Description of the attraction
Rockefeller Center is one of the largest landmarks in New York. The attractive power of this place, which is, in fact, just a large office center, is striking.
It was conceived in the late twenties of the XX century by John Rockefeller Jr. The original project envisioned a new theater for the Metropolitan Opera surrounded by business buildings. However, the stock market crash of 1929 made adjustments: the theater had to be abandoned, investors fled. Then Rockefeller decided to finance the construction alone.
Architect Raymond Goode designed fourteen Art Deco buildings. Construction began in 1930. The project had a huge impact on New York: during the Great Depression, it created more than forty thousand jobs. It is also true that people at that time agreed to work on any terms. In 1932, photographer Charles Clyde Ebbets took the famous picture - "Lunch on top of a skyscraper." It captures the lunch of eleven workers sitting on a steel beam without any insurance (height - 256 meters).
Finding tenants in those days was not easy. The managers of the Center tried to lease one building to German companies and call it "German House". Rockefeller, a staunch opponent of Hitler, refused. During the war, a British secret organization settled here, whose task was to fight German espionage. Nearby was the office of Allen Dulles, the future head of the CIA.
In addition to the fourteen original buildings after the war, four international-style towers and the Lehman Brothers Building were added. The most famous buildings of the huge complex are the Radio City Music Hall with a theater hall for 6,000 spectators, the GE Building (the headquarters of the NBC television network), the Art Center.
The art center is notable for the use of monumental painting and sculpture in its design. In the square in front of the building there is a gilded statue of Prometheus by Paul Menship, and nearby is a bronze statue of Atlanta sculpted by Lee Lori.
In the lobby of the GE Building, there is a fresco "American Progress" by the Spanish artist Jose Maria Serta. In the thirties, Matisse and Picasso were invited to paint the lobby, but the project did not materialize. Rockefeller's wife Abby Aldrich proposed the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, whom she patronized. Rivera painted a striking 99-square-meter mural titled "Man at a Crossroads." One of the fragments depicted the May Day parade in Moscow and Lenin. Rockefeller categorically refused to accept the fresco, paid for the work of Rivere, but did not show the result to the public. They tried to transfer the fresco to the Museum of Modern Art - it did not work out, and it was destroyed. Instead, "American Progress" appeared.
Rockefeller Center houses the headquarters of large companies. In underground spaces - shops, restaurants. In the center of the complex is an ice rink that opens on Columbus Day (October 14) and runs until early April. At the end of November, a huge Christmas tree 25-27 meters high is brought here. It is always someone's gift: it is a great honor to donate a fir tree to Rockefeller Center.
