History

Planningedit

Siteedit

The headquarters of the United Nations occupies a site beside the East River between 42nd and 48th Streets, on between 17 and 18 acres (6.9 and 7.3 ha)a of land purchased from the real estate developer William Zeckendorf Sr. At the time, the site was part of Turtle Bay, which contained slaughterhouses and tenement buildings, as well as the original Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory. By the 1910s, there was also a pencil factory and a gas company building in Turtle Bay, on the site of the current UN headquarters. The development of Sutton Place and Beekman Place, north of the current UN site, came in the 1920s. A yacht club on the site was proposed in 1925, but it proved to be too expensive.

In 1946, Zeckendorf purchased the land with the intention to create an "X City" on the site. This complex was to contain an office building and a hotel, each 57 stories tall, and an entertainment complex between them. The X City would have also had smaller apartment and office towers. However, the $8.5 million ($74 million in 2019) for X City never materialized, and Nelson Rockefeller purchased an option for Zeckendorf's waterfront land in Turtle Bay. The purchase was funded by Nelson's father, John D. Rockefeller Jr. The Rockefeller family owned the Tudor City Apartments across First Avenue from the Zeckendorf site. The city, in turn, spent $5 million ($43 million in 2019) on clearing the land.

Designedit

While the United Nations had dreamed of constructing an independent city for its new world capital, multiple obstacles soon forced the organization to downsize their plans. They ultimately decided to build on Rockefeller's East River plot, since the land was free and the land's owners were well known. The diminutive site on the East River necessitated a Rockefeller Center-type vertical complex, thus, it was a given that the Secretariat would be housed in a tall office tower. During daily meetings from February to June 1947, the collaborative team produced at least 45 designs and variations. Rather than hold a competition for the design of the facilities for the headquarters, the UN decided to commission a multinational team of leading architects to collaborate on the design. Harrison was named as Director of Planning, and a Board of Design Consultants was composed of architects, planners and engineers nominated by member governments. The board consisted of N. D. Bassov of the Soviet Union, Gaston Brunfaut (Belgium), Ernest Cormier (Canada), Le Corbusier (France), Liang Seu-cheng (China), Sven Markelius (Sweden), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil), Howard Robertson (United Kingdom), G. A. Soilleux (Australia), and Julio Vilamajó (Uruguay).

Niemeyer met with Corbusier at the latter's request shortly after the former arrived in New York City. Corbusier had already been lobbying hard to promote his own scheme 23, and thus, requested that Niemeyer not submit a design, lest he further confuse the contentious meetings of the Board of Design. Instead, Corbusier asked the younger architect Niemeyer to assist him with his project. Niemeyer began to absent himself from the meetings. Only after Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz repeatedly pressed him to participate did Niemeyer agree to submit his own project. Niemeyer's project 32 was finally chosen, but as opposed to Corbusier's project 23, which consisted of one building containing both the Assembly Hall and the councils in the center of the site (as it was hierarchically the most important building), Niemeyer's plan split the councils from the Assembly Hall, locating the first alongside the river, and the second on the right side of the secretariat. This would not split the site, but on the contrary, would create a large civic square.

After much discussion, Harrison, who coordinated the meetings, determined that a design based on Niemeyer's project 32 and Le Corbusier's project 23 would be developed for the final project. Le Corbusier's project 23 consisted of a large block containing both the Assembly Hall and the Council Chambers near the center of the site with the Secretariat tower emerging as a slab from the south. Niemeyer's plan was closer to that actually constructed, with a distinctive General Assembly building, a long low horizontal block housing the other meeting rooms, and a tall tower for the Secretariat. The complex as built, however, repositioned Niemeyer's General Assembly building to the north of this tripartite composition. This plan included a public plaza as well. The UN headquarters was originally proposed alongside a grand boulevard leading eastward from Third Avenue or Lexington Avenue, between 46th Street to the south and 49th Street to the north. These plans were eventually downsized into Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, a small plaza on the south side of 47th Street east of Second Avenue.

