The Empire State Building
By: Alec Winsor
The Empire State Building is a 103 story tall skyscraper located in Manhattan, NY. It stood as the worlds tallest building from 1931 to 1970, almost 40 years. The building now only the 23rd tallest, but it has been named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. John Jacob Raskob, former Vice President of General Motors, wanted to build a scyscraper of his own, so he, along with his partners, purchased a piece of property at the corner of 34th street and Fifth Avenue of 16 million. It's overall cost to date is $629 million with inflation and deflation accounted for, but $40,948,900 in actual dollars.
The design of the Empire State Building was created by William F. Lamb, who worked for the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, the blueprints for the were created in just 2 weeks. Lamb's mission was to make the building as tall as he could without it falling over. With the plans developed, a race between Lamb and Walter Chrysler had begun, Chrysler working on the Chrysler Building. Both architects planned to make their respective buildings the tallest in the world. Lamb thought that 80 stories would make it the tallest but then the Chrysler went higher. They then lifted the building 5 stories, but it was only 4 feet taller than the rival building. Raskob was worried that Chrysler would pull a trick, like putting a rod in the spire and then pulling it out at the last minute, so he needed to come up with a plan to counter this. The plan was to make a "hat" for it, which could also be used as a docking station for airships in the future. This won Raskoba and Lamb the scyscraper race, the Empire State Building ended up being over 1,250 feet tall and the Chrysler Building was 1,046 feet.
The design of the Empire State Building was created by William F. Lamb, who worked for the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, the blueprints for the were created in just 2 weeks. Lamb's mission was to make the building as tall as he could without it falling over. With the plans developed, a race between Lamb and Walter Chrysler had begun, Chrysler working on the Chrysler Building. Both architects planned to make their respective buildings the tallest in the world. Lamb thought that 80 stories would make it the tallest but then the Chrysler went higher. They then lifted the building 5 stories, but it was only 4 feet taller than the rival building. Raskob was worried that Chrysler would pull a trick, like putting a rod in the spire and then pulling it out at the last minute, so he needed to come up with a plan to counter this. The plan was to make a "hat" for it, which could also be used as a docking station for airships in the future. This won Raskoba and Lamb the scyscraper race, the Empire State Building ended up being over 1,250 feet tall and the Chrysler Building was 1,046 feet.
Sources:
- http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/empirestatebldg.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building
