660 Fifth Avenue

The William K. Vanderbilt House, also known as the Petit Chateau, was a Châteauesque mansion at 660 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street. It was across the street from the Triple Palace of William Henry Vanderbilt, which occupied the entire block between 51st and 52nd Streets on the west side of Fifth Avenue.

Hickson Inc. was a high-class fashion retailer, designer, and department store in New York City in the early decades of the twentieth century. The firm started as a men's tailors but evolved to be what the designer Howard Greer described as "the most elegant and expensive specialty shop on Fifth Avenue".In the 1910s the firm dressed the actresses of the silent movies and in 1926 it opened a purpose-built store in a corner position on Fifth Avenue. It worked with Madeleine Vionnet and Georges Matchabelli. Charvet & Fils took space in their store. However, in 1931, at the start of the Great Depression, they filed for bankruptcy. A number of Hickson creations are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Fifth Avenue/53rd Street station is a station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street in Manhattan, it is served by the E train at all times and the M train weekdays except late nights.Fifth Avenue/53rd Street was opened in 1933 as part of the Independent Subway System's (IND) Queens Boulevard Line. It contains two side platforms on separate levels: southbound trains to Lower Manhattan use the upper level, while northbound trains to Queens use the lower level. The station was renovated in the 1980s as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Culture Stations program and was rebuilt with displays showing information about the cultural institutions in the area. Further improvements to the station were proposed in the 2010s.

Saint Thomas Church is an Episcopal parish church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York at 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Also known as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue or Saint Thomas Church in the City of New York, it was incorporated on January 9, 1824. The current structure, the congregation’s fourth church, was designed by the architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the French High Gothic Revival style and completed in 1914.The church is home to the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, a choral ensemble comprising men and boys which performs music of the Anglican tradition at worship services and offers a full concert series during the course of the year. The men of the Saint Thomas Choir are professional singers and the boys are students enrolled at the Saint Thomas Choir School, the only church-affiliated residential choir school in the United States.

The Cartier Building, also 653 Fifth Avenue, is a commercial building on the southeast corner of 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building serves as the flagship store of Cartier in New York City. It consists of two conjoined residences completed in 1905: the Morton F. Plant residence at 651–653 Fifth Avenue, designed by Robert W. Gibson, and the Edward Holbrook residence at 4 East 52nd Street, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. The Plant House was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style and has facades on both 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The 52nd Street facade of the house contains an ornate pavilion, and both facades have an attic hidden inside a frieze. The Edward Holbrook House was also designed in a neoclassical style but has a mansard roof. Both houses are five stories tall and are connected internally. The Cartier store takes up all of the stories inside the building. The southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street was planned as a hotel in the early 1900s after the Roman Catholic Asylum vacated the site. After the Vanderbilts blocked the development of the hotel, the northern portion became the Morton F. Plant House, while the southern portion of the site was developed as the Marble Twins at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue. In the late 1910s, Plant sold his house to Cartier. The Holbrook House was occupied by a variety of tenants until 1927, after which it was purchased by 653 Fifth Avenue's owners and used by various organizations and firms. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Cartier Building as a city landmark in 1970, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 along with 647 Fifth Avenue.

647 Fifth Avenue, originally known as the George W. Vanderbilt Residence, is a commercial building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along the east side of Fifth Avenue between 51st Street and 52nd Street. The building was designed by Hunt & Hunt as part of the "Marble Twins", a pair of houses at 645 and 647 Fifth Avenue. The houses were constructed between 1902 and 1905 as Vanderbilt family residences. Number 645 was occupied by William B. Osgood Field, while number 647 was owned by George W. Vanderbilt and rented to Robert Wilson Goelet; both were part of the Vanderbilt family by marriage. The house is a six-story stone building in the French Renaissance Revival style. The first floor has arched openings topped by a balustrade, while the second and third stories contain fluted pilasters supporting an entablature. The fourth and fifth floors were added in the late 1930s in an imitation of the original design, and a balustrade runs above the fifth story. The adjoining townhouse at 645 Fifth Avenue, demolished in 1944, had been built in a similar style. The entire building is taken up by a store for fashion company Versace, which also built a sixth-story fitting room. The southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street was planned as a hotel in the early 1900s after the Roman Catholic Asylum vacated the site. After the Vanderbilts blocked the development of the hotel, the southern portion of the site was developed as the Marble Twins, while the northern portion became the Morton F. Plant House (now the Cartier Building). Number 647 was altered for commercial use after 1916 and contained an art gallery and airline ticket agent, among other tenants. Number 645 was largely residential until it was torn down. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 647 Fifth Avenue as a city landmark in 1977, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 along with the Cartier Building. In the late 1990s, Versace remodeled 647 Fifth Avenue.

650 Fifth Avenue (earlier known as the Piaget Building and the Pahlavi Foundation Building) is a 36-story 150 m (490 ft) building on the edge of Rockefeller Center on 52nd Street in New York City. The building was designed by John Carl Warnecke & Associates for the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit organization run by the then-Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, “to pursue Iran’s charitable interests in the U.S.”. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran sought to take control of the Shah's property, including the assets of the Pahlavi Foundation, which was renamed the Alavi Foundation. Tenants who leased space at 650 Fifth Avenue included Ivan F. Boesky, the infamous “greed-is-good” Wall Street speculator who was convicted of insider trading in 1987, and Marc Rich, a billionaire oil trader whose invention of the spot oil market made his fortune and changed the world economy.The Alavi Foundation itself has its headquarters in Suite 2406.

