30 Rockefeller Plaza 22nd tallest in New York City and the 47th tallest in the United States. It stands 400 feet (122 m) shorter than the Empire State Building. 30 Rockefeller Center underwent a $170 million floor-by-floor interior renovation in 2014. The construction of Rockefeller Center occurred between 1932 and 1940 on land that John D. Rockefeller Jr. leased from Columbia University. The Rockefeller Center site was originally supposed to be occupied by a new opera house for the Metropolitan Opera. By 1928, Benjamin Wistar Morris and designer Joseph Urban were hired to come up with blueprints for the house. However, the new
Margaret Rockefeller Strong 1965. She then donated the corner townhouse to her cousin, David Rockefeller, who founded the Center for Inter-American Relations there. In December 1979, Margaret donated her father's estate, Villa Le Balze in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy to Georgetown University which operates an overseas campus there. Her life can be read at "El Inútil de la Familia", book written by Jorge Edwards, a Chilean writer. Margaret Rockefeller Strong Margaret Rockefeller Strong (1897–1985) was an American activist. Margaret was the daughter of Elizabeth "Bessie" Rockefeller (1866–1906) and Dr. Charles Augustus Strong (1862–1940). Her maternal grandfather was Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937).