Noted by many as one of the most graceful art-deco buildings to this day, the Chrysler Building adorns the New York skyline with its silver spire and scary gargoyles. Built by Chrysler Corporation, the building is designed to reflect the automotive industry with a decorated granite lobby that was a showroom for the latest Chrysler cars, along with its hood ornaments designed to resemble radiator caps.
During its construction, the Chrysler Building was in the midst of a skyscraper war with lower Manhattan's Bank of Manhattan at 40 Wall Street (now owned by Donald Trump) in fierce competition with the Chrysler Building to acquire the status of the worlds tallest skyscraper. The Chrysler Building was rising four floors a day and in 1929, both buildings reached 925 feet, but 40 Wall's architect H. Craig Severance added two more feet to the top of his building, laying claim that it is now the world's tallest building.
This distinction did not last long as William Van Alen was secretly building a seven-story, twenty-seven ton spire inside the Chrysler Building. Just a few weeks after the Bank of Manhattan claimed its fame, Van Allen lifted the spire through the roof of the Chrysler Building and within an 1½ hours, it became the worlds tallest, soaring 77 stories and 1,046 feet high, beating the Bank of Manhattan by 119 feet.
It wasn't long before the Chrysler Building would lose its status, as the
Empire State Building toped it out only one year later.
