Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
The place behind the detail.
An Art Deco tower, a famous photograph and a deck that closed and returned offer several ways into the story of Top of the Rock.
On this page
An Art Deco centrepiece
The Associated Architects of Rockefeller Center, led by Raymond Hood, designed 30 Rockefeller Plaza in the Art Deco style. It opened in 1933 as the RCA Building.
The tower is shaped mostly as a slab, with setbacks, and its facade is limestone with granite at the base and about 6,000 windows.
A picture from the steelwork
The photograph Lunch atop a Skyscraper was taken on 20 September 1932, during the construction of the 69th floor, as part of a publicity stunt for the building.
The building was topped out a few days later, on 26 September 1932.
A deck restored
The observation deck closed in 1986 and reopened in 2005 as Top of the Rock. Its renovation by Gabellini Sheppard Associates conserved the original limestone and cast-aluminium details.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
