I hope you don't mind me adding this, but there's nowhere else to post it...
This building rates a 10 in my book. Art deco RULES!
Yes, the RCA neon was much more attractive. And for me, 30 Rock will probably always be the RCA building.
The observation deck was terrific, and I went there many times in the 70s and early 80s. Unknown why this was closed. Perhaps this was done to facilitate installation of microwave antennae.
I hope I look this good 70 years on.
The setbacks on 30 Rock are due in part to the diminishing amount of elevator shafts in the upper portion of the building!
Whatever happened to the reopening of the observation deck? There was so much hoopla about that several months back.
Do not open until Christmas 2005.
I hope that is still the plan.
i give this building a 9. Theres just something about this building i don't like. Its pobably because i like buildings with points. I only like flat top on modern buildings. Beautifull entrance though. Needs work on the sighn.something bigger and writen fully in cursive.
Yeah, I've always thought something that I'm sure no one else will agree with. How amazing for its time, size, location, and materials if the jagged edges were boxed in to make a giant behemouth "box" of a buildng? The bildings geometry, proportons, vertical lines, and rich materials would make it stand out from the stock of other internationalist towers that would follow.i give this building a 9. Theres just something about this building i don't like. Its pobably because i like buildings with points. I only like flat top on modern buildings. Beautifull entrance though. Needs work on the sighn.something bigger and writen fully in cursive.
I don't agree.
30 Rockefeller should not be judged as a stand-alone, but in it's relationship with the entire center. The famous view across the plaza from Fifth Avenue would not be the same if it was a box. The setbacks make the building soar without overwhelming the low buildings.
Check these out.
http://www.pbase.com/image/24229794
http://www.pbase.com/image/23735237
From this perspective, it's the pointy building that Johnnyboy likes.
Karl B. Staddon on Flickr
October 10, 2007
David Shankbone on Wikipedia
February 19, 2007
Bringing a Smile (Well, a Shine) to a Burdened Statue of Atlas
The Atlas at Rockefeller Center has years’ worth of lacquer and wax, in addition to the weight of the heavens,
to bear. The four-story-high statue will undergo a six-week cleaning.
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: May 4, 2008
Of course, he’s angry. Of course, he’s disheartened. The weight of all the heavens has been on his shoulders for 71 years and, according to the mythological timetable, he has exactly forever to go.
But only a close-up view of Atlas, at the base of the International Building in Rockefeller Center, reveals the powerful paradox of strength and despondency created by Lee Lawrie and Rene Chambellan, the artists behind the four-story-high, seven-ton bronze.
That is because the statue, though structurally sound, has been caked over the decades with so much lacquer and wax that its surface has darkened and deadened. And so, therefore, has its character.
“Everyone reads the substance of things through the surface,” said Jeffrey Greene, president of EverGreene Painting Studios, which is about to begin a six-week cleaning of Atlas, down to the original patina. Mr. Greene believes it is the most ambitious conservation effort for the statue since it was installed in 1937, although it was regularly washed and waxed at least through the late 1980s.
Tishman Speyer, one of the owners of Rockefeller Center, would not disclose the cost of the latest cleaning.
A snapshot staple of any visitor’s souvenir New York album shows Atlas and the 21-foot-diameter armillary sphere on his shoulders (representing the heavens with which he was burdened by Zeus as a member of the losing Titan team), silhouetted in front of the twin spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral across Fifth Avenue. From that vantage, he appears none the worse for wear.
But examined as closely as the scaffolding that now surrounds it will permit, the statue’s surface is flat and dull. Details like the zodiac signs in the armillary sphere are flaking scabrously. Yet, it also becomes clear how much could be revealed with a cleaning.
“There is all this detail in the sculpture that was brought out by the patina,” Mr. Greene said. “It would have accentuated the chiaroscuro and shown the artists’ tool marks. It had a kind of luminosity.” And its muscle contours were in higher relief than they now appear to be. In terms that would make an art critic cringe, this guy’s six-pack abs are made of 18-ounce cans.
On Monday, Mr. Greene said, a translucent scrim will be wrapped around the scaffolding. After that, the statue will get a low-pressure steam bath. Any residue will be cleaned with a gel solvent. A clear acrylic protective coating will be applied and the statue will be hand-waxed to a sheen that is more polished at sculptural highlights and flatter in the interstices.
One block south, Atlas’s popular brother, Prometheus (by Paul Manship), was restored nine years ago.
“What we try to do is keep track of the condition of the artwork and what needs tending to,” said Jerry I. Speyer, the chairman and chief executive of Tishman Speyer. “It’s a fascinating piece of what nobody sees but what you really have to do if you’re going to be a fiduciary for a place like that,” he said. And if you don’t take care of it, it’s going to show the effects.”
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Nice pictures BigMac. The one off of Wikipedia is amazing. Anyone have any idea as to wear it was taken from? Public spot possibly?
Judging from the angle I believe that was taken from the NY Palace Hotel, between 51st and 52nd (EDIT: actually 50th and 51st) and Madison and Park.
Last edited by Optimus Prime; May 5th, 2008 at 09:38 AM.
Ok, thank you. Is it possible to get into the Palace to take pictures? It looks like an incredible hotel!
What, you don't have $700+ a night to spend?I doubt they would let you past the lobby, but I suppose it can't hurt to ask if you're in the area anyway. A doorman there was very nice to me once when I was looking for the Municipal Arts Society (it shares the Villard Mansion with the hotel lobby, the hotel rooms are actually in a big black international style tower), FWIW.
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