Article ID: CBB104399167

Mr. Chrysler's Building: Merging Design and Technology in the Machine Age (2014)

unapi

The Chrysler Building occupies an exalted place in the hierarchy of American architecture as one of the country's most beautiful expressions of Art Deco design. Completed in 1930, as an era of prosperity slid into economic depression, its powerful granite foundation, missile-like brick tower, stainless steel ornamentation glorifying the automobile, gleaming seven-story stainless steel spire, and intense, motivational murals converge in praise of the possibilities of mind and machine in the new industrial era. Unfortunately, the intent of the builder, Walter Chrysler, and the success of the architect, William Van Alen, have too often been obscured in the literature about the building by the drama of the race for height supremacy between Chrysler and his corporate rivals and the post-World War II romanticised version of the building as an expression of the fantasy life of New York City. This article portrays the Chrysler Building as a technological triumph encased in a facade of mesmerising beauty. Much of the building's power and originality emanated from Chrysler himself Chrysler's self-promotion and his (and Van Alen's) fascination with ornament diminish beneath the importance of the building as a monument to the time when the automobile was no longer defined as a single technological innovation but as an essential part of a change of the first magnitude in transportation.

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Authors & Contributors
Erling Haagensen
John Holmes
William J. Glover
Sarah Lepinski
Timothy R. White
Themis G. Dallas
Concepts
Building construction
Architecture
Technology and art
Engineering
Technology
Skyscrapers
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
Medieval
Ancient
Gilded Age (1870s-1900)
Places
New York City (New York, U.S.)
United States
France
Rome (Italy)
Illyricum
Ankara (Turkey)
Institutions
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Pennsylvania Railroad
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