55 East 54th Street (New York City, New York)

 commercial building  Add category

4-story commercial building originally completed around 1870 as an Italianate townhouse, one of several matching homes on the block. It has since been heavily altered, although it does retain its black metal roof cornice with brackets and modillions. The facade is now surfaced in grey and white stucco above a projecting storefront at the ground floor, which is faced in white rough stucco. Within this textured frame is a black metal-and-glass storefront with a main entrance on the left, and glass patio doors on the right.

The 2nd & 3rd floors have three bays of segmental-arched single-windows; the facade is grey at the outer half of the end bays, and white in the middle; the center window has a grey projecting sill. The top floor has only a single-window in the center, with grey stucco surrounding the full floor and a white section recessed in the middle.

The west elevation now faces onto a plaza for the neighboring office tower, and is faced in grey stucco with a vertical stripe of brown tiles at the center serving as the backdrop for a fountain. The building is now occupied by Nerai restaurant.