I've Been to Every NYC Observation Deck — Here's Why the Newest One Is My Favorite

Over my 21 years living in the New York City area, I’ve spent a lot of time at Rockefeller Center at the bottom of the Rock. One of my first internships in 2003 was in its 1271 Avenue of the Americas building, where I learned about all its underground subway passageways. Later, I worked across the street from Radio City Music Hall for four years, grabbing lunch and coffee from the basement level’s eateries daily. In recent years, I’ve even spent the night on its sidewalk camping out in the standby line for Saturday Night Live tickets. In many ways, Rock Center has always felt like my home away from home, a place I look at with comfort and familiarity.

Early into my time here, the 22-acre complex between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and 49th and 51st Streets, opened a rebranded version of its most elevated attraction, Top of the Rock in 2005, inviting visitors up a 45-second elevator ride to open-air observation decks on its 67th, 69th, and 70th floors right smack dab in the middle of midtown Manhattan. 

Obsessed with heights and sights everywhere I travel, I was thrilled to go up to the top for a private event in 2008. But with four other sky-high viewpoints in New York City — the Empire State Building and One World Observatory, plus the more recent Edge NYC, which opened in 2020, and Summit One Vanderbilt in 2021 — I never felt the need to join tourists for a viewpoint above a part of town I knew so well.

But a few months back, Top of the Rock announced its newest attraction, providing an extra boost on a cake topper from its top floor. Called Skylift, the open-air circular platform rises 30 feet above the rooftop and spins 360 degrees for a panoramic view. Luckily, I was able to snag a test spin the day before it opened to the public on Oct. 1. 

Arriving on the 69th floor outdoor deck, I paused, overwhelmed by the New York moment. Sure other platforms might be higher or sleeker, but from this 50th Street perspective, I felt like I was in the epicenter of the city —squarely between the Hudson and East Rivers, seeing all the way down to Lady Liberty in the south and the Bronx in the north. 

Climbing up to the 70th floor, I was taken by how discreet the Skylift is. At a quick glance, it just looked like a transparent fiberglass circular enclosure in the middle of the rooftop deck. But a guide opened a door and I stepped in, taking a spot around the edge. Without a tinge of a jolt, the platform started rising, so gently I didn’t even notice at first. After all, I was completely engrossed in my surroundings. Instinctively, I started to turn, taking in every angle. But then the platform started rotating. I didn’t need to do any of the work. Skylift would show me the city — all I had to do was take it in.

I felt like I was floating among the city’s greatest hits. Facing north, Central Park rolled out in front of me like a crisp green carpet. As we spun counterclockwise, familiar skyscrapers in Columbus Circle and Times Square I knew from ground level took a new form, as I had now risen to their heights. Then when my viewpoint turned south, we reached the crown jewel, the view of the Empire State Building. From this perspective, 900 feet in the sky, I imagined that if King Kong had been hanging off of the tower, we would have been exactly eye to eye — if only he paused to take in the view. But that’s how immersed within the city the Skylift put me.

While other observation points had taken me up to see the skyline, here I felt that I was a part of it. Skylift blends in seamlessly with 30 Rock’s Art Deco architecture from its 1933 opening but adds a modern-day twist with 96 LED pixel flutes that can radiate with colors from the base that lift into the sky. In the middle of the platform, there's also a speaker blasting music from its center, and a camera that takes a panoramic photo.

And that wasn’t it. In the middle of the three-and-a-half-minute ride, our guide said to look down at our feet. Suddenly the frosted floor turned transparent. Not for the weak of heart, it provided an adrenaline boost on top of the feeling of flying above the city, exactly what the intent was. 

“We really wanted to create a special experience that took advantage of our outdoor space, that made you really continue to feel the wind in your hair and the sights and sounds of New York around you, but to do it in a way that created a moment that was a little bit thrilling, a little bit breathtaking,” EB Kelly, the senior managing director at Tishman Speyer and Head of Rockefeller Center, told me from the 69th floor.

In fact, the sensation draws from some of Rock Center’s other trademarks. “The rotating floor of the sky lift evokes the iconic rotating dance floor of the Rainbow Room a couple of floors below us and the experience of twirling on The Rink downstairs in the wintertime,” she added, adding that creating a “whimsical moment” was pervasive in their planning.

It's that connection with Rock Center’s near-century of history that sets this experience apart. Another iconic chapter is also available for visitors to recreate. The famous “Lunch Atop of Skyscraper” photo of 11 ironworkers sitting on a beam dangling 850 feet in the air was taken during the construction of the 69th floor of one of Rock Center’s buildings, the RCA Building. Now on the same floor, visitors can pose atop a singular beam (don’t worry, you’re seat-belted in securely) for a similar shot as part of The Beam, complete with fun props to choose from, like hammers and wrenches to doughnuts and apples. 

Also a nod to its past, The Weather Room eatery on the 67th floor, taking its name from a Doppler radar that used to sit on the 70th floor from where the forecasts were determined.

Both The Beam and The Weather Room opened in 2023, and a new welcome gallery debuted this past summer. Along with Skylift, these are the last pieces of Top of the Rock’s complete modernization. It’s also part of a Rockefeller Center-wide effort at reinventing itself with more modern and thoughtfully curated retailers like Rough Trade, McNally Jackson Books. N.Peal, Todd Snyder, and The Shops at NBC Studios, as well as restaurants like Pebble Bar, Smith & Mills, Lodi, Jupiter, Le Rock, NARO, and 5 Acres.

Admission to the Top of the Rock is $40 to $61 for those 13 and older, $34 to $55 for children six to 12, and $38 to $59 for seniors 65 and older. The Beam is a $25 add-on and Skylift is an additional $35 per person. A VIP Pass, which includes private access to both The Beam and Skylift starts at $190.

“Rockefeller Center is a place with history and authenticity,” Kelly said. “If you want to see the real New York and connect with New York of 90 years ago and New York of today, you must come to Rockefeller Center to hear that story and feel a part of that history.”