The future of the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City is uncertain as its owners face eviction – leaving the crown jewel of Gotham’s high-rise at risk of falling into disrepair.
The owner of the land on which the skyscraper stands said it has terminated the building buyer’s ground lease and taken control of the Art Deco gem in Midtown Manhattan.
To call the Chrysler a “gem” is to do the building a great injustice. Alone among all the skyscrapers in New York, it’s a building worth saving because its beauty makes it truly a work of art rather than just another grubby office building.
The problem with a building — any building, no matter how well constructed or of what durable materials it was built — is that it needs constant care and refurbishment, which clearly has been neglected by this lovely structure’s various owners over the decades. And to be frank, all of them need to be whipped at the post.
A cursory glance at what the landowners have been demanding for rent over the years, however, may be a clue as to why the neglect has occurred.
But like all downtown buildings, the Chrysler was nuked by Covid and its aftermath of “work-from-home” and empty offices thereby. So its chances of survival at this point seem remote, unless some super-billionaire with imagination can think of a way out. (One thinks of the much-maligned Donald Trump, who could probably pull off the miracle; but he has other things to occupy him at the moment.)
So the Chrysler will probably be taken down like some exhausted Las Vegas casino, except that unlike the typical Vegas eyesore, a piece of great architectural beauty will disappear, and Manhattan will lose, in my opinion, far more of its soul than it lost when the Twin Towers fell.
Might as well look at it while we still can:
Always a bright light on an otherwise dark environ.
The Chrysler is one of only a handful of things in NYFC that I miss never having seen in person. I’m an architect.
I was thinking someone should try to pitch it’s purchase to Musk, but since he’s probably the only person the NY city and state governments hate as much as Trump…
I hate autocorrupt. I have no idea why it decided on that apostrophe.
I’m amazed that you, of all people, actually have it enabled.
My phone typing can be pretty bad. 😁
I have taught it autocorrupt. I get to “autoc” and that’s the first autofill prompt it gives me. I find this amusing.
It’s a beautiful building, and I’m sure that a lot could be done with it (hotel/casino/museum might be worthwhile), but it’s in NYFC, so there’s probably no way to make a profit on it.
For someone who actually wanted to live in NYC (not me), can you imagine having an apartment there? If I had money, being able to call that building home might almost be tempting enough to make me do it.
The real problem, no doubt, was, is and will be rapacious and stupid government. The permitting process to do anything, from tear it down through convert to residential condos to fully renovate will be impossible.
It’s going to wind up as government property as the USA sinks into the mudhole of “regulatory communism.”
The photograph of Margret Burke White taking a photograph of NYC while perched upon one of the Chrysler building’s gargoyles is one of my favorite photographs. Plus the use of the Chrysler building in the in Ghostbusters is inspired. I will mourn its demise. It truly is iconic.
Why not just house illegal migrants in it? Venezuelan gangs should have a place to stay, and even in disrepair its better than anything they have in Shitholia.
I’ll miss it if its gone. But if it takes NYFC with it, hey ya gotta break a few eggs….
You’re so Krool & Hartless….
You’re so Krool & Hartless…
Isn’t Krool & Hartless one of those NY merger shark firms that do LBO’s?
Property developers who throw old ladies out into the street so they can build ugly skyscrapers. But I like the way you think.
“You’re so Krool & Hartless…
Isn’t Krool & Hartless one of those NY merger shark firms that do LBO’s?”
Nope. Opening act for the Sex Pistols, circa 1978, iirc, or not correctly as the case may actually be.
that is a beautiful building that should be maintained and used in NYC. Other than that, NYC can rot. Save the artwork in the Met though.