Architectural Portrait of the Empire State Building - Term Paper Example

? Empire Building Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. Style of the Design of the Empire Building, History 4 III. Cultural AspirationsEmbedded in the Building’s Design 5 IV. Materials Used in Constructing the Building, Sources 7 V. Natural Environment Replaced by the Empire State Building 7 VI. Politics Surrounding the Development of the Empire State Building 8 VII. Labor Processes Involved in the Empire State Building’s Design and Construction 8 VIII. Form of Life, Social Structure Supported by the Empire State Building 9 Works Cited 10 I. Introduction This paper details the development of a portrait of the Empire State Building in the context of the way the public building molds and structures many aspects of American social life. The Empire State Building is located on Fifth Avenue, in New York City, New York, and was touted to have been completed in the span of a mere sixteen months. It has 102 floors, and has a height of 381 meters, or 1252 feet. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest building on earth, taking that title away from the Chrysler Building. As well, apart from the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building remains the tallest architecture in all of New York. In terms of general architecture, it is said that the building deviated from the strict European standards of the time, showing more flair and panache in comparison to the more staid European buildings of the time, even as it conveyed the appearance of something that has been sculpted, or else something that was deliberately molded rather than erected with the use of conventional architectural and building methods, and those aspects of the public building became in time one of its defining architectural signatures. Moreover, deviating from the tail end of the Art Deco style’s sensibilities, the architecture is said to be less frivolous even as it showed its own character in an understated manner. In the decade of the 1920’s, when this style was in vogue, the Empire State Building designers stuck to something that is uniquely the character of the building itself, away from the zigzag designs of the time, and towards something that can be considered as more staid and more business-like. Functionally, too, it showed its practical aspects by having four differing facades, deviating from the convention of just having one, as is common, on the side of the buildings facing the avenue. All this gave the Empire State Building, from an architectural and design perspective, a unique identity (Artifice). II. Style of the Design of the Empire State Building, History The style of the building’s design is characterized as being Art Deco that is muted, or low key in its approach as well as in its execution. That means being more understated and less done with flair, in comparison to the traditional conception of Art Deco and in comparison to the style execution of buildings in the same era and immediately prior. On the other hand, what differentiates Art Deco architecture from other forms of architecture is its depiction as being Modernistic, and this depiction applies to the Empire State Building too, in common with Art Deco executed buildings of the time (Artifice). The simplicity of the design coupled with its height is what marks the design sensibilities of the Empire State Building, it is said, and these twin characteristics are in a way set apart from the architectural design sensibilities of Art Deco in general. It is muted and not overt in its design sensibilities, which all the more highlights its more business-like and functional characteristics. Where the design reflects a certain bareness, this also is reflected in the way form yields to function. Among the considerations in the design is in the ability of the building to house productive work, with tenants that are businesses in orientation, in the shortest possible time, and making maximum use of the available facilities and space. The emphasis on the modernistic aspects of the design, on the other hand, extend to its facades being characterized as classic, in contrast to the more modern designs of the facades of later buildings. The emphasis on long-term use is evident in the way the design execution was deliberately made muted, while the functional aspects were overdesigned to ensure that the building was capable of lasting through many generations. The electrical system, the functional access to the elevator systems from the facades, and other small and big details of the design ensured long-term productive use of the building (NYC-Architecture). It is worthwhile to note that in terms of style design, the architectural firm that has the credit for the design, William Lamb, made use of prior designs from prior buildings in order to come up with the design for the Empire State Building in just a span of 14 days or two weeks. Those two architectural pieces are the North Carolina structure known as the Reynolds Building, and the Ohio edifice known as the Carew Tower. The emphasis of the building design moreover was one where the construction was thought out in a top down fashion. On the other hand, the core design style being Art Deco, this building holds to the fundamental core tenets of the design style and this shows in the way the building shares the core elements of the other Art Deco architectures mentioned above, That said, among the Art Deco pieces of the period, the Empire State Building stands out from the crowd, and this is reflected in the way the citizens of New York have designated the building as an icon of culture, with the building itself being made a National Historic Landmark. The American Society of Civil Engineers has deemed the Empire State Building too, as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, further attesting to the functionality and cultural significance of the design of the structure (Architectuul). III. Cultural Aspirations Embedded in the Building’s Design Economic realities meant that the building had to take on aspects of design that reflected functionality, maximum use of land, durability, suitability for different kinds of business tenants, and function embedded into form. The swiftness and urgency with which the building was planned, designed and built meant that there was temporal urgency for the building to be completed. The urgency too and the preciousness of the construction is reflected in the historical context of the erection of the building. It was built during the time of the Great Depression, which meant that it was a very delicate financial proposition to build the building in the first place. Long-range planning and some hope that the future would turn out ok were essential elements that undergirded the design and the planning of the building. All these segue into the cultural aspirations that were implied in the design and construction of the building. In a way one can read into the historical events of the time and say that the building stood as a beacon of the hopes of the American people during the period. From a design perspective, it had to be both aesthetically pleasing, but at the same time had to be extremely functional, practical, and rock-solid reliable. These latter considerations are not apart from the cultural significance of the architecture, but are key elements to the way the cultural aspirations are blended into the functional aspects of the structure. Given the pragmatic nature of American social life, moreover, the building has to also reflect those pragmatic sensibilities into the very design of the building. Historical urgency, financial urgency, the risks inherent in the very construction, are all essential forces that have bred the unique design and structure of the Empire State Building (Architectuul; NYC-Architecture; Artifice; Bob Moore Construction; Rosenberg). At the same time, an unwritten cultural aspiration of the Empire State Building can be gleaned from the way the construction aimed at becoming one of the biggest in the world, and certainly during that time the impetus was for the builders to surpass existing records for tallest and most imposing structures in the US and in the rest of the world. The benchmark at the time was the Chrysler Building, which the Empire State Building was able to surpass. