Development Real estate developer
William Zeckendorf purchased a site on First Avenue in 1946, intending to create a development called "X City", but he could not secure funding for the development. At the time, the UN was operating out of a temporary headquarters in
Lake Success, New York, although it wished to build a permanent headquarters in the US. Several cities competed to host the UN headquarters before New York City was selected.
John D. Rockefeller Jr. paid US$8.5 million for an option on the X City site, and he donated it to the UN in December 1946. The UN accepted this donation, despite the objections of several prominent architects such as Le Corbusier.
Planning The design process for the United Nations headquarters formally began in February 1947. Each architect on the Board of Design devised his own plan for the site, and some architects created several schemes. All the plans had to include at least three buildings: one each for the
General Assembly, the
Secretariat, and conference rooms. The plans had to comply with several "basic principles". For instance, the General Assembly Building was to be built on the northern end of the site, opposite the Secretariat Building on the south end. By March 1947, the architects had devised preliminary sketches for the headquarters. The same month, the Board of Design published two alternative designs for a five-building complex, anchored by the Secretariat Building to the south and a pair of 35-story buildings to the north. After much discussion, Harrison decided to select a design based on the proposals of two board members, Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier. Even though the design process was a collaborative effort, The committee unanimously agreed on this plan. The project was facing delays by mid-1947, when a slaughterhouse operator on the site requested that it be allowed to stay for several months. The complex was originally planned to cost US$85 million. The same month, UN Secretary-General
Trygve Lie and the architects began discussing ways to reduce construction costs by downsizing the headquarters. The General Assembly voted to approve the design for the headquarters in November 1947.
Construction In April 1948, US president Truman requested that the United States Congress approve an interest-free loan of US$65 million to fund construction. Because Congress did not approve the loan for several months, there was uncertainty over whether the project would proceed. Congress authorized the loan in August 1948, of which US$25 million was made available immediately from the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Lie predicted the US$25 million advance would only be sufficient to pay for the Secretariat Building's construction, thus delaying the completion of the other buildings. The
groundbreaking ceremony for the initial buildings occurred on September 14, 1948, when work on the Secretariat Building commenced. The General Assembly Building would be the third and final major structure in the complex to be completed, with a projected opening date of late 1951. Fuller Turner Walsh Slattery Inc., a joint venture between the
George A. Fuller Company,
Turner Construction, the
Walsh Construction Company, and the
Slattery Contracting Company, was selected in December 1948 to construct the Secretariat Building and the foundations for the remaining buildings. The site had been excavated by February 1949. The project was delayed later that year due to a
labor strike by steelworkers. That December, the UN awarded a steel contract for the building to the
American Bridge Company. By then, the structure was scheduled to be completed in 1952. The contract, as finalized in March 1950, called for of steel at a cost of US$1.7 million. In response to criticism that the general contracts for the construction of the UN headquarters had been awarded exclusively to American firms, UN officials indicated that they might hire foreign firms to supply materials for the General Assembly Building. That July, the UN awarded a US$11 million contract to Fuller Turner Walsh Slattery Inc. for the construction of the General Assembly Building, as well as the northern half of the UN headquarters' parking lot (directly under the building). At the time, the hall was slated to be completed in time for the
sixth session of the General Assembly in 1952. By that April, workers were rapidly erecting the steelwork for the General Assembly Building. There were significant delays in importing the Portland stone, and only one-fourth of the total stonework had been delivered by May 1951. This led officials to express concern that the building would not be able to host the General Assembly in 1952. The building was nearly complete by May 1952, when the delegations voted to delay the start of the General Assembly session by one month, allowing workers to install electrical equipment and furnish the interior. The General Assembly Building hosted an architectural exhibition of the United Nations headquarters in June 1952, prior to the building's official opening.
