Building the Empire State

Building the Empire State celebrates the monumental achievement of the design and construction of the world's most famous skyscraper. The construction was orchestrated by the general contractors Starrett Brothers and Eken, the premier "skyline builders" of the 1920s. To organize the worksite, the office developed detailed charts that scheduled the delivery of the vast quantities of materials and recorded the progress of construction. A daily job diary recorded the number of workers by their trades. From these records, the company compiled an in-house notebook documenting the entire construction process. Only recently rediscovered in the files of HRH Construction Company, the successor to Starrett Brothers & Eken, the 1930s notebook is reproduced here for the first time. Introducing the historical text are essays that place the Empire State Building in historical context and explain the engineering and construction techniques for a general audience.