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The
Interior
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The
Entrance |
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The Welcome
Sign |
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The
lobby is an Art Deco triumph of marble and chrome steel.
The walls are luxurious red Moroccan marble, the floor yellow Siena marble
with amber onyx and blue marble trim.
interior = Inneres
lobby = Eingangshalle
marble = Marmor
amber = gelb, orange
trim = Dekoration |
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The large
lobby ceiling is covered by a mural, entitled "Energy
and man's application of it", by Edward Turnbull. The elaborate
and confusing mural contains a large image of the building, a plane, workers,
and decorative patterns.
ceiling = Decke
mural = Wandbild
application = Anwendung
eloborate = kompliziert
confusing = verwirrend
pattern = Muster |
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artist allegedly used some of the building's construction workers as models. |
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An Elevator |
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The elevators
have bedazzling doors with rare wood marquetry. These doors are Art Deco
masterpieces.
elevator = Aufzug, Lift
bedazzling = blendend
rare wood = Edelholz
marquetry = Intarsien |
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The
Chrysler
Showroom |
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The observatory
under the steel-clad spire has long been closed to the public. We have
a description what it was like:
"One
of the features of the observation floor will be an exhibition at the entrance
which will include a picture of the Chrysler Building site as it was slightly
more than fifty years ago - a goat farm, and another of the old four-story
buildings which were torn down to make way for the present structure. Between
these two pictures will be displayed the mechanics' tools which Mr. Chrysler
made with his own hands, and above this, as if rising out of the tool box,
will be a drawing of the new building" ("Finishing Touches").
Its Art Deco
decor, however, was slight and not significant.
Legend
has it that Walter Chrysler ordered it to be closed the day the Empire
State Building surpassed the Chrysler Building in height. But in fact it
was closed some time in 1945.
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obervatoy = Aussichtsplattform
steel-clad = stahlverkleidet
feature = Element, Sehenswrdigkeit
exhibition = Ausstellung, Darstellung
site = Platz, Stelle
goat = Gans |
to tear down = abreißen
to display = ausstellen
tools = Werkzeug
significant = bedeutend
legend has it = die Legende sagt
to surpass = übertreffen |
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Walter's
Toolbox |
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The
structure's vast size and technological infrastructure led to new ways
of thinking about the skyscraper. It was not merely a building as others.
"The
thing we have to get in our minds in thinking of a skyscraper is that it
is not a building, but a city" (Walker).
Chrysler
liked this idea of his building as a self sufficient entity and promoted
it in a brochure:
"Here
is a city within a city - a community with its Schrafft's restaurant and
its Terminal barber shop, its stores, and beauty parlor, its two gymnasiums
and its two emergency hospitals for men and for women... Every contribution
to efficiency, sanitation, comfort and even inspiration, that human ingenuity
can conceive or money can buy is provided".
According
to Chrysler, size and technology had met to create the community of the
future.
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skyscraper = Wolkenkratzer
merely = lediglich
self sufficient = autonom
entity = Ganzheit, Einheit
barber shop = Friseurgeschäft
beauty parlor = Kosmetiksalon |
gymnasium = Fitnessraum
emergency = Notfall
contribution = Beitrag
ingenuity = Genialität
to conceive = empfangen, schaffen
to provide = sorgen für, vorsehen |
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| Schrafft's
Restaurant
in the Chrylser
Building |
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| An Ad
for the Hairdresser's in the
Chrysler
Building |
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BACK |
