Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...
complex in New York City was conceived as an
urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
project in the late 1920s, spearheaded by
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller.
He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...
to help revitalize
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
. Rockefeller Center is on one of
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
's former campuses and is bounded by
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...
to the east,
Sixth Avenue
Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...
(Avenue of the Americas) to the west, 48th Street to the south, and 51st Street to the north. The center occupies in total, with some of office space.
Columbia University had acquired the site in the early 19th century but had moved to
Morningside Heights
Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...
in
Upper Manhattan
Upper Manhattan is the most northern region of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, the northern boundary of Central Park ( 110th Street), ...
in the early 1900s. By the 1920s, Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan was a prime site for development. Around that time, the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
(Met) was looking for a new site for their opera house, and architect Benjamin Wistar Morris decided on the former Columbia site.
Rockefeller eventually became involved in the project and leased the Columbia site in 1928 for 87 years. The lease excluded land along the east side of Sixth Avenue to the west of the Rockefeller property, as well as at the site's southeast corner. He hired Todd, Robertson, and Todd as design consultants and selected the architectural firms of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux, and Reinhard & Hofmeister for the opera complex. However, the Met was unsure about moving there, and the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
put an end to the plans. Rockefeller instead entered into negotiations with the
Radio Corporation of America
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
(RCA) to create a mass-media complex on the site. A new plan was released in January 1930, and an update to the plan was presented after Rockefeller obtained a lease for the land along Sixth Avenue. Revisions continued until March 1931, when the current site design was unveiled. A late change to the proposal included a complex of internationally themed structures along Fifth Avenue.
All structures in the original complex were designed in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
architectural style. Excavation of the site started in April 1931, and construction began that September on the first buildings. The first edifice was opened in September 1932, and most of the complex was completed by 1935. The final three buildings were built between 1936 and 1940, although Rockefeller Center was officially completed by November 2, 1939. The construction project employed more than 40,000 people and was considered the largest private construction project at the time. It had cost the equivalent of $ billion in dollars to construct. Since then, there have been several modifications to the complex. An additional building at
75 Rockefeller Plaza
75 Rockefeller Plaza is a skyscraper on the north side of 51st Street in New York City, originally built as a northern extension to Rockefeller Center.
History
In July 1944, the Rockefellers began planning a new 16-story tower to house the St ...
was constructed in 1947, while another at
600 Fifth Avenue
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...
was constructed in 1952. Four towers were built along the west side of Sixth Avenue in the 1960s and 1970s, which was the most recent expansion of Rockefeller Center. The Center Theatre from the original complex was demolished in 1954.
Site
In 1686, much of Manhattan, including the future Rockefeller Center site, was established as a "common land" of the city of New York. The land remained in city ownership until 1801, when the physician
David Hosack
David Hosack (August 31, 1769 – December 22, 1835) was a noted American physician, botanist, and educator. He remains widely known as the doctor who tended to the fatal injuries of Alexander Hamilton after his duel with Aaron Burr in July 1 ...
, a member of the New York elite, purchased a parcel of land in what is now Midtown for $5,000, equivalent to $ in dollars. In terms of the present-day street grid, Hosack's land was bounded by 47th Street on the south, 51st Street on the north, and Fifth Avenue on the east, while the western boundary was slightly east of Sixth Avenue (also known as Avenue of the Americas). At the time, the land was sparsely occupied and consisted mostly of forest. Hosack opened the
Elgin Botanic Garden
The Elgin Botanic Garden was the first public botanical garden in the United States, established in 1801 by New York physician David Hosack. By 1810, Hosack was no longer able to fund the garden's expenses, and sold the land to the State of New Yo ...
, the country's first public
botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
, on the site in 1804. The garden would operate until 1811, when Hosack put the land on sale for $100,000 (). As no one was willing to buy the land, the New York State Legislature eventually bought the land for $75,000 ().
In 1814, the trustees of
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(then Columbia College) were looking to the state legislature for funds when the legislature unexpectedly gave Hosack's former land to the college instead. The gardens became part of Columbia's "Upper Estate" (as opposed to the "Lower Estate" in
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
), on the condition that the college move its entire campus to the Upper Estate by 1827. Although the relocation requirement was repealed in 1819, Columbia's trustees did not see the land as "an attractive or helpful gift", so the college let the gardens deteriorate. The area would not become developed until the 1830s, and the land's value did not increase to any meaningful amount until the late 1850s, when St. Patrick's Cathedral was built nearby, spurring a wave of development in the area. Ironically, the cathedral was built in that location because it faced the Upper Estate gardens. By 1860, the Upper Estate contained four
row house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...
s below 49th Street as well as a wooden building across from the cathedral. The surrounding area was underdeveloped, with a
potter's field
A potter's field, paupers' grave or common grave is a place for the burial of unknown, unclaimed or indigent people. "Potter's field" is of Biblical origin, referring to Akeldama (meaning ''field of blood'' in Aramaic), stated to have been pu ...
and the railroad lines from
Grand Central Depot
Grand Central Terminal is a major commuter rail terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, serving the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines. It is the most recent of three functionally similar buildings on the same ...
to the east.
Columbia built a new campus near its Upper Estate in 1856, selling a plot at Fifth Avenue and 48th Street to the St. Nicholas Church to pay for construction. Shortly afterward, Columbia implemented height restrictions that prevented any taller buildings, such as apartment blocks or commercial and industrial buildings, from being built on its property. Narrow
brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.
Type ...
houses and expensive "Vanderbilt Colony" mansions were built on nearby streets, and the area became synonymous with wealth. By 1879, there were brownstones on every one of the 203 plots in the Upper Estate, which were all owned by Columbia.
The construction of the Sixth Avenue elevated line in the 1870s made it easy to access commercial and industrial areas elsewhere in Manhattan. However, the line also drastically reduced property values because the elevated structure obstructed views from adjacent properties, and because the trains on the structure caused noise pollution. Columbia sold the southernmost block of its Midtown property in 1904, using the $3 million from the sale (equivalent to $ million in ) to pay for newly acquired land in
Morningside Heights
Morningside Heights is a neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Morningside Drive to the east, 125th Street to the north, 110th Street to the south, and Riverside Drive to the west. Morningside ...
even further uptown, to replace its Lower Estate. Simultaneously, the low-lying houses along Fifth Avenue were being replaced with taller commercial developments, and the widening of the avenue between 1909 and 1914 contributed to this transition. Columbia also stopped enforcing its height restriction, which Okrent describes as a tactical mistake for the college because the wave of development along Fifth Avenue caused the Upper Estate to become available for such redevelopment. Since the leases on the Upper Estate row houses were being allowed to expire without renewal, the university's real estate adviser John Tonnele was tasked with finding suitable tenants, who could net the university more profit than what the row houses' occupants were currently paying.
Early plans
New Metropolitan Opera House
In 1926, the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
(Met) started looking for locations to build a new
opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets.
While some venues are constructed specifically for o ...
to replace its existing building at 39th Street and Broadway. This was not a new effort, as
Otto Kahn
Otto Hermann Kahn (February 21, 1867 – March 29, 1934) was a German-born American investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. Kahn was a well-known figure, appearing on the cover of ''Time'' magazine and was sometime ...
, the Met's president, had been seeking to erect a new opera house since he assumed the position in 1908. However, the Met did not itself have money to fund the new facility, and Kahn's efforts to solicit funding from R. Fulton Cutting, the wealthy and influential
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...
president, were unsuccessful. Cutting did support the 1926 proposal for a new building, as did
William Kissam Vanderbilt
William Kissam "Willie" Vanderbilt I (December 12, 1849 – July 22, 1920) was an American heir, businessman, philanthropist and horsebreeder. Born into the Vanderbilt family, he managed his family's railroad investments.
Early life
William Kiss ...
Joseph Urban
Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872 – July 10, 1933) was an Austrian-American architect, illustrator, and scenic designer.
Life and career
Joseph Urban was born on May 26, 1872, in Vienna. He received his first architectural commission at age 19 wh ...
to come up with designs for the opera house. They created three designs, all of which the Met rejected.
Kahn wanted the opera house to be on a relatively cheap piece of land near a busy theater and retail area, with access to transportation. In January 1928, Tonnele approached Cutting to propose the Upper Estate as a possible location for the Met. Cutting told of Tonnele's idea to Morris, who thought that the Columbia grounds in Midtown were ideal for the new opera house. By early 1928, Morris had created blueprints for an opera house and a surrounding retail complex at the Upper Estate. However, the new building was too expensive for the Met to fund by itself, and it needed an endowment. On May 21, 1928, Morris presented the project during a dinner for potential investors, at which the
Rockefeller family
The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brothe ...
's public relations adviser
Ivy Lee
Ivy Ledbetter Lee (July 16, 1877 – November 9, 1934) was an American publicity expert and a founder of modern public relations. Lee is best known for his public relations work with the Rockefeller Family.
His first major client was the Penns ...
was a guest. Lee later informed his boss,
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist, and the only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller.
He was involved in the development of the vast office complex in M ...
, about the proposal, in which the latter showed interest. Rockefeller wished to give the site serious consideration before he invested, and he did not want to fund the entire project on his own. As a result, in August 1928, Rockefeller contacted several firms for advice. Rockefeller ended up hiring the Todd, Robertson and Todd Engineering Corporation as design consultants to determine the project's viability, with one of the firm's partners, John R. Todd, to serve as the principal builder and managing agent for the project. Todd submitted a plan for the opera house site in September 1928, in which he proposed constructing office buildings, department stores, apartment buildings, and hotels around the new opera house.
In June 1928, Charles O. Heydt, one of Rockefeller's business associates, met with Kahn to discuss the proposed opera house. After the meeting, Heydt purchased land just north of the proposed opera house site as per Rockefeller's request, but for a different reason: Rockefeller was afraid that many of the landmarks of his childhood, in the area, were going to be demolished by the 1920s wave of development. The writer
Daniel Okrent
Daniel Okrent (born April 2, 1948) is an American writer and editing, editor. He is best known for having served as the first public editor of ''The New York Times'' newspaper, inventing Rotisserie League Baseball, and for writing several books ( ...
states that Rockefeller's acquisition of the land might have been more for the family name rather than for the Met proposal itself, as Rockefeller never mentioned the details of the proposal in his daily communications with his father,
John D. Rockefeller Sr.
