437 West 54th Street (New York City, New York)

 apartment building  Add category

5-story cooperative-apartment building completed in 1885 as one of a row of four similar tenements. It is clad in red brick. A central entrance is located atop a low stoop; the glass door and sidelight are framed by black pillars supporting an entablature. There is a large window to either side, and a dogstooth-patterned band near the tops of the windows. Below the east window is a gate and stairs descending to a basement entry.

The upper floors have four bays of single-windows with brownstone sills and flat stone lintels. The shoulders of the windows (and bases at the 2nd & 3rd floors) are joined at each floor by various bands of patterned brick, except at the 2nd floor where a continuous dogstooth band runs above the windows. White or tan stone bands running along the brick bands are also present. Black iron fire escape landings front the three eastern bays on each floor, also extending onto the west bay of the neighboring facade. The building's original metal roof cornice, above a corbelled brick band course, has been removed and replaced by a simple brick parapet topped by a metal railing fronting a small roof deck.