Kratter Building

 office building, skyscraper, 1954_construction, Modern (architecture)

334-foot, 27-story early-modern style office building completed in 1954. Designed by Rene Brugnoni and Rudolph C.P. Boehler for the Kratter real estate company, it spans through the block, with a wider facade on 33rd Street. On 34th Street, the 2-story base is clad in black stone at the eastern two bays, with glass and metal infill. The main entrance is in the easternmost of these two bays, with a storefront in the other. The rest of the base is grey stone, glass and metal, and lined with retail space on the ground floor, and large windows on the 2nd floor.

The upper floors are clad in a curtain wall of grey metal framing elements, with grey-tinted windows and light green-grey tinted spandrels. At the west end of the facade, there is a grey brick parapet at the top of the 4th floor, where the first setback occurs. The next setback is at the eastern half of the facade, above the 13th floor, with another setback at the western side above the 15th floor. There are a series of four such setbacks, every two floors, at the mid-section of the tower, which the rises straight up for the last six regular floors, and the tall mechanical floors at the top, which are clad in a black metal screen on the northern half.

On the 33rd Street side, the tall ground floor is clad in grey-painted stone, with storefronts and some sections of polished grey granite, as well as some freight and service entrances. The curtain wall matches that on the north facade. The western two-thirds first set back above the 8th floor, and the eastern third sets back above the 10th. Like the north facade, the mid-section has four tiers of setbacks every two floors, and then the top of the tower rises straight up. The curtain wall wraps around to the west facade, but the east elevation is clad mainly in grey brick, with paired windows at each floor.

The ground floor and basement level are occupied by Target, Foot Locker, Sephora cosmetics, a CVS pharmacy, and Tissot watches. Tenants include Yoox Net-a-Porter Group and Macy's.

www.esrtreit.com/properties/office/111-west-33rd-street...
www.urbanarchive.org/sites/r6rUCAWGAeD/KUYBqDRvKLM