B. Altman and Company Building

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. ==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 Madison Avenue annex, completed in 1914, has more design motifs than the original Fifth Avenue structure and its addition. 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, 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 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. 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 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. 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 interiors had high ceilings: the first floor had a ceiling height of while the second and third floors had ceilings of . The first through fourth floors were used as selling floors, while the upper floors were used as workshops, offices, and stockrooms. Current usage Since its refurbishment in the 1990s, the B. Altman Building has been occupied by the City University of New York (CUNY)'s Graduate Center. The space of a third occupant, New York Public Library (NYPL), was sold off to several other condominium owners in the 2010s. The Graduate Center is on the Fifth Avenue side of the building. The first through seventh floors contain classrooms, student spaces, and offices. The Mina Rees Library of the Graduate Center occupies parts of the building's first floor, concourse, and second floor. The Graduate Center section of the building contains three performance spaces: the 389-seat Harold M. Proshansky Auditorium on the concourse, the 180-seat Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall on the first floor, and the 70-seat Martin E. Segal Theatre on the first floor. An eighth-floor dining room contains ceilings of as well as a skylight from which the Empire State Building is visible. On the Madison Avenue side of the building, the NYPL occupied an eight-floor condominium spanning from the 1990s. The NYPL condominium was split up into four units in 2012. the NYPL's Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) occupied five floors in the building, with a research library in the basement, a lobby and circulating library at ground level, and offices on three upper levels. The branch contained various business and training centers, as well as conference rooms and stacks. OUP occupies a five-floor condominium spanning . ==History==

