The Empire State Building was not alone in its race to the heavens. About a mile away uptown on 42nd Street, work was underway on the Chrysler Building. This exuberant piece of [G 01 / Art Deco]-style was originally planned in 1928 for the Reynolds Corporation. Before construction, however, the plans were bought by the automobile maker, Walter Chrysler, who intended to turn it over to his sons to manage in order to give them something "useful" to do with their lives.
The Chrysler Building was designed "to be surmounted by a glass dome which, when lighted from within, will give the effect of a great jewelled sphere." Proscenium-like entrances hold glass and metal screens lit from behind,decorated with fabric patterns. Inside, within the triangular concourse, lighting recessed into covers over exits, and elevator lobbies appear in the form of raised curtains. Higher up, at the base of the tower, the building is pinched out at the corners (at a level which includes a decorative frieze made of automobile hubcaps and mudguards) in an attempt to overcome an optical illusion that makes buildings with horizontally-banded towers seem broader at their tops than at their bases.
The very existence of this structure rankled [L3206 / John Jacob]
[L3206 / Raskob], who was a vice president of Chrysler's archrival, General Motors. For Raskob, the most irritating development came late in the Chrysler Building's construction. Inside the dome, workers had secretly been assembling a spire for the top of the building. One day they poked the spire up through the center of the tower, raising the building to its final height of 1,046 feet - a new world record. The Empire State Building was designed to be only four feet taller. Fearing this margin would not afford enough prestige to his building, Raskob declared: "This building needs a hat!" And with that he demanded the architects change the drawings. In December 1929, Empire State, Inc announced plans for an addition to the building: a 222-foot mooring mast for [G 06 / dirigibles].
