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Old Posted Jan 5, 2008, 3:03 PM
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Kelvin Kelvin is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2002
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Hi HighZed,

While the cladding may be a stainless steel, the answers you are looking for are perhaps more elusive. The spire structure is, based on the construction photos shown in David Stravit's book "the Chrysler Bldg", seen to be a simple regular truss not dissimilar from a radio transmission tower.

The tower is composed of four legs tapering towards the top with regular chevron bracing as far up the spire as can be seen in the photo. All steel sections are almost certainly A36 material and it is seen to be riveted construction (therefore I would assume pin connections). It can not be seen clearly, but all framing elements appear to be angle sections with flat plate gussets.

There is another photo titled "looking up into the spire from the 77th floor" in which horizontal X-bracing between the four individual legs is seen but it is difficult to see at what interval they are placed. Also, all the sections seen are covered with a globular (fire-retarding) material, making it impossible to ascertain their dimension or true section type.

The remainder of the building is again a riveted steel frame (WF beams and columns) w/ masonry block wall to assist in lateral stability. The bulk of the exterior cladding is of course clay brick.
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