In 1949, in the face of a shrinking congregation, St.

Nicholas Church leased the church building to

the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, who then leased three contiguous lots from
Rockefeller Center for a proposed 28-story building. The Fifth Avenue facade of the new building
would have a setback at the 11th floor, and the midblock facade on 49th Street would not block the
view from La Maison Francaise across the street, as stipulated by an agreement with Rockefeller
Center managers.[434][435] The church moved out of its plot on Fifth Avenue and 48th Street, and the old
church building was subsequently demolished.[436] Construction commenced on 600 Fifth Avenue in
1950, and the tower was completed by 1952.[434][435] The building was named after the Sinclair Oil
Company, which leased eight floors.[437] Although 600 Fifth Avenue was not developed by Rockefeller
Center Inc., that company was allowed to dictate the general Art Deco design of the building
as part of an agreement with Massachusetts Mutual. In return, Massachusetts Mutual stipulated that
the building contain an entrance to Rockefeller Center's underground concourse, and that the leases
for William Cromwell's remaining lots be transferred to Rockefeller Center. [438]
The small Center Theatre was deemed redundant to Radio City Music Hall, and in its final years,
had been used as an NBC and RCA broadcasting space. [439][440] In 1953, NBC and RCA expanded into
the office space in 30 Rockefeller Center that Sinclair had just vacated. [435] After the broadcasting
studio was abandoned, the U.S. Rubber Company indicated that it wanted to expand
its office building into the space that was occupied by the underused theater. [435][441] In October 1953,
it was announced that the theater would be demolished. [442] During the demolition process, the U.S.
Rubber Building was put on temporary stilts, with the offices above the former theater still being
occupied during the demolition process.[443] No vestige of the former theater remains, since 1230
Avenue of the Americas' annex occupies the same space as the original building. [441]
1271 Avenue of the Americas, formerly the second Time-Life Building

Former New York Hilton at Rockefeller Plaza, located three blocks north of the actual complex
Time-Life also wanted to expand, as its existing space in 1 Rockefeller Plaza had become
insufficient by 1953.[444] In August of that year, Rockefeller Center Inc. bought a tract of land on the
west side of Sixth Avenue between 50th and 51st streets. [445] Rockefeller Center's managers
originally wanted to build an extra NBC studio or a Ford vehicle showroom on the site. However,
they changed their minds once they saw Time Inc.'s expansion needs: the company wanted to have
its headquarters in a single building. As they would outgrow their existing space in 1 Rockefeller
Plaza by 1954, the company would have to move elsewhere. Not wanting to lose Time Inc.'s
tenancy, the complex's managers hired Harrison & Abramovitz, composed of Wallace Harrison
and Max Abramovitz, to create plans for a building on the newly acquired plot that could house both
NBC and Time.[444] NBC later dropped out of the deal because its CEO, David Sarnoff, dissented. [387]
In 1956, two years after the demolition of the Center Theatre, officials announced the construction of
a new tower, the Time-Life Building, on the western side of Sixth Avenue between 50th and 51st
Streets. The 500-foot (150 m), $7 million building ($98.9 in 2019 dollars [14]) would include
connections to the existing passageway system and to the Roxy Theater directly to its west. [446] The
tower would rise as a 48-story slab, with a plaza to the east and an eight-story annex along its
western and northern sides.[387] One of Rockefeller Center's subsidiaries, Westprop
Inc., bought the air rights to the original Roxy Theater located next door so that the new tower could
conform to the Zoning Resolution of 1916.[447] Time Inc. and Rockefeller Center formed a joint
venture, Rock-Time Inc., which would share the tower's rent income between them.[387] Construction
on the Time-Life Building's steelwork started in April 1958, [448] and the structure topped out in
November of that year.[449] The cornerstone of the building was laid in June 1959, after the building's
structure had been completed,[450] and the first tenants began moving into the tower in December
1959.[388]
During this time, plans called for Rockefeller Center to expand northward. Rockefeller Center, Uris
Buildings Corporation, and Webb and Knapp formed another joint venture, Rock-Uris Corp., to
construct a hotel to the west of 75 Rockefeller Center. However, Webb and Knapp faced monetary
shortages, and the joint venture found that a hotel was not the most profitable use of the land.
The joint venture instead decided to construct a glass-and-concrete 43-story office building on the
site, with connections to the complex's underground concourse. [451] In 1961, the building was named
after Sperry Corporation, which leased eight floors in the future building.[452] The planned hotel was
moved to another site two blocks north, on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 53rd and 54th
Streets.[451] This became the New York Hilton at Rockefeller Center, which opened in 1963.[453] The
hotel's name was misleading because it was located outside the complex and not connected to the
underground mall. The mall could not be extended anyway because the 53rd Street subway was in
the way.[451] Further expansion of Rockefeller Center on the west side of Sixth Avenue, between the
Hilton and the new Time-Life Building, was not possible because the Equitable Life Assurance
Society had built a tower in between the two properties.[451]