Wallace Harrison's assistant, architect George Dudley, later stated: "It literally took our breath away to see the simple plane of the site kept open from First Avenue to the River, only three structures on it, standing free, a fourth lying low behind them along the river’s edge...Niemeyer also said, ‘beauty will come from the buildings being in the right space!’. The comparison between Le Corbusier's heavy block and Niemeyer's startling, elegantly articulated composition seemed to me to be in everyone's mind..."page needed Later on, Corbusier came once again to Niemeyer and asked him to reposition the Assembly Hall back to the center of the site. Such modification would destroy Niemeyer’s plans for a large civic square. However, he finally decided to accept the modification: "I felt Corbusier would like to do his project, and he was the master. I do not regret my decision." Together, they submitted the scheme 23–32, which was built and is what can be seen today.page needed Along with suggestions from the other members of the Board of Design Consultants, this was developed into project 42G. This late project was built with some reductions and other modifications.non-primary source needed

Proposed alternativesedit

Many cities vied for the honor of hosting the UN Headquarters site, prior to the selection of New York City. The selection of the East River site came after over a year of protracted study and consideration of many sites in the United States. A powerful faction among the delegates advocated returning to the former League of Nations complex in Geneva, Switzerland. Suggestions came from far and wide including such fanciful suggestions as a ship on the high seas to housing the entire complex in a single tall building. Amateur architects submitted designs, local governments offered park areas, but the determined group of New York City boosters that included such luminaries as Grover Whalen, Thomas J. Watson, and Nelson Rockefeller, coordinated efforts with the powerful Coordinator of Construction, Robert Moses, and Mayor William O'Dwyer, to assemble acceptable interim facilities. Their determined courtship of the UN Interim Site committee resulted in the early meetings taking place at multiple locations throughout the New York area.

Sites in San Francisco (including the Presidio) and Marin County in California; St. Louis, Missouri; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Fairfield County, Connecticut; Westchester County and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in New York; Tuskahoma, Oklahoma; the Black Hills of South Dakota; Belle Isle in Detroit, Michigan; and a site on Navy Island straddling the U.S.-Canada border were considered as potential sites for the UN Headquarters. San Francisco, where the UN was founded in 1945, was favored by Australia, New Zealand, China, and the Philippines due to the city's proximity to their countries. The UN and many of its delegates seriously considered Philadelphia for the headquarters; the city offered to donate land in several select sites, including Fairmount Park, Andorra, and a Center City location which would have placed the headquarters along a mall extending from Independence Hall to Penn's Landing. The Manhattan site was ultimately chosen over Philadelphia after John D. Rockefeller, Jr., offered to donate $8.5 million to purchase the land along the East River.; Robert Moses and Rockefeller Sr. convinced Nelson Rockefeller to buy the land after the Rockefellers' Kykuit estate in Mount Pleasant, New York was deemed too isolated from Manhattan.

Previous temporary sitesedit

In 1945–46, London hosted the first meeting of the General Assembly in Methodist Central Hall, and the Security Council in Church House. The third and sixth General Assembly sessions, in 1948 and 1951, met in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Prior to the construction of the current complex, the UN was headquartered at a temporary location at the Sperry Corporation's offices in Lake Success, New York, an eastern suburb of the city in Nassau County on Long Island, from 1946 to 1952. The Security Council also held sessions on what was then the Bronx campus of Hunter College (now the site of Lehman College) from March to August 1946. The UN also met at what is now the Queens Museum, built as the New York City Pavilion for the 1939 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The General Assembly met at what had previously been the ice skating rink, and the Long Island Rail Road reopened the former World's Fair station as United Nations station. After the UN moved to its new Manhattan headquarters, the building was remodeled and briefly used as a pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair, after which it reverted to use as a skating rink until 2008, when the entire building began a long-term renovation to create expanded museum facilities.

Constructionedit

Per an agreement with the city, the buildings met some but not all local fire safety and building codes. In April 1948, U.S. President Harry S. Truman requested that Congress approve an interest-free loan of $65 million in order to fund construction. The U.S. House of Representatives authorized the loan on August 6, 1948, on the condition that the UN repay the loan in twelve monthly installments between July 1951 and July 1952. Of the $65 million, $25 million was to be made available immediately from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. However, the full loan was initially withheld due to a case regarding UN employee Valentin A. Gubitchev and a KGB spy Judith Coplon, who had been charged with espionage and were set to go on trial in March 1949. The House was loath to distribute the full $65 million because the government was concerned that the UN's proposed headquarters would grant diplomatic immunity to the two individuals. The UN used the Reconstruction Finance Corp.'s $25 million as a stopgap measure. The resulting case circumscribed the immunity of UN employees. To save money, the UN considered retaining an existing building on the Manhattan site, which had been slated for demolition once the headquarters was completed. Until 1950, the UN refused to accept private donations for the headquarters' construction, citing a policy that prohibited them from accepting donations.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the initial buildings occurred on September 14, 1948. A bucket of earth was removed to mark the start of construction for the basement of the 39-story Secretariat Building. Fuller, Turner, Slattery, and Walsh, a consortium of four contracting companies from Manhattan and Queens, were selected to construct the Secretariat Building, as well as the foundations for the remaining buildings. In October, Harrison requested that its 58 members and the 48 U.S. states participate in designing the interiors of the building's conference rooms. It was believed that if enough countries designed their own rooms, the UN would be able to reduce its own expenditures. The headquarters were originally supposed to be completed in 1951, with the first occupants moving into the Secretariat Building in 1950. However, in November, New York City's construction coordinator Robert Moses reported that construction was two months behind schedule. By that time, 60% of the headquarters' site had been excavated. The same month, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously voted to formally thank the national, state, and city governments for their role in building the headquarters. The formal $23.8 million contract for the Secretariat Building was awarded in January 1949.

