Walking into the Chrysler Building for the first time in 2018 was a “pinch-me moment” for Sophie Smith. She was there for an interview with the theater department of Creative Artists Agency, and it would be her first job out of college.

Every time Ms. Smith, who left the talent agency for another job in 2022, thinks of the Chrysler Building now, the song “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” from the musical “Annie” starts playing in her head — particularly the line that goes, “You’ll stay up ’til this dump shines like the top of the Chrysler Building.”

“Being in ‘Annie,’ that was the first show I ever did as a child, so it was a very full-circle kind of thing,” said Ms. Smith, 27. “Walking through the lobby every…