Results tagged “empirestatebuilding”

       

As previously mentioned, the Empire State Building donned the official hippie color, Tie Dye, last night in honor of an upcoming Grateful Dead exhibit at the NY Historical Society. (A benefit with Dead members Phil Lesh and Bob Weir will be held in the city tomorrow.) Some readers certainly came through with some fantastic photos of the lights last night — some including trippy photo tricks, and psychedelic Photoshopping. Enjoy!

In honor of the New York Historical Society's upcoming Grateful Dead exhibition, the Empire State Building is going to be tie dye tomorrow. At press time, we were unable to confirm how in the world this was going to happen, short of dosing the entire city with acid and hoping everyone sees beautiful melting colors shining off the building.

    

Last night, the Empire State Building was lit up in red and yellow in honor of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. However, some didn't feel very warmly about the event—protesters (numbering around 20) were outside the afternoon lighting ceremony, saying it was "outright, blatant approval for a communist totalitarian system."

       

Yesterday we looked at the newly renovated lobby of the Empire State Building, and all its Art Deco glory made us nostalgic. LIFE magazine images are often good for curing that; they even have a whole gallery of the building being made by hand. Enough to make you reread The Fountainhead.

       

This morning the Empire State Building took some time to show off its newly renovated Art Deco Lobby and restored historic ceiling mural, with architect Frank Prial (who did the Grand Central restoration) on hand. This is all part of a $550 million historical renovation, the lobby taking about $12.5 million of that. The NY Times reports that the pricey touch up brought back to life "two shiny Art Deco murals that disappeared from view in the 1960s."

Supporters of Iran's seemingly sputtered Green Revolution apparently attempted to get the ESB to show green lights this week while Ahmadinejad was in town for the UN meetings — and were refused. But the WSJ notes the building will be lit in green on Thursday anyway for something much more important: the "Wizard Of Oz's 70th Anniversary Emerald Gala."

Exactly 64 years ago today, a U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building between the 78th and 79th floors (remember this image?). NYC Aviation looks back at the incident, saying "an engine plunges down an elevator shaft, sparking a fire in the basement. Eleven people in the building are killed, in addition to the three man bomber crew. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a plunge of 75 stories inside an elevator, which still stands as the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall recorded." The ESB notes that the pilot and two other passengers were killed, as well eleven people in the Catholic War Relief office.

In the former space of a ground floor post office at the Empire State Building, the company behind the Campbell Apartment and the World Bar at Trump World Tower are planning a 3,500 square foot cocktail lounge called the Empire Room. Hospitality Holdings owner and CEO Mark Grossich said, "The Empire Room, like our other lounges, will be an architecturally significant space located in an architecturally significant building. The Empire State Building is perhaps the most iconic building in The United States and one of the most recognizable in the world.  Similar to our Campbell Apartment, The Empire Room will harken back to the golden age of the 1920s and 30s with its theme, A Toast to Another Time."

    

This morning Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, aka the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, were on hand in their hometown to light up the Empire State Building and "shell-ebrate” their 25th Anniversary. As night falls and their classic 1990 movie is screened at the Tribeca Drive-In, the green glow of Turtle Power will be cast on the city. (And yes, that's April O'Neil alongside them.)

The Empire State Building has been a lot of colors throughout the years, but it may become permanently green. NY1 reports that "Officials today unveiled a groundbreaking project to significantly reduce the building's energy consumption." This would include replacing 6,500 windows with new ones that would reduce the heat in the summer and reduce heat loss in the winter, and a new system would allow tenants to control their own temperatures. The project will cost about $20 million, but it will "cut energy use by 38 percent, which will save $4.4 million a year in energy costs"—Bloomberg hopes that other buildings will follow suit. The NY Times notes that the job will be underway come this summer.

Jessica Chesnutt, 25, and Natalie Sauro, 24, are lesbian couple who recently got married on top of the Empire State Building along with 12 other couples on Valentine's Day. Since they're a same-sex couple, however, their vows were considered a part of a commitment ceremony. Following their whirlwind few days, Jessica told us a little bit about the experience, New York's progress with marriage rights, and more.

