Architects Get Rowdy at the Architect’s Ball (1931)
There was something curious about the Architect’s Ball at New York City’s Hotel Astor in 1931. Among architects enjoying drinks and shop talk stood the City Museum of New York. The Empire State Building. Metropolitan Tower. Even the Chrysler Building. The buildings were part of a costume parade, where architects dressed as their landmark designs. It was a way to celebrate the grand works of the day. Designers showed off their steel and glass monuments of the skyline. The ball celebrated the future of architecture, and gave the architectural community a chance tolet loose for a night. Luminaries such as Willam Van Alen as the Chrysler Building, Ralph Walker as Wall Street, and Leonard Schultz as the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel mingled among the guests and posed for photos and video. The tradition has been revived as modern architects coming together with the fashion world to create replicas of their creations.