The Bloomingdale's flagship store is a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

between

Third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

and

Lexington Avenue Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street (Manhattan), 131st Street to Gra ...

s, and 59th and 60th Streets on the border of the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

and

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It was designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann and Albert Buchman for Joseph B. and Lyman Bloomingdale, and opened in 1886; it was expanded in 1893 and 1930. The store spans , of which is selling space, and occupies nearly an entire

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. In a city with a grid system, the block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are th ...

. It remains the flagship store and headquarters of the

Bloomingdale's Bloomingdale's Inc. is an American luxury department store chain founded in 1861 by Joseph Bloomingdale and Lyman Bloomingdale. It was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1930, which purchased the Macy's department store chain in 1994, ...

department store chain, founded in 1861 and owned by

Macy's, Inc. Macy's, Inc. (previously Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American holding company of department stores. Upon its establishment in 1929, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, File ...

since 1930.

History

The present-day Bloomingdale's flagship store originated as the third relocation of the Bloomingdale's Great East Side Bazaar founded by Joseph B. and Lyman Bloomingdale.

Architecture

Buchman & Deisler designed the 1893 expansion in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style, and included an annex and a wing that extended to

59th Street 59th Street station may refer to: *59th Street (BMT Fourth Avenue Line) in Brooklyn, New York; serving the trains * 59th Street (IRT Third Avenue Line) a demolished elevated station in Manhattan * 59th Street (IRT Ninth Avenue Line) a demolished e ...

Starrett & Van Vleck Starrett & van Vleck (often spelled Starrett & Van Vleck) was an American architectural firm based in New York City which specialized in the design of department stores, primarily in the early 20th century. It was active from 1908 until at least ...

expanded the store to occupy the entire city block with the 1930 expansion, which also added the signature

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

facade along

. The original construction and subsequent additions were described as "a complete mess architecturally" by architect William J. Conklin in the 1980s, however Federated Department Stores did not move forward with his exterior restoration plans at that time.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Macy's, Inc. Commercial buildings completed in 1866 Commercial buildings completed in 1893 Commercial buildings completed in 1930 Commercial buildings in Manhattan Third Avenue Macy's, Inc. Midtown Manhattan Retail buildings in New York (state) Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan Upper East Side Lexington Avenue