Wikimapia is a multilingual open-content collaborative map, where anyone can create place tags and share their knowledge.

Croisic Building (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Fifth Avenue, 220
 office building  Add category

269-foot, 21-story Neo-Gothic office building completed in 1912. Designed by Frederick C. Browne for the Croisic Realty Company, it is clad in granite, light-grey brick and terra-cotta.

The 2-story stone base features segmental-arches, decorative spandrels, and crown molding, with a Gothic-arched entryway in the north bay on Fifth Avenue. The wide center section of this facade has a storefront with show windows and a doorway toward the left, and there is another large show window in the south bay. Above these are transoms and a black cast-iron panel with Gothic pattern. The 2nd floor has arches in each bay, with gargoyles in the corners of the center opening. All the framework is dark-red painted cast-iron. The 26th Street elevation is nine bays wide, with a secondary entrance in the 4th bay from the west, and a service bay at the far west end. The other bays have projecting show-windows at the ground floor, with transoms and other details matching those on Fifth Avenue.

Above a cornice, the transitional 3rd floor has stone piers with molded capitals, and paired windows in each bay. The two outer bays on each side have wider piers dominated by shields with eagles perched on top at the 3rd-floor cornice. The paired windows are separated by white cast-iron pilasters, and are topped by terra-cotta lintels with rosettes and other carvings. The other piers on the east facade and at the ends of the south facade have intricate carved diamond patterns.

The upper stories are clad in brick along the four Fifth Avenue bays, and at the outer bays on 26th Street; the paired windows have projecting sills. The five middle bays on 26th Street culminate in segmental-arches at the 14th floor. The stone piers between them have beveled, rounded edges. A stone pilaster separates the two windows in each bay, where there are paired, elaborately carved terra-cotta spandrel panels. The 15th floor is framed by molded bands with elaborate bracketing and masks, and carved figurines.

The 16th-18th floors are grouped under 3-story round-arches at each bay, with tripartite windows framed by dark-red iron, and low wrought-iron railings. The projecting piers are topped at the 18th floor by gargoyles, including dragons and cherubs. The 19th floor reverts to paired windows, but with plentiful stone and terra-cotta ornament, including more gargoyles. Barbed pinnacles overlaying the piers converge to finials that rise the 19th-floor roof line, where the 2-story, steep, copper double mansard roofs begin, one at the east and west ends, joined by a copper parapet. The 20th floor features rounded dormers, while the top floor has smaller dormers with pyramidal roofs. A final set of copper gargoyles crown the corners at the top of the mansards.

The north elevation is much plainer, clad in parged beige brick, with red-painted areas at the upper floors. There are three bays of windows toward the east end. At the 15th-18th floors, red-painted areas echo the round-arched bays from the Fifth Avenue facade. The easternmost two bays give way to the copper mansard above the 19th floor, while the next two bays rise up another floor, with a triangular gable topping the eastern of the two. Further to the west is a recessed light court with numerous windows and a fire escape. The building was renovated in 1988. The ground floor is occupied by Action Black gym, and Sol Mexican restaurant.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°44'37"N   73°59'18"W
This article was last modified 20 days ago