Empire State Building - Wikipedia

Empire State Building

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. National Historic Landmark

NYC Landmark

Location: 350 Fifth AvenueNew York, NewYork 10118

UnitedStates[1]

Coordinates: 40°44′54.36″N73°59′08.36″W

Architect: Shreve, Lamb andHarmon

Architectural style(s): Art Deco

Added to NRHP: November 17,1982[2]

Designated NHL: June 24, 1986[3]

Designated NYCL: May 19, 1981

NRHP Reference#: 82001192

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Decoskyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue andWest 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for NewYork, The Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building formore than 40 years, from its completion in 1931 until construction ofthe World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972.Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, theEmpire State Building again became the tallest building in New YorkCity.

The Empire State Building has been named by the American Societyof Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the ModernWorld. The building and its street floor interior are designatedlandmarks of the New York City Landmarks PreservationCommission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of

Estimate.[4] It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in

1986.[3][5][6] In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List ofAmerica's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. The building

is owned and managed by W&H Properties.[7]

The Empire State Building is the third tallest skyscraper in theAmericas (after the Willis Tower and Trump International Hotel andTower both in Chicago), and the 15th tallest in the world. It is alsothe fourth tallest freestanding structure in the Americas. The EmpireState building is currently undergoing a $550 million renovation,with $120 million utilized in an effort to transform the building into a

more energy efficient and eco-friendly structure.[8]

1 History1.1 Design and construction

2 Architecture2.1 Floodlights2.2 Opening2.3 Dirigible (airship) terminal2.4 1945 plane crash2.5 Height records and comparisons2.6 Suicides2.7 Shootings2.8 Observation decks

Coordinates: 40°44′54.36″N 73°59′08.36″W

Empire State Building - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building

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A worker bolts beams during construction;the Chrysler Building can be seen in the

background.

2.9 New York Skyride

3 Broadcast stations4 Empire State Building Run-Up5 In popular culture6 Tenants7 Gallery8 See also9 References

9.1 Notes9.2 Further reading

10 External links

The site of the Empire State Building was first developed as the John Thompson Farm in the late 18th

century.[9] At the time, a stream ran across the site, emptying into Sunfish Pond, located a block away.Beginning in the late 19th century the block was occupied by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, frequented by TheFour Hundred, the social elite of New York.

Design and construction

The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lambfrom the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, whichproduced the building drawings in just two weeks, using itsearlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem,North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio(designed by the architectural firm W.W. Ahlschlager &

Associates) as a basis.[citation needed] Every year the staff of theEmpire State Building sends a Father's Day card to the staff atthe Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem to pay homage to its

role as predecessor to the Empire State Building.[10][11] The

building was designed from the top down.[12] The generalcontractors were The Starrett Brothers and Eken, and theproject was financed primarily by John J. Raskob and Pierre S.du Pont. The construction company was chaired by Alfred E.Smith, a former Governor of New York and James Farley'sGeneral Builders Supply Corporation supplied the building

materials.[13] John W. Bowser was project construction superintendent.[14][15][16]

Excavation of the site began on January 22, 1930, and construction on the building itself started symbolically onMarch 17—St.Patrick's Day—per Al Smith's influence as Empire State, Inc. president. The project involved3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with hundreds of Mohawk iron workers, many from theKahnawake reserve near Montreal. According to official accounts, five workers died during the

construction.[17] Governor Smith's grandchildren cut the ribbon on May 1, 1931. Lewis Wickes Hine'sphotography of the construction provides not only invaluable documentation of the construction, but also a

glimpse into common day life of workers in that era.[18]


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Street level view of the EmpireState Building

The construction was part of an intense competition in New York for the title of "world's tallest building". Twoother projects fighting for the title, 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, were still under construction whenwork began on the Empire State Building. Each held the title for less than a year, as the Empire State Buildingsurpassed them upon its completion, just 410 days after construction commenced. The building was officiallyopened on May 1, 1931 in dramatic fashion, when United States President Herbert Hoover turned on thebuilding's lights with the push of a button from Washington, D.C. Ironically, the first use of tower lights atop theEmpire State Building, the following year, was for the purpose of signaling the victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt

over Hoover in the presidential election of November 1932.[19]

The Empire State Building rises to 1,250 ft (381 m) at the 102nd floor,and including the 203 ft (62 m) pinnacle, its full height reaches

1,453 ft–89⁄16 in (443.09 m). The building has 85 stories of commercial

and office space representing 2,158,000 sq ft (200,500 m2). It has anindoor and outdoor observation deck on the 86th floor. The remaining 16stories represent the Art Deco tower, which is capped by a 102nd-floorobservatory. Atop the tower is the 203 ft (62 m) pinnacle, much ofwhich is covered by broadcast antennas, with a lightning rod at the verytop.

