The Chrysler Building: Height, History and Visiting

Key Figures

The table below pulls together the core facts about the Chrysler Building: how tall it is, how many floors it has, when it was built, who designed it and who put up the money. Walter Chrysler bought the plot, the lease and Van Alen's plans from developer William H. Reynolds on October 15, 1928 for more than $2.5 million. Construction started on January 21, 1929 and the building opened on May 27, 1930.

The land itself belongs to The Cooper Union, which received it in 1902, and the building's owners lease it.

The Race for the Tallest Building

Construction turned into a three-way race with 40 Wall Street and the Empire State Building to be the world's tallest. In April 1929 architect H. Craig Severance, Van Alen's former partner, raised 40 Wall Street to 840 feet and 62 floors, 32 feet above the Chrysler's planned height. Van Alen answered with a trick. He obtained permission for a 125-foot spire and had it secretly assembled inside the building frame, so Severance did not learn the final height until the end.

On October 23, 1929, one day before the Wall Street Crash, the spire was hoisted into place in 90 minutes, with the bottom section lowered into the 66th floor. The lift took the Chrysler Building past the Eiffel Tower, making it the first man-made structure above 1,000 feet and the first supertall skyscraper. It held the world's tallest title from May 27, 1930 to May 1, 1931, about 11 months, until the Empire State Building opened. That building, designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, reaches 1,250 feet to the roof and 1,454 feet with its antenna across 102 stories. If you want the terminal covered properly, the separate Grand Central Terminal tour page owns that subject.

A note on 40 Wall Street: the Chrysler Building article records it at 840 feet when the spire won the race, while the 40 Wall Street article gives the finished building 927 feet and 70 floors. Both figures appear in the sources and they are not reconciled.

• Van Alen sued Walter Chrysler over his unpaid fee after the opening and won $840,000, six percent of the building's budget.
• The Chrysler family sold the building in 1953 for $18 million.
• Tishman Speyer and Travelers paid about $220 million for it in November 1997, and the 1998-2000 renovation of the Chrysler Center cost about $100 million.

The Building as Structure

The Chrysler Building is the tallest steel-framed brick building in the world, with a steel frame and masonry infill behind 3,862 exterior windows. Its 32 elevators run in four banks and were designed to travel at 900 feet per minute at a time when city rules capped elevator speed at 700. Each cab carries a unique combination of woods in marquetry.

The building earned its protections quickly by New York standards. It became a National Historic Landmark on December 8, 1976 and a New York City landmark for both facade and lobby on September 12, 1978. A 2020 plan approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission would add an observation deck on the 61st-story setback, but nothing confirms it was built, so treat any claim of a public deck as unproven.

The Stainless Steel Crown

The crown is seven radiating terraced arches clad in Nirosta stainless steel, laid out in a sunburst pattern with triangular windows. Nirosta contains 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel, and using it on the spire and crown was a first for an American project. Since 1981, tube lights have framed 120 window openings around the arches.

The same steel covers the 125-foot spire that was raised into place in 90 minutes on October 23, 1929.

Eagles, Hood Ornaments and the Chrysler Details

The building is dressed as a Chrysler product. The 31st-floor corners carry large car-hood ornaments and replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator caps. At the 61st floor there are eagle-head figures. Photographer Margaret Bourke-White climbed a scaffold 400 feet up in December 1929 to shoot the eagle figures.

The Cloud Club, a private dining club, occupied floors 66 to 68 and opened in July 1930 with about 300 members. It closed in 1979 after Texaco left the building.

The Lobby and What You Can Actually Enter

The lobby is the one part of the Chrysler Building open to the public, and by the 2000s it was the only publicly accessible part at all. It has a triangular plan with entrances on Lexington Avenue, 42nd Street and 43rd Street, Nirosta steel doors and floor bands of yellow travertine from Siena, set against African red granite walls. Mexican onyx panels sit above the elevator doors.

