Turtle Bay, Manhattan in the context of "United Nations General Assembly Building"

Play Trivia Questions online!

or

Skip to study material about Turtle Bay, Manhattan in the context of "United Nations General Assembly Building"

Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: Turtle Bay, Manhattan

Turtle Bay is a neighborhood in New York City, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. It extends from roughly 43rd Street to 53rd Street, and eastward from Lexington Avenue to the East River's western branch (facing Roosevelt Island). The neighborhood is the site of the headquarters of the United Nations and the Chrysler Building. The Tudor City apartment complex is next to the southeast corner of Turtle Bay.

Turtle Bay is named after a former cove of the East River. The neighborhood was originally settled as a Dutch farm in the 17th century, and was subsequently developed with tenements, power plants, and slaughterhouses in the 19th century. These industrial structures were largely demolished in the 1940s and 1950s to make way for the United Nations headquarters. Today, Turtle Bay contains multiple missions and consulates to the nearby United Nations headquarters.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<

👉 Turtle Bay, Manhattan in the context of United Nations General Assembly Building

The United Nations General Assembly Building is part of the headquarters of the United Nations in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It contains the main assembly hall of the United Nations General Assembly, the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the United Nations (UN). The building was designed by a group of architects led by Wallace Harrison. It is connected to the other buildings in the UN headquarters, including the Secretariat Building and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. Although the building is physically within the United States, it is exempt from some local regulations because the site is under UN jurisdiction.

The General Assembly Building is a four-story structure measuring 380 by 160 ft (116 by 49 m), with concave walls to the west and east, as well as a concave roof with a dome. The building contains a lobby for journalists and the general public to the north, as well as a lobby for delegates to the south. The central portion of the General Assembly Building is the General Assembly Hall, which has a seating capacity of 1,800 and measures 165 ft (50 m) long, 115 ft (35 m) wide, and 75 ft (23 m) tall. Each delegation has six seats in the hall, which face south toward a rostrum and a paneled semicircular wall with booths. The building also contains other spaces, including a delegates' lounge and the president of the United Nations General Assembly's offices on the second floor; a meditation room on the ground floor; and various shops and conference rooms in the basement.

↓ Explore More Topics
In this Dossier

Turtle Bay, Manhattan in the context of United Nations headquarters

The headquarters of the United Nations (UN) is on 17 to 18 acres (6.9 to 7.3 ha) of grounds in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It borders First Avenue to the west, 42nd Street to the south, 48th Street to the north, and the East River to the east. Completed in 1952, the complex consists of several structures, including the Secretariat, Conference, and General Assembly buildings, and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. The complex was designed by a board of architects led by Wallace Harrison and built by the architectural firm Harrison & Abramovitz, with final projects developed by Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier. The term Turtle Bay is occasionally used as a metonym for the UN headquarters or for the United Nations as a whole.

The headquarters holds the seats of the principal organs of the UN, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, but excluding the International Court of Justice, which is seated in The Hague. The United Nations has three additional subsidiary regional headquarters or headquarters districts. These were opened in Geneva (Switzerland) in 1946, Vienna (Austria) in 1980, and Nairobi (Kenya) in 1996. These adjunct offices help represent UN interests, facilitate diplomatic activities, and enjoy certain extraterritorial privileges, but do not contain the seats of major organs.

↑ Return to Menu

Turtle Bay, Manhattan in the context of 42nd Street (Manhattan)

42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, spanning the entire breadth of Midtown Manhattan, from Turtle Bay at the East River, to Hell's Kitchen at the Hudson River on the West Side. The street has several major landmarks, including (from east to west) the headquarters of the United Nations, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, the New York Public Library Main Branch, Times Square, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

The street is known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square, and as such is also the name of the region of the theater district (and, at times, the red-light district) near that intersection. The street also has a section of off-Broadway theaters known as Theatre Row.

↑ Return to Menu

Turtle Bay, Manhattan in the context of United Nations Secretariat Building

The United Nations Secretariat Building is a skyscraper at the headquarters of the United Nations in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It contains the offices of the United Nations Secretariat, the executive organ of the United Nations (UN). The building, designed in the International Style, is 505 ft (154 m) tall with 39 above-ground stories. It was designed by a group of architects led by Wallace Harrison. Although the building is located within the United States, the site is under UN jurisdiction, so the building is exempt from some local regulations.

The Secretariat Building is designed as a rectangular slab measuring 72 by 287 ft (22 by 87 m); it is oriented from north to south and is connected with other UN headquarters buildings. The wider western and eastern elevations of the facade are glass curtain walls, while the narrower northern and southern elevations are made of marble. The Secretariat Building has 889,000 sq ft (82,600 m) of space. There are press offices, staff rooms, and other functions on the lower stories. The Secretariat offices are placed on the upper stories, which were originally arranged in a modular layout. The building also features various pieces of artwork. The building's style has inspired the construction of other glass curtain wall buildings in Manhattan.

↑ Return to Menu

Turtle Bay, Manhattan in the context of Dag Hammarskjöld Library

The Dag Hammarskjöld Library is a library on the grounds of the headquarters of the United Nations, located in the Turtle Bay/East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is connected to the Secretariat and Conference buildings through ground level and underground corridors. It is named after Dag Hammarskjöld, the second secretary-general of the United Nations. The library was founded in 1946, and the current library building was completed in 1961.

The library provides research and reference services to staff of the UN Secretariat as well as members of UN permanent missions. Additionally, the library is the main depository for United Nations documents and publications and maintains a selected collection of materials of the specialized agencies and United Nations affiliated bodies, as well as a collection of books, periodicals and other materials related to the organization's programs of activities. The library also produces a digital library of UN materials, an index to the proceedings and documentation of the major UN bodies, as well as providing research guides for finding UN-related material and information. The library also supports the network of UN libraries throughout the world by supporting collaborative information resource purchasing.

↑ Return to Menu