      

As you know, the Westminster Kennel Club is holding their 133rd annual All-Breed Dog Show, but did you know that 2008 Best in Show winner, Uno, helped light up the Empire State Building in its honor? His little award-winning paw switched on the purple and yellow lights at 10 this morning. Now he's not only the first beagle to win Westminster, but also the first beagle to get this ESB honor. Oh Uno, what can't you do?

     

While we were sipping lattes in the elevator ride to our fifth floor office this morning, thousands of over-achievers were making us look like pathetic sedentary blobs by racing up all 86 flights of the Empire State Building. Hundreds of fitness buffs from 17 different countries competed in the 32nd annual "Run-up," climbing a vertical distance of 1,050 feet and ascending over 1,500 steps. For the third-straight year, the women's winner was Suzanne Walsham of Singapore, with a time of 13 minutes and 26 seconds.

Finally, would-be Empire State Building stunt jumper Jeb Corliss is at the end of his nearly three-year-long legal nightmare. In 2006 he attempted to jump from the building with a parachute, but his plan was foiled by security at the last minute. Since then he's been in and out of court, and more recently he was convicted, meaning he could face years behind bars. Well, yesterday was judgement day, and following Alain Robert's slap on the wrist, Corliss was "sentenced to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service," which he is allowed to serve out in his hometown of Malibu, California. No doubt a relief for the stuntman; when he was first facing a judge in 2006 he had said, "I live in a country whose motto is 'Land of the free.' I don't feel very free here." This time around Corliss called the judge: "a wonderful man."

We're hearing that a person jumped from the upper floors at the Empire State Building and that his/her body was found on the 25th floor landing. The last suicide at the building was in 2007, when an employee jumped out of a 69th floor window. Update: According to the Post, "A middle-aged woman plunged to her death today after she apparently jumped out a 39th-floor window of the Empire State Building." She worked at North Bay Apparel, offices; cops say she did not leave a suicide note.

To celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, you may have noticed that the Empire State Building's lights have been split: Two sides are blue and white (for Hanukkah) while the other two are red and green (for Christmas). The lights remain split through January 6, 2009.

Jeb Corliss, who attempted to parachute off the Empire State Building in 2006 and has been in and out of court since, was convicted yesterday of reckless endangerment. He could face up to one year in jail, a significantly steeper punishment than was just handed to NY Times Building climber Alain Robert, who received a fine and community service. Corliss told the awaiting press,"I'm shocked. I can't believe it," and he'll now have to wait until January 22nd to find out what his exact sentencing will be. The Daily News adds that defense lawyer Mark Heller spoke up to Assistant DA Mark Crooks, a relative of flight pioneer Orville Wright, saying "If your great-great-granduncle were alive today, he would disagree with your argument that Jeb Corliss was being selfish, arrogant and reckless." Crooks responded that the Wright Brothers "didn't take their flying machines into crowded cities."

After the Daily News's recent stunt, in which reporters at the tabloid used fake documents to transfer ownership of the Empire State Building to a non-existent company, city prosecutors are calling for an overhaul on how the city register handles property transactions. As the News demonstrated, clerks in the office are not required to verify that the information on deeds and mortgages is correct, and some con artists exploit the loophole to claim ownership of properties, then cash in with illegitimate mortgages before disappearing. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes tells the News today that there ought to be a law giving the register's office the time and power to check transactions before they're recorded. But Sam Miller, a bureaucrat at the city Finance Department, swears these fraudulent transfers "are few and far between." And more importantly, they usually don't end up on the cover the the Daily News.

The Daily News has a clever little cover story today about how the tabloid "stole" the Empire State Building. Inspired by the Brooklyn DA's increasing number of deed fraud prosecutions, reporters decided to try the scam, which involves drawing up fake documents, making a bogus notary stamp and filing paperwork with the city to transfer the deed to the property. Grifters use the fraudulent deed to take out big mortgages, then disappear.

