Rockefeller Plaza (New York City, New York)

 ice rink, movie / film / TV location, plaza

The site of the famous ice skating rink and annual Christmas Tree celebration. At the front of 30 Rock is the Lower Plaza, in the very center of the complex, which is reached from 5th Avenue through the Channel Gardens and Promenade. The acclaimed sculptor Paul Manship was commissioned in 1933 to create a masterwork to adorn the central axis, below the famed annual Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, which is the Statute of "Prometheus", but all the other original plans to fill the space were abandoned over time.

The Sunken Plaza, as the area was originally called, was lushly landscaped and boasted high-end shops and restaurants, but few people could be enticed down the stairs leading from the Channel Gardens. In the winter of 1936, in an effort to attract attention to the Plaza, Rockefeller Center’s managers contracted an engineer from Cleveland to build a temporary rink which became a permanent fixture.

With a skating surface that stretches just 122 feet long and 59 feet wide, the rink can only accommodate up to 150 skaters a time with many spectators looking on with delight. The skating rink (covered for other uses during the summer), is surrounded by flagpoles that were added in 1943. Overlooking the sunken plaza area on the south side is The Sea Grill restaurant, whose entrance from the street level is through a glass-and-metal, round-topped elevator housing, and has a large glass wall facing the plaza. On the north side a matching round glass vestibule leads down to the Rock Center Cafe, and the adjoining Concourse Shops.

The Plaza is home to the broadcast of NBC's "Today Show".


www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgQ-RgBijSs