461 Fifth Avenue

461 5th Avenue | also 1 East 40th Street | Midtown | built 1988

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1915

    An eleven-story office building replaces the Misses Furniss's home by 1915

    In the late nineteenth century the house at 461 Fifth Avenue was the home of the Misses Furniss, who hosted musicals and other social gatherings. They got the property from J. M. Bixby sometime after 1873. Between 1911 and 1915 the private house gave way to an eleven-story office building.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1945

    November 8

    Lane Bryant plans a $200,000 conversion of the lot's earlier office building into its Fifth Avenue store

    In November 1945 architects filed plans for $200,000 in alterations to the eleven-story building then standing at 461 Fifth Avenue, on the northeast corner of 40th Street, long before the present tower. It was to become the new home of Lane Bryant, which was then at 1 West 39th Street. The Times covered the filing in its business pages.

    Source: The New York Times

  3. 1987

    October 7

    A Japanese-British team builds a tower on the Lane Bryant site as Fifth Avenue turns to offices

    By October 1987 a 205,000-square-foot project was well under way at 461 Fifth Avenue, on the former Lane Bryant site. The Times said a Japanese and British development team would finish the tower, capped by a copper mansard roof, within eight months. Developers were buying old buildings of under ten stories along Fifth Avenue between 34th and 42nd Streets, demolishing them and building towers three times as high.

    Source: The New York Times

  4. 1988

    SOM's tower pairs a ten-story base echoing old neighbors with a post-modern shaft

    The Mitsui Fudosan group built the tower, designed by Raul de Armas of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. A ten-story base echoes the height of older buildings nearby, and an eighteen-story post-modern shaft rises above it. The facade is pre-cast concrete finished to look like limestone, under a copper mansard roof like others in the area.

    “The exterior uses a pre-cast concrete finish to mimic the appearance of limestone and has a copper mansard roof similar to other buildings in the area.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1990

    January 17

    The new tower leases 90 percent of its office space within a year, to companies leaving other midtown addresses

    By January 1990 the Times reported that 461 Fifth Avenue had leased 90 percent of its 205,000 square feet of offices within a year, to American and foreign firms that had moved from other Manhattan locations. Three groups developed it: Mitsui Fudosan, London and New York Estates, and the Colonial Property Group. The developer of a rival tower at No. 420 said he went ahead despite a sour office market that the article ties to 461's success.

    Source: The New York Times

  6. 2003

    SL Green Realty buys 461 Fifth Avenue for $62.3 million

    SL Green Realty bought the building in 2003 for $62.3 million. Pier 1 Imports held the ground-floor retail space until 2007, when BCBGMAXAZRIA leased it.

    “The building was sold to its current owner, SL Green Realty, in 2003 for $62.3 million.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown