A Rooftop Park for Radio City Music Hall Is In the Works

All this and a skybridge, too

Radio City Music Hall
An iconic building gets an innovative park.
Kevin Ku/Unsplash

When it comes to new parks in New York City, urban planners and landscape architects have made some unexpected decisions. The ever-expanding High Line is the most prominent example, but it’s not the only one. And while some high-profile park plans are now on hold, another ambitious one looks to be coming into its own — in this case, in a space that’s breathtaking even before you factor in the design of a green space.

At 6sqft, Devin Gannon reports that New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission recently approved plans crucial for a rooftop park at Radio City Music Hall. Specifically, those plans were for a skybridge to connect the planned space, dubbed Radio Park, with 1270 Avenue of the Americas. The new park is set to encompass 24,000 square feet.

As Gannon notes, the idea of both the park and the skybridge date back to Radio City Music Hall’s original planning decades ago. There’s also a pragmatic reason for the park’s creation: EB Kelly, the manager of Rockefeller Center for Tishman Speyer, touted the new park as a way to entice workers back to their offices after the pandemic.

As New York Yimby notes in its report on the plan, the park and skybridge are part of a larger effort from Tishman Speyer to improve and upgrade the spaces in and around Rockefeller Plaza. This rooftop park will join other rooftop gardens in the same complex, as well as a number of rooftop farms across the city. Radio Park is slated to open this fall.

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