The Empire State Building is a 102-story skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. It’s 1,250 feet tall, but stands at 1,454 feet high with the antenna. It stood as the world’s tallest building for forty years until the completion of the original World Trade Center’s north tower. Named after the nickname for New York, the building was completed in 1931, and stands as an American Cultural Icon. Designed in a distinctive Art Deco style, and has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The construction of the building was rife with competition with the Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street vying for World’s tallest building, and it became the world’s first building to have over 100 floors. The building was ahead of it’s time as it had extreme long-term forecasting for the life of the building, allowing for modern updates that have allowed the continued use of the building since it opening.
The most distinctive feature of The Empire State Building are the floodlights that were added to the top of the building in 1964. Since 1976 the spire has been lit in colors to match seasonal events and special occasions. In 2012 the flood lights were replaced with LED lights allowing for the wide range of colors and color animations previously unavailable, most noticeably the changing of the colors from red to blue during an election to mark the presidential candidate in the lead.
