This collection of buildings is the heart of NYC. Don’t miss these highlights

The Rockefeller Center, a collection of commercial buildings in Manhattan, surrounding a sunken plaza, is the pulsating art deco heart of the city that never sleeps.

1 Get a lesson in art deco

Art deco delights – the former GE Building now known as 570 Lexington Avenue with its art deco crown.Credit: iStock

Gaze up at the building facades for a museum’s worth of bold, exuberant art deco sculpture and friezes. You’ll see the jazz-era movement’s influences, from Assyrian to ancient Greek, and all its favourite symbols, from human figures with exaggerated muscles to noble animals such as eagles and horses. Orange, green and purple colours predominate. The subject matter captures the pride and excitement of a booming 1920s industrial and commercial age, full of hope.

2 Admire the awesome statue of Atlas

The mighty Atlas.Credit: iStock

The forecourt of the International Building (630 Fifth Avenue) is graced with an art deco masterpiece: a bronze sculpture of half-god, half-giant Atlas from Greek mythology, condemned to carry the world on his shoulders after rebelling against the gods. Atlas’ face magnificently conveys strain and determination despite the almost abstract art deco stylisation of features and frown lines; lips and eyes are tinted with gold. The statue looks best at night against orange background lighting.

3 Don’t miss the world’s most striking lobby

The entrance to the Comcast building and its striking lobby.Credit: iStock

The centrepiece of Rockefeller Center is the 67-floor skyscraper at 30 Rockefeller Plaza known as the Comcast Building. A figure of Wisdom, represented as an old man with a flowing beard, presides over the entrance. Inside, the lobby glows in gold like an oriental lacquered box, although its friezes celebrate American Progress in the form of brawny, hammer-wielding industrial workers. It’s one of the world’s great art deco interiors.

4 Gaze over all New York

The view from the top.Credit: iStock

You can see 30 Rockefeller Plaza’s lobby for free, but you’ll pay to ascend to Top of the Rock’s three levels of indoor and outdoor viewing decks. This contemporary addition to the skyscraper retains some of the 1930s glamour of the original observation deck while adding considerable high-tech style. The view is stupendous: Central Park, the Hudson River, and downtown Manhattan towards that other art deco-era masterpiece, the Empire State Building. The Statue of Liberty is tiny in the distance.

5 Skate into a winter wonderland

Get your skates on.Credit: iStock

A gold-coloured statue of Prometheus overlooks Rockefeller Center’s sunken central plaza. It’s a nice enough space in summer, but becomes a wonder in winter when the plaza is transformed into an open-air ice rink overlooked by ranks of Christmas trees and golden angels blowing trumpets. Take a spin and you’ll feel as if you’re in a Hollywood movie. The lighting of a giant Christmas tree on the first Wednesday after Thanksgiving signals the opening of New York’s festive season.

6 Get into the American spirit at Radio City

Radio City Music Hall, home to the Rockettes.Credit: iStock

Radio City Music Hall is a palatial entertainment centre with a sumptuous art deco foyer, dizzying ceilings, and mirrors and chandeliers galore. It hosts big-name singers and other performers, as well as annual awards events such as the Tony Awards, but nothing beats the over-the-top, all-American Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring hundreds of performers from Rudolf to wooden marching soldiers, and most famously the high-kicking, impeccably synchronised Rockettes dancers in skimpy Santa costumes.

7 Don’t forget to cross the Channel

Crossing the Channel.Credit: iStock

The Channel Gardens separate the British Empire Building and Maison Francaise that front Fifth Avenue, each of which has superb bronze friezes. The British building shows figures representing trade in goods, such as cotton, sugar and wool. The French building, on the other hand, presents scantily clad muses of poetry, elegance and beauty whose flowing hair is entangled in grapevines and flowering plants. Above is a stone sculpture of Marianne, symbolising France, holding a torch and olive branches.

See rockefellercenter.com