Location: West 48th to West 51st Streets between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, New York,
New York
Architect: Reinhard and Hofmeister; Corbet, Harrison and MacMurray; Hood and Fouihoux
Date Completed: 1940
Height: RCA Building, 850 feet (259 meters)
Rockefeller Center was originally intended to shelter a new Metropolitan Opera House. The
opera's withdrawal from the project threw the project into disarray.
John D. Rockefeller Jr. recalled the moment bitterly. "Thus it came about that in the
early part of 1930, with the depression underway and values falling rapidly, I found
myself committed to a long land lease, wholly without the support of the enterprise which
and around which the whole development had been planned."
Without the opera house, the project was becoming known as "the development that not
even Rockefeller can build." But Rockefeller was soon to snatch victory from the jaws
of defeat.
The withdrawal of the opera house set off a sudden spur of activity in the drafting rooms
of Raymond Hood. Numerous "superblock" plans were created, and one of them,
labeled simply "G-3", was selected to form the basis of all future development.
It assured light and air to all the towers and boasted an attractive approach to Fifth
Avenue. For the first time, this plan also generated enough bulk to be economically
feasible. By grouping the tower rights for the entire central block in a single office
building west of the plaza, the low-scale buildings on Fifth Avenue and the void of the
plaza were at last affordable.
Amid a blaze of publicity, the "Radio City"
project was officially unveiled to the press on March 5, 1931, a a "gleaming white
model that slowly revolved against its backdrop of velvet drapes. The reviews were not
kind. Weakly conceived," "reckless" and "chaos... a cross section of
metropolitan disorder" were some of the comments.
Hood rebutted. "The first consideration was utility. The problems of elevators,
light and air and the other engineering questions which enter into the construction of any
great project were the first to be solved.
After that came the work of making the exteriors as good as possible. A building
today is built from the inside, not the outside. Genuine, vigorous beauty, the sort of
beauty which is found in our skyscrapers, must go hand in hand with utility.
Looking back, it can be said that perhaps New Yorkers were totally taken aback by the
scope and scale of the project. It was too difficult to imagine, even with models, just
what this huge project would mean for the cityscape. Would it be an isolated "city
within a city", or could it be integrated into the city as a whole?"
As we know know, the Rockefeller Center that resulted is not a building, but an intimate
urban space. Comprised of 14 buildings by 1940, Rockefeller Center's public spaces are as
impressive as the buildings themselves. Rockefeller Plaza is a many-leveled pedestrian
space surrounding a skating rink in winter, an outdoor cafe in summer.
Channel Gardens rises on a slope to Fifth Avenue. Rockefeller Center's buildings are cast
in limestone, aluminum and glass. The seventy-story RCA (now GE) Building (1933) is the
centerpiece, a slender soaring mass that carries one's view on an endless ride up.
By 1940 the RCA Building was surrounded by fourteen buildings
of varying heights; additional construction through 1973 increased that number to
twenty-one.
The building exteriors are uniformly clad in buff-colored limestone. Inside, to lure new
tenants during the Depression, they incorporated high-speed elevators and
air-conditioning, a novelty at the time.
The sumptuous 5,874-seat Radio City Music Hall (1932) is an Art Deco delight. Designed as
a palatial entertainment center affordable to the general public, it was opened on
December 27, 1932.
The opulence of the foyer stunned theatregoers during the depression. It has a ceiling 60
feet (eighteen meters) high and drapes extending from the ceiling to the floor, ornate
mirrors, and long, slender chandeliers.
Buildings comprising the original Rockefeller Center include the 1270 Avenue of the
Americas Building (originally the RKO Building, 1932), British Empire Building , Channel
Gardens and La Maison Francaise (1933), Palazzo d’Italia (1935), International
Building (1935), 1 Rockefeller Plaza (originally Time and Life Building, 1937), Associated
Press Building (1938), 10 Rockefeller Plaza (originally Eastern Airlines Building, 1939),
Simon & Schuster Building (originally U.S. Rubber Company building, 1940).
Rockefeller Center
Amid a blaze of publicity, the "Radio City"
project was officially unveiled to the press on March 5, 1931, a a "gleaming white
model that slowly revolved against its backdrop of velvet drapes. The reviews were not
kind. Weakly conceived," "reckless" and "chaos... a cross section of
metropolitan disorder" were some of the comments.
By 1940 the RCA Building was surrounded by fourteen buildings
of varying heights; additional construction through 1973 increased that number to
twenty-one. 
