561 Seventh Avenue (New York City, New York) | office building, commercial building

 office building, commercial building

259-foot, 22-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1926. Designed by Charles B. Meyers, it is clad in brown brick above a 3-story stone base. The lower two floors are faced in rusticated limestone, with three double-height round-arches on both main facades (the middle arch is wider on both elevations). The main entrance is in the eastern bay on 40th Street, with stainless-steel-framed glass doors and a sweeping steel canopy below metal spandrel panels and louvers. Gold numeral and lettering reading "561 SEVENTH" are mounted on the spandrel. The other bays have modernized plate-glass storefronts; the northern bay on the avenue also shares a small service entrance, and has more extensive metal louvers. Each of the piers rests on a red granite base and has angled, blocky projections at the level of the spandrels. The arches each have a large granite keystone. The 3rd floor is clad in white-painted stone. The upper parts of the piers have incised vertical lines, and each bay has a tripartite window with transoms. The base is capped by an elaborate corbelled band with eight sculpted, cross-legged, seated gnome-like figures at the piers, each wearing a cap and writing on a notepad.

The upper floors have three windows in the end bays and four in the middle bay on both main facades. The brick spandrels have incised vertical lines, except for between the 5th & 6th floors, where they have horizontal lines at the top and bottom. The piers at the 5th floor also have deep incised panels and cast-stone ornament at the top and bottom. There is a narrow string course across the top of the 15th floor, and a setback at the northern two bays and eastern two bays above the 17th floor, with additional cascading setbacks at each floor above. The bays at the southwest corner continue up to the 19th floor before setting back, with angled side walls back to the further set-back bays. A crenelated parapet tops the roof line.

The east elevation is also clad in brick, with two bays of large, square windows at the front edge. The north facade has two more such bays at the west edge, with bays of single-windows toward the center. The ground floor is occupied by Wasabi Sushi & Bento restaurant.