431 West 54th Street

 apartment building  Add category

5-story cooperative-apartment building completed in 1885 as one of a row of four similar tenements. It is clad in white-painted brick. A central entrance is located atop a low stoop; the grey wood-and-glass door is flanked by fluted pilasters, in turn framed by lighter-grey pillars supporting an entablature. There is a large window to either side, with iron grilles, and a dogstooth-patterned band near the tops of the windows. Below the west window is a gate and stairs descending to a basement entry.

The upper floors have four bays of single-windows with flat stone lintels. The shoulder of the windows are joined at each floor by various bands of patterned brick, except at the 2nd floor where a continuous dogstooth band runs above the windows. Black iron fire escape landings front the west three bays on each floor, extending onto the east bay of the neighboring facade. The building is crowned by a green metal roof cornice with brackets, dentils, and panels, above a corbelled brick band course.