Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is the skyscraper against which other tall buildings are still measured, and it earned that status in a single burst of work at the start of the Great Depression. It stands on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets, on the site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Construction began on 17 March 1930 and the building opened on 1 May 1931, a building time of about 410 days for a 102-storey tower. The architects were Shreve, Lamb & Harmon. At 1,250 feet (381 m) to the top floor and 1,454 feet (443 m) with its spire and antenna, it was the tallest building in the world until the North Tower of the World Trade Center overtook it in 1970.

Its Art Deco design is disciplined rather than showy. The zoning rules of 1916 required setbacks so that light could reach the street, and the architects turned that constraint into the building's silhouette: a five-storey base that fills the lot, a deep setback above it, then a tall shaft that steps in at intervals toward the mast. The facade is clad in pale Indiana limestone, with 6,514 windows set in continuous vertical strips of metal mullions, which gives the tower its upward pull. At street level, the Fifth Avenue entrance leads to the Art Deco lobby, itself a designated interior landmark. The building and its lobby were designated New York City landmarks in 1980 and a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

For the visitor, the draw is the view. There are observatories on the 86th floor, at about 1,050 feet, and on the 102nd, at 1,250 feet; an indoor observatory on the 80th floor was added in 2019. Around four million people a year go up. The tower's fame on screen goes back to King Kong in 1933, and it has appeared in hundreds of films and series since. Since 1977 the top of the tower has been lit in colours for holidays, sports teams and public events, and an LED system installed in 2012 can now produce millions of shades, so the building is also part of the night skyline seen from elsewhere in the city.

The tower stands in Midtown Manhattan, with Macy's at Herald Square a block to the west, Koreatown on 32nd Street just south, and the Murray Hill neighbourhood to the east; it is so large that it has its own ZIP code.

Getting there

Observatory visitors enter at 20 West 34th Street. The nearest subway station is 34th Street–Herald Square, one block west, served by several lines; the PATH trains from New Jersey stop at 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue. Times Square is about 1 km to the north. LaGuardia Airport (LGA) is about 10 km away in a straight line; John F. Kennedy and Newark airports also serve the city.