Who was the architect of the Empire State Building?
The Empire State Building’s name derived from the nickname of New York (The Empire State). This 102-story skyscraper, located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street, has been recognized by American Society of Civil Engineers as being one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
In 1929, it took William F. Lamb, of Shreve, Lamb and Harmon architectural firm, a mere two-weeks to create the blueprint for the Empire State Building. Lamb, with the help of his assistant Gregory Johnson, constructed this one-of-a-kind design starting from the top, and ending at the building’s foundation. This architectural marvel, constructed during the great depression, is one of New York’s most striking attractions. Construction work for the Empire State Building started on 17 March 1930 (St. Patrick’s Day). And for 40 years its enormous structure held the record for being the largest skyscraper in the world.
Four well known investors, Coleman du Pont, Pierre S. du Pont (president of E.I Du Pont de Nemours), Louis G. Kaufman and Ellis P. Earl, collectively provided $40,948,000 US Dollars to excavate the project; which only took 1 year and 45 days to complete. According to wikipedia.org, the project involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with hundreds of Mohawk iron workers, many from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. Five of them lost their lives during the construction.
The creation of this national monument started as an attempt to pose intense competition amongst 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, in an effort to build the world’s tallest building. Both buildings held the “world tallest” title for less than a year, until the Empire State Building far surpassed them upon completion on 1 May 1931.
