1st Avenue Between 42nd and 48th streets
Architect: Wallace Harrison and Various Architects
Date Constructed: 1950

Boston, San Francisco, and Philadelphia all offered to host the United Nations, but there was never any real doubt that the international headquarters belonged in New York City. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. bought land along the East Side and donated it to the United Nations to make the offer even more attractive.

The Secretariat Building is a graceful combination of two structures: a tall tower housing offices and libraries and a lower building with inward–curving sides which houses the General Assembly Hall. The site on the East River is particularly relaxing, with a scenic sculpture garden that may inspire even jaded New Yorkers to contemplate the possibilities for world peace.