Rockefeller Center

A color drawing of a birds-eye view of the roof terrace of a low skyscraper. In the foreground, people gather around tables under umbrellas around a small patio with a fountain in the center. In a more distant part of the roof are rows of small trees and symmetrical flower beds. A tall skyscraper rises up from the end of the terrace. A pedestrian bridge connects this roof terrace with the roof terrace of a neighboring building. To the right is a glimpse of a road with cars four or five stories below.

Rendering by John C. Wenrich, 1894–1970
from Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Center, Inc., New York, 1932
13¾" × 10½"

Hood’s principal legacy at Rockefeller Center is the design of the 66-story RCA building at the center of the complex.

The RCA building, the first of the center’s fourteen original buildings to be finished, was immediately lit at night to create interest in the project and attract investors. As a result, the building was 80% rented by 1934, while the Empire State Building down the street had a similar vacancy rate.

Hood’s other contribution to this city-within-a-city was the novel idea of landscaped roof gardens and terraces. Hood believed that the city should be pleasant from every angle, even to a worker looking down from a skyscraper office—or a passenger in an airplane above.