Topshop SoHo (New York City, New York)

 office building, 1874_construction

5-story office building completed in 1874. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt, it was built as a speculative venture to make money for Roosevelt Hospital, and was briefly known as the Roosevelt Building. This is the only surviving commercial building in New York City designed by Richard Morris Hunt, architect of the Metropolitan Museum. It spans through the block to Crosby Street, where it has a narrow frontage one-third as wide as the main Broadway facade. The main facade is painted grey at the ground floor, with wide piers topped by round emblems with the building's address. The upper floors are white, with two round columns in the center and continuations of the piers at the ends. All four have Ionic capitals at the 4th floor, where the three bays are topped by arched ironwork spanning the tops of the windows. The building is crowned by a white metal cornice.

The facade on Crosby is painted white, with very narrow columns between wide pilasters that have Ionic capitals at the 4th floor. Arched wrought-ironwork spans the top of this floor, covering the top of the windows. The slender colonettes allow for expansive windows and curved pierced screenwork between the pilasters at the top of the fourth-floor windows show the strength and grace of iron. A small cornice marks the bottom of the top floor, above which is a roof cornice of the same design as on Broadway.

Today, 478 Broadway is home to an apparel store – the British megastore Topshop that fills four full levels.