6 West 48th Street (New York City, New York) | office building

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133-foot, 12-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1918. Designed by Robert T. Lyons, it has a 3-story limestone base, 6-story brown brick midsection, and 3-story limestone crown. Both of the end bays have entrances, with the main entrance in the east bay, and a service entrance in the west bay. The main entrance has glass double-doors and transom, framed by piers with grey granite bases and Ionic capitals; the service entrance has paired metal doors framed by a molding with intricate carved ornament and alternating shields and swags across the top. Above is a square panel carved into the stone with a shield bearing the number 8 (for the address) flanked by urns. A similar panel with the number 6 has been removed from above the main entrance, although the shadow of the square space remains. The middle of the ground floor has a tall, modern, metal-and-glass storefront with a recessed central entrance.

The 2nd floor has recessed single-windows with stone surrounds in the end bays, and a band of five large windows in the middle, framed in beige metal, with bottom transoms and slender colonnettes dividing the end panes. The 2nd floor is capped by a modillioned stone band course. The 3rd floor has end-bay windows like those on the 2nd floor, and the middle section, slightly recessed between the end bays, has five separate single-windows. Another band course caps the base.

The brick shaft continues the pattern of single-windows in the end bays, and a slightly-recessed center with five windows. Continuous stone sill courses and brick lintel courses cross the facade at each floor. A modillioned band course sets off the top floors.

The limestone crown continues the window pattern, with decoratively carved spandrels between the 10th & 11th floors. The top floor is set off by a projecting, modillioned limestone cornice (projecting slightly further at the end bays), ornamented by six lion's heads, and the main roof line has a stone parapet.

The west elevation is clad in dark-brown brick with three single-windows at the front, and nine further toward the rear; the brick at the front edge matches the brick on the front facade. The ground floor is occupied by a FedEx Office.