Chrysler

The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. more...

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Standing at 319 m (1,047 ft) high, it was briefly the world's tallest building before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931. However, the Chrysler Building remains the world's tallest brick building. After the destruction of the World Trade Center, it was again the second tallest building in New York City until December 2007, when the spire was raised on the 365.8 m (1,200 ft) Bank of America building, pushing the Chrysler Building into third position. In addition, the New York Times Building, which opened in 2007, is exactly tied with the Chrysler Building in height, making the two buildings tied for 3rd position. Despite the change in height ranking in New York, the Chrysler Building is still a classic example of Art Deco architecture and considered by many, at least among contemporary architects, to be one of the finest buildings in New York City. (see below),

History

The Chrysler Building was designed by architect William Van Alen to house the Chrysler Corporation. When the ground breaking occurred on September 19, 1928, there was an intense competition in New York City to build the world's tallest skyscraper. Despite a frantic pace (the building was erected at an average rate of four floors per week), no workers died during the construction of this skyscraper.

Design beginnings

Van Alen's original design for the skyscraper calls for a decorative jewel-like glass crown. His design also features the building's base in which showroom windows were tripled in height and topped by various number of stories with glass-wrapped cor­ners, creating an impression that the tower appeared physically and visually light as if floating on mid air. The height of the skyscraper was also originally designed to be 246.0 m (807 ft) tall. However, the design was proved to be costly. Hence, building contractor William H. Reynolds disapproved Van Alen's original plan. The design and lease was sold to Walter P. Chrysler, who worked with Van Alen and redesigned the skyscraper for additional stories was later revised to be 282.0 m (925 ft) tall. As Walter Chrysler was the chairman of the Chrysler Automobile Corporation, various architectural details and especially the building's gargoyles were modeled after Chrysler automobile products like the hood ornaments of the Plymouth, and in which must also exemplify the machine age in the 1920s. (See below)

Read more at Wikipedia.org