Construction of Rockefeller Center

[15] Columbia also stopped enforcing its height restriction, which Okrent describes as a tactical mistake for the college because the wave of development along Fifth Avenue caused the Upper Estate to become available for such redevelopment.

[68] Hugh Ferriss and John Wenrich were hired as "architectural renderers", to produce drawings of the proposed buildings based on the Associated Architects' blueprints.

[79] In August 1929, Rockefeller created a holding company to purchase the strip of land on Sixth Avenue that he did not already lease,[80] so he could construct a larger building on the site and maximize his profits.

Hood came up with the idea to negotiate with the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and its subsidiaries, National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO), to build a mass media entertainment complex on the site.

[91][92] This was achievable because Wallace Harrison was good friends with Julian Street, a Chicago Tribune reporter whose wife's great-uncle Edward Harden was part of the RCA board of directors.

[93][95] It turned out that Young, a longtime friend of Rockefeller's, had been thinking of constructing a "Radio City" for RCA for several years, even as the company was already in the process of developing a new building on Lexington Avenue.

[41][84][101] The 50-story tower was included because its larger floor area would provide large profits, and its central location was chosen because Todd believed that the center of the complex was too valuable to waste on low-rise buildings.

[110] This plan had not been disclosed to the general public prior to the announcement, and even John Rockefeller Jr. was surprised by the $350 million cost estimate (equivalent to $5.08 billion in 2023), since a private project of this size was unprecedented.

Hood created a guideline that all of the office space in the complex would be no more than 27 feet (8.2 m) from a window, which was the maximum distance that sunlight could directly penetrate the interior of a building at New York City's latitude.

The renowned architectural scholar Lewis Mumford went into exile in upstate New York specifically because the "weakly conceived, reckless, romantic chaos" of the plans for Rockefeller Center had violated his sense of style.

Mumford's commentary provoked a wave of blunt, negative criticism from private citizens; newspapers, such as the New York Herald Tribune; and architects, including both Frank Lloyd Wright and Ralph Adams Cram, whose styles were diametrically opposed to each other.

[165][166][167][168] They held talks with prospective Czech, German, Italian, and Swedish lessees who could potentially occupy the six-story internationally themed buildings on Fifth Avenue, although it was reported that Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian tenancies were also considered.

It would now include a series of people mover tunnels, similar to the U.S. Capitol subway, which would link the complex to locations such as Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station.

Additionally, a 0.75-mile (1.21 km) system of pedestrian passages would be 34 feet (10 m) underground, and a 125-by-96-foot (38 by 29 m) sunken lower plaza would connect to the mall via a wide concourse under the RCA Building.

[214] Specialists from around the world were retained for the art program: for instance, Edward Trumbull coordinated the colors of the works inside the buildings, and Léon-Victor Solon did the same job for the exterior pieces.

[233] As a result of the Man at the Crossroads controversy, Nelson scaled back his involvement with the complex's art, and his father began scrutinizing all of the artworks thereafter commissioned for the center.

[251] Carol Herselle Krinsky, in her 1978 book, describes the center as "the only large private permanent construction project planned and executed between the start of the Depression and the end of the Second World War".

[257] The center's managers then set to acquire the remaining lots along Sixth Avenue, and at the southeast corner of the site, so that they could create a larger complex, which led to the formation of the Underel Corporation.

The negotiations for the Sixth Avenue properties were conducted by different brokers and law firms so as to conceal the Rockefeller family's involvement in the Underel Corporation's acquisitions.

[284] Meanwhile, the British and French governments had already agreed to occupy the first two internationally themed buildings, and John Rockefeller Jr. started signing tenants from the respective countries.

Thereafter, Crowell supplanted Ivy Lee as the complex's official publicity manager, and his subsequent releases employed a variety of superlatives, massive amounts of statistics and calculations, and the occasional bit of hyperbole.

[317] Crowell published many new press releases every day, and by the midpoint of the complex's construction in 1935, he also started staging celebrity appearances, news stories, and exhibitions at Rockefeller Center.

[347][348][349] The more northerly small building was originally proposed for German occupation under the name "Deutsches Haus" before Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1932.

[66][354][359][360] Aside from the averted controversy with the potential German tenants, the internationally themed complex was seen as a symbol of solidarity during the interwar period, when the United States' entry in the League of Nations was obstructed by American isolationists.

[365] However, this novelty soon faded, and the gardens started running a $45,000-per-year deficit by 1937 ($787,000 in 2023 dollars[14]) due to the massive expense involved in hoisting plants, trees, and water to the roofs, as well as a lack of interest among tourists.

[370] Despite this seeming success in the face of the Depression, construction was considered to be behind schedule: all the buildings had originally been set for completion by mid-1935, yet the central parts of the northern and southern blocks were still undeveloped.

[389] Rockefeller Center's executives had talks with the Associated Press for a building on the northern empty lot,[390] which was occupied by the complex's truck delivery ramp.

[419]) Ultimately, the United States Rubber Company was convinced to move from their headquarters at Columbus Circle to the proposed 1230 Avenue of the Americas building at Rockefeller Center.

[437] Although 600 Fifth Avenue was not developed by Rockefeller Center Inc., that company was allowed to dictate the general Art Deco design of the building as part of an agreement with Massachusetts Mutual.

[451] Further expansion of Rockefeller Center on the west side of Sixth Avenue, between the Hilton and the new Time-Life Building, was not possible because the Equitable Life Assurance Society had built a tower in between the two properties.