Manhattan Mall (New York City, New York)

 store / shop, office building, shopping mall, Neoclassical (architecture), interesting place, 1910_construction, Neo-Renaissance (architecture)

191-foot, 10-story Neo-Classical/Renaissance-revival office & retail building completed in 1910 for the Manhattan Hudson Realty Co. Designed by Daniel H. Burnham & Company and Thompson-Starrett, the building served as the Gimbels flagship. The store closed in 1986, and the building was converted to a mall in 1989, with a series of anchor tenants with J.C. Penney in the two basement levels. The 1st & 2nd floors have various retail tenants, and the upper levels are now office space.

The enormous Gimbels store originally offered 27 acres of selling space. A major selling point was its many doors leading to the Herald Square New York City Subway station. Due to such easy access, by the time Gimbels closed in 1986, this store had the highest rate of "shrinkage", or shoplifting losses, in the world. The interior was renovated in 1950 by Raymond Loewy Associates.

The limestone-clad building spans nine bays along 6th Avenue, with 17 bays along 32nd & 33rd Streets. The two westernmost bays on both 32nd & 33rd Street have freight entrances with roll-down metal garage doors at the ground floor and metal vent louvers at the 2nd floor. There are two main entrances along 33rd Street, with suspended metal marquees and projecting flagpoles above the framing piers, and similar entrance on 32nd Street, with four smaller flagpoles. Both the 1st and 2nd floors have large, plate-glass show-windows (modern replacements). The two floors are separated by brown cast-iron spandrels with decorative 7-over 2 square panels.

The conversion to a mall began in 1988, with designs by Rothzeid Kaiserman Thomson & Bee Architects. The three eastern bays on the north and south facades, as well as all the bays along 6th Avenue, were redesigned with grey metal spandrels replacing the originals. The outer three piers on each side of the 6th Avenue facade have tall grey granite bases and are covered in grey metal panels; they are each topped by a simple circle. The piers around the three center bays of 6th Avenue, and around the south entrance, are clad in white stone panels, and have pairs of silver metal vertical bars at the 2nd floor, framing the entrances. The original piers remain at all the other bays, with shorter black granite bases and capitals featuring two small circles, and an egg-and-dart molding, topped by a single, larger circle. The base is capped by a cornice with egg-and-dart molding, and a Greek-fret pattern interrupted by circles.

The upper floors have three windows per bay, with a cornice above the 3rd floor. The newer bays at the east end and along the avenue have a glass curtain wall from the 3rd-7th floors, with thin, grey aluminum framing, interrupted by the piers. In the bay immediately adjoining the newer section on the north and south facades, the windows are replaced by metal louvers at the 3rd-6th floors. Above the curtain wall sections, the 8th & 9th floors have the regular pattern of three windows per bay on all three main facades. A cornice sets off the 10th floor, which has three smaller windows in each bay, and large carved circles, underlined by swags and crowned by lions' heads on the piers. A band course of simple circles runs along the roof line. Slightly recessed above is a sloped, glass-and-metal mansard.

The western elevation is a plain red brick wall with a handful of windows. Besides the anchor J.C. Penney which has since closed, retail tenants have included Hallmark, Aeropostale, Starbucks Coffee, GNC, Manhattan Mall Dental, Perfume Heaven, Express, Lids, Sunglass Hut, Top Gun Leather, Gizmobies, Lenscrafters, Gamestop, Victoria's Secret, Strawberry, and others.

www.manhattanmallny.com
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