VINTAGE MANHATTAN SKYLINE

Midtown Manhattan skyline looking northwest from the top of Metropolitan Life tower. Summer, 1952. 

The Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) are on foreground, center, dominating the skyline. 500 Fifth Avenue tower (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) and Rockefeller Center’s R.C.A. Building (Associated Architects, 1933) can be seen at background, right.

Photo: Manhattan Post Card, Co./Dexter Press.Inc.

Don’t miss the new photogallery (in Spanish) about the evollution of the Manhattan skyline during 1952 (Part One) in the blog “Historia de los Rascacielos de Nueva York”.

https://bit.ly/2W9K19f

Night view looking southeast of Midtown Manhattan skyline with Rockefeller Center complex, on foreground and the Empire State Bulding at background, right. Late 1949.

Photo: Robert Bagby.

Source: Colourpicture Publishing, Inc.

Lower Manhattan Financial District skyline and Brooklyn Bridge. View looking southwest from East River. Spring, 1968.

Photo: Frans Stich, Jr. (?) 

Source: Consultor Combi Visual. Vol. 2.  Barcelona, Ed. Baber, S.A., 1990.

Downtown’s Financial District skyscrapers looking southwest from East River with the Brooklyn Bridge on foreground. Spring, 1931. 

Buildings from let are: 120 Wall Street (Ely Jacques Kahn, 1930), City Bank Farmers Trust (Cross & Cross, 1931), the Cities Service (Clinton & Russell, 1932) under construction, and Bank of Manhattan (Henry Craig Severance-Yasuo Matsui, 1930).

Photo: Unknown.

Source: "Visitor's New York Guide. America's Show Place Illustrated". New York. Progressive Publications, Inc. 1965.

Night view looking southwest of Midtown Manhattan's Rockefeller Center and Avenue of the Americas skyscraper cluster from West New York, New Jersey, spring, 1965.

Buildings are, at left the Mutual of New York (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1950) and Seagram (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-Phillip Johnson-Kahn & Jacobs, 1958) and the ABC Building (Emery Roth & Sons, 1965) under construction. At the center are the New York Hilton Hotel (William B. Tabler-Harrison & Abramovitz, 1963), the new CBS Building (Eero Saarinen Associates, 1965), the J.C. Penney Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1965), Americana Hotel (Morris Lapidus & Associates Kornblath, Harle & Liebman, 1962), and the Equitable Life Assurance Building (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1961). At right are the Rockefeller Center’s Time & Life (Harrison & abramovits, 1959) and the R.C.A. (Associated Architects, 1933). Behind them can be seen the Union Carbide Building (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1960, demolished in 2021).

Photo: Acacia Card Company, New York, N.Y.

Midtown Manhattan skyscrapers. View looking north from the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building. Spring, 1968.

Buildings under construction at left, are, the 45-story Interchem Building (Emery Roth & Sons, 1969) at foreground, and the 50-story Burlington House Building (Emery Roth & Sons, 1969) at background. In the center, at background the Rockefeller Center complex with R.C.A. Building (Associates Architects, 1933) and the new 50-story General Motors Building (Edward Durell Stone-Emery Roth & Sons, 1968) nearing completion dominates the skyline. At foreground is the 58-story 500 Fifth Avenue Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931). At right are the new ITT North America Building (Emery Roth & Sons, 1967), the 41-story Bankers Trust Annex Building (Emery Roth & Sons,1968) under construction, and the Union Carbide Building (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1960, demolished in 2021). On foreground are the steel skeleton for the new Emigrant Savings Bank Building (Emery Roth & Sons, 1969) under construction and the 42-story 330 Madison Avenue Building (Kahn & Jacobs, 1964).

Photo: Unknown (amateur Kodachrome slide)

Night view looking southeast of Midtown Manhattan skyline, from Hudson River. Autumn, 1972.

The new 54-story One Astor Plaza (Kahn & Jacobs, 1972) are at center. The Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) are at right.

Photo: Alfred Mainzer, Inc.

Night view of Midtown Manhattan skyline. View looking southeast from Fort Lee, New Jersey, Autumn, 1973. 

The new Solow Buidling (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1974) and Pan Am building (Walter Gropius-Emery Roth & Sons-Pietro Belluschi, 1963) are at left. Rockefeller Center’s R.C.A. Building (Associated Architects, 1933) and skyscrapers surrounding it are at center. At right can be seen the Uris Plaza (Emery Roth & Sons, 1972) and One Astor Plaza (Kahn & Jacobs, 1972), and above them, the top of the Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) fully illuminated, dominates the skyline.

