236 Fifth Avenue

 office building  Add category

122-foot, 11-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1907. Designed by Buchman & Fox as a loft building, it is clad in imestone, cast-iron, and granite facing. The 2-story, 3-bay limestone and cast-iron base features rusticated piers, cast-iron columns at the 2nd floor, and a bracketed crown. The piers sit on tall grey granite bases, framing twin entrances at the ends. They are both double-doors with transoms and topped by black metal fanlights with keystones and the building's address numbers, 236 & 238. In between is a black cast-iron, projecting storefront with a black canvas awning and a row of wide, low windows above that. The 2nd floor is divided into three bays by black cast-iron columns; each bay has four tall windows with transoms. The base is capped by a modillioned stone cornice.

The upper floors have six bays, with molded stone surrounds at the 3rd floor. The window openings of the 4th, 6th & 8th floors projecting, brackets stone sills with carved stone ornament below each one. The openings on the 5th, 7th & 9th floors also have bracketed projecting sills, but without the additional ornament. There is a dentiled and bracketed band above the 9th floor.

The top two floors have fluted columns with pedestals and Corinthian capitals, with the 11th floor having arched windows with molded architraves and scrolled keystones. A projecting, copper roof cornice with brackets and dentils tops the building. The upper north elevation is clad in brown brick with one set of windows near the back; the south elevation is also clad in brown brick, with a light court in the center. There are windows on all three sides of the light court, and one more bay toward the back of the elevation. The ground floor is occupied by Ilili Lebanese restaurant.