Lord & Taylor Building

The Lord & Taylor Building is located on an L-shaped lot at 424–434 Fifth Avenue between West 38th and 39th Streets in Midtown Manhattan.The chamfer is clad with terracotta below the eighth floor and blends with the colonnade wrapping around the ninth- and tenth-floor facades.[14] There were no retail areas on the tenth floor, which instead contained a food court with restaurants that could collectively seat 500 people.[11][14] Other customer amenities included a concert hall within the seventh-floor music department, and restrooms, telephones, and travel counters on the fifth floor.[7] A plaque, commemorating 68 Lord & Taylor employees who died in wars, was hung on the wall just inside the entrance.By the 1870s, stores were being established between 14th and 23rd Streets in the Ladies' Mile area, including the Lord & Taylor Building at 901 Broadway.[17]: 43–44 [3] A site abutting the western sidewalk of Fifth Avenue, running from West 38th to 39th Streets, was leased from the Burton brothers in October 1912.[3][23] Starrett & van Vleck were announced as the architects,[3] while the structure was erected by E. Brooks & Company Inc.[14] At the time, the store was planned to open at the beginning of 1914.[28] The new building had cost more than estimated,[29] and Lord & Taylor announced in November 1915 that it would sell off its wholesale business because of a lack of funding.[30] Dorothy Shaver, a full-time employee at Lord & Taylor since 1924, became its president in 1945, making her the first woman in the United States to head a multimillion-dollar firm.[34][35] The company expanded to its first branch location in 1941,[17]: 38 but the main building on Fifth Avenue continued to serve as Lord & Taylor's flagship store and headquarters.[39] Starting in 1979 during the Iran hostage crisis, the store played The Star-Spangled Banner (the U.S. national anthem) each morning before opening.The tradition was implemented because Lord & Taylor's chairman at the time wanted to send the message that the U.S. was "the greatest country in the world".[42] The beauty level received brighter lighting and a new chandelier; and several windows that were previously located in storage rooms were incorporated into the publicly accessible space.[51] As part of the final transaction, WeWork converted $125 million of the purchase price into equity, forming the joint venture for the building's ownership.[58] That August, Amazon announced that up to 2,000 employees in the company's advertising, music, video, and fashion divisions would start working in the building in 2023.