75 Rockefeller Plaza (New York City, New York)

 office building, skyscraper, Art Deco (architecture), 1947_construction

423-foot, 33-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1947. Designed by Wallace K. Harrison and Carson & Lundin, It was originally called the Esso Building, and then the Warner Communications Building. From 1941 the original Rockefeller Center was filled to capacity, bulging with occupants who had outgrown their original quarters. When the war ended in 1945, Rockefeller had no choice but to expand the complex. Among the tenants most pressed for space was Rockefeller's own Standard Oil Company.

The building was designed to maintain the limestone and aluminum spandrels of the earlier Center buildings, and it likewise retained their aesthetic of continuous vertical piers and slightly recessed windows. The building had the distinction upon its completed of being the first fully air conditioned office building in New York. The structure has a T-shaped plan with 10-story wings along 52nd Street. Its stem continues through the block and fronts on 51st Street, closing the view along Rockefeller Plaza to the north, unifying the surroundings even in that direction. The building respects the earlier structures with its low-lying entrance and setback tower. The setback has a rooftop terrace.

The setback tower is articulated with limestone piers of uniform width and cast aluminum spandrels. The north elevation is longer and more complex is massing than its southern counterpart. It consists of three major parts: a 2- and 3-story base, long 10-story wings, and a setback tower above. Rising from the lot line is a tripartite base. The building sets back and rises above the 2- and 3-story base with the tower rises from the wings to its full 33-story height.

The high-ceiling entrance lobby has marble decor and glass-walls facing Rockefeller Plaza. The building was completed with the Schraff's restaurant, the largest in the city with over 1,200 seats, next to the lobby. The building housed Esso until 1971 when the still growing company moved into the new Exxon Building in the Center's extension on the west side of Sixth Avenue. It was then leased to the Kinney Company, but taken over by Warner Communications after extensive renovation. The company, now Time-Warner, moved out in 1993. The double-height base on both facades was again renovated in 2016 by Kohn Pedersen Fox. On 51st Street it has a triple storefront set in curved bronze flanked by plate-glass at the ends; the west end has the new main entrance, and the east end another storefront. The base is topped by a grey granite band and a glass railing around the landscaped roof garden. The 52nd Street side has a wide, 3-bay central entrance framed in black stone. It is flanked by projecting 1-story retail wings topped by grey granite bands. The eastern wing has a recessed entrance with rounded green marble side walls, flanked by display windows. The is a loading dock at the far end of the west wing. The east retail wing along 52nd Street, and the south retail space on 51st Street are occupied by American Girl doll store.

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