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Running Head: THE CHRYSLER BUILDING 1

The Chrysler Building



A Race to the Clouds

J.P. Ortton

Molloy College






























THE CHRYSLER BUILDING 2






Abstract

In The Chrysler Building, A race to the Clouds, the author discusses the impact the construction

of the Chrysler Building had on New York City and the race to build the highest structure in the

world. The author gives a brief background of the players in the race and the time in which the

competition took place. All men were creative and ambitious architects or entrepreneurs from

humble upbringings in a race to leave their mark on the world. The author became interested in
Chrysler and the Chrysler Building because over the years he has been to the former Chrysler
residence, which is now Wiley Hall and owned by the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. The
author has helped his father, who is an electrical contractor, renovate structures on the 12-acre
premises and the view from the main house is awesome. On a clear day the Chrysler Building,
which by some is considered the most beautiful art deco building in the world, can be seen from
this Gold Coast mansion, which still maintains some of the authentic rooms and opulence of
the era.









THE CHRYSLER BUILDING 3
The Chrysler Building
A Race to the Clouds
Napoleon was once attributed with saying; men are only as great as the monuments they
leave behind. In the mid-1920s when business was booming in Manhattan and the stock market
was at a record high, a battle between the most creative and ambitious architects and
entrepreneurs competed to build the worlds tallest skyscraper and leave their mark on the world,
and the New York skyline. This battle to build higher and higher cost millions of dollars, turned
friends into enemies, partners into rivals, sold thousands of newspapers, and reflected the spirit,
the will and the pride of a city and the men who were destined to make it great.
The Chrysler Building is an art deco style skyscraper that is located on the east side of
mid-town Manhattan. It is one of the most recognizable structures in the world and considered by
many to be the most beautiful. Walter P. Chrysler, who was a big name in the auto industry,
commissioned it. The Chrysler Building was a part of the competition in the world at the time, to
become the tallest building and for 11 months it had that honor, until the Empire State Building
was completed in 1931. Walter P. Chrysler was the founder of the Chrysler Corporation and
made his millions in the automotive industry. He came from humble beginnings and was born in
Kansas of German decent. Chrysler worked for the railroad industry and then for Buick and then
bought the controlling interest in the Maxwell Motor Company, which became the Chrysler
Corporation in 1925. By 1928, the year the Chrysler Building was commissioned, he owned
Chrysler, DeSoto, Plymouth and Dodge. That same year he was named Time magazines Man of
the Year (Encyclopedia Britannica). He financed the construction of the building as a personal
project to give to his sons as a business venture or inheritance.

THE CHRYSLER BUILDING 4
The architect of the Chrysler Building, William VanAlen, was in a three-way competition
to design the tallest building. Its rivals were the now largely neglected Bank of the Manhattan
Company at 40 Wall Street, designed by VanAlens ex-partner and the architect H. Craig
Severance, and the Empire State building (Nash and McGrath, 2010). The race to build the
tallest skyscraper in the world demanded sheer determination, deep pockets, terrific speed,
unbridled ambition, grand publicity campaigns and a dose of hubris (Bascomb, 2003). Along
came Walter P. Chrysler, who dreamed of a building that would leap into the sky like a beacon
(Bascomb, p.28) and reflect his success in the auto industry. Chrysler told VanAlen, I want a
taller building of a finer type of construction and it is your job to give the best that is in you
(Bascomb, p. 30). Chrysler requested hundreds of revisions to the architects first designs and
after learning that the Manhattan Company Building was planning on being over 67 stories high;
Chrysler and VanAlen reworked their designs and kept the final height a secret. Severance was
also eager to build the tallest building in the world.
Since Chrysler was financing the project personally and cost was not a problem, VanAlen
was able to hire the famous painter Edward Trumball to design a mural for the lobby ceiling,
that celebrates (not surprisingly) the manufacturing of automobiles (Russo & Cullinan, 2014).
The lobby contains African marble and chrome steel and was completed at four floors per week.
VanAlens sloping dome of seven arches covered in shiny metal with triangle windows was
completely original. He left his mark on the building with the series of inverted V figures that
was patterned in the bricks between the windows on the 26
th
floor. The chevrons were a symbol
from the VanAlen family shield (Bascomb, 164). VanAlen added gargoyles on the structure on
the 31
st
floor in the shape of the Chrysler radiator caps and put them on the corners, which made
them have a wingspan of 15 feet. The corners of the 61
st
floor have eagles, which are replicas of
Chryslers hood ornaments. The buildings construction is brick with a steel skeleton and metal.

