When the two partnership had dissolved Van Alen had an immense amount of trouble getting commissions on his own. Even so Alen still continued to attract attention from critics and other architects. .
At the end of the 20's time period, skyscrapers were becoming the most obvious direction to stardom for architects. In 1927 William Van Alen began that direction when William H. Reynolds, a real-estate speculator as famous as the impresario behind the Dreamland Park at Coney Island. Reynolds commissioned Alen to design a 40-story at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. . As Van Alen worked on the project Reynolds then sold the land to Walter P. Chrysler. Who then had Alen abandoned his original plans for the 40-story building. Instead Chrysler wanted the world's tallest skyscraper - a design that would spare no extravagance what so ever in catching the public's eye. From 1928-29 the original plans designed by Alen, evolved from a 40-story building topped with a pyramid crown to a building Byzantine dome. A multi-arched dome cut through with triangular windows, which allows the tower to reach for the sky. The dome is a stainless chromium-nickel facade which gave it the the appearance of steel suffused with starlight. The building design was announced and projected to have a height of 809 feet. Van Alen later learned his former design partner Severance had been hired George L. Ohrstrom. An investment banker developer, with the motive to build an even taller building - 840 feet just on 40th Wall Street. So with Van Alen response secretly within the building, he designed a needlelike spire to surmount the tower. He designed it to "one-up" the traditional art deco architectural style of the day. He felt the spire , the design exceeded the limits of the art deco. .
A derrick perched on the seventy-fourth floor raised five sections, biggest to smallest. Each section of the five would be tightened by rivets as the the tool derrick held it in place.
