Empire Building

Manhattan, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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The Empire Building at 71 Broadway in Manhattan's Financial District is an early skyscraper designed by Kimball & Thompson in the Classical Revival style and constructed between 1897 and 1898. Rising 293 feet across 21 stories, it exemplifies the tripartite compositional logic of classical columns, with a gray granite base and white granite upper stories articulated through band courses, balconies, and arched windows beneath a prominent metal cornice. One of the earliest skyscrapers built on pneumatic caissons and among the oldest such buildings still standing, the Empire Building employs a steel frame structure with a curtain wall facade. Developed by the heirs of real estate figure Orlando B. Potter to replace an 1859 brownstone, the building housed U.S. Steel Corporation from its 1901 founding through much of the twentieth century and later received a 21st floor addition designed by John C. Westervelt between 1928 and 1930. Now designated a New York City landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, the building was converted to residential apartments in 1997.

Architect

Kimball & Thompson

Movement

Neoclassical architecture

Built: 1898
Type: skyscraper, revenue house
Heritage: New York City Landmark, National Register of Historic Places listed place
Height: 89 m
Place: Manhattan, United States

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Location

40.70752, -74.01257