Remember the Rainbow Room, that fabulously over-the-top restaurant-cum-night club on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Center? The dance floor has been rolled up since June 5, 2009—but according to city website Gothamist, the site may become an official New York City Landmark.
The earmarked areas include "part of the 65th floor interiors, east side, consisting of the fixtures and interior components of this space, including but not limited to, walls and ceiling surfaces, floor surfaces, seating platforms, stage, rotating dance floor, metal railings, lighting fixtures, and mirrors, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, (aka 1240-1256 Avenue of the Americas; 31-81 West 49th Street; 30-64 West 50th Street), Manhattan."
Of course, the article notes that if the Commission moves the plan forward, it won't immediately become a landmark. Public hearings would have to be held on the proposal. And Tishman Speyer, which owns the space and has been "looking" for a new tenant since Cipriani left nearly five years ago, would not want the status, which would make any renovations they want to do more expensive and make the place trickier to maintain. According to the New York Post, they "recently gutted areas surrounding the ballroom, including space for a new kitchen...The old kitchen on the 64th floor was converted to offices for another tenant."