The Woolworth building in New York City at 792 feet was the tallest tower in the world in 1929, but two city -building skyscrapers were in a dead heat to catch the crown. One was 40 Wall Street, first scheduled for 840 feet. The other was the Chrysler building, originally intended to be 808 feet, but it was later announced that they were 925 feet to the owners of 40 Wall Street and raised the height of the building to 927 feet, while Chrysler Architect William van Alen was authorized to install a 125 -foot spire. News Media affected the public interest, calling it “the race in the sky”.
The Chrysler building exceeded 1,046 feet in October 1929, reaching the world record, but not for a long time. Empire State Inc., a collaboration of five people whose president, Alfred E. Smith, was the former governor of New York and the recent candidate for the losing Democratic Party for the President of the United States, announced in August 1929 a plan to erect a 1,050 -foot building, which was true, added a “200 -foot metal crown”, carrying the 222 feet.
The owners of the Empire State selected William F. Lamb, from the Shreve, Lamb and Harmon architectural firm, as designer, Homer G. Balcom as a structural engineer and Starrett Brothers and Eken as a general contractor. The Lamb design featured a five -story base that filled the 423 -feet site x 200 feet on the fifth Avenida Manhattan, with a main axis of 81 floors that was abruptly put to meet the zoning requirements.
William A. Starrett, president of the firm, had supervised the construction of numerous tall buildings and during World War I had managed all the construction work of the United States Army for the Industrial Board of the War. In 1928, he was the author of “The skyscrapers and the men who build them”, a story of tall buildings at that time and a comprehensive guide for construction and planning materials needed to complete them. Its most memorable line was “to build skyscrapers is the equivalent of the war closest to peace”.
Higher Starrett organizational skills were tested in the Empire State building. It had 57,000 tonnes of structural steel, much exceeding the 18,500 tonnes used for 40 Wall Street and 21,000 tonnes for the Chrysler building, even surpassing the 38,000 tonnes used in the Chicago Martí Merchandise, the largest building in the world for space until this time.
A hard deadline
Image of Recorded Archives
The owner insisted that Empire State Building was ready for employment on May 1, 1931, 18 months since its start of construction. The architect Lamb was hired in September 1929. Design and construction drawings were concurrent. Steel drawings for the building were completed in mid -January 1930.
The project was occupied at that time by the original Waldorf – Astoria Hotel, then the largest hotel in the world, with 1,300 rooms. The demolition began on October 1, 1929 and the excavation on January 22, 1930. Two 12 -hour shifts, consisting of 300 employees each, worked continuously to dig the founding of 55 feet deep.
The manufacture of steel was managed by American Bridge Co. and McClintic-Marshall Co., both based in Pennsylvania. Steel members were sent by rail to a supply courtyard on the New Jersey promenade, then surrendered to an East River wharf and were transported for the final leg of the trip. The steel was requested by an elevator, or two floors, at the same time, with delivery in time, as there was no storage space at the project site.
Steel Ector Post and McCord used an elaborate system of erecting Derricks and Relés Derricks, driven by assembly engines. The relay demolitions, with 75 -foot booms and 82 -foot sticks, were placed on the paired platforms on the building’s face, to allow Derrick Lines to reach the street on the setbacks. The Derricks was carried out with the steel. Four of these had a capacity of 20 tons, while the other five, which had to erect the heavier columns sections, were 30 tons. When the 23rd floor setback was reached, the four smallest Derricks on the corner were dismantled, while the five strongest Derricks continued up.
The polypast, with drums with 3,500 feet of cable, incorporated a new security function: Band service brakes controlled by levers to govern the speed of the cable while lowering. Each Derrick Erection had a crew again, while 38 triumphal bands joined the beams and columns, each gang formed by two riveters, a heater, a bucker-up and one or two helpers.
The trucks carried 16,000 partition tiles, 5,000 cement bags, 450 sand cuts and 300 lime bags in the place daily. The carts of a small railway system transported building materials from the basement storage areas to the elevators, with sets of tracks added to the upper floors installed to distribute materials where they were needed. Near the steel erectors and the equipment that sang concrete soil slabs were the interior finish crews that installed plume, air conditioning, electrical equipment, marble tiles, plaster, elevators, window frames, glass and other interior finishes.
The facade of the building is composed of Indiana limestones, with windows separated by nickel-chromic steel muladies and connected by horizontal aluminum spandrels. The Otis lift provided 66 cars, able to travel 1,200 feet per minute.
A fast tracking icon
Image of Recorded Archives
The rhythm of construction was phenomenal. The foundation’s work began on March 17, 1930, with the first vertical steel piece set on April 7. On June 20, the steel had risen on the 26th floor, and on September 19, the steel had to exceed 1,048 feet – 23 weeks after the start of construction.
The airship Maston exceeded November 21, and the building was completed on April 11, 1931, after 410 days. During July 1930, 22 steel floors were located in 22 working days, which involved regular hours and without night work.
The labor force reached 3,500 and included many Irish and Italian immigrants, as well as Mohawk iron workers from the Kahnawake’s first nations, near Mont -Real, who were experts in working in Great Heights. Five workers died during the project.
The key to the success of the project was the rigorous control system developed by Starrett. A robust inspector team traveled every day, recording the amount of work. This information was summed up in a daily report and was used to calculate the actual cost of the labor unit for each work portion, giving Starrett and its superintendent, John W. Bowser, almost indicators of progress or real -time delays, so they could take measurements quickly to avoid or solve problems.
An article from 1931 on the design of the wind for 1,000 -foot buildings discussed the methods of analysis and philosophy that emphasized the low resistance in addition to the force, as is evident in the designs of the Empire State building and 40 Wall Street. Another article from 1931 described how the building was equipped with various instruments for measuring wind stress, wind pressure and swinging, collecting data for the research of the American Institute for the construction of steel on the effects of wind voltage on high buildings.
The building passed a shocking test of its strength in July 1945, when a Mitchell B-25 bomber plane weighing 10 tons, with a wingspan of 68 feet, crashed on its north side between 79 and 80 to 200 mphs during a period of great fog. One of the engines of the plane completely penetrated the building and landed on a neighboring block, while the other and part of the landing gear fell on an axis of the elevator. The incident killed 14 people, but the building escaped with serious damage and reopened two days later.
Considered a masterpiece Art Deco, the 86 and 102nd observer of the Empire State Building Building, attract 4 million visitors a year. The building, which underwent a significant renovation that was completed in 2019, also serves as current ENR headquarters.
