Rockefeller Center on a busy shopping day a week before Christmas, as seen from the roof of Saks Fifth Avenue.
Here’s the heart of Rockefeller Center, the Art Deco complex that John D. Rockefeller, Jr., spent the entire decade of the 1930s building with his architect, Raymond Hood. We are looking directly down on the Channel Gardens, which lead pedestrians from Fifth Avenue, left, to the plaza in front of the GE Building (aka 30 Rock), which was being used by a café when this photograph was taken in May, but becomes a skating rink in winter. The small platform with scaffolding, right, where the Christmas tree stands tall in December, is being readied for the installation of a sculpture by Jeff Koons. Some of the buildings have exquisite rooftop gardens kept mostly for the pleasure of people who work in the complex.