History and architecture
The L.P. Hollander & Company Building, constructed in 1929-30, was part of the exclusive retail shopping district developing on East 57th Street that catered to New York’s wealthy and stylish women. Designed by the prominent architectural firm Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, the Hollander building presented the latest fashions in an elegant environment. The building’s up-to-date Art Deco designs were paired with the company’s modern retailing techniques to encourage sales of its elegant women’s clothing.
The facade of the nine-story building is framed by shiny black granite, with rows of ribbon windows set close to the front plane of the building. Between the floors, the window spandrels are formed of embossed aluminum without a masonry backing, in a technique that the same architects later used extensively on the Empire State Building. The Hollander building received the 1931 gold medal for design from the Fifth Avenue Association, an organization of business and property owners.
The large, bronze-framed show windows exhibited the latest fashions brought from Europe, and let the passersby see into the elegant modern interiors created by well-known designers Jock D. Peters and Elaine Lemaire. As a small Art Deco style building fully occupied by its owner, the L.P. Hollander & Company Building is an unusual surviving structure from the active retailing period of the 1920s.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.