The Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres (89, 000 m 2) between 48th & 51st streets in New York City. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue & Sixth Avenue. Rockefeller Center represents a turning point in the history of architectural sculpture: It is among the last major building projects in the United States to incorporate a program of integrated public art. Sculptor Lee Lawrie contributed the largest number of individual pieces
- twelve
- including the statue of Atlas facing Fifth Avenue & the conspicuous friezes above the main entrance to the RCA Building. The Center is a combination of two building complexes: the older & original fourteen Art Deco office buildings from the 1930s, & a set of four International-style towers built along the west side of Avenue of the Americas during the 1960s & 1970s.