Charles Scribner's Sons Building

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122-foot, 11-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1913. Designed by Ernest Flagg to house the Scribner's Bookstore, among its many details are piers anchoring three large bays which include four medallions with busts of printers: Benjamin Franklin, William Caxton, Johann Gutenberg, and Aldus Manutius. The Benetton Group purchased the building in the 1980s. Declining business forced the Scribner's Bookstore to relocate to a lower-rent district in New York before it was acquired by Barnes & Noble, Inc. The building has subsequently housed Brentano's bookstore, a Benetton clothing store, Sephora cosmetics, and currently Lululemon apparel.

The entrance to the former bookstore is in the center of the 3-story glass-and- black iron area (with gilded highlights) that extends the width of the building. A set of double-doors is topped by a broken pediment filled with the Scribner's logo. Plate-glass windows flank the doorway providing a display area and an intriguing view of the triple-height retail space within. A secondary entrance in the south bay leads to the offices in the upper floors.

A pair of slender, fluted columns separates the end from the central section. Large roundels fill the upper floor of the side bays while half of an elliptical arch is delineated in the central area. The expanses of glass are broken up into small panes while the spandrels of the arch and the circles are filled with delicate spiral ornament. Brass trim highlights the dark ironwork.

Directly above the elliptical arch, two putti hold a garland around a cartouche inscribed "Charles Scribner's Sons". A projecting flagpole extends from the top of the cartouche. The floor above this is rather simple, with rusticated limestone surrounding five unadorned casement windows. Large console brackets decorated with lions' heads support the stone balcony of the floor above and extend down well into this level.

The 5th floor is highly ornamented. In addition to the elaborately carved stone balcony that extends across the three central bays, the piers between these same recessed windows contain carved panels. Each panel exhibits a medallion with the bust of a great printer, as mentioned above. The windows of the side bays of this floor are surmounted by triangular pediments carried on console brackets.

The next three floors are grouped together by their similar treatment and by the continuous piers that link the three central bays. These central windows seem to recede because of their dark iron framework and spandrels. Each of the spandrels contains a central cartouche surrounded by delicate curvilinear motifs. This central section of three floors is crowned by a simple entablature with a modified fret design on the frieze. The central windows on the floor above this are treated in a very similar manner except that they are topped with segmental-arched and the ironwork takes the form of railings instead of spandrels. The windows of the side bays on all four floors are small and edged only with a simple molding. Guttae support the sills of these windows.

Another transitional floor finished this central section of the building. A simple entablature with a shallow pellet-molding frieze sets off the 10th floor. It is decorated by embellished torches below it, one located at the top of each pier. Broad pilasters separate each of the five windows and flank the outer ones as well. The pilasters between the three central bays are fluted and each of these windows is further divided by two colonettes to form a tripartite composition.

A heavy, protruding entablature, carried on closely-spaced console brackets provides a distinctive finish to the main body of the building. This entablature supports a simple parapet that is broken in the middle by an elaborately-decorated, 2-story dormer. Solemn caryatids on each side of the dormer support a broken pediment that is filled with a lion's head and a cartouche. The dormer itself is linked to the parapet by a heavy console bracket on each side. Each outside corner of the parapet is surmounted by a simple, obelisk-shaped pinnacle. The parapet shields a simple, 2-story mansard roof. On each side of the central dormer, two plain, double-hung windows break through the mansard to provide light to the top floor. These windows and the top of the mansard are edged in copper.

The upper floors on the north elevation have single- and double-windows with multiple small panes, and large painted lettering at the top, reading "SCRIBNERS". On the beige brick-faced south facade there is a front bay of single-windows, while the rear has a bay of paired, very small windows, and two more bays of single-windows. In between is painted "CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - PUBLISHERS AND BOOKSELLERS - FOUNDED 1846". A black iron fire escape projects from the rear, east-facing facade.

daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/04/charles-scribner...
www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/82--...
www.neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org/db/bb_files/1989...
hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924015137767?urlappend=%3Bseq...