During a rooftop site visit in midtown a couple of years ago, I turned around and there it was: the old General Electric Building. It’s sometimes overlooked – it’s only 50 stories tall and slender – but it’s one the great examples of the romantic-corporate version of Art Deco. Chrysler is psycho-corporate Deco, and Rockefeller Center and the Empire State are simply corporate Deco. Those are fine, but a good look at GE suggests why the combination of this style and height has been an inspiration for comic books and movies for almost a century. It’s the future!
Here’s a decent view of the full height, looking west down 51st Street:
Note the trick, reasonably popular at that time, of shading the brick colors light at the top and dark at the bottom, to make it look like the sun is always shining on the building. Back to my photo, here’s a blow-up to better show some of the terra cotta ornament at the top.
The figures in the center of each facade top are “electrical deities” surrounded by lightning bolts and radio waves. Obviously, symbolic for General Electric, but honestly, who cares?
I’m not sure what I can say that will change the opinion of anyone who has seen it: you either like it or you don’t. The economics of construction at that time (specifically the relatively low cost of decorative terra cotta and the relatively low cost of skilled masons) made it possible for a corporation to spend a reasonable amount of money on this frivolity (which can only be properly seen by birds and people in neighboring buildings) without being accused of wastefulness.
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