Rockefeller Center travel guide

The Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 skyscrapers

It was built by the richest citizen of America, John D. Rockefeller Jr., whom New York also has to thank for Rockefeller University, Fort Tryon Park with The Cloisters, and the UN headquarters, for which he donated the land. The 4ha/9.8ac plot originally belonged to Columbia University, from whom John D. Rockefeller bought it in 1928. Between 1931 and 1940, during the worst depression, 228 houses had to be torn down first so that, with its 12 buildings, the largest private business and entertainment complex in the world could be built. In 1932 the RCA Building (today GE Building) was opened. A team of seven architects was responsible for the plans, including Wallace K. Harrison, who created the United Nations Headquarters and the Lincoln Center. From 1957 a second building phase and a further five buildings followed. Alongside countless offices, which see 250,000 people enter and leave daily, the Rockefeller Center has 30 restaurants, dozens of shops on ground level and, in the underground passages, television studios, exhibition rooms and in the winter an ice rink. The generous plazas are virtually a museum featuring frescos, sculptures and reliefs. More than two dozen artists are represented with over 100 works. At the end of 1989 the Japanese Mitsubishi Estate Company bought 51% of the Rockefeller Center from the – at that time – 88 Rockefeller heirs. Since 2001 the entire complex has belonged to the real estate company Tishman Speyer, which had to raise $1.85 billion to pay for it. In the meantime the value has probably risen in the face of the increasing real estate prices in Manhattan.

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Menahem

Une superbe vue de Central Park, depuis le Top of the Rock. L'ascencion est a 25$ si je me rappel... more

2009-10-17 / follow Menahem / report abuse

philipp

on top of the Rockefeller center, you will find the city's best view: central park to the north, and the empire state park building in the south NOT TO MISS

2008-05-04 / follow philipp / report abuse