The Tiffany & Co. flagship store is a ten-story retail building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, within the luxury shopping district on Fifth Avenue between 49th and 60th Streets. The building, at 727 Fifth Avenue, has served as Tiffany & Co.'s sixth flagship store since its completion in 1940. It was designed by New York City architects Cross & Cross in a "conservative modern" style.
The building contains a facade of granite and limestone. Its five storefront displays, changed about eight times a year, have had various designers over their history. A statue of the mythological figure Atlas is situated on the second story of the building's west facade, facing Fifth Avenue. The building's first-floor main salesroom, covering with a ceiling , has no supporting columns in its superstructure. The upper floors were built with public and private showrooms.
Prior to the building's construction, Tiffany & Co. had its flagship at 401 Fifth Avenue, twenty blocks south. The site was leased from First National City Bank in May 1939 and the store opened on October 21, 1940; Tiffany's bought the underlying land in 1963. The building was notably featured in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. The store, originally seven stories tall, was expanded in 1980 with a three-story rooftop addition designed by Peter Claman. Tiffany's sold the building in 1984 and reacquired it fifteen years later. The store was renovated during the early 2000s. As part of another renovation, including a replacement rooftop structure, the store was temporarily closed from 2020 to 2023.
Architecture
The original building is a seven-story structure designed by New York City architects Cross & Cross in a "conservative modern" style and completed in 1940. The main contractor for the work was Turner Construction. Architectural historian Paul Goldberger cites it as an important retail building in New York City, and an important example of the transition from classicism to modernism in architecture. Upon the building's completion, a critic for Architectural Forum magazine characterized it as a monumental structure with an "orthodox" exterior and a utilitarian interior.
A three-story addition was built in 1980 to designs by Peter Claman. A 2020s renovation replaced it with a similarly-sized new structure. As of 2023, the building contains of retail space.
The building has of frontage on Fifth Avenue and on 57th Street. The flagship contains about 114,000 pieces of jewelry, including a $2.475 million engagement ring.
Exterior
The original structure's facade contains a pink-granite base and limestone on its upper stories. The main entrance, on the western facade, contains a rectangular limestone frame with a wheat-leaf pattern. The vertical bays contain windows that are separated horizontally by marble spandrels between each floor. The window frames are made of stainless steel and are bounded by pieces of Alpine marble, which hold the facade's shatterproof glass windows in place. The top of the original building contains a scalloped cornice. The use of limestone in the facade was intended to evoke older store buildings, but Cross & Cross used a more modernistic Art Deco style because it "better expressed the modern age".
The building's exterior windows include five storefront displays (two on Fifth Avenue and three on 57th Street), which are changed about eight times a year and are planned more than a year in advance. The displays have been designed by various designers over their history. Gene Moore designed the displays for nearly forty years using smaller materials to frame the more expensive jewelry. Other window dressers have included Rachel Zoe, who in 2012 designed displays depicting the "Hollywood glamour" of the mid-20th century, as well as Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, who designed Great Gatsby-themed displays in 2013.
Atlas statue
A statue of the mythological figure Atlas is situated on the second story of the building's west facade, facing Fifth Avenue. The statue, shouldering a four-foot-wide clock, was built to stand atop the entranceway to the company's third flagship store in 1853. Charles Tiffany commissioned his friend Henry Frederick Metzler, a carver of ship figureheads, to design the work. The statue has traveled as the company has relocated its flagship. The statue stood as an icon of the brand; the fifth flagship store did not have the name "Tiffany" appear on its facades, with only the statue and clock denoting the store's presence.