The Empire State Building

New York, NY

This building is a visual manifestation of the American values of ambition, commerce, skill, innovation, power, expansiveness, energy, efficiency, and strength, all expressed with a striking functional beauty. It was started in the boom time of the 1920s and completed at the start of the Great Depression. It rises in the middle of Manhattan, America's quintessential urban center, and sums up that world capital's dynamic materialism. I grew up in its shadow and still marvel at it after decades of admiration.

Kevin