Actors' Equity Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, commercial building

200-foot, 17-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1926. Designed by McKim, Mead & White/Bethlehem Engineering Company, it wraps around the shorter I. Miller Building at the corner. On the 46th-Street facade, the 3-story base was modernized in 2013 in a curtain wall of green glass and grey metal, five bays wide. The easternmost bay has a service entrance, and there are storefronts to the west. The adjoining 7-story building at 155 West 46th was also rebuilt at the same time as the new base, and now serves as the main building entrance. It is clad in pre-cast beige stone panels, with a revolving glass door flanked by regular doors at the ground floor, under a triangular silver metal canopy. Above the canopy, the facade angles inward to a central window opening that begins as a point at the bottom and widens as it runs up the facade in an upside-down triangle shape. At the top floor there are projecting, silver metal bands at the bottom and top, with narrower continuation of the triangle wedge.

The upper floors of the main building retain the original cladding of buff-colored brick and limestone. The 4th floor is faced in rusticated limestone, with five bays of paired windows. A band course with a row of roundels separates the other floors, which are brick with stone quoins framing the end bays, where the paired windows are spaced closer together. Narrow string courses organize the facade into 2-story sections. The four eastern bays set back above the 10th floor, marked by a cornice; the west bay extends straight up to the roof line. At the four set-back bays, the middle two windows are only slightly set back, with angled side walls receding back to the further-recessed ends. Here each bay is framed by quoins, and additional small setbacks occur above the 12th & 14th floors, both marked by cornices; a final cornice (this is with dentils) marks the lower roof line at the 16th floor. The 15th-16th floors are the west bay have a pair of Corinthian columns just inside the quoins framing the windows. The west-facing side elevation of this wing (above the lower neighboring building) has four bays of single-windows, although the northernmost bay is mostly obscured by a white-painted metal vent shaft.

The south-facing elevation (also overlooking the lower neighboring corner building), of the west wing of the building (which rises to the full 17 floors) has six bays of single-windows and a blank area at the east end. The top floor is set back on the west end and only has three windows. The west facade facing the avenue has a 2-story light-grey granite base housing a large McDonald's restaurant. The 2nd-floor windows are separated into three bays and divided into upper and lower halves, with the upper halves angling back into the facade. A large yellow "golden arches" logo is mounted over the south two bays at the 2nd floor.

The 3rd floor has a band of tripartite windows in black metal framing, but the top half is obscured by the large, 3-story video board mounted on the facade. The upper floors have three bays of paired windows, and stone quoins at the edges. The 4th-6th floors are covered by the video board. Like the south facade, thin string courses separate every two floors, up to a cornice above the 14th floor. The 15th-16th floors are divided into six recessed bays by Corinthian columns, and the 16th floor is crowned by a beige, modillioned and dentiled cornice. The top floor is set back above the cornice.

The west edge of the north facade is exposed, with two bays of single-windows. The east elevation of the east wing has two bays of paired windows at the north half, and three bays of single-windows at the south half. The storefront on 46th Street is occupied by Express apparel. The building is home to the Actors Equity Association, and includes the main Audition Center for actors, singers, and dancers.