General Electric Building

This article is about the 1931 building at 570 Lexington Avenue. For the 1933 building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, now known as the Comcast Building, see 30 Rockefeller Plaza. For buildings outside of New York City, see General Electric Building (disambiguation).

Significant dates

General Electric Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
NYC Landmark
General Electric Building

Location	570 Lexington Ave., New York, New York
Coordinates	40°45′26″N 73°58′20″W / 40.75722°N 73.97222°W / 40.75722; -73.97222Coordinates: 40°45′26″N 73°58′20″W / 40.75722°N 73.97222°W / 40.75722; -73.97222
Area	less than one acre
Built	1931
Architect	Cross & Cross (Cross, John Walter; Cross, Eliot)
Architectural style	Art Deco
NRHP Reference #	03001515^[1]
Added to NRHP	January 28, 2004
Designated NYCL	July 9, 1985

The General Electric Building, also known as 570 Lexington Avenue, is a historic 50-floor, 640-foot (200 m)-tall, skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States, at the southwest corner of Lexington Avenue and 51st Street).^[2] Originally known as the RCA Victor Building when designed in 1931 by John W. Cross of Cross & Cross, and sometimes known by its address to avoid confusion with the much later renaming, (1988), of the RCA Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza as the 'GE Building', later renamed 'Comcast Building'.

It backs up to the low Byzantine dome of St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue and shares the same salmon brick color. But from Lexington, the building is an insistently tall 50-floor stylized Gothic tower with its own identity, a classic Art Deco visual statement of suggested power through elaborate Art Deco decoration with lightening bolts showing the power of electricity. The base contains elaborate, generous masonry, architectural figural sculpture, and on the corner above the main entrance, a conspicuous corner clock with the curvy GE logo and a pair of silver disembodied forearms. The crown of the building is a dynamic-looking burst of Gothic tracery, which is supposed to represent electricity and radio waves, and is lit from within at night.

Gallery

General Electric Building (detail)
The crown of the building with its "electric waves" design
Plaque at the General Electric Building

References

Notes

↑ Staff (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
↑ "570 Lexington Avenue". Emporis.com. Retrieved 2008-07-12.

Further reading

Dirk Stichweh: New York Skyscrapers. Prestel Publishing, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-7913-4054-9

Wikimedia Commons has media related to General Electric Building (New York City).

External links

U.S. National Register of Historic Places in New York

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Category:National Register of Historic Places in New York Portal:National Register of Historic Places

General Electric

Subsidiaries and
divisions

Current	GE Capital GE Capital Aviation Services GE Commercial Finance GE Energy Financial Services GE Capital Rail Services (Europe) GE Capital Interbanca GE Technology Infrastructure GE Aviation GE Aviation Systems GE Healthcare GE Transportation GE Energy GE Digital Energy GE Jenbacher GE Measurement & Control Solutions GE Oil & Gas GE Power GE Wind Energy GE Wind (offshore) GE Home & Business Solutions GE Intelligent Platforms GE Global Research GE Ventures

Former and defunct	Australian Guarantee Corporation¹ Canadian General Electric¹ Compagnia Generale di Elettricità² Electric Bond and Share Company² GE Americom² GE Aerospace² GE Betz¹ GE Capital IT Solutions² GE Consumer & Industrial GECIS² GE Capital Rail Services² GE Equipment Services¹ GE Industrial¹ GE Infrastructure¹ GEIS² Genesis Lease² GE Security² Genworth Financial² Montgomery Ward² Synchrony Financial² Tungsram¹ Whatman¹

Joint ventures and
shareholdings

Current	CFM International (50%) Engine Alliance (50%) GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (60%) GE Honda Aero Engines (50%) Penske Truck Leasing Prolec GE (49.99%) TBS GB

Former	Alco-GE (1940–53) NBC (1926–30, 1986–2004) NBCUniversal, LLC (2004–13)

Products and brands

People

Founders	Charles A. Coffin Thomas Edison Edwin J. Houston Elihu Thomson

Other	James Cash, Jr. Ann Fudge Susan Hockfield Jeffrey R. Immelt Andrea Jung Rochelle Lazarus Sam Nunn Roger Penske Douglas A. Warner III Jack Welch Bob Wright

Places and facilities

Other

¹Now integrated into other GE divisions or business groupings
²Sold or spun off

Category
Commons

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General Electric Building

Gallery

See also

References

External links