915 Broadway Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, 1926_construction

237-foot, 20-story office building completed in 1926. Designed by Joseph Martine, this corner building has a series of cascading setbacks, with a 3-story base, an 8-story midsection, and a 9-story top with extra setbacks. It is clad in limestone and buff-colored brick.

At its limestone base, the Broadway facade has four bays, identical except for the modern metal-and-glass entrance (recessed behind a stone Tudor Revival arch) at the ground floor of the southernmost bay. The remainder of this section retains its original elements. At the ground floor, tripartite show windows have paneled metal bulkheads and transoms (the side ones pivot), shaded by canopies. At the 2nd and 3rd floors, metal spandrels sporting draperies and urns separate tripartite window arrangements with fixed central window panes flanked by one-over-one side windows. A simple cornice surmounts the base. The chamfered corner bay also has a Tudor Revival entrance surround.

The brick midsection is divided into end bays of paired windows and a four-window-wide central bay which features spandrels of recessed brick. A simple terra-cotta string course surmounts the mid-section.

The brick top section is composed of a 2-story lower segment; pilasters with terra-cotta capitals and bases divide the bays. At the end bays paired rectangular windows, recessed spandrels, and round-arched windows are grouped within a terra-cotta arcade resting on pilasters. There are two central bays of three windows each; these also feature the decorative spandrel motif. This segment is surmounted by three setbacks, each of two stories. These more or less retain the configuration of the central bays below, including the thin piers which separate windows and (on the two uppermost levels) replace the simple parapet with a corbeled one. At the corner, massing is arranged to form a tower.

The north facade on East 21st Street is composed of five bays and a narrow strip at the western edge. In the base at the four eastern bays, the show windows, 2nd, and 3rd floors duplicate the arrangement of their Broadway counterparts, except for the width of each bay. At the western bay and adjacent strip there are (1) a recent metal-and-glass entrance with canopy capped by three double-hung windows; (2) an original limestone Tudor Revival entrance with recent, recessed metal-and-glass doors surrounded by ceramic tile and a recent canopy; and (3) two stories of double-hung metal windows.

At the midsection, articulation resembles the Broadway facade, except that here all bays are three windows wide. At the 12th & 13th floors each end bay repeats the arcaded motif twice and central bays stretch to encompass four bays. Similarities continue on the uppermost floors. For its entire height, the western strip has windowless rectangular openings.

The south elevation is a wall of red brick with buff brick trim. It has several bays of simple windows and a "shadow" which reveals the imprint of the now-demolished 3rd through 5th floors of the adjacent building, 913 Broadway. The ground floor is occupied by Crimson restaurant, and Society Billiards Bar.