Construction of Rockefeller Center 19 buildings. Construction of Rockefeller Center The construction of the Rockefeller Center complex in New York City was conceived as an urban renewal project in the late 1920s, spearheaded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to help revitalize Midtown Manhattan. Rockefeller Center is located on one of Columbia University's former campuses and is bounded by Fifth Avenue to the east, Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) to the west, 48th Street to the south, and 51st Street to the north. The center occupies in total, with some of office space. Columbia University had acquired the site in the early 19th century
Rockefeller University on York Avenue. Richard P. Lifton—previously the executive director of the Center for Human Genetics and Genomics at Yale University—became the university's eleventh president on September 1, 2016. The Rockefeller University Press publishes the "Journal of Experimental Medicine", the "Journal of Cell Biology", and "The Journal of General Physiology". The Rockefeller University was founded in June 1901 as The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research—often called simply The Rockefeller Institute—by John D. Rockefeller, who had founded the University of Chicago in 1889, upon advice by his adviser Frederick T. Gates and action taken in March 1901 by his son, John D.