lop motif. These bands make the lower part of the building appear stouter, and although they are the same limestone as the rest of the building, they nevertheless add coloration by virtue of the shadows they cast. The midsection seems firmer, more solid. From it, the upper tower rises unencumbered. The top five floors were chamfered, their corners cut away and softened so that the building reached a logical denouement. Chrome-nickel steels the color and texture of silver was used for the mullions that would run from the sixth to the eight-fifth stories. The marble walls inside the ESB lobby were devoid of ornamentation and carving except a subtle repetition of the convex grooving from the faade. The designers theorized that by diminishing the decoration and by having great expanses of glass for the arcade’s virtues, the beauty of the marble’s natural color and veining would stand out. The fifth Avenue lobby received light from the window-overlooking Fifth Avenue, but artificial illumination was provided by 150-wall light bulbs set into a shelf like cornice. The light was aimed upward and outward upon the ceiling, from which it bounced downward into the room, but not before highlighting the ceiling, which was decorated with gold, platinum, and aluminum leaf in a design of circles and stars. It would have a vertical strip of illumination, “pencils of light,” that would shine from within each of the four faceted faces to light up the night sky, while directional beacon lights would plays, giving the building an unmistakable character and adding to the drama of the nighttime skyline. In the tall thin part, the mast, there are 5 panels of fluorescent tubes (red, blue, green, yellow & white) and those are turned automatically to the desired color. When u stand in the 102nd floor on clear days, we can see the surrounding countryside for distances up to 80 miles, looking into the neighboring states of New Jersey, Pe...
