36. ROCKEFELLER CENTER, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York

## Description

Rockefeller Center is the largest privately-owned business and entertainment center in the world. It comprises 19 buildings on nearly 22 acres in the heart of New York City. Each building of the city-within-a-city has an established relationship to the others - with the 70-story RCA Building being the central structure in the group. Nearly 1/4 of this land has been left vacant to permit the proper play of light and air and to facilitate the flow of traffic. Together the 19 buildings contain a total of 15 million sq. ft. NRA. Rockefeller Center is a multi-use complex, which includes entertainment facilities such as Radio City Music Hall, New York Experience Theater, Guild Theater, and radio and television studios of the National Broadcasting Company; various parks and plazas, 35 restaurants and more than 200 shops and services in addition to office facilities.

## Income

In October 1928, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. signed a 24-year lease with renewal options to 2019, which were extended in 1953 to 2069. Today, Columbia University, under terms of the renewal agreement dated October 1, 1973 to September 30, 1994, receives an increasing schedule of rental payments. The first year of the renewal period brought Columbia $13 million; thereafter, the annual rental payments increase periodically from $9.2 million to $13 million in 1994. The Columbia leasehold represents about 1/2 of the present Center land area of 22 acres.

## Timetable

Project conceived in 1928; construction started in 1931; completed in 1973.

## Development Team

**Developer:** The original project was developed by Todd, Robertson, Todd Engineering Corporation through the Metropolitan Square Corporation, later Rockefeller Center, Inc. Subsequent development has been carried out by Rockefeller Center, Inc. **Architect:** Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison and MacMurray; and Hood and Foulhoux. **Leasing Agent/Management:** Rockefeller Center, Inc.

## Info. Contact

James V. Reed, Assistant Director Public Relations, Rockefeller Center, Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020. 212-489-4304.

Rockefeller Center

The RCA Building

### 82-83. Rockefeller Center, 1929-39

Underground Concourse plan, 1970 (above); Aerial view (right)

Reinhard & Hofmeister, Corbett & Harrison and Hood & Fouilhoux

The celebrated prototype of dense urban development which successfully integrates transportation networks and pedestrian systems is Rockefeller Center in New York. Off-street parking is provided, as are huge subterranean truck docks and shipping rooms 34 feet below street level for servicing the center without interruption to surrounding street activity. The circumstances of large land assembly under private control, a maverick dedication, and collaboration with architects to create an office center in a relatively unproven part of midtown (New York's offices in the 1930's were generally clustered downtown, and midtown office buildings were farther east or south) combined to produce this remarkable plan.

Rockefeller Center proves that good planning can be good business. It has been more than profitable. Its presence has stimulated growth in midtown, and its own confines have more than doubled in size from the original three-block, 14-building complex. Principles of pedestrian concourse linkage between transit ways and building interiors have generally been maintained in the recent expansion of Rockefeller Center along the Avenue of the Americas. It is unfortunate that little of the original sensitivity to massing, preservation of agreeable, usable coordinated open spaces, and high design standards have been preserved in the recent expanded development of Rockefeller Center.