The Empire State Building is a supertall skyscraper in New York City, in the United States. It had been the tallest building in the world for a very long time(40 years). Below are the facts about the Empire State Building and some related information.
Name: Empire State Building, the tower takes its name from the nickname of the state of New York (Empire State) where it is located in.
Location: Empire State Building's address is Fifth Avenue 350, it can be found between the 33th Street and 34 Street on Fifth Avenue in Midtown.
Midtown has more skyscrapers no matter completed ones or ongoing projects than that of Downtown where the One World Trade Center located at, the Empire State Building currently stands as the tallest completed building in that area by total height, 17 meters taller than 432 Park Avenue, which is the tallest by standard height in Midtown, but will be surpassed by the Central Park Tower once it's completed. Empire State Building had been the tallest building in the world for 42 years since its completion, until in 1972 when the original One World Trade Center at miles away surpassed it.
Height: 381 meters (1250 feet) - Standard height & Roof height; 443 meters (1454 feet) - Total height
According to CTBUH, the standard height or architectural height of Empire State Building is 381 meters, which is measured from the ground to the roof of the smaller tower which atop its observation deck on 86th floor. The antenna atop the smaller tower brings its total height to 443m at its tip.
When the building was first built in 1931, there was no antenna added atop the tower, then an antenna was installed atop the tower many years later in 1950s, makes it reach 449 meters in total, but that antenna was then replaced by a new shorter antenna after another few years, makes the building decrease to 443 meters. And since then the building has not been changed anymore. However, because both of two antennas are not regarded as spire, hence don't count in standard height, the architectural height had always been 381 m.
As of September 2019, the Empire State Building is the 6th tallest building in New York City (including buildings that about to top out), 8th tallest building in the United States, and 39th tallest in the whole world.
The building has 103 floors with the highest one at 373 meters, which is served as an observatory for celebrities, there are a total of 1860 stairs from the ground to the highest floor.
Standing at 381 meters, Empire State Building had been the tallest building in the world for 40 years since its completion until in 1970 when the old One World Trade Center Tower reached a height taller than it, this makes Empire State Building still the record holder today for holding the title of World's Tallest Building for longest time, and given that Burj Khalifa's height will be surpassed by around 2023, it could be predicted that there'll be no chance for another building to hold that title for more than 40 years in the foreseeable future.
In addition, Manhattan is not a flattened island, the elevation of different sites are significantly different. Empire State Building stands on a site 15 meters above sea level, by contrast the elevation of the site of One World Trade Center is only 3 meters, so by this way the height difference between the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center is narrowed by 12 meters.
Uses: The uses of the Empire State Building are varied, while commonly being used for office spaces, observation decks, broadcasting, it also at times served as a wedding location, filming site, and the site for Vertical Marathon. In the same time as a landmark in New York City or America, the upper portion of the building will always be lit with different colors which represent different festivals or events.
Owner:
The current owner of the Empire State Building is a firm called Empire State Realty Trust, which is managed by Anthony Malkin. The Qatar Investment Authority controls 10 percent of entity of the building.
Design and Development:
The Empire State Building was built in 1931, 88 years ago (as of 2019). At that time there in the city was an upsurge in construction in which developers were competing for the tallest building, a bit similar with today's Asian cities, the difference is they were competing in a same city. Before the construction of Empire State Building the tallest buildings in the city were the Chrysler Building which is also located in Midtown and the 40 Wall Street in Downtown.
It is said the building's developer John Jakob Raskob once asked his architect about the extremity of skyscraper's height, his architect replied: ''1050 feet.'' This became the height of its main observation deck in the later. John was not satisfied with this height, given that the Chrysler Building's height is close to this number, then John takes out a pencil from a drawer and show it to his architect, asks if the height could go higher with the shape of pencil, being inspired by the pencil, the architect figured out a way to make the building taller, which is to add a smaller tower above the main observation deck. The architect in this story was called William F. Lamb, he along with the other two architects Arthur Loomis Harmon, and R.H. Shreve together designed the Empire State Building. After a shape resembling pencil was determined, Lamb uses Reynolds Building which he designed before as a reference to refine the building's appearance.
The architectural style of the building is Art Deco, for this its appearance resembles to some other buildings of Art Deco Style, such as Penobscot Building in Detroit, in fact Empire State Building looks even more similar to Penobscot Building than Reynolds Building.
The footprint of the building is 129m (423 ft) long and 57m (187ft) wide. The main portion of the building which excludes the smaller tower above the main observatory is 320m high, at that time even the tip of the spire on the Chrysler Building reaches only 319m. The building has a total of 257211 square meters of floor area, of which 200500 square meters served as office spaces, there are up to 21000 people work in the office floors of Empire State Building.
