Empire State Building

Design

The tower got its name from the common name of the US state of New York , which is called the "imperial state", the name can also be translated as "Imperial State Building" (the same name was given in 1897 to the 9-story building on Broadway by architects de Lemos and Cordes ^[10] ). His project was carried out by the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon ( Eng. Shreve, Lamb and Harmon ) (chief architect - William F. Lamb). The design used earlier designs for the in Winston-Salem , North Carolina and Carew Tower in Cincinnati , Ohio. There is a well-known tradition: the staff of the Empire State Building every year on Fathers Day (third Sunday of June) sends a postcard to the staff of the Reynolds Building, paying tribute to him.

Construction

The main contractors for the construction were The Starrett Brothers and Eken , funded by John Raskob and Pierre Dupont, President of DuPont .

Excavation work on the site began on January 22, 1930 , and the construction of the tower itself - March 17, on St. Patrick's Day . 3400 workers worked at the construction site , mainly emigrants from Europe, as well as several hundred steelwork installers from the Mohawk tribe, many of whom came to the construction site from the Kanavake reservation near Montreal . According to official figures, 5 workers were killed during construction ^[11] .

Photographs by photographer Lewis Vickes Hein are not only important historical sources that capture the stages of building construction, but also reflect the life and working conditions of workers. The photo on the left shows the installer sitting on a steel beam, he is a symbol of that era, as well as one of the most recognizable images associated with the Empire State Building.

The construction of the building became part of the high-rise race in New York at that time. Its competitors, participating in this race - Wall Street 40 and the Chrysler Building - were already under construction when the Empire State Building was just starting to be built. Each of the rival projects held the title of tallest building for several months, until the Empire State Building surpassed them all. It took only 410 days to build . About four and a half floors were built in a week, the “Stakhanovsky” record - 14 floors in 10 days . The official opening took place on May 1, 1931, when US President Herbert Hoover turned on the lighting of a building by pressing a button in Washington . And the very next year, the lighting on the top of the building was turned on in honor of Roosevelt’s victory over Hoover in the 1932 presidential race ^[12] .

When Governor Smith cut the ribbon at the opening of the building on May 1, 1931, the Great Depression was underway in the United States. Therefore, not all the premises were commissioned, and the building was called the “Empty State Building” ( English Empty State Building ). Ten years passed before all the premises were finally commissioned ^{[13] [14]} . The building did not generate income to the owners until 1950. Only in 1951, after selling to Roger Stevens and his partners for $ 51 million (the record price for those times for a single building), the building ceased to be unprofitable ^[15] .

Architecture

The building has 103 floors, the height of its main part is 381.3 meters. With a television tower, built in the 50s instead of a mooring mast for airships, it reaches 443 meters, and the width at the base is about 140 meters. Commercial space covers the first 85 floors of the building (257,211 m²). The remaining 16 floors are an Art Deco-style superstructure, and an observation deck is located on the 102nd floor. Empire State Building is the first building in the world to have over 100 floors. It has 6,500 windows and 73 elevators, it is built on a two-story concrete foundation, and the weighs 54,400 tons (the total weight of the building is 331,000 tons). Ten million bricks went into the facing, the area of ​​the windows was two hectares, and the foundation was more than 8 thousand m². There are 1860 steps in the stairs; competitions for the fastest climb are held annually. Elevators can transport 10,000 people in one hour. The tower has about a thousand offices for twenty-one thousand people, which makes the Empire State Building the second largest building in America after the Pentagon . The total length of pipes is 113 km, and of electric wires - 760 km ^[16] . Low pressure steam heating.

Since the skyscraper is surrounded by various business buildings, it is not completely visible from below. It is made in a restrained and elegant Art Deco style , trimmed with limestone slabs. Unlike most modern skyscrapers, the facade of the tower is made in the classical style ^[8] . Streaks of stainless steel stretch up the gray stone facade, and the upper floors are three ledges . A hall thirty meters high rises to three floors. It is decorated with a panel depicting the seven wonders of the world , to which an eighth is added: the Empire State Building itself. In the Guinness World Records Hall, information is collected about unusual records and champions.

The building was included in the top ten most beautiful buildings in Manhattan, taking fourth place (after the Woolworth Building, which became the third). In 1955, it was included by the American Society of Civil Engineers on the list of the seven greatest engineering achievements in US history, becoming the only project on this list that is fully designed, paid, and managed by private individuals. For the Empire State Building project, architect was awarded the New York City Architectural League Medal of Honor for 1931; that same year, he and his project colleagues and were awarded the American Institute of Architects Medal ^[10] .

Lighting and backlight

In 1964, a projection lighting system was installed on the tower in order to highlight the top in a color scheme corresponding to any events, memorable dates or holidays ( St. Patrick's Day , Christmas, and so on) ^[17] . Since then, the illumination of the building has become a unique sight: each day of the week has its own color, and on holidays and significant dates the skyscraper highlight special combinations of colors. For example, after the eightieth anniversary and the subsequent death of Frank Sinatra , the building was illuminated in blue, due to the singer’s nickname “Mr. Blue Eyes”. After the death of actress Fay Ray on August 8, 2004, the tower lighting was completely turned off for 15 minutes ^[18] .

Traditionally, in addition to the usual lighting, the building is illuminated in the colors of New York sports teams on the days when the matches of these teams are held in the city (orange, blue and white for the New York Knicks , red, white and blue for New York Rangers , etc.). During the US Open tennis tournament, yellow is the highlight (the color of the tennis ball). In June 2002, during the celebration of Her Majesty's Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the highlight was purple-gold (the colors of the Windsor House ). During gay prides, the tower is highlighted in the colors of the rainbow flag ^[19] .

