Design beginnings

Van Alen's original design for the skyscraper calls for a decorative jewel-like glass crown. His design also features the building's base in which showroom windows were tripled in height and topped by various number of stories with glass-wrapped cor­ners, creating an impression that the tower appeared physically and visually light as if floating on mid air.[8] The height of the skyscraper was also originally designed to be 246.0 m (807 ft) tall.[7] However, the design was proved to be costly. Hence, building contractor William H. Reynolds disapproved Van Alen's original plan.[9] The design and lease was sold to Walter P. Chrysler, who worked with Van Alen and redesigned the skyscraper for additional stories was later revised to be 282.0 m (925 ft) tall.[7] As Walter Chrysler was the chairman of the Chrysler Automobile Corporation,[7] various architectural details and especially the building's gargoyles were modeled after Chrysler automobile products like the hood ornaments of the Plymouth, and in which must also exemplify the machine age in the 1920s.