EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: The Making of a Landmark

by John Tauranac

The Empire State Building is the companion volume to the Museum of the City of New York's definitive exhibition: "A Dream Well Planned: The Empire State Building."

Genres: History, New York, Nonfiction, Architecture, Engineering

384 pages, Hardcover

First published November 24, 1994

Reviews

[Greg Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. An underappreciated part of this book is probably the first 100 pages that takes you through a history of building methods leading up to the ESB. Really provides great context.

[Jon Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased my copy of this book in paperback at the gift shop in the Empire State Building when visiting New York City in December 2021. My wife and I had bought tickets and gone up to the building's observation decks on the 86th and 101st floors, and the weather blessed us with spectacular views of the Big Apple, so it seemed a slam dunk to pick up this book in the gift shop on the way out. This book has been a challenge to read, not because of the way it is written, but more related to my difficulties in finding time to sit down with a physical book. But it was worth the long reading time. At almost 400 print pages, it is a complete chronicle of the iconic building, starting with the trends in engineering, materials, and architecture during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that enabled the construction of ever higher buildings. The book covers the NYC zoning laws that forced so many of the city's tall buildings to take on a similar sequential setback design, then covered the history of the site on which the building was constructed, the financiers, the architects, the constructors, the building management and staff once it was opened, and a million other interesting facts. What I found most interesting was a complete chapter on the dirigible mooring mast at the top of the building, a feature added late in the design and apparently sold to the public as a valuable addition, but which was a completely insane and unworkable proposition and was really included to add to the building's height. The idea of hooking a 1000 ft long dirigible, filled with flammable hydrogen and fuel for its engines, to the top of a building located in one of the most densely populated areas on the planet just boggles the mind. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? The book tells how, to keep up the illusion that the mooring mast might actually be workable, a couple of attempts were made to secure blimps to the top of the building early in its life, before the whole dirigible docking business was quietly shelved. Still, the mooring mast section of the building is spectacular to look at. If you want the complete story of one of America's most famous landmarks, this is the book to read. Five out of five stars.

[David Fulmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a definitive history of The Empire State Building, focusing on its construction, but not neglecting the history of its site and the life of the building up until the publication of this text in 1995. In this book you will find all the facts and superlatives about the building (“It cost $24.7 million [to build] … its total rentable area is about 2,175,000 square feet … opening Day [was] May 1, 1931), you will learn its height and how long its title as the world’s tallest building lasted. You will be introduced to all the characters involved in its conception, construction, and financing. It is truly an exhaustive account of the building. And there are many interesting (and a few uninteresting) digressions about rentable office space, which directions of the compass provide the best and worst natural light, the vicissitudes of different industries and different neighbourhoods in midtown Manhattan, and a whole lot more. At times the laundry lists of celebrity visits and promotions grow a bit tiresome (but the full account of the crazy idea to use the spire as a mooring mast for dirigibles is really interesting, as is all the information about why it was a crazy idea). I think my patience got a bit thin with the tale of a groundhog that was to be brought up to the observation deck on Groundhog Day but escaped at the street level and got run over by a taxi. Is this tale a fitting accompaniment to the history of the building, since the poor rodent never made it inside? Be that as it may, this perhaps gives you a sense of just how thorough Mr. Tauranac wanted his history to be. And it is a very fine history indeed, encompassing urban growth, architectural adornment, and business hubris and telling the story of one of the great architectural monuments of its age or indeed of any age.

[Harry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book having read about the amazing coordination to bring pieces from all over the country and the details of the erection. This turned out to be a small amount of the book and instead it was filled with details of other buildings, politics, business deals and the like.
Chapter 13 has replaced every occurrence of the letters "men" with "CEXT" in the middle of many words making it hard to read and obvious that no reasonable editor had looked at the E-version. There were dozens of occurrences.
In chapter 15 it claims that 84 square feet would accommodate 1000 customers. If they stood shoulder to shoulder you could stuff in 48.
Chapter 17 tells us about "chaise longues" perhaps chairs shaped like tongues.
For all the research done for the book you would think they would have done some decent copy editing.
Very disappointing.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Empire State Building" presents the history of the planning, financing, construction, and operation of the New York City landmark in great detail. This strength is also its greatest weakness, as Tauranac likes to cite seemingly every example that makes his point rather than a few well-chosen telling ones. The strongest chapters tell the ingenious methods developed to construct the Empire State Building, which came in under budget and finished in a mere 18 months during the earliest days of the Great Depression. An interesting book, but don't feel bad if you skip multiple pages once the author has the point he's writing about.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of the building and especially the early years and influential people of the Empire State Building. Lots of great information from the 1930s and also a lot of great detail about the B25 bomber that crashed into the building in 1945. A nice book for history buffs. I found a free online version of the text, and I'm sure the photos would add a lot to it as well.

