The approvals process for the Hoover Dam began in 1890 and construction started in 1931, there were a lot of unnecessary deaths, they had to go back and fix patchwork jobs years later, and they still had to build all of the interior to the dam so it could include hydroelectric power generation which was the entire point of the dam to begin with when they announced it completed.
The Empire State Building is a better example, but it still took unknown years of pre-planning and the design was essentially an existing design stretched taller to cut down the development time aong with using the existing foundation with added support. On top of that, the financing was so rocky that is bankrupted several people and businesses and didn’t break even until the 50s.
