1 Rockefeller Plaza

You are standing before One Rockefeller Plaza, a thirty-six story Art Deco tower that anchors the southeastern corner of the Rockefeller Center complex. Before this building rose in nineteen thirty-seven, the site was occupied by what was then the largest parking facility in all of New York City. The tower was originally constructed to serve as the headquarters for the Time and Life publishing company, reflecting the corporate ambition that defined the entire development during the Great Depression. Its location on the east side of the plaza, between forty-eighth and forty-ninth streets, places it right at the heart of what John D. Rockefeller Junior envisioned as a city within a city.