140 Fifth Avenue (New York City, New York)

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177-foot, 12-story Neo-Renaissance cooperative apartment building completed in 1901. Designed by Robert Maynicke, it housed the Corn Exchange Bank on the ground floor, with manufacturing lofts above for the Hardman Piano Co. in the 1920's. The bank operated until about 1912. Faced in limestone, brick and terra-cotta, the building has strongly articulated vertical bays which are repeated six times on West 19th Street and once on Fifth Avenue.

The Fifth Avenue elevation is organized in a tripartite scheme. The 2-story base is articulated by heavily rusticated limestone piers on granite bases. These support a segmental-arch with voussoirs and a keystone above the recessed, 2-story show window opening. The entrance has the original 3-tiered, multi-lite transom over a modern glass and metal door. The 2nd-floor show window is shaped to fit the arch, and has cast-iron colonettes as mullions.

The 3rd floor is bracketed by two cornices and has three windows framed with carved limestone molding. The 4th-10th floors are expressed as a tall segmental-arch in terra-cotta; the archivolt having alternating carved and uncarved voussoirs and a keystone flanked by banded brick piers. Three windows per floor are set in the arch. Alternating between the stories are decorative terra-cotta spandrels and a single pediment over the middle window; a triangular pediment at the 5th and 9th floors and a segmental-arched pediment at the 7th floor; the edges of the arched pediments on both facades have been removed. Large double consoles surmounting the piers support the modillioned cornice over the 10th story. The 11th and 12th floors' windows are framed with a continuous terra-cotta molding similar to the 3rd floor, and have a molded spandrel between.

The 19th Street facade repeats the bay treatment established on the Fifth Avenue facade, for a total of six bays. Although the 7th bay has a very simplified treatment of two windows at each floor under a single lintel, and has no ornate cornice, it is original. A silver metal fire escape located at the 3rd bay from the eastern corner, cuts through the cornice at this point. The 7th bay is a service entrance and has a wrought-iron, double-door gate opening through to the interior of the lot.

A tall, columnar water tower rises above the Fifth Avenue facade. The ground floor is currently occupied by Psycho Bunny men's clothing store, and Yves Delorme bedding store.

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