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
In mid-1928, the Met and Rockefeller were named as prospective buyers for the Columbia site. A lease was agreed to in late 1928 and signed on December 31 of that year. Columbia leased the parcel to Rockefeller for 87 years at a cost of over $3 million per year (equivalent to $ million in ), thereby allowing all the existing leases on the site to expire by November 1931 so Rockefeller could purchase them. Rockefeller would pay $3.6 million per year (equivalent to $ million in ). In return, he would be entitled to the income from the property, which at the time was about $300,000 annually (equivalent to $ million in ). This consisted of a 27-year lease for the site from Columbia, with the option for three 21-year renewals, such that the lease could theoretically last until 2015. (The lease was renewed in 1953 and 1973, and Columbia sold the land to Rockefeller Center Inc. in 1985.) Moreover, Rockefeller could avoid any rent increases for forty-five years, adjusted for inflation. The lease did not include the strip of land bordering Sixth Avenue on the west side of the parcel, as well as St. Nicholas Church's property on Fifth Avenue between 48th and 49th Streets, and so these were excluded from the plans. Simultaneous with the signing of the lease, the
Metropolitan Square Corporation
Rockefeller Group is an American private company based in New York City, primarily involved in real estate operations in the United States and it is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Estate Co. The company began with the development of Rockefeller Cent ...
was created to oversee construction.
Architects
In October 1928, before the lease had been finalized, Rockefeller started asking for recommendations for architects. By the end of the year, Rockefeller hosted a "symposium" of architectural firms so he could solicit plans for the new complex. He invited seven firms, six of which specialized in
Beaux-Arts architecture
Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorpora ...
, and asked the noted Beaux-Arts architects
John Russell Pope
John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an American architect whose firm is widely known for designing major public buildings, including the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 1935), the Jeffe ...
,
Cass Gilbert
Cass Gilbert (November 24, 1859 – May 17, 1934) was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas and We ...
, and Milton B. Medary to judge the proposals. Rockefeller requested that all the plans be submitted by February 1929, and the blueprints were presented in May of that year. All of the proposals called for rentable space of , but these plans were so eccentric that the board rejected all of them. For the time being, Morris was retained until a more suitable architect could be found. However, by the end of 1928, Morris had been fired without pay. He was eventually paid $50,000 for his contributions to the project, and many of his ideas were included in the final design.
Rockefeller retained Todd, Robertson and Todd as the developers of the proposed opera house site; and, as a result, Todd stepped down from the Metropolitan Square Corporation's board of directors. In October 1929, Todd appointed Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray; Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux; and Reinhard & Hofmeister to design the buildings. They worked under the umbrella of "Associated Architects" so that none of the buildings could be attributed to any specific firm. The lead architect and foremost member of the Associated Architects was
Raymond Hood
Raymond Mathewson Hood (March 29, 1881 – August 14, 1934) was an American architect who worked in the Neo-Gothic and Art Deco styles. He is best known for his designs of the Tribune Tower, American Radiator Building, and Rockefeller Center. Thr ...
, who would become memorable for his creative designs. Hood and
Harvey Wiley Corbett
Harvey Wiley Corbett (January 8, 1873 – April 21, 1954) was an American architect primarily known for skyscraper and office building designs in New York and London, and his advocacy of tall buildings and modernism in architecture.
Early life ...
were retained as consultants. The team also included
Wallace Harrison
Wallace Kirkman Harrison (September 28, 1895 – December 2, 1981) was an American architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He i ...
, who would later become the family's principal architect and adviser to John Rockefeller Jr.'s son
Nelson
Nelson may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey
* ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers
* ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
. Hood, Morris, and Corbett were the consultants on "architectural style and grouping", although Morris was in the process of being fired. Todd also hired L. Andrew Reinhard and
Henry Hofmeister
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
as rental or tenant architects, to design the floor plans for the complex, and who were known as the most pragmatic of the Associated Architects. Hood, Corbett, Harrison, Reinhard, and Hofmeister were generally considered to be the principal architects. They mostly communicated with Todd, Robertson and Todd, rather than with Rockefeller himself.
Hugh Ferriss
Hugh Macomber Ferriss (July 12, 1889 – January 28, 1962) was an American architect, illustrator, and poet. He was associated with exploring the psychological condition of modern urban life, a common cultural enquiry of the first decades of ...
and John Wenrich were hired as "architectural renderers", to produce drawings of the proposed buildings based on the Associated Architects' blueprints.
Rene Paul Chambellan
Rene Paul Chambellan (September 15, 1893 – November 29, 1955) was an American sculptor who specialized in architectural sculpture. He was also one of the foremost practitioners of what was then called the "French Modern Style" and has subseque ...
was commissioned to sculpt the models of the buildings, and he would later also create some of the art for the center.
Original plan and failure
The Metropolitan Opera was reluctant to commit to the development, and they refused to take up the site's existing leases until they were certain that they had enough money to do so. In January 1929, Cutting unsuccessfully asked Rockefeller for assistance in buying the leases. Since the Met would not have any funds until after they sold their existing building by April, Heydt suggested that the Metropolitan Square Corporation buy the leases instead, in case the Met ultimately did not have money to relocate. The Met felt that the cost of the new opera house would far exceed the potential profits. They wanted to sell their existing facility and move into the proposed new opera house by 1931, which meant that all existing leases would need to be resolved by May 1930. Otherwise, the new opera house could not be mortgaged, and Columbia would regain possession of the land, which would be a disadvantage for both the Met and Rockefeller.
In August 1929, Rockefeller created a
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
to purchase the strip of land on Sixth Avenue that he did not already lease, so he could construct a larger building on the site and maximize his profits. The company was called the Underel Holding Corporation because the land in question was under the Sixth Avenue Elevated.
By October 1929, Todd announced a new proposal that differed greatly from Morris's original plan. Todd suggested that the site's three blocks be further subdivided into eight lots, with an "Opera Plaza" in the middle of the center block. The complex would contain the Metropolitan Opera facility; a retail area with two 25-story buildings; department stores; two apartment buildings; and two hotels, with one rising 37 stories and the other being 35 stories. The Met's opera house would have been on the center block between 49th and 50th Streets east of Sixth Avenue. The retail center would be built around or to the west of the opera building. According to one ''New York Times'' account, the shops in the Metropolitan Opera development would be laid out in a way similar to that of the retail center in the English city of
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
.
The main hurdle to the plan was the Met's reluctance to commit to the development by buying leases from existing tenants and handing the leases over to Columbia. Rockefeller stood to lose $100,000 per year (equivalent to $ million in ) if he leased the new opera house. Todd had objected that the opera house would be a blight rather than a benefit for the neighborhood, as it would be closed most of the time. After the stock market
crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, these concerns were mooted: the opera could no longer afford to move. The Met instead suggested that Rockefeller finance their relocation by purchasing a half-interest in the old opera house and the land under it, an offer that he refused. On December 6, 1929, the plans for the new opera house were abandoned completely.
mass media
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information ...
entertainment complex on the site. This was achievable because Wallace Harrison was good friends with Julian Street, a ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' reporter whose wife's great-uncle Edward Harden was part of the RCA board of directors. At Hood's request, Harrison made a lunch date to tell Street about the mass-media complex proposal. Harden, in turn, described the idea to RCA's founder
Owen D. Young
Owen D. Young (October 27, 1874July 11, 1962) was an American industrialist, businessman, lawyer and diplomat at the Second Reparations Conference (SRC) in 1929, as a member of the German Reparations International Commission.
He is known for t ...
, who was amenable to the suggestion. It turned out that Young, a longtime friend of Rockefeller's, had been thinking of constructing a "Radio City" for RCA for several years, even as the company was already in the process of developing a new building on Lexington Avenue. Rockefeller later 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."
In January 1930, Rockefeller tasked
Raymond Fosdick
Raymond Blaine Fosdick (9 June 1883 - 19 July 1972) was an American lawyer, public administrator and author. He served as the president of the Rockefeller Foundation for twelve years (1936-1948). He was an ardent internationalist and supporter of ...
, the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
's future head, with scheduling a meeting with Young. The RCA founder was enthusiastic about the project, expressing his vision for a complex that, according to Daniel Okrent, contained "an opera house, a concert hall, a Shakespeare theater—and both broadcast studios and office space for RCA and its affiliated companies". RCA president
David Sarnoff
David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971) was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career, he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities from shortly afte ...
would join the negotiations in early 1930. Sarnoff immediately recognized Radio City's potential to affect the fledgling television and radio industries. By May, RCA and its affiliates had made an agreement with Rockefeller Center managers. RCA would lease of studio space; get naming rights to the development's largest tower; and develop four theaters, at a cost of $4.25 million per year (equivalent to $ million in ). NBC was assured exclusive broadcasting rights at Rockefeller Center as part of the deal.
RCA media complex proposals
In January, Todd released a new plan called G-3. Like the previous Metropolitan Opera proposal, this plan subdivided the complex into eight blocks with a plaza in the middle of the center block. It was similar to his October 1929 plan for the Met, with one major change: the opera house was replaced with a 50-story building. The 50-story tower was included because its larger floor area would provide large profits, and its central location was chosen because Todd believed that the center of the complex was too valuable to waste on low-rise buildings. Plans for a new Metropolitan Opera building on the site were still being devised, including one proposal to place an office building over the opera facility. However, this was seen as increasingly unlikely due to the Met's reluctance to move to the complex. A proposal to create roads that crossed the complex diagonally was briefly considered, but it was dropped because it involved decommissioning city streets, which could only be done after lengthy discussions with city officials. Plan G-3 was presented to the Metropolitan Square Corporation's managers in February. At the time, Todd thought that G-3 was the most viable proposal for the complex.
