THE CHRYSLER BUILDING

A Monument of American Art Deco Architecture

405 Lexington Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York City Architect: William Van Alen · Completed: 1930 · Height: 1,046 ft (319 m) · Floors: 77 National Historic Landmark · New York City Designated Landmark

Introduction

Rising 1,046 feet above Midtown Manhattan, the Chrysler Building stands as one of the most beloved and instantly recognizable structures in the world. Completed in 1930 at the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, it is a towering testament to the ambition, artistry, and industrial confidence of an era when New York City was engaged in a fierce race to touch the sky. Its gleaming stainless-steel crown — radiating sunburst arches, triangular dormer windows, and eagle gargoyles — remains among the most photographed images in all of architecture.

Designed by architect William Van Alen and financed personally by automobile magnate Walter P. Chrysler, the building was never intended simply as a corporate headquarters. It was a monument to personal ambition, a gift to Chrysler's children, and a declaration of dominance over rivals in both business and architecture. For a brief, electric moment in 1930, it was the tallest structure on Earth — the first man-made structure to exceed 1,000 feet — before being surpassed by the Empire State Building less than a year later.

Over nine decades since its completion, the Chrysler Building has endured as more than an office tower. It has become a cultural symbol, an artistic touchstone, a cinematic icon, and the definitive expression of the American Art Deco style. In a 2005 poll by the Skyscraper Museum, it was ranked the single favorite building in New York by a panel of 100 architects, critics, historians, and engineers — a remarkable distinction in a city defined by extraordinary architecture. This article explores every dimension of this masterpiece: its origins and design, its architect and patron, its construction, its interior wonders, its turbulent ownership history, and its enduring place in the cultural imagination.

Historical Context: New York's Race to the Sky

To understand the Chrysler Building, one must understand the extraordinary moment in which it was conceived. The late 1920s were a period of unparalleled economic confidence and architectural ambition in the United States. The Roaring Twenties had produced vast concentrations of industrial wealth, and nowhere was this more visibly expressed than in the skylines of American cities — and above all, in New York.

New York had been transformed by the Zoning Resolution of 1916, which required skyscrapers to step back from the street at prescribed intervals as they rose, creating the characteristic wedding-cake silhouettes that defined buildings of the era. This regulation, while limiting in some respects, became an aesthetic opportunity: architects developed setback skyscrapers of great elegance, each one a stacked composition of receding volumes crowned by a dramatic tower or spire.

By 1927, Cass Gilbert's Woolworth Building (completed 1913, at 792 feet) was still the world's tallest structure, but a new generation of developers and architects were maneuvering to claim the title. Buildings under construction near Wall Street — including 40 Wall Street, designed by H. Craig Severance — were openly competing for height records. It was into this supercharged atmosphere that the Chrysler Building was born, and its story is inseparable from the rivalry, the subterfuge, and the extraordinary craft that defined the age.

Origins of the Project

The Reynolds Commission

The story of the Chrysler Building begins not with Walter Chrysler, but with a real estate developer named William H. Reynolds. Reynolds owned the parcel of land at the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue and, in 1927, hired architect William Van Alen to design an ambitious forty-story office building. Unusually, Reynolds sought to increase — rather than decrease — the assessed value of his property, presumably to enhance its prestige and attract higher-quality tenants.

Van Alen's original design for Reynolds was visionary to the point of impracticality. It featured a spectacular diamond-like crown, showroom windows tripled in height, and twelve stories of glass-wrapped corners that would have given the tower an almost weightless, floating appearance. Van Alen envisioned the crown as giving the effect of "a great jeweled sphere." The design, however, proved far too expensive and technically challenging for Reynolds, who eventually decided to sell both the design and the lease.

Walter P. Chrysler Takes the Reins

In late 1928, Walter Percy Chrysler purchased the lease and took over the project. Born in 1875 in Wamego, Kansas, Chrysler had risen from a railroad mechanic to the chairman of one of the greatest automobile manufacturing corporations in America, having founded the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. His ambition matched his achievements: he wanted nothing less than the tallest building in the world, a monument both personal and corporate.

Crucially, the Chrysler Building was Chrysler's personal project, not a corporate one. In his autobiography, Chrysler wrote that he wanted to erect the building so that his sons would have something to be responsible for. The Chrysler Corporation, headquartered in Detroit, was a tenant in the building but did not finance its construction and never owned it. The building was Walter Chrysler's private real estate investment and bequest to his family.

