Design Reserach Project
Page 12
Public Contribution in High-Rise Building Design
@ New York City
Rockefeller Center : The City within the City
Rockefeller - The Classical Complex
The Contribution
There are 3 major issues about Rockefeller Center in terms of contribution to Public;
1. Urban Outdoor Open Space
2. Art Exhibition
3. The Concourse
Each of them has their own value to the public and each of them has some strong relation to others.
I. Urban Outdoor Open Space
The outdoor open space of Rockefeller Plaza is one of the most famous spots for tourists in New York City and for many working people in midtown. Many of them walk so far from their offices to just go, sit and have lunch in Rockefeller Out door Plaza. Many tourist groups come every 10 minutes to take pictures around the center. There fore, it is common to see hundreds of people walk around the complex all day long. The outdoor space can be divided into 3 major parts;
1.1. Private Street
1.2. Sunken Plaza
1.3. The Channel Garden Promenade
1.1. Private Street - As it is called, this street was built inside the land of Rockefeller Group. It is not the public investment. Visitors who pass this street can easily sense the different of this street from others in town. The finishing was the lime stone that has various light colors. It used to be the way to access by car into the middle of the center, port-cochere for executive of the 30 Rockefeller Building. But when the time changed and the open space of the center became extremely successful, the owner decided to donate this street for the pedestrian. It was changed to become a large walk way. The small column was set up to block the car from making a circulation. Some benches were installed to the street to attract the people to use them and it works.
Pictures of the Activities in the Private Street
(Click for zoom in))
However, the benches and the small column were only for temporary because this space was also planned to be the multipurpose space for every event in the center. It can be used as a loading dock for all the back up system of every concert, or the place for extracting some equipment and elements of making the X'mas Tree. It is also the spot for placing X'mas tree itself. Or it can be used for common events such as some fairs.
It is one of the few obvious examples of bringing back the urban public space from the automobils to the pedestrians.
1.2. Sunken Plaza - This is the most famous ice skating rink in the world. It is the most famous spots for taking pictures in New York City. However, the ice skating rink is not here all year round. It is only for winter time and gone before early spring. Prometheus and the fountain are the ones which remain with Rockefeller Plaza in the sunken court of the center.
The Sunken Plaza was emphasized by designs in many ways;

A. The axis - The sunken plaza is located on the main axis of the complex which is the promenade through the 30 Rockefeller. The Prometheus automatically became the focal point for the visitors from 5th Ave.

B. The planning - there is no such sunken plaza that was designed with sequential border from the street level to the plaza itself. Looking around New York City, if any developers want to create the sunken plaza, what they do is making the plaza sunk from the street totally, making the rail for protecting the people from falling and protecting themselves from lawsuit. And finally making the staircase to link the plaza to the ground level. But in Rockefeller Sunken Plaza, it is not that simple to make it become a success.

There are series of landscape elements that were designed to link the ground level of the street to the sunken plaza. This issue will be explain in the analysis of the sunken plaza access.

C. The flag Colonnade - when it is the time for flag installation, this plaza will be filled with the flags that represent the wind which is one of the symbols of life. Furthermore, if all the nations' flags were installed, the image of the plaza will be changed into international space. However, if all the flags were raised up, it will be a temporary enclosure for the sunken plaza that will elevate the prestige of the plaza into a higher level.

Picture: Poodle shows obedience instruction at National Dog Weeks,1939
Picture: Celebration of Holidays has given the Center a community role. The bunny garden was an Easter feature in 1936.
Picture: Annual Easter Concert in 1943 was beamed over short wave radio in United States Troops in Europe and Orient. The chorus were the business people who work in Rockefeller Center
Picture: Annual Ice Skating Activities.
Sunken Plaza is the space for creating major activities all year round. In summer, it is the outdoor café that the people always want to have seats. In winter, it is the ice skating rink which all New Yorkers have to wait in a long line to play for a short period.
3. The Channel Garden Promenade - It is a walk way that was designed to be the gate for bringing people into the heart of the center. But it is not only just the common walk way. The Channel Garden Promenade from Fifth Avenue down to the Sunken Plaza constitutes probably one of the city's finest public space despite its relatively small size. Wonderful and very animated fountainheads are surrounded by benches and lush landscaping that is changed seasonally. Sometimes this promenade is used for exhibition as an extension space from the Sunken Plaza or Private Street. At that period this promenade can be the gateway of the exhibition itself.
The three elements combined, result = the greatest urban space in the world
This Sunken Plaza made the center become so popular enough to make all developers in town thinking about doing the same thing. However, of course, not everybody is successful with the idea. Eventhough the Sunken Plaza is the heart of this urban space, but if only with itself without the support from the promenade space and the private street, there will be no such successful place in Mid-town New York.
The promenade itself is the major way to attract the people into the city, Prometheus on the fountain inside the sunken plaza is the focal point that brings the people to walk towards the heart of the center. The private street is always the space for backing up all activities. These combinations were actually more complex. However, it is obvious that each of them can not live without another. It is one of the of the fundamental rules in designing that once it is completed, nobody can take anything out of it and nobody can add anything into it. It became perfect on its own.