1960s and 1970s[edit]

The three buildings at 1211–1251 Avenue of the Americas were opened from 1971 through 1974.
In 1963, officials from Esso approached Gustav Eyssell, [454] who had been Rockefeller Center Inc.'s
president since Hugh Robertson had stepped down in 1948. [455] Esso proposed that Eyssell approve
another building for the company, which had outgrown the space that it already occupied in
Rockefeller Center. Eyssell seriously considered the proposal because the complex did not want to
lose Esso's tenancy, and because the complex's existing tenants were requesting a combined
2 million sq ft (190,000 m2) of extra space.[454] Rockefeller Center's managers re-hired Harrison &
Abramovitz to design three new towers on the west side of Sixth Avenue, with one tower on each of
the blocks between 47th and 50th Streets. The managers purchased the land for the three proposed
buildings in private. Simultaneously, they consulted with large potential tenants, and eventually
managed to sign Esso, McGraw-Hill, and Celanese as the main tenants for the buildings. Under the
plan, Esso (later renamed Exxon) would move into the northernmost tower at 1251 Avenue of the
Americas, while McGraw-Hill would occupy the center tower at 1221, and Celanese would have the
southernmost tower at 1211.[456] These were called the "XYZ Buildings" because the three towers
were so similar that their placements could be interchanged. [457]
Harrison & Abramowitz's plans were influenced by several design elements. [456] Most importantly, the
firm wished to include plazas in front of each of the new Rockefeller Center buildings, drawing from
their recent design for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, which
contained several buildings around a central plaza. [458][h] The new Rockefeller Center buildings' front
plazas would serve as large gathering spaces, similar to the lower plaza in the original complex. The
original Rockefeller Center did not include plazas along Sixth Avenue because the elevated line
would have overshadowed these spaces, but now that the Sixth Avenue elevated had been
demolished, the new buildings' plazas would add open space to the Sixth Avenue side of the
complex. As a bonus, the plazas canceled out the imposing visual effects of the buildings on the
avenue's east side, which rose straight up from their property lines and made for a cliff-like effect.
[460]
 Finally, per a 1961 revision to the 1916 Zoning Resolution, the inclusion of public plazas would
allow the towers' builders to include more office space in each building.[461]
Unlike the old complex, which had to satisfy John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s aesthetic desires, the new
towers did not need to be excessively beautiful: the present executives of Rockefeller Center were
more concerned with the buildings' functionality.[462] However, the proposed design of the new towers
strained relations between Harrison and Nelson Rockefeller. This arose from the media's harsh
reviews of the proposed expansion, which was described by one critic as "the sinister Stonehenge of
economic man".[463]
There were several impediments to the start of construction. Foremost among them was the fact that
the proposed floor area of the new buildings was greater than the amount allowed under the 1961
resolution. The Urban Design Group, a division of the New York City Department of City Planning,
suggested that the towers include an enclosed walkway with retail space, as well as a movie theater
in one of the buildings.[464][465] The McGraw-Hill Building was to include a basement planetarium with a
dome above ground level, which would be operated by a subsidiary, while the Celanese Building
was to contain the theater.[465] Neither of these attractions were actually built: the planetarium space
was occupied by a small theater after McGraw-Hill had sold its planetarium subsidiary, while the
theater plan was scrapped due to a lack of funding and a decline in the area's theater industry. The
start of construction was delayed for several years due to these bureaucratic requests. [466] The city
finally approved the project after Rockefeller Center Inc. promised to build the enclosed walkway
west of the Celanese Building as well as two parks west of the Exxon and McGraw-Hill Buildings. [467]
Plans for the new buildings were announced on a staggered schedule from 1967 to 1970. The
Exxon Building was announced in August 1967, [468] followed by the McGraw-Hill Building in
November 1967[469] and the Celanese Building in 1970. [470] Complications arose when William A.
Ruben, a resident of 132 West 48th Street who lived on the planned Celanese Building site west of
Sixth Avenue, refused to move from his home. He finally agreed to move, in July 1968, when he
received compensation of over $22,000 (equivalent to $163,700 in 2020). [471] The construction
