The rapid and unchecked development of Manhattan was a matter of serious concern in the early years of the 20th Century. The construction of the Equitable Life Building in 1915 while by no means the starting point of the debate provided a clear example of what could happen to New York City should building height and form continue unregulated: the Equitable Life Building which occupied an entire city block in Lower Manhattan rose forty stories high without any setback from the sidewalk. Fears of New York streets forever cut off from sunlight by man-made canyons of skyscrapers spurred the passing of the 1916 Zoning Regulation a landmark document which required setbacks for buildings passing heights specified by their location in the city. These regulations would lead to the characteristic stepped forms for which New York skyscrapers—and Art Deco skyscrapers around the world—would come to be known.

Skyscrapers typically rose for one of two purposes: to serve as showcase headquarters for companies or else as speculative projects by real estate developers. The Empire State Building was the latter a scheme concocted by former New York City governor Alfred E. Smith in collaboration with his finance partner John Jakob Raskob. Less than a month before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 Smith and Raskob called together a meeting of the city’s wealthy financiers to discuss their solution to the impending financial disaster: an office tower of unprecedented height. According to Raskob the massive undertaking would both inspire the American people and help stabilize an economy that was about to fall to pieces. By the meeting’s end Smith and Raskob managed to raise the funds to purchase the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel which would be cleared away to make room for their visionary tower.