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The Empire State Building will replace its tower lights with a computer-driven LED system that allows for nearly endless color combinations.

If wind speeds aren’t prohibitive Monday, a steel column will be lifted on top of the existing framework of 1 World Trade Center, making it New York’s new tallest building. WNYC digital producer Stephen Nessen spent a lot of time on the site of 1WTC this summer. He explains what it took to make a structure this massive.

As part of our Empire Tweets Back project—in which we watch all eight hours of Andy Warhol's film "Empire"—we did a little rooting around in the WNYC and Museum of Modern Art archives to see what we could find in relation to Andy Warhol and the Empire State Building. Here's a small round-up of some of the more interesting bits.

Warhol's marathon eight-hour film of the iconic Empire State Building has long been talked about, but rarely seen. On Friday, WNYC Culture goes to the movies.

The new skyscraper in Midtown won't just change the views of and from the Empire State Building.

Look at the Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn or New Jersey and you don't need to be an architectural expert to pick out the Empire State Building. But what if it were surrounded by other skyscrapers, like other more densely populated parts of the city skyline. Would it still be an icon? Yesterday, that question became a little less hypothetical; The City Council approved plans for a nearby skyscraper that's nearly as high as the Empire State Building.

By an overwhelming vote of 47-1, the City Council voted to allow a skyscraper to be built within four blocks of the Empire State Building in Midtown.

Will plans for a skyscraper near Penn Station that would be almost as tall as the Empire State Building "ruin" New York's skyline? Matthew Schuerman, WNYC Radio reporter, discusses the development.

A picture is worth a thousand words—and millions of dollars. Those are the stakes for which two midtown real estate giants are playing in the fight over 15 Penn Plaza, a proposed 1,216-foot skyscraper that would be constructed within a quarter mile of the Empire State Building.

Two major property owners in the 34th Street area are facing off at a City Council hearing today. Vornado Realty Trust wants to build a 1,200-foot tower at 33rd street and 7th avenue. But the owners of the Empire State Building, three blocks away, are objecting, saying the new tower would ruin the iconic view of their building on the skyline.

The owners of the Empire State Building are objecting to a proposed 69-story skyscraper that would be built two blocks away. The new building, called 15 Penn Plaza, would go where the Hotel Pennsylvania is currently located, at 32nd Street and 7th Avenue, and would rise to about 1200 feet -- or just 25 feet lower than the top floor of the Empire State Building.

Reporting by Benedict Moran

(by Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)

Participants in the annual race to to top of the Empire State Building may be feeling like they're trapped in the movie 'Groundhog Day.' ...

(Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

The Empire State Building already glows green, for holidays like Saint Patrick's Day. Now, the iconic skyscraper is GOING green, with a major environmental makeover that is expected to cut its carbon emissions by 38 percent. Iain Campbell is with Johnson Controls, which helped plan the retrofit.

'If all commercial buildings in New York City followed the model developed for this project, there would be a reduction in carbon emissions of over $4.5 million metric tons per annum. Equivalent to that generated by a typical coal fired power plant.'

The $20 million upgrade includes replacing all of the building's 6500 windows with insulated glass, and adding extra insulation around radiators. Former President Bill Clinton's Climate Initiative project helped coordinate the makeover. He and Mayor Bloomberg both attended the announcement on the Empire State Building's 80th floor.