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Gilded bronze, Art Deco grill, the Chanin Building, built in 1928

Title: Gilded bronze, Art Deco grill, the Chanin Building, built in 1928

Keywords: Manhattan, New York City, New York State

The Empire State Buiding, the tallest building in the world when it was built in 1931, in a linen-finish postcard from approximately that time. From my postcard collection. In the Empire State Building's gleaming, marble-lined, Art Deco lobby stands a plaque honoring some of those who built what was then the tallest structure on the planet -- and still one of the most iconic. Constructing the towering skyscraper took just one year -- an heroic engineering feat both then and now. Of 3,400 workers, five were killed on the job. Machine-age, Art Deco bas-relief in the Empire State Building's main lobby Machine-age, Art Deco bas-relief in the Empire State Building's main lobby Machine-age, Art Deco bas-relief in the Empire State Building's main lobby Crowning the palatial, three-stories-tall, marble-lined, main lobby of the Chrysler Building you'll find, spreading over the entire ceiling, a gigantic, dazzling mural of which this 15-feet-long section is but a portion. The stainless steel, Art Deco crown of New York's iconic, 1,047-foot-tall Chrysler Building gleams in the sunlight. Designed by William Van Alen and constructed from 1928 to 1930 at a cost of $20 million, it was at that time the tallest building in the world. The tower's slender, triangular tip is itself 186 feet tall. The Chrysler Building Very Batman -- the Art Deco, Lexington Avenue entrance to the Chrysler Building High Deco -- the Lexington Avenue entrance to the Chrysler Building Like an Art Deco cathedral: the soaring Lexington Avenue entrance to the Chrysler Building Embellishing a Chase bank branch are fantastic light fixtures and a splendid Art Deco, metal bas-relief inlaid into the black marble facade of the Chrysler Building, constructed from 1928 to 1930. Embellishing a Chase bank branch are fantastic light fixtures and a splendid Art Deco, metal bas-relief inlaid into the black marble facade of the Chrysler Building, constructed from 1928 to 1930 An elegant, Art Deco deposit drawer for a Chase bank branch on the Lexington Avenue side of the Chrysler Building. Chase bank branch, the Chrysler Building Zig-zag, Stainless steel, Art Deco detail, The Chrysler Building, New York Art Deco chandelier, the Chrysler Building This is just a small portion of painter Edward Trumball's 100-feet-long and 78-feet-wide "Transport and Human Endeavor" mural which covers the entire ceiling of the Chrysler Building's main lobby . . . the mural depicts scenes of heroic industrialism and early 20th century communications and transportation technolgoy including aircraft of the period, and, of course, cars . . . some of the scenes are said to be of the construction of the Chrysler Building itself, while others are said to show a Chrysler assembly line . . . During the last few decades of the 20th Century, the mural had become hard to see, until a massive cleaning and painstaking restoration in 1999. A section of the enormous "Transport and Human Endeavor" mural painted by Edward Trumbull on the ceiling of the Chrylser Building's main lobby shows "flying boat" seaplanes soaring above the canvas sails of a traditional Chinese junk Door to a small office or shop in the basement of the Chrysler Building An Art Deco lamp in the Chrysler Building's main lobby. Detail of Art Deco mailbox in the Chrysler Building The 43rd Street side of the oft-overlooked Chanin Building, one of Manhattan's most magnificent Art Deco skyscrapers . . . Fifty-six stories high, it was for a short time, in 1928, the world's tallest building, later eclipsed by the even more spectacular Chrysler Building, just across 42nd Street from it . . . An intricate bronze frieze wraps around the Chanin Building's entire second floor and depicts biological evolution, while the ground floor is sheathed in black Belgian marble. Detail of an Art Deco, gilded bronze, grill in the lobby of the Chanin Building contructed in 1928 . . . the metalwork was designed by architect/developer Irwin Chanin himself and the noted sculptor René Chambellan Art Deco sculpture by René Chambellan in the lobby of the sensational Chanin Building contructed in 1928 Detail of a huge, terracotta, Art Deco, bas-relief on the Chanin Building's front facade near its main entrance on 42nd Street. The back cover of a Deco-era postcard packet depicts the Chrysler Building, the RCA (now GE) Building and the Empire State Building . . . inside the packet are 16 postcards views of 1930s New York . . . This is from my collection of vintage postcards of New York, Florida and Cuba