The Empire State Building was the first building to have more than 100floors. It has 6,500 windows and 73 elevators, and there are 1,860 stepsfrom street level to the 102nd floor. It has a total floor area of

2,768,591 sq ft (257,211 m2); the base of the Empire State Building is

about 2 acres (8,094 m2). The building houses 1,000 businesses, and hasits own zip code, 10118. As of 2007, approximately 21,000 employeeswork in the building each day, making the Empire State Building thesecond-largest single office complex in America, after the Pentagon. Thebuilding was completed in one year and 45 days. Its original 64 elevatorsare located in a central core; today, the Empire State Building has 73 elevators in all, including service elevators.It takes less than one minute by elevator to get to the 86th floor, where an observation deck is located. The

building has 70 mi (113 km) of pipe, 2,500,000 ft (760,000 m) of electrical wire,[20] and about 9,000 faucets.[citation needed] It is heated by low-pressure steam; despite its height, the building only requires between 2 and 3psi (14 and 21 kPa) of steam pressure for heating. It weighs approximately 370,000 short tons (340,000 t). Theexterior of the building was built using Indiana limestone panels.

The Empire State Building cost $40,948,900 to build.[21]


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A series of setbacks causes thebuilding to taper with height.

Unlike most of today's skyscrapers, the Empire State Building featuresan art deco design, typical of pre-World War II architecture in NewYork. The modernistic stainless steel canopies of the entrances on 33rdand 34th Streets lead to two story-high corridors around the elevatorcore, crossed by stainless steel and glass-enclosed bridges at the

second-floor level. The elevator core contains 67 elevators.[4]

The lobby is three stories high and features an aluminum relief of theskyscraper without the antenna, which was not added to the spire until1952. The north corridor contains eight illuminated panels, created byRoy Sparkia and Renée Nemorov in 1963, depicting the building as theEighth Wonder of the World, alongside the traditional seven.

Long-term forecasting of the life cycle of the structure was implemented at the design phase to ensure that thebuilding's future intended uses were not restricted by the requirements of previous generations. This isparticularly evident in the over-design of the building's electrical system.

Floodlights

In 1964, floodlights were added to illuminate the top of the building atnight, in colors chosen to match seasonal and other events, such as St.

Patrick's Day, Christmas, Independence Day or Bastille Day.[22]

After the eightieth birthday and subsequent death of Frank Sinatra,for example, the building was bathed in blue light to represent thesinger's nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes". After the death of actress FayWray (King Kong) in late 2004, the building stood in complete

darkness for 15 minutes.[23]

The floodlights bathed the building in red, white, and blue for severalmonths after the destruction of the World Trade Center, then reverted

to the standard schedule.[24] On June 4, 2002, the Empire StateBuilding donned purple and gold (the royal colours of QueenElizabeth II), in thanks for the United Kingdom playing the StarSpangled Banner during the Changing of the Guard at BuckinghamPalace on September 12, 2001 (a show of support after the September

11th Attacks).[25] This would also be shown after the WestminsterDog Show. Traditionally, in addition to the standard schedule, thebuilding will be lit in the colors of New York's sports teams on thenights they have home games (orange, blue and white for the New York Knicks, red, white and blue for the NewYork Rangers, and so on). The first weekend in June finds the building bathed in green light for the BelmontStakes held in nearby Belmont Park. The building is illuminated in tennis-ball yellow during the US Open tennistournament in late August and early September. It was twice lit in scarlet to support nearby Rutgers University:once for a football game against the University of Louisville on November 9, 2006, and again on April 3, 2007

when the women's basketball team played in the national championship game.[26]


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Empire State Building with normalwhite lighting, as seen from New

Jersey

In 1995, the building was lit up in blue, red, green and yellow for therelease of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, which was

launched with a $300 million campaign.[27]

The building has also been known to be illuminated in purple and white

in honor of graduating students from New York University.[24]

Every year in September, the building is lit in black, red, and yellow,with the top lights off (for black) to celebrate the German-American

