New School - Building W

 university, office building

150-foot, 11-story Renaissance-revival/Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1908 as the Van Beuren Building for Van Beuren real estate interests. Designed by Charles Volz as a store-and-lofts building, it was constructed in only 28 weeks. It has a fireproof iron-and-steel skeleton structure with brick curtain walls and terra-cotta floor and roof arches. The 2-story base has banded limestone piers supporting a cornice, and dividing the north facade into eight bays and the west facade into three bays. The infill of the base is black cast-iron, with paneled spandrels decorated with a circle in the center of each. The storefronts were remodeled in 1946 and the main entry was redone in 1964.

The upper floors are clad in orange brick, with three windows per bay. Each floor has a stone sill course and stylized egg-and-dart band courses above the windows. At the 10th floor the piers are ornamented with stone cartouches and the center window of each bay is topped by a scrolled keystone. The top floor has cartouches on each pier, between the windows. Large scrolled brackets support a grey metal roof cornice with dentils and large modillions on both main facades.

Beginning in the 1950s, many of the manufacturing lofts were being converted to offices. The ground floor is occupied by The Well Wellness Center and City National Bank, and the offices are largely occupied by the New School.

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