Fact-sheet No. 23
 July 2006

The Story of  United Nations  Headquarters At a glance · Address: United Nations, New York, NY 10017,USA. · Consists of four main buildings: the Secretariat, the General Assembly, Conference Area (including Council Chambers) and the Library. · Designers: Wallace K. Harrison of the United States (chief architect); Members: Nikolai D. Bassov (Soviet Union), Gaston Brunfaut (Belgium), Ernest Cormier (Canada), Charles E. Le Corbusier (France), Liang Seu-Cheng (China), Sven Markelius (Sweden), Oscar Niemayer (Brazil), Howard Robertson (United Kingdom), G. A. Soilleux (Australia) and Julio Vilamajo (Uruguay). · Construction started: 24 October 1949 · Cost: $65 million · The Secretariat Building, tallest of the group, consists of 39 stories above ground and three stories  underground.

Standing on the eastern shore of Manhattan island, on the banks of New York City's East River, United Nations Headquarters remains both a symbol of peace and a beacon of hope. To its 18 acres come representatives of the earth's 6 billion people, to discuss and decide issues of peace, justice and economic and social well being.

Here, also, men and women of the United Nations staff, or Secretariat, work to carry out these decisions. The tall glass facade of the Secretariat Building and the low-slung, subtly curved General Assembly edifice, together with the blue and white United Nations flag, have become the instantly recognizable symbols of the world Organization.

An international territory
The site of UN Headquarters is owned by the United Nations. It is an international territory. No federal, state or local officer or official of the United States, whether administrative, judicial, military or police may enter UN Headquarters except with the consent of and under conditions agreed to by the Secretary-General of the Organization.

However, the United Nations is bound by an agreement with its host country to prevent its Headquarters from being used as a refuge for persons who are avoiding arrest under the federal, state or local laws of the United States or who are required by the Government of the United States for extradition to another country or who are trying to avoid the servicing of a legal process.

On the site, the UN has its own fire fighting and security forces and its own post office branch, with special provision for UN stamps. The buildings were constructed in a manner agreeable to the City of New York, in terms of fire and safety, but not necessarily according to all city laws.

United Nations Headquarters was designed to serve four major groups: delegations, who now represent 192 Member States and who send more than 5,000 persons to New York each year for the annual sessions of the General Assembly; the Secretariat, numbering about 4,900 persons in New York out of a total of about 7,500 throughout the world; visitors, who average 700,000 yearly; and journalists, of whom more than over 3,600 are permanently accredited while over 10,000 are present during major meetings.

To accommodate those groups efficiently, there are facilities for each. The delegates have an entrance at the west side of the General Assembly building at 44th Street; and visitors have access to the complex through the north end of the Assembly building, between 45th and 46th Streets. The general public may visit public areas in the General Assembly building and may tour other areas with United Nations guides. The staff can enter through the Secretariat building at East 43rd Street as well as other entrances.

Selecting New York
The decision to locate the United Nations near New York City was made in London by the General Assembly at its first session on 14 February 1946, after offers and suggestions for permanent sites had been received from many parts of the world. On 10 December 1945, the Congress of the United States had unanimously resolved to invite the United Nations to establish its permanent home in that country.

Following selection of the United States, a special United Nations site committee looked over possible locations during the latter half of 1946 in such places as Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco. While consideration had been given in the first place to areas north of New York City, crowded Manhattan had not been seriously studied. But a last-minute offer of $8.5 million for the purchase of the present site, by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was accepted by a large majority of the General Assembly on 14 December 1946. New York City completed the site parcel by additional gifts of property.

The site chosen by the United Nations was a run-down area of slaughterhouses, light industry and a railroad barge landing. Trucks rumbled up and down First Avenue on one side, and automobiles sped along the East River Drive -- since renamed for Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- skirting the waterfront.

It all started in London …
Before its Headquarters in New York was ready, the United Nations continued its work in various temporary locations.  Here is a list of venues where the main UN organs met in their earliest meetings:

General Assembly:  First session (first part): London (February 10 - February 14, 1946); First session (second part): Flushing, New York (23 October - 15 December 1946)

Security Council: Beginning on 17 January 1946, the Council held its first 24 meetings in London. Later it moved to New York (Hunter College, Henry Hudson Hotel and Lake Success, the interim Headquarters of the United Nations.