Opening and early years The building was formally dedicated on October 10, 1952, when Secretary-General Trygve Lie presided over a ceremony there. The event marked the completion of the United Nations headquarters, which had cost US$68 million to construct, about US$3 million over the original budget. The American Association for the United Nations started conducting guided public tours of the headquarters when the General Assembly Building was completed. The guided tours were highly popular, attracting 250,000 guests during six months in 1953. UN officials installed a temporary meditation room next to the north lobby in late 1952, The UN built a security checkpoint next to the north lobby in February 1953, and
Columbia University Press began operating the bookshop in the building's basement later that year. Under the tenure of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, the General Assembly Building also began hosting concerts on
United Nations Day and other special occasions; the first such concert took place on United Nations Day in 1954. The UN dedicated Peter Colfs's
Triumph of Peace tapestry at the building that October. and the seals in the Assembly Hall's rostrum were removed that year. and Candido Portinari's
War and Peace murals were dedicated at the building that September. At the 1960 meeting of the General Assembly, Hammarskjöld had proposed a wide-ranging renovation program costing US$7.7 million, but this was not executed due to a lack of funds. Instead, the UN commenced a smaller renovation of the General Assembly Hall and the adjacent Conference Building in June 1960, which was estimated to cost US$100,000. The same year,
Abstract Sculpture by American artist
Ezio Martinelli was mounted on the eastern elevation of the building's facade. Prior to the 1962 General Assembly session, the UN reduced the size of the journalists' galleries so the hall could accommodate 108 delegations. The UN's planners had concluded that the headquarters could not fit additional delegations without undergoing significant renovations. To fit the new delegations, Secretary-General
U Thant proposed either moving the journalists' seating areas or reducing each delegation to five seats. In late 1962, the General Assembly's budgetary committee approved plans to install microphones for delegates and to expand the hall's seating capacity to accommodate 126 delegations, though the committee rejected a more expensive proposal to expand the headquarters. the General Assembly started testing an electronic voting system in 1964. The UN also renovated the hall for US$3 million the same year. The work included reducing the number of seats for each delegation from 10 to 6; relocating the journalists' seating areas to make way for delegates' seating; and dividing part of the basement to create a TV studio and additional office space. The UN continued to expand through the 1970s, further straining its physical facilities. By 1977, the General Assembly was considering expanding the Assembly Hall to accommodate up to 178 delegations. A bronze bust of the composer
Pablo Casals, who had performed at the General Assembly Hall twice, was dedicated in the north lobby the same year. The Fuller Company began expanding the General Assembly Hall in January 1978 as part of a US$26 million renovation of the entire complex, designed by Harrison & Abramovitz. Workers installed new wiring under the concrete floors, and the UN hired a Canadian company to refurbish the delegates' chairs, since the manufacturer of the original chairs no longer existed. The first phase of the renovation was completed in September 1979, prior to the opening of the General Assembly session. The expanded hall could fit up to 182 delegations. The renovation project as a whole was completed by 1981. All nations were given six General Assembly seats regardless of how large their delegations were. Some of the smaller delegations had as few as one member and always left several seats empty, while other delegations had to alternate their seats between dozens of members. The General Assembly typically only met between September and December, but the UN continued to host tours of the hall throughout the year. In addition, the delegates' cafeteria and the basement shops were open to tourists.
Renovation and 21st century Due to funding shortfalls in the 1980s, the UN diverted funding from its headquarters' maintenance fund to
peacekeeping missions and other activities. By 1998, the building had become technologically dated, and UN officials considered renovating the headquarters. The mechanical systems were so outdated that the UN had to manufacture its own replacement parts.
The New York Times wrote that "if the United Nations had to abide by city building regulations [...] it might well be shuttered". At the time, the UN had proposed renovating the building for US$800 million, as UN officials had concluded that the long-term cost of renovations would be cheaper than doing nothing. The UN's proposed budget for 1999 included US$22 million for fixing the roofs of the General Assembly Building and other structures in the UN complex. The UN could not secure funding for the project at the time. After Switzerland joined the UN in 2002, the Swiss government renovated the GA 200 room behind the General Assembly Hall's rostrum, which was rededicated in 2005. The UN decided to renovate its existing structures over a seven-year period for US$1.6 billion. Louis Frederick Reuter IV originally designed the renovation, but he resigned in 2006 following various disputes between UN and US officials.
Michael Adlerstein was hired as the new project architect. At that point, the cost of the project had risen to US$1.9 billion. the same year, the General Assembly banned smoking in the remainder of the General Assembly Building. During the project, the General Assembly met at a temporary building on the UN headquarters' North Lawn. Audio speakers were installed in place of the hall's former ashtrays, which had become obsolete. Workers installed an air-conditioning system under the General Assembly Hall's floor and added monitors to the desks. The murals by Fernand Leger were also restored. An ivory sculpture in the north lobby, a gift from the Chinese government, was also removed. When the building reopened in September 2014, it was the last structure in the UN headquarters to have been upgraded to New York City building codes. == Critical reception ==