Kiton Napoli

 clothes store / boutique, commercial building

6-story Renaissance-revival commercial building completed in 1900 as a 5-story mansion. Designed by McKim, Mead & White for William Earle Dodge Stokes, it was purchased by financier William Henry Moore (1848-1923) before its completion. His wife resided in the house until her death in 1955, after which it housed a succession of commercial and charitable organizations, including the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and then Banco di Napoli, who bought it in 1993 and commissioned Americon, Inc. to restore and renovate the structure, adding a new top floor in the process, invisible from the street.

The front facade is clad in white marble, rusticated at the ground floor. Voluted keystones adorn the splayed lintels of the two windows flanking the central entrance, with a glass door atop a low set of steps. The doorway, framed by a detailed molding, carries a carved cartouche representing rolled leather. On either side of the steps are paneled marble posts with black iron fencing topped by gilded spikes, enclosing basement areaways.

Quoins line the edges of the upper floors. The principle feature of the 2nd floor is a richly carved balcony resting on large consoles or brackets. Over the 2nd-floor windows the cornices rest on handsome ancone brackets. The central window head supports a small rectangular balcony with ornately designed wrought-iron work, flanked by a pair of projecting flagpoles.

The 3rd & 4th floors have smaller cornices topping the window surrounds, and the center window at the 4th floor has a rounded pediment. A horizontal dentiled band course separates the 4th & 5th floors. Above the 5th floor windows the elaborate entablature with scallop-shell frieze contains dentils; and the voluted brackets support the main cornice and balustrade. The heavy moldings around each window are reduced in size on each successive floor adding a feeling of vertical perspective to the building.

The Stokes-Moore mansion was purchased in 2002 by Kiton, an Italian producer of high-priced suits and other clothing for men and women. It now serves as their flagship store.

www.kiton.it/index1.html
www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/applicants/en...