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Bergdorf Goodman

Architect
Ely Jacques Kahn
Year
1928
Style
Neoclassical
City
Manhattan, NY
Bergdorf Goodman
Photo: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0
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The Bergdorf Goodman Building at 754 Fifth Avenue was designed by Albert Buchman and Ely Jacques Kahn and erected between 1927 and 1928 as seven separate storefronts on the site of the former Cornelius Vanderbilt II House. Developer Frederick Brown bought the property in 1926 and hired Buchman & Kahn to design the stores; Bergdorf Goodman initially leased only the northernmost storefront, expanding to the northern half of the site in 1935 and the southern half in 1947. Since 1940 it has also housed a Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry store.

the building

Piecemeal storefronts. The building was originally constructed as seven distinct storefronts leased to a variety of tenants, including Dobbs & Co., Parke-Bernet, and the Tailored Woman, before Bergdorf Goodman gradually consolidated the whole site under its own name.

the style

The Neoclassical facade gave a set of independently leased retail storefronts a unified, dignified Fifth Avenue presence appropriate to the luxury shopping district forming around it.

More on Neoclassical

the architect

Ely Jacques Kahn, working with Albert Buchman at the firm Buchman & Kahn, designed the building as part of the pair's broader practice in New York commercial architecture of the 1920s.

significance

The Bergdorf Goodman Building is a New York City Individual Landmark (LP-00735), designated December 13, 2016.

nearby

All 413 buildings in Manhattan