Steuben Parade on Fifth Avenue.[28]

The building was lit green for three days in honor of the Islamic holidayof Eid ul-Fitr in October 2007. The lighting, the first for a Muslim

holiday, is intended to be an annual event[29] and was repeated in 2008and 2009. In December 2007, the building was lit yellow to signify the home video release of The Simpsons

Movie.[30]

From April 25—27, 2008 the building was lit in lavender, pink, and white in celebration of international popdiva Mariah Carey's accomplishments in the world of music and the release of her eleventh studio album

E=MC2.[citation needed]

In late October 2008, the building was lit green in honor of the fifth anniversary of the acclaimed Broadway

Musical Wicked by Kerry Ellis and Stephen Schwartz.[31]

Starting in 2008, the building along with New York City and many other cities around the world, participated inEarth Hour. The skyscraper's floodlights were turned off for exactly an hour to conserve energy.

In September 2009, the building was lit for one night in orange colors, in celebration of the exploration ofManhattan Island by Henry Hudson 400 years earlier. The Dutch Prince Willem-Alexander and his wifePrincess Máxima were present and turned on the lights from the lobby.

In 2009, the building was lit for one night in red and yellow, the colors of the People's Republic of China, tocelebrate the 60 years since its founding.

On July 20, 2010, the building was lit with Colombia's colors, yellow, blue and red, to mark the bicentenary ofColombian independence. It was arranged by the Consulate of Colombia in New York.

Opening


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Empire State Building, seen fromthe GE Building

The building's opening coincided with the Great Depression in the UnitedStates, and as a result much of its office space went without beingrented. The building's vacancy was exacerbated by its poor location on34th Street, which placed it relatively far from public transportation, asGrand Central Terminal, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and PennStation are all several blocks away. Other more successful skyscrapers,such as the Chrysler Building, do not have this problem. In its first yearof operation, the observation deck took in approximately 2 milliondollars, as much money as its owners made in rent that year. The lack ofrenters led New Yorkers to deride the building as the "Empty State

Building".[32][33] The building would not become profitable until 1950.The famous 1951 sale of The Empire State Building to Roger L. Stevensand his business partners was brokered by the prominent upperManhattan real-estate firm Charles F. Noyes & Company for a record$51 million. At the time, that was the highest price ever paid for a single

structure in real-estate history.[34]

Dirigible (airship) terminal

The building's distinctive Art Deco spire was originally designed to be a mooring mast and depot for dirigibles.

The 102nd floor was originally a landing platform with a dirigible gangplank.[35] A particular elevator, travelingbetween the 86th and 102nd floors, was supposed to transport passengers after they checked in at theobservation deck on the 86th floor. However, the idea proved to be impractical and dangerous after a few

attempts with airships, due to the powerful updrafts caused by the size of the building itself.[36] A large

broadcast tower was added to the top of the spire in 1953.[35]

1945 plane crash

Main article: B-25 Empire State Building crash

At 9:40 a.m.on Saturday, July 28, 1945, a B-25 Mitchell bomber, piloted in thick fog by Lieutenant Colonel

William Franklin Smith, Jr.,[37] crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 79th and80th floors, where the offices of the National Catholic Welfare Council were located. One engine shot throughthe side opposite the impact and flew as far as the next block where it landed on the roof of a nearby building,starting a fire that destroyed a penthouse. The other engine and part of the landing gear plummeted down an

elevator shaft. The resulting fire was extinguished in 40 minutes. 14 people were killed in the incident.[38][39]

Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the

Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded.[40] Despite the damage and loss of life,the building was open for business on many floors on the following Monday. The crash helped spur the passageof the long-pending Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, as well as the insertion of retroactive provisions into the

law, allowing people to sue the government for the accident.[41]

A year later, another aircraft had a close encounter with the skyscraper. It narrowly missed striking the

building.[42]

Height records and comparisons


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Height comparison of buildings in New YorkCity (existing and under construction)

The Empire State Building remained the tallest man-madestructure in the world for 23 years before it was surpassedby the Griffin Television Tower Oklahoma (KWTV Mast) in1954. It was also the tallest free-standing structure in theworld for 36 years before it was surpassed by the OstankinoTower in 1967.

