Heckscher Building

 office building  Add category

318-foot, 25-story office building completed in 1917. Designed by Jardine, Hill & Murdock for August Heckscher, it is "enclosed" by Lincoln Building next door with its walls rising to the east and south of the Heckscher Building. The tower, clad in brown brick except for the top floors, rises out of a limestone podium-like base which is a very rare occurence for its time. The tower is set back 23 feet from the base on the north side.

The base spans six bays on the north side, and five on the west facade, with a narrow 1-bay chamfered northwest corner. The ground floor is lined with modernized storefronts, except for the recessed 2-story main entrance in the 3rd bay from the west on 42nd Street. It is framed by slightly-projecting piers with Corinthian capitals at the 2nd floor supporting an entablature with two heraldic shields and a modillioned cornice. A silver metal canopy extends out over the sidewalk, and two flagpoles project from the 2nd floor. The other bays of the 2nf floor have tripartite windows (and a single-window at the corner bay). The 2nd floor is capped by a cornice. The 3rd-4th floors have 2-story openings with double-windows divided by brown cast-iron pilasters and paneled spandrels. The 5th floor has paired windows with incised stone panels between the windows in each pair. The base is capped by a dentiled cornice surmounted by a stone balustrade. The balustrade is broken at the three middle bays on the avenue, where the tower rises above.

The brick tower portion has six evenly-spaced single-windows across the floors on the west and east facades, while the north and south facades have three bays of three windows each, separated by two small bays of narrow windows. Stone string courses runs across the tops of the windows of each floor on the north and south facades. The top of the 18th floor features an ornamental frieze and string course, marking the transition to the stone-faced top floors. Wide limestone Corinthian piers divide six bays of single-windows on the west and east facades and ten bays on the north and south facades, from the 19th-21st floors. There are stone spandrels between the 19th & 20th floors, and cast-iron spandrels between the 20th & 21st floors. A modillioned cornice wraps around the setback topping the 21st floor, which is surmounted by stone balustrades and spheres on the piers.

The 22nd & 23rd floors have four bays of single-windows on the west and east sides, and eight on the north and south sides. Another cornice marks the final setback to the crowning floors, topped by a stair-stepping pyramidal stone top. The ground floor is occupied by a T-Mobile wireless store, Just Salad, About Time Coffee, Cohen's Fashion Optical, Chick-Fil-A, and Lucille Roberts Fitness for Women.