Writers House Agency

 office building, interesting place, publisher

3-story Queen Anne-style office building originally completed in 1881. Designed by Thomas Stent for John Jacob Astor to house the family's real estate office, it is clad in red brick, granite and terra-cotta. From this building, and the adjacent building at 23 West 26th Street, the Astors managed their immense real estate holdings, which included property throughout Manhattan and the Bronx. A metal and glass 3rd-floor addition, designed by architects David Mandl Associates, was constructed in 1991. The original lower floors of the building, which is now the offices of Writers' House, remain remarkably intact.

The 1st floor is four bays wide, with a small, low granite stoop to the entrance at the west end, and three bays of black cast-iron framed and iron barred windows grouped tightly together to the east. Below these are three red terra-cotta panels, and below the sidewalk level is the basement areaway with historic wrought-iron stairs, railings and gate. The entrance has a single wood-and-leaded-glass door, slightly recessed, with transom light, wrought-iron grille, and carved limestone lintel. The 1st-floor facade has wide limestone bands.

There are ornamental terra-cotta panels below the three 2nd-floor sills; the 2nd-floor windows feature transoms set off by a continuous granite band and projecting limestone hoods with carved brackets featuring carved shells, and splayed keystones. The center bay projects out from the side bays. The 2nd floor is crowned by terra-cotta herringbone panels and a corbeled cornice featuring a bracketed pediment and geometrically-patterned terra-cotta panel, limestone moldings, and sloping roof, centered on the eastern two bays. The 3rd floor is recessed behind this small, stone slope at the eastern two bays; the western bay has a double-window framed in red iron, with ornamental wrought-iron grilles. The 3rd floor is topped by a steeply-sloping metal roof with a small, projecting geometrical panel at the left side.

www.writershouse.com/home/
daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-astor-office...