William Van Alen

William Van Alen (August 10, 1883 – May 24, 1954) was an American architect, best known as the architect in charge of designing New York City's Chrysler Building (1928–30).

Life

William Van Alen was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1883. He attended Pratt Institute while working for the architect Clarence True. He also studied for three years at the Atelier Masqueray, the first independent architectural atelier in the United States, founded by Franco-American architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray.

After finishing his studies, Van Alen worked for firms in New York, notably working on the Hotel Astor in 1902 for Clinton & Russell, before he was awarded the Paris Prize scholarship in 1908. at the École des Beaux-Arts.

By the time Van Alen returned to New York in 1910, he had become interested in new architectural styles, including the modernism for which he later became known. In 1911 he formed a partnership with H. Craig Severance, another architect with similar professional interests but a very different personal style. Severance was gregarious and charming, while Van Alen was more introverted. The partnership prospered and became known for its distinctive multistory commercial structures. It completed a building in 1914 in Lower Manhattan that was notable for having storefront windows that were flush with the walls rather than set back, an innovation that later became a standard practice. In the 1920s, Severance and Van Alen began to get bigger commissions, but their relationship grew more strained due to their personal differences, and the partnership dissolved in 1924.

In the late 1920s, Severance and Van Alen found themselves engaged in designing buildings that were heralded in the press to become the tallest buildings in the world: Severance, the Manhattan Trust Building 40 Wall Street and Van Alen, the Chrysler Building. At , Van Alen's building won. However, both buildings were surpassed in height by the Empire State Building in 1931. and as "the Ziegfeld of his profession."

Legacy Van Alen lent his name to the Van Alen Institute, a New York City-based nonprofit organization that is dedicated to improving design in the public realm through a program of exhibitions, competitions, publications, workshops, and forums and is an advocate for active and accessible waterfronts. Founded in 1894 as the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, the Institute was renamed in 1996 in honor of Van Alen, its largest benefactor; at this time the organization was reorganized to focus on the public realm. The Institute's projects initiate interdisciplinary and international collaborations between practitioners, policymakers, students, educators, and community leaders.

The Van Alen Building, a neo-Art Deco/Streamline Moderne luxury apartment block on the seafront in Brighton, England, was also named after him. The 38-apartment development was built between 1999 and 2001.