Empire State Building dedicated
On this day in 1931 President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York Citys Empire State Building pressing a button from the White House that turns on the buildings lights.Hoovers gesture of course was symbolic while the president remained in Washington D.C.someone else flicked the switches in New York.The idea for the Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors to see who could erect the taller building.
Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building the gleaming 1046-foot skyscraper in midtown Manhattan.Not to be bested Raskob assembled a group of well-known investors including former New York Governor Alfred E.Smith.
The group chose the architecture firm Shreve Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building.The Art-Deco plans said to have been based in large part on the look of a pencil were also builder-friendly The entire building went up in just over a year under budget (at 40 million) and well ahead of schedule.During certain periods of building the frame grew an astonishing four-and-a-half stories a week.At the time of its completion the Empire State Building at 102 stories and 1250 feet high (1454 feet to the top of the lightning rod) was the worlds tallest skyscraper.
The Depression-era construction employed as many as 3400 workers on any single day most of whom received an excellent pay rate especially given the economic conditions of the time.The new building imbued New York City with a deep sense of pride desperately needed in the depths of the Great Depression when many city residents were unemployed and prospects looked bleak.The grip of the Depression on New Yorks economy was still evident a year later however when only 25 percent of the Empire States offices had been rented.In 1972 the Empire State Building lost its title as worlds tallest building to New Yorks World Trade Center which itself was the tallest skyscraper for but a year.
Today the honor belongs to Dubais Burj Khalifa tower which soars 2717 feet into the sky.
