116 John Street Building vs 30 Rockefeller Plaza Buiding

Comparing the 116 John Street Building and the 30 Rockefeller Plaza Buiding is interesting because they both stand in New York, NY, and were completed within 2 years of each other, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The 30 Rockefeller Plaza Buiding is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 853ft (260m) with 70 floors above ground, while the 116 John Street Building reaches 0ft (m) with 35 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the 116 John Street Building and the 30 Rockefeller Plaza Buiding were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Louis Allen Abramson and Howells & Hood followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The 116 John Street Building is primarily residential, while the 30 Rockefeller Plaza Buiding is primarily commercial.

Originally, the 116 John Street Building was designed for commercial, but over time it was converted to residential. The 30 Rockefeller Plaza Buiding by contrast has maintained its original role.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.