The Best Skyscrapers

Lower Manhattan’s Skyscraper Museum asked a group of architectural heavyweights which of Manhattan’s many buildings were the best. The American Radiator Building did not make the cut:

One hundred architects, brokers, builders, critics, developers, engineers, historians, lawyers, officials, owners, planners and scholars were asked this summer by the Skyscraper Museum in Lower Manhattan to choose their 10 favorites among 25 existing towers, from the Park Row Building (1899) to the Time Warner Center (2004).

Ninety of them named William Van Alen’s Chrysler Building of 1930, which may come as close as any – despite or because of its ebullient eccentricity – to expressing New York’s cloud-piercing ambitions.

The surprising runner-up was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building of 1958, which is the antithesis of Chrysler: cool, tranquil, rectangular and restrained. What they have in common is that both express the spirit of their times, Chrysler playing a jazz-age flapper to Seagram’s man in the gray flannel suit.

Before you slap your forehead and shout, “What about the American Radiator Building?” know that the survey’s respondents barely concealed their naked self-interest:

Neither the survey nor the answers were strictly scientific. Respondents tended to gravitate toward towers with which they are personally involved.

For instance, the RCA Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (now the G.E. Building), was the No. 1 choice of Jerry Speyer of Tishman Speyer Properties, which co-owns Rockefeller Center; Samuel H. Lindenbaum, a land-use lawyer who represents the center; Howard J. Rubenstein, a public-relations executive whose firm promotes the center; and Daniel Okrent, the former public editor of The New York Times, whose 2003 book, “Great Fortune,” chronicled the history of the center.

Donald J. Trump checked off none of the buildings proposed by the museum but instead nominated Trump Tower, Trump World Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower and 40 Wall Street. Yes, that would be the Trump Building.

That’s not to say that all respondents didn’t take the survey seriously:

There were some exceptions to self involvement. I. M. Pei did not chose 88 Pine Street, which his firm designed and where it has its office. But the building was among those picked by Robert B. Tierney, the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Perhaps there is a designation in its future, though Mr. Tierney characterized the choice as one of personal affection and cautioned, “Nothing ‘official’ should be inferred.”

The World Trade Center was not on the list and did not appear as a write-in on anyone’s ballot. Leslie E. Robertson, a chief engineer of the twin towers, chose the Woolworth Building as his personal favorite. It, too, was once the tallest building in the world, 40 years before the topping out of 1 World Trade Center.

Survey results at the Skyscraper Museum’s website along with the executive summary:

Number 1 by a landslide is the Chrysler Building, making the list of 9 out of 10 participants, with 18 singling it out as their absolute Favorite. The Seagram Building took second place with 76 votes, while the Woolworth and Flatiron buildings tied with 73. The Empire State Building and Lever House ran a dead heat for fifth, followed closely by the RCA Building / 30 Rockefeller Center. Trailing these stars by more than twenty votes were the 1930 McGraw-Hill Building, the CBS Building / Black Rock, and the UN Secretariat.

I know the Seagram Building is historical and all, but seriously, what about the American Radiator Building?

Can I get a what-what?