A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City
by Neal Bascomb
Doubleday, 2003
Comments: The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building are two of the most iconic structures in American history. Collectively they helped secure the identity of New York as the world's premier city of skyscrapers. Not many people realize that these two buildings were built at virtually the same time in what amounted to be a race to be the tallest. This book is the story of their parallel histories and the intersecting lives in that competition.
The book presents a detailed profile of the personalities involved -- the architects, engineers, builders, financiers, politicians, and a host of other characters -- while following the timeline of significant events in the simultaneous rise of the two structures. The designs of both buildings were altered while underway in order gain an advantage over the other, with the Chrysler's builders engaging in a particularly unusual deception to disguise the ultimate height of the crowning mast until the final weeks of construction. In the end, the most obvious winner was the City of New York, gaining in reputation and prestige as the center of the world's most impressive architecture.
Copy Notes: Hardback, first edition, photographs
