The building started to deteriorate in the 1980s due to a lack of funding, and UN officials considered renovating the complex by the late 1990s, but the project was deferred for several years.

The General Assembly Building is part of the headquarters of the United Nations in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.

[15] The General Assembly Building was designed in the International Style by a team of ten architects working under planning director Wallace K.

[16] The Board of Design comprised N. D. Bassov of the Soviet Union; Gaston Brunfaut of Belgium; Ernest Cormier of Canada; Le Corbusier of France; Liang Seu-cheng of China; Sven Markelius of Sweden; Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil; Howard Robertson of the United Kingdom; G. A. Soilleux of Australia; and Julio Vilamajó of Uruguay.

[25] Le Corbusier, who had designed the building's massing, had intended for the curving shape to be the visual focal point of the entire headquarters complex.

[72] Flanking the rostrum, in the southern half of the room, is a paneled semi-circular wall that tapers as it nears the ceiling and surrounds the front portion of the chamber.

[48] The north balcony of the General Assembly Hall contains a little-used double door with a marble doorway and circular handles.

[94] The first story of the General Assembly Building also contains silk-rug portraits of all Secretaries-General of the United Nations, which were donated by Iran in 1997.

[120][121][122] After much discussion, Harrison decided to select a design based on the proposals of two board members, Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier.

[131][132] The same month, UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie and the architects began discussing ways to reduce construction costs by downsizing the headquarters.

The architects eliminated one of the auditoriums to reduce construction costs, but the hourglass-shaped layout of the building was retained, albeit with curved side walls.

[133] In April 1948, US president Truman requested that the United States Congress approve an interest-free loan of US$65 million to fund construction.

[132][140] The General Assembly Building would be the third and final major structure in the complex to be completed, with a projected opening date of late 1951.

[157] The building was nearly complete by May 1952, when the delegations voted to delay the start of the General Assembly session by one month, allowing workers to install electrical equipment and furnish the interior.

"[162] The American Association for the United Nations started conducting guided public tours of the headquarters when the General Assembly Building was completed.

[166] The UN built a security checkpoint next to the north lobby in February 1953,[167] and Columbia University Press began operating the bookshop in the building's basement later that year.

[72] The meditation room next to the north lobby was remodeled in February 1957,[172] and Candido Portinari's War and Peace murals were dedicated at the building that September.

[173] At the 1960 meeting of the General Assembly, Hammarskjöld had proposed a wide-ranging renovation program costing US$7.7 million, but this was not executed due to a lack of funds.

[174] Instead, the UN commenced a smaller renovation of the General Assembly Hall and the adjacent Conference Building in June 1960,[175][176] which was estimated to cost US$100,000.

[177] The same year, Abstract Sculpture by American artist Ezio Martinelli[178] was mounted on the eastern elevation of the building's facade.

[187] A bronze bust of the composer Pablo Casals, who had performed at the General Assembly Hall twice, was dedicated in the north lobby the same year.

[188] The Fuller Company began expanding the General Assembly Hall in January 1978 as part of a US$26 million renovation of the entire complex, designed by Harrison & Abramovitz.

[199] After Switzerland joined the UN in 2002, the Swiss government renovated the GA 200 room behind the General Assembly Hall's rostrum, which was rededicated in 2005.

[206] Workers installed an air-conditioning system under the General Assembly Hall's floor and added monitors to the desks.

[206] When the building was completed in 1952, Architectural Forum wrote that the "new Assembly Hall is almost as different as possible from the expectation raised by its chaste marble shell".

[21][217] Mumford likened the "billowing forms" of the north lobby's parapets to drawings by German architect Erich Mendelsohn.

[21][217] British journalist Alistair Cooke wrote for The Manchester Guardian that the dome "looks as if it had keeled over in a bog of cement that had failed to harden".

[67] The modernist architect Paul Rudolph said "the building is not really a product of the International Style but rather a background for a grade 'B' movie about 'one world' with Rita Hayworth dancing up the main ramp".

[73][35] The General Assembly Building and its connected structures have been depicted in numerous films such as The Glass Wall (1953) and North by Northwest (1959).

[219][220] During the filming of The Interpreter in 2004, The New York Times wrote that the building "was not an instant hit with the architectural community when it opened in 1952, and it is interesting in light of this latest chapter in its history to see how its detractors chose to put it down".