“Within these few blocks
are several of New York’s most striking skyscraper towers. Spanning four decades of construction,
they offer and unusual opportunity to trace a considerable part of the history
of skyscraper design. The Chrysler
Building, completed in 1929, sought to emphasize the extreme height of its 77
stories through the invention of picturesque detail; its ‘modernistically’
styled spire, heroic, streamlined stainless-steel gargoyles high above the
city, and intricate corner treatment represent a completely romantic approach
to the design of an important new architectural form… The Daily News Building, finished in 1930, a year after the
Chrysler Building, is a more rational interpretation of the tall building,
using the strongly repeated rising lines of white brick piers to create the impression
of an insistent, almost brutal verticality… The Chrysler Building Annex, constructed twenty-seven years
after the original tower, demonstrates a kind of impasse in skyscraper
design. There is no searching for
a dominant design theme, nor is there any attempt to advance the technology of
the curtain-wall construction… The
Socony Mobil Building of 1956, while it recalls a Beaux-Arts formula in its
massing, takes an important step forward in the employment of prefabricated
stainless steel panels for its outer walls, and provides an interesting
contrast to the Chrysler Building’s earlier use of the same material.”
- “Four Walking Tours of Modern Architecture in
New York City,” The Museum of Moern Art and the Municipal Art Society of New
York, Prepared by Ada Louise Huxtable; Distributed by Doubleday & Company,
Inc., Third Printing 1966.
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