139 Centre Street (New York City, New York)

 office building  Add category

9-story Renaissance-revival office building originally completed in 1911. Designed by Schwartz & Gross, its facade is nearly identical to the neighboring Excelsior Building at 137 Centre Street, designed by the same architects and built at the same time. A modern, glass-walled addition to the original building extends the property through the block to Lafayette Street, with a very narrow frontage on Walker Street, to the right of the original facade.

The main original facade on Centre Street is divided into two halves, each with four bays of triple windows. The northern facade has three bays of triple windows and a narrower bay of triple-windows on the west, abutting the modern addition. The 2-story base is clad in white limestone above grey granite plinths for the piers. The infill consists of large show windows with red metal frames the are round-arched at the 2nd floor. The bays on the upper floors are filled with three windows divided by thinner iron mullions than those on the Excelsior Building. The base is capped by a broad stone cornice.

The upper floors are clad in buff-colored brick, with continuations of the broad piers in brick. The brick spandrels each have a pair of decorative diamond shapes set in squares, aligning with the mullions above and below. At the 7th floor, the bays culminate in flattened arches. A stone band course setting off the top floor is supported by elaborate brackets surrounded by carved floral swag and pendants, extending to the keystones at the top of each arch. The top floor has square-headed windows, with projecting capitals on each pier. The facades are crowned by a green metal roof cornice with large modillions and wide brackets atop each pier. There is a penthouse level set back from the roof cornice.

The addition to the building's west side, completed in the 1960s, has one bay fronting Walker Street and 3 1/2 bays on Lafayette Street, both rising only 7 floors at the sidewalk, with the top floors set back. The curtain wall is black steel and silver glass, with square black glass spandrels. The south-facing sidewall is clad in beige brick, with regular rows of windows at each floor. The south facade of the set-back top floors are clad in a silver glass curtain wall.

Containing numerous medical/dental tenants, it is one of the largest Class A professional buildings in the area. The ground floor is occupied by Buy Rite Pharmacy on Lafayette Street, and at the original building by MK2 Optical, Dunkin' Donuts, ABC Pharmacy, Maiyomi Massage, and the rest of the Buy Rite Pharmacy.