VINTAGE MANHATTAN SKYLINE

The Rockefeller Center original complex. Fifth to Sixth avenues between West 48th to 51st Streets. The Associated Architects (Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray; Raymond Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux; Edward Durrell Stone). 1931-1940.  

Aerial view looking northeast or Rockefeller Center original complex, in Summer, 1964, with the 70-story R.C.A. Building (Associated Architects, 1933) at center. 

Above it are some Rockefeller Center’s postwar buildings: The 45-story Sperry Rand Building (Emery Roth & Sons-Harrison & Abramovitz, 1963) are at left, and the 33-story Esso Building (Carson & Lundin, 1947) are at center, above.

The Tishman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) are visible above, left. St. Patrick’s Cathedral are above, at right.

Photo: Publifoto (?). 

Source: "Rizzoli Larousse. Enciclopedia Universale". Vol. X. Milan, Rizolli Editore, 1969.

The 22-story Tishman (later Universal Pictures) Building. 445 Park Avenue, between East 56th to 57th Streets. Kahn & Jacobs. 1946-1948. One of Midtown Manhattan’s first International Style skyscrapers.

View looking northeast of the new 445 Park Avenue Building, in Spring, 1948; showing the old 40-story Ritz Tower (Carrére & Hastings-Emery Roth, 1925) at left.

Photo: P.A. Dearborn.

Source: Progressive Architecture, Junio de 1948.

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Excavation works for new 42-story Equitable Life Assurance Building (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1961), at 1285 Avenue of the Americas. New Rockefeller Center’s Time & Life Building (Harrison & Abramovitz, 1959), under construction, are visible on the right. Old Rockefeller Center buildings appears on background. Spring 1959.

Photo: Dmitri Kessel

Source: LIFE en Español. September 7th, 1959.

ROCKEFELLER CENTER EVOLUTION

Aerial view looking southwest of Rockefeller Center and its neighborhood. Autumn, 1965. 

The orignal Rockefeller Center’s (Associated Architects, 1931-1940) buildings dominated with the 70-story R.C.A. Building (Associated Architects, 1933) at center. Just at right are the modern Time & Life (Harrison & Abramovitz, 1959) and Sperry Rand (Emery Roth & Sons-Harrison & Abramovitz, 1963), the 1960s addition to tje center that building over both sides of Avenue of the Americas.

Other skyscrapers that appears on this picture are the Thisman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) are visible at right, and above it are the, Equitable Life (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1961), CBS (Eero Saarinen & Associates, 1965), J.C. Penney (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1965) and the recently completed ABC-TV (Emery Roth & Sons, 1965) buildings.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: “Libro 1966 Personal”. Barcelona, Difusora Internacional. 4a. Edición, 1971.

ROCKEFELLER CENTER EVOLUTION

Aerial view looking southwest of Rockefeller Center, in summer, 1959.

This picture shows the original Art Deco complex (The Associated Architects: Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray; Raymond Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux; Edward Durrell Stone, 1931-1940) dominated by 70-story R.C.A. Building (Associated Architects, 1933) at center. The new 48-story Time & Life Building (Harrison & Abramovitz, 1959), nearly completion, are visible above, at right, on west side of Avenue of the Americas between West 50th to 51st Streets.

Other buildings arround complex, are the 39-story Tishman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) at right, foreground, and the steel skeleton of the Equitable Life Assurance Building (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1961) under construction, begun to rises up at upper right, next to Time & Life.

Photo: Rockefeller Center, Inc.

Source: Fletcher, Sir. Banister. Historia de la arquitectura. El siglo XX, vol. VI. México, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Noriega Editores. 2005

Aerial view looking south of Midtown Manhattan, in early Summer, 1963. The Chrysler, Pan Am and Union Carbide buildings are at left. The Empire State Building art above, center, dominating the skyline. The Rockefeller Center buildings, dominated by R.C.A. building art at right.

Photo: Charles E. Rotkin-Alcoa.

Source: Architectural Record, March 1969.

View looking northwest of Rockefeller Center skyscrapers and its neighborhood, from Chrysler Building. Spring, 1957. The 70-story R.C.A. Building (Associated Architects, 1933) are at center dominanting the complex, with the Sinclair Building (Carson & Lundin, 1952) below it. The 41-story International Building (Associated Architects, 1935) are at right and the steel skeleton of the Tishman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) under construction are partially visible at far right.

Photo: Alfred Mainzer, Inc.

The 39-story aluminum and glass Tishman Building. 666 Fifth Avenue, west block between 52nd to 53rd streets. Carson & Lundin, 1956-1957.

View looking north of Tishman Building from 52nd Street. Spring, 1958.

Photo: Alexandre George

Source: Progressive Architecture. September, 1958

The 27-story Canada House (Mutual Benefit Life) Building. 680 Fifth Avenue, southwest corner of 54th Street. Eggers & Higgins-Marazio & Morris, architects. 1956-1957.