Economic and Social Council:  London (first session, 23 February 1946; later at Hunter College, New York)

Trusteeship Council: Lake Success, New York (1947)

International Court of Justice:The Hague (1946)

Planning the Headquarters
Once the site had been settled upon, the next task was to design the Headquarters for the world organization.  Rather than hold an international competition, the United Nations decided that its new home should be the result of collaboration among eminent architects of many countries.

Wallace K. Harrison of the United States was appointed chief architect, with the title of Director of Planning.  To assist him, a 10-member Board of Design Consultants was selected, composed of architects nominated by Governments.

The members of the Board were Nikolai D. Bassov (Soviet Union), Gaston Brunfaut (Belgium), Ernest Cormier (Canada), Charles E. Le Corbusier (France), Liang Seu-Cheng (China), Sven Markelius (Sweden), Oscar Niemayer (Brazil), Howard Robertson (United Kingdom), G. A. Soilleux (Australia) and Julio Vilamajo (Uruguay).

The Director and the Board began their work early in 1947, at an office in Rockefeller Center -- a group of commercial buildings in New York City for which Mr. Harrison had served as one of the principal architects.  Some 50 basic designs were created, criticized, analyzed and reworked.  The planners took into account the structure of the United Nations, with its General Assembly, three main Councils and permanent Secretariat.  They had to integrate the needs of delegation and Secretariat personnel.

Because the area was relatively small, a tall building would be required to house offices.  The presence of firm bedrock near the surface -- the Manhattan schist on which most New York skyscrapers rest -- would facilitate construction, the planners determined.  (The bedrock dips to 60 or more feet below sea level between 46th and 47th Streets, where Turtle Bay stretched inland from the East River in the last century -- an area which now lies beneath the broad lawn to the north of the General Assembly Building.)

It was decided to locate the Secretariat Building at the south end of the site to facilitate access to and from public transport systems along 42nd Street, which is the primary artery of midtown Manhattan.  The structure's north-south orientation was selected partly for reasons of appearance and partly because a tall building on an east-west axis would have thrown its shadow over much of the site.

The designers conceived of a park-like plateau, from First Avenue to the river's edge, from which the buildings would rise.  To utilize the area right up to the river, they decided that the landscaped area and the Conference Building would be cantilevered over the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive.

Although the United Nations was not bound to comply with local ordinances, the Headquarters was planned in compliance with New York City building regulations, since the city is overall responsible for fire protection.  Water, electricity, steam and other utilities are purchased at commercial rates.

The buildings as originally planned were estimated to cost nearly $85 million.  At the direction of Secretary-General Trygve Lie, however, the designers cut the cost by $20 million, largely by reducing the height of the Secretariat Building from 45 to 39 storeys, by reducing the size of the conference areas and by utilizing an existing building on the site for the United Nations Library.  The $65 million plan was approved by the General Assembly on 20 November 1947.

To finance construction, the United States Government made an interest-free loan of $65 million to the United Nations.  Of this amount, the last installment of $1 million was paid in 1982.

Construction of Buildings
With the plans approved, action to carry them out moved ahead quickly.  The 270 residential tenants were relocated at United Nations expense, the meat packers and bargemen departed, and the existing buildings were demolished.  The construction contract was awarded in January 1949 to a combination of four large New York building firms.  Nineteen months later, on 21 August 1950, the Secretariat workers moved into their new offices.

A cornerstone was laid at a dedication ceremony on 24 October 1949 (UN Day) by the first Secretary-General, Trygve Lie, and in the presence of the President of the United States.  The inscription on the cornerstone is "United Nations" in the five official languages used in 1949 (Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and Russian) with the date in Roman numerals.

The cornerstone was prepared in the usual manner, with a metal box containing a copy of the Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights, a copy of the schedule of meetings, and documents such as the meeting records of the Headquarters Advisory Committee.  The box was sealed by Secretary-General Trygve Lie and Director of Planning Wallace K. Harrison.  The cornerstone is underground east of the Library Building on the southern boundary of the U.N. site.

The major first addition to the Headquarters complex was the Dag Hammarskjold Library, completed in 1961.

Over the years, the interiors of the buildings have been altered to accommodate the many states that have joined the Organization since its inception.  In 1947, when construction plans were drawn up, there were 57 Member States and provision was made for an increase in membership to 70.  This anticipated increase had been exceeded by 1955.  A $3 million expansion programme, affecting mainly the meeting areas, was completed in 1964.  It provided space for a membership of 126.