Overhead hangs the ceiling mural Transport and Human Endeavor by Edward Trumbull. It measures 110 by 67 feet and shows planes including the Spirit of St. Louis. Its hours of opening are not published on an official page, so do not plan a timed visit around them. A staircase on the 42nd Street side runs under the building to the Grand Central-42nd Street subway station and was part of the original design.

No tour in the catalog enters the upper floors of the Chrysler Building, and none of them claim to. The Art Deco Midtown walk passes the building on its 2 hour 30 minute route past the Chanin Building and Grand Central, led by a professional guide with groups capped at 10. For a wider frame around the building, the homepage roundup of New York architecture tours sorts every walk by district and style, and the Empire State Building gets its own one-line comparison on the homepage as the rival that ended the Chrysler's 11-month reign.

The Lobby and the Trumbull Mural

The triangular lobby has entrances on Lexington Avenue, 42nd Street and 43rd Street, so you can walk in from three sides. The walls are African red granite and the floor bands are yellow travertine from Siena. The doors are clad in the same Nirosta stainless steel as the spire.

Look up. The ceiling mural, Transport and Human Endeavor by Edward Trumbull, measures 110 by 67 feet and shows planes including the Spirit of St. Louis.

The Elevators and Mexican Onyx

Lift your eyes past the mural to the elevator doors. Mexican onyx panels sit above them in the lobby, and the cabs themselves are famous. Each one carries a unique combination of woods laid in marquetry.

The machinery behind them was equally ambitious. The building has 32 elevators in four banks, designed to run at 900 feet per minute when city rules capped speed at 700. A staircase on the 42nd Street side runs under the building to the Grand Central-42nd Street subway station and was part of the original design.

What You Cannot See

Be honest with yourself about the limits. The lobby has been the only publicly accessible part of the building since the 2000s. The Cloud Club, the private dining club on floors 66 to 68 that opened in July 1930 with about 300 members, closed in 1979. The Celestial observation deck on the 71st floor operated until 1945. A 2020 plan approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission would add an observation deck on the 61st-story setback, but a completed deck has not been confirmed.

Opening hours for the lobby are not published on this page because no official source states them. If the doors are open when you pass, walk in and look up.

For context on the terminal, it has its own page: Grand Central Terminal tour.

Seeing It With a Guide

The building appears on a paid walk that covers Midtown's Art Deco decade. The pick is the Art Deco and Architecture Midtown Landmarks Tour for $40 per person, a 2 hours 30 minutes walk that passes the Chrysler Building, the Chanin Building, Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center with groups capped at 10. You can browse the full range of New York architecture tours before you choose, since several districts and styles are covered by other walks.

Street Corners Near 405 Lexington Avenue

The address is 405 Lexington Avenue, at the corner of 42nd Street. The tower is 1,046 feet to the tip of its spire with 77 floors, and the entrance doors are finished in Nirosta steel like the spire.

For the ornaments, the corners matter more than the distance. Hood ornaments and replicas of 1929 Chrysler radiator caps sit at the 31st-floor corners, and eagle-head figures stand at the 61st floor. Margaret Bourke-White photographed those eagles from a scaffold 400 feet up in December 1929, which tells you how far off the street they really are. Bring a zoom lens or accept the silhouettes.

Viewpoints Further Out

Step back to see the crown properly. The seven radiating terraced arches of the sunburst crown are lit by tube lights framing 120 window openings, as they have been since 1981. The building has 3,862 exterior windows, and the Nirosta cladding, a stainless steel with 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel, was a first for an American project.

One Vanderbilt, at One Vanderbilt Avenue on the corner of 42nd Street next to Grand Central Terminal, stands 1,401 feet with its spire. For comparison, the Empire State Building is 1,454 feet to the tip of its antenna against the Chrysler Building's 1,046 feet.

Walking to It

It fits into a Midtown walk. The Art Deco and Architecture Midtown Landmarks Tour for $40 per person passes it on a route that includes Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center. If you prefer to plan your own route through Manhattan's styles, the New York City architecture tour guides list the free lobbies and self-guided options as well as the paid walks.