Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
A tower in the grid.
An introduction to Midtown Manhattan, where the Empire State Building rises from the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.
On this page
Read the city from above
The Empire State Building stands on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets. From the observatory, the Manhattan street grid runs out in every direction towards the rivers.
A city guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Notice how towers step back as they rise, how avenues lead the eye, and how older buildings sit among new ones.
Limestone, steel and Art Deco
The tower is clad in Indiana limestone panels that give it a pale colour, and its Art Deco design steps back as it rises towards the spire.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made, repaired and maintained. A photograph alone cannot tell you who set the stone or fixed the steel, or the conditions in which they worked.
An Empire State chapter
The Empire State Building shows New York at the start of the 1930s: a tower designed to be the world’s tallest and finished in little more than a year.
Look at the meeting of the two: a working office building and one of the city’s most visited viewpoints.
Make room for context
Pair this city reading with the tower’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places, commissions their restoration or represents their makers.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
