Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco style skyscraper located at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, New York, in the Turtle Bay neighborhood. At 77 stories and 319 meters tall, it was the tallest building in the world for eleven months, until surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931. It remains the world's tallest brick building, although its frame is made of steel. As of 2018, it is the eighth-tallest building in New York, tied for height with the New York Times Tower.
The Chrysler Building, designed by architect William van Alen, is a classic example of Art Deco architecture and is considered by many contemporary architects to be one of the finest buildings in New York. It was the headquarters of the Chrysler company from the 1930s until the mid-1950s. Although the building was built and designed specifically for the car manufacturer, the company did not pay for its construction and never owned it, as Walter P. Chrysler decided to pay for it himself as a personal project. Its construction was marked by the competition to be the tallest building in the world, in which its main rival was the Bank of Manhattan Building (currently The Trump Building), with a final height of 282.5 m, while the Chrysler Building was going to remain in 281.9 m. However, within a few months of the Bank of Manhattan Building being completed, a pyramidal spire was secretly built inside the Chrysler Building and installed on top of it, thus reaching a total height of 319m.
History
The skyscraper epitomizes the success of New York, which was home to the world's tallest building from 1908 to 1974. By the mid-1920s, it became the world's most populous city, surpassing London. Its metropolitan area surpassed the ten million mark in the early 1930s. The economic boom of the 1920s and huge speculation in the housing market fostered a new wave of skyscraper projects in the city. The Zoning Act of 1916, which limited the surface area of buildings above a certain height to allow sunlight to reach the streets, was a contributing factor in shaping the characteristic skyscraper style Art Deco with setbacks, giving rise to structures that focused on volume and striking silhouettes, often lavishly ornamented.
In the years after World War I, architects in Europe and the United States had begun to simplify the forms of traditional designs and use industrial materials in innovative ways to characterize the modern age. The art deco style seemed to lend itself especially well to skyscraper design because this type of construction symbolized progress, innovation and modernity more than any other. Although the rise of the art deco style was short-lived, it coincided with a huge real estate boom in New York in the late 1920s. The numerous skyscrapers built in this style, among which the Chrysler Building stands out, gave New York and its skyline a characteristic and romantic image, popularized in theater and cinema.
On the other hand, this era was characterized by profound social and technological changes. Consumer goods such as radio, movies and, above all, automobiles became widespread, the use of which grew exponentially in the 1920s. In 1927, the automobile manufacturer Chrysler Corporation—a company headed by Walter P. Chrysler—became the third largest automobile manufacturer in the United States, behind Ford and General Motors. The following year he was named "man of the year" by Time magazine. Chrysler began to take shape.
Project source
Originally, the Chrysler Building was a project of real estate developer and former New York State Senator William H. Reynolds. Before his involvement in what would become the Chrysler Building, his best-known project was the amusement park Dreamland, located on New York's famous Coney Island. However, when this amusement park was destroyed in a fire in 1911, he turned his attention to Manhattan, where he set out to build the tallest building in the world.
In 1921 Reynolds leased a large parcel at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street with the intention of constructing a major building on it. After several years of delays, Reynolds hired architect William van Alen in 1927 to carry out the the project for a forty-story skyscraper on the plot. Van Alen was respected in his field for his work on the Albemarle Office Building in New York, designed in collaboration with his partner H. Craig Severance. Van Alen and Severance became They complemented each other: Van Alen was an original and imaginative architect while Severance managed the business side of the firm, recruiting clients and overseeing the financial aspects. But their relationship soon became strained due to their personal differences. The final straw was a 1924 article in the Architectural Review that praised Van Alen but ignored Severance by referring to this building as the "work of William van Alen". Their association ended. breaking up months later on unfriendly terms. This ended up being decisive for the design of the future Chrysler Building, as Severance was more traditional and Van Alen's style was more modern.
When he started working for Reynolds, Van Alen got caught up in the spirit of competition to build the world's tallest building that was encroaching on New York in the 1920s. Like great adventurers who challenged each other to build taller buildings, the developers and architects of new projects continually announced that their buildings would be the tallest in the city.
In April 1928, Reynolds signed a 67-year lease on the parcel and finalized the details of his ambitious project, which was to be a "successful building to join the Midtown Manhattan group of skyscrapers and revolutionize prices and the status of the tenants of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue." When Van Alen's drawings were unveiled the following August, the American Institute of Architects praised him, saying that he "has deviated from some of the longstanding principles about the skyscraper was developed [...] the design of the Reynolds Building is made to be of interest throughout its entire height". Reynolds's main contribution to the design was to insist that it have a metal crown, in the face of opposition Van Alen initial.
Design
Van Alen's original design for the skyscraper envisioned an ornamental jewel-shaped glass crown. It also had a base with triple-height windows topped by twelve stories with glass corners, giving the impression that the tower was floating. physically and visually in the air. Originally, the height of the skyscraper was to be 246 meters and 67 stories. However, this design proved too advanced and expensive for the building's contractor, William H. Reynolds, who did not approve. Van Alen's original project.
