ENORMOUS PILE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20108, 11 December 1930, Page 4

ENORMOUS PILE.

THEATRES AND RADIO STATIONS. NEW YORK PROJECT. "A. start has been made in New York with the largest block of theatres and broadcasting stations combined ever heard of," said Mr William Scott, chief representative of the R.K.O. Picture Corporation in Australia, who has just returned from Europo and America. "It seems that Mr John D. Eockefeller, junr., purchased a block on Broadway last year as a possible sito for the long-proposed new Metropolitan Opera House, but when that schenle fell through, he cast about, for a new idea to utilise this immensely valuable land. Eventually his imagination was caught by a proposal made by tho Radio Corporation of America, which is thoroughly in accord with American ideas of big business. "This was to erect a block of buildings sixty storeys in height, extending from 48th street to 51st street, and back from sth Avenue to 6th Avenue. Tho cost of the land alone was £49,000,000, and the wholo scheme involves a capital of £100,000,000. This huge building, which will bo the largest in the world, will embody five theatres on the ground floor, with a total accommodation for 19,000 people. Thero will bo one theatre for pictures, ono for drama, one for farce, ono for high comedy, and ono (a symphony auditorium) for orchestral concerts, the whole to be organised by Mr S. L. Kothafel (better known as "Roxy"), whilst the auditorium concerts will be given under the direction of Stokowsky, tho distinguished conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. "In the building above there will be no fower than twenty-seven radio and television broadcasting stations, whilst the greater part of tho rost of this enormous pile was let almost as soon as the scheme was divulged. Tho block is to be completed by the end of 1933."