The longest world record held by the Empire State Buildingwas for the tallest skyscraper (to structural height), which itheld for 42 years until it was surpassed by the North Towerof the World Trade Center in 1973. With the destruction ofthe World Trade Center in the September 11, 2001 attacks,the Empire State Building again became the tallest buildingin New York City, and the second-tallest building in theAmericas, currently surpassed only by the Willis Tower in Chicago. When measured by pinnacle height, theEmpire State Building is currently the third-tallest building in the Americas, surpassed only by the Willis Towerand the Trump International Hotel and Tower.

One World Trade Center, currently under construction in New York City, is expected to exceed the height ofthe Empire State Building upon completion. It will be 1,776 feet (541 m) tall, becoming the tallest building in thecity, the country and the Americas.

Suicides

Over the years, more than thirty people have committed suicide from the top of the building.[43] The firstsuicide occurred even before its completion, by a worker who had been laid off. The fence around the

observatory terrace was put up in 1947 after five people tried to jump during a three-week span.[44]

On May 1, 1947, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the 86th floor observation deck andlanded on a United Nations limousine parked at the curb. Photography student Robert Wiles took a photo ofMcHale's oddly intact corpse a few minutes after her death. The police found a suicide note among possessionsshe left on the observation deck: "He is much better off without me … I wouldn’t make a good wife for

anybody". The photo ran in the May 12, 1947 edition of LIFE Magazine[45] and is often referred to as "TheMost Beautiful Suicide". It was later used by visual artist Andy Warhol in one of his paintings entitled Suicide(Fallen Body).

On December 2, 1979, Elvita Adams jumped from the 86th floor, only to be blown back onto the 85th floor and

left with a broken hip.[46][47][48][49]

Shootings

Main article: 1997 Empire State Building shooting

On February 24, 1997, a Palestinian gunman shot seven people on the observation deck, killing one, then fatallywounding himself.

Observation decks


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View from Macy's

The Empire State Building has one of the most popular outdoor observatories in the world, having been visitedby over 110 million people. The 86th-floor observation deck offers impressive 360-degree views of the city.There is a second observation deck on the 102nd floor that is open to the public. It was closed in 1999, butreopened in November 2005. It is completely enclosed and much smaller than the first one; it may be closed onhigh-traffic days. Tourists may pay to visit the observation deck on the 86th floor and an additional amount for

the 102nd floor.[50] The lines to enter the observation decks, according to the building's website, are "aslegendary as the building itself:" there are five of them: the sidewalk line, the lobby elevator line, the ticket

purchase line, the second elevator line, and the line to get off the elevator and onto the observation deck.[51] For

an extra fee tourists can skip to the front of the line.[50]

The skyscraper's observation deck plays host to several cinematic, television, and literary classics including, AnAffair To Remember, Love Affair and Sleepless in Seattle. In the Latin American literary work Empire ofDreams by Giannina Braschi the observation deck is the site of a pastoral revolution; shepherds take over theCity of New York. The deck was also the site of a Martian invasion on an old episode of I Love Lucy.

A panoramic view of New York City from the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, spring2005

New York Skyride

The Empire State Building also has a motion simulator attraction, locatedon the 2nd floor. Opened in 1994 as a complement to the observationdeck, the New York Skyride (or NY Skyride) is a simulated aerial tourover the city. The theatrical presentation lasts approximately 25 minutes.

Since its opening, the ride has gone through two incarnations. Theoriginal version, which ran from 1994 until around 2002, featured JamesDoohan, Star Trek's Scotty, as the airplane's pilot, who humorously triedto keep the flight under control during a storm, with the tour taking anunexpected route through the subway, Coney Island, and FAO Schwartz,among other places. After September 11, however, the ride was closed,and an updated version debuted in mid-2002 with actor Kevin Bacon asthe pilot. The new version of the narration attempted to make theattraction more educational, and included some minor post-9/11 patrioticundertones with retrospective footage of the World Trade Center. Thenew flight also goes haywire, but this segment is much shorter than in theoriginal.


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Communications devices forbroadcast stations are located at

the top of the Empire StateBuilding.

