Rizzoli Bookstore

Rizzoli Bookstore is a general interest bookstore, located in the St. James Building, 1133

History

In 1964, Angelo Rizzoli opened Rizzoli Bookstore at 712 Fifth Avenue in New York City; the building was designed by Albert S. Gottlieb in 1907 and inspired by the classical style of 19th century Parisian town houses. Angelo Rizzoli chose architect Ferdinand Gottlieb (no relation to Albert) to design the interiors. The Rizzoli store attracted legions of customers with its "marble floors, oak paneling, sparkling chandeliers."^[4] Gianfranco Monacelli, who went on to become the president and chief executive of Rizzoli Publications before creating Monacelli Press in 1994, started as a night clerk in the Fifth Avenue store in 1965.

In the 1960s, Roberto Polo, investment manager, art collector, and would-be design mogul worked part-time at Rizzoli while a graduate student at Columbia.^[5] As the director of the Rizzoli Gallery, he organized an exhibition entitled “Fashion as Fantasy.”

In 1976, Rizzoli opened a store in Chicago's

In 1985, Rizzoli Bookstore relocated to West 57th Street.[8] The old Rizzoli building and the Coty Building next door were slated to be demolished for a new skyscraper at 712 Fifth Avenue,^[9] but were saved at the last minute when they were designated as official city landmarks.^[10] The new store occupied three floors of the former Sohmer Piano Company showroom and was renovated by H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture.

Rizzoli closed most of its national locations except for its flagship store in 2001.^[11]

In 2010, Rizzoli Bookstore opened a boutique store in the Italian food megastore Eataly, featuring nearly 400 titles related to food and drink. In 2012, a similar store opened in Saks Fifth Avenue, featuring a curated selection of books on fashion, design, entertaining, interiors, special travel destinations and New York.^[12][13]

On April 11, 2014, Rizzoli closed its flagship store on West 57th Street in New York, under the protest of customers and preservationists, when its lease expired. The LeFrak Organization and Vornado Realty Trust, which had owned the building since 2006, planned to raze it and two adjoining buildings.^[14][15] Demolition started shortly after the bookstore closed.^[16] The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission had refused to warrant landmark status for the building, noting that the interior design dated only to 1985 and that there was not enough original substance from the 1919 building left.^[14] The decision and the way the decision was made by the Landmarks Preservation Commission was criticized by the editorial board of the New York Times.^[17]

Rizzoli reopened at its current Broadway location in July 2015. The bookstore is now one of the key features of the

Rizzoli Bookstore has been used as a prominent location in the films Falling in Love (1984), Manhattan (1979), and True Story (2015), in addition to television series such as Seinfeld.

References