Background in the Ladies' Mile shopping district B. Altman and Company originated from a store on the Lower East Side operated by the Altman family. The store was solely owned by Benjamin Altman and was located at Third Avenue and 10th Street by 1865. By the 1870s, stores were being established between 14th and 23rd Streets in the Ladies' Mile area, including B. Altman and Company, which opened a store at Sixth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets. Altman's Sixth Avenue store occupied a site in the 1870s; by the mid-1890s, the store had expanded to cover the entire width of the block on Sixth Avenue. In addition, Altman did not own any of the land under his Sixth Avenue store; instead, he leased it from two separate sets of owners. and many stores on that avenue were situated inside rebuilt 19th-century residences. New building Initial land acquisition Benjamin Altman began acquiring land for his Fifth Avenue store in 1895 or 1896, when he obtained a four-story building at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 35th Street. Altman initially did not reveal the purpose of these purchases, All of these properties were acquired from separate owners, none of whom knew that Altman was buying other properties on the block. Altman was initially unable to acquire some holdout properties, as many owners "declined even to entertain offers" and some lessees "became as violent obstructionists as the owners themselves". The Real Estate Record at the time characterized Altman's plans as having been "an open secret for some years". Trowbridge and Livingston were formally selected as architects the next month. A representative for B. Altman and Company indicated that the Fifth Avenue section of the building would be completed first, followed by the Madison Avenue section. At the time, the structure was planned to cost $2.5 million; The same month, he paid a combined $515,000 for two houses at 3 and 5 East 34th Street. This gave him control of nearly the entire block, except the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, and the Madison Avenue frontage. That May, The New York Times reported that the row house at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street was still being leased by art dealer Knoedler. The lease did not expire for "five or six more years" and negotiations between Knoedler and Altman had reached an impasse. Additionally, there were several incidents during construction. Three workers were killed and several were injured in a December 1905 dynamite explosion, and there was an attempt the same month to sabotage the building's hoisting engines. In January 1906, a worker was killed and six others were injured when a girder fell from the eighth floor. In anticipation of the new store's opening, Altman sold the old Sixth Avenue store in April 1906. The first section of the Fifth Avenue building was opened on October 15, 1906, with entrances on 34th Street, 35th Street, and Fifth Avenue; the previous store on Sixth Avenue was closed at that time. Although the original design entailed developing Knoedler's holdout lot, the initial section of the building wrapped around the lot. The section at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street opened in September 1911. After the second section opened, the building had a floor area of . Two landowners, Margaret A. Howard and William Waldorf Astor, owned the remaining sites on Madison Avenue. paying $750,000 for three lots that Howard had bought for $190,000 two decades previously. He also took a long-term lease from Astor, who was generally averse to selling off his family's land. When Altman died in October 1913, the buildings on Madison Avenue were being torn down. He bequeathed all of his property (including the Fifth Avenue store) to his company, of which all capital stock was to be held by the Altman Foundation, essentially transferring the building to the foundation. The final section on Madison Avenue opened on October 5, 1914. Flagship operation During Benjamin Altman's life, there had never been any exterior signage advertising the store, out of respect to people who lived nearby. The facade was renovated in 1936 after some of the limestone had deteriorated. Parts of the original facade were replaced with simplified designs; for instance, portions of the cornice on 34th and 35th Streets were removed. Alteration plans for the building were filed in 1938, with an estimated cost of $250,000. The renovations, in preparation for the 1939 New York World's Fair, involved the removal of the rotunda for additional selling space, as well as new departments designed by H. T. Williams. In 1940, Altman's reopened its refurbished third floor, and six departments were added to the Fifth Avenue side, in what was referred to as the "Fifth Avenue Walk". Rumors of a new structure on the site started circulating in 1970, to which Altman's distributed letters announcing their intention to stay in the same location. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) started considering the building for landmark status in 1982. In November 1984, the store's owner Altman Foundation indicated its intention to downsize the Altman's location and sell off the upper floors at the Madison Avenue end to an investment syndicate, which would convert the space to residences and offices. The downsizing was required because of New York state legislation that forced the Altman Foundation to divest of some of its business holdings or pay a fine. The plans entailed removing of retail space on each of seven floors, but these removals did not occur. The syndicate that owned the building, KMO-361 Realty Associates, was named for the initials of its principals, Earle W. Kazis, Peter L. Malkin, and Morton L. Olshan, as well as the building's Fifth Avenue address. The chain was acquired by L.J. Hooker in 1987, but KMO-361 continued to own the real estate. In November 1987, KMO-361 announced plans to add six floors at the Madison Avenue end of the building. The store would occupy on the lowest five floors and there would be of office space on the upper floors. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates would also remodel the facade details to their original design, add an entrance pavilion along Madison Avenue, and add a roof pavilion above the main eight-story store. The LPC approved the expansion plans in 1988. Neighbors raised concerns that the Madison Avenue office addition would cast excessive shadows. The second floor of the store, which contained the fashion department, was remodeled in 1988. The project was planned to be the first phase of a total renovation of the building. The renovation stalled due to Altman's financial issues. By that November, the flagship was set to close. The building had been placed at auction for one month, but no bidders made an offer for the building. Altman's liquidated its merchandise, and the store within the building permanently closed on December 31, 1989. In late 1991, KMO proposed that of the building be converted to the New York Resource Center, a furniture and appliances showroom. Another would be used by the New York Public Library (NYPL), which would open the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) there. The New York Resource Center plans were ultimately postponed indefinitely because of a lack of interest in the project. Richard P. Steinberg, one of Olshan's partners, stated in 1994 that three "significant" museums and two educational institutions had expressed interest in the building, though there was no definite commitment. and J. C. Penney. Nearby, Oxford University Press was looking to move from their space at 200 Madison Avenue. and OUP contracted to buy a five-floor condominium the following January. Starting in 1996, the exterior was restored by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer and the interior reconfigured by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates. The OUP offices were designed by Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum. CUNY was scheduled to move the Graduate Center there in late 1999, but the relocation was delayed due to setbacks in construction. The CUNY Graduate Center moved to the B. Altman Building in 2000. In 2012, because of the NYPL's budgetary issues, the library arranged to sell off five of the upper floors that it had used as office space. The NYPL's eight-floor condominium was divided four ways in 2012, and the five upper floors were sold that year for $60.8 million to the Church Pension Fund. The same year, it sold the remaining office condominium unit to Seattle developer Vulcan Inc., headed by Paul Allen, for $93 million. The SIBL was permanently closed after the Mid-Manhattan Library reopened in 2020 as the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, OUP moved out of the building in 2023 and, two years later, sold its space in the building to an investment group for $40 million. == Impact ==

At the building's opening, a Times critic wrote that "the store adds materially to the beauty of Fifth Avenue". == See also ==