Mr. Walter P. Chrysler, one of the leading figures in the manufacture of automobiles in America, has decided to erect a skyscraper in New York which is to be, according to the announcements, the highest inhabited structure ever built. (The Larkin Tower, announced some time ago but not yet constructed, is supposed to be 100 storeys.) The Chrysler Building will be 808 feet in height, 65 storeys above the ground and three basements below. The Woolworth Building, the tallest of the present skyscrapers, is 60 storeys and 792 feet, and the next, the Metropolitan Life Tower, 50-storeys and 700 feet. The Eiffel Tower, which Mr. Chrysler assumes to be ╥uninhabited,╙ is about 1,000 feet, and the next tallest European structure is, I believe, the spire of the Ulm Cathedral ╤ 529 feet.
The Chrysler Building will have an observation platform from which, visibility permitting, visitors should be able to see for a hundred miles. Despite the great height, the comparatively limited base makes the total usable floor space rather small by present American standards, less than one million square feet. The structure will cost ú2,800,000 and will be completed early in 1930.
