Empire State Building

At 350 Fifth Avenue between West 33 and West 34 Streets, this Art Deco building has a steel frame plus granite, limestone, and mullions with aluminum. Dating back to 1930-1931, the skyscraper has 102 floors, is 1252 feet high, and has 6,500 windows with sandblasted spandrels that created the facade’s unique vertical striping.

This was the tallest building in New York City for over 40 years until 1972 when the North Tower of the World Trade Center was completed. Following the harrowing events of 9/11, the Empire State Building became NYC’s tallest building for the second time.

It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1986, was ranked number one in 2007 by the AIA on the List of America’s Favorite Architecture, and was named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Modern World’s Seven Wonders.

Chrysler Building

This is another skyscraper with Art Deco architecture and is located on Manhattan’s east side at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street. Standing 1,048 feet high, having 77 floors, and dated 1928-1930 at a cost then of $20,000,000, it was the tallest building in the world before the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931. Steel gargoyles which depict American eagles stare out over the city, and there are sculptures of Chrysler automobile radiator caps and car wheel ornaments.

The entrance lobby is three stories in height, was refurbished in 1978, is shaped like a triangle with entrances coming in on all three sides, and is lavishly decorated with Moroccan red marble walls and Art Deco items of blue marble, onyx, and steel.

It is still the world’s tallest BRICK building, it has 3,826,000 bricks, is an outstanding example of Art Deco, and is mentioned by a multitude of architects to be one of NYC’s finest buildings.

Grand Central Terminal

At Midtown Manhattan’s 42nd Street and Third Avenue, and often inaccurately referred to as Grand Central Station, it dates back to 1903-1913 and has a Beaux-Arts stone facade style. Built in the heyday when long-distance passenger trains were so popular, it is still the world’s largest train station with below-ground 44 platforms with 67 tracks on two levels with upper-level 41 tracks and lower-level 16 tracks.