To accommodate the greatly expanded membership of the United Nations, the General Assembly in 1976 approved a set of major alterations to refurnish and enlarge the seating capacity of the General Assembly Hall and all the large conference rooms. The reconstruction and remodeling cost about $15 million. Alterations in all large conference rooms and the Trusteeship Council Chamber as well as the work in the Assembly Hall were completed in September 1980. Alterations were also made to the Security Council office and lounge area.

Two other construction projects expanded Headquarters facilities. The first, a modern documents reproduction plant, built at a cost of $25.6 million and completed in June 1981, centres around a small sunken atrium filled with dogwood, honey locust and crabapple, and occupies two levels beneath the broad lawn north of the Assembly Building.

The second project, which cost $8.7 million, was finished the following year: a 750-seat cafeteria for staff and delegates, located in a two-storey building at the south-east corner of the Secretariat Building overlooking the East River. The lower storey of the cafeteria annex contains meeting rooms for language classes and interpreters' offices.

Since the growth of the staff could not be accommodated in the existing Secretariat Building, it has been necessary to rent office space in adjacent buildings. A large number of staff, including the personnel of the United Nations Development Corporation, are located across First Avenue on 44th Street. The Corporation is a public-benefit, non-profit Organization created by New York State to provide facilities for the United Nations and related Organizations.

The multi-use buildings also house a luxury hotel, an apartment hotel and a health club on floors not occupied by the United Nations. A third building was erected in early 1987 by the Corporation to house the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Secretariat Building
The exterior facings of the 550-foot tall Secretariat Building are exclusively of aluminum, glass and marble.  Wide areas of green-tinted glass are unbroken by conventional set-backs.  In contrast, the windowless north and south facades of the building are faced with 2,000 tons of Vermont marble.  In addition to the 39 storeys above ground, there are three basement levels connecting with the three basements of the Conference Building.  Facilities below street level include maintenance shops, a fire-fighting unit, receiving and loading platforms, a pouch dispatch unit, security offices, storage space, a three-level garage, an automobile service station and a refrigeration plant for air-conditioning.

Within the building, while some modern conveniences are provided for efficient functioning of the staff, there is nothing elaborate and offices are generally small, with no wasted space.  The glass in the aluminum-framed windows, letting in a maximum of light over the 20 acres of office space, is specially designed to help retain solar heat.  This, coupled with 4,000 under-the-window air-conditioning units, offers comfortable working conditions.

Movable steel partitions, which attach to brackets on the superstructure, can be shifted quickly and easily to meet changing requirements for office space.  Ducts under the floors provide telephone, electric and signalling connections at six-foot intervals.  An integrated system of electric dumb-waiters and conveyors speeds the movement of documents and mail throughout the building.

General Assembly Building
The General Assembly Building is a sloping structure with concave sides, 380 feet long and 160 feet wide, topped with a shallow dome containing light fixtures for the hall inside.  The north end, opening onto a landscaped plaza, is the main public entrance to the Headquarters complex.  It is faced with specially designed translucent glass panels set into marble piers designed to give the public lobby a subdued, cathedral-like lighting. The east and west walls of the building are faced with English limestone, with panels and trimmings in marble matching the north and south ends of the Secretariat Building.  At the south end is a huge plate-glass window, 53.5 feet high, set in a deeply recessed marble frame, through which the delegates' lobby overlooks the Secretariat plaza.

The main visitors' entrance to the Headquarters is through the lobby of the Assembly Building, with its clean, modern lines of cantilevered balconies and soft lighting.

Beyond the lobby to the right is the small Meditation Room, whose focal point is a massive block of iron ore dimly spotlighted from above.  Suspended from the ceiling above the stair landing connecting the lobby with the second-floor ceremonial entrance to the General Assembly Hall is a Foucault pendulum, a gift of the Netherlands Government, offering visual proof of the rotation of the earth.

In the north-west part of the building's lobby, next to the Meditation Room entrance, is a 15-by-12- foot stained-glass panel by Marc Chagall, symbolic of man's struggle for peace.  Dedicated to the memory of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold and 15 others who died with him in a plane crash in 1961, the panel was paid for by contributions from United Nations staff members.  Adjacent to the Chagall window, four bronze plaques commemorate "military observers and members of the Secretariat who died in the line of duty while serving the United Nations on its missions of observation, mediation and conciliation".  Facing the Meditation Room, on permanent display, is a facsimile of the United Nations Charter  (The original is preserved in the United States Archives in Washington, D.C.).

