As part of a $550 million capital improvement plan at the Empire State Building, renovation on the building’s observatory has begun with Aragon Construction of New York acting as General Contractor for the project, which began in late May. Along with JCJ Architecture of Hartford, Conn., Aragon is revamping the 86th floor observatory with completion scheduled for September 2010.

Refurbishment of the 950-sq-ft observatory deck will include both interior and exterior alterations such as the renovation of the granite flooring, the stone wainscoting wall surrounding the inner deck, and two, four-tier staircases. Aragon is also replacing the current glass work with double-hung, anodized windows which will increase the measure of thermal resistance and greatly reduce the amount of heat transference, increasing energy efficiency that is relative to heating and cooling the space. Minor touch-up work on the paint, tiles and signs will also be performed on the Welcome Landing of the observatory’s second floor.

Due to the high volume of tourists that visit the observatory every day, Alex Getelman, President of Aragon Construction said there will be minimal interruptions to the building’s daily operations during the construction process and that business will not be affected.

Other projects that Aragon has completed at the Empire State Building include the completion of a full 32,000 sq ft floor LEED build out for Brennan Beer Goman Architects/Brennan Beer Gorman Monk Interiors as well as a Starbucks, Taylor, Bank of America, Napoli Bern and several other large infrastructure projects.