FIFTH AVENUE BUILDING

I know this one well: the Toy Fair was here every year. Lots of Underemployed actors in costumes milling around outside, handing out brochures. There’s a closed-off subway stop in the basement, which is very cool.

The building replaced a much smaller hotel, which was once the finest in the city – aren’t they all, for about ten minutes? It was the first hotel in NYC with elevators.

This one elevators as well, of course, but I always took the stairs. The elevators were jammed and slow.