Ge Building

Information about Ge Building

This article is about the skyscraper in Rockefeller Center. For the shorter building of the same name which was formerly named the RCA Victor Building, see General Electric Building.

Information
GE Building
The GE Building at Rockefeller Center
Location	30 Rockefeller Plaza New York, New York 10112 USA^[1]
Status	complete
Use	Offices and television studios (NBC)
Height
Roof	850 ft (259 m)
Floor count	70
Companies
Architect	Associated Architects

The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of the Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet (259 meters) tall, the 70-story building is the 8th tallest building in New York City and the 32nd tallest in the United States.

History

The building was completed in 1933 as part of the Rockefeller Center. The noted art deco architect Raymond Hood led a team of Rockefeller architects. It was named the RCA Building for its main tenant, the Radio Corporation of America, formed in 1919 by General Electric. It was the first building constructed with the elevators grouped in the central core. The National Broadcasting Company, also owned by General Electric, leased space in the building. The office of the Rockefeller family occupied Room 5600 on the 56th floor. This space is now occupied by Rockefeller Family & Associates, spanning between the 54th floor and the 56th floor of the building. In 1985, the building acquired official landmark status. The RCA Building was renamed as the GE Building in 1988, two years after General Electric re-acquired the RCA Corporation.

Some of the building's nicknames include The Slab and 30 Rock. The latter is also the title of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which follows the cast and crew of a fictional SNL-esque television show filmed inside the building. 30 Rock is actually filmed primarily at Silvercup Studios.

Features

The narrow front of the building

The NBC Studios entrance to the GE Building

The GE Building is one of the most famous and recognized skyscrapers in New York. The frieze above the main entrance was executed by Lee Lawrie and depicts Wisdom, along with a slogan that reads "Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times". The vertical detailing of the building's austere Art Deco facade is integrated with a slim, functionally expressive form. The present exterior is recognized for the big GE letters at the building's top. The famous marquee at the building's entrance is seen on numerous television shows, such as Seinfeld. Unlike most other tall Art-Deco buildings constructed in the 1930s, the GE Building has no spire on its roof.

The decorated entrance to the GE Building is adapted from William Blake's "Ancient of Days".

The building is well known for housing the headquarters of NBC and the New York facilities of NBC Studios. In 1996, NBC bought outright the 1.6 million square feet of space it had leased since 1933. The purchase allowed the company to introduce new technologies and renovate the space; it also gave them options to renew the lease on the Today Show studios, broadcast from a nearby building, 10 Rockefeller Plaza ^[2]. Jack Welch, the former chairman of General Electric, has his office on the 51st floor of the building.

NBC's most famous studio is Studio 8H, the home of Saturday Night Live. 8H was once the largest radio studio in the world, originally home to the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. It was converted into a television studio in 1950. The Tonight Show was also taped at the GE Building from the early Jack Paar years until 1972, when the show moved to Burbank. (WNBC-TV's main news studio now occupies the former Tonight space). During its run, Rosie O'Donnell broadcast her syndicated talk show from the building.

Below the building is a shopping concourse. One of the first escalators provided access to the small shopping mall from the lobby. The open lobby was the first of its time and rich materials, reduced black and beige ornamental scheme is enhanced by dramatic lighting. Granite covers the building base to a height of 4 ft (1.2 m), and the shaft has a refined facade of Indiana limestone with aluminum spandrel panels.

The top floor of the building is an event room and restaurant named the Rainbow Room, which was recently revamped and reopened to the public with new operators. The famous photo Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper was taken here when the building was under construction in 1932.

Observation deck

The observation deck atop the skyscraper, dubbed "Top of the Rock", reopened to the public on 1 November 2005, after undergoing a $75 million renovation. It had been closed since 1986 to accommodate the renovation of the Rainbow Room. The deck, which is built to resemble the deck of an ocean liner, offers sightseers a bird's eye view of the city, competing with the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building.

