Steinway To Ditch Landmarked 57th Street Space for Midtown

Amidst the bustle of towers rising on 57th Street, one of the corridor's institutions is making a quiet exit. Steinway & Sons piano makers, who have called 109 West 57th Street their home since 1925, will be leaving its long-time landmarked gallery for a more contemporary downtown space. The sale netted the company $195 million in a 2012 transaction to JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group in which the company promised to vacate the building by December of this year, the Times reports, leaving it vacant and ready to be absorbed into SHoP's neighboring 1,350-foot-tall tower. Steinway Hall's impressive rotunda was also landmarked in September 2013, making it the city's 116th interior landmark and safe from the onslaught of construction.

Now, the company is gearing up to haul their goods to the ground-floor space of 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street, the long-time home of the International Center of Photography which is moving to the Bowery, says the Times. Steinway has hired architect Annabelle Selldorf to design the new gallery. The redesign includes the space below the gallery which, much like in their 57th Street property, will have a showroom for visiting musicians and recordings. Until the space is ready, Steinway will hole-up in a temporary space—a former Citibank—nearby.
· Steinway Piano Showroom Is Moving to a New Home in Midtown [NYT]
· Why 57th Street is the Supertall Mecca of New York [Curbed]
· All 111 West 57th Street coverage [Curbed]