Excelsior Building

 office building, administrative building, local government, 1911_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

8-story Renaissance-revival office building completed in 1911. Designed by Schwartz and Gross, its facade is nearly identical to the neighboring building at 139 Centre Street, designed by the same architects and built at the same time. The two main facades are divided into five bays on Centre Street and three bays on White Street.

The 2-story base is clad in limestone above granite plinths for the piers, and beige brick at the base of each bay, which are filled with three windows divided by dark-grey iron mullions. The spandrels between the 1st & 2nd floors are iron, with paneling. The northernmost bay on Centre Street has a simple entrance, and there is another stone-framed entrance in the western bay on White Street. The base is capped by a broad stone cornice.

The upper floors are clad in buff-colored brick, with continuations of the broad piers in brick. The three windows in each bay are also separated by iron mullions, and the brick spandrels each have a pair of decorative diamond shapes set in squares, aligning with the mullions above and below. At the 7th floor, the bays culminate in flattened arches. A stone band course setting off the top floors is supported by elaborate brackets surrounded by carved floral swag and pendants, extending to the keystones at the top of each arch. The top floors has square-headed windows, with projecting capitals on each pier. The facades are crowned by a black metal roof cornice with large modillions and wide brackets atop each pier.

The west-facing secondary wall is clad in tan brick, with a number of punched windows without ornamentation. The lighter colored brick of the south facade is carried over as quoins at the corner. Various City agencies now share the building's office space.