Chrysler worked closely with Van Alen to rework the design, pushing the height considerably beyond the original 246-meter proposal. The final design would reach 282 meters (925 feet) before the addition of the secret spire extended it further still. Chrysler also insisted that the building's ornamentation celebrate the machine age and his own automobile empire, giving the building its distinctive automotive iconography.

The Architect: William Van Alen

Early Life and Career

William Van Alen was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1883. He studied architecture at Pratt Institute and later won the prestigious Paris Prize, which funded studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris — an experience that profoundly shaped his understanding of architectural ornament and grandeur. Returning to New York, he established himself as an innovative designer with a gift for decoration and a restless, imaginative approach to form.

In partnership with H. Craig Severance, Van Alen designed a number of notable New York buildings, most prominently the Albemarle Building at Broadway and 24th Street. The two men complemented each other: Van Alen was the imaginative designer, Severance the businessperson. A 1924 article in the Architectural Review praised the Albemarle Building's design while crediting Van Alen almost exclusively — a slight to Severance that poisoned their partnership and eventually led to a bitter split.

The Rivalry with Severance

The professional dissolution of Van Alen and Severance's partnership transformed into an extraordinary personal rivalry during the race to build the world's tallest skyscraper. While Van Alen designed the Chrysler Building, his former partner Severance was the architect of 40 Wall Street (the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building). The two men knew each other's ambitions, and both were determined to claim the height record.

Severance repeatedly raised the height of 40 Wall Street as construction progressed, attempting to stay ahead of the Chrysler Building's known plans. He believed he had won when 40 Wall Street was topped out at 927 feet in April 1930. What Severance did not know was that Van Alen had been secretly constructing the Chrysler Building's 185-foot steel spire inside the building's fire tower throughout the winter and spring of 1930. On October 23, 1929 — the very day of the Wall Street Crash — workers hoisted the assembled spire through the roof and bolted it into place in just 90 minutes. The Chrysler Building suddenly stood at 1,046 feet, surpassing 40 Wall Street, the Eiffel Tower, and the Washington Monument to become the world's tallest structure.

Van Alen's Legacy and Fall

Van Alen was celebrated in the architectural press following the building's completion. Architect magazine hailed him as the "Doctor of Altitude," while architect Kenneth Murchison likened him to Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., calling him the "Ziegfeld of his profession."

Yet his triumph was short-lived. Walter Chrysler refused to pay the final balance of Van Alen's architectural fee — a sum of $840,000, representing six percent of the total construction budget. Chrysler alleged, without clear evidence, that Van Alen had accepted bribes from building suppliers. Compounding the difficulty, Van Alen had never formalized his agreement with Chrysler in a signed contract. Van Alen sued, and the courts ultimately ruled in his favor, ordering Chrysler to pay. But the lawsuit severely damaged Van Alen's reputation at the very moment his star should have been ascending. Combined with the onset of the Great Depression, which all but froze architectural commissions, the controversy effectively ended Van Alen's career. He died in 1954, having designed no major buildings after the Chrysler. The building remains his singular masterpiece.

Construction: Speed, Secrecy, and Engineering

Groundbreaking for the Chrysler Building took place on September 19, 1928. What followed was one of the most remarkable construction achievements in the history of American building. The project was built at extraordinary speed, with steelworkers raising four floors per week at its peak. The entire structure of 77 floors was completed in approximately 20 months — a feat of project management and industrial capacity that would be difficult to replicate even with modern methods.

The building's structural system is a steel skeleton clad in brick and stainless steel — technically, the Chrysler Building remains the world's tallest steel-supported brick building. The use of Nirosta stainless steel for the crown and decorative elements was pioneering; this was one of the first major architectural applications of the material, prized for its lustrous, silvery appearance and resistance to corrosion. As Harold Cobb later observed in The History of Stainless Steel, the Chrysler "has become an icon of the stainless steel industry."

The foundation presented particular challenges. The east building wall of the base runs at a slant to the Manhattan street grid, following a property line that predated the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 — giving the building its distinctive angled base. Construction required deep caissons and careful engineering to manage the varied soil conditions of Midtown Manhattan.

