The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building, a monumental landmark in the history of engineering, but what makes it so special to us? Could it be that fact that this 102 floor goliath was the world’s tallest man-made structure for 23 years and tallest building for a record 41 years makes it stand out? Or is it more simply believe that it is well known because of the movies, cartoons, and books it is in? The reason to this question is not as simple as that, yet a more complex story of how this goliath was made in 13 months and under-budget in the 1930’s.

The Beginning
Its financial source, John J. Raskob, was a business man for DuPont and General Motors and is rather well known for his anti-Roosevelt organizations and the American Liberty League. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a key supporter of Alfred E. Smith’s candidacy for President of the United States. However, when he became chairman of the DNC, he was politely asked to resign from GM or the DNC. Mr. Raskob, being very bull-headed, resigned from GM, sold his stock and set his dream to build the Empire State Building. On the night Mr. Smith lost the election, Mr. Raskob made him a promise that they would always do business together and so hired Mr. Smith as the president of the Empire State Co. The story behind the building is simple. Mr. Raskob wanted to best his arch-rival, Walter Chrysler, who had already begun construction on the 1046-foot Chrysler Building. The Chrysler Building, in turn, was in competition with the Bank of Manhattan Building to be the tallest building in the world. Not only did Mr. Raskob want his building to be the tallest, he also wanted it to open before the Chrysler Building. This would truly be a race to the top and a daunting task for the general contractors.
The Empire State Building was drawn up in less two weeks time by an architectural firm by the name of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and was actually designed from the top down. The 1920’s were known as the Art Deco Period in design and therefore the architects wanted to create a building that would stand even among that era, and within two weeks they had created a 102 floor masterpiece. With its four facades facing the street and its imperious tower, it was sure to steal the show from any other building. The building was designed with an infrastructure much like a 3-D grid using steel columns and beams that were placed rather close together to support the building. Due to the small spacing in between the columns, no floor would have column free spaces.



The Construction
The spot for such a goliath was at the corner of Fifth Ave and West 34th Street, where the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a place that was frequented by The Four Hundred, the social elite of New York during the early 19th century. Its general contractors were Starrett Brothers and Eken, who were known as the premier "skyline builders" of the 1920’s. During the interview process the firm told Mr. Smith that they had no equipment or supplies that would work on the Empire State Building. Each piece of equipment had to be custom made for the job in order to build it at the speed the owner wanted. Mr. Smith couldn’t agree more and signed them to the project.
Due to the speed that the building was going to be built, the firm had to start making plans immediately. They had to formulate a plan that would allow them to begin construction before the architectural plans were complete. Thus, the building became the first commercial construction project to employ the technique of fast-track construction, a common technique today, yet one that was just fostering during that time period. This meant that the structural engineer had to make a schematic design based off the architects’ sketches before they were actually complete. In doing so the builders would have a rough account at what the building was suppose to look like and could begin construction right away.
The excavation for the new building began in January 1930, before the demolition of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was complete. The firm had perfected the art of simultaneous demolition and foundation-laying the year before during another build to erect the world’s tallest building. With two shifts of 300 men working day and night, the foundation was complete in just under two months. The next part of the construction, erecting the steel skeleton, started in March of 1930. This would prove to be a little more difficult because of space requirements for the steel. Due to New York’s overcrowded population and narrow streets, blocking off any street for any time period was impossible.
The steel workers would have to work with the steel as it came of the trucks fresh from the factories.
The assembly line process was harder to accomplish than to implement. All of the steel had to be fabricated and put together in factories in Pittsburg and sent to New York via train, truck and barge. As soon as a truck pulled up to the site, the steel and to be raised off the truck via derricks and riveted into place almost immediately throughout the entire day. Its been said that each piece of steel came to the jobsite marked with its number and the derrick that was to carry it, making it so that a piece could be manufactured and then riveted into place in less than 80 hours. This meant that no piece of steel ever hit the ground. That’s fast, so fast that the crew was able to set 4 and a half floors of steel a week, that’s a little over one floor a day.
Keep in mind that the derricks being used in this building could only climb 30 floors, so several large derricks had to be used to continue the climb the top. With that in mind, that means they had to have a minimum of 4 large derricks in this already overcrowded jobsite. Crews worked from sun up till sun down and sometimes even Sundays and Holidays to keep this project on track. Eating areas were set up on each floor so that crews didn’t have to waste time to climb to the bottom and back up again during their lunch break.