The blue, green and gold General Assembly Hall -- 165 feet long by 115 feet wide with a 75-foot ceiling -- occupies the second, third and fourth floors.  Representatives of Member States sit behind tables facing a raised speakers' rostrum and podium.  At the podium sits the President of the General Assembly, with the Secretary-General of the United Nations to his right and the Under-Secretary-General for General Assemly Affairs and Conference Services to his left.

The Assembly Hall accommodates 192 delegations.  Each delegation has six seats -- three behind tables for full delegates and three in back of them for alternates.  These 1,321 seats fill the floor of the Hall and three stepped platforms rising from the rear.  The Gallery on the third floor has 244 seats for alternates, representatives of specialized agencies and other senior officers.  In a balcony above is a row of 53 seats for news media and 280 seats in five rows for the public.

All 1,898 seats are equipped with earphones, allowing the listener to "tune in" either to the language being spoken on the floor or to interpretations into any of the Assembly's six official languages -- Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.  The interpreters sit in glass-walled booths overlooking the Hall.  Similar booths are occupied by television and film cameramen, broadcasters and other information personnel, and official verbatim reporters.

Above and behind the speakers' rostrum are large panels listing the Member States of the organization, where the results of votes are displayed.  Delegates signal their countries' votes for or against a resolution, or their decision to abstain from a vote, by pressing green, red or yellow buttons on the tables in front of them.

The General Assembly first met in this Hall at the opening of its seventh regular annual session on 14 October 1952.

On two lower levels of the building are a large conference room, with 623 seats in the delegates' area, 44 seats for the press, and 166 seats for the public, and four smaller conference rooms, radio and television studios, sound-recording facilities and a master control room, which is the centre of a communications system serving the entire Headquarters.  For visitors, there is a public area containing the United Nations Bookshop, a United Nations stamp sales counter, a gift centre, a souvenir shop, a coffee shop and other facilities.

Conference Building
The Conference Building, which connects the General Assembly and Secretariat Buildings, extends along the waterfront for 400 feet and is cantilevered over the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive.  Its narrow top level (fourth floor) contains the delegates= dining room (open to the public by reservation), private dining rooms, a staff cafe and a kitchen.  More than half a mile of teak railing from Burma runs along three sides of an outside terrace on three levels of the Conference Building.

On the second and third floors are the three Council Chambers, each of which is 72 feet wide, 135 feet long and 24 feet high:

The Security Council Chamber
The Security Council Chamber was furnished by Norway and designed by the Norwegian Arnstein Arneberg.  A large mural by Per Krohg of Norway, symbolizing the promise of future peace and individual freedom, covers most of the east wall. There are 164 seats for the public and 118 for the press.

The Trusteeship Council Chamber, next door, was furnished by Denmark and designed by Finn Juhl, a Dane. Against one wall is a nine-foot statue of a woman with arms upraised, carved from teak by Henrik Starcke, also of Denmark. The Chamber, its seating capacity for delegations expanded in 1978, has 164 seats for the public and 30 for the press. It is also used by Main Committees of the General Assembly, which are composed of all United Nations Members.

The Economic and Social Council Chamber lies between the Trusteeship Council Chamber and the north delegates' lounge, whose large glass wall faces north overlooking the gardens. The Chamber was designed by Sven Markelius of Sweden and furnished by that country. It was rearranged in 1974 to accommodate the expanded membership of the Council, which doubled from 27 to 54 in 1973. Its galleries have 336 seats for the public and 40 for the press.

On the second floor, there is a large delegates' lounge at the north end, adjacent to the Economic and Social Council Chamber, and a smaller delegates' lounge at the south end, near the Security Council Chamber.

Beneath the Council Chambers are three large conference rooms. Each conference room is 72 feet wide, 135 feet long and 18 feet high. Conference rooms one and two have 498 seats for delegates, 36 seats for the press and 144 seats for the public. Conference room three seats 548 delegates, 48 seats for the press and 180 seats for the public.

Library Building
At the southwest corner of the United Nations grounds, and linked to the Secretariat Building, is the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, dedicated on 16 November 1961 in honour of the late Secretary-General. The building was erected to meet the Organization's growing demands for library services and its construction was made possible by a gift of $6.6 million from the Ford Foundation. It was designed by the firm of Harrison, Abramovitz and Harris, architectural consultants to the United Nations. Constructed in white marble, glass and aluminium, the structure measures 219 feet by 84 feet and consists of six storeys -- three above grounds and three below.