A prayer space for people of all religions was announced on April 18, 1949. Until then, the UN had avoided the subject of a prayer room, because it had been difficult, if not impossible, to create a prayer room that could accommodate the various religions. Two days after this announcement, workers erected the first steel beam for the Secretariat Building, to little official fanfare. The consortium working on the Secretariat Building announced that 13,000 tons of steel would eventually be used in the building, and that the steelwork would consist of a strong wind bracing system because the 72-by-287-foot (22 by 87 m) structure was so narrow. The flag of the United Nations was raised above the first beam as a demonstration for the many spectators who witnessed the first beam's erection. The Secretariat Building was to be completed no later than January 1, 1951, and if the consortium of Fuller, Turner, Slattery, and Walsh exceeded that deadline, they had to pay a minimum penalty of $2,500 per day to the UN. To reduce construction costs, the complex's planners downsized the Secretariat Building from 42 stories to 39 stories.

The cornerstone of the headquarters was originally supposed to be laid on April 10, 1949. However, in March of that year, Secretary-General Trygve Lie delayed the ceremony after learning that Truman would not present to officiate the cornerstone laying. Seven months later, on October 11, Truman accepted an invitation to attend a cornerstone-laying ceremony, which was planned to occur on October 24. At the ceremony, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey laid the headquarters' cornerstone.

In June 1949, UN officials wrote a letter to the American Bridge Company in which they expressed intent to buy 10,000 to 11,000 tons of steel. This steel would be used to build the rest of the complex, as well as a deck over FDR Drive on the headquarters' eastern side. To fit in with the accelerated schedule of construction, the steel would have to be delivered by September. The project also included a four-lane, $2.28 million vehicular tunnel under First Avenue so that traffic could bypass the headquarters when the UN was in session. The tunnel started construction on August 1, 1949. The tunnel involved two years of planning due to its complexity. Property inside Tudor City, just west of the headquarters, was also acquired so that two streets near the UN headquarters could be widened. The expanded streets were expected to speed up construction. In October 1949, contracts were awarded for the construction of two vehicular ramps over the FDR Drive: one to the north of the UN headquarters, and one to the south. Another contract to redevelop 42nd Street, a major corridor leading to the UN headquarters, was awarded in December of that year.

The Secretariat Building was ceremonially topped out in October 1949 after its steel framework had been completed. The UN flag was hoisted atop the roof of the newly completed steel frame in celebration of this event. The installation of the Secretariat Building's interior furnishings proceeded quickly so that the building could be open in January 1951. In February 1950, the UN invited companies from 37 countries to bid on $2 million worth of furniture for the Secretariat Building. A month later, the UN announced that it would also be accepting all donations from private citizens, entities, or organizations. This marked a reversal from their previous policy of rejecting all donations. A $1.7 million steel contract on the United Nations General Assembly building, the last structure to be built, was awarded in April 1950. At the time, the building was not expected to be complete until 1952 due to a steelworkers' strike, which had delayed the production of steel. The first pieces of the platform over the FDR Drive was lifted into place the same month. In June 1950, Norway proposed that it decorate and outfit the complex's Security Council chamber, and the UN unofficially accepted the Norwegian offer.

In December 1949, Robert Moses proposed placing a playground inside the UN headquarters, but this plan was initially rejected. The UN subsequently reversed its position in April 1951, and Lie agreed to build a 100-by-140-foot (30 by 43 m) playground at the northeast corner of the headquarters site. However, the UN did reject an unusual "model playground" proposal for that site, instead choosing to construct a play area similar to others found around New York City.