[Nate Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book got on my reading list because it was listed as a reference for a novel that I enjoyed. It was full of very interesting information, but I did find myself skimming through the sections that dove deep into architecture, building codes and politics. It is amazing to read about what they did with no computers, all by hand.

[Scott L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The good: A wonderful history of one of the world’s most iconic buildings. Great in scope and detail, with many excellent anecdotes and good stories about its planning, construction, and operation. The author has an engaging writing style, the book is well organized and arranged, and reads as a very good history of the building.

The not-so-good that prevented a five-star rating: as other reviewers have said, sometimes the author bogs the reader down in detail. Did I really need to know the weight of each rivet used in construction? Probably not - and that is an example why it took me almost five months to finish a 370 page book.

However, if you love the Empire State Building as much as I do, and have since I was a child; or if you are interested in the history of an iconic landmark of New York City, this book is a must read.

[Jaime Montoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The direct prose and the colorful anecdotes make this book very enjoyable and funny. The iconic lanqdmark is full of surprises, records and in it is inner microcosmos is reflecting the big Apple.

[Kbullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally well done, but it's a little disappointing that only 29 of the 336 pages are devoted to the construction of the building.

[Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book for anyone who loves NYC and the Empire State Building. I picked it up last time I took the tour--about 4 years ago--at the Empire Building gift shop, but just got around to reading it now. The research is impressive. As a trained historian I'm impressed with the minute details Tauranac dug up. Nothing is left out. The number of rivets, beams, windows. The only thing he didn't mention is the carpet, which I suspect was the responsibility of the tenants, not the building owners. Did you know there's fireplaces in the building (though non working). Reconstructed 17th century rooms? The book is more than just a history of the building. It's a commentary on social history, urbanization, unions, politics, art, architecture, pop culture. I found John Raskob very interesting and want to dig into him more.

My only criticism is that the book only goes up to 1995, when it was published, and the author leaves us hanging regarding Donald Trump and his attempt with Japanese mafiaos attempting to get control of the facility. As if there isn't enough reason to loathe Trump.


I wish I'd read the book before my last trip;to the building. Actually that trip was dull since the building was undergoing renovation--and the $30 charge was a rip-off-- and the full impact of the "tour" wasn't possible. Now I want to go back--assuming it's done!

Now on to Empire State fiction: Empire Rising.

[JZ Temple · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of the Empire State Building, from initial concept up through the 1990's as it's ownership changed hands and the building went through a period of renewal. The details on the construction of the building are most interesting, and the author mercifully avoids long discussions of finances, although the details of rent and floor space allocation are surprisingly enjoyable. There are facinating character portraits, like that of Al Smith who after his governorship of the state became the "front man" for the building.

[Dan Cooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of hard to review, as a nonfiction book it contains lots of details and facts, however a fair amount of it was not really of interest to me. For example the names of all the tenants in the building during the first few years. I was looking more for a book about the design and construction of the building less about other things like how they advertised the building. Still I've learnt a lot more about it and it's made me want to visit New York again so that's good!

[Brenda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sure this book has a lot of great information in it. However, the writing in it was so dry that I just couldn't read it. The writing style was not at all something I would want to read.

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy moley, drown me in detail! Interesting stories, especially at the end, but you have a wade through quite a lot of exhaustive (and somewhat superfluous) details.

[Armand · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to finish it. Boring, boring, boring.

[Paul Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit too much detail in some parts but very good overall.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of one of the most famous buildings in the world. Few people know that the Empire State building was designed to dock Dirigibles (zeppelins).