The Rockefeller Center was built in the middle of the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was widely seen as a giant project undertaken during that decade of general recession, and it’s certainly huge enough to earn that description. The entire complex includes 19 buildings and covers around 22 acres, which is almost 90,000 square meters. Like many other buildings in Manhattan, it was declared both a New York City and National Historic Landmark in the 1980s and it consistently attracts a large number of visitors, especially in the winter. During the cold season, Rockefeller Plaza is transformed into an ice-skating rink and the famous Christmas tree is set up and subsequently lit up on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, with viewers across the nation watching the live broadcast.