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The Chrysler Building
1926-1930
The competitive climate of 1920s Manhattan drove the creation of this building, which ultimately surpassed even the Eiffel Tower in height. William Van Alen made it distinctive through inventively applied Art Deco design, using machine-age motifs such as hubcaps and radiator caps, and American eagle heads in place of traditional gargoyles. |
Picturing America has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Because democracy demands wisdom.
I would love to own the portrait of those famed architects at the 1931 Beaux-Arts masqued ball. I’d never seen this footage of them. What a “swell-egant” party that must have been!