This 22-acre, "city within a city" debuted at the height of the Great Depression, and its gorgeous art deco towers were designated a National Landmark in 1987. Visit for the Top of the Rock observation deck, the towering Christmas tree and Rink at Rockefeller Center and, when they resume, NBC Studio Tours – or just to admire the great exterior bas-reliefs and the murals in the building lobbies. Underground is a warren of shops and tunnels connecting to the subway and neighboring buildings.
Developer John D Rockefeller invested $100 million in the complex, part of which went to 30 great artists, commissioned around the punchy theme "Man at the Crossroads Looks Uncertainly but Hopefully at the Future." Paul Manship contributed the 18ft Prometheus, overlooking the sunken plaza, while Lee Lawrie made the 24ft-tall bronze Atlas, in front of the International Building (630 Fifth Ave). Isamu Noguchi's News sits above the entrance to the Associated Press Building (50 Rockefeller Plaza), while José Maria Sert's oil American Progress awaits in the lobby of central 30 Rockefeller Plaza (formerly known as the GE Building). The latter work replaced Mexican artist Diego Rivera's original painting, rejected by the Rockefellers for containing "communist imagery."
Come the festive season, Rockefeller Plaza is where you'll find New York's most famous Christmas tree. Ceremoniously lit just after Thanksgiving, it's a tradition that dates back to the 1930s, when construction workers set up a small tree on the site. In its shadow, Rink at Rockefeller Center is the city's most-filmed – and smallest – ice-skating rink (which as of 2022 functions as a roller disco in summer).
