The Chrysler Building, one of the most distinctive high-rises in Manhattan's skyline, will undergo a major renovation as part of a multi-million-dollar sale deal.

The skyscraper, opened in New York nearly 100 years ago, will see its Art Deco crown polished and restored during a refurbishment that will also restore the building's 77-storey façade.

Developer Tishman Speyer has taken over the lease from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a private college.

Tishman Speyer and its partners will invest $235m (£178m) in the project, as part of which it will upgrade the 61st floor, home to huge eagle gargoyles, and add an "upscale" lounge.

The developer plans to use most of the building, which is near Grand Central railway station, as office space. It is following what it calls a "prebuild approach" that will allow firms to move into their new premises quickly.

Tishman Speyer explained that the area "has one of the lowest office availability rates in Manhattan", adding: "Construction of new office supply in the neighbourhood has been virtually nonexistent for decades."

The renovation will include interior work, such as upgrades to the building's mechanical, elevator, electrical, and air-handling systems.

At 1,046ft (319m), the Chrysler Building was once the world's tallest building - before being usurped less than a year later by the nearby Empire State Building.

Financed by Walter Chrysler, the motor magnate, the skyscraper's construction began in 1928 and was completed two years later.

Architect William Van Alen modelled the eagle gargoyles on hood ornaments found on the 1929 Chrysler car.

The Cooper Union college, whose alumni include inventor Thomas Edison, has owned the land on which the Chrysler Building stands since 1902.

The land was bequeathed to it by the children of Peter Cooper, a manufacturer and industrialist who founded the college in 1859.

As part of the deal, Tishman Speyer will make ground lease payments to the Cooper Union, which the college wants to use to finance "a bold plan to restore full-tuition scholarships for all undergraduates".

Cooper Union's president Steven McLaughlin said: "The significance of this agreement is ultimately about what it makes possible for generations of Cooper Union students."