I used to work on West 30th St., on the 11th floor, just a few blocks from the Empire State Building, and had a great view of the building from my window.
I found that the building had exactly the same effect on me - 10 to 15 times a day I'd find myself stopping work and looking out that window. Weird, huh - just like the Bermuda Triangle.
It was amazing during a thunderstorm - I've seen the building struck two or three times during the same storm - the angle from my window to the top of the building was near vertical, and so the lightning strikes looked foreshortened, because I was almost directly underneath them...