The official design of the Reynolds Building, published in August 1928, was much more conservative, with an Italianate dome that one critic compared to Governor Al Smith's bowler hat, and an arrangement of bricks on the upper floors that simulated corner windows, a detail retained in the current Chrysler Building. This design almost accurately depicts the current building's shape, setbacks, and window arrangement, but differs in its most distinctive feature, the dome.
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With the design completed, Reynolds sold the lease on the plot, the project, and even the architect's services to Walter P. Chrysler in October 1928, by which time he was aggressively expanding his automobile company, due to that he did not have sufficient means to build it. Chrysler worked together with Van Alen and redesigned the taller skyscraper; after this revision, the project became 282 meters tall. Walter Chrysler wanted a progressive image and a personal symbol and Van Alen designed it using his interpretation of the principles of modern architecture. In doing so, he envisioned a building that has come to be considered one of the finest examples of art deco architecture.In his autobiography, Chrysler said that he built the building for his children to They had something to be responsible for.
During the winter of 1928 and 1929, modifications to the dome's design continued. 16-foot-tall sculpture. The final design for the dome featured several arches and triangular windows. Because Walter Chrysler was the president of the Chrysler Corporation and wanted the building to be the company's headquarters, they were designed various architectural details, notably the gargoyles on the building, drawing inspiration from Chrysler automobiles, such as the hood ornaments on the Plymouth. These elements exemplify the machine age of the 1920s. In his autobiography, Chrysler claims that it was he who he suggested it be taller than the Eiffel Tower.
Construction
Work began on September 19, 1928. On October 15, 1928, the Goodwin Construction Company began demolition of the existing building on the plot, which was completed on November 9. Excavation of the foundation, which They would be 21 meters deep, began a week later and was completed in mid-January, when the bedrock was reached. Construction of the building itself began on January 21, and in September 1929 the structure of the building was completed. steel.
In total, 391,681 rivets were used and some 3,826,000 bricks were laid by hand to form the walls of the building. Despite being built at a frenetic pace (an average of four floors per week), no workers were killed during its construction. Walter Chrysler personally financed the construction through the income he earned from his automobile company.
In 1929, the Woolworth Building, built in 1913, was the tallest building in the world at 241 meters. In the same year, George L. Ohrstrom, a young banker, proposed the construction of a 47-meter office building plants at 40 Wall Street. Shortly thereafter he modified the project to have 60 stories, but it was still below the Woolworth and the 246-meter Chrysler Building project, announced in 1928. In April, its architect, H. Craig Severance, increased its height to 67 stories and 800 feet, which would make it surpass the Woolworth's by fifty feet and the Chrysler by twenty. Work began on 40 Wall Street in May 1929 at a furious pace, and was completed just twelve months later. Severance obtained permission to install a dome on the top, which increased its height to 267 meters, in addition to a 15-meter spire, which left the final height at 282 meters.
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Prior to its completion, the building was in intense competition with a rival project at 40 Wall Street, designed by H. Craig Severance, Van Alen's former partner. Thinking the Chrysler would be 900 feet, Severance added a fifteen meter flag to his building, increasing its height to 282.5 meters, and publicly claimed the title of tallest building in the world. But, Van Alen had been planning for months a way to win the race for being The tallest building. He managed to obtain permission to install a 56.4 m long spire - or "vortex" as he called it - that arrived at the construction site in five sections and was assembled in absolute secrecy on the 65th floor of the building. On October 23, 1929, the day before Black Thursday, which marked the start of the Great Depression, the spire was slowly raised from the crown to the top of the building's dome, a process that took ninety minutes and it raised the building to 319 meters. Van Alen, who witnessed the process from the street, along with his engineers and Walter Chrysler, wrote that "it was like watching a beautiful butterfly emerge from its cocoon".
In the article "The Structure and Metal Work of the Chrysler Building" in the October 1930 issue of Architectural Forum, architect William van Alen explained the design and construction of the crown and needle:
A high needle was designed to crown the building. This is 56 meters high and 0.74 square meters of section at its base. It had quadrangular section, with light stitches and diagonal reinforcements, and weighed in total 27 tons. It was manifestly impossible to assemble this structure and izar it as a unit from the ground, and equally impossible to ignite it into sections and place them as such in their final positions. In addition, it would be more spectacular, for advertising value, to make this needle 'perforate' the clouds appear unexpectedly.
Completion
The first tenants moved into the Chrysler Building in April 1930, although construction was not yet fully completed. A formal dedication ceremony was held on May 27, 1930, coinciding with the annual meeting of the 42nd Street Owners and Merchants Association. A bronze plaque was placed in the building's lobby "in recognition of the contribution of the Mr. Chrysler to the advance of the city». The works finished in August 1930, but curiously the completion date recorded in the Manhattan Department of Construction is February 19, 1932.
