Berkeley College

 college of further education / higher education  Add category

200-foot, 17-story Neo-Classical office/university building completed in 1926 as the Real Estate Board Building. Designed by Starrett & Van Vleck, it now houses the midtown Manhattan location of Berkeley College, along with another building on 43rd Street. Today, over 3,500 students are enrolled in day, evening, weekend, and online courses.

The building's 7-bay facade is clad in buff-colored brick above a 3-story base of limestone, glass and metal. The main entrance, at the center, is recessed in a bronze, brass, and stone vestibule. The molded stone frame around the entry has an entablature at the top with brass letters spelling out the address of "TWELVE". To either side are plate-glass storefronts topped by decorative wrought-ironwork. Three flagpoles project from the cornice capping the ground floor. The 2nd & 3rd floors have flat, 2-story fluted columns with Corinthian capitals supporting an entablature with a decorative frieze and cornice; the frieze has masks above each column. The spandrels in each bay between the two floors are black metal, with black metal railings extending up over the lower parts of the 3rd-floor windows.

The upper floors have a regular grid of single-windows in each of the seven bays; those on the 4th floor has stone surrounds, with stone lintels on the middle five bays. Topping the lintels are double swag-like stone ornaments linking to the sills of the windows above. The windows above the 4th floor has brick lintels and simple paneled brick spandrels. There is a continuous stone sill course across the middle bays of the 11th floor, and a joined cornice across the middle bays of the 12th floor. The five middle bays have stone spandrels between these two floors. A string course runs just above the 12th-floor cornice, setting off the 13th floor, which is topped by a setback marked by balustrades at each bay. There is another setback above the 15th floor, where the two bays inside of the end bays have narrower windows. This is repeated at the top floors, where the roof line is also marked by balustrades.

The east elevation is clad in tan brick, with three bays of large paired windows, and a bay of double-windows at the rear. The exposed upper floors of the west elevation are similar. The ground floor is occupied by Sunrise Mart.