New York City is the largest media market in the United States. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, nearly allof the city's commercial broadcast stations (both television and FM radio) have transmitted from the top of theEmpire State Building, although a few FM stations are located at the nearby Condé Nast Building. Most NewYork City AM stations broadcast from just across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

Broadcasting began at Empire on December 22, 1931, when RCA begantransmitting experimental television broadcasts from a small antennaerected atop the spire. They leased the 85th floor and built a laboratorythere, and—in 1934—RCA was joined by Edwin Howard Armstrong in acooperative venture to test his FM system from the Empire antenna. WhenArmstrong and RCA fell out in 1935 and his FM equipment was removed,the 85th floor became the home of RCA's New York television operations,first as experimental station W2XBS channel 1, which eventually became(on July 1, 1941) commercial station WNBT, channel 1 (now WNBC-TVchannel 4). NBC's FM station (WEAF-FM, now WQHT) began transmittingfrom the antenna in 1940. NBC retained exclusive use of the top of Empireuntil 1950, when the FCC ordered the exclusive deal broken, based onconsumer complaints that a common location was necessary for the (now)

seven New York television stations to transmit from so that receiving antennas would not have to be constantlyadjusted. Construction on a giant tower began. Other television broadcasters then joined RCA at Empire, on the83rd, 82nd, and 81st floors, frequently bringing sister FM stations along for the ride. Multiple transmissions ofTV and FM began from the new tower in 1951. In 1965, a separate set of FM antennas was constructed ringingthe 103rd floor observation area. When the World Trade Center was being constructed, it caused seriousproblems for the television stations, most of which then moved to the World Trade Center as soon as it wascompleted. This made it possible to renovate the antenna structure and the transmitter facilities for the benefit ofthe FM stations remaining there, which were soon joined by other FMs and UHF TVs moving in from elsewherein the metropolitan area. The destruction of the World Trade Center necessitated a great deal of shuffling ofantennas and transmitter rooms to accommodate the stations moving back uptown.

As of 2009, the Empire State Building is home to the following stations:

TV: WCBS-TV 2, WNBC-TV 4, WNYW 5, WABC-TV 7, WWOR-TV 9 Secaucus, WPIX-TV 11, WNET13 Newark, WNYE-TV 25, WPXN-TV 31, WXTV 41 Paterson, WNJU 47 Linden, and WFUT-TV 68NewarkFM: WXRK 92.3, WPAT-FM 93.1 Paterson, WNYC-FM 93.9, WPLJ 95.5, WXNY 96.3, WQHT-FM97.1, WSKQ-FM 97.9, WRKS-FM 98.7, WBAI 99.5, WHTZ 100.3 Newark, WCBS-FM 101.1, WRXP101.9, WWFS 102.7, WKTU 103.5 Lake Success, WAXQ 104.3, WWPR-FM 105.1, WQXR-FM 105.9Newark, WLTW 106.7, and WBLS 107.5

The Empire State Building Run-Up is a foot race from ground level to the 86th-floor observation deck that hasbeen held annually since 1978. Its participants are referred to both as runners and as climbers, and are oftentower running enthusiasts. The race covers a vertical distance of 1,050 feet (320 m) and takes in 1,576 steps.The record time is 9 minutes and 33 seconds, achieved by Australian professional cyclist Paul Crake in

2003,[52][53] at a climbing rate of 6,593 ft (2,010 m) per hour.


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1933 Movie poster for King Kong

Film

Perhaps the most famous popular culture representation of thebuilding is in the 1933 film King Kong, in which the titlecharacter, a giant ape, climbs to the top to escape his captorsbut falls to his death. In 1983, for the 50th anniversary of thefilm, an inflatable King Kong was placed on the actual building.In 2005, a remake of King Kong was released, set in 1930sNew York City, including a final showdown between Kong andbi-planes atop a greatly detailed Empire State Building. (The1976 remake of King Kong was set in a contemporary NewYork City and held its climactic scene on the towers of theWorld Trade Center.)The 1939 romantic drama film Love Affair involves a couplewho plan to meet atop the Empire State Building, a rendezvousthat is averted by an automobile accident. The film was remadein 1957 (as An Affair to Remember) and in 1994 (again as LoveAffair). The 1993 film Sleepless in Seattle, a romantic comedypartially inspired by An Affair to Remember, climaxes with ascene at the Empire State observatory.Andy Warhol's 1964 silent film Empire is one continuous,eight-hour shot of the Empire State Building at night, shot inblack-and-white. In 2004, the National Film Registry deemedits cultural significance worthy of preservation in the Library ofCongress.

The film Independence Day features the Empire State Buildingas the focal point for the aliens' attack on New York City. Thebuilding is destroyed in an extraordinary explosion by thealiens' primary weapon, which proceeds to destroy the entirecity.