On the three floors above ground are collections of United Nations, specialized agencies and League of Nations documents, as well as general reference materials and maps. Visible from the plaza is the white pine-ceiling, two-storey tall Woodrow Wilson Reading Room on the second floor. Below ground are a 195-seat auditorium, a periodicals library and additional book stacks. The library staffs have offices in the building

The Library houses approximately 400,000 volumes in its general collection and, in addition, has several million United Nations documents. Its map section contains more than 80,000 maps and 1,500 atlases. The periodicals library offers over 10,000 official government publications and more than 4,000 non-official periodicals. It also has more than 330 daily newspapers and over 225 government gazettes from 192 countries and Territories.

Grounds and Furnishing
A colourful approach to the Headquarters is provided by the flags of the 192 United Nations Members, flying in a wide curve more than 500 feet long along United Nations Plaza. A circular pool in front of the Secretariat Building with a fountain in its centre was built with a $50,000 gift from the children of the United States. The wavy pattern on the floor of the pool is formed by alternating bands of crushed white marble and black pebbles. The black stones were gathered from the beaches of Rhodes by the women and children of that Greek island and donated to the United Nations.

A bronze sculpture in memory of late Secretary-General Hammarskjöld was set at the edge of the pool in 1964. The abstract sculpture, entitled "Single Form", is the work of the English artist Barbara Hepworth and was donated by Jacob Blaustein, a former United States delegate to the United Nations. Some 21 feet high, it stands on a granite plinth.

A bronze statue by Henry Moore, "Reclining Figure: Hand", is placed on the landscaped area north of the Secretariat Building.

A Japanese bell and pagoda, X donated by the United Nations Association of Japan, is located just west of the Conference Building, between the Secretariat and Assembly Buildings.

A monumental staircase, presented by the State of New York in memory of late Secretary-General Hammarskjöld, leads from the plaza in front of the public entrance of the General Assembly Building to the United Nations gardens. In these gardens, overlooking the East River, is a memorial to Eleanor Roosevelt and sculptures presented by Brazil, Germany, and the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

Tons of topsoil and fertilizer were brought to the landscaped areas of the grounds to provide soil for trees, shrubs and flowers. Some 1,500 prize-winning rose bushes, 140 flowering cherry trees, 95 pin oak, 59 honey locust, 48 London plane-trees and 30,000 daffodil bulbs, as well as a fine group of hawthorn, sweet gum, pin oak and sycamore trees, have helped transform the area from stone and steel to a green garden. Lining the asphalt walks are Texus ilex, California privet, azaleas, English ivy, wisteria and grass. Many of the plantings were donated by groups or individuals.

In keeping with the international character of the Organization, materials for the Headquarters were selected from many lands. Limestone for the facings of the Assembly and Conference Buildings came from the United Kingdom, marble from Italy, office furniture and shelving from France, chairs and fabrics from Czechoslovakia and Greece, carpets from England, France and Scotland. In addition, tables were purchased from Switzerland and various woods for interior finishing from Belgium, Canada, Cuba, Guatemala, the Philippines, Norway and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

The only artwork at United Nations Headquarters commissioned by the General Assembly is the painting entitled "Titans", by the United States artist Lumen Martin Winter. It commemorated the 1970 World Youth Assembly, held at Headquarters, and is located on the third floor in the passage connecting the Conference and General Assembly Buildings. It was paid for by surplus voluntary funds donated for the Youth Assembly.

Come, discover the world of
 the United Nations

Want to know more about the United Nations and what goes on in this "global town hall"? Just take a guided tour and watch the United Nations at work. The United Nations offers daily-guided tours for visitors in as many as 20 different languages.

Hours: English tours leave daily about every 30 minutes, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. (closed weekends in January and February). Opening hours are subject to change. For information call 212-963-TOUR (-8687).

For more information please visit http://www.un.org/tours

Wheelchair access: The UN building is accessible to the handicapped. Wheelchairs are also available during guided tours.

Public Inquiries Unit, United Nations, GA-57, New York, NY, 10017; tel. (212) 963-4475;fax: 212-963-0071; e-mail: inquiries@un.org; Online: www.un.org/genifo/faq. For information only. Not official document. Fact Sheet No.23, January 2006.

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