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In May the Postal Services released a Chrysler Building Stamp as part of its "Celebrate the Century" project. (courtesy U.S Postal Service) |
| The work on the Chrysler Building, subject to Landmarks Preservation
Commission approval, will include a renovation of the Cloud Club,
the building's original private executive dining room, former
speakeasy, and one of New York's most romanticized off-limits
spaces. by Ian Lebon Change is coming to the Chrysler Building, the gleaming scallop-topped skyscraper that has repulsed and entranced New Yorkers since 1930. When the building, temporarily the world's tallest at 77 stories, was completed, critics were famously cold to the charm of its flying hubcaps, basket-weave brickwork, and acres of stainless steel. Now, of course, it often surpasses the Empire State Building as the last word in built spiritual uplift. In a survey conducted last year by the New York Foundation for Architecture, architects ranked the building number one (the Empire State Building didn't even make the top five). In May the Postal Service released a rakish Chrysler Building stamp as part of its "Celebrate the Century" project, and in this summer's architecture-heavy Godzilla, Hollywood showed its affection by simulating a particularly thorough destruction of the building. So what's in store for this icon? In 1997, after years of financial uncertainty, the building was purchased for an estimated $200 million by Tishman Speyer Properties, a giant New York real estate company whose holdings also include a chunk of nearby Rockefeller Center. At the time, rumors circulated that the building might be turned into a hotel--its small floor plates make it inefficient for offices--but that buzz was recently quashed. Now, sources say, Tishman Speyer has more modest plans, paralleling changes being made to its other landmark Deco property. At Rockefeller Center, it is planning to expand the Rainbow Room and alter facades along Fifth Avenue to make retail more viable. (The 1930s didn't know from superstores.) The work on the Chrysler Building, subject to Landmarks Preservation Commission approval, will include a similar storefront revamping along Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street, some (hopefully very careful) tinkering with the lobby, and--at last--a renovation of the Cloud Club, the building's original private executive dining room, former speakeasy, and one of New York's most romanticized off-limits spaces. There are also plans to improve the building's decorative illumination--washing the shaft with light--which should cement its place as the most joyous part of the skyline, day or night. |
Keywords:
Chrysler building, stamp, renovation
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