United Nations headquarters
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United Nations headquarters in New York City, viewed from the East River. The Secretariat tower is on the left and the General Assembly building is the low building to the right of the tower. A garden with sculptures is further to the right. |
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General Assembly building flanked by Secretariat tower at the United Nations headquarters |
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Secretariat tower at the United Nations headquarters, facade detail |
The
United Nations headquarters is a distinctive complex in
New York City that has served as the headquarters of the
United Nations since its completion in
1952. It is located in the
Turtle Bay neighborhood, on the east side of
Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the
East River.
The complex includes three major buildings: the Secretariat (the 39-floor office tower), the General Assembly building (where all member nations of the United Nations meet in the
United Nations General Assembly), and the
Dag Hammarskjöld Library. It is also notable for its
gardens and outdoor
sculpture.
The United Nations headquarters building was constructed in New York City in 1949 and 1950 beside the East River on land purchased by an 8.5 million dollar donation from
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.. It is a declared international zone belonging to all Member States, and as such will survive in perpetuity, forever belonging to the Member States as an asset of the UN. However, as noted in the
United Nations section, while it has some elements of sovereignty this land is considered to be part of the
United States.
The site of the United Nations headquarters has
extraterritoriality status like embassies do. This affects some law enforcement where UN rules override the laws of New York City, but does not give immunity to crimes that take place there. In addition, a few members of the UN staff have
diplomatic immunity and so cannot be prosecuted by local courts unless the diplomatic immunity is waived by the Secretary-General. In 2005, Secretary-General
Kofi Annan waived the immunity of
Benon Sevan,
Aleksandr Yakovlev, and
Vladimir Kuznetsov in relation to the
Oil-for-Food Program. All have been charged in the US Federal Court of New York, except for Kofi Annan's own son, also implicated in the scandal. Benon Sevan later fled the US to Cyprus, while Aleksandr Yakovlev and Vladimir Kuznetsov decided to stand trial.
It is sometimes incorrectly stated that the famous "beat their swords into plowshares" passage from the
Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 2:4) is inscribed on a wall at the U.N. headquarters building. In fact, the inscribed Isaiah Wall is in
Ralph Bunche Park, a New York City municipal park across the street from the U.N.
The complex has a street address of 760 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA. Security concerns subject all mails addressed thereto to sterilization, so items that may be degraded should be sent by courier [
1]. The
United Nations Postal Administration issues stamps, which must be used on stamped mail sent from the building. Journalists, when reporting from the complex, will not use "New York" as the identification of their location in recognition of the extraterritoriality status.
San Francisco,
Philadelphia,
Flushing Meadows Corona Park in
Queens, and even the
Black Hills of
South Dakota were all proposed as sites for the United Nations headquarters before Manhattan was finally decided upon.
In 1945-6
London hosted the first meeting of the General Assembly in Methodist Central Hall, and the Security Council in
Church House. The third and sixth General Assembly sessions, in
1948 and
1951, met in the
Palais de Chaillot in
Paris.
For the first few years, the UN was headquartered at a temporary location in
Lake Success, New York, an eastern suburb of
New York City on
Long Island. The Security Council has also held sessions on what was then the
Bronx campus of
Hunter College (now the site of
Lehman College).
Prior to the choice of the site in
New York City,
Navy Island near
Niagara Falls in
Ontario,
Canada was proposed as an alternative headquarters for the United Nations [
2]. An international committee pitched the site as the "World Peace Capital" over
1945 and
1946. The island was considered to be an ideal location as it lay on the boundary of two peaceful bordering countries. It was proposed that Navy Island would be ceded to the United Nations as long as the headquarters remained, and to revert to the Canadian government should the U.N. move. The proposal was ultimately turned down in favor of the current site in New York City.
Since the Headquarters buildings are in need of repair, it has been suggested that a new temporary site be created at the old Lake Success location.
