According to legend, the design of the Empire State Building was inspired by, of all things, the lowly [L3 422 / I 001 / pencil]. [L3 205 / I 002 / William Lamb], the architect, was given clear and inflexible instructions from his clients: the building had to be the [L3 423 / tallest in the world]. It had to be practical - and, of course, profitable. And it had to be built quickly so that the investors could begin seeing a return on their money as soon as possible.
Lamb's approach was to design the building essentially from the middle down. In this way he put his emphasis on a typical floor of offices - the real income-generators - rather than on the top or bottom floors, which would serve totally different purposes. He arranged the office space around a `core' that contained elevators, toilets, stairwells, plumbing and so forth. Then he designed the areas above and below. Lamb drafted the building 16 times before his plans were accepted.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING BEGINS:
The pressure was on to construct the Empire State Building quickly in order to keep costs down. With a looming deadline of 18 months from drawing board to dedication ceremony, the [L3 305 / builders] had to find many ways to move quickly and stick to the [L3 306 / schedule] without sacrificing safety or quality. A building that tall would require, among other things, larger heating ducts and plumbing pipes, more and faster elevators, and sturdier building [G 03 / columns].
Construction of the Empire State Building established many records that have not been broken to this day. That it did so is a tribute to the imagination, talent and organization, not just of the architects, but of the engineers and subcontractors as well. Just as important, the [L3 427 / craftsmen] who built the structure, did so with dedication and love.
William Lamb introduced many efficiencies in his design in order to facilitate the work. New York zoning laws required [G 13 / setbacks] in buildings so that sunlight would reach the ground and so that air could circulate. [L3 301 / Lamb's design] turned this potential drawback into an asset. Another innovation was his approach to the 6,500 [L3 302 / windows] in the building.
After the Waldorf-Astoria had been razed and cleared, excavation for the Empire State's [G 08 / foundation] began on January 22, 1930. However, because of the Waldorf's deep sub-basements, the new building required only an additional five feet of digging, thus saving time and money. Excavation went on 24 hours a day; foundations were laid on one side, while digging continued on the other.
THE FOUNDATIONS ARE LAID AND THE BUILDING BEGINS TO RISE:
In early March, 1930, work began to place the [G 07 / footings]. By St Patrick's Day, 1930, the first of 210 steel piers - also known as [G 12 / pilings] - were sunk down to the [G 02 / bedrock]. Three weeks later the first [L3 202 / steel] columns rose from the foundation and the building began to grow above street level.
THE BUILDING PROCESS:
The construction went like a clockwork because it had been organized carefully for maximum efficiency. As soon as final plans were drawn for the ground floors, orders went out to the steels mills for materials. Architects then drew plans for the next floor. The drawings for the 80th floor were not completed until the time the steel frame of the ground floor was being built.
The steel for the frame was poured and set into girders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With military precision the girders were then sped to a waterfront supply yard in Bayonne, New Jersey, hauled by barge to Manhattan, and trucked to the building site, lifted in bundles on cobweb-like cables, and set in place. Each beam was marked with its precise location in the giant frame. Often the whole process took a mere 80 hours.
Because of lack of storage space along the narrow New York sidewalks, the supplying of building materials had to be synchronized to fit precisely with the [L3 425 / pace of construction]. Everything possible - windows, [G 14 / spandrels], steel strips, even slabs of stone - was fabricated at the site of origin in cities around the country, indeed around the world, and shipped in quantity to be installed, as if on an assembly line, without further hand fitting or stone cutting. Today the Japanese are noted for this super-efficient approach to manufacturing, known as `kanban,' in which needed parts arrive at the factory just in time to be assembled into the final product.
[L3 426 / Trucks drove into the Empire State Building site] at ground level and unloaded the materials - everything but the steel, which was handled by hoists - into 20 rail cars. The cars glided on tracks on to specially designed temporary elevators, which carried them to the proper floors. Tracks, shunts and turntables had been installed on each floor - the materials were deposited right at the worker's elbows. The system was orderly and safe; it kept wastage to a minimum and allowed New York to get on with its business without blocked streets or sidewalks.