Photo: Unknown.

A couple enjoyed the evening view of Midtown Manhattan from the Beekman Tower Hotel roof. Spring, 1964. 

View looking soutwest with the Empire State (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931) and Chrysler (William Van Allen, 1930) buildings, at left, dominates the glittering skyline. The Pan Am Building (Walter Gropius-Emery Roth & Sons-Pietro Belluschi, 1963) are at right.

Photo: T.W.A.

Source: National Geographic Magazine, August, 1965.

Night view of Midtown Manhattan skyscrapers from the tio if Beekman Tower Hotel. Spring 1964. View looking west.

The new 38-story U.S. Plywood Building (William Lescaze, 1964) are on the left with the new 50-story Chemical Bank New York Trust Building (Emery Roth & Sons, 1964) dehind it. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (Schultze & Weaver, 1931) and General Electric Building (Cross & Cross, 1931) are on the center of picture. Buildings on right is the Seagram (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-Phillip Johnson-Kahn & Jacobs, 1958) and First National City Bank (Carson & Lundin- Kahn & Jacobs, 1961).

Photo: Van Phillips/Owen Thomas.

Souce: Phillips, Van; Thomas, Owen. “El Mundo en Color”. México, Organización Editorial Novaro, 1967.

Night view looking east of Mdtown Manhattan skyscrapers from the top of New York Hilton hotel. Spring, 1964.

Photo: Peter Fink

Source: Wagner, Robert F.; Peterson, Joyce; Fink, Peter. “New York que j’aime…”. Paris, Editions Sun, 1964.

Lower Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn Bridge. View looking southwest from Manhattan Bridge’s Brooklyn approach. Spring, 1966.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: Russoli, Franco; Negri, Renata; Tentori, Francesco. "L'Arte Moderna". No. 96. Vol. XI. Milán, Italia. Fratelli Fabbri Editori, 1967.

The 102-story Empire State Building. 350 Fifth Avenue, west block between 33rd to 34th streets. Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1930-1931.

View looking northwest of the Empire State Building and its neighborhood from Metropolitan Life tower. Summer, 1951. Rockefeller Center’s R.C.A. Building and 500 Fifth Avenue tower can be seen at background, right. The recently completed 1407 Broadway Building are visible at left, backgound.

Photo: Empire State Building, Inc.

Source: Horn, Jack. "And on the Right. A New York City Guide". New York, Jack Horn-New York Printing Company. 15th Edition, 1970.

Lower Manhattan’s Financial District skyline in this view looking southwest from East River showing Brooklyn Bridge viaduct on foreground, above. Summer, 1951.

At left is the 120 Wall Street Building (Ely Jacques Kahn, 1930) and City Bank Farmers Trust tower (Cross & Cross, 1931). The Cities Service (Clinton & Russell, 1932) and Bank of Manhattan (Henry Craig Severance-Yasuo Matsui, 1930) at center, dominates the skyline.

Photo: Zardoya. 

Source: "Nuevo Tesoro de la Juventud" Vol. 10. Mexico, W.M. Jackson, Inc./Grolier International, 1973.

Aerial view looking southwest of Midtown Manhattan in the summer of 1947. The Empire State and Chrysler buildings are at left. Waldorf-Astoria hotel and General Electric Building are at center and Rockefeller Center buildings are at right.

Photo: Pan American Airlines.

Source:“New Horizons U. S. A. The Guide to Travel in the United States” (New York, Pan American World Airways - Simon & Schuster, 1960).

Midtown Manhattan skyscrapers. View looking south from the top of R.C.A. Building in Rockefeller Center. Spring, 1947.

The 58-story 500 Fifth Avenue tower (Shreve; Lamb & Harmon, 1931) are on foreground, left. The 102-story Empire State Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1931), at center, dominates the skyline.

Photo: Museum of City of New York Collection. 

Source: Whiteridge, Annette. "New York, Then and Now". San Diego. Thunder Bay Press. 2001.

Lower Manhattan’s Financial District skyline. View looking west from St. George Hotel, in Brooklyn. Spring, 1931.

Photo: William Frange. 

Source: Richards Tropical Encyclopedia, Vol. 11. New York, The Richards Company, Inc., 1961.