Rizzoli Building Façade

 historical building, commercial building

5-story Neo-French Classical commercial building completed in 1908. Designed by Albert S. Gottlieb, it was commissioned by the adjacent Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church as a commercial venture. The first and major tenant of the building was the interior decorating firm L. Alavoine & Co., which leased the site prior to construction and retained offices here through the 1950s. The jeweler Cartier occupied the 3rd floor from 1908-1917, and a succession of art galleries occupied the ground floor. The building was sold in 1959 to Harry Winston, whose building is located two doors down; it was sold again in 1963. Since then the building had housed the bookstore and publishing firm of Rizzoli, until 1984, when rumors of plans to demolish Nos. 712 and 714 to create an L-shaped 44-story skyscraper circulated. Preservationists scrambled to protect the buildings, noting in part that the Coty Building next door contained three stories of irreplaceable and priceless Rene Lalique windows. Although both buildings were granted landmark designation; it applied only to the facades; the Rizzoli and Coty Buildings' facades survive in the form of stage sets in front of the 712 Fifth Avenue tower rising behind.

The facade is clad in limestone. The rusticated ground floor is accented by two openings, an arched entranceway with keystone a the right, and a storefront covering two-thirds of the front, at the left. The square-headed doorway with outer wood and glass double-doors and inner paneled wood double-doors is surmounted by a lunette with oculus adorned with swags set within the arch. A modillioned cornice above a frieze with guttae extends the width of the facade above the ground floor. The 2nd floor is treated as a piano nobile with three full-length arched window openings set between piers. Balustrades accent the bases of the windows while the arches set of impost blocks are outlined with foliate ornament, emphasized by foliate bracket keystones. A frieze and dentiled cornice caps the 2nd floor.

The 3rd & 4th floors are designed as a unit with double-height pilaster with Corinthian capitals flanking the window openings. Those at the 3rd floor are accented by panels with swags. Wrought-iron grilles accent the window bases. The 4th-floor windows are set within segmental-arches with bracket keystones. Shallow projecting corbeled sills support decorative wrought-iron grilles. The major cornice with modillions supports an urn-adorned balustrade at the 5th-floor mansard. The slate-covered roof is pierce by three segmental-arched dormers with windows set below vertically divided transoms. A metal coping sets off the roof.

The ground floor was occupied by Henri Bendel fashion accessories.

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