484 Broome Street

 Romanesque (architecture), apartment building

6-story residential building completed in 1891. Designed by Alfred Zucker as a warehouse, this building is a spectacular example of Rundbogenstil architecture, in red brick and rusticated, rough-faced brownstone. A pair of giant arches frame the main window bays of the first three floors. The top three floors, also handled as a unit, are set off above a string course lined with carved stone heads. Here the outer and central bays are grouped vertically to create "towers" which rise above the roof line and alternate with two groups of square-headed windows of three bays each. All sixth-floor windows are round-arched.

Carved blocks with the medieval motif of a dragon biting its own tail are set at the imposts of the large triple-bay arches at the top of the second floor windows. The windows within-these arches as well as those at the fifth and sixth floors above these are formed by iron components. At the roof line the stone cornice, which is edged by a pellet molding, has oversized modillions alternating with a large acanthus leaf motif.

Following its use as a warehouse, 472 Broome later served as the home of The Kitchen, an arts center. Today it is residential, with the ground floor occupied by Selima Optique, Beau Brummel menswear, Jacques Lieberman, and Marie Belle chocolates.