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What is the Empire State Building?
The Empire State Building is a popular tourist attraction in New York City. It is a 102-story building that was the world's tallest skyscraper for more than 40 years. The building is located at the intersection of West 34th Street and Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan. This building was built to be an office building, but it still draws millions of tourists each year to its two observation decks for views overlooking New York City.
The Empire State Building was designed and built in the art deco style, typical of pre World War II architecture. William Lamb, an architect from the firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, designed the building, inspired by the style of another prominent architect, Eliel Saarinen. The exterior of the building is constructed of limestone and marble, accented by steel and glass trims. The Starrett Brothers and Eken were the general contractors on the building project, which was financed by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont.
Construction on the building began on March 17, 1930. While the construction was taking place, the building grew four and a half stories per week, on average. The Empire State Building was completed and opened to the public on May 1, 1931. The building itself reaches 1,250 feet (381 meters) in height, crowned with a 203-foot (62-meter) pinnacle. Originally intended to be an airship dock, the pinnacle now houses multiple broadcast towers as well as a lightning rod that diverts lighting strikes away from other buildings in the area. Until 1950, the building was not a profitable endeavor, and in 1951, it was sold in what was the largest real estate deal for a single building in its time — $51 million US Dollars.
While the Empire State Building's primary function is as an office building — it houses more than 1,000 businesses — it may be one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York City. More than 110 million people have visited the observatory decks atop the iconic building for panoramic views of the New York City skyline. The inside of the Empire State Building also houses exhibits related to movies that have filmed in or on the building as well as its history and construction. Visitors to New York City may also notice the changing colors of lights atop the building. Floodlights were added in 1964, and the colors may be changed to match holidays and other symbolic events.
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![The Empire State Building is an example of art deco style.]()
By: rabbit75_fotThe Empire State Building is an example of art deco style. -
![The Empire State Building is located at the intersection of West 34th Street and Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan.]()
By: cesarThe Empire State Building is located at the intersection of West 34th Street and Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan.
Discussion Comments
This could have been more specific, but overall, a pretty good summary.
@carrotisland: As the article stated, there are 102 floors in the building. From the street level to the 102nd floor, there are 1,860 steps.
Here is some more fun trivia for you: There are 6,500 windows in the building. It took 7,000,000 man hours to construct the building. At the busiest time, there were 3,400 people working on it. There is approximately 17 million feet of telephone wire inside the building.
On a sadder note, it has been said that five workers were killed during the construction of the Empire State Building.
Does anyone know how many stairs are in the Empire State Building? I had that as an extra credit question on a test and had no idea what the answer was!
I am taking an architecture class and we had to do a report on the Empire State Building. I found out some very interesting facts in the process.
It took one year and forty five days to complete the building. It took $24, 718,000 to build. That was almost half of the expected cost. When you add on the cost of the property, the total cost was $40,948,900.
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