2 Horatio Street (New York City, New York)

 apartment building  Add category

203-foot, 17-story Art-Deco cooperative-apartment building completed in 1931. Designed by Robert T. Lyons for developers Bing & Bing, it is clad in brown brick with a low grey granite water table, and crowned by a penthouse with a high central tower section, trimmed with terra-cotta ornament. The chief decoration is provided by rusticated brickwork at the corners and by undulating terra-cotta balconies below the windows of the 4th and 15th floors which feature the Greek key design. Atop the roof is a spectacular duplex penthouse with terraces and a fireplace and a large master bathroom on the top floor with large windows on three sides.

A 16-story addition on the western side was completed in 1962, with a lighter shade of brick. The main entrance has a grey granite surround with a tripartite doorway consisting of a revolving door and two traditional doors on the sides, all below a wide, rounded black canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. There is also a narrow window on either side, within the stone surround. A stone band runs along the top of the ground floor, with small modillions on the top. The ground floor along Greenwich Avenue has a few small glass storefronts with recessed entries.

Besides the rusticated banded brick at the end bays, the middle of the 2nd-3rd floors of the east facade are also banded. The upper floors on this elevation have, from south to north: a double-window, a tripartite window, three double-windows alternating with two single-windows, another tripartite window, and another single-window. There is a setback to the penthouse levels above the 16th floor.

The upper floors on the north facade have seven bays of double-windows, plus a single-window east end bay at the original section of the building. The addition to the west has a band of five windows, a double-window, and a tripartite window bay.

The 242 apartments in the combined building were converted to a cooperative in 1987. The ground floor on the Greenwich Avenue side is occupied by OTTE clothing store, Techin menswear, and Alexis Bittar jewelry.