The '"Top of the Rock" has also been co-opted for NBC's Sunday Night Football, with the top player/MVP in that night's game according to John Madden and Al Michaels receiving the honor of being that night's "Rock Star" in the form of a glass trophy display on the observation deck; this was a replacement for the Horse Trailer Award formerly awarded on ABC's Monday Night Football.

View of New York City from the Top of the Rock observation deck of the GE building

NBC Studio productions

Studio	Production	Notes
1A	The Today Show Dateline NBC	The network's daily morning program Produced at a ground-level windowed studio across 49th Street from the GE Building since the mid-1990s, at 10 Rockefeller Plaza; it was previously broadcast from inside the skyscraper. Studio 1A is a multilevel studio currently used for multiple shows including the studio segments of Dateline NBC.
3A	New home to MSNBC
3B	Currently unused due to renovation	former home of the Today Show and Dateline NBC
3C	NBC Nightly News NBC Nightly News Weekend Edition	Newly Remodeled. Debuted October 22, 2007''
3K	MSNBC	former home of NBC Nightly News (c. 1986-2000) and NBC Sports
6A	Late Night with Conan O'Brien	A former home of The Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman
6B	WNBC Channel 4 programming	The network's flagship local station A former home of The Tonight Show
6C	NBC Digital Studios	The current home of such web based shows as "The Untitled News Comedy Show", "Starstruck", and "A Big Life with Sissy Biggers"''
8G	Football Night in America	Former home of The Rosie O'Donnell Show and the original Jeopardy! from 1964-75.
8H	Saturday Night Live	Former home of Last Call with Carson Daly Former home of the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini
	30 Rock	Exteriors of the building

References

1. ^ Source: USPS.
2. ^ [1]

External links

Top Of The Rock - Official "Top Of The Rock" page
Top Of The Rock Photo Gallery - About.com

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Area: 22 acres (8.
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State of New York

Flag of New York Seal
Nickname(s): The Empire State
Motto(s): Excelsior!

Official language(s) None

Capital Albany
Largest city New York City

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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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National Broadcasting Company

Type Broadcast television network
Country United States
Availability United States, also distributed in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean
Founder David Sarnoff
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Coordinates: _ ]
Area: 22 acres (8.
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Midtown is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial buildings as Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and the Empire State Building.
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Location: Midtown Manhattan, New York City, NY

Coordinates: _ ]
Area: 22 acres (8.
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I love poo poo when its roasted in chicken broth.
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General Electric Co.

Public (NYSE: GE )
Founded 1878 in Menlo Park, New Jersey
Founder Thomas Alva Edison
Headquarters Fairfield, Connecticut,^[1] USA

Key people Jeff Immelt, Chairman & CEO
Keith Sherin, Vice Chairman, CFO
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'30 Rock'

Created by Tina Fey
Starring Tina Fey
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Jack McBrayer
Scott Adsit
Judah Friedlander
Alec Baldwin
Keith Powell
Lonny Ross
Katrina Bowden
Theme music composer Jeff Richmond
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Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late night 90 minute American comedy-variety show based in New York City that has been broadcast live by NBC on Saturday nights since October 11, 1975.
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Lee Oscar Lawrie (October 16, 1877 - January 23, 1963) was one of the United States' foremost architectural sculptors and a key figure in the American art scene preceding World War II.
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Wisdom, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is defined as the "1 a: Accumulated philosophic or scientific learning-knowledge; b: Ability to discern inner qualities and relationships-insight; c: Good sense-judgment d: Generally accepted belief <challenges what has become
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NBC Studios are the two television studio facilities belonging to the National Broadcasting Company, with one of them being located inside the GE Building at Rockefeller Center in New York City, and the other located in Burbank, California, just outside of Los Angeles.
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Ge Building

Information about Ge Building

History

Features

Observation deck

NBC Studio productions

See also

Further reading

References

External links