Bankers Trust Company Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, high-rise, 1930_construction

282-foot, 20-story Neo-Gothic/Art-Deco office building completed in 1930. Designed by William Whitehall for Vincent Astor's Bankers Trust Company, it has a 2-story limestone base (spanning five bays on 8th Avenue and four bays on 14th Street) with a modillioned stone cornice and a marble-framed main entrance, and upper floors clad in buff-colored brick with brown brick in the spandrels between the windows of each floor. There are multiple setbacks above the 12th floor on the south and west sides, a strong example of the "wedding cake" style resulting from the 1916 zoning law that required buildings to occupy less space as they went up. The north and east facades rise vertically from ground level to the building's elevator penthouse on top.

The lower floors were used as a banking hall and offices for Bankers Trust. The upper floors were largely occupied by Meatpacking District-related offices. This building is home to the Greenwich Village Chamber of Commerce, as well as the International Cinematographers Guild. The ground floor is now occupied by an HSBC bank branch.