New York's Art Deco Gems: A Self-Guided Architecture Walk

Stop 1: the Chrysler Building

405 Lexington Avenue, at 42nd Street

Start with the building many architects consider the most beautiful skyscraper ever built. Designed by William Van Alen for automobile magnate Walter P. Chrysler and completed in 1930, it briefly reigned as the tallest building in the world at 1,046 feet, thanks to a spire that was secretly assembled inside the crown and hoisted into place in about 90 minutes. (Read the full story of that rivalry in our history of New York's race to the sky.)

The building is a love letter to the automobile. Look up and you'll spot:

• A band of brickwork with stylized hubcaps and fenders.
• Winged ornaments at the corners inspired by Chrysler's radiator caps.
• Gleaming steel eagles jutting out from the upper floors like hood ornaments.
• The crown itself, stacked arches of stainless steel pierced by triangular windows that sparkle at sunset and glow at night.

The lobby, with its red marble walls and a vast ceiling mural celebrating transportation and human endeavor, is one of the great Deco interiors. It's generally open to visitors during weekday business hours, though access has varied over the years. If it's open, step inside quietly.

Stop 3: the Daily News Building

220 East 42nd Street, between Second and Third Avenues

Walk east along 42nd Street to this 1930 tower by Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells, one of the first skyscrapers to abandon a decorative crown in favor of bold vertical stripes of brick. Above the entrance, a carved relief shows crowds of people beneath a sunburst.

The real treat is inside the lobby: a giant globe, sunk into the floor beneath a black glass dome, surrounded by clocks and weather instruments. Movie fans may recognize the building as the Daily Planet in the 1978 Superman film. The newspaper moved out decades ago, but the name stuck.

Stop 4: 570 Lexington Avenue

Lexington Avenue at 51st Street

Head north on Lexington to one of Midtown's most extraordinary crowns. Completed in 1931 by Cross & Cross for the RCA Victor company, and later known as the General Electric Building, this slim tower of salmon-colored brick is topped by a spiky Gothic-Deco crown meant to evoke radio waves and electricity. Look for the lightning bolts and zigzags at street level too. Its warm brick was chosen to harmonize with its neighbor, St. Bartholomew's Church.

Stop 5: the Waldorf Astoria

301 Park Avenue, between 49th and 50th Streets

One block west, the Waldorf Astoria moved here from Fifth Avenue in 1931 after its original site was sold for the Empire State Building. Designed by Schultze & Weaver, it became the city's most glamorous hotel, host to presidents, royalty and the famous grand lobby clock, a bronze masterpiece first shown at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The building closed in 2017 for a long renovation and reopened in 2025 as a smaller hotel with private residences above. Admire the twin-towered silhouette from Park Avenue, and check whether its public spaces are open when you visit.

Bonus stops if you have more time

• The Empire State Building lobby, on Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, is a restored Deco showpiece with a famous metal relief of the building. Read our guide to the Empire State Building.
• The American Radiator Building (1924), overlooking Bryant Park at 40 West 40th Street, is an early Raymond Hood tower of black brick trimmed with gold, a dramatic precursor of the Deco style.
• The Fuller Building, at Madison Avenue and 57th Street, has a fine sculpted entrance and mosaic floors.