10 Rockefeller Plaza (formerly the Eastern Air Lines Building and Holland House) is a 16-story building located on

Rockefeller Plaza 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 ...

between 48th and 49th Streets in

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 Buildi ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Completed in 1940, the building is part of

Rockefeller Center 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 ...

, and was built 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 Unit ...

style.

Architecture

10 Rockefeller Plaza is located on the west side of Rockefeller Plaza between 48th and 49th Streets. Its planning name was the Holland House, but the Dutch government did not sign on, so the building became the

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. E ...

Building instead.

Form and facade

10 Rockefeller was built as a 16-story slab, basically a miniature version of

1 Rockefeller Plaza 1 Rockefeller Plaza (formerly the Time & Life Building and the General Dynamics Building) is a 36-story building located on the east side of Rockefeller Plaza between 48th and 49th Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Completed in 1937 ...

across the street. Unlike the other buildings, there are no exterior reliefs or carvings on 10 Rockefeller Plaza. The lowest four stories are designed as storefronts. There are four-story-tall glass-faced retail wings to the north and south, which contrast with the design of the rest of the complex. The northern wing contains a rounded moderne-style corner at Rockefeller Plaza and 48th Street. Instead of a limestone entrance portal, 10 Rockefeller had a glass portal with a large mural on the lobby wall behind it. The design of the glass-faced retail space was considered "baffling" to retailers, and the space remained unused until at least the 1950s. The upper 12 stories contain offices. There is one setback on the facade, similar to that on 1 Rockefeller Plaza.

Features

The lobby includes a staircase that curves down to the shopping concourse underneaht the entire Rockefeller Center complex. 10 Rockefeller Plaza contains one mural, ''The History of Transportation'', created by

Dean Cornwell Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

in 1946. This mural is placed on the west wall of the lobby. The mural is made up of three parts: "Night Flight", "New World Unity", and "Day Flight". The piece depicts planes and gods flying at night; historical means of transport such as steamboat and steam train; and Rickenbacker's racecar, among other things. It is textured with gold and silver leaf, which respectively provide a contrast between "earthbound" and "airborne" motifs. As stipulated in the original plans, the building also contains a six-floor parking garage with 800 spots, accessible from 48th Street. Garages in New York City office buildings had been prohibited under the 1916 zoning law until it was amended in 1935. As a result, 10 Rockefeller contained New York City's first garage in an office building, and the design of 10 Rockefeller's garage was unique for the area. There is a lounge for car owners, a recreational area for chauffeurs, and bronze firepoles for attendants to access the garage quickly. A rooftop garden exists on the third floor, above the garage and retail space. There are two more tiers of gardens on the fifth and sixth floors. Notable modern tenants include the studios for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

'' and '' Nightly News'' programs and,* * since 2005, the

Nintendo New York Nintendo New York (previously known as Nintendo World and The Pokémon Center) is the flagship specialty store of video game corporation Nintendo. Located in 10 Rockefeller Plaza, at Rockefeller Center in New York City, the two-story, store open ...

store.

Development

Rockefeller Center occupies three blocks in Midtown Manhattan bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues to the east and west, between 48th Street to the south and 51st Street to the north. In early plans for the

construction of Rockefeller Center The construction of the Rockefeller Center complex in New York City was conceived as an urban renewal project in the late 1920s, spearheaded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to help revitalize Midtown Manhattan. Rockefeller Center is on one of Colum ...

, the site of 10 Rockefeller Plaza was supposed to have been occupied by a house for 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 opera ...

. The planned opera house was canceled in December 1929 due to various issues, and

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 ...

negotiated with Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and its subsidiaries, National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO), to build a

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 informati ...

entertainment complex on the site. By May 1930, RCA and its affiliates had agreed to develop the site. Most of the complex had been completed by 1936. Rockefeller Center Inc. only needed to develop three empty plots in the middle of the complex's northern and southern blocks. The final plot on the southernmost block needed to be developed, and several tenants were being considered. In spring 1937, the center's managers approached the Dutch government for a possible 16-story "Holland House" on the eastern part of the plot. A six-floor parking garage would fill the hard-to-lease space on the lowest three floors of the building, as well as three basement floors. The Dutch government did not enter the agreement because of troubles domestically, most notably Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands. However, Rockefeller Center's managers were already in negotiations with

, whose 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.Rockefeller Center Art Deco architecture in Manhattan 1940 establishments in New York City Office buildings completed in 1940 Airline company headquarters in the United States