Wildenstein Plattner Institute

 office building, library, archives institution

214-foot, 17-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1922. Designed by Necarsulmer & Lehlbach, it is a near-twin of the neighboring building to the east at 58-66 West 40th, which is slightly wider and has subtle design differences at the base and crown. Both are clad in brown brick above 3-story limestone bases, with 2-story limestone crowns. No. 70 has a remodeled main entrance and service door at the east end, set in polished grey granite; above the glass main doors, a lighter-grey granite panel has the metal numbers "70" affixed. There is a plate-glass storefront in the center, and two doorways at the west end, one to the storefront, and one a secondary entrance. The upper floors are arranged as end bays of single-windows and a middle section of six single-windows, although at the 2nd floor, a pair of wide show-windows replaces the four center windows. Two projecting flagpoles extend from outside the show-windows. A simple band course caps the base.

The brick upper floors have simple stone sills at the windows, and a band course setting off the 2-story crown. Faced in limestone, it has the same window division, with ornamented carved spandrels between the two floors. Above a modillioned metal cornice rises a slightly-set back penthouse level, faced in stone, with a row of five single-windows. The ground floor is occupied by Le Pain Quotidien restaurant.

The Wildenstein Plattner Institute is a nonprofit foundation that supports research in the history of art and its objects. Central to our mission is the publication of digital catalogue raisonnés and archival material on a new, dynamic online platform to be launched in spring 2020. This work is made possible in part by the gift of all of the research material and archives compiled by the Wildenstein Institute and donated to the WPI in 2016.

wpi.art/