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 Building partially funding some of the other retrofits. The Empire State Building won a gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating in September 2011, as well as the World Federation of Great Towers' Excellence in Environment Award for 2010. The building started undergoing a 10-year renovation in the 2010s to further improve energy efficiency, public areas, and amenities. In August 2018, in a move to improve the flow of visitor traffic, the main visitor's entrance was shifted to 20 West 34th Street as part of a major renovation of the observatory lobby. The new lobby includes several technological features,