process was further hampered by labor strikes.[466] During mid-1969, workers on the Exxon and
McGraw-Hill Buildings went on strike.[472] Three years later in July 1972, construction workers at
several projects across the city, including the Celanese Building, went on strike for over a month. [473]
The Exxon Building, the northernmost of the three towers, was the first building to be completed, in
1971.[457] The 54-story tower had 2,101,115 square feet (195,200 m2) of office space.[474] This was
followed by the McGraw-Hill Building, the central tower, in 1973. [457] This 51-story building had
2,199,982 square feet (204,385 m2) of office space.[475] The Celanese Building, the southernmost
tower, was the last to open, in 1974. [457] The 45-story building had 1,854,912 square feet (172,327 m2)
of office space.[476] After the completion of the final building, the center was spread out across 22
acres (8.9 ha) of land and contained around 17 million sq ft (1.6 million m2) of office space across 19
buildings.[477]
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
1. ^ As per the 1916 Zoning Act, the wall of any given tower that faces a street could only rise to
a certain height, proportionate to the street's width, at which point the building had to be set
back by a given proportion. This system of setbacks would continue until the tower reaches a
floor level in which that level's floor area was 25% that of the ground level's area. After that
25% threshold was reached, the building could rise without restriction. [123] This law was
superseded by the 1961 Zoning Resolution.[124]
2. ^ Ella Wendel, the only survivor of a prominent real-estate family, did not give up her row
house at 51st Street until her death in 1935. [259][260] Additionally, 20th Century Fox founder and
movie producer William Fox refused to sell his six row houses on 48th Street until late 1931,
when the Center Theatre surrounding his property was almost complete.[261] Fox's buildings
would remain until the late 1930s, after much of the complex had been constructed. [262]
3. ^ The grocer John F. Maxwell would only sell his property at 50th Street if he received $1
million in return. Owing to miscommunication, Heydt told Rockefeller that Maxwell would
never sell, and Maxwell himself said that he had never been approached by the Rockefellers;
consequently, Maxwell kept his property and Rockefeller Center did not purchase Maxwell's
lease until 1970.[263][264] Maxwell's demand paled in comparison to that of Daniel Hurley and
Patrick Daly, owners of a speakeasy on 49th Street, who would sell for $250 million.
Rockefeller refused to pay, since it was nearly the cost of the entire tract. They ended up
leasing their property until 1975.[264][265]
4. ^ In 1936, Cromwell prepaid ten years' worth of rent on 12 West 49th, counterbalancing the
unpaid rent for the neighboring row house, and agreed to forfeit 14 West 19th. [267]
5. ^ Carol Herselle Krinsky writes that it would have been difficult to use public eminent
domain processes for a private street.[340] Additionally, the 21 Club refused to move from their
property, which was located on 52nd Street along the proposed extension's path. [340][341] Finally,
the extension would have required the rezoning of the area from residential
to commercial use, which would been an arduous process. [340]
6. ^ The "Time-Life Building" appellation would later apply to 1271 Avenue of the Americas, also
located in Rockefeller Center,[387] which opened in 1959.[388] Afterward, the original Time & Life
Building became known as 1 Rockefeller Plaza.[387]
7. ^ Sources disagree on who founded the club. Daniel Okrent gives credit for the idea to
Crowell.[408] However, Daniel Schneider of The New York Times writes that according to a
Rockefeller Center press release at the time, Rockefeller Jr. was watching construction one
day when a watchman told him to "move along", thus inspiring him to create the club. [414]
8. ^ Lincoln Center was incidentally the site of a new Metropolitan Opera House. The original
plan for the new Met had helped stimulate the development of Rockefeller Center. [459]

Citations[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Balfour 1978, p. 7.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b Okrent 2003, p. 7.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997).  How Much Is That in Real Money? A
Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United
States: Addenda et Corrigenda  (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker,
J. J. (1992).  How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator
of Money Values in the Economy of the United States  (PDF).  American Antiquarian
Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.  "Consumer Price Index
(estimate) 1800–". Retrieved January 1, 2020.
4. ^ Bolton, H.C. (October 1897).  "Early American Chemical Societies".  Appleton's Popular
Science Monthly. 51: 822. Retrieved