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Art Deco (1920's - 1940's), “Pleasure was the color of the time”,…

- - - - Van Alen’s Chrysler Building was the first man-made structure to stand taller than 305 meters, the world’s highest building for less than a year.
      - The Chrysler Building is a classic example of the Art Deco style, from the street to its terraced crown. Interior and exterior alike, it is admired for its distinctive and rich ornamentation based on features that were also found on Chrysler automobiles at the time. It was designed to reflect the elegance of the Chrysler automobile and the economic strength of the company.
      - The Chrysler Building is also renowned and recognized for its terraced crown. Composed of seven radiating terraced arches, Van Alen's design of the crown is constructed into seven concentric members with transitioning setbacks, mounted up one behind another. The stainless-steel cladding is ribbed and riveted in a radiating sunburst pattern with many triangular vaulted windows.
      - The white and dark gray brickwork of the facade emphasizes the horizontality of the rows of windows. The stepping spires are made of stainless steel with a stylized sunburst motif, and sit just above a series of gargoyles that depict American eagles which stare out over the city.
    - - The interior lavishly decorated with expensive Red Moroccan marble walls, sienna-colored floor, onyx, blue marble and steel. Murals were painted on the ceiling. Van Alen painstakingly designed these elevators which show off exotic wood inlays of stylized Egyptian motifs like palms and lotus blossoms.
      - The elevator interiors were perhaps the single most beautiful and, next to the dome, the most important feature of the entire building. Even though the woods in the elevator cabs were arranged in four basic patterns, each cab had a unique combination of woods. Some of the designs could be characterized as having 'geometric', 'Mexican' and vaguely 'art nouveau' motifs, which reflect the various influences on the design of the entire building. The roof of each elevator was covered with a metal plate whose design was unique to that cab, which in turn was placed on a polished wooden pattern that was also customized to the cab. Hidden behind these plates were ceiling fans.