Crown Building

730 5th Avenue | also 7 West 56th Street, 9 West 56th Street, 2 West 57th Street | Midtown | built 1921

Open on the map10 entries

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

  1. 1921

    August Heckscher builds a French Renaissance tower topped by a gold rooster

    Developer August Heckscher and George Backer commissioned Warren & Wetmore to design the tower, which was completed in 1921. The 1916 Zoning Resolution forced a redesign, and the plans changed from 32 stories to 25. A pyramidal roof carries a twelve-foot gold-plated rooster weathervane.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1922

    October 2

    Novelist Eleanor Gates finds hawks nesting in the gilded rooster atop the tower

    By autumn 1922 novelist Eleanor Gates, whose offices overlooked the Plaza and Central Park, had discovered a pair of large brown hawks nesting in the tower's gilded rooster. She watched the male carry pigeons home and pleaded with the Parks Department for help. Superintendent Allen Parke investigated and found the remains of a banded carrier pigeon, and the Evening World ran the story on October 2.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1928

    March 29

    Esther Wilson shoots her husband, lawyer Dallet Wilson, in his office suite

    On March 29, 1928, Esther Wilson, a socialite known for hunting big game in Africa, entered her husband's 10-room office in Suite 1500. After about an hour and a half of talk, mostly about money, she shot the lawyer Dallet Wilson twice. He survived two months in City Hospital. At her trial in January 1929 her testimony kept changing, and the jury convicted her on January 24, urging a six-month sentence with no fine.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1929

    November

    The Museum of Modern Art opens its first home on the 12th floor

    The Museum of Modern Art moved into a six-room gallery on the Heckscher Building's twelfth floor in November 1929, its first home. It stayed in the building until 1932. In 1931 the painter Diego Rivera rented a studio in the tower where he made works for a museum exhibition.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1934

    January

    August Heckscher sues Rockefeller Center's developers for $10 million over lost tenants

    In January 1934 August Heckscher sued Rockefeller Center's developers for $10 million, claiming they had drawn tenants away by taking over their old leases at below-market rates or paying them to cancel. No trial was ever held. In December the City Bank-Farmers Trust Company began foreclosure proceedings on the building's mortgage, and in July 1938 it bought the tower for $4.25 million at a foreclosure auction.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1942

    The gilded rooster atop the tower comes down to be melted for wartime scrap

    In September 1921 an advertisement in August Heckscher's name promised that the gilded rooster crowning his building would always stand as a beacon of progress. It lasted until 1942, when the weathervane was taken down and its metal given to the war effort as scrap. The golden bird had topped the tower for about two decades.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 1983

    Imelda Marcos's real estate company renames the tower the Crown Building

    New York Land Company, acting for Imelda Marcos, bought the building in September 1981 for $51 million. It was renamed the Crown Building in 1983, for its crown-like look when lit at night. The owners spent $15 million on redecorating and added 23-karat gold leaf to the facade.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 1985

    August

    Philippine opposition lawmakers cite the Crown Building in an impeachment complaint against Marcos

    In August 1985 opposition politicians in the Philippine National Assembly filed a complaint seeking to impeach Ferdinand Marcos, alleging that in 1981 Imelda Marcos had purchased the Crown Building. The effort failed. A U.S. House committee later found that the Bernsteins who bought it had acted for Marcos, who had meant it and several other buildings as a present for his wife, and coded cables reportedly referred to the building as Ferragamo.

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2022

    August 11

    The tower reopens as the Aman New York hotel

    Michael Shvo and Vladislav Doronin bought the building's top 21 stories in 2015 for about $500 million. They converted them into the Aman New York hotel and 22 condominiums, at a cost for the hotel renovation of $1.45 billion. The Aman opened on August 11, 2022.

    Source: Wikipedia

  10. 2024

    May 14

    The Landmarks Commission designates the Heckscher Building an individual city landmark

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission's designation report for the Heckscher Building, now the Crown Building, is dated May 14, 2024. It describes the 25-story French Renaissance Revival tower, designed by Warren & Wetmore in 1920-22, as one of the first skyscrapers on this part of Fifth Avenue and among the earliest buildings to follow the 1916 zoning resolution.

    “Heckscher Building was one of the first skyscrapers in this section of Fifth Avenue and one of the earliest buildings to conform to the…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown