Why go
Comparing the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building with the United Nations headquarters reveals different ambitions for the modern city. Art Deco and the International Style belong to separate architectural moments. The wider story also connects republican public buildings, nineteenth-century European revivals and Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic approach.
The full story
After independence, American public architecture drew on ancient Greek and Roman forms to express republican ideals. During the nineteenth century, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Beaux-Arts and Victorian designs reflected continuing exchanges with European architecture. These different influences help explain why neighboring buildings may speak quite different visual languages. The skyscraper brought another direction at the end of the nineteenth century. In New York, the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building became prominent examples of Art Deco between the world wars. Their place in that history differs from the United Nations headquarters, an important example of the International Style after 1945. Other architects explored alternatives to the tall urban tower. Frank Lloyd Wright’s work is associated with the Prairie School and organic architecture. Later museum projects by architects including I. M. Pei and Richard Meier extended the range of bold building forms. Reading these changes chronologically makes architecture a way to understand the city’s successive ambitions.