Ethereum

Highrise #136

Collection

Highrises

Description

**Chrysler Building** **Art by:** Chris Hytha **Story by:** Mark Houser As this and a competing skyscraper neared the finish of their race to the clouds in October 1929, headlines blared that the Manhattan Company Building would capture the title of world's tallest. But the Chrysler Building architect knew what reporters did not: Concealed inside his highrise's topmost stories was a 125-foot steel spire waiting to be hoisted up and bolted on. Walt Chrysler was a railroad mechanic who rose to executive rank before switching to the nascent automobile industry. He oversaw production for General Motors, then started his own car company and began building a huge factory to compete against GM and Ford. Chrysler also acquired a stalled Midtown skyscraper project and told its designer to make it more eye-catching. William Van Alen responded with eagle gargoyles, winged hood ornaments, and tire and hubcap patterns in the brickwork. He replaced a planned glass dome with gleaming stainless steel, and raised the spire like a middle finger toward his former partner, Manhattan Company Building architect Craig Severance, who had dumped Van Alen years earlier. The red marble lobby features ceiling murals of an assembly line and the Chrysler Building itself, which was not universally admired. Influential critic Lewis Mumford savaged it for "meaningless voluptuousness" and expressed relief that the Great Depression would halt further displays of rich men's "barbarous egos."

Traits

Style

Art Deco

City

New York

Region