The Empire State Building’s colored lighting display, a highlight of New York City’s skyline, is carefully chosen and laboriously produced.

• The first two layers consist of 204 floodlights outside the 72nd and 81st floors.

• The third layer is made up of fluorescent tubes running up the building’s 203-foot spire.

• Electricians change the colors of the floodlights, and sometimes the fluorescents, by hand.

• The display totals about 250,000 watts.

• The building fields more than 100 requests a year for lighting displays. The choice is based on the occasion or cause, the exposure it will give the building and other factors.

• Displays recognize holidays, seasons, disease awareness, local institutions and events, and some other public occasions.

• Standing 1,454 feet, the Empire State Building is the tallest building in New York City and one of the 10 tallest in the world.

• It opened on May 1, 1931, after taking little more than a year to build.

• Some other Manhattan towers also feature changing colored lights, including the former Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. building on 23rd Street and Madison Avenue.