Pace University Performing Arts Center

 theatre, office building, Georgian (architecture)

7-story Neo-Georgian office building completed in 1942. Designed by Wilson C. Ely for the Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland, it was originally known as the Fidelity Building. The structure has a granite water table, and a 2-story white-painted masonry temple front facing William Street, featuring a broad triangular pediment supported by Ionic columns and pilasters with gold-leafed capitals. The windows of the five bays facing William Street have stone surrounds, and those on the ground floor have gold triangular pediments. The entrance, in the central bay, is reached by four granite steps that cut the water table, and is crowned by a broken rounded pediment, also painted gold. Within the pediment over the base is a stone crest bearing the letters "FD" and surrounded by gold-leafed swag and garlands. On Fulton Street, there is a secondary entrance set below a small triangular pediment at the east end, with two small windows on the 2nd floor. At the west end, there is a single windows with a triangular pediment on the 1st floor, with another window above. The center section of this facade has six extra-tall windows with gold framed and sash. Above each window is a stone panel decorated with a gold rosette and swags. A dentiled stone cornice caps the base.

The upper floors are clad in red brick, with nine bays of plain, rectangular windows along Fulton Street, with flat stone sills, brick voussoirs and keystones. The William Street side has five similar bays. Stone panels bearing garlands are positioned over the tops of the windows on the 6th floor. The 7th-floor roof has a low parapet wall with stone balustrades. At the west end, there is a small 2-story rooftop extension, featuring vertical stone bands, and crowned by a bellcote with round-arched openings.

Since 2013, the building has been occupied by Pace University's Performing Arts Department. It houses studio classroom space, two blackbox performance spaces, four dance studios (including one large performance hall), soundstage, screening room, digital design lab, scene shop, costume shop, drafting studios, and other multi-purpose training spaces.

www.pace.edu/sands