NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The owner of the Chrysler Building plans to construct a public observation deck that will bring visitors within feet of the skyscraper’s iconic eagle gargoyles.
Building owner RFR Realty is planning to build a glass-walled viewing deck on the 61st floor of the Art Deco tower, according to documents filed with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The LPC unanimously approved RFR’s plans during a virtual public hearing on Tuesday.
The Chrysler Building, which sits at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, was completed during the Great Depression in 1930, Sheldon Werdiger, the head of design and development for RFR in New York, said during the hearing.
“Now we come to you with the same optimism and enthusiasm to keep this building relevant into the future, during what we can say is our own current depression,” he said.
Up until 1979, the Chrysler Building’s 66th and 67th floors were home to the Cloud Club, the “world’s highest lunch club,” Werdiger said.
RFR hopes to bring the lounge back to the building — but this time on the 61st and 62nd floors, he said.
The “extraordinary terraces” on the north and south sides of those floors have “unobstructed city views, and are within touching distance of (the) beautiful Art Deco eagles that perch on that level,” he noted.
The Chrysler Building did have an observation deck at one point, but it closed in 1945, the New York Post reported.
An RFR representative told the outlet the group was “not releasing information” about a timeline for the deck’s opening.