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.
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
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. The building's land lot has a total area of ; it measures from north to south and from west to east. Because of the topography of the region, the northern ends of the Fifth and Madison Avenue facades are slightly higher than the southern ends.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. 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.
Architecture
The B. Altman and Company Building was designed by Trowbridge & Livingston in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and opened in three phases in 1906, 1911, and 1914. The main section on Fifth Avenue, opened in 1906 and expanded in 1911, has its facade designed as an arcade. The Madison Avenue annex, completed in 1914, has more design motifs than the original Fifth Avenue structure and its addition. Marc Eidlitz & Son was the general contractor for the building, and Hecla Iron Works manufactured the metalwork.The majority of the building is eight stories tall, but the Madison Avenue side rises to 13 stories. The original section of the building contained entrances on Fifth Avenue, 34th Street, and 35th Street, while the annex contained two additional entrances on Madison Avenue and 35th Street.
Facade
The structure's facade was generally intended to harmonize with the designs of mansions on Fifth Avenue, which at the time of the building's completion was largely residential. The design, across the street from the grand residence of department-store rival A. T. Stewart and diagonally across the avenue from the residence of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, was planned to complement the surrounding palatial mansions. The design used imported French limestone. The B. Altman Building was the first commercial structure in New York City to use the material, which had previously been used only on residential buildings.The four elevations or sides are largely similar to each other. On all sides, the first two floors comprise an arcaded base, the third through sixth floors contain square windows, and the seventh and eighth floors comprise an arched arcade. The Fifth and Madison Avenue facades both contain nine bays, but the Fifth Avenue side is eight stories tall, while the Madison Avenue side is 13 stories. The 34th and 35th Street sides are both seventeen bays wide and are mostly eight stories tall, although the easternmost four bays rise to the thirteenth story. The facade is mostly unchanged from the building's completion, although some spalling in the facade was patched with cast stone, and some design elements were removed or simplified.
Base
On Fifth Avenue, the lowest two stories contain a colonnade with double-height engaged columns in the Ionic order, raised upon pedestals and supporting a plain architrave. The columns are largely plain, except the center four, which are fluted and flank a slightly projecting entrance portico in the center three bays. Inside each bay of the colonnade, the first- and second-floor window openings are separated by horizontal stone architraves. The windows on the first floor are large display windows while those on the second floor are semicircular Diocletian windows. In the entrance portico, small stone steps lead to the doors in each bay, which are located underneath glass turtle-shell canopies. This entrance portico leads to the CUNY Graduate Center.On 34th Street, the first two stories mostly contain rectangular pilasters instead of columns. There is an entrance portico in the sixth, seventh, and eighth bays from west, with fluted columns similar to those on Fifth Avenue, though only the seventh bay has a glass canopy and stone steps. Additionally, on the first story, only the westernmost four bays and the easternmost two bays have display windows, while the other windows are wide rectangular sash windows behind a grille. A service entrance is in the eleventh and twelfth bays from west. The second floor openings are semicircular.
The Madison Avenue side contains a colonnade in the center seven bays, supported by engaged plain columns. The outermost bay on either side projects slightly, with rectangular pilasters. The central bay led to the former library entrance.
The 35th Street side is similar to, but less elaborate than, the 34th Street side. The westernmost three bays and the easternmost bay contain display windows, while most of the remaining bays contain rectangular sash windows behind a grille. The fourth bay from west contains a metal entrance structure that projects slightly and has a frieze running on top. There is a delivery entrance nearer the Madison Avenue end.
Upper stories
The layout of the third through eighth stories is identical on Fifth Avenue, 34th Street, and 35th Street. The third story has one square-headed opening in each bay and keystones above the windows, as well as a horizontal band course above the windows. The fourth through sixth stories have square-headed openings, with no keystones, and a frieze runs above the sixth floor. The seventh and eighth stories are designed as a double-height arcade, similar to the base; each bay has a square-headed window under a semicircular window, separated by a transom. A heavy cornice runs above the eighth story on Fifth Avenue and on most of the 34th and 35th Street facades.The four eastern bays on 34th and 35th Streets are thirteen stories tall, though the upper five stories are made of brick instead of limestone. The ninth story has two double-hung windows in each bay and is topped by a band course. The windows on the tenth and eleventh stories are recessed within a large opening; each set of windows is separated by small cast iron Ionic columns, with architraves above the tenth-story windows and a pair of small arches above the eleventh-story windows. The top two stories contain double-hung windows similar to the ninth story. A band course supported by corbels runs above the twelfth story, and a small cornice runs above the thirteenth story.
On Madison Avenue, the outermost bays are faced with limestone up to the eighth story, while the inner bays and the ninth through thirteenth stories are faced with brick. The outer bays are similar in design to the easternmost bays on 34th Street. The inner bays contain double-hung window pairs on the third floor and triple-height window openings on the fourth through sixth stories. Each of the triple height openings contains a pair of Ionic columns, supporting an architrave and small pediment on the fourth floor; an architrave on the fifth floor; and brackets on the sixth floor. The seventh and eighth floors of the inner bays are designed as an arcade, similarly to on the other elevations, except that it has cast-iron columns and architrave. The ninth through thirteenth floors are the same as on the other elevations.
Features
B. Altman store
There were 39 elevators in the building when completed: 22 passenger elevators, 10 employee elevators, as well as two massive truck elevators and five smaller private elevators. The building also contained an electric power plant, described as the city's largest. The ventilation system was able to handle intake and exhaust volumes of per minute. To accommodate packages and message deliveries, the building used an extensive system of brass tubing and canvas belting.At ground level, the building had a large entrance rotunda on Fifth Avenue as well as open-plan selling floors. The rotunda had a glass dome with indirect lighting. The glass dome was illuminated on cloudy days by electric lamps that were placed behind the dome. There were also sales galleries placed around the rotunda. The rotunda was replaced with escalators in the 1930s. The interiors had high ceilings: the first floor had a ceiling height of while the second and third floors had ceilings of.
When the store opened in 1906, its various departments were placed in the same locations as B. Altman's previous store on Sixth Avenue. The first through fourth floors were used as selling floors, while the upper floors were used as workshops, offices, and stockrooms. On the third floor, which sold suits and linens, there was a large room with mirrors, which could be slid aside to allow natural light. The fourth floor had a waiting room with wooden desks and chairs, and telephones. With the opening of the Madison Avenue expansion, the public areas of the store were expanded to the fifth floor, which contained a women's writing room, an information bureau, telephones, and a general store. The eighth floor contained the Charleston Gardens restaurant. The ninth floor contained vaults for fur storage, encased in cork thick. Employees' facilities, including restrooms, dining rooms, and medical aid rooms, were on the twelfth floor.