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Originally Posted by NYguy
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The 1931 Beaux-Arts Ball. From left to right, A. Stewart Walker as the Fuller Building, Leonard Schultze as the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Ely Jacques Kahn as the Squibb Building, William Van Alen as the Chrysler Building, Ralph Walker as 1 Wall Street, D.E.Ward as the Metropolitan Tower, and Joseph H. Freelander as the Museum of the City of New York.
Courtesy of the Council on Tall Urban Buildings and Habitat
In January 1931, architects and socialites gathered at New York City’s Hotel Astor to drink and dance away the gloom of the Depression for one night. The occasion was the annual Beaux-Arts Ball (its theme: “Fête Moderne—a Fantasie in Flame and Silver”).
What’s chiefly remembered about this particular high-society party is that titans of New York real estate came dressed in costumes depicting their own buildings, including the Waldorf Astoria and the Chrysler Building.