upon the building's completion, its design was lauded by "architecture" magazine as a public "gift and a benefit". in the 1939 wpa guide to new york city, the federal writers' project described the lord & taylor building's construction as being "a break with tradition" and that "the avenue now had a building that was frankly commercial as well as dignified". upon the sale of the building in 2017, a "new york times" reporter wrote that the move was "a story of the new economy cannibalizing the old".