Covering over seventeen acres of land, the UN Headquarter in New York serves as a headquarter to the United Nations and this initiative was set right after the execution/completion of this complex in the year 1952. The position of the Headquarter is in a place overlooking the east river, which is known as Turtle Bay. Along the UN Headquarters, there are also supplementary headquarter districts which are stationed in distinctive locations, which are: Vienna (Austria), Nairobi (Kenya), and Geneva (Switzerland). These auxiliary branches of the headquarters help with divergent things such as the facility for diplomatic activities, upsurge of the representation of UN interests but being the headquarter – the one in New York consist of the foremost aspects such as the Security Council and the General Assembly.
For security purposes, the employees of the UN Headquarters are supposed to carry around weapons and handcuffs and are often mistaken as NYPD officers. Provided with an extraterritoriality status, the United Nations Head Quarters laws can overrule the laws of New York. The languages used in the UN Headquarters are Russian, Spanish, French, English, Chinese, and Arabic which are used in paperwork and every employee/delegate much identify these languages and use them in terms of the work in the Headquarters. However, the attendees are provided with translation facilities for the divergent languages used. The delegates can make a statement in an un-official but they should provide a paper/written interpretation of the statements they said in one of the official languages. The currency used in the Head Quarters of the United Nations is the U.S. Dollar.
Planning& Establishment of UN Headquarters:
Before the construction of the United Nations Headquarters, the land on which the buildings stand today was previously bought by Zeckendorf with a purpose of building an X city on it. However, this initiative was put off because the funds required were inadequate. Then Nelson Rockefeller purchased the land from Zeckendorf which later became home to the future Headquarters of the United Nations. The framework done on the buildings of the UN Headquarter was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, a Brazilian architect. The design for then put to the effort by an architectural business known as Harrison & Abramovitz. At first, a group of planners, engineers, and architects were put together as the Design Consultants. Opposing the scheme 23 of Corbusier who was a member of the consultant group, the project 32 of Niemeyer was accepted as Niemeyer’s design composed of several districts for different things like the General Assembly and Corbusier had a design that consists of every district in one tall office building. But both the project 23 and 32 were consulted upon the construction.
Many cities were considered for the site of the Headquarters. The considerations were done by a determinate group of delegates among which most commended to turn towards the complex in Geneva, Switzerland along with many other proposals. Amateur architects offered designs and many state and local government proposed land/sites. Later, meetings took place in distinctive sites in New York among which Manhattan was chosen and it was that Nelson Rockefeller who purchased the land around 1946. During the construction of the current UN Headquarters, the UN was temporarily headquartered in Sperry Corporation’s office that is in Lake Success, New York between the years – 1946 and 1952. Formerly, the U.S President at that time requested to fund the construction with an interest-free $65 million loan after which the U.S. House of Representatives authorized the loan in 1948 with a condition that stated to the UN to repay the loan on a twelve-month installment method. A portion of $25 million among the $65 million was provided instantly. But the whole loan was postponed as a case turned up of a UN employee and a spy in terms of espionage. To save money, the UN insisted to work on an already existing building during the withholding of the rest of the loan.
Design& Buildings:
Built upon a framework of several buildings, the UN Headquarters has a distinctive design for almost every one of these buildings in the complex, among which, the Secretariat building is considered the most graceful one. Other than that, the General Assembly building is another building consisting of the General Assembly Hall which is also the largest hall in the whole complex with over 1800 seats. Next up, the 39 story Secretariat Building is the one which is home to Secretary General’s offices and offices of the departments such as the Office of Disarmament Affairs and the United Nations Legal Counsel, and similar. Positioned between the General Assembly Building and the Secretariat Building, the Conference Building within which is a gift from Norway – the Security Council Chamber worked upon by Arnstein Arneberg a Norwegian architect. Found in the year 1946, there is also a library in the complex known as the Dag Hammarskjold Library. It was named after Dag Hammarskjold who played a role in securing funds for the library itself. The library comprises of 400, 000 books and newspapers, maps, documents etc. Other than the main buildings, there are also many buildings such as an identification office, the office of (OIOS) Internal Oversight Services, the Church Center and the large office buildings that house offices for programs and agencies of the UN organization.
Artistic Representation:
The complex also represents its interests, collaborations with other governments and organization in terms of some engaging art. Among them are sculptures and paintings like the statue “Non-Violence” which features a statue of a knotted gun (a gift from the Luxembourg government), the Japanese Peace Bell, a portion of the Berlin wall, a piece of sculpture to recall the death of Dag Hammarskjold which is a stained glass, a full-size copy of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica.