850 Seventh Avenue (New York City, New York) | office building, 1911_construction, commercial building

 office building, 1911_construction, commercial building

151-foot, 12-story office building completed in 1911. Designed by Albert Joseph Bodker, it is clad in off-white brick with limestone trim above a black granite ground floor with glass-and-metal storefronts. Between the storefronts is the main entrance, with glass double-doors under a stainless-steel canopy.

The upper floors have beige stone quoins at the edges, and six bays of wide single-windows. At the 2nd & 3rd floors the windows have keyed stone surrounds with scrolled keystones. At the 2nd floor these are topped by dentiled, rounded pediments with small, shell cartouches and acanthus leaves. At the 3rd floor the keystones are flanked by garlands in an ornamental frieze with floral carvings and fleur-de-lis that underscores a cornice with egg-and-dart molding across the top of this level.

The floors above have slightly-recessed brick pilasters framing the windows, topped by stone lintels with ornate carved keystones, and they also have stone sills. Shallow stone balconies, carried on stone brackets, with wrought-iron railings span two bays at the ends of the 7th floor, and another balcony spans the two center bays at the 9th floor. A modillioned band course runs between the 10th & 11th floors. The top two floors have keyed window surrounds, with cartouches at the 11th floor, and splayed lintels at the 12th, just below a broadly projecting black metal roof cornice with brackets and dentils, and highlighted by lions' heads and seashell cresting on the top.

The south elevation is clad in buff-colored brick and has two bays of single-windows near the front. The back section is set back, with additional bays of single-windows. The north elevation is very similar. The ground floor is occupied by Oliviero Cafe, and Gifts & Luggage store.