Press Release

For Immediate Release: August 12, 2025
Contact: lpcpressoffice@lpc.nyc.gov, 212-669-7938 

LPC Designates Five Garment Industry-Related Buildings As Individual Landmarks As Part Of Coordinated Multi-Agency “Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan”

Today’s Designations Preserve and Protect Five Historic Buildings
That Reflect a Period of Dramatic Change During the Early 20th Century  

NEW YORK – Today, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted to designate five architecturally and historically significant buildings in Midtown South Manhattan as individual landmarks: the Barbey Building (15 West 38th Street); Fashion Tower (135 West 36th Street); the Furcraft Building (242-246 West 30th Street); 29th Street Towers (214 and 224 West 29th Street); and the Lefcourt Clothing Center (275 Seventh Avenue). The buildings are impressive examples of early 20th-century commercial architecture designed by some of the city's leading architects, which help tell the full story of the Garment District’s historic development, the people who worked here, and the industry that was one of the most important engines of New York's economy.  

LPC’s designation of these buildings was done in coordination with the Department of City Planning’s Midtown South Mixed-Use Plan, an ambitious proposal to bring approximately 9,700 new homes across 42 blocks of Midtown South where housing is largely not allowed today. LPC identified preservation opportunities in the neighborhood and worked with the Department of City Planning, elected officials, key stakeholders, and the community to inform the planning process. 

“For over 100 years, the garment and fashion industry has powered Midtown Manhattan, giving working-class New Yorkers the opportunity to build a better life right in heart of our city. With our Midtown South rezoning plan, we will keep that dream alive, bringing thousands of new, affordable homes to the neighborhood and making sure that Midtown remains a place where families can live, work, and play,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “But even as we build a more affordable future for Midtown, we are continuing to honor the area’s rich past with these new landmarks, making sure that New Yorkers and tourists alike appreciate all this industry has done and continues to do for New York City.” 

“Congratulations to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on a momentous vote to preserve five significant landmarks in the Midtown South Rezoning area” said Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce Adolfo Carrión, Jr. “I applaud the Commission in its recognition of the Garment Center’s history while positioning several of these new landmark sites to transfer development opportunity realized from the Midtown South Mixed Use Plan. As the most pro-housing Administration in this city's history, we are using every tool possible to promote housing and economic growth." 

“Today’s designations are a successful example of planning and preservation working in concert to secure the future of Midtown South as a mixed-use neighborhood,” said Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Sarah Carroll. “Designed by many of the city's leading architects of the time, the buildings designated today are some of the Garment District’s most impressive examples of early 20th-century commercial architecture, which tell the full story of the Garment District’s historic development, the people who worked here, the labor history that grew here and spread nationally, and the industry that has been one of New York City’s most important economic and cultural engines.” 

“Smart planning and preservation go hand-in-hand, and we’re utilizing all the tools at the City’s disposal to help Midtown South adapt and grow while protecting the neighborhood’s vibrant history,” said DCP Director Dan Garodnick. “These architectural gems won’t just enliven the neighborhood for current and future residents, they also serve as a reminder of the continuous adaptation across historical eras in Midtown Manhattan.” 

“The Garment District is not just a collection of buildings — it’s the story of the people who built New York’s global reputation for creativity, craftsmanship, and innovation. By preserving these remarkable structures while making way for new housing, we’re honoring our city’s rich history and ensuring a vibrant, mixed-use future for Midtown South,” said New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher. “I’m grateful to LPC, the Department of City Planning, and all our partners for demonstrating that preservation and progress can go hand in hand.” 

“The Barbey Building is a beautiful example of early 20th century architecture, and has been home to artists, publishers, garment industry workers, and more,” said New York City Councilmember Keith Powers. “This building holds the history of the Garment District within its walls, and it is so important to preserve that history. I’m glad that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated it with the recognition it deserves.” 

In 2023, LPC began surveying Midtown South alongside the Department of City Planning's project kick-off to rezone the area. LPC’s Research staff studied the area’s history, previous survey work and LPC designations, and analyzed the significance and condition of historic buildings in the survey area. They then developed a framework to illustrate the Garment District’s historic development patterns to identify potential landmarks. The five buildings designated today stand out architecturally and historically, and together tell the story of a time of great change for Midtown Manhattan, which transformed itself at the start of the last century from what had been primarily a residential neighborhood to become a global center for the garment and furrier industries, and center for the nation’s growing labor movement. 