Another plan called H-1 was revealed in March 1930, after the Underel Corporation had acquired the land near Sixth Avenue. The leases for the newly acquired land contained specific stipulations on how it was to be used. Under this new proposal, there would be facilities for "television, music, radio, talking pictures and plays". RCA planned to build theaters on the north and south blocks near Sixth Avenue, with office buildings above the theaters' Sixth Avenue sides. The theater entrances would be built to the west along Sixth Avenue, and the auditoriums would be to the east, since the city's building code prohibited the erection of structures over the auditoriums of theaters. The delivery lane was eliminated in this plan, as it was perceived as unnecessary: the theaters would only see occasional deliveries. The complex would also contain three tall buildings in the center of each block, including a 60-story building in the center block for RCA (the current
30 Rockefeller Plaza
30 Rockefeller Plaza (officially the Comcast Building; formerly RCA Building and GE Building) is a skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1933, the 66 ...
). Todd suggested that this large tower be placed on Sixth Avenue because the Sixth Avenue Elevated would reduce the value of any other properties at the west end of the complex. On Fifth Avenue there would be a short oval-shaped retail building, whose top floors would be occupied by
Chase National Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Trade name, doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the retail banking, consumer and commercial bank, commercial banking subsidiar ...
offices. There would be a plaza between the oval building and RCA's building, and a restaurant atop the former. A transcontinental bus terminal would be built underground to entice tenants who might otherwise rent near Penn Station or Grand Central.
Plan H-1 was approved in June 1930. In the middle of the month, ''The New York Times'' announced the plans for the "Radio City" project between 48th Street, 51st Street, Fifth Avenue, and Sixth Avenue. Additional details were released: for example, the $200 million cost projection for the three skyscrapers (equivalent to $ billion in ). To provide space for the plaza, 49th and 50th streets would be covered over, and there would be parking structures both above- and underground, while the streets surrounding the project would be widened to accommodate the heavy traffic. Four theaters would also be built: two small theaters for television, comedy, and drama; a larger one for movies; and another theater, larger still, for
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
. Under the plan, the demolition of the site's existing structures would start later in the year, and the complex would be complete by 1933. This plan had not been disclosed to the general public prior to the announcement, and even John Rockefeller Jr. was surprised by the $350 million cost estimate (equivalent to $ billion in ), since a private project of this size was unprecedented.
Since Rockefeller had invested large sums of money in the stock market, his wealth declined sharply as a result of the 1929 stock market crash. In September 1930, Rockefeller and Todd started looking for funding to construct the buildings; and by November they secured a tentative funding agreement with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. In March 1931, this agreement was made official, with Metropolitan Life agreeing to lend $65 million (equivalent to $ million in ) to the Rockefeller Center Development Corporation. Metropolitan Life's president Frederick H. Ecker granted the money on two conditions: that no other entity would grant a loan to the complex, and that Rockefeller
co-sign
A loan guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party (the guarantor) to assume the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. A guarantee can be limited or unlimited, making the guarantor liable for only a portion or all of the d ...
the loan so that he would be responsible for paying it off if the development corporation defaulted. Rockefeller covered ongoing expenses through the sale of oil company stock. Other estimates placed Radio City's cost at $120 million (equivalent to $ billion in ) based on plan H-16, released in August 1930, or $116.3 million (equivalent to $ billion in ) based on plan F-18, released in November 1930.
Design influences
The design of the complex was affected greatly by the 1916 Zoning Resolution, which restricted the height that street-side exterior walls of New York City buildings could rise before they needed to incorporate setbacks that recessed the buildings' exterior walls from the streets. Although the 66-story RCA Building was so far from the street that it could have simply risen as a slab without any setbacks, Hood decided to include setbacks anyway because they represented "a sense of future, a sense of energy, a sense of purpose", according to architecture expert
Alan Balfour
Alan Balfour (born 1939 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is the former dean of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture. He has also held research and/or faculty positions at MIT, Rice University, Architectural Association School of Architecture, and Rens ...
. A subsequent change to the zoning resolution in 1931, shortly after the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...
opened, increased the maximum speed of New York City buildings' elevators from to , ostensibly as a result of lobbying from the Rockefeller family. This allowed Rockefeller Center's designers to reduce the number of elevators in the complex's buildings, especially the RCA Building. Originally, the elevators were supposed to be installed by the
Otis Elevator Company
Otis Worldwide Corporation (trade name, branded as the Otis Elevator Company, its former legal name) is an American company that develops, manufactures and markets elevators, escalators, moving walkways, and related equipment.
Based in Farming ...
, but
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
got the contract after agreeing to move into the RCA Building. This turned out to be a financially sound decision for Rockefeller Center, since Westinghouse's elevators functioned better than Otis's.
Hood and Corbett suggested some plans that were eccentric by the standards of the time. One plan entailed the construction of a massive pyramid spanning all three blocks; this was later downsized to a small retail pyramid, which evolved into the oval retail building. Another plan included a system of vehicular ramps and bridges across the complex. In July 1930, Hood and Corbett briefly discussed the possibility of constructing the entire complex as a superblock with promenades leading from the RCA Building. This suggestion was not considered further because, as with the diagonal-streets plan, it would have involved decommissioning streets. Eventually, all of the plans were streamlined into a more traditional design, with narrow rectangular slabs, set back from the street, on all of the blocks. Hood created a guideline that all of the office space in the complex would be no more than from a window, which was the maximum distance that sunlight could directly penetrate the interior of a building at New York City's latitude. At the time, air-conditioned office buildings were rare, and the sunlit offices provided comfortable accommodations, as opposed to offices in many older buildings, which were dark and cramped.
Plan F-18
During late 1930 and early 1931, the plans were revised and streamlined. March 1931 saw the announcement of Plan F-18, which called for an International Music Hall (now Radio City Music Hall) and its 31-story office building annex to occupy the northernmost of the three blocks, between 50th and 51st streets. The 66-story RCA Building would be on the central block's western half, between 49th and 50th streets, and would house RCA and NBC offices as well as broadcasting studios. The oval-shaped retail complex would occupy the block's eastern half, with a
rooftop garden
A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational oppo ...
. A RKO-operated sound theater would be in the southernmost block between 48th and 49th streets. In the center of Radio City would be a new three-block-long private street running between Fifth and Sixth avenues, with a concave plaza at the midpoint. The complex would also include space for a future Metropolitan Opera venue on the northernmost block. An underground pedestrian shopping mall, which would be above the underground bus terminal, was also added in this plan. The complex would include 28,000 windows and more than of structural steel, according to the builders. It would cost $250 million.
For the first time, a scale rendering of the proposed complex was presented to the public. The rendering was much criticized, with some taking issue with details or general dimensions of the as-yet-unconfirmed proposal, and others lambasting the location of the tall skyscrapers around the plaza. Daniel Okrent writes that "almost everyone" hated the updated plans. The renowned architectural scholar
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a wr ...
went into exile in
upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
specifically because the "weakly conceived, reckless, romantic chaos" of the plans for Rockefeller Center had violated his sense of style. Mumford's commentary provoked a wave of blunt, negative criticism from private citizens; newspapers, such as the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
''; and architects, including both
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
and Ralph Adams Cram, whose styles were diametrically opposed to each other. ''The New York Times'' took note of the "universal condemnation" of the proposal, and after the complex's architects changed their plans in response to the criticism, the ''Times'' stated, "It is cheering to learn that the architects and builders of Radio City have been stirred by the public criticism of their plans." Despite the controversy over the complex's design, Rockefeller retained the Associated Architects for his project.
Updated retail building and garden plans
The oval-shaped retail building on Fifth Avenue between 49th and 50th streets was criticized for not fitting in with the rest of Fifth Avenue's architecture, with critics referring to the proposed building as an "oilcan". The original plan had been for two retail buildings, but was changed to one in response to Chase National Bank's request for a single building. However, the oval building was scrapped in early 1931, after Chase could not win exclusive banking rights at the building's location. An updated plan, F-19, restored two smaller 6-story retail buildings to the site of the oval building, and proposed a new 40-story tower for a nearby site. These buildings not only would provide retail space but also would fit in with Fifth Avenue's architecture.
In the new plan, an oval-shaped central plaza would be recessed below ground level, with plantings surrounding a large central fountain. A wide, planted
esplanade
An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...
, between 50th and 51st streets, would lead pedestrians from Fifth Avenue, on the east, to the plaza and to the RCA Building to the west, with steps leading down to the plaza. The western side of the plaza would lead directly to the underground pedestrian mall. A replica of
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...
'
Horseshoe Falls
Horseshoe Falls is the largest of the three waterfalls that collectively form Niagara Falls on the Niagara River along the Canada–United States border. Approximately 90% of the Niagara River, after diversions for hydropower generation, flows ...
would also be built above a
reflecting pool
A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a reflective surface.
Design
Reflecting pools are ...
, while ivy would be planted on the outside of some of the buildings. In a June 1932 revision to the plan, the proposed plaza's shape was changed to a rectangle, and the fountain was moved to the western side of the plaza. The sculptor
Paul Manship
Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885 – January 28, 1966) was an American sculptor. He consistently created mythological pieces in a classical style, and was a major force in the Art Deco movement. He is well known for his large public com ...
was then hired to create a sculpture to place on top of the fountain; his bronze ''
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...
'' statue was installed on the site in 1934.
As a concession for the loss of the rooftop gardens planned for the oval building, Hood suggested that all of the complex's setbacks below the 16th floor be covered with gardens. Hood thought this was the cheapest way to make the buildings look attractive, with a cost estimate of $250,000 to $500,000 (about $ to $ million in ) that could pay for itself if the gardens were made into botanical gardens. Hood proposed a three-tiered arrangement, inspired by a similar plan of
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
. The lowest tier would be at ground level; the middle tier would be atop the retail buildings' low-lying roofs and the skyscrapers' setbacks; and the highest tier would be at the tops of the skyscrapers. A March 1932 update to the rooftop garden proposal also included two ornately decorated bridges that would connect the complex's three blocks, though the bridge plan was later dismissed due to its high cost. Ultimately, only seven disconnected gardens would be built.
