Last night I was walking down St. Nicholas Ave.  at twilight, on my way to a hometeaching appointment.

Since St. Nicholas angles through the Manhattan grid, the view of the horizon was constantly changing.  At 162nd street, the new Bloomberg building (58th) came into view in the far distance, followed shortly by the Citicorp building (54th).  Finally, a little farther off (42nd st) the sparkling spire of the Chrysler building appeared.

I’ve seen the Chrysler from hundreds of different perspectives, but each new one is a delight.  When I was a kid, I put together one of those exacto knife paper models of a three foot high Chrysler building.  Now I work there.  (Actually, I work on the 31st floor of the annex on the third avenue side, so I get to go in through the famous lobby and have a view of the building itself.

The Chrysler was finished 75 years ago today, culminating a year long battle between its architect, Van Alen, and his former partner, Severance, (architect of 40 Wall St.) to see who would build the tallest building in the world.  The Empire State overtook them less than a year later.

Here is the NY Times’s celebration of the Chrysler anniversary.

Happy 75th birthday, Chrysler building!