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I own these pics they were from my high school band trip.
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...s2000/ESB1.jpg http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...s2000/ESB3.jpg http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...000/stuff9.jpg |
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What a beast of a building, but it could use a makeover, especially on the mast, maybe put some nice new glass and maybe expand the deck to floors 87, 88 ect. below the mast... I also see an open air balcony aboue the 102nd floor, there are a lot of possibilities.
The 102nd floor is still open right? Anyways, what's the actual highest occupied office floor in the ESB? Is it the 79th or the 85th, I've always wondered what was in those floors just below 86. |
102nd floor is open to public but an open air balcony above it could be problematic due to safety and the radiation from all the telecommunications equipment.
 the 85th floor and below are all office space. |
yeah, but you didn't tell'em that now visiting the 102nd floor will cost you an additional $15 simoleons.
yep, they get you coming and going, folks! :shrug: :D |
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The architects had absolutely no idea what the were doing. They thought that people disembarked from the nose, and they completely forgot to take into account the winds up there. Needless to say, the mast was never used. |
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Beautiful Gilt Murals Restored
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...mpire_span.jpg
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times The New York Times September 23, 2009 Overhead, a Lobby Is Restored to Old Glory By JAMES BARRON Every day, people walk into Grand Central Terminal and look up at the vaulted ceiling over the main concourse, with its star constellations and zodiac signs. It helped make the station “a triumphant portal to New York,” in the words of one of its architects, Whitney Warren. People who walked into the Empire State Building have done their looking up outside, craning their necks to see the top, 1,250 feet above the street. As they made their way to the observation deck, they had little reason to look up in the cathedral-like lobby. Now there is something to look up at. The ceiling in the lobby has undergone a $12.5 million renovation that has brought back two shiny Art Deco murals that disappeared from view in the 1960s. They are to be unveiled on Wednesday. The murals were left to deteriorate more than 35 years ago after being covered with white plastic panels and fluorescent light fixtures, which were the latest things for office buildings in those days. Anthony E. Malkin, the president of Malkin Holdings, which owns the building, said the lobby had become “a real letdown,” in contrast with the lobbies of two other famous skyscrapers of similar age, the Chrysler Building and 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Mr. Malkin wanted the lobby to be more of a triumphant portal than a utilitarian passageway for tourists on the way to the observation deck and workers on the way to their offices. So as part of a $550 million project to upgrade the entire building, Mr. Malkin and a team of architects and designers set out to make the lobby as impressive as it was when the building opened in 1931. Frank J. Prial Jr., an architect with Beyer Blinder Belle who worked on the lobby restoration, said the idea was “to take the most famous building of the 20th century back a few steps to prepare for the 21st.” That made the murals a priority. Like the mural on the ceiling in Grand Central Terminal, the ones in the Empire State Building show the sky. But this sky was imagined when the building was on the drawing board in the 1920s, when assembly lines were humming and people dreamed of the ultimate symbol of the machine age: the car. The sun and the planets on the ceiling look like gears and wheels and cogs. “It’s like you’re looking inside a watch,” Mr. Prial said, albeit a giant watch. The murals cover more than a third of the square footage of a football field. Bill Mensching, a vice president of EverGreene Architectural Arts, which copied the originals, said they had 15,000 square feet of aluminum and 1,300 square feet of 23-karat gold leaf. Because the original murals, designed by an artist named Leif Neandross, were damaged, reproductions were installed. Mr. Mensching said more than 50 artists, site painters and installers worked on them. Despite the Wall Street crash in 1929, the murals’ design was unchanged for the building’s opening. The result, Mr. Malkin said, was a ceiling that “is not trying to find hope in the depths of the Depression — it was created before that. You don’t have that labor and toil and struggle feeling that you have in Rockefeller Center.” In the 1960s, large acrylic panels showing eight wonders of the world were installed at eye level in the lobby: the seven wonders in the history books and — no surprise — the Empire State Building. The panels were completed in 1964, in time for the World’s Fair, and remained in the lobby until last year, when the renovation team put them in storage. Mr. Prial said they would eventually be put in a ticketing area on the way to the observation deck. They were replaced by marble panels from as far away as Italy and as close as a warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The panels’ colors and patterns are strikingly similar to that of the original marble in the lobby. Two other changes have made the lobby more faithful to the building’s original plans. The clock over the information desk in the Fifth Avenue lobby was replaced by what was originally called for: an anemometer, which measured wind speed where dirigibles were supposed to dock. And then there are the two chandeliers beside the pedestrian bridges. They differ from the chandeliers shown in early photographs; those were taken out in the 1960s. The new ones, based on the original plans, were fabricated by the successor to the company Neandross worked for when he designed the murals. Why were the chandeliers that were planned never installed? “Our theory,” Mr. Prial said, “was they were in a hurry, they had to open, and they ran out and got two chandeliers.” http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...mpire2_650.jpg Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times |
^^^ I read that article this morning in the newspaper, and I immediately wanted to jump on a plane and visit NYC.