When it was completed on May 20, 1930, the increase in height produced by the spire allowed the Chrysler Building to surpass 40 Wall Street and become the tallest building in the world, also surpassing the Eiffel Tower, which until then held the title of the world's tallest man-made structure. It was the first building over 300 meters high. Van Alen's satisfaction with this achievement was likely overshadowed by Walter Chrysler's later refusal to pay his fees. Chrysler alleged that he had taken kickbacks from suppliers, and Van Alen had not signed any contract with Walter Chrysler when Walter Chrysler took over the company. project. Van Alen sued him and the courts agreed with the architect, demanding that Chrysler pay him $840,000 (6% of the total budget for the building). This lawsuit significantly diminished his reputation as an architect, which, coupled with the effects of the Great Depression and negative reviews, it ended up ruining his career. Van Alen ended up as a professor of sculpture at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York and died in 1954. According to Neal Bascomb, "the Chrysler Building was his best work, and the one that caused his oblivion."
The completion of the Chrysler Building was met with mixed reactions by critics. Van Alen was hailed as the "High Doctor" and the "Ziegfeld of his profession", while the building was praised for being "an expression of the intense activity and vibrant life of our day" and for "being filled with the spirit of modernity and representing progress in modern architecture and construction methods". However, some critics described the building as just a "flash embodying no compelling organic idea" and another claimed that it was "clearly a clever design, developed to make the pedestrian look up" (George Chappell), but was "of no importance as a serious design". Other reviews compared it to an "upward-facing swordfish". or claimed it was "Little Nemo architecture". Lewis Mumford, supporter of the International Style and then America's foremost architecture critic, scorned it for its "futile romanticism, its voluptuousness nonsense and his empty symbolism." Among the positive reactions, an anonymous reviewer wrote in the October 1930 Architectural Forum : "The Chrysler...stands on its own, something different and lonely. It is simply the realization, the fulfillment in metal and bricks of one man's dream, a dream of such ambition and magnitude as to defy the understanding and criticism of men and common judgment."
In just under a year since it opened to the public on May 27, 1930, the Chrysler Building was surpassed in height by the Empire State Building, though it still stands as the tallest brick building in the world. Chrysler Building had a great commercial success, greater than that of the Empire State Building: in 1935 it already had 70% of its surface rented.
Walter P. Chrysler had intended to create the most desirable office building of the day:
The Chrysler Building is dedicated to world trade and industry. It was created with the desire to meet the demand of today's business executives, who, with their intense activity, should have the most favorable environment and conditions. The need for abundant light and air resulted in a building of beautiful proportions and great height. The importance of accessibility and transportation dictated the location. The desire of the last in comfort determined the inclusion of innovative elements for each need, which contribute to the satisfaction of the businessman in his office. As an environment in which you can work comfortably and efficiently, this new building establishes a new ideal, one that will remain as a comparison measure for future office buildings. Therefore, the Chrysler Building is dedicated as a firm contribution to business progress.
Property
The east side of the tower plot runs slightly diagonally from the Manhattan street grid, following a plot predating the 1811 Commissioners' Plan. Post Road, which meandered through eastern Manhattan, mostly between Second and Third Avenues, and led to Boston. Over time, the city sold the parcels that bordered this road, and the land on it. The one on which the Chrysler Building now stands was donated to The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1902. The Cooper Union, a private university, continues to own the parcel on which the building stands, but not the land. building itself. This institution has been exempt from taxes since its founding charter of 1859, and the plot constitutes an endowment of its own. As a result, the building's owners pay the Cooper Union the money that would go to the New York City Council in taxes, about $8 million a year. The plot was originally leased to William H. Reynolds, but later After Chrysler was unable to find financing for the project, Walter P. Chrysler acquired building rights to the land in 1928. Contrary to popular belief, the Chrysler Corporation was not involved in the construction of the Chrysler Building or It was never owned by the company, although it was designed and built for the company and was its headquarters until the mid-1950s. It was actually a personal project of Walter P. Chrysler.
Ownership of the building has changed hands numerous times. The Chrysler family, which had inherited the property after Walter Chrysler's death in 1940, sold the building in 1953 to William Zeckendorf for $18 million, and in 1957 it was purchased by Sol Goldman and Alex DiLorenzo, and managed by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. Between 1978 and 1979 the lobby was renovated and the façade was renovated. In 1979 Jack Kent Cooke bought the building and in 1998, Tishman Speyer Properties and the Travelers Insurance Group acquired the Chrysler Building, subrogating the mortgage, along with the building adjacent 32-story building called the Chrysler East—originally called the Kent Building—for about $220 million (equivalent to $370 million in 2022).
In 2001, 75% of the building was sold to TMW, the German branch of an Atlanta investment fund, for $300 million (equivalent to $460 million in 2022). However, its former owners—Tishman and Travelers—retained a controlling interest in the tower and the adjacent Chrysler East building. On June 11, 2008, it came to light that the Abu Dhabi Investment Council was in negotiations to buy 75% of the building was held by TMW and 15% by Tishman Speyer Properties, as well as a percentage of the adjacent Trylons shopping center for $800 million. On July 9, 2008, it was announced that the transaction had been completed, and that the Emirati investment fund had become 90% owner of the building.
