Astor Place Plaza

 office building, 1912_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

12-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1912. Designed by Francis H. Kimball as a loft building, it has a 3-story limestone base above a granite foundation, with brick and terra-cotta facing on the upper floors. The Broadway side has five bays above the ground floor, with paired windows. The corner bay is chamfered, with one window at a 45-degree angle to the flanking windows. The lower two floors have rusticated piers and the 2nd-story windows are segmental-arched with scrolled keystones. There are stone cartouches at the tops of the piers on the 2nd floor, which is capped by a dentiled cornice. The 3rd floor has smaller cartouches and a thinner corncie with smaller dentils.

The 7-story buff-colored brick midsection has paired windows set in a multi-story arcade. The paneled terra-cotta spandrels have a rosette decoration. The midsection is capped by another cornice and more small cartouches at the piers. The 2-story terra-cotta upper section has recessed windows below 2-story segmental-arches with keystones. The building is crowned by a prominent black brcaketed roof cornice. The north facade on Astor Place is similar, but with four bays.

The ground floor is occupied by a Lids hat shop, Vitamin Shoppe, and Financier Espresso Bar. NYU leases some of the upper floors.