The tour we made at New York City’s Rockefeller Center and the “Top of the Rock” takes on a variety of meanings when both the information provided with the tour and Urry’s perspectives are applied. To begin with, and from the start of the tour, what is experienced is a kind of fusion of tourism and the innate culture of the city itself. If, as Urry argues, Postmodernism is marked by processes blurring the boundaries between the functions and presences of cultural elements, Rockefeller Center perfectly expresses a Postmodern agenda. It is understood, first of all, that this is no complex existing only to entertain visitors and impress tourists with architectural style. Entering into the mezzanine level for the interactive exhibit, for example, it is plain that tourism is only one function of the site.
Apart from the many businesses within the Center in place to cater to tourists, other businesses are in operation and untold numbers of people going to their “ordinary” work are evident. This in turn relates to the site’s access to public transportation; in the heart of midtown, the Center is a living link within the city network. The first impression is then removed from any traditional idea of a tourist destination as isolated and in place to fulfill one role; at no point in the tour, plainly, is the visitor unaware of being within a busy and commercial organization with multiple purposes.
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This Postmodernist sense, in terms of relationships between cultural forms, is then amplified when the interactive exhibit is visited. While there is a clear presentation of the Center’s history and development, this in itself reflects what may be called the Postmodern nature of the city itself. As it is learned how John D. Rockefeller launched the enormous project in 1930, and relied on the vision of leading architect Raymond Hood, the visitor cannot escape how multiple ambitions and cultural forces combined to create the final complex of 19 buildings. To begin with, building followed on the heels of the Depression, which devastated New York City as it did the entire nation. Developing the Center was then a momentous statement of defiance, as well as a necessary employers of tens of thousands of workers in a time when jobs were scarce. Economic realities and social forces came together in a unique way, and one seemingly representative of the spirit of the city.
Put another way, there is a powerfully symbolic quality to the Center, by virtue of how this landmark represents the city as leading the nation, and consequently finding a way to survive in the worst of times. The Art Deco elegance of the exteriors, as well as the Deco attractions within the halls and galleries, reinforce this sense of defying hardship. There is a heroic or even mythic aspect to Art Deco, and the Prometheus and Atlas statues emphasize how, during the bleak 1930s, the city was affirming its strength through so massive an undertaking. It is likely that many legendary tourist destinations have complex histories and origins, but the Center more reflects how closely the commercial, the artistic, and the civic may merge to become one single ambition. Consequently, Postmodernism is achieved through a real lack of cultural boundaries.
Then, one of the main attractions of the Center is the observation deck, and this reinforces how the complex and the city are in place to serve one another culturally, artistically, and commercially. As Urry observes, the nature of tourism invariably relies upon spectacle; the culture presenting the attraction depends on the tourist’s perception of it as superlative, as in the “most beautiful” garden or “tallest” building. The Top of the Rock is by no means the highest observation point in the city, but that is beside the point. It exists to “display” New York to the visitor, and does so in a way no other site offers because no other such site has this precise location. As we took in the views and sketched, there were a number of competing impressions made, and all going to Urry’s idea of the important of the superlative. The sheer expanse of Central Park to the north has great impact, and mainly because the huge green space is so surrounded by the tightly packed avenues.
It is certainly a superlative of contrast. Then, the views bring together the commercial and cultural idea of the city, or how these elements cannot be separated. The tourist takes in both the rows of windows of buildings revealing ordinary business and living, and the total effect of so many forging one immense, crowded urban environment. The deck offers a kind of celebration of New York through nothing more than a high exposure to it. Then, this sense of the New York masses at work all around goes to Urry’s further idea of Postmodernism, in that people reject being perceived as parts of the masses. That is, and because of the vast exposure, the Center is presenting those within the city as simultaneously individual and parts of the great collective. There is a feeling that, when everything is considered, the states of being must always exist together.
Lastly, the trip to the Plaza after the observation deck brings to mind another point of Urry, in terms of an “alternative construction of nature.” The combination skating rink/outdoor cafe setting is not, of course, a natural scene. It has the effect, however, of providing all the feelings of ease natural settings offer, and because it is “natural” in contrast to the urban complexity all around it. To begin with, it allows for taking in the almost menacing power of the “Slab,” or 30 Rockefeller Center, just as the fountains and Prometheus statue add human qualities to the scene as a whole. I personally experienced a feeling of gracefulness in the benches, stairs, and Plaza spaces; like the Central Park just seen, they seem to have a greater impact because space is made for them in a city that puts all space to use.
Then, the Deco statuary and artwork we took in have the effect of emphasizing the human, or natural, through mythic appreciation of the human. The beautiful Wisdom, for example, is grandiose and commanding, but even this seems in place to honor the ordinary visitor or worker at the Center. Ultimately, and from the exhibit to the Plaza, Rockefeller Center is a tourist destination providing a great deal to the “gaze,” and particularly in how its Postmodernist being brings the tourist into history, art, and actual city living at the same time.