Openingedit

The first 450 UN employees started working at the Secretariat Building on August 22, 1950. The United Nations officially moved into the Secretariat Building on January 8, 1951, by which time 3,300 employees occupied the building. At the time, much of the Secretariat Building was still unfinished, and the bulk of the UN's operations still remained at Lake Success. A centralized phone-communications system was built to facilitate communications within the complex. The UN had completely moved out of its Lake Success headquarters by May. The construction of the General Assembly Building was delayed due to a shortage of limestone for the building, which in turn resulted from a heavy snow at the British limestone quarries that were supplying the building's limestone. The erection of the building's framework began in February 1952. The Manhattan headquarters was declared complete on October 10, 1952. The cost of construction was reported to be on budget at $65 million. In 1953, twenty-one nations donated furnishings or offered to decorate the UN headquarters.

A new library building for the UN headquarters was proposed in 1952. The existing UN library, a 6-story structure formerly owned by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), was too small. The NYCHA building could only hold 170,000 books, whereas the UN wanted to host at least 350,000 to 400,000 books in its library. The new facility was slated to cost $3 million. By 1955, the collection was housed in the Secretariat Building and held 250,000 volumes in "every language of the world", according to The New York Times. The Dag Hammarskjöld Library Building, designed by Harrison and Abramovitz, was officially dedicated in November 1961.

Early yearsedit

The gardens at the United Nations headquarters were originally closed to the public, but were made publicly accessible in 1958. By 1962, the United Nations' operations had grown so much that the headquarters could not house all of the organization's operations. As a result, the UN announced its intention to rent office space nearby. The Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) moved to leased office space in 2 United Nations Plaza three years later. The East River-Turtle Bay Fund, a civic group, proposed that the United Nations purchase a 3-acre (1.2 ha) tract located to the south of the headquarters, on the site of the Robert Moses Playground and the Queens–Midtown Tunnel ventilation building between 41st and 42nd Streets. The northern portion of the United Nations site remained largely undeveloped through the mid-1960s; a proposed skyscraper by Wallace K. Harrison was scrapped after the UN ran out of money and had to borrow $65 million from the United States government.

A radical proposal for redeveloping the area around the UN headquarters was proposed in 1968. It entailed closing First Avenue between 43rd and 45th Streets; constructing a new visitor's center with two 44-story towers between 43rd and 45th Streets; and connecting the new visitor's center with the existing headquarters via a public park. This plan was presented to the New York City government in 1969, but was ultimately not acted upon.

The UN staff continued to grow, and by 1969, the organization had 3,500 staff working in the New York headquarters. The UN rented additional space at 485 Lexington Avenue and in the Chrysler East complex, located three blocks west of the headquarters. It also announced its intention to build a new storage building between 41st and 42nd Streets. None of these properties would receive the extraterritorial status conferred on the original headquarters.

Refurbishmentedit

On July 28, 2007, UN officials announced the complex would undergo a $1 billion renovation starting in the fall. Swedish firm Skanska AB won a bid to overhaul the buildings which including the Conference, General Assembly and Secretariat buildings. The renovations, which were the first since the complex opened in 1950, were expected to take about 7 years to complete. When completed the complex is also expected to be more energy efficient and have improved security. A temporary $140 million "North Lawn Building" was built to house the United Nations' "critical operations" while renovations proceeded. Work began on May 5, 2008, but the project was delayed for a while. By 2009 the cost of the work had risen from $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion with some estimates saying it would take up to $3 billion. Officials hoped the renovated buildings would achieve a LEED Silver rating. Despite some delays and rises in construction costs, renovation on the entire UN headquarters progressed rapidly. By 2012, the installation of the new glass facade of the Secretariat Building was completed. The new glass wall retained the look of the original facade but it is more energy efficient. The renovation of the Secretariat building was completed, and the UN staff moved into the new building in July 2012.

Alternative sites were considered as temporary holding locations during renovations. In 2005, officials investigated establishing a new temporary site be created at the old Lake Success location. Brooklyn was also suggested as a temporary site. Another alternative for a temporary headquarters or a new permanent facility was the World Trade Center site. Once again, these plans met resistance both within the UN and from the United States and New York governments and were abandoned.

By September 2015, the renovations were nearly complete but the cost had risen to $2.15 billion. Demolition of the North Lawn Building began in January 2016. The building was replaced with an open plaza, and most of its materials were to be recycled.

On March 10, 2020, the UN closed to general public following due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was later announced that the pandemic also forced cuts to staff at the building.