What Are The Top Floors of the Chrysler Building Like?

Factual Questions
1

I always wondered what the top floors of this iconic building are like…where the roof curves over and those art deco triangular windows begin.
Are they delux apartments or offices? Can you visit them?

2

Last I checked, an architectural firm has their offices there. And apparently they are dicks about letting anyone photograph their offices, or visit.

I much preferred the Vonnegut book Jailbird where the American Harp Company had their showroom in the spire.

3

Someone used to have a fan web site for the Chrysler Building, but they let the registration lapse and it’s now an amusingly incompetent dating site. But the WayBack Machine comes to the rescue

4

Ask the question at SkyScraperPage (Dot) Com’s forum page. Anything you want to know about a tall building anywhere, they have the answer

5

From Wiki

Here’s a tour

6

Fantastic! There has never been any glass in the windows past floor 75, and when it’s 32°F at street level, the wind chill up there can get down to -20°!

7

Here’s a pretty interesting article from a few years back about a dentist and the aforementioned architect who have their offices up there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/26/garden/26mayor.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq="Chrysler+Building"&st=nyt

8

Good stuff - thanks. The half-floors near the very top remind me of Being John Malkovich.

9

Awesome articles and links! I wonder if there are any photos of the inside of the topmost floors and into the needle? That would be something to see! Maybe Ernie has some. :slight_smile:

10

In The Aviator, there’s a few scenes that take place in the Pan Am offices at the very top of the Chrysler Building. The scenes were shot on a soundstage, but are supposedly very faithful to the look of the office in the 30’s.

11

Huh, I always thought a Quetzecoatl lived up there. At least that’s what I saw in a movie.

12

This question has an amazing answer. I’m surprised no one has posted it yet.

http://www.ineightydays.com/archives/hidden-treasure-of-the-chrysler-building-still-hidden/

In 1929, it was the highest toilet in the world.

13

Wouldn’t it make great digs for a super criminal?

I always was disappointed in the subterranean crap hole Lex Luthor got stuck with.

14

Strange picture of the Chrysler building in this article over at Modern Mechanix. (You can click the page for a higher-res scan.)

Does it show the scaffolding for the top floors, or was the shape somehow changed in the early years? Or did they just publish an outdated artists’s conception of the building?

15

Construction scaffolding, I think.

16

Anybody want to have a screw at this hi-res pic of the very top and see if they can’t link it up with whatever that Michaelis guy was talking about in his article? He was trying so hard to paint word-pictures, he didn’t make much sense at times.

17

Yes, actually, Wison Fisk, also known as the Kingpin, has his headquarters there. In fact, one side of the top of the building swings down to reveal a hangar from which he can launch armies of killer robots and squadrons of high tech bombers upon mid-town Manhattan. I spent many Saturday mornings gathering this information from the animated Spider-Man series in the 90s.

18

The 185-foot spire was built secretly inside the building and then raised up and installed in 3 sections so that it would surpass the equal height of a bank building, making the Chrysler Building the tallest, for a while. See excellent story, with many exterior/interior pix:

19

Thanks for that link, Ignatz. Some great pics!

If you want to see the Chrysler Building spectacularly destroyed, on the other hand, check out the opening scenes of Armageddon.