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
Paleontology in New York (state) As the sea level lowered the waters covering the western part of the state became shallower and the salt more highly concentrated. Rocks laid down during the Devonian are the best exposed fossil-bearing deposits in the state. Marine invertebrates of Devonian New York included brachiopods, clams, corals, eurypterids, hydras, snails, sponges (some of which attained "huge" sizes), starfish, and trilobites. Conodonts were also present. The fishes of Devonian New York included small arthrodires, chimaeroids, crossopterygians, lungfishes, and ostracoderms. Central and southern New York were home to a westward-flowing river system during the Devonian accompanied by a delta known as the