6. Tiffany and Company Building, 401 Fifth Avenue

In 1903 then president of Tiffany and Company Charles T. Cook reportedly asked the firm of McKim, Mead and White to “build [him] a palace.” The interpretation of that request was 401 Fifth Avenue, a seven story white marble structure based on the sixteenth-century Palazzo Grimani in Venice. The building appears to only have three stories thanks to the three horizontal divisions that frame rows of two story windows Corinthian columns.

Tiffany and Company’s move from Union Square to this spot on Fifth Avenue and 37th street helped establish Fifth Avenue as one of the most prestigious and sophisticated shopping thoroughfares. 401 Fifth was given landmark designation in the 1980s and Tiffany’s moved its headquarters further up Fifth Avenue.