At the time that RCA Victor commissioned this building, it was a subsidiary of General Electric. The company then moved its headquarters to Rockefeller Center, and this building was deeded over to the parent company. The building was donated to Columbia University in 1993 to gain a $40 million tax deduction. The university formed a joint venture with Mendik Company and Quantum Realty Partners and refurbished the building in 1994. Mendik bought out Columbia in 2001. Tower 570 Company, LP, an affiliate of The Feil Organization, is the building's current owner.
Architecture
The building's 50-floor stylized Gothic octagonal brick tower, with elaborate Art Deco decorations of lightning bolts showing the power of electricity, grows out of the round-cornered base with elaborate masonry and architectural figural sculpture, to form "one of the most expressive skyscrapers of its era." The building was designed to blend with the low Byzantine dome of St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue and shares the same brick color, with terra cotta decorations chosen to coordinate. The crown of the building is an example of Gothic tracery, which is intended to represent electricity and radio waves, and is lit from within at night. On the corner above the building's main entrance is a clock with the cursive GE logo and a pair of disembodied silver arms holding bolts of electricity. The AIA Guide to New York City says that the building's "Art Deco details at both street and sky are both sumptuous and exuberant." A "major example" of Art Deco architecture, the style is "both symbolic and expressive of the building's function," according to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. After the building was donated to Columbia University, it was extensively renovated by Ernest de Castro of the WCA Design Group.
When General Electric was in the process of purchasing RCA, David Letterman, then host of NBC's Late Night with David Letterman, brought a camera crew and a fruit basket to the building in an attempt to welcome their new corporate parents. They were greeted at the lobby by a GE official who demanded they stop filming and leave the premises, before placing his hand over the camera lens.
The General Electric Building was featured in the 2005 filmMr. & Mrs. Smith as the location of the head office of Jane Doe.
In the Netflix TV series Iron Fist set in the Marvel cinematic universe, the character Harold Meachum lives in the penthouse of the General Electric Building. The series shows views of the lobby and exterior.