Since American tenants were reluctant to rent in the retail buildings, Rockefeller Center's manager Hugh Robertson, formerly of Todd, Robertson and Todd, suggested foreign tenants for the buildings. They held talks with prospective Czech, German, Italian, and Swedish lessees who could potentially occupy the six-story internationally themed buildings on Fifth Avenue, although it was reported that Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian tenancies were also considered. The first themed building that was agreed on was the British Empire Building, the more southerly of the two buildings, which would host governmental and commercial ventures of the United Kingdom. In February 1932, French tenants agreed to occupy the British Empire Building's twin to the north, La Maison Française. A department store and 30-story building (later changed to 45 stories) were planned for the block to the north of the twin buildings, between 50th and 51st streets, with the department store portion facing Fifth Avenue. A "final" layout change to that block occurred in June, when the department store was replaced by the tower's two retail wings, which would be nearly identical to the twin retail buildings to their south. The two new retail buildings, connected to each other, and to the main tower, with a galleria, were proposed to serve Italian, and possibly also German, interests upon completion.
Theaters
Out of the four theaters included in plan , of March 1930, the city only approved the construction of two; and thus, only these two theaters were constructed. Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel, a successful theater operator who was renowned for his dominance of the city's theater industry, joined the center's advisory board in 1930. He offered to build two theaters: a large, vaudeville "International Music Hall", on the northernmost block, with more than 6,200 seats; and the smaller, 3,500-seat "RKO Roxy" movie theater on the southernmost block. The idea for these theaters was inspired by Roxy's failed expansion of the 5,920-seat Roxy Theatre on 50th Street, one-and-a-half blocks away. Roxy also envisioned an elevated promenade between the two theaters, but this was never published in any of the official blueprints. Meanwhile, proposals for a Metropolitan Opera House on the site persisted. Official plans for a facility to the east of the RKO Roxy were filed in April 1932; the projected 4,042-seat opera facility would contain features such as a second-floor esplanade extending across 50th Street. However, the Met was unable to fund such a move, so the proposed new opera house was relegated to tentative status.
In September 1931, a group of NBC managers and architects toured Europe to find performers and look at theater designs. However, the group did not find any significant architectural details that they could use in the Radio City theaters. In any case, Roxy's friend Peter B. Clark turned out to have much more innovative designs for the proposed theaters than the Europeans did. The Music Hall was designed by architect
Edward Durell Stone
Edward Durell Stone (March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978) was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. His works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, the Museo de A ...
and interior designer
Donald Deskey
Donald Sidney Deskey (November 23, 1894 – April 29, 1989) was an American industrial designer.
Biography
Donald Sidney Deskey was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota. He studied architecture at the University of California, but did not follow th ...
in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style. Eugene Schoen was selected to design the RKO Roxy.
Pedestrian mall
In December 1931, the Rockefeller Center Corporation put forth its expanded plans for the underground pedestrian mall. It would now include a series of
people mover
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...
tunnels, similar to the U.S. Capitol subway, which would link the complex to locations such as
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
and
Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals.
Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to
Current train stations
* Baltimore Penn Station
* Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...
. A smaller, scaled-down version of the plan was submitted to the
New York City Board of Estimate
The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments effec ...
in October 1933. The plan included two vehicular tunnels to carry 49th and 50th streets underneath the entire complex, as well as a subterranean pedestrian mall connecting the buildings in the complex. Additionally, a system of pedestrian passages would be underground, and a sunken lower plaza would connect to the mall via a wide concourse under the RCA Building. The complex-wide vehicular tunnels were not built; instead, a truck ramp from ground level to the underground delivery rooms was built at 50th Street.
Unbuilt Metropolitan Avenue
An unfulfilled revision to the plan was submitted in May 1931, when Benjamin Wistar Morris, the architect of the original Opera proposal, proposed enhancing the complex's private passageway into a public "Metropolitan Avenue", which would run from 42nd to 59th streets. The avenue would break up the distance between Fifth and Sixth avenues, which was the longest gap between two numbered avenues in Manhattan. This was not a new proposal, as Mayor
William Jay Gaynor
William Jay Gaynor (February 2, 1849 – September 10, 1913) was an American politician from New York City, associated with the Tammany Hall political machine. He served as the 94th mayor of the City of New York from 1910 to 1913, and previously ...
had posited a similar avenue from 34th to 59th Streets in 1910, and Wistar himself had proposed the avenue in 1928 or 1929. If built, Metropolitan Avenue would have facilitated traffic through Rockefeller Center, in a manner similar to how
Vanderbilt Avenue
Vanderbilt Avenue is the name of three thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island. They were named after Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), the builder of Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan.
Br ...
between
Madison Madison may refer to:
People
* Madison (name), a given name and a surname
* James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States
Place names
* Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...
and
Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...
s had assisted traffic flow around nearby
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
. Ultimately, only the section between 48th and 51st streets was built; it now comprises
Rockefeller Plaza
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...
, a pedestrian street.
Art program
Both Raymond Hood and John Todd believed that the center needed visual enhancement besides the rooftop gardens. Initially, Todd had only planned to allocate about $150,000 toward the building's art program, but Rockefeller wanted artworks that had meaningful purposes rather than purely aesthetic ones. In November 1931, Todd suggested the creation of a program for placing distinctive artworks within each of the buildings.
Hartley Burr Alexander
Hartley Burr Alexander, PhD (1873–1939), was an American philosopher, writer, educator, scholar, poet, and iconographer.
Family and early years
Alexander was born in Syracuse, Nebraska, on April 9, 1873. His father, the Rev. George Sherman Alexa ...
, a noted mythology and symbology professor, was tasked with planning the complex's arts installations. Alexander submitted his plan for the site's artwork in December 1932. As part of the proposal, the complex would have a variety of sculptures, statues, murals, friezes, decorative fountains, and mosaics. Expanding upon Hood's setback-garden plan, Alexander's proposal also included rooftop gardens atop all the buildings, which would create a " Babylonian garden" when viewed from above.
At first, Alexander suggested "
Homo faber
''Homo faber'' () is the concept that human beings are able to control their fate and their environment as a result of the use of tools.
Original phrase
In Latin literature, Appius Claudius Caecus uses this term in his ''Sententiæ'', refer ...
, Man the Maker" as the complex's overarching theme, representing satisfaction with one's occupation rather than with the wage. However, that theme was not particularly well received by the architects, so Alexander proposed another theme, the "New Frontiers"; this theme dealt with social and scientific innovations and represented the challenges that humanity faced "after the conquest of the physical world". In theory, this was considered a fitting theme, but Alexander had been so specific about the details of the necessary artworks that it limited the creative license for any artists who would execute such works. Alexander had created a 32-page paper that explained exactly what needed to be done for each artwork, with some of the key themes underlined in all caps, giving the paper "a tone more Martian than human", according to Okrent. In March 1932, Alexander was fired and replaced with a panel of five artists. The panel agreed on the current theme, "The March of Civilization", but by that point some of the art of previous themes had already been commissioned, including the works that Alexander had proposed.
The process of commissioning art for Rockefeller Center was complicated. Each building's architects would suggest some artwork. Todd would eliminate all of the unconventional proposals, and Rockefeller had the final say on many of the works. There were many locations that needed art commissioned, which prevented any specific artistic style from dominating the complex. Specialists from around the world were retained for the art program: for instance,
Edward Trumbull
Edward Trumbull (1884 1968) was an American painter known primarily as a muralist.
Biography
Edward Trumbull was born in Michigan and raised in Stonington, Connecticut. He studied at the Art Students League in New York City.
He next worked in ...
coordinated the colors of the works inside the buildings, and
Léon-Victor Solon
Léon-Victor Solon (17 April 1873 – 27 December 1957), son of ceramist Marc-Louis Solon, was an English painter, ceramist, and graphic artist. He was a purveyor of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles and an important Modern Style (British Art Nou ...
did the same job for the exterior pieces.
Gaston Lachaise
Gaston Lachaise (March 19, 1882 – October 18, 1935) was a French-born sculptor, active in the early 20th century. A native of Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 re ...
, a renowned painter of female nudes, executed the commission for six uncontroversial bas-reliefs for Rockefeller Center, four at the front of 1230 Avenue of the Americas (RCA Building West) and two at the back of the International Building. The ''Prometheus'', ''Youth'', and ''Maiden'' sculptures that Paul Manship had created for the complex were prominently situated in the complex's lower plaza.
Barry Faulkner
Barry Faulkner (full name: Francis Barrett Faulkner; July 12, 1881 – October 27, 1966) was an American artist primarily known for his murals. During World War I, he and sculptor Sherry Edmundson Fry organized artists for training as camouflage s ...
had only one commission for the entirety of Rockefeller Center: a mosaic mural above the entrance of 1230 Avenue of the Americas.
Alfred Janniot
Alfred Auguste Janniot (13 June 1889 – 18 July 1969) was a French Art Deco sculptor most active in the 1930s.
Biography
Janniot was educated at the École des Beaux-Arts, a pupil of Jean Antoine Injalbert, and was the winner of the 1919 Pr ...
also created a single work for Rockefeller Center, the bronze panel outside La Maison Francaise's entrance.
Lee Lawrie
Lee Oscar Lawrie (October 16, 1877 – January 23, 1963) was an American architectural sculptor and a key figure in the American art scene preceding World War II. Over his long career of more than 300 commissions Lawrie's style evolved through ...
was by far the complex's most prolific artist, with 12 works. Most of Lawrie's commissions were limestone screens above the main entrances of buildings, but he had also created two of Rockefeller Center's best-known artworks: the ''
Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
'' statue in the International Building's courtyard, and the ''Wisdom'' screen above the RCA Building's main entrance.
Ezra Winter
Ezra Augustus Winter (March 10, 1886 – April 6, 1949) was a prominent American muralist.
Biography
Winter was born in Traverse City, Michigan, trained at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1908, and the American Academy in Rome in 1914. Wint ...
, who created the "Quest for the Fountains of Eternal Youth" mural in
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...
's lobby, largely adhered to Alexander's original specifications for the mural.
One of the center's more controversial works was created by
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
, whom Nelson Rockefeller had hired to create a color
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
for the wall in the RCA Building's lobby. His painting, ''
Man at the Crossroads
''Man at the Crossroads'' (1934) was a fresco by Diego Rivera in New York City's Rockefeller Center. It was originally slated to be installed in the lobby of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the main building of the center. ''Man at the Crossroads'' showe ...
