Berkeley Building

 office building, high-rise, 1917_construction

226-foot, 17-story office building completed in 1917. Designed by Starrett & Van Vleck, it spans through the block with frontages on both 44th & 45th Streets. An arcade with a vaulted ceiling connects the two facades. The south facade is seven bays wide, and the north facade has three bays; both are clad in red brick above 3-story limestone bases.

The entrances are in the center bay, with brass-and-glass doors recessed under round-arches with scrolled keystones and intricate carvings in the architraves. This arches are topped by entablatures with a panel reading "BERKELEY BUILDING" and a cornice above an egg-and-dart molding. The end bays on 45th Street have black metal-and-glass storefronts, while the west bays on 44th Street have wood-and-glass storefronts, and the east bays have metal-and-glass storefronts

The 2nd & 3rd floors on the north facade have four windows with transoms in black metal frames in the east bay, three windows in the west bay, and the narrower center bay has double-windows with transoms. All the 2nd-3rd-floor bays on the south facade have double-windows with transoms. Within each bay, black metal spandrels dividing the floors are ornamented with panels of roundels. A stone band course with a wave motif caps the base.

The upper floors have paired windows with joined stone sills (on the north facade there are four windows in the east bay and three in the west bay). Narrow sill courses run below the 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th & 14th floors. The spandrels between the 14th & 15th floors have decorative stone panels, and there are stone square on the piers between the bays on the 16th floor. The top floor is set far back and not visible from the street. The south facade also has a roof cornice at the 16th floor, except at the west one-and-a-half bays. The corners of the building are slightly rounded.

The east and west elevations are also clad in red brick with bays of paired windows and string courses every two floor, except at the middle of the east facade, where there are three bays of single-windows. The ground floor on 44th Street is occupied by Kellari Taverna, E.B. Meyrowitz & Dell Opticians, with an entrance to the New York Sports Club that is on the 2nd floor.