New York a Documentary Film : The Empire State Building

Coverage from the DVD of « New York a Documentary Film ». Photo found on http://www.ziwi.co.nz/movie/New-York-A-Documentary-Film-5-Disc-Set-9322225094550-38658/

New York a Documentary Film, is an eight-part American documentary movie on the history of New York City. It was directed by Ric Burns an American documentary filmmaker and writer, and released in 1999 and expanded in 2003.

We found on youtube three extracts of the documentary, that are about the Empire State Building. We recommend you to watch if you can, the whole episode five called « Cosmopolis (1919-1931) ». It will give also information on the Chrysler Building and the context at the time the ESB was built. Following this text, you can find the three links that would lead you to the youtube extracts.

– First part

– Second part

– Thrid part 

The National Geographic honors the Empire State building

« Building the Empire State », broadcasted on the 4th April 2013 in UK

On the 4th of April 2013, the National Geographic channel broadcasted in UK a very interesting and detailed documentary about the construction of the Empire State, its context and its story.

This link will brings you directly on the National Geographic website, on the article « Building the Empire State ». More than the videos, you’ll be able to watch several bonus and an exclusive photo gallery. Otherwise, the TV show is also illustrated by a written article about the story of the Empire State building.

The Empire State frontage, an illustration of the Art Deco style

The Empire State building from the ground on 34th street

Contrary to several skyscrapers, the Empire State Building show a rather classic frontage, and a very conventional shape in the Art Deco style, without curves. This design is typical of pre–World War II architecture in New York. The modernistic stainless steel canopies of the entrances on 33rd and 34th Streets lead to two story-high corridors around the elevator core, crossed by stainless steel and glass-enclosed bridges at the second-floor level. The elevator core contains 67 elevators.

Several materials were used for the construction of the building. Its only armature required 60 000 tons of steel. 10 millions bricks and 200 000 tons of stone (granite and limestone) were used, among 8485 m³ of indian limestone. Some aluminium was also used inside and outside of the high rise. You can find all this kind of information on this website, a scientific blog which dedicate a whole article to the Empire State building. Even if a large part of this article is a product of Wikipedia, all the technical details are interesting for the knowledge of the Empire State Building architecture.

The Empire State Building appears as cubes of various sizes stacked, with columns of windows crossing the building as straight line. The building is wider on its base and becomes refined by rising up to the antenna on its top. This short article on a famous french news website gives a realistic and detailed description of the external architecture of the Empire State.

The Empire State Building main entrance on 5th avenue

The main entrance of the Empire State Building is located on the 5th avenue. Its symmetry, the elegance of the cut stone and the very long windows between the two sculptures is a total demonstration of the Art Deco design. This entrance’s height and the quality of the materials used give to the visitor an overview of the monument, and its signification for the city of New York. This main entrance gives onto the majestic hall. you can find a whole article about this hall on another page of this blog.

Art Deco & the City

In order to replace our subject in the artistic context of the 1930’s, we decided to write a post on the art deco architecture in New York City. This article will be helpful to understand better the aim of our blog. We choosed to focus on three major buildings, the GE building (Rockefeller Centre), the Chrysler Building and the 40 Wall Street (Trump building). Those three buildings were built around the same period so it is interessting to see the different expressions of Art Deco at some point.

Picture of the Trump Building today. This photo is coming from the website http://www.aviewoncities.com/gallery

The Trump Building is located in lower Manhattan, it is a 70 story skyscraper, measuring 283 meters. It was built between 1929 and 1930, so more or less at the same period as the Empire State Building. The building was completed in only 11 months and was the tallest building in the world during a few months, just before the Chrysler Building and then the Empire State Building became it. This massive building is constructed in a pyramidal form, due to the zonning law from 1916 and gives a very good example of the 1930’s Art Deco architecture. We invite you to read this article on the website « about.com » writen by an architecture guide.

Personnal picture from the Chrysler Building, taken on April 2012.

We already talked about the Chrysler Building in the article about the « race of height ». Also built at the same period, beteween 1928 and 1930 this very bold edifice represent the sophistication and the refinement of the Art Deco architecture. Again due to the zonning law from 1916, this construction take a pyramidal form.  High from 319 meters, after the spire was added in order to make it higher than the Trump Building. Unlike the Trump Building, the Chrysler Building is much more innovative and modern in a architectural way, the Trump Building keeps a . It shows the magnificence of the Art Deco design as we know it today. To know more on the Chrysler Building you can consult this french writen article found on the website « Picturing America », if you are searching for a english writen article, here is one, writen by Heather Cross a New York travel guide, found on « about.com ».

