and it was loaded to the trains that the steelframes even warm up. When arriving at New Jersey, the steel was loaded to boats once transported that it through Hudson river and arriving at Manhattan, there was loaded in trucks that transported the still hot steel to 34th Street, and of the material was unloaded by great cranes on the roof of building there took that it to the part of the construction that was needed.

Working on the Empire State Building. Lewis Hine.



Another advantage in the construction of the building consisted of using prefabricated elements. The Empire State Building was a gigantic piece of puzzle, where all the materials were designed to mount immediately. Each piece of the steel was identified with a number that indicated the place where it was going away to place. Other prefabricated elements consisted of the 10 thousand tons of limestone stone bricks, already elaborated with the design of the facade, and the facade's elements, like the rubblework, the decorative aluminum laminae, and even the windows. This process, that was the first time in being used in a work of such spread accelerated the construction frof the skyscraper at a speed like during most part of the work, and it was broken the record, that was stayed to construct four floors per week.

One month after to placed the first columnsof the building, the Empire State reach the eighth floor in May of 1930. The following images of the construction of the Empire State were caught by the photographer Lewis Hine (1874-1940). Pictures were taken from the book The Empire State Building (1998).

Bibliography:

Hine, Lewis. The Empire State Building. Introduction by Freddy Langer. New York. Prestel-Verlag. 1998.

The Empire State Building reached 20 stories in eraly-June 1930. Lewis Hine.




In late june, it reached 30-stories, and in early-july 1930, the skyscraper reached 40 stories



The Empire State Building continues to rises up on early July 1930. View looking southeast from Bush Building, when the Empire State was reach more of 40 stories.





A few pictures of the construction. July 1930.

Man taking a break and smoke. Lewis Hine.







A engineer watching the nivel of building. July 1930. Lewis Hine.



Working on the higher. July 1930. Lewis Hine.



In august 1930, the Empire State Building rose 60 stories.




View from the street. August 1930. Lewis Hine.



From Chrysler Building. Late-August 1930. National Geographic.





Worker taking a break on the gilder. August 1930. The new 50-story Navarre Building, in Garment District, can see in the distance. Lewis Hine.




Putting a steel gilder. August 1930. Lewis Hine.




On September 1930, it was reached almost 80 stories. View of Lower Manhattan from Empire State. September 1930. Lewis Hine.





From New York Life Building. In early September 1930, the Empire State Building reached 72 stories.





Reaching the sky. September 1930. Lewis Hine.




The Empire State Building looking north. Early October 1930.




In late october, the main steel skeleton reach the 86th floor. 85 per cent of the main building were completed. Photo. Maradona-82




Icarus. October 1930. Lewis Hine.




Midtown Manhattan looking north from Empire State Building showing the new 58-story 500 Fifth Avenue Building nearby completed. October 1930. Lewis Hine.



Midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building from the Hudson. October 1930. Lewis Hine.





Worker take a break on the Empire State. The Chrysler Building can see in the distance. October 1930. Lewis Hine.




In November the assembly of the mooring mast of airships (Raskob's “hat”)with its observation tower, begins. In December of 1930, all the steel structure of 102-story Empire State Building is finished.

The Empire State Building. December 1930. Lewis Hine.




A inspector review the steel frame 100 stories above the city. December 1930. Lewis Hine.




Midtown Manhattan looking east from Hudson River's New Jersey side. December 1930. Lewis Hine.



The new building looking west from Madison Avenue and 34th Street. December 1930.



The mooring mast. December 1930.




Working on the mooring mast and Observation Tower. December 1930. Lewis Hine.


Without fear for the heights







In the 102nd Story. A Red Cross flag.




The top of the Empire State Building, when the mooring mast was under construction. Above it, a U.S Navy's Zeppelin. December 1930.




In January, 1931, work in the completion of Observation Tower continues. The Empire State from the Subway entrance. Lewis Hine.




The Empire State nearby completed. March 1931.




Aerial view of Midtown Manhattan looking northeast in March 1931 with the Empire State Building dominating the new skyline.





Finally, on May 1st, 1931, the 102-story and 1250-feet (381-meters) Empire State Building were completed. A year and forty and five days after being placed the first columns, which implied to break the world-wide record. The total cost of the skyscraper was of $40,948,900 against a budget of 60 million dollars. The building cost much less than was had available.

The Empire State Building on May 1st. 1931.



Next week, the last part of the history: the dedication of the Empire State Building and some thing about it. Later, a general review of 1931 New York City panorama.

If you have any commentary or you like to post a picture about the construction of the Empire State Building, please, show here.

[HoveringCheesecake]

I tell ya, those guys sure had some balls. Amazing.

