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    December 27, 1932

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    Collier Meyerson
    The document provides a detailed description of the architecture and design of Radio City Music Hall in New York City, praising its vast open space illuminated by overhead lighting bands that resemble northern lights. It notes the hall has flaws but an exciting vitality from its architectural devices unlike a purely structural engineering approach.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    December 27, 1932

    Uploaded by

    Collier Meyerson
    5K views2 pages
    The document provides a detailed description of the architecture and design of Radio City Music Hall in New York City, praising its vast open space illuminated by overhead lighting bands that resemble northern lights. It notes the hall has flaws but an exciting vitality from its architectural devices unlike a purely structural engineering approach.

    Original Description:

    Radio City Music Hall opens

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    The document provides a detailed description of the architecture and design of Radio City Music Hall in New York City, praising its vast open space illuminated by overhead lighting bands that resemble northern lights. It notes the hall has flaws but an exciting vitality from its architectural devices unlike a purely structural engineering approach.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    5K views2 pages

    December 27, 1932

    Uploaded by

    Collier Meyerson
    The document provides a detailed description of the architecture and design of Radio City Music Hall in New York City, praising its vast open space illuminated by overhead lighting bands that resemble northern lights. It notes the hall has flaws but an exciting vitality from its architectural devices unlike a purely structural engineering approach.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    January 4, 19331

    11

    The Nation

    OXVS
    v,

    Advantage over God

    Radio City Music Hall*

    I wish not to exaggerate the pleasure to be had, but I


    have vowed to recordit.
    Thereare skeptics who,having
    followed theoutwardhistory
    of RadioCity, believe that
    everything connected with it must be essentially absurd. Delight, however, follows its own path, and when or where
    it
    will strike is unpredictable.

    HE hall has a mighty, swift sweep. Hesitation there


    is none. It is as if,when
    you pushed aside the
    curtain, there had been arocketing of space. All a t
    once there is a vast firmament overhead, and a great distance
    stretchingoutunderit.
    It is not the sensation of a dome.
    T h e dome, asyou come underit, after alongapproach,
    sensing its presence by .the circle of light, opens up far overhead,majestic, poised, centered, floating, serene. T h i s huge
    vault, however, is different. It has focusand energy. T h e
    focus is thegreat
    proscenium arch, oversixtyfeethigh
    and one bundred feet wide, a huge semicircularvoid, filled, at
    themoment, by the folds of a golden curtain. From that
    the energy disperses. Like a firmament the arched structure
    rises outwardandforward.
    T h e ceiling, uniting sides
    and top in its one great curve, proceeds by successive broad
    bands, like the bands of northern lights. It has eightsuch
    transverse sections. They overlap
    like
    gigantic
    Venetian
    blinds, or like sections of a telescope; and the cove formed
    by each such lap or offset conceals thelights.Shining
    thus
    toward the stage in successive rows, they illumine the broad
    bands of the ceiling, from which the light then
    floats down
    intothe huge space. T h e ceiling is now revealed as gold,
    of a sandy texture and beautiful low
    key ; and the bands
    exhibit a fine fluting or ribbing. There are grills, o r louvres,
    in them, too, arranged like theribs of a fan converging toward
    the stage; at the pressing of a button the main lights go off,
    andthewhole
    hugeauditoriumcan
    be dimly lit bythese
    spaced rays of what seem likedistant overhead shuttered
    windows.
    This vault isadelight.
    N o t only the vast space: this
    nervous energy, thisswift radiation. There is something
    about it that fits. It stands for our thoughts. Pmicture the
    Greek, with his serene colonnade topped by the low triangle
    of his pediment. It is measured and self-contained. Picture
    the Roman, who commands the round power of the masonry
    dome. Then the Gothic artist, who thrusts
    his vaults upwards; his buildings grow likeplants.Baroqueelaborates
    on theRoman; twists, turns,and moves. It is suited to
    theaters. Butwe
    can move inpaths
    of astillgreater
    variety. O u r trajectory can be more direct. We have control
    over forces more abstract and more
    potent. The investigations of our thinkers are concerned with ethereal radiations
    and vibrations. It is these that have been manipdatedto
    make possible the whole enterpriseof our tremendous industry
    of sound communication. So it is fitting, almost symbolical,
    that a greathall of ours, devoted in whatevermanner to
    music, should expand from a
    focus by waves that follow a
    greatcurve, exhilaratingratherthanserene;andthatthe
    greatvolumeof
    space shoulddepend, for its definition in
    color and for the variolus modulations of apparent amplitude
    or of mood, not primarily on pigment-though the most satisfactorycolor that is also exciting is this gold-but
    onintangi,ble light itself.
    *Radio City MUSICHall, in Rockefeller Center, New York City, was
    oficially opened on December EDITORS THE NATION.

    T h e auditorium of which I am speaking, and-for the


    sake of which I am obliged, in this short space, to surrender
    the whole gigantic outerworks of Radio City to others, along
    with all remarks on its place in society, has many flaws, soma
    of them dangerous. M a y we leavethem to another day?
    T h e r e still remains, after the first naive delight, a vitalitg
    to be explained: i t inheres in the fact that the devices which
    were used were architectural.
    Descriptions ,in the press say starkly structural, as if
    it had been a matter af engineering ; but that would have
    been easier. Piersand beams are easy to emphasize. T h i s
    ceiling is not structural, however, in the sense of support, but
    is a mask. Two years ago (February 25, 1931 1 in these pages
    I described the first experiment with a similar shell, at the
    New School for Social Research. I thengave Mr. Urban
    insufficient credit for the innovation. It is his device that is
    here developed and properly used ;its value becomes apparent.
    No confusion exists between what is shell and what is supporting structure; hence the shell can both look and be itself.
    Therearefurther
    architectural pleasures whicharise
    from a good plan. T h e seats are generously spaced ; they are
    comfortable; the sight-lines are excellept ; andeverywhere
    you canhearplainly
    witholut echo or burr.Despitethe
    capacity of 6,200 the greatest distance from the stage is actually less than at the Capitol or the old Roxy, the theater
    being as wide as the block. Instead of the usual deep balcony, which cuts the average auditorium in
    two, there are
    threeshallow mezzanines. T h e impossible remainsimpossible, however, and no power of paradox can quite reconcilehuge withintimate; so if the stage is to beused fOT
    anythingmuchsmallerthan
    massed balletsand
    big orchestras, either it must be covered with a huge lens, or, as a
    friend has suggested, Robert .Edmond Jones, the art director,
    will have to supply the actors with visible facial expressions
    by means of three-foot masks.
    T h e architecbural
    firms
    were
    three:
    Reinhard
    and
    Hofmeister ; Corbett, Harrison and MacMurray; and Hood
    and Fuuilhoux. I would have said thatthemanner seems
    most like Hoods, but they refuse to allocate personal credit,
    emphasizing thegroupnature
    of theirwork.
    Roxy, thedirector,enteredinto
    collaboration onthe
    music hall some six monthsafterwork
    began. Publicity
    releases from Radio City declare that asunrise at sea inspired him t o this architectural triumph. Since
    Roxy made
    the sun, a sunrise must have been quite easy for him. ROW
    has one advantage over God. He can apparently work baclrwardsorforwards.
    He wouldnot hesitate to create something thatwas alreadythere.

    DOUGLAS
    HASKELL

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