The building officially opened on May 27, 1930, though its completion was celebrated on May 20. The total construction cost was approximately $20 million — a staggering investment for the era, equivalent to several hundred million dollars today. The project employed thousands of workers, many of them immigrants, and was constructed without the benefit of modern safety standards; it is remarkable that a project of this scale and speed was completed with relatively few fatalities.

Architectural Analysis

Art Deco: The Defining Style

The Chrysler Building is universally regarded as the supreme expression of the American Art Deco style. Art Deco emerged from the Exposition internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in Paris in 1925, though its roots extended into the pre-war decorative arts. The style was characterized by geometric ornament, stylized natural forms, a celebration of modern materials and industrial production, and a sense of luxury and forward-looking optimism. Unlike the classical Beaux-Arts tradition that had dominated American architecture in the early twentieth century, Art Deco embraced the machine age.

Van Alen's design fused all of these tendencies into a coherent and exhilarating whole. The building is simultaneously a product of its industrial moment — saturated with automobile imagery and machine-age materials — and a work of great artistic imagination, rising from a broad, functional base through elegant setbacks to the soaring, otherworldly crown. Julius Norwich, writing in The World Atlas of Architecture (1975), described it as "one of the most accomplished essays in the style," while architectural critic Diane Yancey noted that Van Alen's creation became "a perfect example of the style — modern, geometric, highly ornamented, and controversial."

The Exterior: Layers of Ornament

The exterior of the Chrysler Building is a carefully orchestrated sequence of ornamental programs, each level building upon the last toward the climax of the crown. The base is relatively austere: broad floors of rentable office space clad in brick, with storefronts and a showroom at street level. In the 1930s, a Chrysler automobile showroom occupied the tower's first two stories.

At the 31st floor, the ornamental program dramatically intensifies. The corner ornamentation consists of large sculptural replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator cap — the winged Mercury hood ornament — executed in stainless steel and projecting outward from the building's corners like medieval gargoyles transported into the modern age. These massive, gleaming figures are among the most remarkable pieces of building-integrated sculpture in New York.

At the 61st floor, the ornamentation reaches a second climax: at each of the four corners, enormous spread-winged American eagles project outward, again executed in stainless steel. These are perhaps the building's most photographed details, combining patriotic symbolism with the machine-age aesthetic of aviation. The facade as a whole contains 3,862 windows, each contributing to the building's rhythmic, jeweled appearance.

The Crown: Van Alen's Masterpiece

The crown of the Chrysler Building is, by universal agreement, Van Alen's greatest achievement and one of the most inventive pieces of architectural design in the twentieth century. It consists of seven radiating, terraced arches, each constructed as a cruciform groin vault with transitioning setbacks — seven concentric members rising one behind another in a nested sequence. The entire surface is clad in Nirosta stainless steel, ribbed and riveted in a radiating sunburst pattern.

Each of the seven arches is pierced by triangular dormer windows with pointed tops, which catch the light and create a luminous, faceted appearance that changes dramatically depending on the weather, the time of day, and the viewer's angle. At night, when illuminated, the crown transforms into something almost otherworldly — a glittering, abstract presence against the sky. The 185-foot needle at the summit completes the composition, driving the eye upward in a final, exhilarating flourish.

The crown also serves as a weather and lightning conductor, but it was conceived above all as pure spectacle. Van Alen understood that in the competition for the world's height record, the visual drama of the crown was as important as its physical altitude. In all of these ambitions, it succeeded beyond any reasonable expectation.

The Automobile Iconography

One of the Chrysler Building's most distinctive features is the thoroughness with which Walter Chrysler's automobile industry is embedded in its design. The building is, in a sense, the world's most elaborate piece of automotive advertising — a billboard of unprecedented architectural sophistication. The radiator caps, the eagle gargoyles (modeled on the hood ornaments of the Plymouth automobile), the automotive friezes at the tower's base: all celebrate the machine age and its most successful industrial product.

This integration of industrial iconography into architectural ornament reflected a genuine artistic philosophy. Art Deco celebrated the machine as the defining symbol of modernity, and the automobile — fast, sleek, mechanically perfect — was the machine par excellence of the 1920s. By adorning his building with automotive imagery, Chrysler and Van Alen were making a statement about the times they lived in: an age of speed, power, and industrial mastery.

