Sohmer Piano Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, 1897_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

13-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1897. Designed by Robet Maynicke as a store-and-loft building, the building takes its name from the Sohmer Piano Company, a major early tenant which had its offices and showroom here. It was also home to Ryer Manufacturing Co. Upulsters in the 1920's.

On the narrower Fifth Avenue facade, the 2-story base is flanked by double-height rusticated pilasters on dark-grey marble bases supporting a dentiled stone cornice. There are twin entrances with low triangular pediments flanking the tall central projecting storefront section with its sloped metal roof. Above the storefront the 2nd floor contains three single-pane windows separated by stone mullions capped with brackets. The transitional 3rd floor is faced in stone with three unadorned window openings. This floor is surmounted by a projecting geometric frieze.

Floors 4-10 are faced in white brick, rusticated at the corners, with stone belt courses acting as sills for floors 5, 7 & 9. Each story contains three window openings, with elaborate stone triangular pediments resting on consoles above the windows at the 5th , 7th & 9th floors while floors 4, 6, and 8 have surrounds of stone with bead molding. A modillioned stone cornice above the 10th floor completes this section of the building.

The 11th floor is faced in stone with three arched window openings flanked by pilasters and engaged Ionic columns that support a projecting stone cornice surmounted by engaged urns. The 12th floor contains three window surrounds with bezant ornament; these are crowned by a semicircular pediment in the center and flanking triangular pediments. This section is also crowned by a projecting stone cornice.

The Fifth Avenue facade is surmounted by a Renaissance-inspired octagonal dome resting on two 1-story octagonal drums. The lower of the two stories contains window openings on each face with paired casements crowned with alternating dentiled cornices and dentiled triangular pediments. The upper story is smaller; each face contains one arched opening crowned with a keystone. The corners are marked by free-standing Corinthian columns supporting projecting portions of the entablature. The ribbed dome completes the composition.

The 3-bay eastern section of the West 22nd Street facade is a projecting pavilion that forms an exact return of the Fifth Avenue facade. The 10-bay western section of this facade is simpler. The ground floor of this section contains display windows only half as wide as the pavilion to the east, with the three western openings sealed. The 2nd floor repeats the window pattern of the eastern pavilion with two windows rather than three.

The center section also repeats the motifs of the eastern pavilion, but with simple projecting lintels in place of triangular pediments on floors 5, 7, and 9. The 11th-floor window openings are flanked by pilasters rather than engaged columns. The western section of the 12th floor is crowned by a shingled mansard roof with dormer windows flanked by stone pilasters supporting pediments containing projecting anthemion ornament.

The southern elevation, seen above neighboring buildings on Fifth Avenue, is of painted brick punctuated by several windows. The rear wall, visible from a narrow alleyway adjacent to a neighboring building on West 22nd Street, is of exposed brick containing window openings closed behind steel shutters and a fire escape that traverses the height of the building. The building was last renovated in 1998, and now houses mostly publishing and design companies, with the ground floor occupied by L'Occitane En Provence skin care.