401 West 53rd Street (New York City, New York)

 apartment building  Add category

5-story residential building completed in 1887. It is clad in red brick, painted at the ground floor. There is a black iron-and-glass storefront at the west end, and a paneled wood-and-glass storefront at the east end, wrapping around to the east facade on the avenue. The residential entrance is directly to the east of the west storefront, with a glass door up a couple of steps. To its right are two multi-paned double-windows; between these windows is an arched mural, and between the east window and the corner storefront is a round mural.

The upper floors on the south facade in 53rd Street have paired windows in the center bay, flanked on each side by two bays of single-windows and paired windows in the end bays. The windows have flat, eared stone lintels, and continuous still courses cross each floor. A dark-green metal fire escape runs down above the entrance, and another with slightly wider landings covers the two single-window bays on the east end.

The east facade is faced in beige stucco on the upper floors, with three bays of single-windows with simple sills. Both main facades are crowned by a red metal roof cornice with brackets and a frieze with swags and wreaths. The ground floor is occupied by Norma restaurant.