Simpson, Crawford & Simpson Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, 1902_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

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7-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1902. Designed by William H. Hume & Son as a department store - at the time one of the most elegant in NYC - it is clad in limestone and brick with a granite base. Simpson, Crawford & Simpson was one of the several grand department stores to be constructed along Sixth Avenue between West 14th and West 23rd Streets around the turn of the century.

In 1902, a 10-story annex, designed by William H. Hume and clad in brick with stone trim, was erected at 121-131 West 19th Street, adjoining the original building. The Simpson, Crawford & Simpson store went bankrupt in 1915. The following year, the building was converted to a mail-order warehouse and a post office used by the U.S. Navy. In the 1940s and 1950s, the building was used as an automobile showroom, and large ramps were installed in the interior. More recently it housed the Apex Technical School, and began a complete renovation in 2013, with a Staples store occupying part of the ground floor.

The Sixth Avenue facade is clad in limestone above a 1-story base of brown polished granite. Broad piers divide the facade into seven wide bays; the center bay is flanked by one single narrow bay at each side. At the center of the base is a slightly projecting entrance portico which conforms to the 1-3-1 bay configuration of the center portion of the facade. The portico is formed by pairs of smooth square pillars with egg-and-dart capitals at the ends and two pairs of fluted Ionic columns at the center supporting an entablature, which is ornamented by an elaborately carved foliated frieze and a modillioned cornice topped by a balustrade with cartouche panels. The remaining ground-floor bays are framed by granite pilasters with egg-and-dart capitals. The three southern bays have modern glass, aluminum and brick infill while the northern bays have the original paired, iron-framed show windows with paired transoms (except the southern bay of the group in which metal infill and doors have replaced the show windows). The base is capped by a plain frieze and a modillioned cornice which intersects the entablature of the portico.

Above the base, the limestone facade rises six stories; it is characterized by large window openings accented by restrained, finely-carved ornament. The 2nd-floor bays, separated by pilasters, contain the original, paired show windows with glazed transoms set in iron enframements. The center bay has a tripartite show window with a stone enframement containing wood-framed plate glass show windows, flanked by single bays.

The 2nd floor is surmounted by a frieze; the frieze above the end bays and the center portion of the facade (which slightly project) is carved with a foliated pattern that repeats the design of the portico frieze. The tripartite bays at the 3rd through the 7th floors have molded stone mullions separating the windows. The 3rd-floor bays have molded stone surrounds; this floor is surmounted by a continuous frieze of carved festoons and wreaths. Smooth pilasters topped with Corinthian capitals rising from the 4th floor to the 6th flank the end bays and are paired at the center of the facade. Foliated spandrels topped by sill courses ornamented with egg-and-dart moldings separate the floors. The center bay culminates at the 6th floor in a molded arch topped by a scrolled acanthus keystone accented by wreaths in the spandrels. A molded cornice tops the 6th floor. The 7th-floor bays have simple surrounds. The piers are ornamented with carved lion's-head medallions, festoons, pendants, and ribbons. A deep dentiled and modillioned white iron cornice caps the facade. At each upper floors, the single bay to the south of the center bay has replacement 6-over-6 windows.

The West 19th Street facade, divided into 12 bays, has the same overall design and articulation of detail as the Sixth Avenue facade, although somewhat simplified. The seven eastern bays have modern glass, aluminum and brick infill with 4-part windows in the transom area. The western bay retains the original double-height configuration; the lower half of the bay has modern infill, the upper half of the bay has a tripartite iron-framed window with an iron grille. The iron mullions are ornamented with brackets and bellflower moldings. Above the base, the tripartite bays have similar iron mullions separating the windows. Some of the windows at the ground floor in the western bay have been replaced with metal louvers.

Only the 2nd and 3rd floors are clad in limestone, with the exception of the 1-bay return of the Sixth Avenue facade at the eastern end. The rest of the facade is clad in buff-colored brick trimmed with stone sill and lintel course. There is a recessed penthouse level partially visible from the street. Adjoining the western end is the 10-story annex building.

The 12-bay West 20th Street facade is mostly identical to the West 19th Street facade. Most of the ground-floor bays retain the original double-height configuration, with the original tripartite windows in the upper portion of each bay. Some windows are fitted with metal louvers.

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