Designated: August 12, 2025
This is a powerfully significant building in the history of the Garment building in every way: It was developed by Abraham E. Lefcourt, designed by Ely Jacques Kahn, and owned by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (now Unite Here).
Lefcourt, Khan and the ILGWU were three of the most important engines of the garment district: Lefcourt was the most prolific builder in the district. He developed 31 buildings in 20 years. So many that he marketed his own metropolis, Lefcourt City. Khan designed 5 buildings for Lefcourt, and 14 buildings in the Garment District overall. He is celebrated as a father of the New York Skyline, one of the 3 musketeers of Art Deco (along with Ralph Walker and Raymond Hood), and as a master of the loft building. He sought to help create a “New York Style” of architecture, and understood municipal regulation as integral to that effort. For example, he said that the 1916 zoning code’s setback provisions for light and air created “a new style out of the very restrictions they contain.” The International Ladies Garment Workers Union, once one of the largest unions in the country, and the first to have primarily female membership, played a leading role in improving both the working and social lives of its members, and of workers throughout the country. Its successor organization, Unite Here, still owns the building, and carries on the vital work of organized labor.
The Lefcourt Clothing Center stands out for its large footprint and prominent location on 7th Avenue, its decorative metal window frames, and patterned brickwork. It is worthy of designation not only for its architectural merit, but also, and perhaps moreso, for the extraordinary social and labor history it represents.
photo courtesy the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
