The document discusses the Empire State Building as an icon of the construction industry. It describes the building's innovative design and construction techniques that allowed it to be built quickly despite the constraints of the site. The building took only 14 months to construct, under budget and ahead of schedule, though labor conditions were poor. It stood as the world's tallest building for over 40 years and remains a globally recognized symbol of New York City.

1. Process and Project Systems
Coursework 1
Gaurav Jhunjhunwala
Maxwell Tamwaida Nuhu
Shawki Samawi
Trung Duong Le

2. World Icons

3. But, What is an Icon?
Computing
“A symbol or graphic representation on a screen of a program,
option, or window.”
Linguistics
“A sign which has a characteristic in common with the thing it
signifies”.
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY??
Source - Oxford English Dictionary

4. An ICON for the Construction Industry

5. Source – www.wordle.net

6. Empire State Building
New York

7. Why Empire State Building?
• Worlds tallest building from 1931
to 1972
• Constructed in the great
depression; a symbol of hope and
stability.
• A sense of pride to America as it
showed its superiority against
other countries.
• Unique design and aesthetics
• Symbol of mans attempt to
achieve the impossible in the 20th
century

8. Design
• Concept – Shape of a pencil
• Height - 1250 ft tall and the pinnacle
is 203ft taking the total to 1453ft . It
has 103 floors.
• Structure - Prefabricated steel
members
• Area - 2,248,355 sq ft (208,879 m2)
• It has 2 observation decks one on
the 86th and the 102nd floor of the
building
• Construction was part of a
competition for the title of WORLD’S
TALLEST BUILDING
Source - http://www.bshs.org.uk/travel-guide/worlds-tallest-buildings

9. Construction
Main Objectives of the client
Estimated TIME – 18 months
Estimated COST – 50m $ including the cost of land
“Sooner the BUILD Faster they EARN“
Primary Objectives of the Client
Source: Morledge et al., 2006

10. Innovative Techniques introduced to save TIME
• Use of Prefab Steel Structure
helped the architects to work on the
detailed design when the ground
works were carried out.
• All parts were well marked and
indicative of its placement to avoid
confusion on site.
• As the site was in the city center
there was no place for storage of
these large steel members as a result
they were bought on site and placed
directly where it belonged.
• The building grew at an astonishing
pace of four n half floors in a weeks
time. 20 storey's by June ‘1930

11. Innovative Techniques introduced to save TIME
• Due to the lack of site space, there
was no provision to store materials
on site therefore the basement
was used to temporarily store
bricks
• A chute was used to deliver the
bricks to the basement and with
the help of a hopper, it was
conveyed to the various floors.
• In order to transport materials
around the site tracks were made
and fitted with carts which could
carry eight times the quantity of a
wheelbarrow; reducing time and
human effort

12. Time Lapse of the Building during construction stage June 1930 – Nov1930

13. Success of the PROJECT
• The project was completed in less
than fourteen months which was
less than anticipated time.
• The building was constructed at
the cost of $24 million which was
under budget by $10 million.
• The building stood the tallest in
the world for four decades.
• The building has been able to
persevere through the years as it
has been able to adapt to modern
requirement and has withstood
unprecedented hardships e.g..
Plane crash, fires, etc.

14. Tallest Building from 1931 – 1972

15. Source - R. Sacks and R. Partouche (2010)

16. Fast Construction @ Expense of
laborers
• Labourers worked really hard with
little safety precautions.
• There were five reported deaths as
against its rival the Chrysler building
which had one death.
• No first aid services.
• Canteens provided at strategic floors
to reduce break time.
• High wages with poor working
conditions.
• Many labourer available because of
great depression.

19. Empire State in Today’s World
• It has taken several measures in reducing its carbon foot print.
• It has been able to reduce its energy consumption by changing all light bulbs
to CFL which consume about 25% of the actual incandescent bulb
• It changed all the 6514 windows to triple glazed which has a lot of affect on
the cooling and heating of the entire building.
• It has insulated its radiators to avoid loss of heat.
• An investment of 13.4m $ helps the owners save 4.4m $ every year and
now the company is already making profits our of the investment.
• The Empire State Building continues to lead in the movement of change but
this time towards energy efficient buildings

20. Source – L. Davis (2013)

21. Source – L. Davis (2013)

22. Empire State Building stood amongst the top 10 structures in the world till 2010

23. References
• L. Davis (2013) Ex Post Evaluation of the Empire State Building Retrofit
The Energy Collective, Sept 2013
• Morledge, R., Smith, A., Kashiwagi, D. (2006) Building Procurement
Blackwell Scientific Publications Ltd., Oxford (UK)
• R. Sacks and R. Partouche (2010) Empire State Building Project: Archetype of “Mass Construction”
Journal of construction engineering and management, June 2010 (p.702 – p.710)
• Oxford English Dictionary. 1989. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bibliography
• http://www.esbtour.com/en-us/d/Default.aspx
• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_the_Empire_State_Building_famous?#slide=1
• www.wordle.net
• http://natgeotv.com/uk/building-the-empire-state
• http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/empirestatebldg.htm
• http://www.bshs.org.uk/travel-guide/worlds-tallest-buildings
• http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21249&page=5
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2-_07PJcYc