On July 29, the Empire State Building unveiled a new visitor observatory experience and museum in Midtown Manhattan. The 10,000 square foot space—designed by Thinc, Beneville Studios, Corgan, IDEO, and Squint/Opera, among others—occupies part of the second floor of the Art Deco skyscraper. Exhibitions highlight the structure’s modern-day interventions, guiding visitors through its storied past and ultimately escorting them up to the 86th floor observatory. At 1,454 feet tall, the Empire State Building, designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, was completed in 1931—and is now home to the Architectural Record offices.
The new visitor experience begins in a vestibule lined with the building’s early history and plans, opening into a room where an archival panoramic photograph of the original site (it housed the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel up through the 1920s) wraps the walls from floor-to-ceiling. Here, one can view imagined video clips of scenes of Midtown’s past through building surveyors. The building’s original survey marker is displayed in the center of the room.
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