Brooklyn has also been suggested as a temporary site. [
3] Another alternative for a temporary headquarters or a new permanent facility is the
World Trade Center site. [
4]
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Interior of the General Assembly. |
Rather than announce a competition for the design of the facilities for the headquarters, the UN decided to commission a collaborative effort among a multinational team of leading architects. American architect
Wallace K. Harrison was named the director of planning, and a board of design consultants was nominated by member governments. The board consisted of
N.D. Bassov of the
Soviet Union,
Gaston Brunfaut/
Belgium,
Ernest Cormier/
Canada,
Le Corbusier/
France,
Liang Ssu-cheng/
China,
Sven Markelius/
Sweden,
Oscar Niemeyer/
Brazil,
Howard Robertson/
United Kingdom,
G.A. Soilleux/
Australia, and
Julio Villamajo/
Uruguay.
The committee considered 50 different designs before arriving at a decision. The basis for the final design was based on Le Corbusier's design, known as "scheme 23A."
Bound by such constraints as the East River Drive (later the
Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive) and the
East River, it became necessary to build a high-rise office building for the secretariat. The 39-story Secretariat Building was controversial in its time but became a modernist landmark. Its characteristic east-west walls were fully covered with
thermopane glass designed to absorb heat from sunlight, except for air intakes on the 6th, 16th, 28th and 39th floors. The north-south walls are covered with
Vermont marble.
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Interior of the Security Council chambers. |
Though not legally obligated to do so, the buildings are built in compliance with New York City building codes. The construction was financed by an interest-free loan of $65 million made by the United States government.
Renovation plans
In recent years, however, the headquarters buildings have come to need extensive renovation, including the need to install sprinklers, fix leaks, and remove asbestos. A renovation plan was announced in 2000 involving the building of a temporary headquarters on what is now a playground (Robert Moses Park) across the street from the current facility. Once renovations were finished, the temporary building would be used to ease overcrowding at the UN's DC-1 (1 United Nations Plaza) and DC-2 (2 United Nations Plaza) office buildings, providing more space for UN specialized agencies such as
UNDP(United Nations Development Programme). However, due to the refusal of the
federal and
New York state governments to fund the project, little has been accomplished as of 2006. [
5], [
6], [
7], [
8], [
9]
The building has a distinctive appearance in
North by Northwest; a shot in the building's cavernous lobby was simulated through creative use of a
matte painting.
In
The Pink Panther Strikes Again, the building is destroyed by a
disintegrator ray.
The Art of War details the activities of a UN covert operations force investigating the assassination of the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations. The climax of the film takes place in the Secretariat building.
The Interpreter was the first movie to be filmed inside the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council buildings. The filming took place at night, when the buildings were not being used for official business. Pollack felt that the movie could not be filmed any place but the real UN Headquarters.
In
The Peacemaker, terrorists plotted to destroy the UN HQ by detonating a stolen Russian nuclear warhead.
Is featured in the black-and-white film noir,
The Glass Wall. The building is the "glass wall" mentioned in the title.
Dating back to the first issues of
1951 the buildings have frequently appeared on United Nations
postage stamps. The
Marc Chagall stained glass wall was also the subject of a
souvenir sheet in
1967.
Due to its international status, the United Nations Headquarters is often used as a symbol for the human race and the planet as a whole:
*The headquarters complex is a major setting in
The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance, with key events in the film taking place in the General Assembly and the Security Council Chamber. Towards the end of the first part of the two-part film, the United Nations and their unwillingness to accept the mechnical nation of
Zero-One as a charter member represents mankind's hostility towards the machines (who, at this point in the film, are peaceful). At the end of the film, the headquarters is destroyed by a small nuclear device hidden inside Zero-One's mechanical ambassador. In this role, the ruined Headquarters complex is used to represent the human civilizations of Earth, which collapse into ruins following the Man-Machine War.
*In the computer game
Half-Life 2, the complex is shown on the front page of a newspaper during the
Seven Hour War. In the photograph, the Headquarters complex is badly damaged and is under attack from
Combine forces. In this case, the ruined and embattled Headquarters complex symbolically represents the whole planet, which is suffering the same fate during the brief war.
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United Nations Office at Geneva - The United Nations European headquarters
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Treaty Establishing the UN headquarters (including information on its legal status) *
Information on public tours*
Google Map showing location of UN headquarters.*
Turner Learning overview of United Nations building