'', became controversial, as it contained Moscow May Day scenes and a clear portrait of
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
, which had not been apparent in initial sketches (see .) Nelson issued a written warning to Rivera to replace the offending figure with an anonymous face, but Rivera refused, so in mid-1933, Rivera was paid for his commission and workers covered the mural with paper. The fresco was demolished completely in February 1934, and it was subsequently replaced by
Josep Maria Sert
Josep Maria Sert i Badia (; Barcelona, 21 December 1874 – 27 November 1945, buried in the Vic Cathedral) was a Spanish muralist, the son of an affluent textile industry family, and friend of Salvador Dalí. He was particularly known for his gr ...
's ''American Progress'' mural. As a result of the ''Man at the Crossroads'' controversy, Nelson scaled back his involvement with the complex's art, and his father began scrutinizing all of the artworks thereafter commissioned for the center.
One of the sculptor Attilio Piccirilli's works at Rockefeller Center would also be contested, albeit not until after the complex was finished. He had created bas-relief carvings above the entrances of Palazzo d'Italia and the International Building North. Piccirilli's relief on the Palazzo d'Italia was removed in 1941 because the panels were seen as an overt celebration of
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
, but his International Building North panels were allowed to remain.
Change in name
During early planning, the development was often referred to as "Radio City". Before the announcement that the development would include a mass media complex, there were also other appellations such as "Rockefeller City" and "Metropolitan Square" (after the Metropolitan Square Corporation). Ivy Lee suggested changing the name to "Rockefeller Center". John Rockefeller Jr. initially did not want the Rockefeller family name associated with the commercial project, but was persuaded on the grounds that the name would attract far more tenants. The name was formally changed in December 1931. Rockefeller Jr. and ''The New York Times'' originally spelled the complex as "Rockefeller Centre", which was the British way of spelling "Center". After consultation with the famed
lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
Frank H. Vizetelly, "Centre" was changed to "Center". Over time, the appellation of "Radio City" devolved from describing the entire complex to just the complex's western section; and by 1937, only the Radio City Music Hall contained the "Radio City" name.
Construction progress
According to Daniel Okrent, most sources estimated that between 40,000 and 60,000 people were hired during construction. One estimate by Raymond Fosdick, the Rockefeller Foundation head, placed the figure at 225,000 people, including workers who created materials for the complex elsewhere. When construction started, the city was feeling the full effects of the Depression, with over 750,000 people unemployed and 64% of all construction workers without a job. At the Depression's peak in the mid-1930s, John Rockefeller Jr. was praised as a job creator and a "patriot" for jump-starting the city's economy with the construction project. Rockefeller made an effort to form amicable relationships with Rockefeller Center's workers. Even when Rockefeller had to reduce wages for his union workers, he was praised for not reducing wages as severely as did other construction firms, many of which were either struggling or going bankrupt. At the time, the complex was the largest private building project ever undertaken.
Carol Herselle Krinsky
Carol Herselle Krinsky (born 1937 Brooklyn, New York) is an American architectural historian.
She graduated from Erasmus Hall High School, studied at Smith College (1957 BA) and New York University, (Ph.D. 1965). Krinsky is a professor of twentiet ...
, in her 1978 book, describes the center as "the only large private permanent construction project planned and executed between the start of the Depression and the end of the Second World War".
Land acquisition and clearing
For the project, 228 buildings on the site were razed and some 4,000 tenants relocated, with the estimated aggregate worth of the property exceeding $7 billion (equivalent to $ billion in ). Rockefeller achieved this by buying existing leases from the tenants. In January 1929, William A. White & Sons was hired to conduct the eviction proceedings. They worked with the law firm of Murray, Aldrich & Webb to give checks to tenants in exchange for property, sometimes for over $1 million. The area was mostly occupied by illegal
speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies.
Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States d ...
bars, as the
Prohibition Era
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...
had banned all sales of alcoholic beverages. Although the more tenuous of these speakeasies quickly moved elsewhere at the mere mention of formal eviction proceedings, other tenants, including some of the
brothel
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...
s, were harder to evict. Many tenants only moved on certain conditions; and in one case, the firms acquired a lease from the estate of the late gambler
Arnold Rothstein
Arnold Rothstein (January 17, 1882 – November 4, 1928), nicknamed "The Brain", was an American racketeer, crime boss, businessman, and gambler in New York City. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athleti ...
, who was murdered two months before he was set to be forcefully evicted from his Upper Estate building in January 1929. Demolition of the structures started in early 1930, and all of the buildings' leases had been bought by August 1931.
The center's managers then set to acquire the remaining lots along Sixth Avenue, and at the southeast corner of the site, so that they could create a larger complex, which led to the formation of the Underel Corporation. The negotiations for the Sixth Avenue properties were conducted by different brokers and law firms so as to conceal the Rockefeller family's involvement in the Underel Corporation's acquisitions. Even so, there were several tenants along Sixth Avenue who initially refused to give up their buildings. In total, Charles Heydt spent $10 million (equivalent to $ million in ) on acquiring the Sixth Avenue parcels, as compared to the $6 million (equivalent to $ million in dollars) budgeted for the task.
The tenants of two Sixth Avenue properties were ultimately allowed to stay. One lessee, who occupied a plot on the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 50th Street, never received a sale offer due to a misunderstanding. The owners of the other parcel, on the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 49th Street, demanded an exorbitant price for their property. 30 Rockefeller Plaza was ultimately built around both parcels.
On the southeast corner of the site, several property owners also refused to sell. Columbia University was willing to give Rockefeller Center Inc. control of all leases in the former Upper Estate that were no longer held by a third party. However,
William Nelson Cromwell
William Nelson Cromwell (January 17, 1854 – July 19, 1948) was an American attorney active in promotion of the Panama Canal and other major ventures especially in cooperation with Philippe Bunau-Varilla.
Life and career
He was born and rais ...
, a prominent lawyer and Columbia alumnus, who owned three adjacent row houses at 10–14 West 49th Street, would not move out of his house when his lease expired in 1927. The disagreement continued until 1936, during which time Cromwell refused to pay rent on 14 West 49th Street, while Rockefeller Center Inc. withheld $400,000 of Cromwell's rent payments to Columbia. Rockefeller Center Inc. would later buy 8 West 49th, thus boxing Cromwell's land in between the two Rockefeller Center parcels. The company allowed
Robert Walton Goelet
Robert Walton Goelet (March 19, 1880 – May 2, 1941) was a financier and real estate developer in New York City. He was one of the largest property owners in the city by the time of his death.
Early life
Robert Walton Goelet, nicknamed Bertie ...
to keep the neighboring lot at 2–6 West 49th Street because the company considered his "interest and concern" to be a "large concern". However, he could not develop the land because Cromwell controlled an
easement
An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...
over part of Goelet's land, and the lots at 2–6 West 49th Street would be developed in 1932 as a commercial building called
608 Fifth Avenue
608 Fifth Avenue, also known as the Goelet Building or Swiss Center Building, is an office building at Fifth Avenue and West 49th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, adjacent to Rockefeller Center. It was designed by ...
. The St. Nicholas Church, on 48th Street behind Goelet's lot, also refused to sell its property despite an offer of up to $7 million for the parcel.
Late 1931: start of construction
Excavation of the Sixth Avenue side of the plot began in late July 1931, commencing a seven-year period of excavation during which of the underlying
Manhattan schist
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
would be removed from the site. By late 1931, the empty blocks were pits up to , with a few buildings still standing at the edges of each block. 49th and 50th streets resembled "causeways skimming the surface of a lake". A field office for the project was erected on Fifth Avenue. It served as the headquarters for the main construction contractors Todd & Brown, which was composed of John Todd's son
Webster
Webster may refer to:
People
*Webster (surname), including a list of people with the surname
*Webster (given name), including a list of people with the given name
Places Canada
*Webster, Alberta
*Webster's Falls, Hamilton, Ontario
United State ...
as well as Joseph O. Brown. Brown was especially involved in eliminating unnecessary costs and selecting firms for supplies.
Designs for the RCA Building and International Music Hall, to the north, were submitted to the
New York City Department of Buildings
The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction tra ...
in August 1931, with both buildings scheduled to open in 1932. The contracts for the music hall and 66-story skyscraper were awarded two months later. Ultimately, the project's managers would submit 1,860 contracts to the Department of Buildings. Rockefeller Center's construction progressed quickly; by October 1931, sixty percent of the digging was complete and the first contracts for the buildings had been let. The foundations had been dug up to below ground, and the first of the RCA Building's 86 piers, descending a maximum of , had been set. Of the brownstones on site, 177 had been demolished by that October, with the majority of the remaining buildings near the avenues. Work on the new Roxy Theatre, to the south of the RCA Building, started that November.
The architects wanted a uniform color for the facades of all 14 of the new buildings. To that end, Raymond Hood, in December 1931, awarded a contract for
Indiana Limestone
Indiana limestone — also known as Bedford limestone in the building trade — has long been an economically important building material, particularly for monumental public structures. Indiana limestone is a more common term for Salem Limestone, ...
that would make up the facades. At the time, it was the largest order of stone in history, with about of limestone being shipped. Rockefeller Center's managers also ordered of structural steel, the largest such order in history, which cost one-eighth of the projected $250 million total construction cost. The steel order involved a
bidding war
A bid price is the highest price that a buyer (i.e., bidder) is willing to pay for some goods. It is usually referred to simply as the "bid". In bid and ask, the bid price stands in contrast to the ask price or "offer", and the difference between ...
between
Bethlehem Steel
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...
and
U.S. Steel
United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in severa ...
. The order ultimately went to U.S. Steel, providing 8,000 jobs for its workers, but resulting in a financial loss, as the bidding war resulted in a price that was too low to cover the cost of making the steel. Rockefeller Center also required nearly 23 acres () of glass for its windows, 25,000 doors, and of granite.
