Lego Store Flatiron District Opens on Fifth Avenue

By Emma Rausch September 26, 2014

Lego has opened a new store in Manhattan's Flatiron District, at 200 Fifth Avenue across from Madison Square Park. The store is the second Lego flagship location in NYC, joining the store in Rockefeller Center.

lego mural nyc

Standing in the doorway of 200 Fifth Avenue last week, with mouths dropped and pointer fingers extended, brothers Linus (2½) and Milo (4½) Olim gaped at the construction underway at the new Lego store opening in the Flatiron District.

linus and milo outside lego store “They are obsessed with Lego,” said Elaina Mercurio, the Olims’ nanny. “Every day, when they come home from school, the first thing they want to do is build a Lego ambulance or a Lego fire truck.”

As soon as the construction boards went up at the corner storefront across from Madison Square Park, Mercurio said, the Olim brothers recognized Lego’s logo and began to eagerly anticipate the store’s opening.

“They live right around the corner,” she said. “And every day they ask to either see the store or ask when it’s opening.”

Finally, the Olims—and the rest of New York—can stop peeking in from the sidewalk. Today, the new Lego Store Flatiron District is open to the public. And mark your calendars for the grand opening festivities, a four-day event held at Madison Square Park over Columbus Day weekend (Oct. 10-13), during which Lego enthusiasts can help build a 20-foot-tall Statue of Liberty. Hours for the grand opening celebration are as follows: Oct. 10, 4-6pm; Oct. 11-13, 11am-6pm.

According to Kristin Greene, Lego’s public relations representative, the new store—which is serendipitously located in the Flatiron District’s International Toy Center—was designed to be an establishment with a sense of community.

lego store statue of liberty

“[Lego] was looking to bring a neighborhood store to New York,” Greene says. “Our Rockefeller store is busy, fabulous, and wonderful, but we really wanted to be rooted in a neighborhood, and so here we are.”

For several months, passersby like the Olim brothers could only catch a glimpse of the store’s decorative features. Now, visitors to the store can get up-close with the model dragon mounted on the back wall and the child-sized Lego models representing different time periods of the neighborhood. The main floor display is a 10-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty’s torch and hand—a reference to the late 19th century, when the iconic piece was stored in Madison Square Park during Lady Liberty’s construction.

lego store fifth avenue nyc

Other features include a window display of iconic locations in New York and a lounge for parents to wait as their children explore the store.

There is also a miniature replica of the store, the Flatiron, and Madison Square Park that kids can build onto like they’re building onto the neighborhood, Greene says.

“I think at the end of the day,” she says, “we want as many kids as possible around the world building, because we believe that it’s going to set them up to be the problem solvers and the innovators and the future thinkers.”

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