ROCKEFELLER CENTER

Yes, “They all laughed at Rockefeller Center,” as George Gershwin noted in his song, and some New Yorkers even called the building "Cloud-cuckoo-land."  But, John D. Rockefeller got the last laugh.  Rockefeller Center is one of the city's most visited Art Deco buildings and home to the the National Broadcasting Company, Radio City Music Hall and the dancing rockettes, the Rainbow Room, a skating rink and America's most famous Christmas tree. 

The construction of Rockefeller Center, a lavish complex of buildings, began before the Great Depression.  That it continued at a time when so many people were suffering seemed foolish to many Americans.  Rockefeller Center soon found itself involved in another and  unexpected controversy when the Mexican artist, Diego Rivera, was commissioned by the Rockefeller family to paint a fresco for the Center’s lobby.  The fresco, entitled "Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future," portrayed capitalism as an "evil choice" and Marxist socialism as a "virtuous one. "  It also included a portrait of Russian communist Vladimir Lenin.  Rivera, then the world's most famous muralist, was literally wheeled out of Rockefeller Center while painting on his scaffold and immediately fired.   A plan to allow the Museum of Modern Art to acquire the fresco ended when building management had it smashed to pieces.  Rivera's career as a muralist in America was destroyed. 

Built in 1931 and designed by Raymond Hood, Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 buildings, numerous shops and the Top of the Rock's 70th floor observation deck.  A visit to the top is the best view in Manhattan and the ride up the elevator includes a video history of the building.  Tours of Radio City Music Hall and of NBC Television studios are available.  Saturday Night Live and the Today and Tonight shows all have been broadcasted live from a studio here.  On the Fifth Avenue side of the building, there is an Atlas sculpture and a skating rink featuring a gold statue of Prometheus.  The plaza has 200 flag poles which fly flags of United Nation countries.

This location was the first public garden in America, the Elgin Botanical Garden, established by botanist and physician David Hosack in 1801.  Hosack's more significant role in American history was as the physician of Alexander Hamilton at his fatal duel with Aaron Burr.

Radio City Music Hall's Art Deco design by architect Donald Desky used glass, aluminum, chrome and geometric ornamentation.  Its theater has a giant sunset ceiling.  It opened in 1932 and has one of the best designed stage(s) in the world with many moving parts and a wonderful lighting system.  The stage system’s elevators were so advanced in their time that the U.S. Navy incorporated identical hydraulics into its construction of World War II aircraft carriers.  

Radio City Music Hall features a yearly Christmas show, concerts and special events such as the Tony Award and Emmy presentations.  The photo above is of the tall main Rockefeller Center building.  In the foreground is a temporary sculpture, Oracle, by Sanford Biggers.