The 102-0storey Empire State Building got its name from the nickname for the state of New York. For over forty years, from its completion in 1931, the art deco skyscraper was the New York’s tallest building. Tragically it regained that title after the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001.
The American Society of Civil Engineers named the Empire State Building one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The graceful building rises to 381 metres at the 102nd floor, and its full height, including the broadcast antenna which was added in 1952, reaches 443 metres. It has 85 storeys of commercial and office space and an indoor/outdoor observation deck on the 86th floor. The remaining 16 storeys represent the spire which is capped by a 102nd floor observatory. On top of the spire is an antenna topped off with a lightning rod.
The Empire State Building was the first building to have more than 100 floors. It has 6500 windows, 73 lifts and there are 1860 steps from street level to the 102nd floor. It houses over 1000 businesses and even has its own zipcode!
The lobby is three storeys high and features an aluminium relief of the skyscraper, without the antenna. The north corridor has eight illuminated panels which depict the building as the Eighth Wonder of the World, alongside the traditional seven.
In 1964, floodlights were added to illuminate the top of the building in colours to match seasonal and other events. During the US Open Tennis Tournament the building is tennis ball yellow, at Christmas time it glows green and red, when Frank Sinatra died it was blue, and after the World Trade Center's destruction, it was bathed in the patriotic red, white and blue.
Building of the iconic skyscraper was carried out in just one year, 45 days and cost $US40,948,900. Today it is partly owned by Donald Trump.
