Film Center Building

630 9th Avenue | also 362 West 45th Street, 357 West 44th Street | Hell's Kitchen | built 1929

Open on the map4 entries

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

1. 1929

   January

   The Film Center Building opens as a hub for Hollywood's film distributors

   Built in 1928–29 to designs by Ely Jacques Kahn of Buchman & Kahn, the Art Deco building was aimed at film distribution companies and their film exchanges. MGM moved in by its completion in January 1929, followed by tenants such as United Artists, Paramount Pictures and Educational Pictures. The building had 96 vaults for storing flammable nitrate film.

   Source: Wikipedia

2. 1936

   July

   Central Hanover Bank forecloses on the Film Center Building

   In July 1936, Central Hanover Bank & Trust forecloses on the Film Center Building and buys it at auction after the original ownership defaults during the Depression. The building's film-distribution tenants keep their offices through the change, and later owners continue leasing space to the movie industry for decades.

   Source: Wikipedia

3. 1982

   The city designates the Film Center's Art Deco lobby an interior landmark

   In 1982 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Ely Jacques Kahn's lobby as an interior landmark. In the 1990s tenants included the theater company Playwrights Horizons and recording studios. In the 2010s the owner began converting about 25,000 square feet of old film vaults into offices.

   Source: Wikipedia

4. 2016

   May

   Newmark Holdings turns the building's old film vaults into offices

   In 2016, Newmark Holdings begins a $7.5 million renovation converting more than 150 of the Film Center Building's fireproof film-storage vaults into about 25,000 square feet of office space. Crews cut 220 new windows into the building's east side and salvage brick from the vault walls to reuse in the new offices. An executive overseeing the project calls the emptied vaults, once required for flammable nitrate film, no longer "the highest and best use" of the space.

   Source: gfpre.com

Further reading

• Film Center BuildingWikipedia

Nearby

• The Whitby325 West 45th Street | 3 entries
• Westside Theatre407 West 43rd Street | 11 entries
• Joe Allen326 West 46th Street | 5 entries
• Al Hirschfeld Theatre302 West 45th Street | 10 entries
• Manhattan Plaza407 West 42nd Street | 14 entries
• The Actors Studio432 West 44th Street | 12 entries

All 46 buildings with stories in Hell's Kitchen