You can now soak in Top of the Rock’s picture-perfect panoramas from soaring new heights. On October 1, Rockefeller Center officially opened SKYLIFT, an attraction that gently raises visitors into the clouds 30 feet above Top of the Rock, delivering sweeping views of New York City during a 3.5-minute ride.

Located on the 70th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, SKYLIFT is the newest addition to the reimagined Top of the Rock experience, joining The Beam (a chance to recreate the legendary 1932 photo, “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper”), as well as the interactive welcome gallery, multimedia shows in the elevator and theater, and The Weather Room café and bar.

SKYLIFT might look unassuming when it’s not in motion. But once the ride begins, a trio of illuminated tiered columns emerge from below and push the circular platform into the sky. Music plays as the platform starts to rotate 360 degrees and make its way skyward. “From this perspective,” wrote journalist Rachel Chang in a Travel + Leisure review, “I imagined that if King Kong had been hanging off of the tower [of the Empire State Building], we would have been exactly eye to eye — if only he paused to take in the view. But that’s how immersed within the city the Skylift put me.”

Made predominantly from stainless steel, aluminum, and anti-shatter glass, SKYLIFT’s design echoes Rockefeller Center’s Art Deco design. At night, the tower's tiered base glows in saturated hues, doubling as a rooftop light show. 636 meters of LED lights run through 96 polycarbonate flutes, which have been hydro-dipped for a textured effect that echoes the signature marble used throughout Rockefeller Center’s architecture. The moving platform floor nods to the Rainbow Room’s famous rotating dance floor — but with an extra twist. Mid-flight, the glass floor transforms from opaque to transparent, as if by magic.

When the flight into the clouds concludes, SKYLIFT seems to vanish. “I love the way that it collapses completely, flush into the deck, and you really don’t even know it’s there until this 30-foot tower all of a sudden appears out of nowhere,” says Phil Hettema, founding partner of THG Creative, a firm known for designing immersive experiences like museum exhibitions, and observatories — including SKYLIFT. Though SKYLIFT’s disappearance from the roof deck feels like a magic trick, creating this seamless illusion was a massive undertaking. A multidisciplinary team of hundreds of people — designers, architects, engineers, LED technicians, scenic artists, electrical fabricators, and environmental testers, among others — worked tirelessly over the course of five years, from design to installation, to bring this vision to life.

Tishman Speyer, the project’s developer, selected THG Creative and TAIT to bring the SKYLIFT vision to life. TAIT is known for producing innovative experiences and live events, with a mission to create “moments that move people” — in this case, literally. “We designed, engineered, [and] fabricated SKYLIFT to all the same standards that the major theme parks use,” says Jim Shumway, vice president, project delivery for TAIT. This means SKYLIFT is carefully constructed to withstand wind, seismic activity, sunlight, rain, and fluctuating temperatures. Plus, it’s ADA accessible, and it earned approval from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. “It’s a very precise machine.”

Constructing SKYLIFT atop an iconic, landmarked building involved solving a web of complex design and logistical challenges. For one, SKYLIFT couldn’t be airlifted whole onto the roof of 30 Rock. And Top of the Rock needed to remain open to visitors throughout the installation process. This meant that SKYLIFT needed to be designed and fabricated in small components, transported late at night, and assembled on site. Each component had to be small and light enough to fit inside the building’s passenger elevators (no larger than 6’ x 4’ x 8’ each).

Despite the technical feats required to create the machinery, it’s the astonishing vantage point and thrilling feeling that SKYLIFT’s creators hope visitors remember most, not the machinery that powers the ride. “You get this incredible view of Central Park and Midtown,” Shumway notes. “I hope you really just get overwhelmed by that, and that the SKYLIFT itself fades into the background.”

SKYLIFT at Top of the Rock is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, with an entrance on 50th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It’s open daily from 8am to midnight; last entry is at 11:10pm. To pick your ideal time slot, purchase tickets in advance.