Peek Inside 1945’s ‘Celestial’ Chrysler Building Observatory | Katonah NY Real Estate

Photo courtesy of The Chrysler Building: Creating a New York Icon, Day by Day by David Stravitz; Princeton Architectural Press

Today we take a break from our regularly-scheduled Library of Congress programming to have a look at a tipster’s request: the observatory on the 71st floor of New York City’s Chrysler Building. The observatory—which featured, according to the book The Chrysler Building: One Kansas Mechanic and His Jazz-Age Tower of Babel, “a celestial motif, with sun rays painted on the walls, and Saturn-shaped lighting globes hanging from the ceiling”—opened to the public in 1945, 15 years after construction halted on the tower. The book also says that the steeply-pitched gabled ceiling succeeded in creating a feel of “disorienting splendor,” a technique used by architect William Van Alen to “dramatize a state of mind.”

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