501 7th Avenue (New York City, New York)

 office building, commercial building

214-foot, 17-story office building completed in 1924. Designed by Ely Jacques Kahn as a garment manufacturing building, it is clad in beige and reddish-brown brick above a 3-story stone base. Both main facades share the same design, five bays wide along the avenue and 13 bays along 37th Street.

The ground floor is faced in rusticated limestone with arcades of large round-arches, springing from grey granite bases. Most of the bays are filled by metal and glass storefronts, except for on 37th Street, where the main entrance (with brass and glass doors) is in the 6th bay from the west, and a service entrance in the 5th bay from the east; and on 7th Avenue, where the middle bay has the west facade's main entrance, also with brass and glass doors. The 2nd floor has double-windows with transoms, each flanked by narrow windows that are framed by slender Corinthian columns. The piers between each bay have textured panels; the two around the center bay on the avenue have projecting flagpoles. Topping the 2nd-floor bays is an arcade of small, scalloped round-arches. Alternating arches are decorated with small heraldic shields. The 3rd floor is set off by a modillioned band course, and has banded stone piers. Each bay has paired windows, and the floor is topped by a frieze with alternating geometric designs.

The upper floors have paired windows in each bay. The main piers have vertical bands of reddish-brown brick framed by beige brick. The intermediate piers between the paired windows are also beige. The spandrels are reddish-brown brick and each window has a stone sill. The five eastern bays on the south facade set back above the 9th floor, and again above the 13th floor. The 14th floor is plain beige brick. The reddish-brown brick vertical bands resume on the top two floors at the end bays only; the middle bays have vertical grooves on the piers and are slightly recessed. The spandrels between the 15th & 16th floors are again reddish-brown brick. At the top of the 16th floor are four recessed squares at each middle bay. The top floor is further recessed, with mechanical penthouses on the roof.

The north-facing facade is clad in brown brick with vertical bands of lighter-colored brick. There is a shallow light well at the center, lined with fire escapes. To the right of the light well are two bays of single-windows flanking four bays of single-windows. To the left are six bays of single-windows, two of which have been bricked-in. The ground floor is occupied by a Chipotle restaurant, Potbelly Sandwich Shop, and Regine Fashion.