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Preserving Rockefeller Center Dorothy J .Sr 8 i- The Urban Lawyer The National Quarterly on LocUl Govermen t Law Preserving Rockefeller Center Dorothy J. Glancy Reprinted from The Urban Lawyer, Volume 24, Number 3, Summer 1992 Published quarterly by the Section of Urban, State and Local Government Law, American Bar Association Copyright 0 1992 American Bar Association 423 Preserving Rockefeller Center Dorothy J. Glancy* Professor of Law, Santa Clara University, School of Law; J-D., Harvard University, 1970; B.A., Wellesley College, 1967. VISITORS TO MIDTOWN MANHATTAN seem to gravitate toward Rockefel- ler Center’s Art Deco embellished low-rise buildings along Fifth Ave- nue. Farther west down the promenade, past the Channel Gardens, is the famous sunken plaza with Prometheus and, during winter months, an ice skating rink. At Christmas, Prometheus shares the spotlight with an enormous Christmas tree. Radio City Music Hall lurks behind the towering skyscraper located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.’ More than just architecture and decoration give the many buildings in Rockefeller Center a unified sense of place. An era of American history binds together the limestone walls of what to the steely eye of a real estate economist might appear to be an under-built urban site. Preserving Rockefeller Center as America’s quintessential urban land- mark has become a matter of world-wide interest. In 1989 a Japanese real estate conglomerate purchased control over the corporation which owns the NewYorkCitylandmark.Ataboutthesametime,planstotransferdevelop ment rights from the landmark to a new Rockefeller Center building resulted in the creation of an additional layer of protection for some of the older parts of Rockefeller Center. The Japanese investment was extensively, even sensationally, reported in the press.* Plans for the new building, Rockefeller Plaza West, have also been the subject of extensive public comment.3 But * The author would like to thank Met-in Urban, executive director of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, wtthout whose assistance research for this article would not have been possible. The late Mendes Her&man of the New York Bar provided great inspiration and wonderful stories about how Rockefeller Center began. The author would also like to thank Jerome Reiss of the New York Bar for his wise counsel regarding the practice of New York real estate law, Professor Curtis Berger of the Columbia University Law School for his collegial advice, and W. John Glancy of the Texas Bar, for patient guidance regarding tax and finance matters. The many excellent people at the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the New York City Planning Commission also helped to make this article possible. 1. For many years this central building was known as the RCA Building. Because of yet another corporate reorganization, it has been renamed the G.E. Building. 2. See discussion and sources cited, infia at notes 2274. 3. See, e.g., Paul Goldberger, A Gesture To the “Good” Rockefeller Center, N.Y. TIMES, May 21, 1990, H:32. 424 THE URBAN LAWYER VOL. 24, No. 3 SUMMER 1992 thestoryofthelegalsideofpreservingRockefellerCenterhasyettobetold. This article will tell that story. Its purpose is to consider certain aspects of landmark preservation which link together the Center, the develop- ment rights transfer and the Japanese purchase. The first section will dis- cuss the Rockefeller Center landmark and highlight certain aspects of its background. The next section will explain the complex transfer of development rights which generated additional landmark preservation measures for Rockefeller Center. The main part of the article will explore the innovative legal mechanisms employed in the new landmark preser- vation scheme. The following section will focus on the relationship be- tween these new landmark preservation measures and a foreign invest- or’s acquisition of control over the corporate owner of Rockefeller Center. The article concludes by examining the significance of the re- markable landmark preservation efforts at Rockefeller Center. Map 1. Rockefeller Center . Weat. 52nd. Irem. ..__.___.___....................... ,_._................Eut 52tk Stm( : ; : : : : : : :____..___.____.____......................~ _______..,.,..__._._.___________________._. :__._.________...... w**t 51.1 strwt Ewt 51 ti Stmt West 49th Stmt : : p-II i j : : _._._.....__________........ ~____.___._________...................... _: :......___.___...... Wwt 47th Strwt Eut 47th Str4.t Kev to Locations 1. Warner Communications Building 10. G.E. Building 2. Time & Life Bulldtng 11. Sunken Plaza 3. 1270 Avenue of the Americas 12. British Empire Building 4. Radio Clly Music Hall 13. La Malson Francalso 5. Associated Presr Building 14. McGraw Hill Building 6. Intrrnatlonal Bullding 15. Simon 6 Schuster Building 7. Rockefeller Plaza West (RPW building site) 16. Tan Rockefeller Plaza 8. Exxon Building 17. One Rockefeller Plaza 9. 