Personal picture of the GE Building illuminated in blue, white and red for the veterans day. Photo taken on the 11th of November 2010.

The GE Building was completed in 1933 as part of the Rockefeller Center. Here the aim of the architects and the sponsor wasn’t to make the highest building in the city or in the world -even though the GE building is 260 meters high- it was to built a figurehead for this giant construction that is the Rockefeller Center. As the Chrysler Building, the GE Building is much more modern and much « Art Deco » than the Trump Building. However, unlike the Chrysler Building here we have a very massive building covered with stones, representing the strenght of the United-States and of the Rockefeller family. On the photo we choosed to show you, you can appriciate an exquisite bas-relief, very typical from the Art Deco decoration. The use of gold is also very characteristic of the Art Deco design and decoration. The GE Building and the entire Rockefeller Center is a very interesting construction to study in the Art Deco domain. Anyway, we invite you to consult this webpage on the official website of the Rockefeller Center.

The Empire State Building, a popular icon

Wallpaper of King Kong, printed in 1933 for the promotion of the movie. Picture found on http://wordblurg.com/dvd/item_display.php?item_id=559&instance_no=1

More than just a skyscraper, the ESB is a true symbol, reffered as the « eight wonder of the world ». At the moment the building was completeed it became a symbol for all New Yorkers and Americans. The symbol of a city that despite the 1929 crisis keeps growing and a country that faces the crisis and the future with more and more greatness.

It is in 1933 that the legend begun, only two years after its inauguration, the building became a worldwide popular icon. Indeed the final scene of the legendary film « King Kong » took place on the top of the Empire State Building. Such a strong symbol as Kong climbs on the highest spot in the city, the Empire State Building, reducing it as a simple cast-iron tree and nothing so grandiose as man figures it. During the 1930’s and 1940’s the movie was broadcast in several countries and so became one of the most famous movie of all time. It participated to create a big fervor around the New York from the 1930’s and it gave the Empire State Building the popular image it has today.

Postcard of the Empire State Building and New York City from 1933. Picture found on http://walkinnewyork.blogspot.fr/2012/11/new-york-vinttage-postcard-empire-state.html

In the following decades after the inauguration and the film, the building was regularly used as a symbol of New York City, present on every photoviews, wallpapers or postcard of the city. Being the highest building of the world at the time it was inaugurated, praticipated to build a legend around this remarkable landmark and the fact that it stayed that way during 23 years made it a real icon of New York.

If you want to know more about the King Kong movie, here’s an intresting website. Regarding the importance of the Empire State Building in the american culture, you can find more information on this exhaustive article, from the blog « Empire State Building ». It sums up well our subject and develops the use of the Empire State in literature.

The entrance hall, a jewel of the art deco design

Picture of the representation of the Empire State, in the building’s lobby. Photo taken from the website metroscenes.com

The lobby of the Empire State Building is maybe the most significant part of the building regarding the expression of the art deco style. This monumental entrance hall high from three floors, is the window display of the decoration of the building. The entrance of the lobby is located on the 350th of the 5th avenue, it is the main entrance, but there are two other entrances, one on 33rd street, the other on 34th street. The two other halls are not as monumental and luxirious as the one on the 5th avenue.

As we just said, the height of the entrance is equivalent to three floors of the edifice. We have here a great example of the monumentality of the art deco architecture, which take its inspiration from very old architecture style as the egyptian architecture or the archaic greek architecture.

In this luxurious lobby, all the walls are covered with marbel and the celling is sported murals with stylized stars and planets. The picture used in the article shows the celling before 2010, with illuminated panels. Indeed, in 2010 the lobby was restorated so that he could find back is original aspect -this very interesting video we found on the official website of the ESB, explains shortly the restoration of 2010-. One more time, we can see that the art deco style is a rich and classical style which is betting on sobriety and temperance. On the wall facing the entrance, lays a representation of the original figure of the building -without the tip-. This relief made of aluminium, seems to show the Empire State Building illuminating the world, as art deco illuminates the art world at that time.

For more information on the design and history of the lobby, you can  consult an article on the official website of the Empire State Building, giving especially a detailed report of the restoration.

Behind the project, the architect

William F. Lamb working at his office

The Empire State Building was designed by William Frederick Lamb from the firm Shreve, Lamb & Harmon. This article written by Michael Rosso on an education website gives an interesting overview of the architect and the project. it explains also how the Empire State Building evolved from its construction to today.

