The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
Author: admin31 May
Article by Ellen Bell
Since 1931, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree has been lighting up the holidays each year for New York City residents and visitors. One of the most well known decorated Christmas trees in the United States, this tree has become an iconic symbol of the holiday season in New York City. The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is also a major tourist attraction; thousands come to New York each year to see the tree lighting ceremony, or just to view the tree during the several weeks when it is on display.
The first tree displayed in Rockefeller Center in 1931 was a Balsam Fir measuring about 20 feet tall. It was set up by construction workers who were building Rockefeller Center, and during this depression-era, they were proud to have a tree displayed amidst the mud and construction debris of their work area.
Today the Rockefeller tree is usually a giant Norway Spruce measuring between 75 and 90 feet tall. The tree is unofficially selected each year by the manager of the Rockefeller Center gardens, with the search for the perfect tree beginning months ahead of time. Each year, the Rockefeller Center receives hundreds of photographs from people all over the United States, and even some in Canada, offering their trees for use in Rockefeller Center. The manager then drives around the Northeastern part of the United States, viewing trees and looking for the perfect specimen. In winter months, the tree is scouted out by helicopter until one has been selected.
Norway Spruce trees are not native to North America, in fact they grow naturally in Europe. Here in the U.S., Norway Spruces are generally planted as ornamental trees in front or back yards, and they can grow to enormous proportions, as tall as 80 to 110 feet. The Rockefeller center specifies that the tree they use for their official Christmas tree must measure at least 65 feet tall and 35 feet wide, though the tree that’s usually selected measures larger than these dimensions.
Cutting and moving the tree is a very involved process. Cutting and moving the tree requires 15 to 20 people and a 180 ton all-terrain hydraulic crane. This crane travels to the location of the tree, and supports the tree by its tip while it is cut. Once cut, the tree is then transported to a truck with a large telescoping trailer, designed to accommodate up to a 125 foot tall tree. To avoid traffic congestion, the tree is usually moved into the heart of New York City during the nighttime hours via a pre-selected police escorted route.
The tree is erected in Rockefeller Center and is supported by four large guy wires and a steel spike that supports the tree at its base. The tree is then lighted with over five miles of stringed lights. In recent years, the tree’s lighting has become more energy efficient. In 2007, for the first time, the tree was lighted with LED Christmas lights instead of incandescent. It is estimated that the LED lights have reduced the tree’s energy consumption by almost two thirds. In addition, the Rockefeller Center has also put up a huge array of solar panels on the roof of one of its buildings, and these solar panels help to generate the electricity needed to light the tree.
The tree is generally lighted in a special ceremony in late November or early December, and is left up through early January. Once taken down, the tree is recycled into almost three tons of wood mulch that are donated to the Boy Scouts of America. The largest portion of the tree’s trunk is donated to the U.S. Equestrian Team headquarters in Gladstone, New Jersey, where it is used as an obstacle jump for the horses and their riders. In 2007, however, the tree was cut into lumber that was then donated to Habitat for Humanity for use in houses.
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Great Fortune : The Epic of Rockefeller Center
In this hugely appealing book, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, acclaimed author and journalist Daniel Okrent weaves together themes of money, politics, art, architecture, business, and society to tell the story of the majestic suite of buildings that came to dominate the heart of midtown Manhattan and with it, for a time, the heart of the world. At the center of Okrent’s riveting story are four remarkable individuals-tycoon John D. Rockefeller, his ambitious son Nelson Rockefeller, real estate genius John R. Todd, and visionary skyscraper architect Raymond Hood. In the tradition of David McCullough’s The Great Bridge, Ron Chernow’s Titan, and Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, Great Fortune is a stunning tribute to an American landmark that captures the heart and spirit of New York at its apotheosis.Those of us who love New York tend to love the city passionately, for its past as well as its present. Daniel Okrent’s Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center is a book for New Yorker
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3 Responses for "The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree"
Very well done,
Daniel Okrent, public editor of the New York Times, has crafted a terrific history and love letter to New York through the microcosm of the tale of Rockefeller Center, one of the seminal landmarks of the city and one of those true stories that seem stranger than fiction.
I can only speak for myself but I imagine that it’s hard for anyone who has lived in New York in a time when Rockefeller Center has always existed to appreciate the level of diplomacy, architecture, finance, and artwork that went into creating the complex, not to mention the somewhat scandalous occurrences, but Okrent captures it with a snappy prose style that also manages to blend in some fine observations and humorous analogies. Especially due to the continued presence of the Center, it is gratifying to be able to put into modern context the various descriptions and details and visualize them as they exist today.
The history of the Rockefellers, while obviously much broader and filled with much more intriguing information than is relevant here, is nonetheless captured more than adequately, particularly John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his second son Nelson. More than just the account of a building project, the book also marks the transition between old-time New York society of the Gilded Age and the modern New York of the twentieth century. The chapter regarding the controversial Diego Rivera mural seeks to set the record straight on a story that has taken on it’s own life over the years and the characters who have previously been given short shrift finally get their due.
Perhaps it’s fitting that the seminal word on the complex should come from the Gershwins – “They all laughed at Rockefeller Center, now they’re fighting to get in.” And we still are. Great book for fans of history, New York, architecture, or just plain good writing.
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|Robert Caro Minus the Boring Bits,
Absolutely terrific! An absorbing look at the social and cultural history of New York in the first half of the 20th Century, told through the prism of the greatest construction project in American history. I figured it would be good, because I’ve read the guy’s baseball stuff before, but I didn’t figure it would be this good.Wonderfully anecdotal, seriously scholarly, ujtterly captivating. And you don’t have to be a New Yorker to be bowled over!
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|Vivid Rendering of Rock Center’s Formative Years,
Daniel Okrent has produced a vividly rendered account of Rockefeller Center’s formative years. This is a superb book, destined to the the definitive standard on its subject, that will appeal strongly to readers with a wide variety of tastes and interests.
Seven decades removed from the event — with Rock Center holding such an iconic place in the Manhattan skyline — this reader was especially struck by Rock Center’s seemingly star-crossed beginnings: its architecture universally excoriated (Lewis Mumford being among the most vociferous early critics, until suddenly and inexplicably reversing course); opening night at Radio City Music Hall an unmitigated flop; the sparsely-trafficked retail concourse derided as “the catacombs;” a controversial Diego Rivera mural providing a public relations black-eye, etc. With its leasing program stalled in the Depression-ravaged economy, the Rockefellers desperately slashed office rents from $4 to $1 per sq ft, under-cutting the market. Their tactic of buying-out the existing leases of companies being courted to lease space at the Center — not uncommon in today’s marketplace — drew the opprobrium of rival property owners, including a lawsuit from August Heckscher (whose grandson would go on to be a high profile Parks Commissioner).
“Great Fortune” is laden with rich anecdotes and compelling, larger-than-life characters like the mercurial John R. Todd (managing agent and construction manager and grandfather to the future New Jersey Governor, Christine Todd-Whitman); the lead architect with a penchant for fast living, Raymond Hood, and, of course, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his ambitious second son, Nelson, first among equals of the Rockefeller’s third generation.
Okrent is a gifted wordsmith (it’s not suprising that the New York Times just named him its new ombudsman) who’s penned an entertaining, fast-paced narrative. Anyone even remotely curious about New York City and its history will be held in thrall from cover to cover. Recommended.
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