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General Assembly building flanked by Secretariat tower at the United Nations Headquarters
The 'United Nations Headquarters' is a distinctive complex in
New York City that has served as the headquarters of the
United Nations since its completion in 1950. It is located in the
Turtle Bay neighborhood, on the east side of
Midtown Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the
East River. Though it is in New York City, the land occupied by the United Nations Headquarters is considered international territory
[1], and its borders are
First Avenue west,
East 42nd Street south, East 48th Street north and the
East River east.
FDR Drive passes underneath the Conference Building of the complex.
The United Nations Headquarters were constructed in New York City in 1949 and 1950 beside the East River, on seventeen acres of land purchased from the foremost New York real estate developer of the time,
William Zeckendorf. This purchase was arranged by
Nelson Rockefeller, after an initial offer of placing it on the
Rockefeller family estate of
Kykuit was rejected as being too isolated from Manhattan. The $8.5 million purchase was then funded by his father,
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who donated it to the City. The lead architect for the building was the real estate firm of
Wallace Harrison, the personal architectural adviser for the family.
Planning and construction
Interior of the General Assembly.
Rather than announce a competition for the design of the facilities for the headquarters, the UN decided to commission a collaborative effort among a multinational team of leading architects. American architect
Wallace K. Harrison was named the director of planning, and a board of design consultants was nominated by member governments. The board consisted of
N.D. Bassov of the
Soviet Union,
Gaston Brunfaut (
Belgium),
Ernest Cormier (
Canada),
Le Corbusier (
France),
Liang Ssu-cheng (
China),
Sven Markelius (
Sweden),
Oscar Niemeyer (
Brazil),
Howard Robertson (
United Kingdom),
G.A. Soilleux (
Australia), and
Julio Villamajo (
Uruguay).
The committee considered 50 different designs before arriving at a decision. The basis for the final design was based on Le Corbusier's design, known as "Scheme 23A."
Bound by such constraints as the East River Drive (later the
Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive) and the
East River, it became necessary to build a high-rise office building for the secretariat. The 38-story Secretariat Building was controversial in its time but became a modernist landmark. Its characteristic east-west walls were fully covered with
thermopane glass designed to absorb heat from sunlight, except for air intakes on the 6th, 16th, 28th and 38th floors. The north-south walls are covered with
Vermont marble.
Per an agreement with the New York City government, the buildings meet some but not all local fire safety and building codes.
The construction of the headquarters was financed by an interest-free loan of $65 million made by the United States government.
[2]
Proposed alternatives
Portraits of former UN Secretaries-General in a hallway of the General Assembly building. This is near the exhibit area and before the start of the tour.
,
Chicago,
Philadelphia,
Flushing Meadows Corona Park in
Queens, and even the
Black Hills of
South Dakota were all proposed as sites for the United Nations Headquarters before Manhattan was finally decided upon. It was later revealed that France, the UK and the Netherlands voted against situating the headquarters in the United States.
[3]
In 1945-6
London hosted the first meeting of the General Assembly in Methodist Central Hall, and the Security Council in
Church House. The third and sixth General Assembly sessions, in 1948 and 1951, met in the
Palais de Chaillot in
Paris.
Prior to the construction of the current complex, the UN was headquartered at a temporary location in
Lake Success, New York, an eastern suburb of New York City on
Long Island. The Security Council has also held sessions on what was then the
Bronx campus of
Hunter College (now the site of
Lehman College).
[4]
Prior to the choice of the site in New York City,
Navy Island near
Niagara Falls in
Ontario,
Canada was proposed as an alternative headquarters for the United Nations.
[5] An international committee pitched the site as the "World Peace Capital" over 1945 and 1946. The island was considered to be an ideal location as it lay on the boundary of two bordering countries of a peaceful status. It was proposed that Navy Island would be ceded to the United Nations as long as the headquarters remained, and to revert to the Canadian government should the UN move. The proposal was ultimately turned down in favor of the current site in New York City.
Since the Headquarters buildings are in need of repair, it has been suggested that a new temporary site be created at the old Lake Success location.
Brooklyn has also been suggested as a temporary site.
[6] Another alternative for a temporary headquarters or a new permanent facility is the
World Trade Center site.
[7]
Hugo Chávez has repeatedly suggested the headquarters be moved from its current location in an "imperialist nation" to Brasilia, Brazil. This proposal has no serious traction within the UN General Assembly or other areas of the organization.
International character
Interior of the Security Council chambers.
