515 West 57th Street (New York City, New York)

 1910_construction, commercial building

3-story commercial building completed in 1910. The south facade on 57th Street is newer, dating from mid-century. It is faced in concrete with ribbed, grey concrete piers dividing the two upper floors into seven bays. The ground floor is also concrete, but scored into blocks, black a black granite water table along the east half. The main entrance is at the east, with recessed glass double-doors, in front of which is a small landing approached by a ramp on the east and steps on the west. To the west of the entry is a wide plate-glass window and another glass door, in steel frames. The west half of the ground floor has a pair of high-set single-windows flanked by two sets of metal service doors, the western one with a couple steps below it. A wide concrete band caps the ground floor. The upper floors have wide window openings with rounded corners, divided into three panes, with metal framing around the center pane. There are windows in the three bays next to the east end bay on the 2nd floor, and in every bay on the 3rd floor except for the east end bay. A grey stone cornice caps the facade.

The north side on 58th Street has three sections, all rising only two stories. The east section is simplest, faced in rust-red-painted stucco. The 2nd floor has a double-window flanked by end bays of paired windows, and the ground floor has just a recessed metal door. The middle section is clad in painted brick, in a slightly lighter red shade. At its east end there is a loading dock with a roll-down metal gate on the ground floor; to the right are three bays of segmental-arched double-windows with projecting sills and decorative notched lintels, covered by painted iron grilles. Below each window is a pair of rectangular recessed panels; a dentiled cornice caps the ground floor of the middle section. The 2nd floor originally had three bays of paired segmental-arched windows at the west with projecting stone sills and arched lintels like those below, but smaller and crowning individual windows instead of double-windows. The western window in the east bay has been bricked-in, as has the eastern window in the west bay; the western side of the west bay has been completely eliminated except for the lintel. The east end of the 2nd floor, above the loading dock, has a wider single-window, with the same style of lintel; this window is flanked by a pair of narrow, vertical grooves. Above it, the roof line is peaked into a pediment above a recessed roundel. A dentil course runs along the bottom of the pediment, and continues across the cornice capping the rest of the 2nd floor, above a corbel course. The west section of the facade is brick painted pinker in shade. It has a central loading dock with roll-down metal gate, flanked by tripartite windows openings filled by glass blocks covered by mesh screens. The middle pane in both of these bays is wider and shorter than the end panes, and both are topped by a medallion in low-relief. A brick corbel course caps the ground floor, and there are no openings at the 2nd floor.