The earliest of the five buildings to be constructed, the Barbey Building was an early skyscraper and one of the first commercial and manufacturing loft buildings to rise in the neighborhood. Built in 1908-1909, it was one of the first commissions by the prominent architectural firm of Delano and Aldrich. The Barbey Building’s design employed the Renaissance Revival style, combining the latest engineering advances of the day with decoration that drew from Renaissance and ancient Roman sources. The building features a façade of red brick and terra cotta and gridded windows, a visual language that would be echoed in future skyscraper designs. The building was home to firms in a variety of industries, including the fashion industry, and notably served as the corporate headquarters for the Lord & Taylor department store from 1985 until 2019. 

A few blocks away, Fashion Tower stands out for its distinctive decoration that celebrates the building’s connection to the garment industry. Constructed between 1924-1925, the 20-story building was designed by Emery Roth, a prominent architect responsible for some of Manhattan’s best-known residential buildings, including landmarks like the Ritz Tower, the Beresford Apartments, and the San Remo Apartments. At Fashion Tower, Roth collaborated with engineer Gunval Aus, known for his work on designated landmarks like the Woolworth Building and the New York Life Insurance building, to create a flexible open floor plan without posts or columns suited to its garment manufacturing tenants. Fashion Tower’s exterior is an eye-catching tribute to the garment industry that blends medieval, Renaissance, and Art Deco motifs, including colorful blue peacocks symbolizing vanity and fashion that top the tower’s arched lobby and freight entrances, winged angels holding cutting shears and paint brushes that flank the building’s nameplate, along with seated women clutching mirrors and spools of yarn, and rosettes draped with ribbon. 

In addition to the neighborhood’s growth as a center for garment production, Midtown Manhattan was also once the center for New York City’s thriving fur industry. In the earliest decades of the 20th century until the 1970s, New York City was a world leader in fur production, producing more than 85% of the nation’s furs and employing tens of thousands of people. The neighborhood played a central role not only in the fur industry’s economic success but also in its rich labor history. The Fur District was the site of numerous strikes and rallies during this period, including a 1926 strike that won fur workers a 40-hour workweek, and a 1932 strike that guaranteed equal treatment and pay for Black workers. 

Although fur manufacturers in the neighborhood initially occupied and repurposed tenement buildings in the Midtown area, by the early 1920s those older buildings began to be replaced by larger fireproof loft buildings, creating a re-imagined fur district, and the Furcraft Building is a notable example of this evolution. Built in 1925 on West 30^th Street – a block once known as “Furrier’s Street” – the 14-story building was commissioned by a group of furriers and designed by Henry I. Oser in the Neoclassical style. It features distinctive ornamentation that reflects its connection to the fur industry, including the two fox sculptures that stand at the top of Corinthian columns framing the building’s entrance. 

One block south is another design by architect Henry I. Oser: 29th Street Towers, located at 214 West 29th Street and 224 West 29th Street, which consists of a pair of connected 14- and 16-story tall Gothic Revival Style buildings joined at the base. Designed in 1925, the buildings were built by manufacturing companies to serve the needs of the Fur District, offering mixed-use commercial and manufacturing space, with offices, showrooms, and factories above a commercial ground floor. Like the Furcraft Building, 29^th Street Towers also features decorative sculptures at the buildings’ entrances depicting scenes from the furrier industry, including grotesques (fantastic figures carved from stone and attached to the walls or roof of a buildings) of beavers, which were abundant in the region during the city’s early years and were critical to both New York’s fur trade and the city’s development as a whole.   

Finally, the Lefcourt Clothing Center, located at 275 Seventh Avenue, is a 27-story brick store, office, and manufacturing building designed in 1927 by Ely Jacques Kahn, one of New York City’s leading Art Deco architects. The tower features ornamental brickwork and decorative metal window enframements at the second through fourth stories, which originally served as showrooms for the clothing manufacturers who were the building’s early tenants. In the 1930s, the site also became an important place for union activity. In 1935, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) leased a floor for their health center, then bought the whole building in 1945, converting multiple floors for use as health care facilities for union workers and renting other floors to commercial tenants. The ILGWU was a nationally significant union that played a key role in improving workers’ wages and mounting ambitious social programs, fighting for improved working conditions and offering its members expansive educational, recreational, and health benefits, and becoming a leading example of what became known as “social unionism.” The union, now known as UNITE HERE, continues to own the building, which houses their headquarters and union health center.

Images:  Designation photos can be found here: https://app.box.com/s/1h2ay4jfkt1g8h0qpgqn6bmq8xjmfsk9

About the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is the mayoral agency responsible for protecting and preserving New York City’s architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites. Since its creation in 1965, LPC has granted landmark status to more than 38,000 buildings and sites, including 1,470 individual landmarks, 125 interior landmarks, 12 scenic landmarks, and 157 historic districts and extensions in all five boroughs. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/landmarks and connect with us at www.facebook.com/NYCLandmarks, www.instagram.com/nyc.landmarks/ and www.x.com/nyclandmarks.