Glass Zoo (United Nations Building)

"Glass Zoo" is a nickname for the United Nations' glass headquarters in New York City, used by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., in a 2005 story about John Bolton, the United States representative to the United Nations.

"Glass zoo" has been infrequently used and is not an established or accepted nickname for the United Nations building by the East River.


Wikipedia: United Nations headquarters
The United Nations Headquarters is a distinctive complex in New York City that has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1950. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River.

The United Nations has three additional, subsidiary, regional headquarters or headquarter districts. These are located in Geneva (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria), and Nairobi (Kenya). These adjunct offices help represent UN interests, facilitate diplomatic activities, and enjoy certain extraterritorial privileges, but only the main headquarters in New York contains the seats of the principal organs of the UN, including the General Assembly and Security Council.

Though it is in New York City, the land occupied by the United Nations Headquarters is considered international territory, and its borders are First Avenue on the west, East 42nd Street to the south, East 48th Street on the north and the East River to the east. However, according to the Agreement Between the United States and the United Nations Regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, Pub. L. No. 80-357, 61 Stat. 756 (1947): “Except as otherwise provided in this agreement or in the General Convention, the federal, state and local courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction over acts done and transactions taking place in the headquarters district as provided in applicable federal, state and local laws.” Thus, "the district remains under the law and judicial jurisdiction of the United States."

FDR Drive passes underneath the Conference Building of the complex.

The United Nations Headquarters complex was constructed in New York City in 1949 and 1950 beside the East River, on 17 acres (69,000 m2) of land purchased from the foremost New York real estate developer of the time, William Zeckendorf. Nelson Rockefeller arranged this purchase, after an initial offer to locate it on the Rockefeller family estate of Kykuit was rejected as being too isolated from Manhattan. The $8.5 million purchase was then funded by his father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who donated it to the City. The lead architect for the building was the real estate firm of Wallace Harrison, the personal architectural adviser for the family.

Google Groups: alt.politics.usa.republican
Newsgroups: alt.politics.usa.republican
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (From Alexei)
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 19:35:31 -0400
Local: Fri, Jun 18 2004 6:35 pm
Subject: Re: Another American Beheaded

When Palestinian terrorists strap a vest full of dynamite on a 12 year old boy so he can go out and kill Jews and himself, there's virtually no reaction at all from liberals in this country, nor from that glass zoo exhibiting dicatators and tyrants in NYC called the UN.

New York (NY) Sun
10 March 2005, New York Sun, R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. column, pg. 11, col. 1:
Bolton has referred to North Korea as "a hellish nightmare" governed by a "tyrannical dictator." Ah, the lilt and substance of Moynihan and Kirkpatrick is about to be restored to the Security Council and the General Assembly. On another occasion Bolton wrote that if the glass zoo on the East River that is UN headquarters "lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."