853 Broadway

 office building  Add category

 Upload a photo

21-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1929. Designed by Emery Roth, it has six bays of paired windows on Broadway and three bays on 14th Street. The Domestic Sewing Machine Company Building was designed by Griffith Thomas. The structure was tall (for its time!) and capped with an eye-catching cupola and “DOMESTIC” sign at its rooftop. At the time of its 1873 construction, it was hailed as an early skyscraper, the tallest cast-iron building yet built. The building showcased the company's sewing machines and paper dress patterns (plus luxurious fabrics) on the first two floor and housed its corporate headquarters on the upper floors. ⠀
.⠀
Patrons came not only for the wares (the Times reported in 1873 that "their show-room is fast becoming a fashionable resort"), but they also came for the view. A newspaper noted that, "During the day the elevator was kept continually running to accommodate visitors, many of whom availed themselves of a view of the City from the rotunda." Despite the early popularity the company limped through the Panic of 1873 and a barely weathered a series of financial and PR mishaps over the next two decades. The Domestic Sewing Machine Company declared bankrupted in 1895. ⠀
.⠀
By the late 1920s the "fussy" Victorian building was seen as old fashioned and was replaced with a 20-story building designed by Emery Roth. This structure still stands today, though its lower floors have been significantly altered.⠀

The 5-story base was renovated in 2014 to a curtain wall of silver metal and glass. The upper floors are clad in buff-colored brick, with uninterrupted piers and a wide band course across the top of the 6th floor. Above, the spandrels each have three rectangular brick panels. Each window is three-over-three paned, with red frames. The top floors have small setbacks at the outer bays.