Dezer Building West 20th (New York City, New York)

 office building  Add category

148-foot, 11-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1902. Designed by DeLemos & Cordes as a store-and-loft building, the center section of the building extends through to 19th Street. Large rusticated piers, projecting pediments and balconies and the contrast of white stone with dark metal spandrel panels are prominent features.

The main facade, on 20th Street, has a 2-story base divided into three bays by four rusticated piers supporting a black metal cornice. The eastern bay of the ground floor retains its original pedimented doorway. A new door has been cut into the center bay, with a window to each side; three transoms are separated by metal mullions. Metal spandrel panels separate the ground floor from the 2nd, where each bay contains three windows, flanked by colonnettes in the center.

The 3rd floor rests on a black black metal cornice, and is more ornate. Each of the three bays contains three recessed windows divided by stone mullions. A triangular bracketed pediment, flanked by garlands, crowns the middle window of each bay. The 4th floor, also clad in stone, is less ornate.

Floors 5-9 contain metal spandrel panels between each floor. The 5th floor is accented by semi-circular balconies with sinuous wrought-iron railings jutting from beneath the center window of each bay. A heavier spandrel panel with an arched filigree separates the 8th floor from the 9th. The 9th floor is capped by a stone panel, and surrounded by terra-cotta ornament on each pier featuring lion's heads, swags and lozenges. Narrow stone spandrel panels separate the 10th floor from the 11th, which has round-arched windows. The vertical piers terminate abruptly, brought forward to support a cornice that is no longer extant.

One bay of this building extends through the block to West 19th Street to provide a service entrance for the main building on West 20th Street. This bay has had all protruding ornament removed, including pediments, balconies, and cornices, but retains its original window configuration with stone and metal spandrels and metal framing. The side walls are unadorned brick.

The basement houses the Westside Rifle and Pistol Range, and the ground floor is occupied by VIP Club New York. There is another building named the Dezer Building one block west on West 19th Street.