Tourist Attraction in New York:
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is a New York-built skyscraper in the United States, currently the third tallest building in the country, the seventh highest in the country and the 60th largest in the world at 319 meters. Inaugurated in 1930, it was the tallest building in the US and the world (surpassing the Eiffel Tower as the largest structure ever built at the time); when it was opened, however, it lost this title just a year later to the Empire State Building, also in New York. The structural system used is the metal structure. It is also the tallest brick structure in the world. It was designated, on December 8, 1976, a building of the National Registry of Historic Places as well as, on the same date, a National Historic Landmark. The Chrysler Building was designed by William Van Alen to host the North American automobile company Chrysler. When planning for the construction of the building was announced on September 19, 1928, there was a strong competition among city architects to build "the tallest skyscraper in the world," as the project's creators called it. Despite the disputed vacancy of chief architect and the desire to build a record building, the pace of construction was natural and there were no fatalities. Van Alen's original design was called "decorative jewel with glass crown". Van Alen also included windows at the top of the building, which made the building appear to be a floating lantern in central New York. In the original design, the building was supposed to be approximately 246 meters high, but Van Alen's ideas turned out to be well ahead of the time, so Van Alen went on to work with Walter P. Chrysler, president of the Chrysler Automobile Corporation, which another height for the construction, which would be 282 meters. Walter Chrysler added a dozen bold details on the building's design, some associated with the cars Chrysler was producing at the time, such as Plymouth.