Chrysler Building

The Chrysler Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed in 1927 by William Van Alen and built between 1928 and 1930, for a reported $15.0 million dollars, in New York, NY.

Its precise street address is 405 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

The Chrysler Building is a structure of significant importance both for the city of New York and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the Chrysler Building was officially declared as a national landmark on September 12^th 1978, and was included in the National Register of Historic Places on June 23^rd 1980, as well as in the New York Register of Historic Places on December 8^th 1976.

At the time of its completion in 1930 the Chrysler Building incorporated solutions that were quite advanced at the time, these included air conditioning as wekk as telephone and electricyt cables that run through pipes beneath the floor. This is what we know today as a "technical floor", and is relatively common in modern office spaces, but was certainly a novelty back in the 30s.

The building has been restored 5 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 1952, 1961, 1971, 1996 and 1998.

William Van Alen was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

William Van Alen was in charge of the architectural design, however, architecture is a complex discipline, which usually involves many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the Chrysler Building a reality:

• Ralph Squire & Sons in charge of Structural Engineering
• Fred T Ley & Co as the Main Contractor
• Otis as the company in charge of the elevators system
• Walter P. Chrysler as the Main Developer
• Edward Trumbull as the collaborating Artist

The Chrysler Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Chrysler Building was completed in 1930, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

The Chrysler Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade is non-load bearing either, as it is common in frame structure type buildings.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features polished black granite from Shastone covering the ground floor facade and surrounding the entrances, with white Georgia marble clads the three upper floors. White and gray bricks cover the rest of the facades. Use of metallic ornaments is on of the most characteristic elements of the Chrysler Building, with its gargoysles and eagles found on the 31st and 61st floor being part of some of the most famous photographs of the building.

Other materials found at the Chrysler Building include, nirosta steel, this stainless steel alloy covers the dome, ornamentations and entrances door frames, yellow travertine, found on the floors, aluminum, used between windows on each floor, and African red granite, found in the lobby walls.