Rockefeller Center sprawls for 22 acres in one of the densest cities on earth, its highest tower stretches 850 feet into the sky, and it has over 8,000,000 square feet of office and retail space. Within this complex dwells a seven-ton bronze sculpture of Atlas. He carries the celestial vault on his back as punishment for fighting the Olympian gods. His countenance is stoic, and he glares, not at the Greek gods but at the Christian one as he stands directly across St. Patrick’s Cathedral. To him all gods are the same, all distasteful. Even in his punishment, he refuses to buckle, bend his knee, or beg for mercy. Instead, he endures and carries. He has been doing so since Lee Lawrie sculpted him with the help of Rene Chambellan in 1937.
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