Dezer Building West 22nd (New York City, New York)

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146-foot, 12-story Beaux-Arts residential building completed in 1904. Designed by James Barnes Baker as a store-and-loft building, it is clad in white terra-cotta and red brick.

The 2-story base is composed of flanking terra-cotta piers supporting a segmental-arch with a projecting keystone and decorated with carvings of bundled laurel. The ground floor contains an original projecting display window with a metal roof and segmental-arched entrance cut into the western side. Recessed within the arch is a more recent entrance. The 2nd floor contains five segmental-arched windows rising above a metal spandrel panel.

A cornice sets off the transitional 3rd floor which is faced in terra-cotta with rusticated piers flanking three window openings. Keystones flanked by bundled laurel support the modillions of the terra-cotta cornice. Floors 4-9 are flanked by brick piers punctuated by decorative terra-cotta panels. Each floor has three window openings, with keystones, rising above terra-cotta spandrel panels.

The 9th floor is flanked by oversized terra-cotta cartouches supporting a cornice covered in metal. The 10th and 11th stories contain terra-cotta piers supporting a cornice and three window openings separated by double-height fluted metal mullions and metal spandrel panels with ornamental grillwork. The 12th floor contains terra-cotta piers and mullions.

Some of the earliest tenants were publishing firms. Little by little No. 4 was taken over by garment firms, as the publishing district was pushed out by the encroaching apparel district after 1910. But as the 1930s dawned, the garment district was moving north of 34th Street. Although Irvin-Warren Clothes, Inc. was still manufacturing apparel in the building as late as 1939, other operations like the Dandy Toy and Novelty Co., here in 1931, were more common. Later the building served as offices for various companies, before being converted to rental apartments after 2000. The ground floor is occupied by Sagaponack seafood restaurant.