Hill Publishing Building at 475 Tenth Avenue, at the corner with 36th Street. With numerous acquisitions of other companies over the following decades, the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company found its existing space insufficient by the late 1920s. The twelve-story building at Tenth Avenue was expanded by an additional story and some freight elevators in that building were converted to passenger use. Even so, by 1929, employees of that building were being asked to walk up or down some flights rather than take the elevators. The same year, a committee was appointed to oversee the development of a new building. The new-building committee considered numerous sites on the area bounded clockwise from north by 47th Street, Second Avenue, 34th Street, and Ninth Avenue. The group identified Larkin's 42nd Street lot, as well as another lot at Eighth Avenue and 41st Street half a block east, as feasible sites. In May 1930, McGraw-Hill Companies bought the 47,500-square-foot Larkin site at 326–346 West 42nd Street and 327–345 West 41st Street. The Larkin site had been selected specifically for its convenience and relatively low price. McGraw-Hill intended for its skyscraper to accommodate both commercial and industrial uses, and much of Midtown Manhattan was not zoned for such a purpose. Furthermore, the site was near the major rail hubs at Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station; post offices; and the Engineering Societies' Building and Engineers' Club. Construction began on December 29, 1930, when the first rivet was driven by the publishing company's vice president James H. McGraw Jr. Starrett Brothers, the main contractor, hired about 800 construction workers for the project. Steelwork started immediately afterward. The company secured a $3.8 million loan to finance the building's construction a week after work started. Work progressed quickly and was nearly completed by June 1931; that month, twenty workers received awards for "superior craftsmanship". McGraw-Hill use McGraw-Hill's publishing division moved into the building by October 25, 1931. Six weeks later, the McGraw-Hill Book Company relocated from its longtime headquarters at 370 Seventh Avenue to the new building at 330 West 42nd Street. Construction had taken fourteen months from planning to completion. The building had initially been expected to cost $2.7 million but ran $642,000 over budget. As one of the tallest buildings in Hell's Kitchen at the time, the McGraw-Hill Building stood out from the rest of the neighborhood. The company had hoped that the building would be one