56 West 45th Street

 office building  Add category

217-foot, 17-story Neo-Gothic office building completed in 1914. Designed by Wallis & Goodwillie, it is clad in cream-colored terra-cotta. The entire facade has end bays framing a wider central section. At the ground floor, there is a recessed glass storefront entrance door in the west end bay, a recessed window in the east end bay, and a plate-glass storefront in the middle, with the main building entrance door at the left. Above each recessed end-bay opening is a small, narrow window with trefoil and eared lintel at the top; the western one is mostly covered by a black box awning above the door. At the middle section the 2nd floor is separated by a bronze band with diamond patterning. Above it is a wide, tripartite window opening, segmental-arched at the top and with transoms at the bottom. Across the arch is a row of stern-looking faces. The end bays have single-windows. The top of the 2nd floor has pairs of narrow, projecting pilasters at the end bays, with floral bases and concave centers; between each pair is a square panel with a cross-hatch pattern filled by rosettes. Matching panels extend across the top of the segmental-arch in the middle. The 3rd floor is transitional, with four recessed windows in the center bay, divided by very narrow pilasters, and narrow windows in the end bays. The framing piers at the end bays have projecting edges, and trefoils cap the windows. The 3rd floor is crowned by a band of quatrefoils, with diamonds at the end-bay piers.

The upper floors have slightly wider end-bay windows, and slightly wider (but still narrow) pilasters between the four windows of the middle bay. Only the outer edges of the end-bay framing piers project at these floors, and the spandrel panels in the middle bay have honeycomb patterns. The 14th floor is capped by a projecting band course, and the 16th floor has taller windows, topped by a larger and more elaborate band course. The top floor has eight small windows in the middle section, and the crown erupts in a Gothic explosion of finials and elaborate, projecting end towers.

The side elevations are clad in reddish-brown brick with a front edge of terra-cotta. The east elevation has one bay of single-windows at the front, in front of the neighboring building's facade, and the west elevation has eight bays of single-windows. On both side elevations, triangular parapets hide rooftop mechanical equipment at the front of the building. The ground floor is occupied by De Janeiro clothing store.