THE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS:
The immense pieces of steel were handled and assembled by various gangs of [L3 427 / steelworkers] - as many as 300 men. All of the [L3 303 / support services] they needed were provided including food, water and even medical care.
Working below ground level were the foundation men, who drove the [G 12 / piers] through the bedrock and placed the [G 03 / columns] on the foundation.
The derrick men operated the hoists that lifted the massive steel beams into place. The hoisting gang on the ground attached cables to the piles of beams. The hoist engineer, taking his signals from the bellman, then controlled the cable to lift the load. Another gang steered and shifted the load into place. Connecters then brought the beams and columns together, ready for the riveters to go to work.
A total of 16 electric derricks were used in construction. These were equipped with a new invention - automatic hoists. Such hoists were added because of an accident that occurred during the construction of the Chrysler Building. A derrick operator was knocked unconscious by a flying brick and had dropped his bundle of steel. The automatic hoists prevented this from occurring. Even so, 14 men were killed in various [L3 428 / accidents] during construction.
[L3 304 / Riveting gangs] worked in well-organized teams, like acrobats in the circus. The man known as the heater (or passer) heated the rivets in a forge, then tossed them to the upper floor. There the rivets were scooped out of the air by the catcher, who used a tin bucket. The bucker-up jammed the red-hot rivet into a hole in the steel and held it there while the riveter, or gun-man, drove the bolt home with a pneumatic gun. The rivets were carried to the gang by bolt boys, many of whom dreamed one day of joining the team.
After the columns and beams were in place, a plumber-up would drop a bob to measure their straightness. Finally, a safety man climbed on every part of the structure looking for loose boards, stray wires or forgotten tools.
In addition to the tradesmen - carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, heating and ventilating men - there were inspectors, foremen, checkers, clerks and even men with watering cans to settle the dust.
The entire steel structure took a mere 25 weeks to build.
MATERIALS USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION:
The exterior facade of the Empire State Building was made of a limestone [G 04 / curtain wall], blonde in tone, pierced by [L3 302 / windows] - which can be opened - set flush and trimmed with vertical strips of [L3 203 /stainless steel] running the height of the building. These strips, called [G 10 / mullions], draw the eye upward and make the building seem even taller. In all, about 10,000 sheets of stainless steel were used. To insure that the metal was rust-resistant, a test strip was cut from each sheet and subject to a salt-water spray for 100 hours. If the slightest bit of rust appeared, the entire sheet had to be rejected.
The interior arches supporting the floors required 62,000 cubic yards of reinforced anthracite cinder concrete. The stone setting and outside wall construction progressed at the rate of nearly a story a day. All of the stonework, except a few ornamental features around the lower floors, was complete in 113 days.
THE INSTALLATION OF THE INTERIOR STRUCTURES:
After the steel skeleton was complete, stairways were installed. Then came the electric cables and various kinds of piping - the building's veins and arteries. The lower floors were plastered before the roof was made tight. The overlapping [L3 306 / schedule] held. The building rose at an average of four and a half stories per week. During one 10-day period, 14.5 stories were completed. Work went so fast, in fact, that the New York Times said that construction was like "a chase up into the sky."
In March of 1931, the scaffolding was removed from the tower. The building appeared complete, although work continued on the interior until opening day.
THE ENTRANCE LOBBIES:
The most spectacular approach to the Empire State Building is the Fifth Avenue side. On the wall opposite the doorway is a great brass and aluminum plaque depicting the Empire State under a blazing sun. The marble in the lofty lobby comes from Italy, France, Belgium and Germany.
The 34th Street entrances open onto a long hall, three stories high and lined with Rellante and Rose Fanmosa marbles. The high silver-leaf ceiling is painted in metallic colors with geometric patterns suggesting stars, sunbursts and snowflakes.
In 1963 illuminated panels were added to the lobby depicting the [L3 307 / Seven Ancient Wonders of the World] - plus a modern Eighth Wonder, the Empire State Building.
