Location: Lexington Avenue at 42nd Street,
New York, New York, USA
Architect: William van Alen
Date Completed: 1930
Height: 1046 feet (319 meters)
Skyscrapers often showcased the industries they housed. Nowhere is that more evident than
in the Art Deco-style Chrysler Building. The Chrysler Building was one of the first to use
stainless steel over a large exposed building surface.
The decorative treatment of the masonry walls below changes with every setback and
includes story-high basket-weave brick designs, huge radiator cap gargoyles and a band of
abstract automobiles. The lobby is an Art Deco triumph of African marble and chrome steel.
At the time of its construction, the Chrysler Building was involved in a race to be the
tallest building in the world. The Bank of Manhattan Building, under construction at the
same time, topped out at 927 feet, two feet above the Chrysler's announced height. It
appeared that the Bank of Manhattan had won, but van Alen had a plan: the Chrysler
Building's spire, a series of sunbursts punctuated by triangular windows, had been
secretly assembled in the building's fire shaft. Suddenly, it was hoisted into place in
one 27 ton piece, raising the Chrysler Building's height to 1046 feet, 119 feet taller
than the Bank of Manhattan and even taller than the Eiffel Tower.
Paul Goldberger wrote in The City Observed: New York, 1979 that "The quality
of the Chrysler comes from its ability to be romantic and irrational, and yet not quite so
foolish as to be laughable.
Chrysler Building
