Time & Life Building
1 Rockefeller Plaza | also 15 West 48th Street, 14 West 49th Street, 1230 Avenue of the Americas | Midtown | built 1937
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1936
Plans are filed for the eleventh Rockefeller Center building on a parking lot
Plans for the center's eleventh building went in on May 19, 1936. It was the first to rise on the southern block, which until then had served as a parking lot. The filing called for 32 stories, but the design grew to 36, with a high setback on the east and west sides that used air rights from a plot across Rockefeller Plaza that had been set aside for possible use by the Opera.
“On May 19, 1936, plans were filed for the eleventh building in Rockefeller Center. It was the first unit to be erected on the Center's southern block…”
- 1936
The steel frame goes up in 43 working days, a skyscraper speed record
Steel erection began on September 25, 1936, and finished 43 working days later, which the Landmarks Preservation Commission describes as a new record for skyscraper construction. Then 1,100 men finished the building in late March 1937, a month ahead of schedule. It opened on April 1, the same day the full length of Rockefeller Plaza opened.
“The structure set a new record for speed in skyscraper construction. Its steel frame was begun on September 25, 1936 and completed 43 working days later.”
- 1937
Three sculptors decorate the entrances with reliefs on life themes
Because the tower was built without one big tenant in mind, its art carries general themes of life and progress. Carl Paul Jennewein carved figures of Industry and Agriculture beside the Rockefeller Plaza door. Attilio Piccirilli made his only limestone relief at the Center, Joy of Life, over the West 48th Street entrance, showing a young Bacchus holding up gilded grapes. Lee Lawrie's colored relief of Pegasus, an eagle and a figure of Progress marks the 49th Street side.
“Attilio Piccirilli's only limestone relief at Rockefeller Center. It portrays the "Joy of Life" in which a young Bacchus, suspending gilded grapes above his head, sits…”
- 1937
The Time & Life Building opens as an Art Deco tower
Workers finish the steel frame of the new tower between 48th and 49th Streets on November 28, 1936, just 43 working days after the steelwork began. The plans grow from 32 to 36 stories, with setbacks on the 48th Street side kept to a minimum to preserve rentable space. The Art Deco building opens on April 1, 1937, as the Time & Life Building.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1938
Time Inc. moves into its namesake tower
To win Time Inc. as a tenant, Rockefeller Center's managers offered it seven floors and a penthouse, room to expand, and the right to name the building. Time's lease also bars any other construction within 200 feet of the tower's top floors. The company does not move in until 1938, a year after the building opens, and early tenants include the Girl Scouts of the USA and the Museum of Modern Art.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1939
The Museum of Modern Art leaves the tower for its own building on West 53rd Street
The building was planned as an all-purpose office tower, with tenants ranging from advertising firms and sales offices to the Girl Scouts' national headquarters. The Museum of Modern Art was also housed here until its new building on West 53rd Street was completed in 1939.
- 1941
Carl Milles completes Man and Nature, a lobby carving with a singing nightingale
Sculptor Carl Milles worked on the three-part wood-and-silver piece Man and Nature from 1938 to 1941 for the lobby's west wall. A wooden faun pushes nature away on one side, a nymph in the foliage on the other, and in the middle a man on horseback listens to a metal Mexican nightingale. Every hour on the hour the bird opens its beak and plays a recording of a nightingale from the Bronx Zoo.
“…created from 1938 to 1941 ... a metal Mexican nightingale that every hour on the hour opens its beak and sings a recording of a Mexican Nightingale from the Bronx Zoo.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1960
The tower is renamed the General Dynamics Building
After Time Inc. moves to 1271 Avenue of the Americas, three blocks away, the original Time & Life Building is renamed for General Dynamics in 1960. The name lasts until the company leaves in 1971.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1971
The building takes the name 1 Rockefeller Plaza
General Dynamics moves its headquarters to St. Louis in 1971. The tower then drops the corporate name and takes its street address, 1 Rockefeller Plaza, as its name.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1985
The city landmarks Rockefeller Center, including the former Time & Life Building
On April 23, 1985, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Rockefeller Center a landmark. The designation lists the complex's buildings, among them this tower, named as 1 Rockefeller Plaza (formerly the Time & Life Building), along with Radio City Music Hall, the RCA Building, and the sunken plaza, its skating rink and the statue of Prometheus.
“April 23, 1985, Designation list 179 ... 1 Rockefeller Plaza Building (formerly the Time & Life Building), 1 Rockefeller Plaza…”
Further reading
- 1 Rockefeller PlazaWikipedia
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