Empire State Building Essay: Successful?
The Empire State Building
The empire state building is an iconic American building and landmark based in Manhattan, New York City. It is 102 stories high and has a total height of 443.2 m. The building is 80 years old, with construction starting in 1929 and completing in 1931. The history of the building is extremely interesting and actually stemmed from a competition between two rival motor companies; General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation in a race to build the world’s tallest sky scraper in New York City. The empire state building was based upon the drawings of a smaller construction known as the Reynolds Building by the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. The construction of the building was financed by two leading directors in the firm General Motors, John. J Raskob and Pierre. S.Du Pont . It is widely believed that the competition between the two companies to build the world tallest building was to highlight their wealth and pit their wits against one another. It cost general motors around $41 million to build which is the equivalent to $550 million in today’s economy. The ownership of the building has changed many times over the years but it is currently owned by a holding company known as Empire State Building Associates with over two thousand investors owning a stake in the company.
The original general contractor for the build was a company called The Starrett Brothers and Eken but the building actually required over 3000 workers during its construction. The first excavation of the site and the laying of the foundations began on January 21st 1929 and the building was opened on May 1st 1931, just 410 days after construction began. Upon its opening, The Empire State building became the world’s tallest building, surpassing the already completed Chrysler Building, and held this tile for four decades until the opening of the world trade centre in 1972.
The reason that the building was constructed in such a short period of time, when you
The empire state building is an iconic American building and landmark based in Manhattan, New York City. It is 102 stories high and has a total height of 443.2 m. The building is 80 years old, with construction starting in 1929 and completing in 1931. The history of the building is extremely interesting and actually stemmed from a competition between two rival motor companies; General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation in a race to build the world’s tallest sky scraper in New York City. The empire state building was based upon the drawings of a smaller construction known as the Reynolds Building by the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. The construction of the building was financed by two leading directors in the firm General Motors, John. J Raskob and Pierre. S.Du Pont . It is widely believed that the competition between the two companies to build the world tallest building was to highlight their wealth and pit their wits against one another. It cost general motors around $41 million to build which is the equivalent to $550 million in today’s economy. The ownership of the building has changed many times over the years but it is currently owned by a holding company known as Empire State Building Associates with over two thousand investors owning a stake in the company.
The original general contractor for the build was a company called The Starrett Brothers and Eken but the building actually required over 3000 workers during its construction. The first excavation of the site and the laying of the foundations began on January 21st 1929 and the building was opened on May 1st 1931, just 410 days after construction began. Upon its opening, The Empire State building became the world’s tallest building, surpassing the already completed Chrysler Building, and held this tile for four decades until the opening of the world trade centre in 1972.
The reason that the building was constructed in such a short period of time, when you
References: BIBLOGRAPHY Books – John Tauranac - The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark (1997) Thames & Hudson – Art Deco Complete: The Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920’s and 1930’s (2009) Deborah Hopkinson – Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building (2006) Ralph Morton (Revised version by Andrew Ross) - Construction UK Introduction to the Industry 2nd Edition (2008) Websites – www.esbnyc.com – official website of the empire state building. www.ask.com – General knowledge regarding facts about the Empire State Building.