EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

New York, NY

The Empire State Building is New York City's most iconic landmark. Standing 1,454 ft tall, the building epitomizes the Art Deco style, with its sleek lines and intricate details. The tapered form of the tower, adorned with a spire, creates a sense of upward movement, symbolizing ambition and dreams.

The thousands of windows, mostly just black dots in the drawing, reflect the bustling life of the city below, capturing the urban energy that surrounds the Empire State Building. This contrast between the towering skyscraper and the lively street scene emphasizes the building's significance as a cultural and historical symbol. Since there were no great views of the whole building, I took the liberty of deleting the corner building in the foreground, in order to see the base of this building. I also manipulated the sun’s direction here, which was actually on the opposite side of the building, to give the sketch its three-dimensional quality. The play of light and shadow adds depth to the drawing, making it feel alive. The next day, I discovered a better view from the top of the nearby One Vanderbilt Tower, offering the perfect view looking down onto the Empire Building - oh, well. Most fascinating to me is that this steel-frame, behemoth building was built in one year. My experience today is that nothing gets built in one year. We’ve had projects that take a year just to get building permit approval.