I was driving west on 51st Street hunting for skyscrapers to photograph — specifically the newly completed JP Morgan headquarters on Park Avenue — when a golden-era gem commanded my attention.
Rising 50 stories into the midtown sky was the General Electric Building, an art deco-gothic hybrid at 570 Lexington Avenue, whose salmon-colored exterior and intricate details gave me pause. I parked and walked up and down 51st Street, snapping photos from various vantage points.
Having photographed New York buildings for years, this skyscraper had somehow eluded me until I stumbled across images of its distinctive crown on an art deco account I followed on Twitter.
The architectural firm Cross & Cross designed the building as headquarters for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), a General Electric subsidiary and pioneer in radio and communications. During construction, between 1930 and 1931, RCA separated from GE and relocated to Rockefeller Center, sparking the building's renaming to the General Electric Building.
Its design purposely complements the adjacent St. Bartholomew's Church, echoing its colors and materials — brick, metal, and terra cotta. The crown is adorned with ornate 30-foot spires featuring pronounced zigzag and geometric configurations meant to evoke radio waves and electricity.
When I stepped closer to photograph the facade's details — a nickel bronze clock, a stainless steel fist clutching a lightning bolt — a man emerged from the revolving front doors and invited me inside. I walked through a grand lobby of polished terrazzo floors, vaulted ceilings, and ornamental metalwork, capturing it all on camera.
The GE Building had been on my “skyscrapers to photograph” list for a while, but who knows when I'd have actually gotten around to it. This summer? Next year? Five years from now? A byproduct of photographing a city as rich in icons as New York is that you can always count on a chance encounter to make the decision for you.