Renewals
In 1961 the first cleaning of the stainless steel elements of the building was carried out: spire, crown, gargoyles and access doors. In 1995 they were restored to their original shine and appearance at a cost of $1.5 million. Cleaning included a soap solution, degreaser, and mild abrasive; in addition, some damaged steel laths on the spire were replaced and various gargoyle joints were re-welded. These works, directed by Hoffman Architects and executed by Nicholson & Galloway, received the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy in 1997.
Between 2001 and 2003, another restoration of the Chrysler Building was carried out, directed by Thornton Tomasetti's company. In this intervention, the damaged parts of the façade were repaired and the original steel frames of the 3,500 windows were restored. Some deteriorated windows on the ground floor were also replaced to allow disabled access while maintaining the original style. Finally, some stainless steel panels in the crown were repaired and replaced. In 2010 and 2011 they were renovated and the building's energy, plumbing and waste management systems were improved, resulting in a 21% decrease in its total energy consumption and 64% in its water consumption. 81% of the waste generated is recycled. In 2012, the building received LEED Gold accreditation from the US Green Building Council, which certifies its sustainability and energy efficiency.
Architecture
(Plant 61)
(Plant 31)
(Plant 31)
The Chrysler Building is often considered one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture. The exterior of the building has many heroic ornaments, approximately fifty in all, protruding from all four corners of the building on five different floors in a similar way to the gargoyles of Gothic cathedrals. The corners of the 61st floor are decorated with two pairs of eagles sculpted by Kenneth Lynch, which have a length of three meters and a wingspan of 4. 5 meters; in the corners of the 31st floor there are replicas of the decorations on the hood of 1926 Chrysler vehicles; while in the corners of the 24th floor there are 3-meter-tall pineapples, symbols of hospitality, which they were fabricated on site. The building is constructed of masonry, with a steel frame and metal cladding. In its construction, 20,961 tons of structural steel were used. It has a total of 3,862 windows on its facades. Inside are four groups of eight elevators designed by the Otis Elevator Corporation. The windows, crown, spire, and gargoyles were hand-cast on the 65th and 67th floors from sheet metal. The building was designated National Historic Landmark in 1976, and New York Monument in 1978.
Unlike many skyscrapers of the time, the Chrysler Building's design did not follow the formula of a column with a decorative base, smooth shaft, and decorative capital; instead, the design was of interest along its entire height. The building's great height and legally mandated setbacks helped Van Alen make this decision. Its lowest sixteen stories rise straight from the sidewalk (with a hole on one side giving it a U-shaped plan » from the fourth floor). There are setbacks on the 16th, 18th, 23rd, 28th and 31st floors, which conform to the 1916 Zoning Law and give the building the appearance of a ziggurat on one side and that of a palazzo with U shape on the other. The tower continues vertically from the 31st to the 60th floor, where its plan becomes a Maltese cross that merges the 'shaft', with a square plan, with the top. The building's façade is mostly clad in white brick, and dark gray brick is used as a horizontal decoration to highlight the rows of windows.
Although the shape of the Chrysler Building is intended to comply with Zoning Law, each of the setbacks up to the 31st floor served an intelligent function. The first sixteen floors were as spacious as possible to maximize valuable rental space close to the ground. The U-shaped cutout above the fourth floor was to introduce light and air into the building. Although the first three setbacks simply fit the bill, the area between the 28th and 31st floors serves several functions. According to Robinson, it “adds visual interest to the central part of the building, preventing it from being overpowered by the minute detailing of the lower floors and the striking design of the cap. They provide a base for the shaft of the tower, making a transition between the lower floors and the upper shaft."
The first four floors of the building cover the entire surface of the plot and are clad with polished black granite from Shastone on the ground floor and white Georgia marble on the rest. The most notable feature of this part of the building are the two entrances at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street. Each is three stories high, in the manner of a proscenium, and is framed by Shastone granite. Set back within the entrances are the revolving doors that give access to the lobby, below metal and glass windows with detailed decorative patterns. This treatment is intended to reinforce the visual impact upon entering the building, a frequent concern of the art deco style. There is also a smaller entrance, one story high, on Calle 43. On the ground floor are large metal-framed storefronts. On the second, third and fourth floors you can see office windows. At the base of the windows on the second floor are decorative spandrels. The metal frames of the entrances and windows are made of Nirosta steel.
Above the fourth floor, the building is penetrated on the east and west sides by openings that extend to the tower façade, while on the north and south sides the building gradually rises with a series of setbacks. The façade cladding up to the first setback on the sixteenth floor is white brick with bands of white marble that create a pattern similar to that used in basketry. The windows are arranged in a regular grid. All the windows in the building do not have a sill, that is, the frames are placed flush with the façade.
In the next setback, which ends at the 24th floor, there is a vertical emphasis with white brick pillars alternating with vertical bands of windows. The aluminum spandrels between the windows help this effect. The spandrels on the 20th, 21st and 22nd floors are adorned with abstract reliefs. Finally, in the corners of the 24th floor there are three-meter-tall decorative pineapples.
