Rockefeller Atlas

Sculptor Paul Manship's gigantic fountain of a leaping Prometheus has stood patiently in the sunken plaza of Manhattan's Rockefeller Center for three years, the butt of more violent criticism, more half-baked humor than any Manhattan Statue since the erection of Frederick MacMonnies' Civic Virtue. Last week artisans at the Roman Bronze Works were putting finishing touches on one of the biggest jobs of bronze casting the company has ever handled, and workmen in Rockefeller Center were chopping holes in the Fifth Avenue pavement for a statue of Atlas destined to distract public attention from Prometheus for many weeks to come.

Directly opposite the front portal of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the new statue will be unveiled next week in the entrance court of Rockefeller Center's International Building. The work of 49-year-old Lee Lawrie, member of Washington's Federal Art Commission, long famed for his work on Nebraska's State Capitol, it shows a beardless, youthful Atlas stepping up to a granite pedestal with bis left foot, bearing on his shoulders a tremendous astronomical globe whose axis will point at the North Star. The whole thing will be 45 ft. tall, high as a four-story building, and so perfectly balanced that it needs no unusual armature. Sculptor Lawrie needed little help from professional astronomers to get his globe correct. His assistant was his Son Milton, a registered architect and passionate amateur astronomer.

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