Tishman Speyer and its partners will invest $235 million to restore the Chrysler Building's terraced Art Deco crown and renovate its upper floors, the firm confirmed, roughly two years after a group of investors took control of the landmark tower.
The centerpiece of the project is the building's 61st floor, the former Cloud Club level that sits just beneath the seven-tiered stainless steel spire. The crown's triangular windows and chrome-nickel steel panels have dulled after more than nine decades of exposure to weather, and the renovation is intended to return the spire to its original shine.
At 1,046 feet, the Chrysler Building reigned as the world's tallest structure for just 11 months after its 1930 opening, surrendering the title to the Empire State Building in 1931. It remains the tallest brick-and-steel building ever constructed and the tallest structure in the world to be supported entirely by its own interior framework, with no exterior scaffolding used during its assembly.
The tower at 405 Lexington Avenue was the brainchild of auto magnate Walter P. Chrysler, who commissioned architect William Van Alen to design a monument to the automobile age. Van Alen's design includes stainless steel eagle gargoyles modeled on Chrysler hood ornaments and a spire that was secretly assembled inside the building and hoisted through the roof in 1929, allowing the tower to overtake a rival project at 40 Wall Street in the race for height.
The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and a New York City landmark in 1978, protections that require any exterior alterations to win approval from the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. Tishman Speyer has owned the property since 1997 and bought out a co-owner's stake in 2022, when the tower's occupancy had fallen and its mortgage faced strain from the shift to remote work across Midtown Manhattan.
The $235 million commitment covers the crown restoration along with mechanical and interior upgrades, part of a broader bet by the firm that trophy office space in Manhattan can still command premium rents. The Chrysler Building's location near Grand Central Terminal, whose long-delayed East Side Access project opened in 2023, gives it a transit advantage that newer towers on the West Side cannot match.
Work on the crown is expected to be visible from street level and from across the East River, where the spire has long served as a fixture of the skyline. Tishman Speyer did not disclose a completion date for the project.