After studies in the French school of Fine Arts in Paris, William F. Lamb joined the firm Carrere & Hastings in 1911, that will take the name of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon in 1929. He describes the Empire State Building as these words : « the program holds in a few lines : fixed budget, not more than 8,50 meters between the window and the corridor, and so many floors as possible ; frontage in limestone and date achievement of the works on the 1st may 1931 » (source : Will Jones, New York, Paris, Maxi-Livres, 2004).

The firm used its earlier design for the Reynolds building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the Empire State Building. It helped to produce the drawings in only two weeks.

View of the west face of the Reynolds Building

For more information about the Reynolds Building, this anonymous article on the free encyclopedia Wikipedia will give you several details about its height, its situation and its construction.

The Empire State construction began on the 17th March 1930. More than 3400 workers, nicknamed « the sky boys » were involved in the project. Several pictures of these workers are today famous, thanks especially to the famous photograph Lewis Wickes Hine. The J. Paul Getty Museum, located in Los Angeles, CA,  which counts in its collection several photographies from Lewis Wickes Hine, gives here a short but detailed biography of the artist and shows some of his pictures.

Sky boys having lunch on the Empire State Building

On the 17th september 1930, Alfred E. Smith, famous politician and ex-governor of the State of New York, laid the building keystone with a silver spatula in front of a crowd of 5000 people.

After a crazy race (that you can read on another article on this blog) and in a record time, the construction of the Empire State carried on until the 1st May 1931, day of its opening to the public.

The « Empty State Building »

A few weeks after the inauguration, the Empire State Building is half empty. So empty that New Yorkers call it the « Empty State Building ».

Indeed, the economic context at the time is not really beneficial for the real estate market. The crash of October 1929 made the building impossible to be rented by companies that are totaly ruined by the crisis. At that period, three major art deco buildings are built, the GE Building -as part of the Rockefeller center-, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. It clearly shows, that despite the crisis the sponsors of those projects where pretty confident in the future of the economy. However, after those three building were complete at the beginning of the 1930’s, it took a lot of time for the sponsors to gain money and be able to refund the cost of the construction. Regarding the Empire State Building, moreover the financial problems it has to face, the building is placed relatively far from the public transportation. That’s why during the 1930’s, the building cost more money than it brings money. The construction of the building cost 24.7 millions dollars to John J. Rakob and buying the ground cost him 40.9 millions dollars. The building didn’t become profitable until 1950. Anyway, the economic crisis put an end to the construction of major skyscrapers in New York City and we have to wait till the 1960’s to see new skyscrapers built in New York.

Here is a french site that shows some information on the subject of the « Empty State Building ». You can also read this article on the french website Larousse to know more about the 1929 crash.

The race of height

Picture from the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building coming from the tumblr  « art deco architecture« 

At the very end of the 1920’s a race opposed two man, Walter Chrysler and John Jakok Raskob. Their goal, built the tallest structure in the city and therefore the tallest structure in the world.

The first one to get into the race is Walter Chrysler. When the Chrysler Building is inaugurated on the 27th of May 1930 it become the tallest building in the world ahead of the Eiffel Tower built in 1889. But at that time the Empire State Building is half way built, and to make sure his builidng will be the tallest one in the wolrd, John J. Raskok decided to add a spire on the top of it. On year later, Raskob won the race and the Empire State Building became the tallest structure in the world. The ESB remains the tallest man-made structure in the world during 23 years.

You can get more information on the Chrysler building on this wikipedia page and this larousse page. Regardind the race of height you can consult this wikipeadia webpage  « history of the tallest buildings in the world ». You can also find on this other website, a comparison between the two buildings, regarding techincal information etc.

The Art Deco design

Poster from the « Exposition internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels modernes  » in 1925

The Art Deco style appeared in France in the early 1920’s, in reaction of the movement Art Nouveau, based on curved lines aesthetics. This visual design style has affected several art fields. In 1925, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes was helded in Paris. This exhibition marked the begining of the globalisation of this style. This french article about the exhibition in the Larousse Encyclopedia brings several informations about the state of mind about Art in the early 20th Century. It introduces the Art Deco Design and the several major artists during the exhibition.

The Art Deco Design answers a social need after World War I. Europe is at this time weak and needs to be rebuilt in a modern way, for a new age and a new start. The Art Deco Style represents this new start with its modernity. is symbolizes luxury, prosperity and abundance.

A french website about Art Deco design runs an interesting blog which does explain well this context after World War I, and how Art Deco established itself in Europe as in United States of America.

If you want to learn more about this marvelous design, here is a very interesting and complete Portable Document Format about a future exhibition that will be held in Paris from October 2013 to February 2014 at « La Cité de l’architecture et du Patrimoine ». Every field of Art Deco is showed, from architecture to furniture, including any work of art.

Hope you will be staying in Paris at that time !