     

This morning the Radio City Rockettes kicked off their Christmas Spectacular at the Empire State Building. The four who did the honors (Brittany Marcin, Nikki Williams, Kimmi Louwsma and Laura Danielski) were all on hand to turn the building green, white and red in celebration of their holiday show's opening night. (This also ended the four-night political run the ESB has had.) Can you believe it's already time to get the sexy Santa outfits out of storage?

During previous elections, the colors at the top of the Empire State Building have shone red, white and blue--but this week, for the first time ever, it will honor the U.S. presidential election with a four-night celebration. The general manager of the building, James Connors, says that the 4-night lighting celebration is "due to the excitement" of this year’s race.

The Empire State Building started celebrating Halloween a little early today, as Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz and Kerry Ellis (aka Elphaba, pictured) came to light the ESB green. This is all in celebration of the show's 5th anniversary on Broadway. Variety recently noted that "after five years on the Gotham boards, the perennial top dog of Rialto sales has racked up the kind of numbers that make Hollywood sit up: Universal Pictures, the studio that first optioned the 1995 novel and one of the producers of the tuner, says Wicked counts among its most profitable properties." The flagship New York show itself has weekly tallies that often surpass $1.4 million! Guess they have a lot to celebrate.

The Empire State Building will celebrate the Olympics by illuminating each of its sides with the colors of a different nation's flag throughout the sixteen days of the Summer Games. This will be the first time the skyscraper will have separate color schemes on each side as it will represent the 66 nations with the most athletes sent to Beijing. A typical color change at the Empire State Building takes six electricians six hours to switch out whichever of the 182 lights needs altering. Good thing there were so many electricians nearby during last night's power outage!

Two elevators inside the Empire State Building stopped working last night when construction workers accidentally cut power lines. Over five hundred tourists were stranded on the observation deck while more than a dozen were stuck in an elevator near the 80th floor for over an hour. Two women were injured when, witnesses said, they had to jump off the stuck lifts about a foot to the floor. Both were taken to the hospital.

The Empire State Building is going couture! Well, sort of. From a press release about the 300 newly-uniformed employees:

As part of a $500 million renovation to restore the Empire State Building’s 1930’s glory, new Art Deco-inspired uniforms are rolling out for staff this summer to kick off the season in style.

Continue reading "Empire State Building Uniform Redux"

After trying to parachute off of the Empire State Building in 2006, Jeb Corliss found himself in front of a judge; at first the charges were dismissed, but earlier this year he was charged with reckless endangerment. The misdemeanor could turn the daredevil into a caged bird for up to one year.

WCBS 880's Sports Director Jared Max noticed that ESPN's NYC skyline shot--during the Mets-Yankees game last night--was not live but actually stock footage from the holiday season. The telltale clue was the Empire State Building: In ESPN's shot, the building was green and red, but in actuality, the building was lit in both blue and orange AND blue and white, in honor of the subway series. What gives--ESPN can't spring for a live shot of NYC any more?

The Empire State Building will continue its tradition of equally supporting the Mets and Yankees (and whole-heartedly supporting Big City Rivalry) as the two teams enter the Subway Series.

Beginning on Friday, May 16, the north/south sides of the building will be lit in Yankees blue and white, while its east/west sides will be lit in Mets blue and orange. The team who wins the series will have its colors displayed on all four sides of the tower on Monday, May 19.

On Tuesday, the Empire State Building was green for Earth Day. On May 5, it'll be yellow for Project Sunshine, a non-profit that offers free social, educational and recreational programs for children with medical challenges. But tomorrow, the Empire State Building will be purple, pink and white in honor of Mariah Carey.

Would-be Empire State Building jumper, Jeb Corliss (pictured), isn't in the clear yet. Last year's decision from Supreme Court Justice Michael Ambrecht to dismiss the charges against him was overturned yesterday when The Supreme Court Appellate Division decided to bring the case back to life.