B. Altman and Company Building
The B. Altman and Company Building is a commercial building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, that formerly served as B. Altman and Company's flagship department store. It occupies an entire city block between Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, 34th Street, and 35th Street, directly opposite the Empire State Building, with a primary address of 355–371 Fifth Avenue.
B. Altman & Company Building
Commercial offices, educational
355–371 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York
1905
1914
1906
1996
13
March 12, 1985[1]
1274
The B. Altman and Company Building was designed by Trowbridge & Livingston in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. Most of the building is eight stories tall, though the Madison Avenue end rises to thirteen stories. It contains a facade made largely of French limestone, except at the Madison Avenue end, where the ninth through thirteenth stories and most of the Madison Avenue side are faced with white brick. The facade contains a large arcade with a colonnade at its two-story base.
Altman's was the first big department store to make the move from the Ladies' Mile shopping district to Fifth Avenue, which at the time was still primarily residential. The building was opened in stages between 1906 and 1914, due to the difficulty in acquiring real estate. The store closed in 1989 and was vacant until 1996, when it was renovated. The building was reconfigured to house the City University of New York's Graduate Center, the New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library, and the Oxford University Press. The B. Altman and Company Building was made a New York City designated landmark in 1985.
Site[edit]
The B. Altman and Company Building occupies a full city block in Midtown Manhattan, bounded by Fifth Avenue on the west, 34th Street on the south, Madison Avenue on the east, and 35th Street on the north.[2] The building's land lot has a total area of 82,950 square feet (7,706 m2); it measures 197.5 feet (60.2 m) from north to south and 420 feet (130 m) from west to east.[3] Because of the topography of the region, the northern ends of the Fifth and Madison Avenue facades are slightly higher than the southern ends.[4]
The B. Altman Building is close to the Empire State Building to the southwest, 200 Madison Avenue to the north, the Church of the Incarnation to the northeast, the Collectors Club of New York to the east, and the Madison Belmont Building to the southeast.[2] It is one of several former major retail buildings on the surrounding stretch of Fifth Avenue. Within four blocks to the north are the Gorham Building at 390 Fifth Avenue, the Tiffany and Company Building at 401 Fifth Avenue, the Stewart & Company Building at 404 Fifth Avenue, and the Lord & Taylor Building at 424 Fifth Avenue.[2][5][6]
Impact[edit]
At the building's opening, a Times critic wrote that "the store adds materially to the beauty of Fifth Avenue".[15] Altman's had been the first big department store to make the move from Ladies' Mile to Fifth Avenue, which at the time was still primarily residential.[9][10] Following Altman's example, other major stores made the move uptown to the "middle" portion of Fifth Avenue, including Best & Co., W. & J. Sloane, Lord & Taylor, Arnold Constable & Company, and Bergdorf Goodman.[9][10][a]
The B. Altman Building's stature made it a "three-ring circus", according to The New York Times.[27] The running track on the building's roof was used for training by the United States Olympic team, as depicted in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire.[27] The building was also used for exterior filming in the 2017 Amazon Studios television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.[118]