View looking southwest of Canada House Building, in early, 1958. The new 39-story Tishman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) are visible at left.

Photo: Office for Metropolitan History

Source: Stern, Roberotrft. A.M. Mellins, Thomas. Fishman, David. "New York 1960. Architecture and urbanism between the Second World War and the Bicentennial" (New York. The Monacelli Press. 1997).

Night view, looking southwest, of Rockefeller Center’s skyscrapers area, on Midtown Manhattan, in Autnumn, 1963. The Empire State Building can be seen on backgroound, left.

Photo: Peter Fink

Source: Robert F. Wagner, Joyce Peterson, Peter Fink. “New York que j’aime…” (Paris, Editions Sun, 1964).

Aerial view of Midtown Manhattan looking south in September of 1962 showing great construction activity on Avenue of the Americas (foreground, at right).

Buildings under construction are the Sperry Rand Building (Emery Roth & Sons-Harrison & Abramovitz, 1963) at center, the New York Hilton Hotel (William B. Tabler-Harrison & Abramovitz, 1963) and the Americana Hotel (Morris Lapidus,Kornblath, Harle & Liebman, 1962) at right. 

On freground at left are the Tishman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957), and at right, behind the Hilton appears the Equitable Life Building (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1961) and the Time & Life Building (Harrison & Abramovitz, 1959). The Rockefeller Center with the 70-story RCA Building is on the center.

On the background, at left, appears the Union Carbide Building (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1960) and the 59-story Pan Am Building (Emery Roth & Sons-Walter Gropius-Pietro Belluschi, 1963) under construction. Behind it is the Chrysler Building (Wiliam Van Allen, 1930).

Photo: Lee Lockwood/Black Star.

Source: Furnas, C.C; McCarthy, Joe. “El Ingeniero. Colección Científica de Time-Life.” (México. Time-Life International de México, S.A. de C.V. 1981).

Midtown Manhattan looking northwest from Pan Am Building, in early 1964. Rockefeller Center buildings are at left.

Photo: Unknown.

Source: Victoria Andrade, Natalia García, Homero Sánchez N., Héctor Valle. “Geografía Tres” (México, D.F., Ed. Trillas, Cuarta Edición, 1982).

The 22-story Tishman (later Universal Pictures) Building. 445 Park Avenue, between East 56th to 57th Streets. Kahn & Jacobs. 1946-1948. One of Midtown Manhattan’s first International Style skyscrapers.

View looking northeast of the new 445 Park Avenue Building during its construction, in mid 1947, showing the old 40-story Ritz Tower (Carrére & Hastings-Emery Roth, 1925) at left.

Photo: Unknown. 

Source: "Encyclopaedia Britannica Book of Year. 1948" (Chicago, Britannica, Inc. 1948).

The juxtaposition between the 38-story CBS Building. 51 (Eero Saarinen & Associates, 1965), at center, with the Tishman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) at left, and the J.C. Penney Building (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1965), at right, foreground in this picture looking southwest from West 53rd Street, near Avenue of the Americas. Spring, 1965.

Photo: Joseph Molitor.

Source: Architectural Record. July 1965.

Aerial view looking southwest of Midtown Manhattan in the fall of 1965. The Rockefeller Center buildings dominated with the 70-story R.C.A. Building (Associated Architects, 1933) dominates the cityscape, at center. The modern Thisman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) are visible at right. All the modern skyscrapers that visible at bakground, on right, are on the Avenue of the Americas: Time & Life (Harrison & Lundin, 1959), Sperry Rand (Emery Roth & Sons, 1963), Equitable Life (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1961), CBS (Eero Saarinen & Associates, 1965), J.C. Penney (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, 1965) and the recently completed ABC-TV (Emery Roth & Sons, 1965).

Photo: Unknown.

Source: "Libro 1966 Personal". Barcelona, Difusora Internacional. 4a. Edición, 1971.

Night view of Tishman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) at 666 Fifth Avenue in Spring of 1958. View looking southwest from St. Regis Hotel.

Photo: Samuel H. Gottscho.

Source: Progressive Architecture. September 1958.

Afternoon panorama of Midtown Manhattan looking northwest from the top of Pan Am Building in december of 1963. Rockefeller Center's new Sperry Rand Building (Emery Roth & Sons, 1963) and International Building (Associated Architects, 1935) are on the left. Behind it is the New York Hilton Hotel (William B. Tabler-Harrison & Abramovitz, 1963). The Tishman Building (Carson & Lundin, 1957) and the Art Decó Newsweek Building (Kohn, Vitolo & Knight, 1931) are on the right.

Photo: Evelyn Hofer. 

Source: V.S. Pritchett, Evelyn Hofer. “New York Proclaimed” (New York. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. 1965).