Keuffel & Esser Company Building

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8-story Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1893. Designed by De Lomos & Cordes for the Keuffel & Esser Company, who imported and produced drafting materials, tools and surveying equipment. The 2-story, white cast-iron storefront has the company name and representations of its products. The 2nd floor has three large round-arches with plate glass windows below, framed by slender colonettes, and a basket-style iron balcony in the center bay.

The entire upper facade is clad in buff brick, ornamented by diamond-pattern white terra-cotta banding. The midsection has a transitional third story with rectangular fenestration, surmounted by a recessed, monumental 2-story round-arched window spanning the 4th-5th floors, capped by a foliated sculptural relief of a knight’s helmet, shield, and winged orb. The arch is flanked by narrow windows (the 5th-story lintels of which bear the dates 1867 and 1892) with iron grilles, and the section capped by a bracketed cornice. The upper section, framed by Ionic pilasters and featuring a 2-story angled metal window bay with ornamental pilasters and spandrels, culminates in a decorative cornice and tall balustrade with end finials.

The secondary articulated façade on Ann Street is tripartite and flanked by brick piers with rock-faced stone banding and features a base with a central cast-iron pier and denticulated cast-iron cornice; a midsection with terra-cotta blocks on the outer piers and rectangular fenestration (except the top story, which has a wide segmental arch) divided by cast-iron piers; and an upper section with rectangular fenestration (except the top story, which has round arches) divided by brick piers and a corbeled brick cornice.

K&E was the first American firm solely devoted to drawing and drafting materials. It played a significant role in technological development in the United States, both as a leading manufacturer of drafting equipment, surveying instruments, and related products and as the developer of continually advanced systems until the 1980s. This building remained in use by K&E for nearly seven decades, until they vacated it in 1961. Later tenants included wholesaler, personnel, trading and shipping, realty consulting, microfilm, carpentry, hardware, messenger, stationery, and florist firms. The building was converted to full-floor loft condominiums in 2014. The ground floor is currently occupied by Potbelly Sandwiches.