200 Madison Avenue

 office building, skyscraper, Neoclassical (architecture)

385-foot, 25-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1926 for the Houston Properties Corporation/Jesse H. Jones. Designed by Warren & Wetmore with an interior by John B. Smeraldi, it is almost square in plan, with a tall 9-story base, topped by a set-back tower section that has one more small setback near the top. The facades are clad in dark-reddish-brown brick above a ground floor of white-painted stone. It was first known as the Tower Building, and later the Internal Combustion Engineering Building. Alternate names include the Astor Estate Building and the Marshall Field Estate Building. Field's first store outside of Chicago occupied the first four floors.

The ground floor spans nine bays along Madison Avenue, with 10 bays on 35th Street and 11 on 36th Street. The main entrance on Madison is centered, with brass revolving doors framed by piers with Ionic capitals; at the inside edge of both piers are engaged, fluted quarter-columns with spiraling ribbons. Above the door is a large cartouche flanked by fruit and carved swags, which hang down onto the tops of the columns. Above the cartouche and piers, at the base of the 2nd floor, is a triangular pediment broken cleanly by the 2nd-floor window at its center; additional carved fruit is found to either side of the window. The doorway is flanked by two wall-mounted light sconces, and two secondary entrances, also with brass-and-glass doors, and framed by piers with Ionic capitals. These are surmounted by lower broken pediments with simple urns at the centers. A pink granite water table lines the base of the ground floor, with modernized storefronts in the other bays. The site slopes gently downward to the south, such that the water table is higher at the south end.

The water table and storefronts continue on the south facade on 35th Street. At the west end, there is another entrance in the 3rd bay from the end, with a row of five recessed brass-and-glass doors topped by a tall transom of black iron-framed panes. The entrance is surmounted by a cartouche with flanked garlanded draperies, hanging down at the upper sides of the entry. The next two bays to the west have freight entrances; the westernmost bay is narrower than the rest. On the north facade the design is almost the same; another entrance is in the 4th bay from the west, with large carved acanthus leaves in place of the cartouche. The next bay to the west has an older storefront, instead of the modernized ones at the other bays. The next bay over has another freight entrance and a narrow, vertical vent, and the last bay has a final storefront.

On Madison Avenue, the upper floors have simple, square-headed windows - a single bay above the main entrance, with pairs in each of the two flanking bays, and more widely-spaced single-windows at the two outer bays on each end. A white-painted stone band course runs above the 2nd floor, and the center window that breaks the pediment has a stone surround. At the 8th floor many of the windows are doubled, and three at the center have elaborate, projecting stone enframements with brackets, flanking piers supporting rounded pediments, and carved faced below the pediments. The five middle bays set back above the 8th floor, fronted by a low parapet wall with two stone balustrades. The outer bays set far back above the 9th floor, which has large stone sconces between the windows. A patterned band runs across the top of the floor, surmounted by rams' heads above the sconces.

On the south and north sides of the base, the end bays are narrower, with single-windows. At the 2nd-3rd floors, the middle bays have black iron infill, organized into an intricate window pattern of numerous panes. These are capped by black iron spandrels above the 3rd floor, adorned with cast classical ornament. The 4th-8th floors have triple-windows divided by iron pilasters and iron spandrel panels, each with a rosette at its center. The flat brick piers continue uninterrupted to the top of the 8th floor, where there is a band course. The 9th floor has three windows per bay, spaced by brick pilasters. The stone sconces and rams' heads from the east facade continue onto this elevation, with a large setback above to the tower portion of the building. The exposed parts of the west elevation of the base have double-windows and lacks any ornamentation.

The set-back tower is also clad in the same dark red brick. The east and west sides are narrowed to five bays, with six bays on the north and south sides. The end bays have paired windows, while the middle bays have three windows per bay at the 10th & 11th floors, and triple-windows above that.; the middle bays have iron spandrels. There is a smaller setback above the 22nd floor on the north, east and south sides, again topped by carved rams' heads. On the east facade, enormous cartouches highlight the four center piers at the 25th floor. There is a stone band course below the main roof line at the 25th floor, which has a parapet lined with balustrades.

A tall, square, brown brick-clad mechanical penthouse rises from near the center of the roof; the upper half of which has five recessed panels on each side. A cornice runs around the top of the penthouse, crowned by a series of balustrades and finials projecting up to the sky. The ground floor is occupied by Roche Bobois furniture showroom, a Starbucks Coffee, and Swift Copy Printing. It is largely occupied by PVH Corporation.

www.newyorkitecture.com/200-madison-avenue/
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2654.pdf
hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015012245042?urlappend=%3Bseq...