Empire State Building
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Architect: William Lamb for Shreve, Lamb & Harmon
Year Completed: 1931
Location: 350 5th Avenue, New York City, New York
Style: Art Deco
The Empire State Building is a popular symbol of New York City. The building can be seen in the 1933 movie King Kong as well as countless other movies since then. At the time of completion, it was considered an engineering marvel and called the eighth wonder of the world.
The first Waldorf-Astoria hotel was located on this site until 1929 when it was destroyed to make room for the Empire State Building.
The Empire State Building had the distinction of being the world's tallest building for four decades. With the loss of the World Trade Center in 2001, it is once again the tallest building in New York City.
Although its exterior is not as elaborate as some other buildings from this era, it's still an attractive structure. At night, the top of the building is illuminated with lights. The lights vary in colour during the year to symbolize the time of year; for example, red is used for valentine's day.
The interior of the building was designed by B. Altman and Company and features metalwork by Oscar Bach, a popular metalworker of the time. Bach designed the map of New York City that appears in the lobby. Because of New York City's heavy building density, it can be difficult to view a building from a distance and see the entire structure. As a result, it was common in the 1920s and 1930s for the lobby to contain a likeness of the building. The fourth picture above shows the map and the metal likeness of the building.
In addition to the map of New York City and the likeness of the building, the first floor contains medallions that symbolize trades and crafts that contributed to the completion of the Empire State Building. In the seventh picture above, the medallion symbolizes "machines" and shows the gears that run the machines.