If you're into it, check out this entire NY Times section devoted to the 75th anniversary of New York City's favorite skyscraper, The Chrysler Building.
Not to be such a snob, but until a few years ago, friends of mine lived about ten blocks south of the edifice, and I used to love being able to go out on their balcony for a smoke break, which offered superb views of the "radiating arches" at the top.
At the same time, The Chrysler Building has always been a bit of an afterthought:
This second-billing relegation began when the Chrysler Building was but an ingénue. Movie lore has it that in the 1933 picture that bears his name, King Kong was originally going to swat airplanes from the building's silvery spire. But the Empire State Building, finished in 1931, soon stole the thunder, and the gig, when it eclipsed the Chrysler Building's blink-of-an-eye reign as the world's tallest. In clips and stills from that movie, there in the background sulks a dwarfed Chrysler Building.
James Sanders, the author of "Celluloid Skyline: New York and the Movies" (Knopf, 2001), jokes that any essay regarding the Chrysler Building in movies should be titled, "And the Award for Best Supporting Skyscraper Goes to ..."
And I noticed that the series forgot what made me aware of the building in the first place: The SNL Coneheads Sketch, where the tower doubled as a spaceship, bringing the family back to Remulak.
If Art Deco is your thing, take a look.
The evolution of the design.
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