The World Diamond Tower (New York City, New York)

 commercial, office building, skyscraper

430-foot, 33-story Neo-Gothic office building completed in 1929. Designed by Warren & Wetmore, it incorporated an existing 12-story building on the west side of the site, with the new building opening as the Empire Trust Company Building. The now-13-story structure at the west end is clad in brown brick above a 2-story base of limestone (painted beige at the ground floor) and red granite, while the main 33-story tower at the corner is clad in white brick above a 2-story limestone base, also painted beige at the ground floor.

The tower spans six bays on the east facade on the avenue, and five bays on 47th Street, plus a small half-bay at the east end. The main entrance is in the 3rd bay from the south on the avenue, with four glass-and-metal doors. The double-height opening continues with glass infill in bronze framing to a softly-peaked arch at the 2nd floor. The other bays have matching arches with glass and bronze infill, above storefronts of plate-glass and bronze, each with a red granite water table and recessed, central glass door. Each bay is covered at the ground floor by a sloped metal awning. The piers between the bays have low, granite bases and stylized capitals near the tops of the arches, decorated with pairs of carved, helmeted heads facing away from each other, in small arched niches, above a narrow rope molding.

At the top of the base, transitioning into the upper floors, are projecting stone pedestals at each pier, supporting niches topped by pointed-arches and small entablatures. Between these span five square panels (serving as bases for the 3rd-floor window sills), the center one of each bearing a 6-sides shield with a dragon, and the other four alternating quatrefoil flower designs. Below these panels are rows of five corbelled pointed-arches with rosettes below the middle and end arches. Near the top of the 3rd floor, above the niches, the piers are adorned with shields bearing dragons and flanked by ribbons and scrolls.

Each bay at the upper floors have paired windows separated by narrow brick pilasters, the center of each projecting out at an angle. Between the 3rd & 4th floors the stone spandrels have pointed-arch pairs at the bottom halves, with paired rounded figures above, and the rest of the spandrels on the higher floors have simpler patterns of taller paired arches. Some of the windows at the 3rd floor have been replaced with metal louvers on both facades. There are also two projecting flagpoles on the piers framing the middle two bays at the top of the 3rd floor.

The east facade sets back above the 9th floor (ending the extra single-window bay on the east end of the south facade), and the south facade and southern three bays of the east facade set back above the 11th floor, and again above the 14th & 18th. The rest of the tower rises vertically on the north half of the site with five bays of paired windows on the north and south, and three bays on the east. The west elevation has one bay of single-windows at the south end; the north part angles out to join the lower 13-story part of the building at the west, with two bays of single-windows, and no windows on the narrow west and north faces of the projection, which is topped by a mechanical penthouse.

Large white terra-cotta dragons adorn the piers of the south and east facades at the 31st floor, where there is a small setback to a lower roof line. The 32nd & 33rd floors have three single-windows on the east facade. The north and south elevations have 10 single-windows on the 32nd floor, and eight on the slightly smaller 33rd floor. The east end of the upper roof is topped by a square, mechanical penthouse with two tall, arched opening on each side.

The 13-story section at the west is seven bays wide. There are entrances in both end bays; the larger entrance is at the west, with two sets of glass doors framed by bronze that is in turn framed by red granite. There is a round-arch at the top, surrounded by red granite in a splayed frame with a keystone at the top. The east entrance is framed by a bronze-molded round-arch topped by a keystone with an encircling wreath and foliation. Between the two ends is a row of storefronts separated by banded red granite piers on black granite bases; several of the storefront have angled display-windows that veer back toward recessed glass doors. Stainless-steel sign bands top each storefront and separate them from the vertical metal louvers above. These are in turn topped by bands of black granite, with red granite panels extending up to the windows at the 2nd floor. The end bays at the 2nd floor have simple paired windows, and the five middle bays have large window groups consisting of pairs of large, square middle panes with short transom panes, flanked by small square panes topped by taller end panes, all above four dark-tinted bottom panes. The base is capped by a stone cornice.

The brick upper floors have paired windows in the end bays and three windows in the middle bays. There are stone panels with simplified flowers at each pier above the 3rd floor. From the 4th-6th floors the middle bays are each grouped by joined sills at the 4th floor; the piers between the three windows, and the narrow edges of the piers at the sides have lighter, beige brick. Additional flower panels are located above the 6th & 7th floors. The 7th floor is capped by a dentiled string course, with a corbelled panel at each middle bay.

The 8th-13th floors are set back, with the same design as the lower floors. The middle five bays set back again above the 12th floor, with the end bays continuing as pavilions, each with a square window in a stone surround. The middle section, added when the main tower was built, is faced in white brick at the 13th floor, with windows of various sizes. It is topped at the center by a tall, stone-clad, square tower with a blind arch on the south face, and a crowning, peaked, green copper roof.

The building was home to the DDC , the Diamond Dealers Club of America, until 2017, when it moved to the nearby International Gem Tower. The ground floor is occupied by Sephora cosmetics, Roman Malakov Diamonds, James & Co. Jewelers, Shenoa & Co. Diamonds, Sea Wave Diamonds, Allure Diamonds, Michael F. & Co. Diamonds, Diamond Scene, and Blake & Todd restaurant.