After the steel workers made it to a certain height, the brick workers were brought in to begin their job. Mr. Smith faced the same problem with the bricks as he did with the steel, no place to put the bricks. In those days the trucks would dump the bricks on the road and then the bricks would wheel-barreled to where they were needed. This couldn’t be done because of the same reason as the steel, no space and blocking off streets was not an option. They could dump the bricks in he basement and it would serve as he same concept but it was still inefficient and to slow for the project.
Thus, they placed a gigantic hopper in the basement where all the bricks could be dumped and whenever bricks were needed, the hopper would drop a load of bricks into a cart beneath it and the cart would be wheeled to where it needed to go. In order to get the bricks from floor to floor, they used a pulley system that would raise the cart up and down to the desired floor it needed to go. Using this system the brick workers were able to continue the pace that the steel workers had set and in no time flat they were able to allow electricians and plumbers in to start their work.
It was recorded that the firm stated that more than sixty different types of trade people would be required, while they themselves worked a crew of 3,500 men. It is also rumored that at certain times during the building process you could see well over 3,000 men in the building working. Because of the working capacity of the project, a well organized system had to be implemented so that every crew could get its job done effectively and quickly. Thus every crew, whether they were drywall, plumbing or electrical, had their own floors to work on and pushed their way towards the top. It is also rumored that in order to get equipment in the elevators to a certain floor, you had to reserve it in a 15 minute slot two days ahead of time.
While all this work was going on inside, the outside was still being perfected as well. In addition to the steel frame, construction materials included 62000 cubic yards of concrete; ten million bricks; 10,000 square feet of Rose Famosa and Estrallante marble; and 6,500 windows, whose sprandels were sandblasted to blend their color into the tone of the windows. That’s just the outside of the building; the inside houses 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite; 300,000 square feet of Hauteville and Rocheron marble for the elevator lobbies and the corridors of the office floors; and 73 elevators.
During construction, the Empire State Building became a model of efficiency. Do to the firms innovative ideas they were able to save time, manpower and even money. The project was completed 5 months ahead of schedule and 17.3 million dollars under budget on April 5, 1931. President Herbert Hoover himself officially opened the building on May 1 by turning on the buildings lights with a button in Washington D.C. In the middle of its construction, the Empire State Building became the world’s tallest building as workers completed the 80 floor, surpassing its rival, the Chrysler Building. The building as become known as an eloquent beauty that is matched by its effective construction timing. Even though it lost its title of the world’s tallest building to The World Trade Center North Building in1972, many engineers still consider it one of the Seven Wonders of the World





Interesting Facts
The top of the Empire State Building was originally designed as a dirigible mooring with a movable gangplank. However, this idea was scrapped during tests that resulted in the process being unsafe and the wind updrafts from the building to strong. After that a 1,472 foot spire was placed on the top of the building. The spire acts as an antenna for many radio stations and also as a grounding rod for the buildings around it. The Empire State Building gets struck by lighting over 100 times a year.
The Empire State Building is also used in over a fifty movies such as King Kong and Independence Day. It also appears in countless artistic expressions and numerous album covers that span over many genres.
Its structural integrity was tested when a B-25 bomber accidentally crashed into its 79th floor, killing 14 people and sending an engine down a elevator shaft. This crash also caused elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver to become a Guinness Book of World Records holder for surviving the longest elevator plunge (75 stories).
The only person to every refuse an invitational to the Empire State Building was Walter P. Chrysler.
Over 117 million people have visited it since it opened. French Prime Minister, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Pope Pius XII, Fidel Castro and Queen Elizabeth II just to name a few.
Roughly 32 people have jumped to their deaths from the observation on the top during the decks operation.
The Empire State Building houses over 1,000 businesses with its own zip code.
It was declared Landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on May 18, 1981.
The cornerstone was laid on September 17, 1930.
The lobby is a five-story Art Deco masterpiece crafted in rich granite and marble, and highlighted by brushed stainless steel.



Work Cited


1. www.wikipedia.org
a. Empire State Building
b. Chrysler Building
c. John J. Raskob
2. www.guinnessworldrecords.com
3. www.esbnyc.com
4. http://www.generalcontractor.com/resources/articles/empire-state-building.asp
5. http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=empirestatebuilding-newyorkcity-ny-usa
6. http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/empirestate/index.html