Vast floors were subdivided into small, dreary offices with drop ceilings, shag carpeting and fluorescent lighting. The restaurant, State Bar and Grill, wants to cater to a business clientele, rather than the millions of tourists who visit the observatory every year (about 4.3 million in 2013).įor decades, a hodgepodge of nondescript tenants leased tiny spaces. Empire State Realty Trust, which owns and operates the building at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, is also adding a conference center on the 67th floor and a 100-seat white-tablecloth restaurant on the lobby level, with private dining below. Other changes to the Art Deco landmark are also meant to appeal to a high-end market. Executives who don’t want to work out with the rank-and-file will have access to a private gym suite. The gym, with white, undulating tile walls and dark wood finishes, can accommodate the building’s roughly 10,000 workers.

This summer, a 15,000-square-foot fitness center for tenants and their employees will open in the concourse of the Empire State Building, part of an effort to reinvent the 83-year-old tower as a modern day urban campus. Workers inside the Empire State Building may soon be able to imagine testing their weight-lifting prowess or other muscle-building regimens against the mythical feats of King Kong who once scaled this building’s facade.

Inside empire state building office