40 East 20th Street

 office building  Add category

7-story office building completed in 1911. Designed by F.H. Thorne as a store-and-loft building, it is faced in white brick, limestone, and terra-cotta, and is divided by cornices into a tripartite grouping composed of a 2-story commercial base, 4-story midsection, and 1-story attic.

The base is framed by superimposed rusticated stone pilasters and crowned by a simple stone lintel embellished above the piers with sheaves of laurel leaves. These frame a 2-story wood shopfront which was installed in the 1980s.

The upper stories are faced with brick and terra-cotta and are divided into three bays by small piers. The wide center bay contains two windows; the narrow outer bays are only one window wide. Decorative brickwork and stone sills are used to emphasize the windows. The dentiled terra-cotta cornice above the 6th floor is ornamented with shields. On the 7th floor the window openings are narrowed by inset metal panels. The building is crowned by a projecting metal cornice supported by brackets and decorated by block modillions. A frame penthouse set back slightly from the roof line is barely visible from the street. The ground floor is occupied by Flute champagne lounge.