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, the erection of the Eiffel Tower in France was a signal to the United States to project some kind of cultural and economic superiority in the form of even larger and more grand and imposing structures than that (Architectuul; NYC-Architecture; Artifice; Bob Moore Construction; Rosenberg). IV. Materials Used in Constructing the Building, Sources The building was completed in 1931, at the time of the Great Depression, with the credit for the architecture going to Shreve, Lamb and Harmon (Architectuul). It cost US 41 million dollars to build, with the main material being steel, and the materials for the facing being made of granite, limestone and brick. It is said that the building design had to be altered a total of sixteen times during the phase of planning and the construction of the building, but with work going on continuously, the building was completed in a year and 45 days, utilizing a work force of 3,000. In all, the tally for the construction materials are 730 tons of stainless steel and aluminum, 10 million pieces of bricks, 60,000 tons of steel, and granite and Indiana limestone to the tune of 2,000 cubic feet of those rocks. These materials were sourced in the same way as with the other buildings of the time, from third parties who had access to the various differing materials that are detailed above (WGBH Educational Foundation). V. Natural Environment Replaced by the Empire State Building At the time of the construction of the Empire State Building in 1930, the place in which the building was to be erected was already surrounded by much development. This owes to the fact that even during that time, and even during the Depression, New York was one of America’s most advanced and progressive cities, and there was little much else outside of the outskirts of New York State that was to be deemed as undeveloped in this sense. Certainly at the heart of New York City, where the Empire State Building was to be erected, there was much development, and the surrounding structures were essentially all artificial and man-made. It was a city environment rather than a natural environment that is the environmental context of the building of the Empire State Building. In fact, the building had to be built with one artificial and glamorous artifact, the Waldorf-Astoria, having to be destroyed to make way for the new building (Architectuul; NYC-Architecture; Artifice; Bob Moore Construction; Rosenberg). VI. Politics Surrounding the Development of the Empire State Building It can be gleaned that the politics surrounding the development of the Empire State Building had partly to do with the timing and the historical significance of the period in which the building took place, which is New York at the time of the Great Depression. The history books recount that New York and the stock exchange was an important epicenter of the Great Depression, and the stock market collapse there was an important trigger of the wider economic collapse in America. From a political standpoint, therefore, one can say that the successful construction of the Empire State Building would be at that time an important political statement that the government of New York had its act together and was getting ready to prime the economy for a return to prosperity moving forward. The Empire State Building was to be an important showcase of the effectiveness of the local political power, and would also signal the confidence of New Yorkers in their government and the ability of government to pave the way for a brighter future for the rest of the population (Rosenberg; Collin.edu; Bob Moore Construction). VII. Labor Processes Involved in the Empire State Building’s Design and Construction The Starrett Brothers and Eken won the bid to construct the Empire State Building from plans laid out by the consortium that had responsibility for the design and overall management of the construction, known as Empire State Inc. 60 kinds of trades person roles had to be filled, with the construction supplies to be sourced as close to the construction site as possible, and in a state that was as closest to being finished as possible. These processes were put there to make sure that the builders spent as little time as possible sourcing supplies and finishing the materials for use in the building process. With the time table being very strict and very narrow, the builders made use of what has come to be known as fast-track construction processes, and this entailed essentially initiating the building process way before the designs have been finalized. This fast-track process is an important labor process that allowed the construction firm to build the building in record time. This also allowed for flexibility in the design process, as the fast-track labor process allowed for changes to the design while the building was being constructed (Rosenberg; Collin.edu; Bob Moore Construction). VIII. Form of Life, Social Structure Supported by the Empire State Building The Empire State Building was erected in the middle of one of the most cosmopolitan and sophisticated social structures in America and in the world, in New York society, and it replaced a prior symbol of that sophistication in the Waldorf-Astoria, which had to give way to the functional and extremely pragmatic and imposing structure of the Empire State Building. Economic and utilitarian considerations were paramount in the construction of the site. This too was a perfect fit to the social structure of the time, reeling from the Depression and with New York society eager to get back to its pragmatic roots and start rebuilding again for the future (Architectuul; NYC-Architecture; Artifice; Bob Moore Construction; Rosenberg; Collin.edu) Works Cited Architectuul. “Empire State Building”. Architectuul.com. 2013. Web. 5 June 2013. Artifice. “Empire State Building”. Great Buildings. 2012. Web. 5 June 2013. Bob Moore Construction. “Empire State Building”. Historic Construction Projects. 2012. Web. 5 June 2013. < http://www.generalcontractor.com/resources/articles/empire-state-building.asp> Collin.edu. The Great Depression and New Deal, 1929-1940’s. Collin.edu. n.d. Web. 5 June 2013. NYC-Architecture. “Empire State Building”. NYC-Artchitecture.com. n.d.. Web. 5 June 2013. < http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID073.htm> Rosenberg, Jennifer. “The Empire State Building”. 20th Century History at About. 2013. Web. 5 June 2013. WGBH Educational Foundation. “Empire State Building”. PBS Wonders of the World Databank. 2001. Web. 5 June 2013. Read More