Many other movies that feature the Empire State Building are listed on the building's own website.[54]

In the film Knowing a massive solar flare incinerates the Earth. In the movie's destruction sequence ofNew York City, the Empire State Building can be seen crumbling as it is engulfed by the wall of flames.In the film When Worlds Collide, the Empire State Building is depicted as one of the few remainingbuildings standing after New York City has flooded due to the passing of another planet.In the film The Day After Tomorrow, the Empire State Building can be seen freezing over during asuperstorm that creates another ice age.In the film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Mount Olympus is located over theEmpire State Building, and there is a special elevator in the building to the "600th floor," which issupposed to be Olympus, just like in the book series.

Television

The Empire State Building featured in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Chase, in which the TARDIS landson the roof of the building; The Doctor and his companions leave quite quickly, however, because TheDaleks are close behind them. A Dalek is also seen on the roof of the building while it interrogates ahuman. In 2007, Doctor Who episodes "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks" alsofeatured the building, which the Daleks are constructing to use as a lightning conductor. Russell T Davies


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said in an article that "in his mind", the Daleks remembered the building from their last visit.The Discovery Channel show MythBusters tested the urban myth which claims that if one drops a pennyoff the top of the Empire State Building, it could kill someone or put a crater in the pavement. Theoutcome was that, by the time the penny hits the ground, it is going roughly 65 mph (105 km/h) (terminalvelocity for an object of its mass and shape), which is not fast enough to inflict lethal injury or put a craterinto the pavement. The urban legend is a joke in the 2003 musical Avenue Q, where a character waitingatop the building for a rendezvous tosses a penny over the side—only to hit her rival.

Literature

H.G. Wells' 1933 science fiction book The Shape of Things to Come, written in the form of a history bookpublished in the far future, includes the following passage: "Up to quite recently Lower New York hasbeen the most old-fashioned city in the world, unique in its gloomy antiquity. The last of the ancient

skyscrapers, the Empire State Building, is even now under demolition in C.E. 2106!".[55]

In the science fiction novel The Rebel of Rhada by Robert Cham Gilman (Alfred Coppel), taking place ata decayed galactic empire of the far future, New York is an ancient city which was destroyed and rebuiltcountless times. Its highest and most ancient building, covered with piled-up ruins up to half its height, isknown simply as "The Empire Tower", but is obviously the Empire State Building.David Macaulay's 1980 illustrated book Unbuilding depicts the Empire State Building being purchased bya Middle Eastern billionaire and disassembled piece by piece, to be transported to his home country andrebuilt there.The Empire State Building is featured prominently as both a setting and integral plot device throughoutmuch of Michael Chabon's 2000 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier &Clay.In the Percy Jackson book series, Mount Olympus is located over the Empire State Building, and there isa special elevator in the building to the "600th floor," which is supposed to be Olympus.

Notable tenants of the building include:

Alitalia, Suite 3700[56][57][58]

Croatian National Tourist Board, Suite

4003[56][59]

Filipino Reporter, Suite 601[56][60]

Human Rights Watch, 34th Floor[56][61]

Polish Cultural Institute in New York, Suite

4621[56][62]

Senegal Tourist Office, Suite 3118[63]

TAROM, Suite 1410[56][64]

The King's College, Suite 1500[65]

Former tenants include:

[56] (now located at 370 Lexington Avenue)[66]

National Film Board of Canada[56] (now located at

1123 Broadway)[67]

Nathaniel Branden Institute [68]


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View from WeehawkenA view upward of theEmpire State Buildingfrom Broadway

Empire State Buildingwith red and greenlights for Christmas, asseen from GE Building

Looking up Looking downLooking towards TimesSquare

Art deco elevators inthe lobby

Panoramic view ofMidtown Manhattanfrom observation deck

The Empire StateBuilding lights up inyellow and red duringthe 60th anniversary ofthe PRC

World's tallest free standing structure on landHistory of tallest skyscrapersList of skyscrapersList of tallest buildings by U.S. stateList of buildings with 100 floors or more


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Notes

^ The Empire State Building is located within the10001 zip code area, but 10118 is assigned as thebuilding's own zip code. Source: USPS.

1.

^ "National Register Information System"(http://www.nr.nps.gov/) . National Register ofHistoric Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23.http://www.nr.nps.gov/.

2.

^ a b "Empire State Building" (http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1842&ResourceType=Building) . National HistoricLandmark summary listing. National Park Service.2007-09-11. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1842&ResourceType=Building.

3.

