Michael Beneville's company, Beneville Studios, as design consultants worked jointly on the 10,000-square-foot square exhibition. He points out the displays incorporate not only visual but tactile, sonic and visceral elements.

Highlights of the galleries include a 1920s view of the site where the Waldorf-Astoria originally stood. The next room puts visitors in the midst of the original construction site. Videos show workers heating rivets and tossing them to co-workers who adhere steel beams in place. Using this process they built the 1454-foot-high skyscraper, which was the tallest building in the world at the time, in just 410 days. Squint/Opera created all the digital media throughout the exhibition. Cast sculptures of workers within the room invite selfies and social media posts.

The next space takes visitors to scenes from the first opening day of the Art Deco building. Another area highlights the modernization of the structure including its sustainability measures. As technology of elevators made skyscrapers possible, one section gives the history of Otis Elevator's work. The company installed the original elevators and also handled its 21st century updated renovations. Visitors experience a view of a simulated elevator shaft.

The building annually sees four million tourists, with traffic totaling 10 million people including the 100 floors of offices. The exhibition gives a glimpse into the tenant spaces—a not-for-tourists' look at the working side of the Empire State Building. Companies such as Shutterstock, Coty, JCDecaux, Citizen Watch Company, LinkedIn, HNTB, Agoda (Priceline), Human Rights Watch and Skanska lease in the building. Asking rents range from $68 per square foot on the lower floors to $75 per square foot on the upper floors, according to Cogent Realty Advisors.

The galleries continue with a 180-degree, 72-screen, video theater. Music and sound accompany 600 clips featuring the building in popular culture. The installation brings back familiar movies, commercials, TV programs, comics and video games. It provokes memories and nostalgia, incorporating music and sound to stir a visceral range of emotional fun, romance and adventure associated with the building.

The next space is dedicated to the building's ultimate adventure—King Kong's forever elevating it worldwide as a New York destination. The room leads to the final gallery presenting images of celebrities at the Observatory. A hall visually culminates at its end with David McCabe's 1964 photo of Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick reaching their arms up and out, extended before the Empire State Building.

The building is open 365 days a year from 8:00 am to 2:00 am. Tickets including the Observatory on the 86th floor and the new exhibition galleries start at $38 for adults and $32 for children.

The third phase of the project which will include the indoor viewing deck on the 102nd floor is scheduled to open in September.

Highlights of the second-floor exhibition galleries are in the slideshow above.