Editing Rockefeller Center (section)

==Reception==
===Contemporary commentary===
In its earliest years, Rockefeller Center received largely negative and pessimistic reviews from architectural critics. The most cynical opinion came from architectural scholar [[Lewis Mumford]], who so hated the "weakly conceived, reckless, romantic chaos" of the March 1931 plans for Rockefeller Center that he reportedly went into exile in [[upstate New York]].{{sfn|Okrent|2003|pp=180–182}} He blamed John Rockefeller Jr. for the complex's "inability to consider a new type of problem in any form except the skyscraper stereotype". Mumford's view of the complex was only marginally less negative when he revisited the issue in December 1933: he said that it could be "large, exciting, [and] romantic" at night, but that "a mountain or ash heap of the same size would do the trick almost as well, if the lights were cleverly arranged".{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=215}} [[Ralph Adams Cram]], who adhered to a more classical architectural style, also had a pessimistic view of the plans unveiled in March 1931. He called the plan for Rockefeller Center "an apotheosis of megalomania, a defiant egotism" arising from an ostentatious display of wealth, and said that "the sooner we accomplish the destiny it so perfectly foreshadows, the sooner we shall be able to clear the ground and begin again".{{sfn|Balfour|1978|pp=213–214}}{{sfn|Okrent|2003|p=182}} [[Douglas Haskell]], who formerly edited ''[[Architectural Forum]]'' magazine, wrote that Rockefeller Center's ambiance was "gray, unreal, baleful".{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=223}}

The urban planner [[Le Corbusier]] had a more optimistic view of the complex, expressing that Rockefeller Center was "rational, logically conceived, biologically normal, [and] harmonious".{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=215}}{{sfn|Le Corbusier|1947|p=62}} He wrote that although Rockefeller Center would inevitably be disorganized in its earliest years, it would eventually adhere to a certain "order",{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=216}}{{sfn|Le Corbusier|1947|p=54}} and he also praised the complex for being a paragon of "noble" and "efficient" construction.{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=217}}{{sfn|Le Corbusier|1947|p=58}} The writer [[Frederick Lewis Allen]] took a more moderate viewpoint, saying that negative critics had "hoped for too much" precisely because Rockefeller Center had been planned during an economically prosperous time, but was constructed during the Depression.<ref name="Allen 1938">{{cite magazine | last=Allen | first=Frederick Lewis | title=Look at Rockefeller Center | magazine=Harper's Magazine | date=October 1938| volume=October 1938 | url=https://harpers.org/archive/1938/10/look-at-rockefeller-center/ | access-date=December 7, 2017 |pages=506–513}}</ref>{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=217}} Even though Allen thought that the art was mediocre and the opportunities for a less lively complex were wasted, he stated that Rockefeller Center had an aura of "festivity" around it, unlike most other office buildings in America.<ref name="Allen 1938"/>{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=218}} [[Sigfried Giedion]] wrote in his book ''[[Space, Time and Architecture]]'' that Rockefeller Center's design was akin to a "civic center" whose design represented the 1930s version of the future.<ref>{{cite book | last=Giedion | first=Sigfried | title=Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition | publisher=Harvard University Press | year=1941 | isbn=978-0-67483-040-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHZnmKxkGMwC | access-date=December 7, 2017 | pages=845–853}}</ref>{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=220}} [[Henry Luce]], the founder of [[Time Inc.]], said in 1941 that Rockefeller Center represented "the true world of tomorrow", as opposed to the [[1939 New York World's Fair]], whose "World of Tomorrow" representations "are today junk piles under the winter snow".{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=221}} Novelist [[Gertrude Stein]] said in 1935, "The view of Rockefeller Center from Fifth Avenue is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."{{sfn|Okrent|2003|p=190}}

===Retrospective commentary and impact===
By the 1940s, most critics had positive views of Rockefeller Center.{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=221}} Even Mumford praised the complex, lamenting in 1947 that the new [[headquarters of the United Nations]] on First Avenue had no "human scale" or "transition from the intimate to the monumental", whereas Rockefeller Center's buildings "produce an aesthetic effect out of all proportion to their size".{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=222}}<ref>{{cite book | last=Mumford | first=Lewis | title=From the ground up: observations on contemporary architecture, housing, highway building, and civic design | publisher=Harcourt, Brace | series=Harvest book | year=1956 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QmhTAAAAMAAJ | access-date=December 7, 2017 | page=25| isbn=978-0-15-634019-9 }}</ref> Haskell wrote in 1966 that Rockefeller Center's designers "seemed to have regarded urban life as an enhanceable romance".{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=223}} In 1969, the art historian [[Vincent Scully]] wrote, "Rockefeller Center is one of the few surviving public spaces that look as if they were designed and used by people who knew what stable wealth was and were not ashamed to enjoy it."{{sfn|Balfour|1978|p=224}}<ref>{{cite book | last=Scully | first=Vincent | title=American Architecture and Urbanism | publisher=Trinity University Press  | year=1969 | isbn=978-1-59534-180-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m0rpCAAAQBAJ | access-date=December 7, 2017 | page=154}}</ref>