The cost of the construction was around 40 million dollars, which including the price of the land, the building itself cost only 24.7 million dollars, about 350 million dollars in 2016, only about one tenth of that of the new One World Trade Center. However in 2010 the building went through a renovation which cost 550 million dollars.
Even the construction for such a giant building was occurred in 1930s, it only took one year and 45 days to build the building. In comparison to the buildings with the same size built in recent years taking an average of 3 or 4 years to build, we have to say the construction of Empire State Building was a miracle.
Tourism and sightseeing:
There are two separated observation decks open to public on the building's 86th and 102nd floor respectively, from where the tourists can overlook and enjoy the cityscape of the whole city.
Since Empire State Building held the title of world's tallest building for longest period, and featuring an iconic appearance, plus it has been shown in numerous films, it always attracts more tourists than any other observation decks of skyscrapers in the world.
Each year an average of 3.5 million people visit to the building’s observation deck on 86th floor.
As of 2016 about 100 million people have visited the observation deck, and never lacking of celebrities from last century to contemporary times, such as Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth II, and the actor Tom Cruise, singer Justin Bieber, etc.. A bunch of photos of numerous different celebrities visiting Empire State Building can be found on the official pinterest page of Empire State Building.
In the night of October 15, 2018, American rapper Eminem performed his song “Venom” from the Empire State Building in Jimmy Kimmel Live. The performance started from the ground floor of the building, Eminem raps all the way to the observation deck at the top, where his performance is accompanied by a light show.
It is worth to mention that Dubai's royal family had also ever visited the building's observation deck on 86th floor in 1960s, from then on, they got deeply inspired by it, planning one day build a tallest building in their own country, this is why Burj Khalifa is built and today's Dubai is being filled with tons of skyscrapers.
Except of some telecom towers, Empire State Building is the only one building in the world that the income generated from the sightseeing with its observation deck is more than that from rentals.
A standard admission to the main observation deck on 86th floor cost 38 dollars as of 2019, it is where King Kong watches the sunrise with the beauty. Another observation deck is at 102nd floor, which is 373 meters off the ground, the visitors need an extra 20 dollars (the price is subject to change) to get there, it is an enclosed viewing deck, much smaller than the one at 86th floor, will be closed whenever the traffic is too large.
There’s also a very narrow annular open-air viewing deck on 103rd floor of the building, only open to celebrities.
Popular Culture:
As an icon of America, the Empire State Building has been featured in numerous of movies, TV series, video games, and many other medias.
1996 film Independence Day: A colossal alien ship hovers above Empire State Building, blowing up the whole building in a few seconds. Misery loves company, in the same way another ship bumped the US Bank Tower, which is the tallest building in Los Angeles, the second largest city in America.
1993 film Sleepless in Seattle: The observation deck on the building's 86th floor is the place where the male lead character Sam finally met his beloved one Annie.
2005 film King Kong: King Kong scaled to the observation deck of Empire State Building, the highest terrace in the city, at there it could watch the sunrise with its beloved woman, as it always doing in the forests where it used to live in. But hard to escape from the human hunting, shortly after that the human’s fighter crafts came and began attacking it. After destroyed several crafts, King Kong was seriously injured and fell down from the roof to its death.
2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief: In the movie, a mysterious elevator in Empire State Building could take one to the building’s 600th floor, a magical place called Mount Olympia.
2002 film The Time Machine: The story takes place in New York in 2030, the Empire State Building is no longer the King of Manhattan's skyscrapers, and can hard to be picked out as it is surrounded by lots of buildings that are much taller. However this won't happen in reality since according to the current amount and height of the proposals only a few is taller than its tip, and none of them is located very close to it. Maybe that will finally come true by 2050, for 2030 there might be a chance for a building cluster with the similar size seen in the film to show up in some area of the city, but definitely can't be in the same block with the Empire State Building.
2008 animated film Gotham Knight: A modified Empire State Building appears in the film.
2009 film Knowing: Empire State Building is destroyed by the aliens in the film.
2013 film Oblivion: This science fiction film starring Tom Cruise showed the destroyed New York in future, by then some landmarks in the city like Empire State Building, Manhattan Bridge and new World Trade Center are only left with remains.
2011 film The Divide: In the future, a nuclear explosions ravage New York City, Empire State Building is destructed by the nuclear bomb in the film.
2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV: The city named Freedom City in the game is closely based on New York City, and Empire State Building is featured in the city as the tallest building in the game, so the building can be easily picked out in Algonquin Island, but is renamed to Rotterdam Tower, which is derived from the name of city of Rotterdam in Netherlands, for New York City once called New Amsterdam (another city in Netherlands) when it was first established.
Game Sim city series: Like other skyscrapers, Empire State Building is featured in the game.