21002 Empire State Building

21002 Empire State Building was a LEGO Architecture set that was released in 2009. The set includes a model of the Empire State Building. The model was designed by Chicago architect Adam Reed Tucker.
== Description ==
This set is a miniature model of the Empire State Building, to be seen in New York in Manhattan. The set consists of 77 pieces and no minifigures, as with all sets of this line. It is build with LEGO System bricks, most of them having a tan colour, which is the main colour of the set. The stand is black and reads "Empire State Building".
== Background ==
At the end of the 1920's the Great Depression set in and America's optimism was at an all-time low. During this time, America's labor force was at its highest supply and the value of the dollar was cut in half over night. So it was this combination of events that made a construction project of this magnitude possible.
With the help of already existing drawings, made for several other buildings, Gregory Johnson and his architectural firm, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, managed to complete the paper plan design of Empire State Building in two weeks. Still a great deal of thought and consideration was needed during the 16 redesigns of the building's design.
Built on the previous site of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the construction took seven million man hours and had a pace of 4½ floors per week. Iron workers erected 60,000 tons of riveted steel frames into a series of stacked boxes. With just one year and 45 days of intense construction, the building was actually completed ahead of schedule. The Empire State Building opened May 1, 1931, and remained the tallest building in the world until 1972 when the World Trade Center opened. In 1964, floodlights were installed to decorate the top 30 floors. For different occasions the lights are used to illuminate the building at night, using colours chosen to match and mark seasonal, political, memorial, commercial as well as pop-cultural events. As an example it was covered in red, white and blue for several months after the World Trade Center attacks while it's coloured by the team colours every time New York Knicks (orange, blue and white) and New York Rangers (blue and white) plays a home match. On Valentine's day it is lit in red, white and pink.
The building is a member of the "World Federation of Great Towers" and was named as one of the 7 wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
== LEGO.com Description ==
== Gallery ==
21002_alt3.png
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21002.jpg|The set.
E.jpg|An alternate view.
== External Links ==
Category:Architecture
Category:2009 sets
Category:20000 sets
Category:21000 sets