The next three floors, up to 27, form the third setback. The horizontal bands and zigzag-shaped black and gray brick motifs contrast with the verticality of the previous setback. The fourth setback, which reaches the 31st floor, marks the appearance of the tower's shaft from the base. On the 31st floor the corners of the building are extended outward with huge Chrysler hood ornaments by Nirosta that draw the eye to the base of the tower and make it appear larger. This extension was necessary to avoid an optical illusion common in tall buildings with horizontal bands, making the top appear larger than the base. Also on this floor is a gray and white frieze of polished steel hubcaps and fenders. These ornaments are manifest symbols of the Chrysler Corporation and one of the signature effects created by art deco architects. The hood ornaments take the form of the winged helmet of Mercury, which formed the hood ornament of Chrysler vehicles of the time and would later become the company logo. This hood ornament was designed in 1924 by Oliver Clark and its silver wings symbolize the swift god of commerce from Roman mythology.
The treatment of the shaft of the tower is dual and aims to emphasize both verticality and horizontality. On each of the four sides of the tower, the windows are grouped in three vertical bands. Each group is framed by bricks and a marble pillar that runs continuously through all the floors. Vertical emphasis is also given to the spandrels between the windows with vertical stripes of alternating gray and white brick. As a contrast the corners of the tower have horizontal bands of black brick.
The crown of the Chrysler Building is a direct extension of the tower. According to Robinson, “its arches, each smaller and taller than the last, continue the terraced design of the building. This concept is carried forward from the 61st floor, which features gargoyles in the form of eagles that mimic the details of the 31st floor, to the spire, which extends the "tallest and narrowest" at an infinite height. This treatment emphasizes the height of the building, giving it a style reminiscent of the fantastic architecture of Coney Island." The eagle is a nod to one of the American symbols: the bald eagle, which even appears on the National Shield.
The interior of the building featured several innovative elements. The partitions between the offices were soundproofed and divided into interchangeable sections, so that the layout of any office could be changed quickly and conveniently. Conduits under the floors carried telephone and electricity cables. The elevators, by direct orders from Chrysler, were capable of speeds of 1,000 feet per minute, although New York ordinances in effect in 1930 only allowed 700 feet per minute. The building also had three of the longest elevator shafts in the world. In the interest of improving public access to the building, there was an underground gallery that led directly to the subway, which was managed at the time by the IRT. The IRT strongly opposed this connection, but Chrysler prevailed and built the passageway at their expense.
Crown and needle
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The most recognizable element of the Chrysler Building is its crown. Composed of seven terraced concentric arches, Van Alen's design consists of a cruciform groin vault that has seven concentric arches, set one above the other with setbacks between them. The stainless steel cladding is ribbed and riveted in the shape of lightning bolts. sun, with many triangular windows. The entire crown is encased in silver-plated metal “Enduro KA-2”, an austenitic stainless steel developed in Germany by Krupp and marketed under the trade name Nirosta (an acronym for German nichtrostender Stahl, meaning “stainless steel”), which has 18% chromium and 8% nickel, which is why it is also known as "18-8 stainless steel". Due to the curved shape of the dome, the measurements of the Nirosta sheets had to be verified on site. Therefore, most of the work was done in workshops located on the 67th and 75th floors of the building. Nirosta was also used on the exterior trim (the 24th floor pineapples, the 31st floor hood ornaments and the eagles). from 61), on the window frames and on the spire.
Nirosta stainless steel was an integral part of Van Alen's design, as he himself points out in the chapter «Architectural Uses» of the book The Book of Stainless Steels (1933, 1935): «The The use of shiny metal was helpful in executing the vertical lines and receding circular shapes at the top, to accentuate the gradual upward movement until the building literally dissolves into the sky." The stainless steel producers were interested in the Chrysler Building as an experiment in the durability of stainless steel in architecture. In 1929 the Committee A-10 on Stainless Steel of the American Society for Testing Materials was organized. The members of that committee saw the Chrysler Building as an excellent opportunity to study the effect of the environment on this new type of material, so another smaller committee, made up mainly of stainless steel producers, was founded to inspect the Chrysler panels. every five years and determine their condition. This was done for thirty years, until 1960, when inspections were suspended because the panels had practically not deteriorated.
When the building opened, it contained a public observation deck on the 71st floor called Celestial, which closed to the public in 1945. It was accessible for fifty cents, and visitors they could go around its entire circumference by walking through a corridor with vaulted ceilings, which were painted with celestial motifs and from which small glass Saturns hung. This floor had an area of 362 square meters and according to a brochure offered views of up to 100 miles (161 km) away on a clear day. In the center of the gallery was displayed the toolbox with which Walter P. Chrysler began his career as a mechanic, surrounded by glass, as an emblem of his company and its success. staff, which is now housed at the Chrysler Technology Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan. However, the small triangular windows resulting from the crown design created odd angles that made it difficult to see the city. s afternoon of the Empire State Building, which featured an outdoor observation deck that became more popular, caused the Chrysler Building observatory to lose clientele, and it remained open for only fourteen more years (it closed in 1945). The old observation deck contains now the office of architects Morse and Harvey of Cowperwood Interests, occupied since 1986. The private club Cloud Club occupied three floors of the building (66-68), but closed in the late 1970s. The upper floors of the building —from 72 onwards— are not habitable and were built mainly according to the exterior design, and also function as landings for the stairs that lead to the spire. They are very narrow, have low, sloping ceilings, and are only used to house radio transmitters and other mechanical and electrical equipment. For example, the 73rd floor houses the elevator motors and a 57,000-litre rectangular water tank, of which 13,000 are reserved for fire.
