Rockefeller Center

Identification

Plan

Faits

• In the depths of the Great Depression, Rockefeller Center - still the largest private building enterprise ever undertaken in the United States - began rising over midtown. The project gave employment to almost 4,000 New Yorkers.
• The original fourteen structures remain supreme examples of the heroic slab skyscraper and the Center as a whole embodies the modernist ideal of multiple use in urban design.
• Rockefeller Jr. envisioned a large, ambitious commercial development for the young network-broadcasting industry. RCA, RKO, and NBC would be primary tenants.
• The complex was originally named "the Radio City" and was intended to be a planned modern community.
• The original fourteen buildings were designed by three of the era's foremost architectural firms: Hood & Fouilhoux; Corbett, Harrison, & MacMurray; and Reinhard & Hofmeister.
• Property contains approximately 6,443,537 square feet of usable space.
• In the first few decades of the 19th Century the site of Rockefeller Center was occupied by the Elgin Botanic Garden.
• In 1969 this complex was the first recipient of the American Institute of Architects' prestigious Twenty-Five Year Award given to buildings whose design has stood the test of time for at least 25 years.