Built in 1928–1929, the structure has historically catered to businesses involved in film, theater, television and music and audio production.

The lobby's walls and ceilings resemble tapestries, while details such as stair risers, ventilation grilles, directory signs, and elevator doors were designed in a multicolored scheme.

In the 1910s and 1920s, New York City's film industry was centered around Times Square, prompting developer Abe N. Adelson to acquire a site for a film-distribution building in April 1928.

GFP Real Estate, which split from Newmark & Company, further renovated the Film Center Building in the 2010s.

[6][7][8] At the time of the Film Center Building's construction, it faced the Ninth Avenue elevated line of the New York City Subway.

[12] The Film Center's first-floor interior, highlighted by Kahn's "highly individualistic version of the Art Deco style",[13] includes pre-Columbian influences.

[17] On the first story of the entryway are three doors; a sign with the words "Film Center" in capital letters is mounted above the entrance.

[19] According to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the decorative scheme of the lobby is "one of Kahn's most striking interior designs".

A plaster band wraps around the ceiling and side walls of the lobby, similarly to in the entrance vestibule, and the decorations of the floors direct visitors to the elevators.

[21] The lobby contains various three-dimensional decorations related to theater, such as camera motifs and triangular projections.

[11][2] This mosaic, perpendicular to the elevator doors, has red, orange, yellow, and blue geometric motifs, oriented both horizontally and vertically.

[24][22] The ceiling of the elevator lobby contains a triangular decoration that blocks part of the mosaic, although it is unknown whether Kahn had intended for this to happen.

[28] The building also contained other facilities for film tenants, such as sound and processing laboratories; graphic art studios; and projection rooms.

[14][16]In the 1910s and 1920s, New York City's film industry was centered around Times Square, and major companies such as Loews Cineplex Entertainment and Paramount Pictures had their offices there.

[6][10][25] Many businesses related to the film industry occupied space in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, west of Times Square, where rents were generally cheaper.

[29] The Film Center Building was developed on a city block that also housed the distribution offices of 20th Century Fox Animation, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros.[6][32] During the 1920s, Charles M. Steele negotiated with various film distributors to develop a headquarters away from the Theater District of Manhattan.

[55] The Central Hanover Bank & Trust foreclosed on the Film Center Building and acquired it at auction in July 1936, paying just under $2 million.

[58][59] Walter Reade Enterprises acquired the property in early 1948, purchasing a majority of the stock in Film Center Inc.[60] The building was refinanced in 1949 with a $1.5 million loan from Prudential Insurance (equivalent to $19,022,000 in 2023).

"[8] A syndicate of investors from Detroit, represented by Benjamin Fenton, bought the building in December 1950 for $3 million (equivalent to $37,992,000 in 2023).

[67] During the 1960s, the Film Center Building's owners upgraded the elevators and renovated all of the office space, and they operated a 24/7 film-shipping facility for tenants.

[68] The building's vacancy rate increased after numerous large film studios scaled back their operations during the 1950s.

To attract tenants, Newmark sent promotional brochures to all of the known television and independent film producers at the time.

[72] Jeffrey Gural of Newmark Realty said in the early 1990s that the Film Center Building was more than 90 percent rented.

[74] Among the Film Center's tenants during the 1990s was the offices of off-Broadway theater Playwrights Horizons,[74] as well as recording studios such as Adrian Carr Music, Mirror Image, and Reel Tyme.

[78][79] GFP, which had split from Newmark, began renovating the building, including converting 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m2) of film vaults to office space, as well as refurbishing the windows and bathrooms.