page_title: Empire State Building
section_title: Lights
hierarchical_section_title: Empire State Building / Architecture / Features / Lights
caption_attribution_description: English: Rainbow Buildings for Gay Pride 2015
context_page_description: The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the state of New York. The building has a roof height of 1,250 feet and stands a total of 1,454 feet tall, including its antenna. The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1970; following its collapse in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Empire State Building was again the city's tallest skyscraper until 2012. As of 2020, the building is the seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, the 48th-tallest in the world, and the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the Americas.
  The site of the Empire State Building, located in Midtown South on the west side of Fifth Avenue between West 33rd and 34th Streets, was originally part of an early 18th-century farm. It was developed in 1893 as the site of the Waldorf–Astoria Hotel. In 1929, Empire State Inc. acquired the site and devised plans for a skyscraper there.
context_section_description: The building was originally equipped with white searchlights atop the tower. They saw their first use in November 1932 when they lit up to signal Roosevelt's victory over Hoover in the presidential election of that year. These were later swapped for four "Freedom Lights" in 1956. In February 1964, flood lights were added on the 72nd floor to illuminate the top of the building at night so that the building could be seen from the World Fair later that year. The lights were shut off from November 1973 to July 1974 because of the energy crisis at the time. In 1976, the businessman Douglas Leigh suggested that Wien and Helmsley install 204 metal-halide lights, which were four times as bright as the 1,000 incandescent lights they were to replace. New red, white, and blue metal-halide lights were installed in time for the country's bicentennial that July. After the bicentennial, Helmsley retained the new lights due to the reduced maintenance cost, about $116 a year.
  Since 1976, the spire has been lit in colors chosen to match seasonal events and holidays. Organizations are allowed to make requests through the building's website. The building is also lit in the colors of New York-based sports teams on nights when they host games: for example, orange, blue, and white for the New York Knicks; red, white, and blue for the New York Rangers. It was twice lit in scarlet to support New Jersey's Rutgers University, once for a football game against the University of Louisville on November 9, 2006, and again on April 3, 2007, when the women's basketball team played in the national championship game.
  There have been special occasions where the lights are modified from the usual schedule. The structure was lit in red, white, and blue for several months after the destruction of the World Trade Center in September 2001, then reverted to the standard schedule. On June 4, 2002, the Empire State Building was lit in purple and gold (the royal colors of Elizabeth II), in thanks for the United Kingdom playing the Star Spangled Banner during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace on the day after the September 2001 attacks. On January 13, 2012, the building was lit in red, orange, and yellow to honor the 60th anniversary of NBC program The Today Show. During June 1–3, 2012, the building was lit in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, in honor of the 49th annual Celebrate Israel Parade.
  The building also has been lit to commemorate the deaths of notable personalities. After the eightieth birthday, and subsequent death, of Frank Sinatra in 1998, for example, the building was bathed in blue light to represent the singer's nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes". After actress Fay Wray, who starred in King Kong, died in September 2004, the building lights were extinguished for 15 minutes. Following retired basketball player Kobe Bryant's January 2020 death, the building was lit in purple and gold, this time signifying the colors of his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
  In 2012, the building's four hundred metal halide lamps and floodlights were replaced with 1,200 LED fixtures, increasing the available colors from nine to over 16 million. The computer-controlled system allows the building to be illuminated in ways that were unable to be done previously with plastic gels. For instance, on November 6, 2012, CNN used the top of the Empire State Building as a scoreboard for the 2012 United States presidential election. When incumbent president Barack Obama had reached the 270 electoral votes necessary to win re-election, the lights turned blue, representing the color of Obama's Democratic Party. Had Republican challenger Mitt Romney won, the building would have been lit red, the color of the Republican Party. Also, on November 26, 2012, the building had its first synchronized light show, using music from recording artist Alicia Keys. Artists such as Eminem and OneRepublic have been featured in later shows, including the building's annual Holiday Music-to-Lights Show. The building's owners adhere to strict standards in using the lights; for instance, 
caption: The building lit up for NYC Pride in 2015
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5616", "Image ImageLength": "3744", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 5D Mark II", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2015:06:29 08:46:38", "Image ExifOffset": "288", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "914", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5208", "EXIF ExposureTime": "30", "EXIF FNumber": "22", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:06:28 22:47:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:06:28 22:47:46", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "-4906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "8918863/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "28", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "28", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "7020", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4680", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5616000/1459", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1872000/479", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "320101305", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24, 70, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM"}