That mural is beautiful. And I love how they replaced the clock in the lobby with an anemometer to measure the winds for dirigible mooring. |
Originally Posted by DamienK
"Strange place for the passengers to disembark from - I would have thought it would be from the underside of the airship." I could be wrong, but I think the illustration is correct. You have to remember the 'balloon' part of a dirigible is rigid (as opposed to a blimp) and has cat-walks running from end to end with access to the gondola. http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5311/11esbd.jpg unknown |
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/ny...l?ref=nyregion
Overhead, a Lobby Is Restored to Old Glory http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...mpire_span.jpg Bill Mensching of EverGreene Architectural Arts under an Empire State Building mural. It is a reproduction of an original that was covered in the 1960s. By JAMES BARRON September 22, 2009 Every day, people walk into Grand Central Terminal and look up at the vaulted ceiling over the main concourse, with its star constellations and zodiac signs. It helped make the station “a triumphant portal to New York,” in the words of one of its architects, Whitney Warren. People who walked into the Empire State Building have done their looking up outside, craning their necks to see the top, 1,250 feet above the street. As they made their way to the observation deck, they had little reason to look up in the cathedral-like lobby. Now there is something to look up at. The ceiling in the lobby has undergone a $12.5 million renovation that has brought back two shiny Art Deco murals that disappeared from view in the 1960s. They are to be unveiled on Wednesday. The murals were left to deteriorate more than 35 years ago after being covered with white plastic panels and fluorescent light fixtures, which were the latest things for office buildings in those days. Anthony E. Malkin, the president of Malkin Holdings, which owns the building, said the lobby had become “a real letdown,” in contrast with the lobbies of two other famous skyscrapers of similar age, the Chrysler Building and 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Mr. Malkin wanted the lobby to be more of a triumphant portal than a utilitarian passageway for tourists on the way to the observation deck and workers on the way to their offices. So as part of a $550 million project to upgrade the entire building, Mr. Malkin and a team of architects and designers set out to make the lobby as impressive as it was when the building opened in 1931. Frank J. Prial Jr., an architect with Beyer Blinder Belle who worked on the lobby restoration, said the idea was “to take the most famous building of the 20th century back a few steps to prepare for the 21st.” That made the murals a priority. Like the mural on the ceiling in Grand Central Terminal, the ones in the Empire State Building show the sky. But this sky was imagined when the building was on the drawing board in the 1920s, when assembly lines were humming and people dreamed of the ultimate symbol of the machine age: the car. The sun and the planets on the ceiling look like gears and wheels and cogs. “It’s like you’re looking inside a watch,” Mr. Prial said, albeit a giant watch. The murals cover more than a third of the square footage of a football field. Bill Mensching, a vice president of EverGreene Architectural Arts, which copied the originals, said they had 15,000 square feet of aluminum and 1,300 square feet of 23-karat gold leaf. Because the original murals, designed by an artist named Leif Neandross, were damaged, reproductions were installed. Mr. Mensching said more than 50 artists, site painters and installers worked on them. Despite the Wall Street crash in 1929, the murals’ design was unchanged for the building’s opening. The result, Mr. Malkin said, was a ceiling that “is not trying to find hope in the depths of the Depression — it was created before that. You don’t have that labor and toil and struggle feeling that you have in Rockefeller Center.” In the 1960s, large acrylic panels showing eight wonders of the world were installed at eye level in the lobby: the seven wonders in the history books and — no surprise — the Empire State Building. The panels were completed in 1964, in time for the World’s Fair, and remained in the lobby until last year, when the renovation team put them in storage. Mr. Prial said they