The United Nations building is a perfectly preserved homage to the go-getting 1950s–right down to its Mad Men-style interiors. A photo tour of off-limits areas.

"They didn't even know what New York steam was, versus a boiler," he said of the developers. "They knew nothing." Mr. Trump estimated that he could have completed the project for about $500 million.

Download Building the future: Stepping stones in United Nations history. Since its creation in 1945, the United Nations has come to hold an incontestable place in global imagination and in driving ...

The United Nations had been many years in the making, with the first mention of a “United Nations” occurring in a January 1, 1942 speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.