Stern Brothers Department Store Annex

 office building, 1911_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

172-foot, 12-story Renaissance-revival office building completed in 1911. Designed by Maynicke & Franke as an annex to the Stern Brothers Store next door, the building is L-shaped and extends through the block to a long frontage on 22nd Street. The major West 23rd Street facade with its giant Ionic colonnade is completely faced in limestone, and the West 22nd Street facade is brick above a 3-story limestone base.

The 23rd Street facade is given a tripartite organization with a 2-story base, a transitional 3rd floor, a 7-story midsection, and a 2-story top. The cornice over the 2-story storefront base is supported on two giant fluted Ionic columns flanked by pilasters. The storefront and 2nd-story windows are framed in black metal. A modern, curved metal-and-frosted glass awning extends from the entrance in the east bay over the sidewalk.

The 3rd floor has five replacement windows flanked by stone piers and mullions under a modillioned balcony carried on large brackets flanking the two end bays. The 4th-10th floors have five wood-framed windows separated into three bays by piers flanking the two end windows. Over the 10th floor is a shallow cornice with egg-and-dart molding, supported by brackets at the piers. The 11th & 12th floors have attached columns flanking the end bays; the center bay is treated as a 2-story segmental-arch with windows fitted to the curve, under a segmental-arched pedimented cornice.

The format of five bays flanked by narrow 1-bay pavilions which characterizes the facade at 9-19 West 22nd Street is established at the ground floor. The 3-story limestone base has 2-story segmental-arched window units in the center bays with paneled spandrels and stylized keystones. The entrance in the western pavilion has decorated black cast-iron framed transoms and side lights with a modern door. The eastern service entrance is similar and mostly original. The three eastern of the center bays have freight docks with roll-down metal garage doors. The 2nd & 3rd floors of the the end pavilions each have two square-headed windows. At the 3rd floor the center bays have three windows each. The 4th-9th floors have brick piers between the bays. There are two windows in each of the pavilions and three windows to a bay, all with brick mullions. A belt course follows the contours of the facade above and below the 10th floor. At the 12th floor the bays terminate in segmental-arches with keystones and escutcheons on the piers. A dentiled metal roof cornice with large modillions caps the building.

The eastern and western elevations, mostly visible from 23rd Street, are clad in red brick, with randomly-placed metal-framed windows and no applied architectural detail.

After the Stern Brothers closed their store, both the addition and the main building were repurposed for light manufacturing and showrooms. They were sold to the current owner in 1960. The complex was renovated in 2000, and space leased to a variety of companies including Reader's Digest, Nike, Tiffany & Co., Forbes, Ecko, and Mattel. The ground floor and 2nd level are occupied by Manhattan's first Home Depot, which also has space in the neighboring Stern Brothers Building.