Atlas

New York City, New York, United States

Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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A bronze Atlas by Lee Lawrie, modeled by René Paul Chambellan, carries a ringed celestial sphere in the forecourt of the International Building, 630 Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller Center. The figure is about 15 feet tall; with its pedestal the monument is about 45 feet.

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Atlas

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40.75895° N, 73.97718° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Untapped New York calls Atlas the biggest sculpture in the Rockefeller Center complex, and it is not in the plaza with the skating rink. It is a bronze Titan on Fifth Avenue, bent under a ringed sphere.

Atlas stands in the main entrance forecourt of the International Building at 630 Fifth Avenue, opposite St. Patrick's Cathedral. According to Rockefeller Center, the figure was a collaboration: Lee Lawrie conceived and designed it, and René Paul Chambellan modeled the heroic-size statue from Lawrie's sketch. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts calls it one of Lawrie's best-known works. The New York Public Library reported in 2017 that it was installed in January 1937.

The Lee Lawrie Archive and Untapped New York give the same dimensions: the bronze figure is about 15 feet tall, the monument about 45 feet with its pedestal, and the sphere about 21 feet across. Untapped describes it as the largest sculpture in the complex. Rockefeller Center says Atlas carries an armillary sphere rather than a solid globe, because his punishment was to hold up the sky, not the Earth. Untapped adds that the sphere's north-south axis points toward the position of the North Star relative to New York City.

A popular story says Italian-American protesters picketed the statue in 1937 because its face resembled Benito Mussolini. The New York Public Library's 2017 investigation found no newspaper reports of such pickets, although a January 1937 gossip column and later reader letters did remark on a resemblance. Untapped likewise calls the legend largely exaggerated.

Rockefeller Center describes Atlas as free to view, and it stands opposite St. Patrick's Cathedral.

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WHAT TO EXPECT

Free to view from the Fifth Avenue sidewalk opposite St. Patrick's Cathedral, in the Rockefeller Center forecourt.

ACCESS

In the main entrance forecourt of the International Building, 630 Fifth Avenue, opposite St. Patrick's Cathedral. Free to view according to Rockefeller Center.

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