General Electric Building

The General Electric Building is a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture that functions as a visual advertisement for the power of electricity. Completed in nineteen thirty-one, the structure was originally commissioned as the headquarters for the Radio Corporation of America. The architects, the Cross brothers, faced the challenge of representing something as intangible as radio waves in stone and masonry. They solved this by covering the exterior with allegorical symbols, including lightning bolts, radio dials, and anthropomorphic figures that act as guardians of the electrical age.