Originally, Chrysler had a two-story apartment with a fireplace and a private office at the top of the building, which also contained a gym and the world's highest baths. The 69th and 70th floors house a dental clinic.
WCBS-TV (Channel 2) broadcast its signal from the top of the Chrysler Building in the 1940s and 1950s, until it moved to the Empire State Building. For many years, they also used the building for broadcast their signal WPAT-FM and WTFM (now WKTU), but they also moved to the Empire State in the 1970s. There are currently no commercial transmitters in the Chrysler Building.
There are two types of lighting on the crown and spire of the building. The first corresponds to the "V" shaped lights in the steel of the building, around the perimeter of the windows. After the reforms carried out in 1978, the new owner added groups of spotlights on masts pointed towards the building. This allows the top to be illuminated in different colors for special occasions. Until 1998 the lights were turned off at 2 a.m., but columnist Ron Rosembaum managed to get property owner Tishman Speyer to agree to turn them on all night, turning off at six in the morning. Since 2015, the Chrysler Building has been part of the Audubon Society Lights Out program, through which it commits to turning off its lights during the times of bird migration.
Lobby
The building's entrance hall, which takes on an "unusual triangular shape", is a beautiful example of the Art Deco style, with clear influences from German Expressionism. Chrysler spared no expense in order to impress other architects and car magnates, covering the walls with huge slabs of red African marble, and the floors with Siena travertine brought from Germany in an arrangement that marks the way to the elevators.
The lobby, which "seems to float in a mysterious halo", is poorly lit and somewhat dim, despite the striking and iconic lamp sconces. Both factors create an intimate atmosphere and highlight the space. Each vertical fluorescent light bar is covered with Belgian blue marble and Mexican amber onyx, which mutes and diffuses the light, achieving a soft glow that illuminates and blends with the marble walls of red color giving luster to the whole room.
Crossing the lobby leads to one of four groups of elevators, of which no two are alike. The elevator doors show a modernist use of wood inlays in palm-shaped steel sheets. The interiors feature a wide variety of woods: Japanese ash, American walnut, Oriental walnut, English gray hardwood, ebony and maple. Both the elevator doors and the interior of their cabins are considered "extraordinary work of marquetry"..
To this day, the lobby is the only visitable part of the building, accessible during business hours. When the building opened, the lobby housed an exhibition of Chrysler vehicles, which continued on the first floor. This exhibit was suppressed before World War II.
The lobby ceiling is entirely decorated by a 30 × 21 meter mural in the shape of a "Y" in ocher and gold colors by Edward Trumbull, which was once one of the largest in the world. It is titled "Transport and Human Endeavor" (Transport and Human Endeavor), and the theme it represents is "energy and its application by man to solve his problems", paying homage to age of aviation and the machine age. The mural's central image is a "muscled giant whose intellect directs its boundless energy toward the achievement of the triumphs of the mechanical age", according to a 1930 building pamphlet. The Art Deco style is manifested in the characteristic triangles, sharp angles, slightly curved lines, chrome ornamentation, and numerous patterns. Several silver airplanes appear—one of them is the Spirit of St. Louis. —, incandescent steel furnaces, and the building itself. One panel of the mural is dedicated entirely to the work of riveters, riggers, stonemasons, carpenters, plasterers and masons. A total of fifty different figures appear that were modeled after the workers who actually participated in its construction. In 1999, within the Chrysler Center project, the mural was returned to its original state after a restoration that, after more than ten thousand hours, removed the polyurethane coating added in the 1970s and the filling of the holes left by the old sconces.
Lifts
There are a total of 32 elevators in the skyscraper, divided into groups of six or eight, each serving different floors of the building. According to Curcio, "the interior of these elevators was perhaps the most beautiful element and, together with the crown, the most important of the entire building".
It took Van Alen a year to painstakingly design these elevators, aided by L. T. M. Ralston, who was in charge of making the mechanical parts of the building. They were made by the Otis Elevator Company, and the doors were made by the Tyler Company. Each elevator has interior dimensions of 1.68 x 2.44 m. The doors are made of metal covered with exotic woods of different types and shades. When closed, the elevator doors look like tall fans highlighted by metallic palm fronds rising through a series of silver parabolas, the edges of which are highlighted by curved lilies, showing the Ancient Egyptian influence on the art deco. When the doors are open, each elevator looks like an exquisite art deco room.
