General Bronze Corporation

The General Bronze Corporation (also known as General Bronze or GBC) was an American metals fabricator, primarily of bronze and aluminum, and the most recognized company in the architectural bronze and aluminum industry during the first half of the 20th century. It was known for New York City's Seagram Building on Park Avenue designed by Mies van der Rohe, the Atlas and Prometheus bronze sculptures in Rockefeller Center, the bronze doors for the United States Supreme Court, Commerce, and Department of Justice Buildings in Washington, DC, the aluminum windows for the United Nations Secretariat Building and Chase Manhattan Bank Building, and for the design of the Arecibo Radio Telescope suspension system. As American cities evolved, the need for architectural and sculptural bronze increased. An innovative and progressive company, General Bronze Corporation stepped up to supply that demand. It became the dominant leader in the architectural bronze industry for both bronze fabrication and bronze sculpture, and aluminum fabrication in the United States for over three decades. In the early 1950s, General Bronze was also at the forefront of the fledgling television radio industry as a major manufacturer of radio antennas, and one of the first to introduce automatic motorized antennas for the automobile industry. General Bronze's Brach Manufacturing subdivision offered electronics to the early radio telescope field, such as the Green Bank Telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia and the Arecibo Radio Telescope.

Overextending their resources by diverting capital from bronze manufacturing to antenna and radio telescope research, concomitant with the declining use of bronze in the construction industry due to changes in architectural style, eclipsed General Bronze's main focus leading to their ultimate demise. In 1967, they were acquired by Allied Products of Chicago, IL, and ceased to exist.