As a result of the Depression, building costs were cheaper than projected. Although Metropolitan Life's loan of $126 million remained the same, the final cost of the first ten buildings came to $102 million (equivalent to $ billion in dollars) by the time these structures were completed in 1935. John Todd used the surplus to install extra features in the buildings, such as wider-than-normal utility pipes, a subterranean boiler for the complex in case the steam system malfunctioned, and the complex's limestone facades. Todd even installed sprinklers on the exteriors of the Fifth Avenue retail buildings in case they needed to be converted into factories, since sprinklers were required on industrial buildings at the time. However, not all of the effects were positive: the construction boom of the late 1920s and early 1930s had almost doubled the total amount of real estate in Manhattan, and the construction of Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building would increase the amount of space by another 56%. As a result, there was a lot of undervalued, vacant space. After RKO's bankruptcy in 1931, Sarnoff convinced John Rockefeller Jr. to buy RKO common stock and RCA preferred stock worth a total of $4 million (equivalent to $ million in ), in return for RCA downsizing its lease by .
1932–1933
Work on the steel structure of the RCA Building started in March 1932. Meanwhile, the British and French governments had already agreed to occupy the first two internationally themed buildings, and John Rockefeller Jr. started signing tenants from the respective countries. The cornerstone of the British Empire Building was laid in June, when
Francis Hopwood, 1st Baron Southborough
Francis John Stephens Hopwood, 1st Baron Southborough, (2 December 1860 – 17 January 1947) was a British civil servant and solicitor.
Hopwood was born in Bayswater, London, the son of a barrister. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Lou ...
, placed the symbolic first stone in a ceremony. Significant progress on the theaters had been made by then: RKO Roxy's brickwork had been completed and the limestone-and-granite facade was almost ready to be installed, while the Music Hall's steelwork was complete. By September, both theaters were almost finished, as was the RCA Building, whose structural steel was up to the 64th floor. That month also saw the opening of the RKO Building, the first structure in the complex to be opened. The British Empire Building's structural steel started construction in October.
The Music Hall was the second site to open, on December 27, 1932, although it had
topped out
In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...
in August. This was followed by the RKO Roxy's opening two days later. Roxy originally intended to use the Music Hall as a vaudeville theater, but the opening of the Music Hall was widely regarded as a flop, and both theaters ended up being used for films and performing arts. Radio City's Roxy Theatre had to be renamed the Center Theatre in May 1933 after a lawsuit by William Fox, who owned the original Roxy Theatre on 50th Street. The failure of the vaudeville theater ended up ruining Roxy's enterprise, and he was forced to resign from the center's management in January 1934.
The cornerstone of La Maison Francaise was laid on April 29, 1933, by former French prime minister
Édouard Herriot
Édouard Marie Herriot (; 5 July 1872 – 26 March 1957) was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic who served three times as Prime Minister (1924–1925; 1926; 1932) and twice as President of the Chamber of Deputies. He led the ...
. The British Empire Building was open less than a week later. The RCA Building was slated to be open by May 1, but was delayed because of controversy over the ''Man at the Crossroads'' mural in the lobby. In July 1933, the managers opened a 70th-story observation deck atop the RCA Building, It was a great success: the 40-cents-per-head observation deck saw 1,300 daily visitors by late 1935.
Work on the rooftop gardens started in October 1933, and La Maison Francaise opened the same month. In December 1933, workers erected the complex's famed Christmas tree in the center of the plaza for the first time. Since then, it has been a yearly tradition to display a large Christmas tree at the plaza between November and January.
Simultaneously, the city built the part of the canceled "Metropolitan Avenue" that ran through Rockefeller Center. The new street, called "Rockefeller Plaza", was projected to carry an estimated 7,000 vehicles per day upon opening. The first segment, between 49th and 50th streets, opened in 1933, and a northern extension opened in 1934. The new street measured over wide and ran through the complex, with four vehicular levels.
Advertising and leasing efforts
From 1931 until 1944, Rockefeller Center Inc. employed Merle Crowell, the former editor of ''
American Magazine
''The American Magazine'' was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded ''Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'' (1876–1904), ' ...
'', as the complex's publicist. His first press release, published on July 25, 1931, extolled Rockefeller Center as "the largest building project ever undertaken by private capital". Thereafter, Crowell supplanted Ivy Lee as the complex's official publicity manager, and his subsequent releases employed a variety of superlatives, massive amounts of statistics and calculations, and the occasional bit of hyperbole. Crowell published many new press releases every day, and by the midpoint of the complex's construction in 1935, he also started staging celebrity appearances, news stories, and exhibitions at Rockefeller Center. The goal was for Rockefeller Center to accommodate 34,500 workers and 180,700 daily visitors once it was completed.
Rockefeller hired Hugh Sterling Robertson to solicit tenants and secure lease agreements. It was hard to lease the complex in the wake of the Great Depression, but Robertson managed to identify 1,700 potential tenants, and had held meetings with 1,200 of them by the end of 1933. Rockefeller and his partners were also able to entice some prominent tenants to the center. The Rockefeller family's
Standard Oil Company
Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...
moved into the RCA Building in 1934. Over the next two years, several other major oil companies followed suit and took up leases in Midtown buildings, including
Sinclair Oil
Sinclair Oil Corporation was an American petroleum corporation, founded by Harry F. Sinclair on May 1, 1916, the Sinclair Oil and Refining Corporation combined, amalgamated, the assets of 11 small petroleum companies. Originally a New York cor ...
and
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
, which moved into Rockefeller Center. The
United States Post Office Department
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department, officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the postmas ...
opened a facility in the complex in early 1934, and would later rent space in the as-yet-incomplete International Building. The New York Museum of Science and Industry leased some of the less-sought-after space on the RCA Building's lower floors after Nelson Rockefeller became a trustee of the museum in late 1935. Westinghouse moved into the 14th through 17th floors of the RCA Building.
However, Rockefeller Center's managers had a hard time leasing the buildings past 60% occupancy during the earliest years of its existence, which coincided with the middle of the Depression. The Rockefeller family moved into various floors and suites throughout the same building in order to give potential tenants the impression of occupancy. In particular, the family's office took up the entire 56th floor, while the family's Rockefeller Foundation took up the entire floor below, and two other organizations supported by the Rockefellers also moved into the building. Because the sunken central plaza was mostly leased by luxury stores, the complex's managers opened an outdoor restaurant in the plaza in early 1934 to attract other customers. The complex's willingness to gain leases at almost any cost had repercussions of its own. In January 1934,
August Heckscher
August Heckscher (August 26, 1848 – April 26, 1941) was a German-born American capitalist and philanthropist.
Early life
Heckscher was born in Hamburg, Germany. He was the son of Johann Gustav Heckscher (1797–1865) and Marie Antoinette Br ...
filed a $10,000,000 lawsuit against Rockefeller Center Inc. for convincing tenants to abandon their ongoing leases within his properties in order to take up cheaper leases at Rockefeller Center. The lawsuit stalled in courts until Heckscher's death in 1941, when it was dismissed.
The managers of Rockefeller Center Inc. also wanted the complex to have convenient, nearby
mass transit
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
to attract potential lessees. The city-operated
Independent Subway System
The Independent Subway System (IND or ISS), formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOSS) or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (ICORTR), was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of th ...
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
. The managers, seeing the success of the business districts around Penn Station and Grand Central, proposed a large rail terminal for trains from
Bergen County, New Jersey
Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.IND subway station at Eighth Avenue, or a rail line connecting to Penn Station and Grand Central. This plan did not work because the city was uninterested in building the new rail line. The plan was formally dropped in 1934, but proposals for similar ideas persisted until 1939. The city also had plans to construct a line under Sixth Avenue to supplant the elevated railway there, but did not start construction on the Sixth Avenue subway until 1936. Since the IND would be constructing a station at 47th–50th Streets, near the complex, Rockefeller Center's managers also wished to build their own connections to Penn Station and Grand Central using the subway tunnels that were being constructed. However, this proposal was declined because it would require extensive rezoning of the surrounding residential area.
An extension of Rockefeller Plaza northward to the
Rockefeller Apartments
The Rockefeller Apartments is a residential building at 17 West 54th Street and 24 West 55th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Wallace Harrison and J. André Fouilhoux in the International Style, the ...
at 54th Street was also envisioned in early 1934, with Rockefeller Center's managers, between October 1934 and late 1937, acquiring land for the proposed street. Rockefeller legally condemned some of the buildings he acquired for the planned street expansion. The street was never extended for various reasons.
1934–1936
By July 1934, the complex had leased 80% of the available space in the six buildings that were already opened. The lower plaza's large ''Prometheus'' statue had been installed in January that year. The complex's underground delivery ramps, on 50th Street under the present-day Associated Press Building, were completed in May. The ramps, a vestige of the tunnels originally planned for 49th and 50th streets, traveled underground and stretched for . By the end of the year, Wallace Harrison was the lead architect; Andrew Reinhard was in charge of floor plans for tenants; and Henry Hofmeister was tasked with planning the locations of the remaining unbuilt buildings' utilities and structural framework. Raymond Hood had died, while Harvey Corbett had moved on to other projects. Frederick A. Godley and
J. André Fouilhoux
Jacques André Fouilhoux (September 27, 1879 – June 20, 1945) was a French-born architect active in the United States from 1904 to 1945.''The New York Times''. (July 21, 1945) ''The New York Times'', p. 1. Accessed August 18, 2020. He is most ...
of Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux, as well as William H. MacMurray of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, never had much to do with Rockefeller Center's development.
In May 1934, plans were officially filed for the remaining two International-themed buildings, as well as the larger 38-story, International Building at 45 Rockefeller Center. Work on the buildings started in September 1934. The more southerly of the retail buildings was dubbed "Palazzo d'Italia" and was to serve Italian interests. The Italian government later reneged on its sponsorship of the building, and the task of finding tenants went to Italian-American businesses. The more northerly small building was originally proposed for German occupation under the name "Deutsches Haus" before
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's rise to power in 1932. Rockefeller ruled this out in September 1933, after being advised of Hitler's
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
march toward
totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
. Russia had also entered into negotiations to lease the final building in 1934; but by 1935, the Russians were no longer actively seeking a lease. With no definite tenant for the other building, the Rockefeller Center's managers reduced the proposed nine-story buildings to six stories, enlarged and realigned the main building from a north–south to a west–east axis, and replaced the proposed galleria between the two retail buildings with an expansion of the International Building's lobby. The empty office site thus became "International Building North", rented by various international tenants. In April 1935, developers opened the International Building and its two wings, which had been built in a record 136 days, from groundbreaking to completion. Aside from the averted controversy with the potential German tenants, the internationally themed complex was seen as a symbol of solidarity during the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
, when the United States' entry in the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
was obstructed by American isolationists.