The United Nations headquarters remains the territory of the United States. However, the site of the United Nations Headquarters has
extraterritoriality status, typical of embassies.
[2] This affects some law enforcement where UN rules override the laws of New York City, but does not give immunity to crimes that take place there. In addition, the United Nations Headquarters remains under the jurisdiction and laws of the United States, although a few members of the UN staff have
diplomatic immunity and so cannot be prosecuted by local courts unless the diplomatic immunity is waived by the Secretary-General. In 2005, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan waived the immunity of
Benon Sevan,
Aleksandr Yakovlev, and
Vladimir Kuznetsov in relation to the
Oil-for-Food Program. All have been charged in the US Federal Court of New York, except for Kofi Annan's own son, also implicated in the scandal. Benon Sevan later fled the US to Cyprus, while Aleksandr Yakovlev and Vladimir Kuznetsov decided to stand trial.
The currency in use at the United Nations headquarters' businesses is the US dollar, and the languages on many of the signs are English and French.
The complex has a street address of 760 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA. For security reasons, all mail sent to this address is sterilized, so items that may be degraded should be sent by courier
[9]. The
United Nations Postal Administration issues stamps, which must be used on stamped mail sent from the building. Journalists, when reporting from the complex, will not use "New York" as the identification of their location in recognition of the extraterritoriality status. For example,
Richard Roth is
CNN's UN correspondent, while Ian Williams is his counterpart at
The Nation [10], and Carola Hoyos is the UN correspondent for the
Financial Times [11].
Structures
Secretariat tower at the United Nations Headquarters, facade detail
The complex includes a number of major buildings. While the Secretariat Tower is most predominantly featured in depictions of the headquarters, it also includes the
domed General Assembly Hall, the
Dag Hammarskjöld Library, as well as the Conference and Visitors Center, which is situated between the General Assembly and Secretariat buildings, and can be seen only from FDR Drive or the East River. Just inside the perimeter fence of the complex stands a line of flagpoles where the flags of all 192 UN member states, plus the
UN flag, are flown in English alphabetical order.
[12]
Art at the United Nations
Main articles: United Nations Art Collection
The complex is also notable for its
gardens and outdoor
sculptures. Iconic sculptures include the "Knotted Gun," a gift from the
Luxembourg government
[13] and "
Let Us Beat Swords Into Plowshares," a gift from the then-
Soviet Union.
[14] The latter sculpture is the only appearance of the "swords into plowshares" quotation, from
Isaiah 2:4, within the complex. Contrary to popular belief, the quotation is not carved on any UN building.
[15] Rather, it is carved on the "Isaiah Wall" of
Ralph Bunche Park across the street. (Interestingly enough, a piece of the
Berlin Wall also stands in the UN garden.)
The ''Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares'' statue at United Nations headquarters, New York.
Other prominent artworks on the grounds include a
Marc Chagall stained glass window memorializing the death of
Dag Hammarskjöld,
[16] the
Japanese Peace Bell which is rung on the
vernal equinox and the opening of each General Assembly session,
[17] a Chinese
ivory carving made in 1974 (before the ivory trade was largely banned in 1989),
[18] and a
Venetian mosaic depicting
Norman Rockwell's painting ''The Golden Rule''.
[19]
Other buildings
While outside of the complex, the headquarters also includes two large office buildings that serve as offices for the specialized agencies of the organization, such as
UNDP. These buildings, known as DC-1 and DC-2 are located at 1 and 2 UN Plaza respectively. There is also an
identification office at the corner of 46th Street, inside a former bank branch, where pre-accredited diplomats, reporters, and others receive their grounds pass.
UNICEF House (3 UN Plaza) and the
UNITAR Building (807 UN Plaza) are also part of headquarters. However, the Church Center of the United Nations (777 UN Plaza) is a private building owned by the
Methodist Church as an interfaith space housing the offices of several
non-governmental organizations.
Renovation plans
In recent years, however, the headquarters buildings have come to need extensive renovation, including the need to install sprinklers, fix leaks, and remove asbestos. A renovation plan was announced in 2000 involving the building of a temporary headquarters on what is now a playground (Robert Moses Park) across the street from the current facility. Once renovations were finished, the temporary building would be used to ease overcrowding at the DC-1 and DC-2 However, due to the refusal of the
federal and
New York state governments to fund the project, little has been accomplished as of 2006. On July 28, 2007 it was announced the complex will undergo a $1 billion renovation starting in the fall. Swedish firm
Skanska AB won a bid to overhaul the buildings which will include the Conference, General Assembly and Secretariat buildings. The renovations, which will be the first since the complex opened in 1950 are expected to take about 7 years to complete. When completed the complex is also expected to be more energy efficient.
