Parka Blogs: Day 10: Gold at Radio City

I never actually thought that a building could be made of gold, literally. Of course, that was me before I saw Radio City (wiki). Radio City is an extravagant music hall that's also home to the Rockettes.

The lobby roof is made gold plates! Not gold electroplated plates but gold plates! Everywhere you walk inside Radio City, there will be this constant shimmering gold. It's a gold mine, well, almost!

This is the hydralics that raises the stage above it. It has virtually no weight limit, as told by the seemingly estactic Radio City tour guide. The same set of hydralics were borrowed by the US Navy for their aircraft carriers!

This is dome shaped Music hall. As you can see, my camera lens isn't even wide enough, at 28mm, to capture the whole scene. It's nothing short of spectacular.

By the way, the curtains are sewn together with gold thread. They have only been washed once since the 30s during the restoration. Restoration was done on Radio City to remove the nicotine and smoke stains that have, over the years, accumulated. Radio City now is a non smoking hall.

Some 5 layers of nicotine were removed from the painting in the grand lobby. I can't remember how much those chandelier cost but of course they are expensive.

Art deco fills the room.

Oh, did I mention that Radio City was built by Rockefeller too? Stand in front of Rockefeller Center and make a 360 degrees turn. All the gray limestone buildings were built by John D Rockefeller.

This is the front of Rockefeller Center. That's where the ice ring is supposed to be during winter.

Walk inside to see the world's first escalator. Yes, first.

Everywhere in all the buildings are filled with timeless art pieces. Empire State Building might be the icon of New York City, but after the Rockefeller Center tour, you'll think otherwise. If Rockefeller built his buildings in gold, you'll probably have King Kong climbing them instead.