NYU Langone Orthopedic Center

 office building, commercial building

158-foot, 12-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1928 as a warehouse. Designed by Starrett & Van Vleck, it was first converted to office space in 1990. NYU Langone has had space in the nearly fully leased building since 2006.

The facades are clad in light-brown brick. The 2-story base is divided from the upper floors by a horizontal band of dark tile (lighter grey at the west end of the south facade, where the main entrance is located and this facade section was renovated in 2017). This 3-bay section is now clad in light-grey pre-cast stone at the base. The ground floor has a wide entrance with sliding glass doors in the middle bay, and plate-glass windows in the outer bays (three panes on the west, and four at the east, both fronted by low flower beds and stone seating). The middle bay is covered by a metal-and-glass canopy suspended from two anchors at the 2nd floor. There are large windows at the three 2nd-floor bays, all screened by metal louvers.

Continuing to the east the south facade's base has brickwork in a variety of patterns, including herringbone and stacked, with a grey granite water table. The ground floor has six bays, with large, 3-section plate-glass windows in three of them. The western of these bays has a metal service door and a single window, each surrounded by polished black stone. Toward the east end is another entrance, with a separate address of 339. It has sliding glass doors atop a pair of low granite steps, and a shallow ramp to the left, with a glass railing. This entrance is set in a surround of white stone tiles, and has a small glass-and-metal canopy. The east end bay has a 2-section plate-glass window. This one, as well as the three 3-section window bays, and the brick piers between them, are all lined by grey metal pilasters, and topped by horizontal glass bands.

The 2nd floor has, from east to west, two single-window bays, four bays of three windows, and two more single-window bays. Above the tile band that caps the base, the upper floors have the same pattern, continuing to the west with three more bays of three windows each. The brick spandrels between floors at each bay are ornamented with vertical brick bars, which changes to stone spandrels with panels and ovals between the 9th & 10th floors, and trios of recessed pyramidal shapes topping the 10th floor.

All of the middle bays at the east section of the south facade set back above the 10th floor, while the east end bays extends up to the 11th floor where it is capped by short stone finials. The west bay of the east section extends up one story higher, to the 12th floor, with the same trio of finials. At the western section of the south facade have similar organization, but the eastern two bays set back above the 7th floor, with terraced additional setbacks up to the 11th, while the west end bay sets back above the 9th floor, with terraced setbacks continuing to the 12th floor.

The east facade on the avenue has a similar design. The ground floor has a 3-section plate-glass window bay at the south end, followed by a 2-section window with a metal service door, and then a garage entrance. The rest of the bays match the upper floors, except the north end bay that has another metal service door and a window. A horizontal glass band runs across the three southern bays of the ground floor. The upper floors have eight total bays of three windows each, with the exception being the south end bay at the 2nd floor, which is missing its middle window. The middle bays all set back above the 10th floor, and the end bays terminate at the 11th.

The north facade on 39th Street has no openings at the ground floor (where the street slopes gently upward from east to west) except for a trio of short windows in the 2nd bay from the east, and a garage door at the west end, which extends up into the 2nd floor due to the shortening of the site. The tile band continues across the base here as well. The upper floors have four bays of three windows each, and two single-windows bays at the east end. These two terminate at the 11th floor, while the rest all end at the 10th.