William Van Alen

William Van Alen was born in Brooklyn New York in 1883 and attended the Pratt Institute. He worked for several firms in New York until he won the 1908 Lloyd Warren Fellowship with allowed him to study in Paris. In 1911 Van Alen returned to New York and formed a partnership with Craig Severance and became known for his stylistic multistory commercial structures. Van Alen designed the Chrysler Building, which is praised as the greatest Art Deco style sky scraper, and serves as a monument to capitalism in America. Van Alen died in 1954 and was not noted for his great architectural works until after his death.