Aeffe USA Inc.

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6-story French-Renaissance commercial building originally completed in 1901 as a mansion. Designed by C.P.H. Gilbert for Henry Seligman, it is clad in limestone and wider than its neighbors. Seligman and his wife resided here until their deaths in 1933 and 1934, respectively. Following the deaths of the Seligmans, the house was briefly occupied by the Beethoven Association before it was bought by politician Joseph L. Buttenweiser in 1935. In 1939, the house was altered to accommodate a private club house and two years later, in 1941, Arthur D. Kunze bought and converted the building into apartments, with a commercial ground floor. It was for over twenty years the location of the popular Romeo Salta restaurant, beginning in 1971. The Seligman Residence now houses offices and showrooms for Aeffe USA, a company in the fashion industry.

Aeffe Group operates worldwide in the fashion and luxury goods sector and is active in the design, production and distribution of a wide range of products that includes prêt-a-porter, footwear and leather goods. The group develops, produces and distributes, with a constant focus on the qualities of uniqueness and exclusivity, its own collections both under its own-label brands, including Alberta Ferretti, Moschino and Pollini, and under licensed brands, which include Jean Paul Gaultier, Blugirl Underwear, Blugirl Beachwear and Authier.

The building has a symmetrical 3-bay front façade that features a tripartite division. The base is clad in rusticated limestone. A central doorway with a limestone door surround has a metal-and-glass double-door and a metal transom with the number ‘30’ on it. A cartouche decorates the door lintel. Directly below the door surrounds are granite steps. Two non-historic metal and glass doors and transoms (originally paired wood windows) flank the main entrance and have cast-stone inset door surrounds. The balconette over the central door has an intricately-carved balustrade that includes a centrally-located lion head, torches, acanthus leaves and ornamental balusters. They are flanked by limestone panels. The balconette rests on two detailed consoles with carved male heads. An acanthus leaf belt course runs across the smooth entablature that separates the base from the 2nd floor. The entablature has panels that run the length of the flanking 2nd-floor windows.

Floors 2, 3, & 4 are clad in limestone with textured limestone quoins at both ends. A decorative muntin separates bowed-arched casement windows from the transom. The window surrounds curve inward, have an egg-and-dart pattern and have lintels with small consoles and alternating block modillions and rosettes. All windows have limestone window surrounds. The 3rd-floor central window has a small cartouche that divides the lintel and the row of dentils that runs between the consoles (which have carved female heads) on the 4th-floor balconette. The balconette is located underneath the 4th-story paired windows and its balustrade is ornamented with acanthus leaves that are bundled together and “wrapped” by a chain of beads. The paired windows have a thick limestone mullion and a small cartouche. A carved lintel course and two carved clam shells are also at the 4th story. A large, intricately-carved cornice divides the midsection from the mansard roof, which is set back. Intricately-carved paired consoles support the cornice on either side of the façade.

The 1-story, shingled mansard roof has three limestone broken segmental-arch dormers. A limestone belt course rests between the dormers and the parapet walls. Detailed copper trim (with copper lion heads) is located at the top of the mansard roof and non-decorative copper trim lies above the belt course. The central dormer has paired windows separated by a thick mullion and an entablature ornamented with elaborate consoles and alternating block modillions and rosettes. Scrolls exist at either side of the lower portion of the dormer. The segmental-arch includes an intricately-carved cartouche flanked by leaf branches. The two flanking dormers are identical to one another in design and are smaller than the central one. The limestone end chimneys have limestone caps. Flanking limestone parapet walls lie just below the chimneys.

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