By late April 1935, the "Gardens of the Nations" on the RCA Building's 11th-story roof was complete. Upon opening, its collection of exotic flora attracted many visitors, and it became the most popular garden in Rockefeller Center. However, this novelty soon faded, and the gardens started running a $45,000-per-year deficit by 1937 ($ in dollars) due to the massive expense involved in hoisting plants, trees, and water to the roofs, as well as a lack of interest among tourists. Gardens on the roofs of the two theaters would also be installed in 1937, but they were not open to the public.
The underground pedestrian mall and ramp system, connecting the three blocks between 48th and 51st streets, was finished in early May. At the time of the mall's opening, 22 of the 25 retail spaces had been leased, and three more buildings were ready for occupancy that month. The underground concourse contained a post office, payphones, and several public restrooms. The complex was starting to attract large crowds of visitors, especially to Radio City Music Hall or one of the other exhibition and performance spaces. Despite this seeming success in the face of the Depression, construction was considered to be behind schedule: all the buildings had originally been set for completion by mid-1935, yet the central parts of the northern and southern blocks were still undeveloped.
Around this time, Rockefeller Center's managers were selling the lots for their failed Rockefeller Plaza extension. In January 1935, newly elected mayor
Fiorello H. La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
proposed that a Municipal Art Center be built in or near the Rockefeller complex. It would have contained the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
. However, due to legal challenges, the site for the planned art center was moved several blocks south to a site between 51st and 53rd streets between Fifth and Sixth avenues, immediately north of Rockefeller Center. In October 1936, the Museum of Modern Art acquired a site on 53rd Street, across the street from the Municipal Art Center site. Several plans for an art center were discussed, but none were executed because of the same complications that befell the aborted Rockefeller Plaza extension.
Also in 1935, plans were filed for a 16-story western extension of the RCA Building, made of the same material but with extensive links to the pedestrian tunnel system and an elaborate entrance from the under-construction IND station at 47th–50th streets. The subway connection started construction in 1936 but would not open until 1940. Until the subway connection opened, the underground shopping mall was an elaborate catacomb that dead-ended on all sides. The retail space on the lower plaza was not profitable because the stores in the plaza were hidden underneath the rest of the buildings and behind the ''Prometheus'' statue, which made the shops hard for tourists to find. By 1935, there were ten times as many workers entering the RCA Building every day as there were visitors to the lower plaza. After several rejected suggestions to beautify the plaza, the managers finally decided on building the Rink at Rockefeller Center for $2,000 after Nelson Rockefeller found that a new system had been invented that allowed artificial outdoor ice skating, enabling him to bring the pastime to Midtown Manhattan. The new rink was open by Christmas 1936. The rink was originally intended as a "temporary" measure, but it became popular, and so it was kept.
Completion
By 1936, ten buildings had been built and about 80% of the existing space had been rented. The buildings, constituting the first phase of construction, were the International Building; the four small retail buildings; the RKO Building; the Center Theatre; the Music Hall; the RCA Building; and the RCA Building's western extension. The total investment in the center up to that point had been about $104.6 million (about $ billion in dollars), which was composed of $60 million of John Rockefeller Jr.'s money and $44.6 million from Metropolitan Life.
Developing the remaining empty lots
Rockefeller Center Inc. needed to develop the remaining empty lots of the northern and southern blocks. Notably, the southern plot was being used as a
parking lot
A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...
, and at the time, it was the city's largest parking facility. In 1936,
Time Inc.
Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...
expressed interest in moving out of their
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
offices into a larger headquarters, having just launched their ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' magazine. Rockefeller Center's managers persuaded Time to move to a proposed skyscraper on part of the southern empty lot, on Rockefeller Plaza between 48th and 49th streets. The steelwork for that building was begun on September 25, 1936, and was complete by November 28, forty-three working days later. The 36-story
Time & Life Building
1271 Avenue of the Americas is a 48-story skyscraper on Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), between 50th and 51st Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by architect Wallace Harrison of Harrison, Abr ...
, as it was known, opened on April 1, 1937, along with the final block of Rockefeller Plaza abutting the building, between 48th and 49th streets.
Rockefeller Center's executives had talks with the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
for a building on the northern empty lot, which was occupied by the complex's truck delivery ramp. The lot had been reserved for the Metropolitan Opera house, but the managers could not wait anymore to develop the lot, and in 1937, the opera plans were formally scrapped. The lot had also been planned as a hotel site, but this was also deemed economically infeasible. In January 1938, the Associated Press agreed to rent four floors within the structure at 50 Rockefeller Plaza. In exchange, the building would be renamed for the company. Construction of the steelwork started in April 1938; after 29 working days, the 15-story structure was topped out on June 16. The Associated Press moved into 50 Rockefeller Plaza in December. The presence of the Associated Press and Time Inc. expanded Rockefeller Center's scope from strictly a radio-communications complex to a hub of both radio and print media. In 1938, the Associated Press opened the Guild, a newsreel theater, along the curve of the truck ramp below the building.
It was impossible to build any smaller buildings in the remainder of the complex, since the demands of tenants stipulated larger buildings. Additionally, it was no longer viable to build a system of rooftop gardens because the 15-story Associated Press Building was much taller than the 7- to 11-story-high gardens on the rest of the buildings, making it extremely hard to create a system of gardens without the use of extraordinarily steep bridges. The final plot on the southernmost block needed to be developed, and several tenants were being considered. In early 1937, the center's managers approached the Dutch government for a possible 16-story "Holland House" on the eastern part of the plot. The Dutch government did not enter into the agreement because of troubles domestically, most notably the social unrest that preceded Hitler's 1940 invasion of the Netherlands. However, the Rockefeller Center's managers were already in negotiations with
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Ea ...
. Despite the lack of a definite tenant, the excavation of the 16-story structure at 10 Rockefeller Plaza started in October 1938, and the building was topped out by April 1939. Eastern Air Lines' CEO,
Eddie Rickenbacker
Edward Vernon Rickenbacker or Eddie Rickenbacker (October 8, 1890 – July 23, 1973) was an American fighter pilot in World War I and a Medal of Honor recipient.
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
had moved out of the family home at 10 West 54th Street, and John was now focusing on his own personal life. By April 1937, Todd regretted his decision to be featured in ''The New Yorker''. In March 1938, Nelson became the president of Rockefeller Center Inc. He then fired Todd as the complex's manager and appointed Hugh Robertson in his place. Nelson and Robertson wanted to avoid workers' strikes, which would delay the completion of construction. Nelson, Robertson, and the workers' unions agreed to a contract in which the unions would not strike, Robertson would not lock out union workers, and both would agree to
arbitration
Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...
if a labor dispute arose. Rockefeller Center was one of Nelson's primary business ventures until 1958, when he was elected
Governor of New York
The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has ...
.
Public relations officials were hired to advertise the different parts of the complex, such as the gardens and the plaza. A viewing platform was set up on the east side of Rockefeller Center, and the facetious "Sidewalk Superintendents' Club" was founded so the public could view construction, with cards being issued to club members.
Final building
The western half of the southern plot was still undeveloped due to perceived negative effects of the Sixth Avenue elevated. (The elevated line was closed in early December 1938, to be replaced by the IND Sixth Avenue subway, and was razed the next year.) Ultimately, the
United States Rubber Company
The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemi ...
was convinced to move from their headquarters at
Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South ( West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the so ...
to the proposed 1230 Avenue of the Americas building at Rockefeller Center. The company leased eleven floors in the new building, a decrease of from the 12 stories that they leased at 1790 Broadway. The U.S. Rubber Company Building had been planned as a mirror of the RKO Building, but this was not possible because the symmetrical structure would have entailed constructing an expensive cantilever over the Center Theatre. Excavation of the U.S. Rubber Company Building site commenced in May 1939.
The complex was deemed complete by the end of October 1939. John Rockefeller Jr. installed the building's ceremonial final rivet on November 1, 1939, marking the completion of the original Rockefeller Center complex. The installation of the last rivet was accompanied by a celebratory speech by Rockefeller and many news accounts about the event. 10 Rockefeller Plaza, though, was not officially complete until its dedication in October 1940. Although the Dutch government had initially declined to enter an agreement to occupy 10 Rockefeller Plaza, it moved its offices-in-exile into the building once it opened.
Later construction
After the original complex was finished, Rockefeller started to look for ways to expand, even though the outbreak of World War II stopped almost all civilian construction projects. In 1943, the complex's managers bought land and buildings on three street corners near the complex. Rockefeller Center unveiled plans for expansion to the southwest and north in 1944. At the time, the complex's existing rentable area totaled , with 99.7% of the space being leased.
1940s and 1950s
Esso
Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...
was one of the tenants that wanted to expand, and the company signaled that it would build its own office tower if Rockefeller Center's managers did not construct a building for them. In 1944, John Rockefeller Jr. officially approved Esso's proposal to construct a building on land that Rockefeller controlled, at the north end of Rockefeller Plaza. At first, the managers of the property wanted to build a 16-story, $2 million structure on that property, but Hugh Robertson, the original complex's sole remaining architect, stated that the tower needed to be 36 floors high in order to be profitable. In February 1947, the under-construction Esso Building, at the north end of the existing property, became part of Rockefeller Center after ownership of the building was transferred from the Haswin Corporation to Rockefeller Center, Inc. The 33-story Esso Building was topped out the next month.
In 1949, in the face of a shrinking congregation, St. Nicholas Church leased the church building to the
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company
The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company.
MassMutual provides financial products such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term ...
