The Pembroke

 apartment building, 1937_construction, housing cooperative

6-story cooperative-apartment building completed in 1937. Designed by Miller & Goldhammer, it is clad in reddish-brown brick. 1-story commercial spaces front the avenue at the west end. They have brick parapets with stone coping, stepped up at the middle of the north unit. Rising behind these is the main residential structure, with a light court near the east end on 55th Street, and two more light courts on the north side. Next to the storefront at the west end, there are five small oculus windows with white stone moldings situated up high on the ground floor - one in each of the first two bays, and three grouped together in the wider 3rd bay, which has a black metal service door below one of the round windows. The next three bays have thin white stone surrounds, with high-set double-windows in the first two, and the main entrance in the third, with double-doors below a fanlight, and a rounded, green canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. Slightly-projecting brick piers with short stone capitals bearing fret patterns separate the bays. East of the entrance is another wide bay with three single-windows that have iron grilles that bow out at the bottoms. An iron fence with a gate spans across the light court. The east end of the south facade has a narrow bay with a single-window, and three bays with double-windows, all also with iron grilles at the ground floor. A thin stone band course caps the ground floor.

At the upper floors the piers dividing the bays are banded. The west end bay has single-windows, and the next bay is recessed, with two small single-windows fronted by a metal fire escape. The fire escape landings are somewhat disguised with masonry bands with iron railings across their tops. The next bay, above the three oculi, has three single-windows, and the three bays with white stone moldings at the ground floor have three double-windows on the upper floors; these have low metal railings at the 2nd & 6th floors. The next bay has three single-windows; the bay on the opposite side of the light court has single-windows, followed by the three double-windows at the east end. The rear wall of the south light court has two bays of double-windows, and the side walls have two bays of single-windows.

There is a brick roof parapet at the three bays with the stone moldings on the ground floor; the others are topped by metal railings. The west facade of the 6-story section, overlooking the 1-story storefronts on the avenue, has a middle bay of double-windows flanked by two bays of single-windows on each side. The end bays are framed by banded piers and have metal railings at the roof line, while the middle section has a brick parapet with stone coping. The north facade has primarily single-windows, and additional fire escapes.

The building contains 72 apartments. The ground floor along the avenue is occupied by Kashkaval Garden restaurant, Hawa Smoothies & Bubble Tea, Liberty Cycles, and Columbus Hardware.