The Triple Palace, also known as the William H. Vanderbilt House, was an elaborate mansion at 640 Fifth Avenue between 51st Street and 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The urban mansion, completed in 1882 to designs by John B. Snook and Charles B. Atwood, was owned by members of the Vanderbilt family. It was composed of two portions: a single-family unit to the south and a two-family unit to the north. William Henry Vanderbilt owned and lived in the southern portion. Two of his daughters, Emily Thorn Vanderbilt and Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard, along with their respective families, occupied the two residences in the northern portion. The mansion had a brownstone facade as well as a courtyard and portico separating the two sections. William Henry Vanderbilt's portion of the house had elaborate decor, with 58 rooms designed in a different style, as well as a central three-story art gallery with a large skylight. William Henry's section also included an elaborate dining room, library, parlor, and drawing room on the first floor, as well as bedrooms on the second floor for himself, his wife, and his youngest children. Emily's and Margaret's sections of the house were designed in a less lavish style. William Henry Vanderbilt had commissioned the mansion in part to provide space for his paintings, as well as a residence for his two daughters. Upon its completion, the mansion was generally criticized. After William Henry's death in 1885, the house passed on to numerous members of his family. It became known as the home of Henry Clay Frick, who renovated and rented the house from 1905 to 1913, when he built the Henry Clay Frick House, inspired by the Triple Palace and its art collection. Cornelius Vanderbilt III hired Horace Trumbauer to design another renovation for the house in 1916. The northern section of the Vanderbilt house was demolished in 1927, while the southern section was destroyed in 1947; both sections were replaced by high-rise buildings.

La Grenouille is a historic and award-winning French restaurant located at 3 East 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1962 by former Henri Soulé apprentice Charles Masson, Sr. and his wife Gisèle, later with sons Philippe and Charles, La Grenouille (French for "The Frog") became a location of choice among New York, U.S., and eventually international diners, including designers from the nearby Garment District of Manhattan. It is the last operating New York French haute cuisine restaurant from the 1960s, and remains a highly rated restaurant.

Stork Club was a nightclub in Manhattan, New York City. During its existence from 1929 to 1965, it was one of the most prestigious clubs in the world. A symbol of café society, the wealthy elite, including movie stars, celebrities, showgirls, and aristocrats all mixed in the VIP Cub Room of the club. The club was established on West 58th Street in 1929 by Sherman Billingsley, a former bootlegger from Enid, Oklahoma. After an incident when Billingsley was kidnapped and held for ransom by Mad Dog Coll, a rival of his mobster partners, he became the sole owner of the Stork Club. The club remained at its original location until it was raided by Prohibition agents in 1931. After the raid, it moved to East 51st Street. From 1934 until its closure in 1965, it was located at 3 East 53rd Street, just east of Fifth Avenue, when it became world-renowned with its celebrity clientele and luxury. Billingsley was known for his lavish gifts, which brought a steady stream of celebrities to the club and also ensured that those interested in the famous would have a reason to visit. Until World War II, the club consisted of a dining room and bar with restrooms on upper floors with many mirrors and fresh flowers throughout. Billingsley originally built the well-known Cub Room as a private place where he could play cards with friends. Described as a "lopsided oval", the room had wood paneled walls hung with portraits of beautiful women and had no windows. A head waiter known as "Saint Peter" determined who was allowed entry to the Cub Room, where Walter Winchell wrote his columns and broadcast his radio programs from Table 50. During the years of its operation, the club was visited by many political, social, and celebrity figures. It counted among its guests the Kennedy and Roosevelt families, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The news of Grace Kelly's engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco broke while the couple were visiting the Stork Club. Socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, owner of the Hope Diamond, once lost the gem under a Stork Club table during an evening visit to the club. Ernest Hemingway was able to cash his $100,000 check for the film rights of For Whom the Bell Tolls at the Stork Club to settle his bill. In the 1940s, workers of the Stork Club desired to be represented by a union, and by 1957, the employees of all similar New York venues were union members. However, Billingsley was still unwilling to allow his workers to organize, which led to union supporters picketing in front of the club for many years until its closure. During this time, many of the club's celebrity and non-celebrity guests stopped visiting the Stork Club; it closed in 1965 and was demolished the following year. The site is now the location of Paley Park, a small vest-pocket park.

Olympic Tower is a 51-story, 620 ft-tall (190 m) building at 641 and 645 Fifth Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the mixed-use development contains condominium apartments, office space, and retail shops. The tower is named after Olympic Airlines, whose president Aristotle Onassis jointly developed the tower with the Arlen Realty and Development Corporation between 1971 and 1974. It was the first skyscraper to be constructed within a special zoning district to encourage retail and mixed-use development along Fifth Avenue. The building's glass facade is designed to reflect St. Patrick's Cathedral immediately to the south. The superstructure is made of steel on the lower stories and cast concrete on the upper stories. The first two stories contain a public atrium, Olympic Place, which connects the 51st and 52nd Street facades. The next 19 stories contain office space while the top 30 stories contain 230 condominium apartments. Upon Olympic Tower's completion, architectural writers such as Ada Louise Huxtable and Christopher Gray criticized its design. Construction of Olympic Tower dates to the late 1960s, when Best & Co. sought to build an office tower above their store at Fifth Avenue and 51st Street. Morris Lapidus was initially hired for the project, but the plans were changed after the zoning district was created. When the building was completed, wealthy non-American buyers purchased most of its residential units. Crown Acquisitions bought Olympic Tower from its original owners in the 2010s.

Paley Park is a pocket park located at 3 East 53rd Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on the former site of the Stork Club. Designed by the landscape architectural firm of Zion Breen Richardson Associates, it opened May 23, 1967. Paley Park is often cited as one of the finest urban spaces in the United States.