The Chrysler Building's steel crown was tested for 30 years and barely aged
For 11 months after 1930, a Manhattan tower paid for by a car magnate out of his own pocket was the tallest building on Earth. Its gleaming crown used a German stainless steel never before tried on an American project, and inspectors eventually stopped checking it because it refused to deteriorate.
Walter Chrysler funded the 1,046-foot skyscraper personally, as an investment for his children rather than a company headquarters; the Chrysler Corporation stayed in Detroit. Designed by William Van Alen, it rose during a race for height against 40 Wall Street and the Empire State Building, and on completion became the world's first supertall tower. It remains the tallest steel-framed brick building anywhere. The family sold it in 1953, a year after an annex opened.
Its shape follows the rules of the 1916 Zoning Resolution. The lower sixteen floors fill the lot to squeeze in the most valuable street-level rental space, then setbacks at floors 16, 18, 23, 28 and 31 step the mass inward, creating a ziggurat profile on one face and a U-shaped palazzo on another. Even the eastern base runs at an angle, tracing the old Boston Post Road, which predates the 1811 street grid. The tower has its own ZIP Code, 10174.
The ornament is a tribute to cars. The 31st floor carries a frieze of hubcaps and fenders, oversized hood ornaments shaped like Mercury's winged helmet, and replicas of 1929 Chrysler radiator caps; eagles guard the 61st. The crown, seven radiating arches in a sunburst of triangular windows, is sheathed in Nirosta, a Krupp alloy of 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel, also used for the needle and window frames. Because the dome curved, workers measured sheets on site and shaped them in workshops on the 67th and 75th floors. An engineering society examined its panels every five years from 1929 until 1960, then gave up because they showed so little wear.
Critics at the opening split between calling it inane and calling it iconic. Later opinion settled firmly on masterpiece: architects ranked it ninth among America's favourite buildings in 2007. WCBS-TV began broadcasting from its top in 1938. The fluorescent crown lighting, part of the original plan, was installed only in 1981.
Source: Chrysler Building
