In a meeting that took place yesterday, April 26, NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved plans that will provide the Top of the Rock observation deck at 30 Rockefeller Plaza with several upgrades.
Among these upgrades is a “skylift” platform that will offer endless views of NYC from beyond the 70th floor, 6sqft first reported.
LPC Commissioner Sarah Carroll stated how Top of the Rock is one of the city’s most important landmarks, attracting residents and visitors to the area and encouraging new businesses to open nearby. Due to this, she believes that these new additions could help potentially boost tourism.
Tishman Speyer Properties, the company that manages Rockefeller Center, has drawn up plans for these upgrades that involve work at both the base and the top of 30 Rock.
What is now the ticketing booth to the Top of the Rock experience will be transformed into a storefront and the ticketing booth moved over, among some other smaller renovations such as upgrades to the lighting in the lobby.
As for the 69th floor of the building, the new “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” experience will raise visitors up while sitting on a bench, mimicking the famous photograph of ironworkers eating lunch on a steel beam back in 1932.
Moving up to the 70th floor, a “skylift” will be added in which visitors will be lifted above the rooftop on a circular glass platform to experience 360-degree views of the city.
The 70th floor will also include a rooftop beacon, a kinetic globe, and the existing red tiled ground will be replaced with a celestial tile mosaic.
While this proposal was first presented in September 2021, it made a few revisions before being approved this past Tuesday.
An estimated date of completion has not yet been released.