THE CHRYSLER BUILDING 5
If you go inside, you will see that is has four sets of eight elevators that are very elaborate.
Although the Chrysler Building actually ends on the 77
th
floor, there are seven more floors above
that, each getting smaller as they go up. If you look at the glass building across the street, you
will see that it reflects the Chrysler Building.
Chrysler felt his building was in direct competition with the Empire State Building
because General Motors, his former company, backed that structure. Al Smith, the former four-
time governor of New York, announced that he and his partners would build the largest office
building in the world. It would be 80 stories high and called the Empire State Building. The
winner of the race to the top of the sky had a lot at stake, along with their pride and reputations,
victory would stand tall in the skyline long after his days ended(Bascomb, 142). At this time,
the stock market trading was intense and people were prosperous and proud. This enthusiasm
fueled the race to build to the top of the sky. Newspapers jumped on the race to the clouds story
and the building competition got great publicity. The Empire State Building was marketed as the
symbol of what the poor were able to achieve in America. Skyscrapers were going up in cities
across the country. Meanwhile to hide the height of the vertex of the Chrysler Building, sections
were brought up to the dome and hidden in the higher floors. These sections were covered in
chromium nickel steel. When the spire was secretly assembled from within the building and
hoisted up and secured at 1,048 feet, it had the distinction of being the highest building in the
world, even higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. But, Chrysler and VanAlen kept quiet about it
until their competition, the Manhattan Building was complete, reaching 927 feet. Severance
thought he had the tallest structure in the city until four days later when it became known that
VanAlen had outplayed his former partner. Chryslers reign as the tallest building only lasted
11months, until the Empire State Building, designed by Severance was completed in May 1931.
THE CHRYSLER BUILDING 6
It was two feet higher. But for a short while Chrysler and VanAlen lived their dream. People
were allowed to go to the 71
st
floor to view the city for 50 cents. In the penthouse an apartment
for Chrysler was built and the Cloud Club, a nightclub and speakeasy in the 1930s featured
unobstructed four-sided views of New York (Nash, 63) on the 66th

- 68
th
floors. But, things
turned ugly quickly. Chrysler and VanAlen had never signed a contract and other than the $8,000
a month in salary VanAlen received while working on the project, Chrysler was not willing to
pay his architect the going rate of six percent of the building cost. Severance had been the
financial manger of their former architectural firm while VanAlen had been the artist. VanAlen
sued for his money, but he got bad publicity for not having a contract and he got mixed reviews
from critics at the time for his design. His reign as a prominent architect was over. After the
stock market crashed and the Great Depression set in, the age of excess was over. The real estate
market fell apart. The Manhattan Building lost many of its tenants and the Empire State Building
was now referred to as the Empty State Building (Bascomb, 277) because it was almost three-
quarters empty. Of the three buildings, Chrysler did the best because he rented to industrial
companies. All the men survived the Depression and after many years of trouble and changing
ownership the buildings still stand as a tribute to the men who had meager beginnings but a
positive spirit and a strong work ethic to reach for their dreams.
Walter P. Chrysler died in 1940 at his waterfront estate in Kings Point, Long Island. One
can only imagine that as he looked out across the Sound to the skyline of Manhattan, that he
appreciated the hard work and enthusiasm for which he approached life and he saw that his lifes
dreams and accomplishments were a success.





References
Bascomb, N. (2003). Higher: a historic race to the sky and the making of a city. New York:
Doubleday.
Nash, E. P., & McGrath, N. (2010). The Chrysler Building. Manhattan skyscrapers (3rd ed., pp.
60-63). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Russo, M., & Cullinan, M. (2014). The Heart of the City: Midtown. Essential New York (pp.
135-136). New York: Ars Omnia Press.
Walter P. Chrysler (American industrialist). (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved
September 16, 2014, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116389/Walter-
P-Chrysler

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