Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres.

Rockefeller Center was named after John D. Rockefeller Jr. who leased the space from Columbia University in 1928 and developed it from 1930. Rockefeller initially planned a syndicate to build an opera house for the Metropolitan Opera Company on the site, but changed his mind after the stock market crash of 1929 and the withdrawal of the Metropolitan from the project. He took on the enormous project as the sole financier, on a ninety-nine-year lease for the site from Columbia.
It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times. Construction of the 14 buildings in the Art Deco style (without the original opera house proposal) began on May 17, 1930 and was completed on November 1, 1939.
The entire Rockefeller Center complex was purchased by Mitsubishi Estate, a real estate company of the Mitsubishi Group, in 1989

Rockefeller Center was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1988.