Observation Decks

Empire State Building Observation Decks are one of New York's most popular tourist pilgrimage destinations and one of the most visited observation decks in the world. In total, more than 110 million people visited them. The platform on the 86th floor has a viewing angle of 360 degrees.

Another observation deck is open on the 102th floor. In 1999, it was closed, then reopened in 2005. The upper platform is completely closed, its area is much smaller than the area of ​​the lower platform. Due to the large number of visitors, the upper platform closes on the most stressful days. Tourists pay for visiting observation platforms at the box office on the 86th floor (for visiting the 102th floor there is a separate additional payment) ^[20] .

Height

The building has a height of 443.2 m to the top of the spire and 381 m to the roof. For 41 years, it was the tallest building in New York, and for 23 years, the tallest building in the world. In 1972, the north tower of the World Trade Center overtook the Empire State Building in height and became the tallest building in the world. After the demolition of the World Trade Center towers as a result of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York and until 2009 remained the second tallest building in the United States after the Willis Tower in Chicago . Today, the Empire State Building is the third tallest building in the United States.

At the beginning of the operation of the building, its spire was intended to be used as a mooring mast for airships . The 102nd floor was a mooring platform with gangways for ascending the airship. A special elevator, running between the 86th and 102nd floors, could be used to transport passengers. Registration, as planned, was carried out on the 86th floor ^[21] . However, the idea of ​​an air terminal was invalidated due to security concerns (strong and unstable air flows at the top of the building made mooring very difficult, and after the first attempt it became clear that this idea was utopian). Not a single zeppelin has ever moored to the building. In 1952, telecommunications equipment was placed at the terminal site.

Attractions

On the second floor of the building is an attraction, opened in 1994 for tourists. The attraction is called New York Skyride and is a simulator of air travel around the city. The duration of the attraction is 25 minutes.

From 1994 to 2002, there was an old version of the attraction, in which James Duhan , Scotty from the TV series Star Trek , as a pilot of an airplane, in a humorous style tried to maintain control of the aircraft during a storm. After the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 , this attraction was closed. In the new version, the plot remained the same, but the towers of the World Trade Center were removed from the scenery, and Kevin Bacon became the pilot instead of Duhan. The new version was pursued primarily not for entertainment, but for educational and informational purposes. It also included patriotic elements.

Sports

The Empire State Building is not only one of the tallest buildings in the city, Manhattan's hallmark and a symbol of American architecture, but also a running area. On February 5, running competitions are held on the stairs of the Empire State Building. Well-trained runners manage to overcome 1576 steps of the building - from the 1st to the 86th floor - in a few minutes. In 2003, Paul Crack set a record that has not yet been broken - 9 minutes 33 seconds. In addition, competitions are held among firefighters and police officers, who, unlike ordinary runners, must run in full gear.

Aircraft Collision

On July 28, 1945, the US Air Force B-25 Mitchell bomber , piloted in heavy fog by Lt. Col. William Smith, collided with a building between the 79th and 80th floors. One of the engines pierced the tower through and fell onto a neighboring building, the other fell into the elevator shaft. The fire resulting from the collision was extinguished after 40 minutes. The incident killed 14 people ^{[22] [23]} . The lifter Betty Lou Oliver survived after falling in an elevator from a height of 75 floors - this achievement fell into the Guinness Book ^[24] . Despite this incident, the building was not closed, and work in most offices did not stop the next business day.

Suicides

Since the opening of the building, more than thirty suicides have been committed ^[25] . The first dismissed worker was the first to jump right after completion of construction. In 1947, after five suicide attempts in just three weeks ^[26] , a fence was erected around the observation platform. One of the suicides was 23-year-old Evelyn McHale . In 1979, Elvita Adams decided to take her own life and jumped from the 86th floor, but a strong wind threw her to the 85th floor, and she escaped with only a hip fracture. One of the last suicides occurred on April 13, 2007 , when a bankrupt lawyer jumped from the 69th floor.

Already in 1931, the year the construction was completed, the Empire State Building became the central theme of the theatrical production by Edward Bowes on the stage of the Capitol Theater. На следующий год это здание впервые появилось на страницах художественного произведения — детской книги «Швейцарские Робинзоны на Манхэттене», в которой в результате крушения дирижабля семья героев оказывается в изоляции на вершине ещё не достроенного Эмпайр-стейт-билдинга ^[10] .

Эмпайр-стейт-билдинг фигурирует более чем в 90 кинофильмах, играя наиболее заметную роль в картине 1933 года « Кинг-Конг » и ленте Лео Маккэри «Любовный роман» (1939) ^[10] . Список кинематографических картин, в которых появляется Эмпайр-стейт-билдинг, ведётся на официальном веб-сайте здания ^[27] .

Эмпайр-стейт-билдинг является официально признанной достопримечательностью города Нью-Йорка с 1981 года. В 1982 году здание было включено в Национальный реестр исторических мест США , а в 1986 году Служба национальных парков присвоила ему статус национального исторического памятника США ^[10] .

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  A look up at the Empire State Building.

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  Empire State Building at night.

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  Observation deck

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  Night illumination of a skyscraper on the night of September 11 to 12, 2011.

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  Street level view

• John Tauranac. The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark . - Cornell University Press, 2014 .-- ISBN 9780801471087 .

•   Wikimedia Commons has Empire State Building media
• Empire State Building: Official Internet Site with lighting schedule and explanation of colors