Gorham Company Building | office building

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8-story Chicago School-style office building completed in 1906. Designed by McKim, Mead & White for Gorham Manufacturing Company, the first company to sell sterling silver in America, it is clad in white limestone and granite, originally heavily trimmed with Gorham-made bronze at the ground and upper floors. Gorham moved out of its building in the early 1920's, to 576 Fifth Avenue, and was succeeded by Russek's, a women's clothing store. Russek's made few changes, but in 1960 a new owner, Spear Securities, converted the structure to showroom space and wanted a new look at the street floor. Its architect, Herbert Tannenbaum, tried to persuade the owner to retain the original design but was ordered to rip out delicate arches and carved relief figures as part of a redesign. He developed a crisp grid of glass and silver metal at the 2nd floor, above the ground-floor storefronts, but he said that he had felt terrible, that he hated to see the original details stripped off.

While the '60s grid remains at the east facade, most of the north elevation has had the original arcade of round-arches recreated, beginning in 2001. There are six arches, with an entrance in the western bay, framed in black marble. There is also a 1-bay, 8-story addition at the far west end, faced in limestone and punctuated by tripartite and paired window openings above a small storefront and service door.

The 5th Avenue facade originally had three arches in the base, now replaced by the metal cladding. The frieze above the base contains applied bronze ornament crafted by the Gorham Company. This is surmounted by a dentiled limestone cornice. The 4-story midsection has six bays of rectangular windows with slightly projecting sills. Thin limestone string courses separate the floors. The simple, spare frieze topped by a band of dentils separates the midsection from the 2-story attic. An ornate bronze balcony, carried on foliate, scrolled stone corbel brackets is placed in front of the two middle window openings at the 5th floor. The bronze grillwork of the balcony contains two "G"s, for Gorham, centered in front of both windows. A decorative cartouche is located above the 6th floor at the center of the facade, flanked by two lions.

The loggia-like 2-story attic is also divided into six bays by Corinthian columns. The end columns are engaged and flanked by paneled pilasters on the corner piers. The corner is slightly rounded to emphasize the turning of the wall, and the pier is wider for further emphasis. The columns support a shallow entablature, above which is a dentil molding and an egg-and-dart molding. The ornate modillioned copper cornice, projecting eight feet from the facade, has a palmette cresting.

The 36th Street facade consists of 14 bays corresponding to the original seven arches in the base (now six). The existing 2-story Fifth Avenue aluminum and glass base continues around the corner to replace most of the easternmost arch. The remainder of the base consists of a 2-story arcade of polished grey granite Ionic columns supporting arches with keystones. The arcade is spanned by a continuation of the bronze frieze and stone cornice from the east facade. The midsection of the 36th Street facade has the same treatment as the avenue side. The bronze balcony, centered on the 5th floor, is four bays wide, and contains the letter G in the grillework in front of each of the four windows. There is no cartouche on this side. The 2-story attic with its columns, crowning entablature and cornice is a continuation of the Fifth Avenue treatment.

The ground floor is occupied by Arts & Antiques Center, W Cafe, and E-Smoke & Convenience store in the small addition.

archive.org/details/isbn_9780810944411/page/116/mode/1u...
hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c005893188?urlappend=%3Bseq=215...
digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/76e89930-5103-0134-4e...
digital-libraries.artic.edu/digital/collection/mqc/id/2...
dlc.library.columbia.edu/mmw_photographs/10.7916/d8-jhd...