The world wide well known skyscraper the “Empire State Building” is 102 story high and is located in New York City (In Manhattan / Midtown). With a roof height of 381 meter (that’s 1250 feet) it is one of the tallest buildings of Manhattan. In addition one should add the antenna on top. This brings the Empire State Building to a total height of 443.2 meter or 1454 feet.
Jump right into the topics:
- Building and Designing the Empire State Building
- The great Opening of the Empire State Building
- The Owner
- One famous Incident
- facts
- Observation Deck
- Tickets
- Awards
Possibly you already the nickname for New York: the Empire State! The name of the tower derived from that. For nearly 40 years it held the record for the world’s tallest building. From the completion of the Empire State building it should take 40 years to late 1970 when the original World Trade Center’s North tower was topped out.
After the horrible September 11 attacks in the year 2001, the Empire State Building was the tallest building and skyscraper in New York again. Until the new build One World Trade Center reached higher than the Empire State Building in April 2012.
Currently the Empire State Building is he fifth tallest skyscraper in the USA and the number 34 in the international world ranks (by time of writing this post). Also it is counted as the number 5 in the tallest freestanding structure in America. It is clear that the tall skyscraper is an American cultural icon. It is designed in a very distinctive Art Deco style and it is also named to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The full building is a designated landmark of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Also it was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In the Year 2007 the tall skyscraper was ranking at number one on the AIA’s List of America’s Favorite Architecture.
Building and Designing the Empire State Building
The architecture company “Shreve, Lamb and Harmon” designed the well known structure. Namely the architect William F. Lamb was the head of the designing process. A fun fact on the side: The company produced and designed in just two weeks by copying earlier designs of the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem in North Carolina and also the Carew Tower in Cincinnati in Ohio as a basis. Also interesting: The building was designed from the top down to the ground floors and also basements. The start bell rang on January 22 in the year 1930 by starting the excavation the site. At time of construction there was an intensive competition in New York going on aiming for the title of “world’s tallest building”.
Two very other skyscraper projects were fighting for the title: The 40 wall Street and also the well known Chrysler Building. Both buildings were still under construction when the works began at the Empire State Building. Each of them held the title of the tallest building for less than one year until the new Skyscraper surpassed the two buildings (Chrysler building and 40 th wall street) on 11 April, 1931. That is just 410 days construction days. In May 1931 the Empire State Building was officially opened. The President of the united states of America Herbert Hoover turned the lights of the building on with a push of a button from Washington, D.C.
The great Opening of the Empire State Building
Unfortunately the opening of the building coincided with the known great Depression. So the new building and the offered office space was not rented initially. Also the poor location on the 34 th street did not help to rent space out in the building because it was relatively far away from Public transport. The Grand Central Terminal for example is several blocks away from the building. In the first year in operation of the skyscraper the observation deck took about 2 million dollar. That was about the same amount the building made in rent. Due to the empty building the New York citizens called the building the “Empty State Building”.
The Owner
At the moment the skyscraper is owned by a trust: the Empire State Realty Trust. In the year 2010 the Empire State Building got a 550 million dollar renovation partly spent on getting the building into a way more energy efficient and also more eco friendly. In the middle of 2016 the Qatar Investment Authority bought about 10 % of the Empire State Realty Trust investing 622 million dollar.
One famous Incident
In the year 1945 on a Saturday in July the 28 a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed in thick fog into the north side of the Empire State Building between the 79th and 80th floors. Unfortunately Fourteen people were killed in the incident. Despite the unfortunate damage and loss of life, the skyscraper was open for business on many floors on the following Monday.
Facts
The Empire State Building was the first skyscraper reaching more than 100 floors. In numbers the Structure has 6500 windows and also 73 elevators. If you choose not to use the elevator, you need to step 102 steps to get to the 192 nd floor. In total the floor area is 257211 square meter which is 2,768,591 sq ft. The plot of the Empire State Building is approx. 2 acres big (that is 8,094 square meters) Inside the building are about 1000 companies. The building has its own ZIP code: 10118. In year 2007 about 21,000 employees were working in the building. This makes the famous skyscraper the second largest single office complex in America, following the Pentagon. It takes less than one minute by using the elevator to get to the 80th floor where you find a gift shop. Stepping into the following elevator getting 86th floor. There one find the observation Deck. In all the building contains 113 kilometer of piping 762 of electrical wiring. The whole building is heated by low pressure steam. The weight of the building measured at 331,000 tons. The 103 th floor was build as a disembarkation floor for airships which would be tethered to the building’s spire.
Observation Deck
The Empire State Building Observation Deck is one of the most popular Observation Decks in the World. Over the time over 110 million people visited the deck. The observation deck on the 86th floor offers an impressive 360-degree views of the city especially Manhattan. There is also a second observation deck on the 102 nd floor which is open to the public.
Tickets for the Observation Deck
If you are interested to get onto the top of the Empire State Building Observation Deck and buy tickets. Click here: http://www.esbnyc.com/buy-tickets
Awards
The Empire State Building recieved tons of awards. If you would like to know more, click here:http://www.esbnyc.com/pr-pop-culture/awards