[erickchristian]

1931 Special. The Empire State Building (Part 3). The Skyscraper.

Hello! We return to 1931, and now we show the third and last part of this special of the Empire State Building. Now we will speak of its inauguration and some elements of the building.

In May 1st, 1931 the Empire State Building solemnly was opened. Al Smith, president of the Empire State Inc., and building's main sponsoring, along with its wife, John Jacob Raskob, and one distinguished concurrence, cut the ribbon abrir the doors from the skyscraper to the public.

Donald Martin Reynolds (1984) says about of the dedication:

"At the opening ceremonies, May 1, 1931, former New York Governor Al Smith hailed the Empire State Building as the world's greatest monument to man's ingenuity, skill, mind, and muscle" (Reynolds, Donald Martin. The Architecture of New York City. New York. Macmillan. 1984. Page. 244).




Robert Stern (1987) wrote about the many activities was made during the Empire State dedication day:

"(...) Mayor Walker, whose corrupt administration was under close surveillance by the press, and whose personal popularity was a thing of the past, thanked the owners for providing 'a place higher, further removed than any in the world, where some public official might might like to come to hide. ' Edmund Wilson, the literary critic, was also in attendance and afterward mused, 'And here is the pile of stone, brick, nickel and steel, the shell of offices, shafts, windows of steps, that outmultiplies and outsacks them all-that, more purposeless and superflous than any, is being advertised as a triumph in the hour when the planlessb competitive society, the deshumanized urban community, of which it represents the culmination, is bankrupt'. But the last word belonged to F. Scott Fitzgerald, who saw in the completion of Empire State Building at once the triumph and the end of metropolitanism:

'From the ruins (of the stock market crash), lonely and inexplicable as the sphinx, rises the Empire State Building and, just as it had been a tradition of mine to climb to the Plaza Roof to take leave of the beautiful city, extending as far as the eyes could reach, so now I went to the roof of the last and most magnificent of towers. The I understood -everything was explained: I had discovered the crowing error of the city, its Pandora's box. Full of jaunty pride the New Yorker had climbed here and seen with dismay what he had never suspected, that the city was not the endless sucession of canyons that he saw for the first time that it faded out intro the country on all sides, into a expanse of green and blue that alone was limitless. And with the awful realization that New York was a city after and not a universe, the whole shining edifice that he had reared in his imagination came crashing to the ground. That was the gift of Alfred E. Smith to the citizens of New York'. F. Scott Fitzgerald. "My Lost City" (1932) (Stern, Robert A. M., Gilmartin, Gregory, Mellins, Thomas. New York 1930. Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars. New York. Rizzoli. 1987. Page. 615).

Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon. 1931). View from Lefcourt Colonial Building looking southwest.





The Empire State Building looking north from New York Life Building. May 1931.



On the night of May 1st, 1931, from Washington, President Hoover pushed a button that he enlighted for the first time, in New York, the Empire State Building.

Photo. The Daily News.




Because it was built during the first years of the Stock Market Crash, and to be located many blocks far of Midtown Manhattan's main business district (Grand Central District), the Empire State Building was many problems to rent its stories for offices. During many years more of 70 por cent of the building floor space were vacancy and the New Yorkers, began to call the “Empty” State Building. The Empire State Building weren't totally ocuppied until 1950.


Many things about the Empire State Building.




The Building rest on 5-story base that ocuppied 200 feet in the Fifth Avenue, by 425 feet in 34th Street, and the building second body from 6th to 30th floor, has a lot of setbacks that reduce the space of building.




The Tower start on the 31st floor and rises free more of 40 stories to 72nd floor that reduce a anothe two setbacks bodies that reduces until 86th floor, the first observation deck.




The Top of the Empire State has crowned by a 16-story Art-Deco mooring mast, originally planned for dirigibles, that give the building more of 60 meteres more of height, to 87th to 102nd floor, that have the second observatory deck.







The 3-story high monumental lobby that made in gray marble, in Art Deco style, but show many elements that evidence a influence of early Modern International Style, that have, in the center of the reception, a great Art-Deco map of New York State, in aluminium with the Empire State Building on the center of the map, symbolized the great power of New York State, the "Empire State" over the other American States. That shows in its picture, the ceiling was painted with constellations and zodiac elements, but in the 1960's renovation it was replaced wit a modern glass panel.





A detail of lobby showing the metal bridge. May 1931.




The Observation Decks, in the 86th and 102nd floors, offer spectacular views of New York City and its neighborhoods until more a 60 miles on the distance.

