Rockefeller Centre and Radio City Music Hall

Located in midtown Manhattan between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, this is a large complex consisting of 19, mostly art deco-style, high rise commercial buildings between 48th and 51 streets. The centre was name after John D. Rockefeller, Jr who leased it from Columbia University and started construction in 1930. In 1985, Rockefeller Group bought the entire complex, who in turn sold it to the Mitsubishi Group in 1989. In 1996, a consortium of owners acquired it from the Japanese giant and they include: Goldman Sachs; Gianni Agnelli; Stavros Niarchos; and David Rockefeller. It again changed ownership in 2000 when a close friend of the Rockefellers, Tishman Speyer together with the Lester Crown family from Chicago, purchased the original 14 buildings and land from US$1.85 billion.

This area is very pretty and busy during the holiday season when they put up their iconic Christmas tree and its famous open-air ice-skating rink. There are several cafes and restaurants surrounding the ice rink in the basement level. 

  
NBC Corporation’s headquarters is based in Rockefeller Centre, and they have the NBC Tours everyday where they take you around their many studios. This is quite an interesting event.

On the corner of 50th Street Sixth Avenue is another New York icon, Radio City Music Hall. Built in 1932 by Edward Durrell Stone and Donald Deskey, this is an art-deco indoor theatre, and is home to the magnificent Radio City Christmas Spectacular- an annual Christmas stage musical during the holiday season, featuring the women’s precision dance team The Rockettes. This is very worthwhile to watch when you are here during holiday season. The interior of Radio City Music Hall was declared a city landmark in 1978.