, who then leased three contiguous lots from Rockefeller Center for a proposed 28-story building. The Fifth Avenue facade of the new building would have a setback at the 11th floor, and the midblock facade on 49th Street would not block the view from La Maison Francaise across the street, as stipulated by an agreement with Rockefeller Center managers. The church moved out of its plot on Fifth Avenue and 48th Street, and the old church building was subsequently demolished. Construction commenced on 600 Fifth Avenue in 1950, and the tower was completed by 1952. The building was named after the Sinclair Oil Company, which leased eight floors. Although 600 Fifth Avenue was not developed by Rockefeller Center Inc., that company was allowed to dictate the general Art Deco design of the building as part of an agreement with Massachusetts Mutual. In return, Massachusetts Mutual stipulated that the building contain an entrance to Rockefeller Center's underground concourse, and that the leases for William Cromwell's remaining lots be transferred to Rockefeller Center.
The small Center Theatre was deemed redundant to Radio City Music Hall, and in its final years, had been used as an NBC and RCA broadcasting space. In 1953, NBC and RCA expanded into the office space in 30 Rockefeller Center that Sinclair had just vacated. After the broadcasting studio was abandoned, the U.S. Rubber Company indicated that it wanted to expand its office building into the space that was occupied by the underused theater. In October 1953, it was announced that the theater would be demolished. During the demolition process, the U.S. Rubber Building was put on temporary
stilts
Stilts are poles, posts or pillars that allow a person or structure to stand at a height above the ground.
In flood plains, and on beaches or unstable ground, buildings are often constructed on stilts to protect them from damage by water, wav ...
, with the offices above the former theater still being occupied during the demolition process. No vestige of the former theater remains, since 1230 Avenue of the Americas' annex occupies the same space as the original building.
Time-Life also wanted to expand, as its existing space in 1 Rockefeller Plaza had become insufficient by 1953. In August of that year, Rockefeller Center Inc. bought a tract of land on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 50th and 51st streets. Rockefeller Center's managers originally wanted to build an extra NBC studio or a
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
vehicle
showroom
A plumbing fixture showroom, Canada, 1921
A showroom, also referred to as a gallery, is a large space used to display products, entertainment or visual arts.
Marketing location
A showroom is a large space used to display products for sale, suc ...
on the site. However, they changed their minds once they saw Time Inc.'s expansion needs: the company wanted to have its headquarters in a single building. As they would outgrow their existing space in 1 Rockefeller Plaza by 1954, the company would have to move elsewhere. Not wanting to lose Time Inc.'s tenancy, the complex's managers hired
Harrison & Abramovitz
Harrison & Abramovitz (also known as Harrison, Fouilhoux & Abramovitz; Harrison, Abramovitz, & Abbe; and Harrison, Abramovitz, & Harris) was an American architectural firm based in New York and active from 1941 through 1976. The firm was a partner ...
, composed of Wallace Harrison and
Max Abramovitz
Max Abramovitz (May 23, 1908 – September 12, 2004) was an American architect. He was best known for his work with the New York City firm Harrison & Abramovitz.
Life
Abramovitz was the son of Romanian Jewish immigrant parents. He graduate ...
, to create plans for a building on the newly acquired plot that could house both NBC and Time. NBC later dropped out of the deal because its CEO, David Sarnoff, dissented.
In 1956, two years after the demolition of the Center Theatre, officials announced the construction of a new tower, the
Time-Life Building
1271 Avenue of the Americas is a 48-story skyscraper on Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), between 50th and 51st Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by architect Wallace Harrison of Harrison, Ab ...
, on the western side of Sixth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets. The , $7 million building ($ in dollars) would include connections to the existing passageway system and to the Roxy Theater directly to its west. The tower would rise as a 48-story slab, with a plaza to the east and an eight-story annex along its western and northern sides. One of Rockefeller Center's subsidiaries, Westprop Inc., bought the
air rights
Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others.
This legal ...
to the original Roxy Theater next door so that the new tower could conform to the Zoning Resolution of 1916. Time Inc. and Rockefeller Center formed a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
, Rock-Time Inc., which would share the tower's rent income between them. Construction on the Time-Life Building's steelwork started in April 1958, and the structure topped out in November of that year. The cornerstone of the building was laid in June 1959, after the building's structure had been completed, and the first tenants began moving into the tower in December 1959.
During this time, plans called for Rockefeller Center to expand northward. Rockefeller Center,
Uris Buildings Corporation
Uris Buildings Corporation was a New York City commercial real estate development company created by Harold and Percy Uris in 1960 from a predecessor private partnership. They retained 60% ownership in the corporation. One of the last building ...
, and
Webb and Knapp
Webb and Knapp was a real estate development firm.
The company is most famous for developing the Roosevelt Airfield, which was the launching site of the transatlantic flights of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. It was also the firm at which ...
formed another joint venture, Rock-Uris Corp., to construct a hotel to the west of 75 Rockefeller Center. However, Webb and Knapp faced monetary shortages, and the joint venture found that a hotel was not the most profitable use of the land. The joint venture instead decided to construct a glass-and-concrete 43-story office building on the site, with connections to the complex's underground concourse. In 1961, the building was named after
Sperry Corporation
Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...
, which leased eight floors in the future building. The planned hotel was moved to another site two blocks north, on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 53rd and 54th Streets. This became the New York Hilton at Rockefeller Center, which opened in 1963. The hotel's name was misleading because it was outside the complex and not connected to the underground mall. The mall could not be extended anyway because the 53rd Street subway was in the way. Further expansion of Rockefeller Center on the west side of Sixth Avenue, between the Hilton and the new Time-Life Building, was not possible because the Equitable Life Assurance Society had built a tower in between the two properties.
1960s and 1970s
In 1963, officials from Esso approached Gustav Eyssell, who had been Rockefeller Center Inc.'s president since Hugh Robertson had stepped down in 1948. Esso proposed that Eyssell approve another building for the company, which had outgrown the space that it already occupied in Rockefeller Center. Eyssell seriously considered the proposal because the complex did not want to lose Esso's tenancy, and because the complex's existing tenants were requesting a combined of extra space. Rockefeller Center's managers re-hired Harrison & Abramovitz to design three new towers on the west side of Sixth Avenue, with one tower on each of the blocks between 47th and 50th Streets. The managers purchased the land for the three proposed buildings in private. Simultaneously, they consulted with large potential tenants, and eventually managed to sign Esso,
McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...
, and
Celanese
Celanese Corporation, formerly known as Hoechst Celanese, is an American technology and specialty materials company headquartered in Irving, Texas. A Fortune 500 corporation, the company is the world’s leading producer of acetic acid, produc ...
as the main tenants for the buildings. Under the plan, Esso (later renamed
Exxon
ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...
) would move into the northernmost tower at 1251 Avenue of the Americas, while McGraw-Hill would occupy the center tower at
1221
Year 1221 ( MCCXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* November – Emperor Theodore I (Laskaris) dies after a 16-year reign a ...
, and Celanese would have the southernmost tower at 1211. These were called the "XYZ Buildings" because the three towers were so similar that their placements could be interchanged.
Harrison & Abramowitz's plans were influenced by several design elements. Most importantly, the firm wished to include plazas in front of each of the new Rockefeller Center buildings, drawing from their recent design for the
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
on the
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
, which contained several buildings around a central plaza. The new Rockefeller Center buildings' front plazas would serve as large gathering spaces, similar to the lower plaza in the original complex. The original Rockefeller Center did not include plazas along Sixth Avenue because the elevated line would have overshadowed these spaces, but now that the Sixth Avenue elevated had been demolished, the new buildings' plazas would add open space to the Sixth Avenue side of the complex. As a bonus, the plazas canceled out the imposing visual effects of the buildings on the avenue's east side, which rose straight up from their property lines and made for a cliff-like effect. Finally, per a 1961 revision to the 1916 Zoning Resolution, the inclusion of public plazas would allow the towers' builders to include more office space in each building.
Unlike the old complex, which had to satisfy John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s aesthetic desires, the new towers did not need to be excessively beautiful: the present executives of Rockefeller Center were more concerned with the buildings' functionality. However, the proposed design of the new towers strained relations between Harrison and Nelson Rockefeller. This arose from the media's harsh reviews of the proposed expansion, which was described by one critic as "the sinister Stonehenge of economic man".
There were several impediments to the start of construction. Foremost among them was the fact that the proposed floor area of the new buildings was greater than the amount allowed under the 1961 resolution. The Urban Design Group, a division of the
New York City Department of City Planning
The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...
, suggested that the towers include an enclosed walkway with retail space, as well as a movie theater in one of the buildings. The McGraw-Hill Building was to include a basement
planetarium
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
with a dome above ground level, which would be operated by a subsidiary, while the Celanese Building was to contain the theater. Neither of these attractions were actually built: the planetarium space was occupied by a small theater after McGraw-Hill had sold its planetarium subsidiary, while the theater plan was scrapped due to a lack of funding and a decline in the area's theater industry. The start of construction was delayed for several years due to these bureaucratic requests. The city finally approved the project after Rockefeller Center Inc. promised to build the enclosed walkway west of the Celanese Building as well as two parks west of the Exxon and McGraw-Hill Buildings.
Plans for the new buildings were announced on a staggered schedule from 1967 to 1970. The Exxon Building was announced in August 1967, followed by the McGraw-Hill Building in November 1967 and the Celanese Building in 1970. Complications arose when William A. Ruben, a resident of 132 West 48th Street who lived on the planned Celanese Building site west of Sixth Avenue, refused to move from his home. He finally agreed to move, in July 1968, when he received compensation of over $22,000 (equivalent to $ in ). The construction process was further hampered by labor strikes. During mid-1969, workers on the Exxon and McGraw-Hill Buildings went on strike. Three years later in July 1972, construction workers at several projects across the city, including the Celanese Building, went on strike for over a month.
The Exxon Building, the northernmost of the three towers, was the first building to be completed, in 1971. The 54-story tower had of office space. This was followed by the McGraw-Hill Building, the central tower, in 1973. This 51-story building had of office space. The Celanese Building, the southernmost tower, was the last to open, in 1974. The 45-story building had of office space. After the completion of the final building, the center was spread out across of land and contained around of office space across 19 buildings.