There were four basic patterns for elevator interior decoration, but no two were alike due to the wide variety of inlays, made from a variety of rare woods, including Japanese ash, English graywood, Oriental walnut, American walnut, stained, satinwood, Cubanwood, maple, Philippine mahogany, teak and Australian oak. There were patterns with arches, triangles, pyramids, Mondrian-style and even some smooth ones whose shape was determined solely by the color of the wood and the direction of the veins. Levine states that “if anything in the building is based on patterned fabrics, it's definitely the elevators. Three of the designs can be said to have geometric, Mexican and slightly art nouveau motifs, reflecting the different influences in the design of the entire building.” The ceiling of each elevator was covered with a different metal plate, set on a different pattern of polished wood. Curcio states that these elevators "are among the prettiest little enclosed spaces in New York, and it is fair to say that no one who has seen or been in them has forgotten them".
In a way, the entire arrangement of the elevators was designed to look like curtains opening on a fabulous stage for a Ziegfeld show. Indeed, the elevator lobbies have rays in the form of raised curtains in the old style, with the central part raised and falling to both sides. In addition, the interior decoration of the elevators was also a reference to vehicles, since the cars of the time used to have the dashboard and the wooden trims.
Cloud Club
The Cloud Club (lit. "club in the clouds") occupied the 66th, 67th and 68th floors of the Chrysler Building and opened in July 1930 with some 300 members who were among the most influential people in the city, such as E. F. Hutton, Condé Nast, and boxer Gene Tunney. The Cloud Club was created in part at the request of Texaco, which, before leasing fourteen floors in the building, requested that there be a restaurant suitable for its executives. The Cloud Club was the solution, and its design reflected a compromise between William van Alen, who gave the rest of the building its modern appearance, and Walter Chrysler, whose personal taste was more stately and traditional.
There was a Tudor-style lounge on the 66th floor with oak panelling, and an Old English Grill Room with wooden floors, exposed beams, wrought-iron chandeliers and glass and lead doors. The main dining room, located on the 67th floor, was connected to the 66th floor by a Renaissance-style bronze and marble staircase and had a futuristic look, with polished granite columns and etched glass sconces It was art deco in style. There was a mural of a cloud on the ceiling, and a mural of Manhattan on the north side. The dining room is believed to have served as a landmark for the Rainbow Room and Rockefeller Center Luncheon Club, both located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. On the same floor, Walter Chrysler had a private dining room and there was also a Texaco private dining room. The 68th floor contained mainly service spaces.
The Cloud Club's fortunes began to decline in the 1950s and 1960s, with some members transferring to similar clubs nearby. to Westchester. The Cloud Club ended up closing in 1979, and although there have been several projects to rehabilitate and reopen it, transforming it into a nightclub or gastronomic club, these have never come to fruition. Tishman Speyer has leased the top two floors of the former Cloud Club to companies. The old staircase has been removed, as well as many other elements of the original decoration, which has generated protests from the Art Deco Society of New York.
Chrysler Center
Chrysler Center is the name of the building complex consisting of the Chrysler Building, the Chrysler Building East (formerly the Kent Building) and the shopping pavilion called Chrysler Trylons, located between them. In 1998 Tishman Speyer acquired the entire complex and proceeded to renew it completely between 1998 and 2000.
The Kent Building, located at 666 Third Avenue, was renovated and was renamed the Chrysler Building East. Built in 1951, this building is 132 meters high and has 32 floors and is of the International Style. Led by well-known architect Philip Johnson, the renovation replaced the glass façade with a darker one, added a 14,214 m² extension, modernized the mechanical systems and modified the interior. Following these works, the Total area of this building is 71,535 m².
Finally, a new building was built to connect the two buildings in the complex, which was also commissioned from Philip Johnson. The result is Chrysler Trylons, a three-story, 2,000m² shopping pavilion. Its design, three intersecting three-sided glass pyramids, is inspired by the triangular windows in the crown of the Chrysler Building. In the words of the architect, "it is a monument to 42nd Street, which takes you to the top of the Chrysler Building being at street level".
Following these modifications, the total leasable area of the complex increased to 191,637 m². The total cost of this project was approximately one hundred million dollars. This renovation has won several awards and recognitions, such as the Energy Star from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the 2000 Renovation Project of the Year, the 2002 NYACE Engineering Excellence Award, and the 2001 Skyscraper Museum Outstanding Renovation Award.
Legacy
The Chrysler Building appears in several films set in New York and is often considered one of the best buildings in the city. In 1997, a survey of New York architects showed that the Chrysler was by far their favorite building. In 2001, a critics' poll ranked it the third best building in the country. In the summer of 2005, the Skyscraper Museum in New York asked one hundred architects, critics, engineers, historians, and others to choose his ten favorites out of twenty-five New York skyscrapers. The Chrysler Building came in first place, with 90% of those surveyed ranking it among their top ten. of Architects, within a selection of one hundred and fifty buildings and structures.
