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Empire State Building was built in 1930 in 410 days and landed under budget by…

2026-08-06 · 09:44 UTC ·@chamath ·1 min read

Brief

Empire State Building was built in 1930 in 410 days and under budget by prioritizing speed: standard materials, parallel trades, pre-ordering steel, joint owner/architect/engineer/contractor decisions, and heavy on-site logistics. Alfred Lin contrasts this with the World Trade Center (groundbreaking 1966, ~7 years, ~1,370 ft) and extracts startup lessons about focus, parallelization, reducing friction, and handling regulatory/political risk.

Why it matters

Empire State Building was built in 1930 in 410 days and landed under budget by subordinating every design decision to speed: using only known steel/floor/window systems, minimizing on-site cutting, and enabling trades to work independently and in parallel.

Key details

  • Construction logistics for the ESB included demolition before design completion, pouring foundations while upper floors were designed, ordering steel a month ahead, co-locating owner/architect/engineer/contractor, and using narrow-gauge railways, dedicated hoists, and on-floor cafeterias.
  • By contrast, the World Trade Center (groundbreaking 1966, ~7 years to build, roofline ~1,370 ft vs ESB ~1,250 ft) was delayed by lawsuits, political fights, and novel/untested systems; ESB’s team built 85 stories (vs profit-maximizing 63) for prestige enabled by speed discipline — lessons for startups to prioritize speed, parallelize work, and manage regulatory risk.
Source evidence

I remember it well.

Alfred Lin (@Alfred_Lin)

In re-sharing this post, I went down a rabbit hole on the Empire State Building. It was built in 1930 in 410 days and landed under budget, despite having none of our modern-day advantages or technologies. As a corollary, the World Trade Center broke ground in 1966 and took 7 years to build. The ESB is ~1,250ft to roofline, the WTC was ~1,370ft to roofline.

The ESB did it by subordinating every design decision to speed:

  • No exotic materials or systems were used; just known steel, floor, and window systems

  • Window placement, stone thickness, and cladding attachment were all chosen to minimize on-site cutting and hand-fitting

  • Engineers explicitly designed systems so trades could work independently and in parallel without waiting on each other, reducing the risk of delays

  • Demolition started before design was finished, foundations were poured while upper floors were still being designed, steel was ordered a month ahead of need

  • The owner, architect, engineer, and contractor sat together through construction, resolving details jointly instead of each one handing off their piece independently

  • On-site narrow-gauge railways, dedicated hoists for brick and stone, and on-floor cafeterias removed friction from moving material and people

Interestingly, the profit-maximizing design was determined to be 63 stories, but they built it to 85 stories for prestige and to beat Chrysler. Speed discipline saved the vanity height economics.

For contrast, the WTC took over a decade because it was plagued by lawsuits, political fights, and novel/untested systems, the reverse of the ESB's playbook.

Lots of learnings for startups, both inside the building (focus, parallelizing vs serializing, etc) and outside the building (regulatory, etc).

— https://nitter.net/Alfred_Lin/status/2085007234665431359#m