The Interior: Art Deco Splendor

The Lobby

The lobby of the Chrysler Building is one of the most celebrated interior spaces in New York City — a triangular hall of extraordinary richness that translates the building's exterior ambitions into an intimate, human-scaled experience. Visitors entering from 42nd Street are enveloped in a world of polished stone, gleaming metal, and painted imagery that has barely changed since 1930.

The floors and walls are clad in African red granite, amber onyx, and red Moroccan marble — materials of extraordinary beauty that give the lobby its warm, jewel-box quality. The elevator doors and surrounds are faced with patterned inlaid wood veneers, each set of doors featuring a different exotic wood marquetry design — African wood, oriental walnut, Japanese ash, American walnut — in chevron and sunburst patterns that echo the crown above.

Crowning the lobby is the ceiling mural entitled Transport and Human Endeavor, painted by artist Edward Trumbull. Executed in a vibrant, operatic Art Deco style, the mural depicts the Chrysler Building (shown as the world's tallest, still accurate at the time of painting), aeroplanes, industrial workers, and the energy of modern life. It is one of the largest ceiling murals in New York and one of the finest surviving examples of American Art Deco painting.

The Elevators

The building contains four banks of eight elevators, designed and installed by the Otis Elevator Corporation. The elevator cabs are themselves works of art: each is lined with exotic wood marquetry, and no two cabs are the same — a deliberate gesture of luxury and craftsmanship that extends the Art Deco program from the lobby into every corner of the building.

The Cloud Club

Perhaps the most glamorous interior space in the building's history was the Cloud Club, an exclusive private luncheon club that occupied the 66th, 67th, and 68th floors. Decorated in sumptuous Art Deco style with private dining rooms, a bar, and spectacular views over Midtown Manhattan, the Cloud Club was one of New York's most sought-after social addresses during the 1930s and 1940s. Its membership included some of the most powerful figures in American business and finance. The club closed in 1979, and its interiors were subsequently altered.

The Celestial Observation Deck

The original building included an observation deck on the 71st floor, known as the Celestial, which spanned 3,900 square feet and was decorated with a space-age theme featuring planets and rockets. The Celestial attracted enormous crowds in the early 1930s. However, when the Empire State Building opened in 1931 with its observation deck at a far greater height, the Chrysler's Celestial could not compete. It closed permanently in 1945.

Walter P. Chrysler: The Patron

Walter Percy Chrysler (1875–1940) was a self-made American industrial titan whose life story embodied the archetypal rise from humble origins to extraordinary achievement. Born in Wamego, Kansas, to a Union Pacific Railroad engineer, he left school at seventeen to become a railroad mechanic. His mechanical aptitude was exceptional, and he rose rapidly through the railroad industry before being drawn into the nascent automobile business.

By 1916, Chrysler was president of Buick Motor Company; by 1919 he was a vice president of General Motors with a salary of $500,000 per year. In 1921 he reorganized the Willys-Overland Company and then took over the Maxwell Motor Company before founding the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. By the mid-1920s, he was one of the most powerful industrialists in America.

The Chrysler Building was, in many respects, the expression of everything Chrysler represented: ambition, mechanical mastery, showmanship, and an unapologetic desire for prominence. He aimed to surpass his great rivals — General Motors and Ford — not just in automobile production but in the visual statement of industrial prestige. The world's tallest building, gleaming with stainless steel and adorned with automotive imagery, was the ultimate advertisement for the Chrysler brand and the ultimate monument to its founder.

Chrysler died in 1940, ten years after his building's completion. He did not live to see the full flowering of its reputation, but he bequeathed to New York — and to the world — a structure that has outlasted his corporation's greatest period and remains, nearly a century later, the most emotionally compelling building in the city.

Ownership History

The Chrysler Building's ownership history mirrors the broader fortunes of New York real estate across nine decades — from the triumphant early years through postwar decline, ambitious restoration, and the complex challenges of the twenty-first century.

The Chrysler Family (1930–1953)

The building was owned by the Chrysler family from its completion in 1930 until 1953. The Chrysler Corporation occupied the building as its headquarters during this period — though technically as a tenant rather than an owner. An annex was completed in 1952. Following Walter Chrysler's death in 1940, the family sold the building in 1953.

