Strand Bookstore (New York City, New York)

 store / shop, office building, bookstore, interesting place, 1903_construction

11-story office building competed in 1903. Designed by William H. Birkmire and John H. Parker as a store-and-lofts building, its Broadway facade has two bays of three windows each, while the longer 12th Street elevation spans eight bays (only two windows in the far eastern bay). It has a 3-story base with rusticated limestone piers, and cast-iron pilasters within the 2nd-floor bays. The piers have stylized capitals at the 2nd floor, where there is also a dentiled cornice. Another plain stone cornice caps the base.

The upper floors are clad in buff-colored brick, with stone wreaths in the center of each brick spandrel panel. At the top of the 8th floor, each piers has paired, fluted, scrolled brackets supporting a cornice, above which rise 2-story fluted pilasters with Corinthian capitals. Another dentiled cornice sets off the top floor, which has stone wreaths on the piers. Both facades are crowned by a bracketed and dentiled brown metal roof cornice.

The ground floor is occupied by the famous Strand bookstore; "18 miles of books". Strand Bookstore is an independent bookstore founded in 1927 by Benjamin Bass. It features new, used, and rare collections.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2615.pdf