<P> The headquarters of the United Nations occupies a site beside the East River, on between 17 and 18 acres (6.9 and 7.3 ha) of land purchased from the real estate developer William Zeckendorf Sr . At the time, the site was part of Turtle Bay, which was filled with slaughterhouses and tenement buildings . By the 1910s, there was also a pencil factory and a gas company building in Turtle Bay, on the site of the current UN headquarters . The development of Sutton Place and Beekman Place, north of the current UN site, came in the 1920s . A yacht club on the site was proposed in 1925, but it proved to be too expensive . </P> <P> In 1946, Zeckendorf purchased the land with the intention to create an "X City" on the site . This complex was to contain an office building and a hotel, each 57 stories tall, and an entertainment complex between them . The X City would have also had smaller apartment and office towers . However, the equivalent to $86,577,562 in 2017 for X City never materialized, and Nelson Rockefeller purchased an option for Zeckendorf's waterfront land in Turtle Bay . The purchase was funded by Nelson's father, John D. Rockefeller Jr...The Rockefeller family owned the Tudor City Apartments across First Avenue from the Zeckendorf site . The city, in turn, spent $5 million on clearing the land . </P> <P> While the United Nations had dreamed of constructing an independent city for its new world capital, multiple obstacles soon forced the organization to downsize their plans . They ultimately decided to build on Rockefeller's East River plot, since the land was free and the land's owners were well known . The diminutive site on the East River necessitated a Rockefeller Center - type vertical complex, thus, it was a given that the Secretariat would be housed in a tall office tower . During daily meetings from February to June 1947, the collaborative team produced at least 45 designs and variations . Rather than hold a competition for the design of the facilities for the headquarters, the UN decided to commission a multinational team of leading architects to collaborate on the design . Harrison was named as Director of Planning, and a Board of Design Consultants was composed of architects, planners and engineers nominated by member governments . The board consisted of N.D. Bassov of the Soviet Union, Gaston Brunfaut (Belgium), Ernest Cormier (Canada), Le Corbusier (France), Liang Seu - cheng (China), Sven Markelius (Sweden), Oscar Niemeyer (Brazil), Howard Robertson (United Kingdom), G.A. Soilleux (Australia), and Julio Vilamajó (Uruguay). </P> <P> Niemeyer met with Corbusier at the latter's request shortly after the former arrived in New York City . Corbusier had already been lobbying hard to promote his own scheme 23, and thus, requested that Niemeyer not submit a design, lest he further confuse the contentious meetings of the Board of Design . Instead, he asked the younger architect to assist him with his project . Niemeyer began to absent himself from the meetings . Only after Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz repeatedly pressed him to participate did Niemeyer agree to submit his own project . Niemeyer's project 32 was finally chosen, but as opposed to Corbusier's project 23, which consisted of one building containing both the Assembly Hall and the councils in the center of the site (as it was hierarchically the most important building), Niemeyer's plan split the councils from the Assembly Hall, locating the first alongside the river, and the second on the right side of the secretariat . This would not split the site, but on the contrary, would create a large civic square . </P>

Where is the headquarters located who owns this land