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The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of the Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet tall, the 70-story building is the 9th tallest building in New York City and the 32nd tallest in the United States. The building is sometimes referred to as 30 Rock, a reference to its address at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
History
The building was completed in 1933 as part of the Rockefeller Center. The noted art deco architect Raymond Hood led a team of Rockefeller architects. It was named the RCA Building for its main tenant, the Radio Corporation of America, formed in 1919 by General Electric. It was the first building constructed with the elevators grouped in the central core. The National Broadcasting Company, also owned by General Electric, leased space in the building. The office of the Rockefeller family occupied Room 5600 on the 56th floor. This space is now occupied by Rockefeller Family & Associates, spanning between the 54th floor and the 56th floor of the building. In 1985, the building acquired official landmark status. The RCA Building was renamed as the GE Building in 1988, two years after General Electric re-acquired the RCA Corporation.
Some of the building's nicknames include The Slab and 30 Rock. The latter is also the title of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which follows the cast and crew of a fictional SNL-esque television show filmed inside the building. Incidentally the TV show uses the building for exterior shots; interior shots for scenes within the building are in fact shot at Silvercup Studios in Queens.
Features
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. The present exterior is recognized for the big GE letters at the building's top. The famous marquee at the building's entrance is seen on numerous television shows, such as Seinfeld. Unlike most other tall Art-Deco buildings constructed in the 1930s, the GE Building has no spire on its roof.
NBC Studios
The building is well known for housing the headquarters of NBC and the New York facilities of NBC Studios. In 1996, NBC bought outright the 1,600,000 square feet (149,000 m²) of space it had leased since 1933. The purchase allowed the company to introduce new technologies and renovate the space; it also gave them options to renew the lease on the Today Show studios, broadcast from a nearby building, 10 Rockefeller Plaza. Jack Welch, the former chairman of General Electric, has his office on the 51st floor of the building.
NBC's most famous studio is Studio 8H, the home of Saturday Night Live. 8H was once the largest radio studio in the world, originally home to the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. It was converted into a television studio in 1950. 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.
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 top floor of the building is an event room and restaurant named the Rainbow Room, which was recently revamped and reopened to the public with new operators. The famous photo Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper was taken here when the building was under construction in 1932.
Observation deck
The observation deck atop the skyscraper, dubbed "Top of the Rock", reopened to the public on November 1, 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 an ocean liner, offers sightseers a bird's eye view of the city, competing with the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building.
The '"Top of the Rock" had also been co-opted for NBC's Sunday Night Football during the 2006-07 season, with the top player/MVP in that night's game according to John Madden and Al Michaels receiving the honor of being that night's "Rock Star" in the form of a glass trophy display on the observation deck; this was a replacement for the Horse Trailer Award formerly awarded on ABC's Monday Night Football. The Horse Trailer honor was restored for the 2007-08 season.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Building
Text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License
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