The [[New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation]] commissioned a report in 1974 titled "Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center: A Historic-Critical Estimate of Their Significance", in which they concluded that Rockefeller Center, along with [[Central Park]] and [[Grand Central Terminal]], were the only three developments that could slow down Manhattan's "remorseless process of expansion and decay".{{sfn|Fitch|Waite|1974|p=1}} In 1976, ''New York Times'' architectural critic [[Paul Goldberger]] wrote, "What makes Rockefeller Center work is that it is at once a formal Beaux‐Arts‐influenced complex of dignified towers and a lively, utterly contemporary amalgam of shops, plazas and street life. It is as natural a home for a 1970's street festival as for a 1930's movie about cafe society: few designs can join such disparate worlds so comfortably."<ref>{{cite web | last=Goldberger | first=Paul | title=Rockefeller Center Design: A Triumph for 30's and 70's | website=The New York Times | date=July 14, 1976 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/14/archives/rockefeller-center-design-a-triumph-for-30s-and-70s-design-of.html | access-date=February 19, 2018}}</ref> The [[American Institute of Architects]]' 2007 survey ''[[America's Favorite Architecture|List of America's Favorite Architecture]]'' ranked the Rockefeller Center complex among the top 150 buildings in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|website=FavoriteArchitecture.org|publisher=AIA|url=http://favoritearchitecture.org/afa150.php|title=List of America's Favorite Architecture|year=2007|access-date=September 27, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510113118/http://favoritearchitecture.org/afa150.php|archive-date=May 10, 2011}}</ref><ref name="nyt-2007-05-27">{{Cite news |last=Kugel |first=Seth |date=2007-05-27 |title=The List: 33 Architectural Favorites in New York |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/travel/27Bweekend.html |access-date=2023-01-20 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120163218/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/travel/27Bweekend.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Several later buildings were inspired by Rockefeller Center and its constituent buildings. [[525 William Penn Place]] in Pittsburgh, also designed by Harrison & Abramovitz, includes limestone piers and steel fins that were inspired by 30 Rockefeller Plaza's design.<ref name="Newhouse 1989 p. ">{{cite book | last=Newhouse | first=Victoria | title=Wallace K. Harrison, Architect | publisher=Rizzoli | year=1989 | isbn=978-0-8478-1071-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3-NHPgAACAAJ | language=en | page=150 |postscript=none}}, cited in {{cite report|url=https://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/Pittsburgh_Central_Downtown_NR_Nomination-4.pdf|title=Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic District (Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation)|date=May 2, 2013|publisher=[[National Register of Historic Places]], [[National Park Service]]|page=10|access-date=2023-12-17}}</ref> In the 1960s, [[David Rockefeller]] developed the [[Embarcadero Center]] in San Francisco, which was nicknamed "Rockefeller Center West".<ref>{{Cite news|first=Daryl E.|last=Lembke|date=1967-02-19|title='Rockefeller West' Proposed for S.F. Embarcadero Area|pages=J1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-rockefeller-west/136906415/ J2]|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-rockefeller-west/136906383/|access-date=2023-12-16}}</ref><ref name="Interior Design Division of Whitney Communications Corporation 2006 p. ">{{cite book | title=Interior Design | publisher=Interior Design Division of Whitney Communications Corporation | volume=77 |issue= 1–2 | year=2006 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rQY4AQAAIAAJ | page=212}}</ref> [[Postmodern architecture|Postmodern]] skyscrapers based on Rockefeller Center include the [[NBC Tower]] in Chicago<ref name="Gapp Architecture critic 1989 c416">{{cite web | last=Gapp | first=Paul | title=NBC's 40-story Peacock | website=Chicago Tribune | date=April 23, 1989 | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-04-23-8904060535-story.html | access-date=December 16, 2023}}</ref> and the [[Wells Fargo Center (Minneapolis)|Wells Fargo Center]] in Minneapolis.<ref name="Lileks 2015 j206">{{cite web | last=Lileks | first=James | title=Streetscapes: These unbuilt buildings would have changed the Minneapolis skyline | website=Star Tribune | date=October 25, 2015 | url=https://www.startribune.com/streetscapes-these-unbuilt-buildings-would-have-changed-the-skyline/336321091/ | access-date=December 16, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Goldberger|first=Paul|date=1989-01-15|title=Architecture View; Cesar Pelli Seeks the Perfect Skyscraper|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/15/arts/architecture-view-cesar-pelli-seeks-the-perfect-skyscraper.html|access-date=2023-12-17|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><!-- The [[Georgia-Pacific Tower]] in Atlanta was also inspired.-->

{{wide image|NYC Top of the Rock Pano.jpg|900px|View of New York City looking south from 30 Rockefeller Plaza's observatory, [[Top of the Rock]], in December 2005}}