The Rockefeller family has kept offices at 30 Rockefeller Center—the Art Deco centerpiece of the complex that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. developed during the Great Depression—since its opening. That’s due to change in the coming months, as the family vacates the offices referred to as “Room 5600,” and heads to the slightly less impressive 1 Rockefeller Center.
The move, which may seem nominal to those less captivated by the city’s folklore, is in a sense a story about the ongoing death of what the nostalgia-happy refer to as “Old New York.” Rockefeller, the son of America’s first billionaire, developed the area on land he leased from Columbia University, during a brutal economic downturn that exposed both his and future generations of the family to massive personal financial risk. As David Rockefeller described in Memoirs, excerpted in the October 2002 issue of Vanity Fair, the stock-market crash of 1929 led the Metropolitan Opera, which was supposed to be the center’s marquee tenant, to drop out of the deal. Columbia refused to ease up the terms of its lease, and profited handsomely as a result—Rockefeller wrote that “the deal was a bonanza which would turn out to be [Columbia’s] principal source of income for the next 50 years.”
John Jr.’s personal expenditures on the complex totaled $125 million between 1929 and 1939, a sum worth more than $1.5 billion in 2002 dollars. David Rockefeller recounted his father “agonizing over minor details,” and a process that left John Jr. with migraines but ultimately proved successful: R.C.A. (which owned N.B.C. at the time) agreed to be a major tenant. John Jr. also suggested—perhaps quite strongly—that a number of the concerns he was involved in (Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, the Spelmand Fund, the Industrial Relations Counselors) also take space in 30 Rockefeller Center.
A commissioned mural by Diego Rivera, to the surprise of the Rockefellers, was completed with a smiling portrait of Lenin, and depicted capitalists as having less than desirable effects on society. David Rockefeller wrote in his memoir that the family had approved Rivera’s sketch, which was less controversial than the finished product. When Rivera refused to amend the mural to remove Lenin, it was removed—a process which destroyed the piece.
The family spoke to The New York Times about their move out of 30 Rock, but declined to provide any details. “We got a deal we are not at liberty to speak about,” David Rockefeller Jr. said, adding that the family “decided to start again at 1 Rock.”
Room 5600 was never just a room, and once spanned three floors in 30 Rockefeller Center. The offices, which attracted visitors including the likes of Frank Sinatra and Nelson Mandela, were populated with original artwork by Gauguin, Mondrian, Signac, and Miró. (The family had already downsized to a single presence on the 56th floor, where a bust of John D. Rockefeller greets visitors.)
No one will pity the Rockefellers, whom Forbes estimates are worth an estimated $10 billion, and the family is not asking for sympathy. (On Monday, David Rockefeller and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation announced a $150 million donation to the Rockefeller University.) But in a city where residents are familiar with the stress of soaring rents, there’s something resonant about one of the city’s titan families vacating the building built by its patriarch.
“I would be surprised if they weren’t worried about rent,” Jerry Speyer, the chairman of Tishman Speyer and the current owner of the building told the Times. “I think sensible people respect money.” New York City, 2014: the time and place where billionaires have to worry about being sensible people.