Subsequent Owners and the Cooke Era (1953–1997)

After the Chrysler family's sale, the building passed through a series of owners during the postwar decades. Like many older Manhattan office towers, it struggled during the 1960s and 1970s as tenants migrated to newer buildings with larger floor plates and modern HVAC systems. The building fell into deferred maintenance, and by the late 1970s its lobby and public areas were in poor condition.

A significant restoration was undertaken in the early 1980s, largely credited to Jack Kent Cooke, the media magnate and sports team owner who acquired the building in 1979. Cooke invested substantially in restoring the lobby, repairing the crown, and returning the building to something approaching its original splendor. Cooke died in 1997 and his estate's assets were foreclosed upon by creditors.

Tishman Speyer (1997–2008)

Tishman Speyer Properties acquired the building in 1997 for approximately $220 million. The firm undertook further restoration and renovation, spending about $100 million on improvements, and brought the building back to Class A office status. The Chrysler Building attracted a distinguished tenant roster and enjoyed a renaissance in its cultural reputation.

Abu Dhabi Investment Council (2008–2019)

In 2008, at the height of the pre-financial-crisis real estate boom, Tishman Speyer sold a 90% stake to the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) in a deal that valued the building at an astonishing $800 million. Tishman Speyer retained the remaining 10% stake.

RFR Holding and Signa (2019–2024)

By 2019, the building's fortunes had changed dramatically. Cooper Union — which owns the land beneath the Chrysler Building under a long-term ground lease — quadrupled the annual ground rent from $7.75 million to $32.5 million, with a further increase to $41 million scheduled for 2028. Cooper Union had incurred significant debt in 2006 to construct a new academic building and needed the income to service it.

Facing these economics, the ADIC and Tishman Speyer sold the entire building to a joint venture of New York-based RFR Holding (led by developer Aby Rosen) and Austrian real estate firm Signa Holding for just $150 million — a staggering loss from the $800 million valuation of eleven years earlier. RFR committed to extensive renovations and reportedly spent $175 million on improvements, but the economics remained precarious.

The situation deteriorated further in 2023 when Signa filed for insolvency. By 2024, RFR had accumulated approximately $21 million in unpaid ground rent. Cooper Union served RFR with a lease termination notice in September 2024, and after a legal battle — in which RFR argued that the rent levels were unrealistic given post-pandemic market realities, arguments a judge found unpersuasive — Cooper Union was awarded control of the building in early 2025.

Cooper Union and the Search for New Ownership (2025–Present)

With the building returned to its effective control, Cooper Union engaged London-based real estate firm Savills to find a new long-term lessee. As of early 2026, Tishman Speyer has emerged as the frontrunner to reacquire the ground lease — a potential return for the firm that first restored the building in the 1990s. A key sticking point in negotiations is the ground rent, currently $32.5 million annually and rising to $41 million in 2028.

The building faces significant challenges: a vacancy rate of approximately 14%, aging mechanical systems, and competition from newer Manhattan office towers. There is also speculation about a possible conversion to residential use, though the expense would be formidable given the building's 1 million square feet and landmark status.

Landmark Status and Preservation

• December 1976 — Added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark
• July 11, 1978 — Both the building's facade and its lobby interior designated as New York City Landmarks by the Landmarks Preservation Commission
• 2010–2011 — Overhaul of waste management, plumbing, and energy systems; earned LEED Gold accreditation from the U.S. Green Building Council
• 2007 — Ranked 9th on the American Institute of Architects' List of America's Favorite Architecture (150 buildings nationwide)

The Landmarks Preservation Commission described the building at the time of its 1978 designation as "a stunning statement in the Art Deco style by architect William Van Alen" and noted that it "embodies the romantic essence of the New York City skyscraper." These protections have proven essential in preserving the building's ornamental character through multiple ownership changes and renovation cycles.

Cultural Impact and Legacy

Critical Reception: Then and Now

The Chrysler Building's initial critical reception was decidedly mixed. Some critics dismissed it as frivolous or inane. Others immediately recognized its singular achievement; the building was praised as "an expression of the intense activity and vibrant life of our day" and "the epitome of modern business life."

