City landmarks five Garment District buildings ahead of major changes in Midtown

By Devin Gannon
August 12, 2025

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) on Tuesday voted to designate five buildings that not only are unique architecturally, but also reflect the development of the Garment District and the importance of the fashion industry to New York City. The designation comes as the City Council prepares to vote on the Midtown South Mixed-Use plan this week…

The new individual landmarks include 15 West 38th Street, known as the Barbey Building. The oldest of the five, the 12-story tower was designed in 1908 by Delano & Aldrich and features a Renaissance Revival style, with a facade of red brick, terra cotta, and gridded windows. From 1985 to 2019, the building served as the corporate headquarters for Lord & Taylor.

The Fashion Tower, located at 135 West 36th Street, is a 20-story tower designed by prolific architect Emery Roth in 1925. The building features a distinctive blend of Medieval, Renaissance Revival, and Art Deco styles, with colorful peacocks at the lobby and freight entrances and winged angels holding cutting shears and brushes.

At 242-246 West 30th Street, the Furcraft Building rises 14 stories. Designed by Henry I. Oser in 1926, the building is on what was known as “Furriers’ Street,” the heart of the city’s thriving fur industry. According to the commission, more than 85 percent of the nation’s furs were produced in New York City from the early 20th century through the 1970s…

Also designed by Henry Oser, the 29th Street Towers include two buildings built for fur manufacturing, made evident at the entrance of the building, which features grotesques of beavers. As the LPC noted, the towers’ intact facade and terra cotta decoration represent a “standout example” of manufacturing buildings built to house the fur industry in the Garment District.

The 27-story brick building at 275 Seventh Avenue, known as the Lefcourt Clothing Center, was also landmarked on Tuesday. The Art Deco building, designed by architect Ely Jacques Kahn, has setbacks starting on the 18th floor, textured brickwork, decorative metal window enframents at the second through fourth stories, which originally held showrooms. In the 1930s, one floor of the building was leased by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union to be used as a health care facility for workers.