Bayard-Condict Building | office building, landmark, place with historical importance, interesting place, historic landmark

 office building, landmark, place with historical importance, interesting place, historic landmark

12-story Chicago School-style office building completed in 1899. Designed by Louis Sullivan - the only building designed by him in New York City - for the United Loan and Investment Company. The terra-cotta curtain wall was unique in New York at that time. One of the most striking aspects of Sullivan's facade, which is entirely of white terra-cotta, is the contrast between the smooth simplicity of the structural design and the sculpturesque quality of the decoration which provides a coloristic play of light and shade on the facade. The ornament appears to spring to life on every available horizontal surface: above the entrance, in the spandrels separating floor levels, in the exquisite foliate ornament in the eaves, with panels separated by angels with out-stretched wings and, finally, in the treatment of the roof cornice.

The entrance is flanked by projecting ornamented piers supporting a cornice and lunette that is filled with leafy "organic" forms, combined with geometric designs. A cresting of similar leafy and geometric forms crowns the lunette. The transition between the ground floor and the upper stories is marked by ornamental spandrel panels surmounting each bay above the 2nd floor. Rising above the 2nd floor are the tiers of identical paired window units, indicating the similarity of the offices within. Each floor is separated by richly ornamented spandrel panels, recessed between the vertical piers and mullions, which delineate the window openings. Each ornamental plaque combines leafy and geometric forms in the typical Sullivan manner, but just below the twelfth floor the plaques become increasingly plastic through the incorporation of lions' heads.

Finally, the attic floor and the horizontal sweep of the cornice powerfully terminates the soaring verticality of the building. The spandrels beneath the cornice are dominated by intriguing figures of "faerie" angels with outspread butterfly wings. Sumptuous ornament composed of swirling organic and geometric forms fills the spandrels. The badly projecting cornice is ornamented with rich soffit panels and has intricate crestings similar to the one crowning the lunette over the entrance.

The exposed eastern wall is unadorned, clad in plain parged brick. There are two bays of windows in the center of the southern half of this elevation, with a few additional windows to the north on the upper floors. The north half of this elevation is slightly set back, and is filled by three bays of double-windows, with a round water tower at the northeast corner of the roof. The building still contains offices, and now houses Focus Features, Virgin Airlines, and Sterling Lord Literistic among other firms.

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