By the late twentieth century, critical opinion had swung decisively in the building's favor. The postmodern turn in architectural theory rehabilitated ornament, historical reference, and visual exuberance — all qualities the Chrysler Building possessed in abundance. By 2005, the New York Times described it as "the single most important emblem of architectural imagery on the New York skyline."

Surveys and Rankings

• 1996 — Named favorite building by a survey of New York architects
• 2005 — Ranked #1 in the Skyscraper Museum poll (100 architects, critics, and scholars; 90 of 100 placed it on their ballot)
• 2007 — Ranked 9th on the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture — the highest-ranking New York skyscraper

Film and Popular Culture

The Chrysler Building has appeared in numerous films set in New York, cementing its status as a visual shorthand for the city itself: Spider-Man, Men in Black 3, The Wiz, Godzilla, and countless others. It has been reproduced in Lego's architecture set representing the New York City skyline.

Perhaps the most famous photographic connection is through pioneering photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, who rented a penthouse studio on the 61st floor in the early 1930s and produced iconic photographs of the building's gargoyles from that extraordinary vantage point — images that became among the most celebrated photographs of the twentieth century.

The Cooper Union Connection

The Chrysler Building has a unique relationship with Cooper Union, the distinguished institution founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper. The land on which the building stands was transferred to Cooper Union in 1902. Under successive ground leases, the income from this land has been a critical part of Cooper Union's endowment, helping to fund its educational mission. For much of its history, Cooper Union offered fully tuition-free education to all admitted students — a remarkable commitment enabled in significant part by the Chrysler Building's rental income.

Cooper Union discontinued its fully tuition-free model in 2014 after accumulating significant debt, but continues to offer substantial aid, covering half the cost of tuition for all undergraduate students. The dramatic increases in ground rent in recent years have reshaped the building's ownership story, illustrating how the fate of an architectural landmark can be inextricably tied to the needs of an educational institution.

Key Facts and Technical Specifications

Detail

Information

Address

405 Lexington Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, NYC

Architect

William Van Alen

Developer / Commissioner

Walter P. Chrysler

Construction began

September 19, 1928

Completed

May 20, 1930; opened May 27, 1930

Height (to tip)

1,046 ft (319 m)

Number of floors

77

Total floor area

~1,065,000 sq ft

Construction cost

~$20 million (1930)

Windows

3,862

Elevators

4 banks of 8 (Otis Elevator Corporation)

Architectural style

Art Deco

Structural system

Steel skeleton with brick cladding; stainless steel crown

Crown material

Nirosta stainless steel (one of first major architectural uses)

Height record held

World's tallest building, November 1929 – April 1931

Current NYC rank

12th tallest (tied with New York Times Building)

National Historic Landmark

December 1976

NYC Landmark designation

July 11, 1978

Ground lease holder

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (since 1902)

LEED certification

Gold (awarded 2011)

Conclusion: An Enduring Icon

The Chrysler Building is that rarest of achievements in art: a work that simultaneously captures its precise historical moment and transcends it. It is indelibly of the late 1920s — of the Roaring Twenties at their most exuberant, of the machine age at its most optimistic, of American industrial ambition at its most visually expressive. And yet it endures not as a period piece or historical curiosity but as a living presence, as emotionally compelling to the architects, photographers, and passersby of the twenty-first century as it was to those of the twentieth.

This endurance is a tribute to William Van Alen's extraordinary gifts as a designer — his ability to fuse functional requirements, structural innovation, ornamental richness, and symbolic content into a single, coherent, and beautiful whole. It is also a tribute to Walter Chrysler's courage as a patron, his willingness to invest in artistic ambition on a scale that few private individuals have ever matched.

As the building navigates the challenges of the 2020s — aging infrastructure, rising ground rents, post-pandemic office market uncertainty — there is no shortage of people who love it, who will fight for it, and who understand that its survival is not merely a matter of real estate economics but of cultural heritage of the highest order. The Chrysler Building is New York's gift to the world: a reminder that architecture, at its greatest, can be as thrilling as music, as moving as poetry, and as enduring as any human work.

"Although the 77-storey building's height has long been surpassed, its sparkling beauty has yet to be." — Patricia Bayer, Art Deco Architecture: Design, Decoration and Detail from the Twenties and Thirties (1992)

405 Lexington Avenue · New York, NY 10174 · Built 1928–1930 · National Historic Landmark