401-409 Fifth Avenue, The Tiffany’s Building
Possibly the greatest work of commercial architecture in the history of Fifth Avenue, 401-409 Fifth Avenue, formerly the Tiffany’s Building, is a supreme achievement of the American Beaux Arts. Modeled in parts after both the great Library of Sansovino and the Palazzo Grimani by McKim, Mead & White, the building’s excellent proportions and subtle sophistication of detail surpass even that of the same firm’s Gorham Building, a few blocks to the south.
The 1905 building was the third location of the renowned jeweler Tiffany & Co., who moved to Fifth Avenue from a still-extant (but recently reclad) building on Union Square; they would stay at their million-dollar Fifth Avenue address until 1939, moving into their present building at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street where they have been for 75 years.
Praised as “a great nobleness of white marble” by Henry James (who summed up the Flatiron Building with “These new buildings, they smack of nothing but the dollar!”), 401-409 Fifth Avenue is these days generally an overlooked presence on the street.
A well-intentioned restoration program in 2003 replaced Fifth Avenue columns that had been removed but did so with mismatched stone that left the end result looking curiously patchy. Even so, it is hard to disagree too vigorously with historians Francis Morrone and James Iska’s estimation of the Tiffany’s Building as “maybe Fifth Avenue’s most beautiful.”
The building is a New York City landmark.