1250 Avenue of the Americas 13. Manufacturers Hanover Trust 19. Celenese Butldlng PRESERVING ROCKEFELLERCENTER 425 I. The Rockefeller Center Landmark Physically, Rockefeller Center is a group of nineteen buildings owned or managed by Rockefeller Croup, Inc. As Map 1 indicates, Rockefeller Center extends from the east side of Fifth Avenue to the west side of the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) between Forty-seventh and Fifty-second streets. Rockefeller Plaza West, to be built on the east side of Seventh Avenue between Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Streets, is expected to be the twentieth, and last, addition to the Center.4 The oldest parts of Rockefeller Center are concentrated in the three blocks bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues and Forty-eighth and Fifty-first Streets. The parts of the Center along Fifth Avenue are smaller in scale and have more decoration than other portions of the Center. The sunken plaza offers an oasis of open space, from below ground level to the sky. Not all of the Rockefeller Center buildings are included within the desig- natedRockefellerCenterLandmark. Onlythepartsconstructedbefore 1955 were eligible for landmark status at the time the Rockefeller Center land- mark was designated in 1985 .’ References to the ‘ ‘Rockefeller Center Land- mark’ ’ are usually to the exterior landmark, which includes the outside of twelve of the Center’s buildings (indicated by the shaded areas on Map l), as well as open spaces and sculpture. As an exterior landmark, Rockefeller Center is a bit unusual because it comprises several structures and spaces designated as a single landmark.6 In addition, the interiors of some of the buildings within Rockefeller Center, such as Radio City Music Hall: the International Builtig Lobby,’ and 30 Rockefeller Plaza9 are also desig- nated as interior landmarks The older part of Rockefeller Center is at least 4. THE ROCKEFELLER GROUP A NNUAL REVIEW (1989) I lhereinafter_ 1989 A N- NUAL REVIEW]. 5. Under the New York City Administrative Code 0 2%302n, prospective land- marks become eligible for landmark designation after thirty years. 6. The designation includes the exteriors of the following: the Warner Communi- cations Building (formerly the Esso Building), 1270 Avenue of the Americas, Radio Citv Music Hall. the Associated Press Buildina. the International Buildinn with the s&e of Atlas inihe courtyard, the RCA (now dE.) Building, the RCA Buil&ng West (1250 Avenue of the Americas), the sunken plaza with the skating rink and the statue of Prometheus, the British Empire Building, the Promenade and Channel Gardens, La Maison Francaise, the Simon & Schuster Building with its addition at 1230 Avenue of the Americas, 10 Rockefeller Plaza (formerly the Eastern Airlines Building), and 1 Rockefeller Plaza (formerly the first Time & Life Building). The Landmark Site in- cludes five lots. Landmarks Preservation Commission, Designation List No. 455, LP- 1446 (Apr. 23, 1985) [hereinafter Rockefeller Center Designation Report] 7. 7. Landmarks Preservation Commission, Designation List No. 114, LP-0995 (Mar. 28, 1978). 8. Landmarks Preservation Commission, Designation List No. 455, LP-1449 (Apr. 23, 1985). 9. Landmarks Preservation Commission, Designation List No. 455, LP-1448 (Apr. 23, 1985). 426 THE URBAN LAWYER VOL. 24, No. 3 SUMMER 1992 doubly landmarked, since it was also designated as a National-Historic Landmark two years after its designation as a New York City Landmark. Of these landmarks, only four of the buildings (30 Rockefeller Plaza, 1250 Avenue of the Americas, the British Empire Building, and La Maison Fran- cake), some of the open areas (the sunken plaza, the Promenade, and the Channel Gardens), and the lobby of 30 Rockefeller Plaza are protected un- der the newly devised landmark maintenance program discussed below. lo When the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission” des- ignated the exterior of Rockefeller Center as a New York City landmark in 1985, the Commission concluded that the Center “has a special char- acter , special historical and aesthetic interest and value as part of the de- velopment, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New York City.“” The Commission particularly found that “among its important qualities, Rockefeller Center ranks among the grandest architectural projects ever undertaken in the United States, [and] that, unprecedented in scope and inspired in its planning, it created a new symbolic and physical center for New York. “13 The Commission also noted “that the developers of Rockefeller Center consciously strove for high quality and achieved a harmonious
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