Midtown Manhattan looking north. may 1931. Great part of tall skyscrapers concetrated on east side of Fifth Avenue and Grand Central District, but a fews months ago the incipious Midtown Skyline will be begin to change with the construction of the future Rockefeller Center.



Lower Manhattan from the Empire State



The Empire State Building from the Madison Square Park.



If you have any commentary or do you like to show a picture about the Empire State Building, please, show here.

[erickchristian]

1931

Hello! We're here again, in this trip through the history of New York's skyscrapers. Today we will show the Manhattan of 1931, where besides the opening of the Empire State Building, that we analyzed in the previos three parts special, the last two weeks, we will see pictures of buildings which were completed in that year, like City Bank and Farmers Trust Building, or the McGraw-Hill Building, as well as a brief introduction on the beginning of construction of the Rockefeller Center.

The St. Remo Apartments, on Central Park West (Emery Roth, 1930). January 1931.




The Empire State Building nearby completion looking west from a Madison Avenue and 33th Street building. January 1931.




In late 1930, the Bricken Casino and 1400 Broadway Buildings, nearby Times Square, were completed. The architect who desingned this modern skyscrapers were Ely Jacques Kahn. Here show several buildings on february 1931.




The new 500 Fifth Avenue Building. February 1931.




The Empire State Building nearby completed. March 1931.




Aerial view of Midtown Manhattan looking northeast in March 1931 with the Empire State Building dominating the new skyline.




The Chrysler Building looking east from Lincoln Building. May 1931




The Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1930-1931). 102 stories and 1250 feet high (381 meters). May 1931






The Empire State from New York Life Building looking north. May 1931.



A detail of the setbacks.


The Building, the mooring mast and the lobby.




The mooring mast




One of the first pictures taken from Empire State Building Observation Deck. Midtown Manhattan looking north. May 1931



The Empire State enlighted one week after its dedication. May 1931. Photo. The Daily News




Another great tower for the Financial District. Cross & Cross' City Bank and Farmers Trust Building. May 1931. 57 stories.




Luxury apartment skyscrapers on Riverside Drive. May 1931



The New York Public Library, in Fifth Avenue between West 40th to 42nd Street. (McKim, Mead & White, 1903-1913) surrounding by little and big skyscrapers. May 1931.




The Trinity Church and the new 52-story Art Deco style, Irving Trust Building (Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, 1931). June 1931.




More new skyscrapers for Financial District: Downtown Atlethic Club as seen from Battery Park. June 1931.




Wall Street on the Depression days: The Irving Trust Building and the New York Stock Exchange Building. June 1931




The old , 25-story New York Times Tower (1905) and the new 40-story Continental Building (1931) on the left, at background. July 1931.




The new face of the 42nd Street. Skyscrapering 42nd Street looking east from Bryant Park, showing Chrysler Building at background. July 1931



The new Empire State Building looking west from a First Avenue's building. July 1931



Sixth Avenue and East 50th Street, the future site for Rockefeller Center's RCA Building. July 1931, few weeks before the demolition works begin.





The International Style arrive in Manhattan in 1931, not in late 40's. Raymond Hood's master work. The 35-story McGraw-Hill Building, in 42nd. Street between Eight and Ninth Avenues. August 1931




Aerial view of Lower Manhattan looking northwest. September 1931. Look from left to right, the Standard Oil Building, the Barclay Vesey Building, the new Irving Trust Building, the Equitable Building, the new City Bank and Farmers Trust Tower and behing it, the Bank of Manhattan Building at 40 Wall Street, the 60 Wall Tower (Cities Service Tower or American International Building) under construction, and behind it, can see the Transportation and Woolworth Building. On the shoreline, the zigurat skyscarper is the 120 Wall Street Building, completed in 1930, and the far right, at background can see the Municipal Building.

In United States, specially, in New York, skyscrapers were built very quicky, and a few months, Manhattan skyline were frecuently changing.




The McGraw-Hill Building from the Eight Avenue. September 1931.




The new look of Financial District. Here looking east from Hudson River. November 1931.




Lower Manhattan's Financial District and Madison Square Park's skyscrapers from Empire State Building's 102 floor Observation Deck. November 1931.




View of Rockefeller Center under construction looking west. November 1931.



Construction works start on Rockefeller Center. Excavation for the RCA Building and steel skeleton for the RKO Building and Radio City Music Hall, as seen from 444 Madison Avenue (former Newsweek) Building. December 1931.



Midtown Manhattan looking southwest from River House. December 1931. Photo. Samuel Gottscho (Gottscho-Schleisner).




If do you have any picture or comentary about the city in 1931 or early 1930s, please show here.

[Derek2k3]

It's very hard to like modernism after reviewing this thread. Shows how far everything has fallen.