Editing Rockefeller Center (section)

===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}}