Decoration & Design Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, high-rise, 1966_construction, commercial building, postmodern (architecture)

223-foot, 17-story Postmodern office building completed in 1966. Designed by David & Earl Levy, it is home to over 130 showrooms. The L-shaped building is clad in white brick and ribbon bands of windows above a 2-story base of limestone and a black granite water table. The base is more classical in style, with long arcades of double-height arches with keystones that bear carved D&D, after the name of the building. The limestone of the base is lightly rusticated, and the piers between each bay slightly project, with a cornice running along the top edge of the base. Metal-and-glass light fixtures are attached to every pier at the base of the 2nd floor, with the exception of the end piers at the southwest corner. These have a clock face instead, on a square, bronze panel. The west facade along the avenue has four bays, and a slightly narrower arch at the north bay, where the main entrance is located. It is deeply recessed at the ground floor, below a segmental-arch and a glass-and-metal canopy; the canopy is suspended by cables held by the mouths of a pair of lion's heads in roundels at the 2nd floor. The entry has two sets of bronze-framed glass double-doors, and the arched ceiling of the entryway is coffered. The other bays have storefronts. Between the 1st and 2nd floors in each bay are grey metal spandrels, and the arches on the 2nd floor have infill and glass and metal, divided into tripartite windows by bronze mullions. The windows are fronted by grilles of metal in a cross-hatch pattern.

There are nine bays along the south facade on 58th Street, with arches at the western four and the eastern three. The other two bays have five windows at the 2nd floor (two very narrow windows flanking three center windows), each with the same metal grilles. One of these bays has a loading dock at the ground floor, and the other has a secondary entrance with glass double-doors next to a large set of metal louvers fronted by the same style of grille. The other bays have more storefronts with recessed entries.

The north facade on 59th Street has five more bays. The westernmost bay is narrower and has an entrance much like that on Third Avenue, but without the suspending cables for the canopy and lions head mountings at the 2nd floor. A small section with louvers at the ground floor and a round window at the 2nd separates the end bay from the rest. The next two have arches and ground-floor storefronts, while the eastern bays have and entrance and exit for the underground parking garage. Further east is a 6-story addition to the building, constructed later, that has another three bays designed to match the original building.

On the upper floors, the bands of white brick are continuous, and the ribbon bands of windows alternate single panes of glass with windows that are divided into three panes by horizontal metal mullions. Vertical metal mullions separate each window. The west facade has a series of small setbacks at every floor beginning above the 10th floor at the south end, and above the 13th floor at the north end, cascading back to a lower roof line at the west part of the building. The south facade has similar cascading setbacks beginning at the east end above the 6th floor. Further to the west, but still on the east half of the south facade, there are three short sections with the setbacks beginning above the 7th, 8th, 9th floors respectively. At the west half, the setbacks begin above the 10th floor.

The north facade that extends through the block to 59th Street has fewer, but wider setbacks - above the 6th and 12th floors. On the east elevation, the ribbon bands of windows continue around from the south facade to almost halfway across. There are then two bays each with bands of four windows, and then new bands of windows at the north end that continue around the northeast corner to the north facade. Above the lower roof line there is a mechanical penthouse level at the east side of the building.

The building is currently operated by the Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation. The ground floor is occupied by Jab Anstoetz fabrics, Wired Designs, and CB2 furniture on 58th Street and Third Avenue, and by Lutron New York Experience Showroom on 59th Street. Its lobby interior was altered in 2002 by Allan Greenberg Architect.

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archive.org/details/sim_interiors_1968-08_128_1/page/n1...