Lewisohn Building | office building

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325-foot, 22-story Neo-Gothic office building completed in 1913. Designed by Maynicke & Franke, it spans through the block with frontages on both West 40th & 41st Streets. The north facade has three bays, while the south facade has three similar bays flanked by a pair of narrow end bays. Both facades are clad in buff-colored brick above 4-story limestone bases (although both ground floors were re-faced in white pre-cast stone panels in 2012.

The south facade has a recessed segmental-arched entrance in the western main bay with a revolving door and glass side doors below glass transoms; halfway up the transoms there is a green-tinted translucent glass and metal canopy over the doors. The other bays are lower than the segmental-arched entrance bay. The narrower west bay has a recessed service entrance with metal double-doors, translucent green glass transom and metal louvers on top, while the other three bays have recessed glass-and-metal storefronts, also with transoms and metal louvers on top. Very narrow, rectangular light fixtures are attached to each pier at the ground floor. The three main bays at the 2nd-3rd floor have double-height segmental-arched openings with triple-windows. They are divided by green iron pilasters with Gothic tracery patterns and green iron spandrels with rows of narrow arches. The end bays have narrow, deeply-recessed single-windows at both floors. The transitional 4th floor is quite elaborate, with paired windows recessed in molded surrounds at the middle bays and similar single-windows in the end bays. A cornice underscores this floor, with projecting, ornately-patterned pedestals at each pier. Resting atop the pedestals, fronting each pier at the 4th floor, are six carved figures. Dressed in medieval garb, all sit with their ankles crossed under Gothic round-arched terra-cotta canopies. Each is a detailed allegory – Exploration holds a globe and compass, Industry has a large gear, and Learning reads an open book, for instance.

A cornice with an intricate frieze caps the 4th floor, fronted at each pier by the canopy arches above the statues; these extend up to the 5th floor, capped by more elaborate ornamentation. The paired windows of the upper floors' middle bays have elaborate brown terra-cotta spandrels highlighted by shields surrounded by open lilies. The single-windows in the end bays are narrower and more deeply recessed. The grooved piers run uninterrupted to the 18th floor, which is capped by a double-cornice and has segmental-arched openings. Between the lower and upper cornices is an arcade of short pillars, and the piers have pedestal projections and round-arched canopies similar to those at the 4th floor, but without the statues. The top four floors have half-octagonal columns projecting from the centers of the piers; the capitals support a cornice that runs across the 22nd floor, which has segmental-arches capping each of the middle bays. There are triple-windows instead of paired windows in the middle bays at the top four floors, divided by green iron pilasters and green iron spandrels. The facade is crowned by a paneled roof parapet with urns at the piers.

The north facade has a central segmental-arched entance with the address of 114 West 41st; there is a tall, narrow storefront on the left and a shorter, wider storefront on the right. The upper floors match those on the south facade, but without the narrow end bays; there are four statues at the 4th floor instead of six. The exposed upper floors of the east elevation are clad in brown brick, with buff-colored brick at the edges. The north end has three bays of single-windows, with two bays of smaller windows to the south. The south end has more bays of single-windows, with additional windows at the top floors, and a shallow light court in the center of the facade with three bays of triple-windows. The west elevation is now only exposed at the top floors on the south end (with one bay of single-windows and a few paired windows at the very top floors), and at the very north end, which is clad in dark-brown brick.

The building has been home to Wurlitzer, manufacturer of pianos and organs; United Cigars, as well as Lorillard Tobacco; The United States Printing and Lithograph Company (at the time, the largest Western printing house); and machine manufacturer Manning, Maxwell & Moore. It was once the largest office building by square foot north of 23rd Street. By the 1960s the Garment District had become firmly rooted in the area. Textile companies like The Kendall Company, apparel buying offices such as Certified Buying Service, and garment manufacturers now filled the Lewisohn Building. The building was fully renovated in 2015. The ground floor is occupied by Maman coffee shop on 41st Street, and by Dos Toros restaurant on 40th Street.