would eventually be put in a ticketing area on the way to the observation deck. They were replaced by marble panels from as far away as Italy and as close as a warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The panels’ colors and patterns are strikingly similar to that of the original marble in the lobby. Two other changes have made the lobby more faithful to the building’s original plans. The clock over the information desk in the Fifth Avenue lobby was replaced by what was originally called for: an anemometer, which measured wind speed where dirigibles were supposed to dock. And then there are the two chandeliers beside the pedestrian bridges. They differ from the chandeliers shown in early photographs; those were taken out in the 1960s. The new ones, based on the original plans, were fabricated by the successor to the company Neandross worked for when he designed the murals. Why were the chandeliers that were planned never installed? “Our theory,” Mr. Prial said, “was they were in a hurry, they had to open, and they ran out and got two chandeliers.” |
http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/empire...uilding/40200/
Empire State ReBuilding Transforms World's Most Famous Office Building $550 million capital improvements program contemporizes an international icon.] New York - September 23, 2009 /PRNewswire The Empire State Building, the world's most famous office building, is undergoing a more than $550 million upgrade program to reinvent the iconic landmark by restoring and recreating its Art Deco grandeur and adding state-of-the-art enhancements. "When W&H Properties took over the management of the building in August 2006, we decided to recreate the Empire State Building as a trophy pre-war property for better credit tenants, and to elevate the brand as a worldwide standard of excellence," said Anthony Malkin, the third generation of his family to be involved with the building. "What we are doing is transformative, exceeding the expectations of New York City's office tenants, brokers, and the millions who visit our world-famous Observatory annually. The visible result of our transformation of this international icon is creating incomparable experiences for all who come to the building." The Empire State ReBuilding includes: •A complete restoration and recreation of the famous Art Deco lobby, long hidden by 1960s "modernization," along with special entrances and new traffic flow to separate office tenants and their visitors from tourists visiting the building's observatories. •Renovation and air conditioning of all common-areas including corridors and restrooms. •Renovation of the entire Observatory experience, including the 86th and 102nd floors, with Art Deco upgrades, as well as enhanced visitor queuing and retail areas on the 80th floor. •Extending the building's "green" initiatives to provide a healthier environment for tenants, visitors and the community. •Installation of state-of-the-art technology throughout the building. •Upgrading the HVAC (air-conditioning/heating) building-wide. •Ground-breaking work in integrated energy efficiency retrofits, resulting in a 38% energy savings with a three year payback. •Waterproofing the building's stone facade. •Reconfiguring the tower's market-dominant broadcast facility to accommodate digital broadcast technology. Lobby http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/empire...0-hi-lobby.jpg The 34th Street corridor of the Empire State Building, the world's most famous office building, was shrouded in scaffolding during the renovation of its landmarked historic lobby. http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/empire...obby_after.jpg Empire State Building Unveils its newly renovated landmarked lobby and fully restored historic Art Deco Ceiling Mural. |
Will any visual changes be made to the exterior of the building i.e. new glass, cleaning the granite, etc?
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A few posts back, someone posted that there were tours of the "Empire Quarry" in Bedford, IN... I'm going to be going thru there in a few weeks and would love to tour it... I can't find too much on it online. Does anyone have any more info on it?
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So will they wash/clean/restore the spire? Because it looks dirtyyy and it make the building look bad compared to the way Chrysler is.
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