285 Mercer - NYU

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131-foot, 10-story Renaissance-revival university building completed in 1902. Designed by Alfred Zucker, it has a 3-story stone base, with red brick above. The base of capped by a stone cornice and has a stone cartouche on the narrow side. The long (Mercer) facade has five bays of three windows each; the shorter side on Waverly Place has a double window in the center with a single on either side. All of the windows up to the 8th floor have splayed stone lintels with scrolled keystones. The 4th-8th floors also have white stone quoins at the corners, and are topped by a projecting stone cornice. The top two floors have round-arched windows with scrolled keystones. The center bay on the Waverly Place side has both floors encompasses under a round-arch topped by a cartouche. Both facades are crowned by a projecting roof cornice. There is a metal fire escape on the north end of the Mercer facade; on the south end, two of the windows on each floor are bricked-in. NYU acquired the building for offices in 1966. The ground floor is occupied by Starbucks Coffee which altered the first floor exterior.