[20][21][22][23][24] Officials hope the renovated buildings will achieve a
LEED Silver rating, although they concede that the delay in construction will result in a projected 7.5% inflation rate in the cost of materials and labor over the course of the project.
[25]
Depictions in popular culture
★ Due to its role in international politics, the United Nations Headquarters is often featured in movies and other pop culture. Movies in which the headquarters buildings are major settings include ''
North by Northwest'', ''
Live and Let Die'', ''
The Art of War'', ''
U.S. Marshals'', ''
The Glass Wall'', ''
The Second Renaissance'' and ''
The Peacemaker''. A select number of films, including ''
The Interpreter'', have been filmed in the complex, with the consent of the Secretary-General.
[26]
★ In the book
World War Z the United Nations Headquarters is moved to the USS ''Saratoga''.
★ The headquarters is also featured in the video games ''
Civilization'' and ''
SimCity 3000''.
★ The
Marc Chagall stained glass wall was the subject of a
souvenir sheet of
UN postage stamps in 1967.
★ A painting from the 1960s depicts a figure of
Jesus that is about the same height as the Secretariat building, who knocks on the stained glass wall as if seeking entry.
[27]
★ In the film
The Day After Tomorrow, the Building was destroyed by a Tsunami and Freeze
★ In the
1976 movie
The Pink Panther Strikes Again, chief inspector Dreyfus uses a special
laser cannon to make the building vanish, as a power demonstration to get chief inspector Clouseau.
★ In the
2007 podcast novel , an emergency escape
bullet train called EvacSys was used as a major plot point within the trilogy of
Podiobooks.
★ In the
2004 science fiction first-person shooter computer game ''
Half-Life 2'' UN headquarters is damaged by the
Combine forces.
Public gatherings
Protests, demonstrations, and other gatherings directly on First Avenue are rare. Some gatherings have taken place in
Ralph Bunche Park, but it is too small to accommodate large demonstrations. The closest that the
New York City Police Department usually allows demonstrators is
Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza at 47th Street and First Avenue, one block away from the visitors' entrance, four blocks away from the entrance used by top-level diplomats, and five blocks away from the general staff entrance.
Excluding gatherings solely for diplomats and academics, there are a few organizations which regularly hold events at the UN. The
United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), a non-governmental organization, holds an annual "member's day" event in one of the conference rooms.
Model United Nations conferences sponsored by UNA-USA, the
National Collegiate Conference Association (NCCA/NMUN), and the International Model UN Association (IMUNA/NHSMUN) hold part of their sessions in the General Assembly chamber.
See also
★
U Thant Island
★
United Nations Office at Geneva
★
United Nations Office at Nairobi
★
United Nations Office at Vienna
★
United Nations Tour Guide
Notes
1. http://www.un.org/tours/pages/wv.htm#inter
2. http://www.un.org/geninfo/faq/factsheets/FS23.HTM
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/24/newsid_4353000/4353094.stm
4. History of Lehman College
5. http://www.nfpl.library.on.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?id=95751&b=1
6. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-05-10-un-renovations_x.htm
7. http://mediamatters.org/items/200605040009
8. http://www.un.org/geninfo/faq/factsheets/FS23.HTM
9. http://www.un.org/aboutun/security_notice.htm
10. http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/ian_williams
11. http://www.unssc.org/web1/programmes/sc/consultants/journalists.asp
12. So proudly they wave … flags of the United Nations, UN Chronicle, Dec. 1992 (at the time the article was printed, there were only 179 member states)
13. Luxembourg Mission to the UN
14. Swords Into Plowshares
15. See, e.g., ''Captain America And The Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma Of Zealous Nationalism'' (book jacket description)
16. [1]
17. [2]
18. [3]
19. [4]
20. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/07/23/null/main217848.shtml
21. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/22/national/main710882.shtml
22. http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/docs/2005/0225hqrenov.htm
23. http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2067630
24. http://www.globalpolicy.org/reform/topics/general/2006/0516capital.htm
25. Turning the United Nations Green, BusinessWeek, Aug. 20, 2007
26. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373926/trivia
27. http://purgatorio1.com/wp-content/pics/jesusUN.jpg
External links
★
Official Website
★
Agreement Establishing the UN headquarters including information on its legal status
★
Building an International Headquarters in New York overview from UN 60th anniversary pages
★
US/UN Host Country Affairs including services for visiting diplomats
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