Talk:Empire State Building

Design time

I've already changed the statement that "the drawings were done in two weeks" to something more realistic. Nobody, least of all in 1928, designs and engineers a house in two weeks, much less a 103-story building. I think an initial concept came out in two weeks, and from what I see from an unciteable-but-probably-correct blog, the seventeenth variation was taken for development in October 1928. Shreve, Lab & Harmon were contracted on September 9. There is no doubt that it was fast-tracked, but we need to stay away from confident assertions that design was completed on two weeks - that would result in unbuildable drawings, or just plain disaster. Construction didn't start until March 1930, and the site wasn't even fully assembled until November 1929. Design took about a year. I'm looking for definite sources that don't repeat what WP says. Acroterion (talk) 04:11, 3 March 2024 (UTC)

@Acroterion, I've removed the 2-week claim entirely. This reminds me of the claim that Fallingwater was designed in 2 hours - it really isn't feasible for the final plans to be drawn up in 2 weeks. The initial drawings may have been sketched in that time, but if the entirety of the site hadn't yet been acquired (as you mentioned), there is no way that it took only 2 weeks to create the final drawings. At some point when I have time, I'm going to check the source again to see what it says. – Epicgenius (talk) 20:30, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, I've looked around for sources that might realistically state the design time, but have found nothing. And thanks for your work on Fallingwater. Acroterion (talk) 21:30, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Tenants list

I've been mulling this for a while, but I think the list of notable tenants may violate WP:NOTDIRECTORY. Some of these entries are sourced only to these tenants' websites themselves, and in any case, a listing of tenants with articles is one step below a literal directory. It may be helpful to trim most of these entries, only keeping tenants with particularly large leases in the building (e.g. tenants that occupy a full floor or more). Most other good articles on NYC buildings either list their tenants in the prose, or they don't list tenants at all, except perhaps maybe the largest tenants.

Does anyone object to my trimming the tenants section? – Epicgenius (talk) 20:23, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 March 2025

Template:Edit semi-protected The article states the Empire State Building is the 57th completed skyscraper in the world and the 9th tallest in New York. However the links provided with these facts show it is in fact the 59th and 10th respectively 82.19.142.255 (talk) 14:18, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

Hey! Mind including some references? Valorrr (talk) 04:41, 22 March 2025 (UTC)

File:Yes check.svg Done meamemg (talk) 17:42, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Duration of highest building in the world

Hi, I think there might be a typo in the « 42 » years tallest skyscraper duration.

As it is said to be finished in 1931 and surpassed in 1970 (top-out date of the north world trade center earlier in the page. And in the “world trade center” page), it is a total of 39 years according to theses dates.

The wikipedia page “History of the world's tallest buildings” in section “List of historically tallest skyscrapers” sates that the duration is 40 years with 1971 as the date of completion of the world trade center.

it think it should specified that it is 39years until the top-out date of world trade center, or 40years until the completion.

Thank you very much for your support! 37.169.37.197 (talk) 01:23, 17 June 2025 (UTC)