Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark

From the outset, the Empire State Building seemed to have had everything going against it. Although conceived during the 1920s boom years, most of the construction went on during the earliest years of the Depression, thereby putting the idea of high occupancy in the severest doubt. Its location wasn't ideal either. It was three miles north of the Wall Street district and a mile south of the center of the midtown business center. And it was ten blocks south of Grand Central Station and three avenues east of old Pennsylvania Station. The idea of mooring dirigibles was quickly scrapped after failed attempts. And sure enough, although the Empire State Building did get built, the tenants did not come. King Kong did, but he didn't pay rent.John Tauranac describes all this and more in his exhaustive book, THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: THE MAKING OF A LANDMARK. Written in an engaging style, Tauranac's book is as elegant and interesting as the subject itself, while his wit is as colorful as the characters surrounding the Empire State Building's creation. The book covers the idea for the building, Raskob's and Smith's supervision, the monumental task of the construction workers, and, most importantly, the survival of the building to become THE emblem of America's cultural and economic reach while become THE identifying symbol of New York City. The generous amount of photographs add to the understanding and enjoyment of the book. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent work that details the history of the Empire State Building. I was a bit surprised to find how much the author managed to pack into my paperback. Everything from skyscraper height restrictions to land leases and modern restructuring of ownership for tax purposes (and all the "interesting" stuff in between). If you buy this book and you're not from New York, do yourself a favor and get a map of the area. So you can follow along in the early chapters.

This is not a coffee table book of glossy color photographs of this most striking building. Nor is it a dry recitation of architectural, engineering and construction quantities, concepts and terms. Rather, it is a seriously researched and entertainingly written history of the time, events and personalities leading to the conception and creation of the world's most famous skyscraper. Tauranac successfully tackles the challenge of explaining how this mere assemblage of steel and stone has attained such mystical status and continues, 70 years later, to attract admirers. This is a "must read" for the serious ESB fan, or for anyone interested in how this architectural icon was created.

This book is the best book I've read on the building. It is very informative, and has many good pictures. There have been some quite well written books on the Empire State Building, but no other comes as close as John Tauranac's The Empire State Building, The making of a landmark.

Fairly well written book, that can be roughly divided into three parts. The author knows and loves NY, and he loves its' history and buildings and other landmarks. The first third includes a well-researched overview of the advent of skyscrapers in general, with emphasis on New York buildings. The economic factors at work and the arcana of NYC zoning laws are explained, but not tediously so. The author sets the stage well, and shows us his characters and what motivates them.The second third describes the mechanics of constructing the building. Plenty of detail, good explanations.The last third covers the history of the building from its' opening down to the present-day.