Landmark. Target. Tourist Trap. Tower of Power. Call it what you will, the Empire State Building is an enduring symbol of New York City and its people.

OUR GANG -- Back row: Robin, Sree, Brian, Michael; middle row: Iwona, Fang, Leela, Franziska, Marta, Monideepa; front row: Rachele, Claudia

For the past month, the staff of NYC24.com has prowled the building's corridors, interviewed its inhabitants, photographed its many angles, explored its history — all with the hope of capturing the essence of this icon.

We come to the building from different lands and different perspectives. Claudia, a native of Paris, can't help but compare it to the Eiffel Tower, the structure that started the race to the sky. To Iwona, who is from Poland, the building brings to mind Palac Kultury i Nauki, the "palace of culture and science" in the middle of Warsaw. Franziska, Rachele and Michael came of age in the Empire State's long shadow. In Chinese, the words for Empire State Building connote power and might, says Fang, who hails from Beijing. Marta, of Panama, and Monideepa, of India, see the tower as a symbol of American capitalism. And to Leela, who grew up in Texas, Mexico and Spain, it's just there.

Deconstructing The Empire State Building is a special report of NYC24 (pronounced "N-Y-C-two-four"), a Web magazine that covers the people, places and things that make New York City unique. NYC24 is produced entirely by the students of the New Media Workshop at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

Other issues of the 2002 edition of NYC24 include: Making It (Feb. 8), Passage (Feb. 22), Solo (March 8) and Margin (April 5). Check them out!

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