DRAFTING A BETTER OFFICE SPACE

- The Real Deal

Featuring Abraham Hidary

When Gavin Macrae-Gibson moved his architecture firm from Midtown Manhattan to the Garment District in 1995, he had no idea he would be soon followed by many others in his trade.

Once a thriving manufacturing area where an immigrant influx spurred the growth of the apparel industry, the Garment District, bounded roughly by Fifth and Ninth avenues and 34th and 42nd streets, by the 1990s had become one of the most depressed parts of Midtown Manhattan with the gradual loss of clothing factories, suppliers and wholesalers due to pressure from cheaper clothing imports.