In the New York landmark designation, the Landmarks Preservation Commission states that “the Chrysler Building is an outstanding example of art deco architecture; it was designed by the architect Van Alen to symbolize the Chrysler Corporation; when it was completed in 1930 it was the tallest building in the world; the installation of the 56m spire that earned it that distinction was a daring technical achievement; the architect used new technologies and materials, especially Nirosta for the exterior ornaments, the window frames, the crown and the spire; it claimed to be the epitome of modern business life and was dedicated by Walter Chrysler to world trade and industry; it is synonymous with progress in modern architecture and construction methods; With its crown, it embodies the romantic essence of the New York skyscraper; and continues to dominate the skyline of New York".
The characteristic silhouette of the Chrysler Building has inspired many similar buildings around the world, such as One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, the New York New York Tower in Chongqing, or the Business Central Towers in Dubai.
Media appearance
Movies
The Chrysler Building can be seen in many movies. Yet despite appearing in the establishment shots of many New York-set films in recent decades, she has rarely had a leading role. Along these lines, James Sanders, author of Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies, affirms that any essay on the Chrysler Building in the cinema should be titled «the award for best supporting skyscraper goes to...» and says that «it was always in establishment shots, and almost never received the attention that perhaps it should have. There was always the Empire State Building to outshine it."
At the end of the 1933 film King Kong you can see the top of the building. Initially, the top that King Kong was going to climb was the New York Life Building, but later the production company decided to use the Chrysler Building instead. However, after the completion of the Empire State Building, it was finally decided to use this building —then the tallest in the world— in one of the most famous scenes in film history. In The Magician (1978), the building appears repeated five times in a montage when Dorothy and the Scarecrow take the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. In the fantasy film by horror Q - The Winged Serpent (1982), directed by Larry Cohen, a flying monster takes up the top of the building as its residence. shot inside the spire. Director Larry Cohen stated "I've always thought the Chrysler Building was the most interesting building in town and deserved to have its own monster". The opening credits of Shadow of the witness (1987), by Ridley Scott, are shown on an aerial plane that rotates over buildings or with its crown illuminated at night. In Armageddon (1998) the upper part is destroyed by an asteroid, like other buildings in New York. In Deep Impact (1998) the building is engulfed by a tsunami and in Godzilla (1998) it is destroyed by a deflected rocket. i>A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) two aliens go to a submerged Manhattan of the future and for an instant the Chrysler Building can be seen intact.
The building also appears in Spider-Man (2002), where the protagonist mourns the death of his uncle from one of the eagles, and in Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer (2007), where one of the characters flies over the Chrysler Building. In a comedy titled Two Weeks Notice (2002) the building shares a long scene with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant, who discuss their love for the iconic building as they fly over it in a helicopter., the Cloud Club and the upper part. He had another appearance in the film Men in Black 3 (2012), in which agent J (Will Smith) must return to the past to try to save the agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) and for this he must jump into the void from one of the eagles. The animators spent more than eighteen months working on this ninety-second scene and on the It combines real elements with 3D special effects. It is considered one of the most iconic in which the building is the protagonist. Its last recognized appearance was in the 2022 film Moonfall, in the which, along with other buildings, is destroyed by fragments of the Moon that fall all over New York.
Photography
In December 1929, photographer Margaret Bourke-White was hired by Walter P. Chrysler to take photos of the Chrysler Building for publicity purposes. She worked from the scaffolding 244 meters high, from where she took photographs of the building under construction. On one occasion the wind was so strong that his tripod had to be held by three men to prevent it from falling over. His studio was on the 61st floor. In 1930, several of his photographs were used in a special report on skyscraper in the then-new Fortune magazine. Bourke-White atop Chrysler Building), where the famous photographer can be seen taking a picture of the New York skyline sitting on one of the eagles on the 61st floor. 1998, said photograph was auctioned at Christie's for $96,000.
On January 23, 1931, at a ball organized by the Society of Beaux-Arts, the architects dressed up as a building designed by them. Van Alen wore boots and a jacket with patterns that alluded to the wood inlays in elevators. In addition, he had some decorations on his shoulder that represented the eagles of the 61st floor and as a hat he wore the crown of the building. In one of the photos from the ball, Van Alen appears with a total of six architects, including A. Stewart Walker, who was in costume of the Fuller Building, and Leonard Schultze, of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Van Alen also appears in another photo while his wife, disguised as a courtesan, looks at him.
Music
The cover of the 1993 album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell by the group Meat Loaf features a giant bat clinging to the top of the Chrysler Building. It is the work of Michael Whelan, done in acrylic on watercolor panel. In addition, the skyscraper is mentioned repeatedly in the lyrics of songs such as "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago" by Soul Coughing, "Jet Black" by Treat Her Right and " Going Home" from the album Bewitched by Luna.
In the musical Annie, during the number "Hard-Knock Life", which talks about the hard life in an orphanage, little orphan Annie, imitating Miss Hannigan, says "You& #39;ll stay up till this dump shines like the top of the Chrysler Building".
References and notes
- Notes
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