the empire state building observation deck is on the 86th floor.
the empire state building observation deck is on the 86th floor.
how many floors is the empire state building observation deck?
86th floor
from the early to mid 1990s, the building underwent a $55 million series of upgrades with the alarm systems, elevators, windows, and air conditioning being replaced, the 86th floor observation deck made accessible to disabled visitors, and the facade again refurbished. prudential sold the land under the building in 1991 for $42 million to a buyer representing hotelier hideki yokoi, who was imprisoned at the time in connection with a deadly fire at the hotel new japan hotel in tokyo. in 1994, donald trump entered into a joint-venture agreement with yokoi, with a shared goal of breaking the empire state building's lease on the land in an effort to gain total ownership of the building so that, if successful, the two could reap the potential profits of merging the ownership of the building with the land beneath it. having secured a half-ownership of the land, trump devised plans to take ownership of the building itself so he could renovate it, even though helmsley and malkin had already started their refurbishment project. he sued empire state building associates in february 1995, claiming that the latter had caused the building to become a "high-rise slum" and a "second-rate, rodent-infested" office tower. trump had intended to have empire state building associates evicted for violating the terms of their lease, but was denied. this led to helmsley's companies countersuing trump in may. this sparked a series of lawsuits and countersuits that lasted several years, partly arising from trump's desire to obtain the building's master lease by taking it from empire state building associates. upon harry helmsley's death in 1997, the malkins sued helmsley's widow, leona helmsley, for control of the building.
empire state building
while plans for the empire state building were being finalized, an intense competition in new york for the title of "world's tallest building" was underway. 40 wall street (then the bank of manhattan building) and the chrysler building in manhattan both vied for this distinction and were already under construction when work began on the empire state building. the "race into the sky", as popular media called it at the time, was representative of the country's optimism in the 1920s, fueled by the building boom in major cities. the 40 wall street tower was revised, in april 1929, from to making it the world's tallest. the chrysler building added its steel tip to its roof in october 1929, thus bringing it to a height of and greatly exceeding the height of 40 wall street. the chrysler building's developer, walter chrysler, realized that his tower's height would exceed the empire state building's as well, having instructed his architect, william van alen, to change the chrysler's original roof from a stubby romanesque dome to a narrow steel spire. raskob, wishing to have the empire state building be the world's tallest, reviewed the plans and had five floors added as well as a spire; however, the new floors would need to be set back because of projected wind pressure on the extension. on november 18, 1929, smith acquired a lot at 27–31 west 33rd street, adding to the width of the proposed office building's site. two days later, smith announced the updated plans for the skyscraper that included an observation deck on the 86th-floor roof at a height of , higher than the chrysler's 71st-floor observation deck.
empire state building