Empire State Building
Art Deco skyscraper of 1931 with observatories on the 86th and 102nd floors and a museum gallery.
Designed by William F. Lamb of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon for a syndicate led by John J. Raskob, the Empire State Building rose on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Construction took just over a year, from March 1930 to opening on 1 May 1931, at an average of more than four storeys a week. The limestone and granite shaft steps back above a five-storey base and terminates in an Art Deco crown and mooring mast, originally intended for airships. At 1,250 feet to the roof, it was the tallest building in the world until 1970.
Much of the ground floor remained unlet through the 1930s, earning the nickname the Empty State Building, but the observatories were profitable from the start. The lobby's aluminium and gold-leaf ceiling mural was restored in 2009, and a redesigned visitor route completed in 2019 added a second-floor museum with models, film and archival material before the lifts to the 86th-floor outdoor deck and the enclosed 102nd-floor observatory. The tower's floodlighting, in use since 1976, changes colour to mark occasions throughout the year.
Highlights
- Open-air 86th-floor deck and glazed 102nd-floor observatory
- Restored aluminium and gold-leaf ceiling mural in the lobby
- Second-floor museum on the building's design and construction
- Tower lights, changed to mark dates and causes since 1976
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