vip in the city

OHNY 2007: Roof garden at Rockefeller Center

With temperatures hovering in the near-record low 80s, ice skating was just about the furthest thing from most people’s minds, but nonetheless, the Ice Rink at Rockefeller Center opened this first October weekend – right on schedule. This year, as in years past, the Rink is offering its “Engagements on Ice” — or on days like today: “Slush” — marriage proposal package. Broadcast of the couple’s special song and a ceremonial “victory lap” is included in the $200 price tag. Cheesy or charming — what say you? (Hey, it could always be worse…)

We were here this morning to visit the private roof garden at Rockefeller Center. According to Daniel Okrent‘s Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, the “Gardens in the Sky” were originally open to all but operated at an annual loss of $45,000. Nowadays, the four hours on openhousenewyork Sunday represent one of the public’s rare opportunities to tour this carefully cultivated patch of green, which is otherwise only accessible for film shoots and private events.

The OHNY volunteers were out in full force this morning, including several (like SYB) who just decided to pitch in to assist with the crowd control. The roof garden is one of the most popular sites of OHNY weekend, and I was determined not to miss it again. With half an hour to go until the noon opening, the line to enter the British Empire Building already wrapped around the plaza and onto Fifth Avenue.

SYB’s OHNY volunteer pin got us bumped to the front of the line yet again, and as a result, we were among the first to step inside the elevator that would spirit us up to the 7th floor. We piled inside and ten seconds later….

We wandered through the topiary hedges and around the reflecting pool with its frog fountain. Directly across the street, the twin spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral loomed before us as the Empire State Building rose up behind.

The view over Fifth Avenue, put us just at the end of the Pulaski Day Parade route. The parade, which honors Polish American heritage, was just then beginning on 29th Street, so no revelers had yet made it to midtown; the street below was already barricaded and cleared of vehicular traffic, though, adding to the surreal feel of this secret formal garden in the midst of all these city skyscrapers.

Can’t get enough? Here’s the rest of the set on flickr.

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