Crown Building on Fifth Avenue Earns Historic Landmark Status

The Crown Building, a prominent skyscraper on Fifth Avenue and home to the exclusive Aman New York resort, has been designated a historic landmark.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) unanimously voted to grant individual landmark status to the 57th Street building, described as “one of Fifth Avenue’s best-known and most visible early skyscrapers,” on Tuesday.

The Tremont branch of the New York Public Library also gained landmark status.

Completed in 1922, the 25-story Crown Building now houses the Aman Resort, where room rates reach into the thousands per night. According to The Real Deal, the property will soon include a Prada store. LPC Commissioners emphasized the significance of the building's history and beauty, with Commissioner Frederick Bland noting, “Its history, its extraordinary beauty, and the fact that MoMA really started here – I mean, all of this is so worthy of being landmarked.”

Designed by Warren & Wetmore, the architects behind Grand Central Terminal, the Helmsley Building, and the Con Edison tower, the building holds a rich New York City history. It hosted the Museum of Modern Art’s first exhibition in 1929 and was one of the first tall buildings on this stretch of Fifth Avenue, marking the early shift from residential to commercial use in the 1920s.

Commissioned by Anahma Realty Corporation and led by August Heckscher, once the largest holder of office buildings in the city, the Crown Building is a notable fixture in the city’s architectural landscape.