^ a b White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot. AIA Guideto New York City (4th ed.) New York: Three RiversPress, 2000. ISBN 0-8129-3107-6. p.226.

4.

^ Carolyn Pitts (April 26, 1985). "Empire StateBuilding"" (http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/82001192.pdf) (PDF). National HistoricLandmark Nomination. National Park Service.http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/82001192.pdf.

5.

^ "Empire State Building—Accompanying 7 photos,exterior and interior, from 1978."(http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/82001192.pdf) (PDF). National Register of HistoricPlaces Inventory. National Park Service.1985-04-26. http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/82001192.pdf.

6.

^ W&H Properties – Empire State Building(http://www.esbnycleasing.com)

7.

^ 2009 ULI Fall Meeting & Urban Land Expo -Green Retrofit: What Is Making This the Wave of theFuture? (http://www.esbsustainability.com/SocMe/Content/Files/ULI_Deck_103109.pdf)

8.

^ [1] (http://www.esbnyc.com/tourism/tourism_history_timeline.cfm)

9.

^ Reynolds Building (http://www.allbusiness.com/construction/construction-buildings/167637-1.html) .Retrieved November 15, 2008.

10.

^ Cincinnati Skyscrapers, Waymarketing.com(http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3HKE)

11.

^ "Thirteen Months to Go", Geraldine B. Wagner,2003, Quintet Publishing Ltd., pg. 32

12.

^ Willis, Carol (1995). "Empire State Building". inKenneth T. Jackson. The Encyclopedia of New YorkCity. New Haven, CT & London & New York: YaleUniversity Press & The New-York HistoricalSociety. pp. 375–376.

13.

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Further reading

Aaseng, Nathan. (1999). Construction: Building the Impossible. Minneapolis, MN: Oliver Press. ISBN1-881-50859-5.Bascomb, Neal. (2003). Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City. New York:Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-50660-0.Goldman, Jonathan. (1980). The Empire State Building Book. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN0-312-24455-X.James, Theodore, Jr. (1975). The Empire State Building. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN0-060-12172-6.Kingwell, Mark. (2006). Nearest Thing to Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10622-X.Pacelle, Mitchell. (2001). Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon.New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-40394-6.Tauranac, John. (1995). The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark. New York: Scribner.ISBN 0-684-19678-6.Wagner, Geraldine B. (2003). Thirteen Months to Go: The Creation of the Empire State Building. San


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Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press. ISBN 1-592-23105-5.Willis, Carol (ed). (1998). Building the Empire State. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-73030-1.

Empire State Building official Web site (http://www.esbnyc.com/)Commercial Construction.com (http://www.commercialconstruction.com/construction-articles/empire-state-building.asp)Lighting Schedule (http://www.esbnyc.com/tourism/tourism_lightingschedule.cfm)Empire State Building Green Retrofit (http://knowledge.allianz.com/en/globalissues/energy_co2/energy_efficiency/empire_state_building_retrofit.html)Empire State Building Trivia (http://manhattan.about.com/od/historyandlandmarks/a/empirestate.htm/)Empire State Building Information (http://www.empirestatebuildingnewyork.com/)The Construction of the Empire State Building, 1930–1931 (http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=131032) , New York Public LibraryVIVA2 (http://www.skyscraper.org/viva2/) , The Skyscraper Museum's online archive of over 500construction photographs of the Empire State Building.NYC Insider Guide (http://www.nycinsiderguide.com/Empire-State-Building.html) Visitor information.Empire State Building (http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0000022) at Structurae

Records

Preceded byChrysler Building

World's tallest structure1931 – 1954

Succeeded byKWTV Mast

World's tallest freestanding structure onland

1931 – 1967

Succeeded byOstankino Tower

Tallest building in the world1931 – 1972

Succeeded byWorld Trade Center

Tallest building in the United States1931 – 1972

Tallest building in New York City1931 – 1972

Preceded byWorld Trade Center

Tallest building in New York City2001 – present Incumbent

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building"Categories: 1931 architecture | Accidents involving fog | Art Deco buildings in New York City | Fifth Avenue(Manhattan) | Former world's tallest buildings | National Historic Landmarks in New York City | Office buildingsin New York City | Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan |Skyscrapers in New York City | Skyscrapers over 350 meters | Visitor attractions in New York City | Officebuildings in Manhattan | Art Deco skyscrapers | Family businesses

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Empire State Building - Wikipedia