The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building, New York, New York,
Samuel H. Gottscho, photographer, January 8, 1934.
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955

On May 1, 1931, with the press of a button in Washington, D.C., President Herbert Hoover turned on the lights of the Empire State Building. This event officially opened the edifice, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in New York City, to the public. At 102 stories, it reigned as the world's tallest skyscraper until 1974.

In 1929, a corporation which included Alfred E. Smith (former Governor of New York) and John Jacob Raskob (financial captain behind the growth of General Motors), and others formed to construct the Empire State Building. Excavation began in January of the following year, construction commenced in March, and Smith laid its cornerstone in September. The steel framework rose at a rate of 4 1/2 stories per week. The building's construction was completed in a phenomenal one year and 45 days.

Upon its completion, the 1454-foot Empire State Building became an icon for all things New York. Its Art Deco lobby presented 10,000 square feet of marble and its mast, currently a TV tower, was originally intended as a mooring for dirigibles. It has been featured in scores of stories and films, perhaps the most the most famous being the 1933 production of King Kong starring Fay Wray.

• See the Learning Page analysis of Architectural and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955 to learn more about this collection's topics and useful search terms for mining the visual and bibliographic information it contains.
• American Treasures of the Library of Congress is a permanent exhibition of the Library's rarest and most significant items; it is also available as an online exhibition. It includes architectural examples not only of the Woolworth Building but also of Gothic Revival architecture, and the Genius of Frank Lloyd Wright
• Search on the keyword art deco in Built in America: Historic Building and Engineering, 1933-Present to see a number of buildings in the Miami Beach Art Deco Historic District. See, for example, the Colony Hotel, the Century Hotel, and Luigi's Restaurant.

Benjamin Henry Latrobe

Design of the Library of Congress, North Wing of the Capitol,
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1808.
Prints and Photographs Division
This design by Latrobe is one of several featured in Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation.

On May 1, 1764, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, considered one of the foremost proponents of the Greek Revival style in American architecture, was born in Yorkshire, England. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1795. Thomas Jefferson appointed Latrobe "Surveyor of the Public Buildings" of the United States in 1803. It was in this post that he inherited the task of completing the U.S. Capitol.

In 1808, Latrobe redesigned the room in the Capitol which housed the Library of Congress. His design was the first example of Egyptian Revival style in American architecture.

Latrobe worked on the Capitol until 1811. In 1815, he returned to rebuild the structure, which had been burned by the British in 1814. Latrobe included a new Library of Congress in his redesign of the Capitol, and the Library was moved to this larger space in 1824. It remained in these quarters until the completion of the Jefferson Building, which officially opened to the public on November 1, 1897.

Latrobe was also responsible for the completion of the White House. He proposed the sophisticated transformation of the White House from the simple rectangular block erected by James Hoban to the porticoed building today recognized around the world as the home of U.S. presidents.

• The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress officially reopened to the public on May 1, 1997, following more than a decade of restoration. The occasion was marked by the opening of American Treasures of the Library of Congress, an unprecedented permanent exhibition of the rarest and most significant items relating to America's history drawn from every corner of the world's largest library. Items include not only founding documents in America's history such as Thomas Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration of Independence but also landmarks in American popular culture such as Tarzan, Krazy Kat cartoons, and dime novels.

  
  Tarzan, Burne Hogarth, Ink, pencil, and white-out with scraping out on layered paper board, May 9, 1948.
  American Treasures of the Library of Congress

  Click on the image to see Tarzan "hurl the shrieking Marlowe into the gaping jaws of death," and Jane shout "No, John, I shall not leave you!"
• For more Latrobe designs for the Capitol building, see The Temple of Justice and Faith: The Capitol's East and West Porticoes and Dome, part of the online exhibition Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation.
• Latrobe is considered the father of the architecture and engineering professions in this country. Search across American Memory on the term architect AND engineer to find a number of interesting items. See, for example, a group of architects and engineers studying plans for the Greenhills Project. Greenhills is one of three "green" communities built under the New Deal during the Great Depression.