GE Building

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This article is about the skyscraper in Rockefeller Center. For the shorter building of the same name, see General Electric Building, formerly the RCA Victor Building.

The GE Building, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, is a slim gothic-inspired Art Deco skyscraper and the focal point of the Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan, New York City. At 850 ft (259 m) with 70 floors, it is the 7th tallest building in New York City and the 30th tallest in the United States.

It was built in 1933 and named the RCA Building. The Rockefeller family office, Room 5600, was immediately established on the 56th floor; it now covers three floors (54-56) of the building. The name of the building was changed in 1988, two years after General Electric (GE) re-acquired RCA. It was notable for being the first building ever constructed with the elevators grouped in the central core of the structure.

The GE Building is one of the most famous and recognized skyscrapers in New York. The frieze above the main entrance was executed by Lee Lawrie and depicts Wisdom, along with a slogan that reads "Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times". The vertical detailing of the building's austere Art Deco facade is integrated with a slim, functionally expressive form. Now, the exterior is recognized for the big GE letters on the very top and its famous marquee at the building's entrance often seen on TV shows such as Seinfeld. Unlike most other tall Art-Deco buildings constructed in the 1930s, the GE Building has no spire on its roof.

It is well-known for housing the headquarters and most of the New York studios of NBC, which is owned by GE. They include the largest, Studio 8H, the home of Saturday Night Live. 8H was once the largest radio studio in the world, and after its conversion to TV served as home to the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. The Tonight Show was also taped at the GE Building from the early Jack Paar years until 1972, when the show moved to Burbank. (WNBC-TV's main news studio now occupies the former Tonight space). During its run, Rosie O'Donnell broadcast her syndicated talk show from the building.

The top floor of the building is an event room and restaurant named the Rainbow Room, which was recently reopened to the public. The famous photo Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper was taken here when the building was under construction in 1932.

Below the building is a shopping concourse. One of the first escalators provided access to the small shopping mall from the lobby. The open lobby was the first of its time and rich materials, reduced black and beige ornamental scheme is enhanced by dramatic lighting. Granite covers the building base to a height of 4 ft (1.2 m), and the shaft has a refined facade of Indiana limestone with aluminum spandrel panels.

The observation deck atop the skyscraper, dubbed "Top of the Rock", reopened to the public on 1 November 2005, after undergoing a $75 million renovation. It had been closed since 1986 to accommodate the renovation of the Rainbow Room. The deck, which is built to resemble the deck of a cruise ship, offers sightseers a bird's eye view of the city, competing with the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building.

In 1985 the GE Building was given official landmark status. Some of its nicknames include The Slab and 30 Rock.

Its official address is 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112.

1 NBC Studios productions in the GE Building
2 See also
3 Further reading
4 External links

[edit] NBC Studios productions in the GE Building

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
Dateline NBC
NBC Sports
WNBC Channel 4 (the network's flagship station)
Saturday Night Live
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Keith Ablow (Taped on 3rd Floor, Studio 3H)

MSNBC, beginning in 2007 will podcast a majority of it's programing from a two floor studio, currently under construction.

(*The Today Show has been produced at a ground-level windowed studio across 49th Street from the GE Building since the mid-1990s; it was previously broadcast from inside the skyscraper)

30 Rock Elevators and other building elements taped in 30 Rock. Bulk of production takes place at NBC's Long Island City studios.

[edit] See also

Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller family
Original General Electric Building (1931, built as RCA Victor Bldg)
Buildings and architecture of New York City
50 Tallest buildings in the U.S.
Tallest buildings in New York City
List of Skyscrapers
World's tallest structures

[edit] Further reading

Harr, John Ensor, and Peter J. Johnson. The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.
Roussel, Christine, The Art of Rockefeller Center, New York ; W.W. Norton & Company, 2006 ISBN 0-393-06082-9