Construction of the Empire State Building

The Construction of the

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

by

Michelle L. Harris

May 22, 2011

PM 595

Introduction

One of New York's signature skyscraper is The Empire State Building. In April 1931, The Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world and made history when it broke every record in the book at 102-story Skyscraper 1,252 feet and 1,452 feet if you include the television antenna. It took the design just two weeks. The design, engineering and erection took eleven months to build until it was ready for tenants. For more than 40 years It stood as the world's tallest building. The design and construction of the building was so that New York could have the "world's tallest building" at that time. The Empire State Building was known for its "…exceptional height, sheer size, and unmatched speed of erection…" (Willis, 1998)

Risks will arise on any project, on all levels. It was extremely important for the workers to manage the construction of the Empire State Building being it was the first of it's kind and the world's largest building. One of the main issues of the construction was the Safety of the workers and the material. Construction of the building was done throughout all four seasons and involved 3,400 workers, mostly immigrants from Europe, along with hundreds of Mohawk iron workers.

Fault Tree One

Discussion of Fault Tree One

Fault Tree Two

Looking at construction of the Empire State Building, safety is a huge issue. With 3,400 personnel and the EMSB being the "world's tallest building" the erection of a tall building poses many problems. Weather can cause a huge risk factor. New York's weather can cause a huge factor. New York experiences all seasons. The Winter and Summer seem to create the hugest risk.

In the Winter and Summer respectively, New York experiences extreme temperatures. In the Winter, the city/ state experiences low temperatures (at times negative numbers) and in the summer, the temperature could be extremely high. The risk of the workers having frost bite and heat stroke could be high if not managed well.

Another issue under the scope of Safety is Construction. In 1931, there had not been any other building as tall as the EMSB and there weren't many other buildings of their magnitude to parallel themselves to. There was the Chrysler Building; however