{"id":175,"date":"2012-11-11T19:40:35","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T00:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/?p=175"},"modified":"2018-08-12T12:46:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-12T16:46:15","slug":"rockefeller-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/2012\/11\/11\/rockefeller-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockefeller Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"30Rock-Color\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rockefeller Center<\/strong>\u00a0is a complex of 19\u00a0commercial<\/a>\u00a0buildings covering 22 acres (89,000\u00a0m2) between 48th and 51st streets in\u00a0New York City<\/a>,\u00a0United States<\/a>. Built by the\u00a0Rockefeller family<\/a>, it is located in the center of\u00a0Midtown Manhattan<\/a>, spanning the area between\u00a0Fifth Avenue<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sixth Avenue<\/a>. It was declared a\u00a0National Historic Landmark<\/a>\u00a0in 1987.[2]<\/a>[3]<\/a>[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Rockefeller Center was named after\u00a0John D. Rockefeller, Jr.<\/a>, who leased the space from\u00a0Columbia University<\/a>\u00a0in 1928 and developed it from 1930. Rockefeller initially planned a syndicate to build an\u00a0opera house<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0Metropolitan Opera<\/a>\u00a0on the site but changed his mind after the stock market\u00a0crash of 1929<\/a>\u00a0and the Metropolitan’s continual delays to hold out for a more favorable lease, causing Rockefeller to move forward without them. Rockefeller stated “It was clear that there were only two courses open to me. One was to abandon the entire development. The other to go forward with it in the definite knowledge that I myself would have to build it and finance it alone.”\u00a0He took on the enormous project as the sole financier, on a 27-year lease\u00a0(with the option for three 21-year renewals for a total of 87 years) for the site from Columbia; negotiating a line of credit with the\u00a0Metropolitan Life Insurance Company<\/a>\u00a0and covering ongoing expenses through the sale of oil company stock. The initial cost of acquiring the space and razing some of the building and construction of the new building was an estimated $250,000,000 dollars; a staggering sum in 1930.<\/p>\n

It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times.\u00a0Construction of the 14 buildings in the\u00a0Art Deco<\/a>\u00a0style (without the original opera house proposal) began on May 17, 1930, and was completed in 1939. Principal builder, and “managing agent”, for the massive project was\u00a0John R. Todd<\/a>\u00a0and the principal architect was\u00a0Raymond Hood<\/a>, working with and leading three architectural firms, on a team that included a young\u00a0Wallace Harrison<\/a>, later to become the family’s principal architect and adviser to\u00a0Nelson Rockefeller<\/a>. The construction of the project employed over 40,000 people.<\/p>\n

\"Atlas30Rock\"<\/a><\/p>\n

30 Rock at\u00a0Night<\/em><\/p>\n

GE Building (RCA Building)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The centerpiece of Rockefeller Center is the 70-floor, 872-foot (266 m)\u00a0GE Building<\/a>\u00a0at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (“30 Rock”, also the name of a comedy\u00a0television show<\/a>) formerly known as the RCA Building \u2013 centered behind the sunken plaza. The building is the setting for the famous\u00a0Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper<\/a>\u00a0photograph, taken by\u00a0Charles C. Ebbets<\/a>\u00a0in 1932 of workers having lunch, sitting on a steel beam, without safety harnesses. The 840-foot (260\u00a0m) drop lies below.<\/p>\n

The building was renamed in the 1980’s after\u00a0General Electric<\/a>\u00a0(GE) re-acquired RCA, which it helped found in 1919. The famous\u00a0Rainbow Room<\/a>\u00a0club restaurant is located on the 65th floor; the Rockefeller family office covers the 54\u201356th floors. The\u00a0skyscraper<\/a>\u00a0is the headquarters of\u00a0NBC<\/a>\u00a0and houses most of the network’s New York studios, including 6A, former home of\u00a0Late Night with David Letterman<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Late Night with Conan O’Brien<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and current home of\u00a0The Dr. Oz Show<\/a><\/em>; 6B, home of\u00a0Late Night with Jimmy Fallon<\/a><\/em>; 8H, home of\u00a0Saturday Night Live<\/a><\/em>; plus the operations of\u00a0NBC News<\/a>,\u00a0MSNBC<\/a>\u00a0and local station WNBC. NBC currently owns the space it occupies in the building as a condominium arrangement.<\/p>\n

Unlike most other Art Deco towers built during the 1930s, the GE Building was constructed as a slab with a flat roof, where the Center’s newly renovated\u00a0observation deck<\/a>, the\u00a0Top of the Rock<\/em>\u00a0is located, which was first built in 1933. The $75 million makeover of the observation area was carried out by the Center’s owner, Tishman Speyer Properties and was finally completed in 2005. It spans from the 67\u201370th floors and includes a multimedia exhibition exploring the history of the Center. On the 70th floor, reached by both stairs and elevator, there is a 20-foot (6.1\u00a0m) wide viewing area, allowing visitors a unique 360-degree panoramic view of New York City.
\n<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

At the front of 30 Rock is the\u00a0Lower Plaza<\/em>, in the very center of the complex, which is reached from 5th Avenue through the\u00a0Channel Gardens<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Promenade<\/em>. The acclaimed sculptor\u00a0Paul Manship<\/a>\u00a0was commissioned in 1933 to create a masterwork (see below) to adorn the central axis, below the famed annual\u00a0Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree<\/a>, but all the other original plans to fill the space were abandoned over time. It wasn’t until Christmas Day in 1936 that the ice-skating rink was finally installed and the popular Center activity of ice-skating began.
\n<\/sup><\/p>\n

\"Prometheus\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Prometheus by Sculptor Paul Manship – 1933<\/em><\/p>\n

Center Art<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rockefeller Center represents a turning point in the history of architectural sculpture: it is among the last major building projects in the United States to incorporate a program of integrated public art. Sculptor\u00a0Lee Lawrie<\/a>\u00a0contributed the largest number of individual pieces \u2013 twelve \u2013 including the\u00a0statue of Atlas<\/a>\u00a0facing Fifth Avenue and the conspicuous\u00a0friezes<\/a>\u00a0above the main entrance to the RCA Building.<\/p>\n

Paul Manship<\/a>‘s highly recognizable bronze\u00a0gilded<\/a>\u00a0statue of the Greek legend of the Titan\u00a0Prometheus<\/a>\u00a0recumbent, bringing fire to mankind, features prominently in the sunken plaza at the front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The model for Prometheus was Leonardo (Leon) Nole, and the inscription from\u00a0Aeschylus<\/a>, on the granite wall behind, reads: “Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

(description: excerpts from Wikipedia)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"AtlasInTheRain\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Atlas in the rain…<\/em><\/p>\n

\"AtlasUP-B&W\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Atlas-B&W\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"30Rock_0022_B&W\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rockefeller Center\u00a0is a complex of 19\u00a0commercial\u00a0buildings covering 22 acres (89,000\u00a0m2) between 48th and 51st streets in\u00a0New York City,\u00a0United States. Built by the\u00a0Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of\u00a0Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between\u00a0Fifth Avenue\u00a0and\u00a0Sixth Avenue. It was declared a\u00a0National Historic Landmark\u00a0in 1987.[2][3][4] Rockefeller Center was named after\u00a0John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who leased the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5],"tags":[63,20,64,58,61,32,9,10,62,59,57,200,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulpiazzaarchitect.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}