Empire State Building In a separate transaction, the land underneath the building was sold to Prudential Insurance for $29 million. Helmsley, Wein, and Malkin quickly started a program of minor improvement projects, including the first-ever full-building facade refurbishment and window-washing in 1962, the installation of new flood lights on the 72nd floor in 1964, and replacement of the manually operated elevators with automatic units in 1966. The little-used western end of the second floor was used as a storage space until 1964, at which point it received escalators to the first floor as part of its conversion into a highly-sought retail area. In
Empire State Its most iconic structure is the Erastus Corning Tower, the tallest building in New York outside of New York City. The nickname has also been used for train routes. The Empire State Express of the New York Central Railroad was established in 1891, and Amtrak currently offers its Empire Service from New York City to Buffalo via Albany. SUNY Empire State College was established in 1971 in Saratoga Springs and makes use of the name. The Empire State Games were established in 1978 as an Olympic-style competition for amateur athletes from New York. Additionally, the term "Empire State" was included