The Armory Cooperative

 interesting place, Art Deco (architecture), apartment building, 1929_construction

9-story Art-Deco cooperative-apartment building completed in 1929 as the armory for the 77th Division of the United States Army Reserve, known as the Statue of Liberty" division. Designed by L.C. Holden, it is clad in buff-colored brick on both the 42nd & 43rd Street facades. In the early 1980s, the top eight floors were converted to 159 cooperative apartments and in the 1990s the ground floor and basement were used by the Actors Studio Free Theater and dance rehearsal studios. In 2000, the All Stars Project Inc., a 19-year-old non-profit theatrical production company bought the lower two floors for performance and rehearsal space and two 99-seat theaters and a 250-seat Off-Broadway theater.

The south facade on 42nd Street has 15 bays of single-windows in the center, recessed behind the piers with stone sills, and two end bays of double-windows. The eastern end bay has the main entrance, with glass doors and a rounded, blue canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk. The western end bay has metal service doors. Both have brick enframements with keystones and other limestone accents at the top. All of the middle bays on the ground floor have been re-clad in silver metal panels and glass, with a star-shaped opening at the middle for the entrance to the All Stars spaces.

The upper floors are dotted with protruding air conditioners, and the 6th floor is topped by a limestone band, with additional Art-Deco ornament around the end bays. At the 7th floor the end bays have wider-spaced paired windows above a small cornice supported on four stone brackets. These bays are topped by peaked stone pediments and have geometric forms on the piers. The middle bays are set back above the 6th floor, with a low metal railing fronting the terrace created by the setback. The recessed 7th & 8th floors are also clad in brick and have bays of small double-windows. The top floor is faced in black metal and glass, with an angled top.

On 43rd Street the facade spans four wide bays of triple-windows, with the panes separated by wide black metal mullions. The ground floor has infill of translucent glass blocks and small-paned, iron-framed windows at the top. There is another residential entrance at the west end, and a service entrance in the east bay. The piers at the ground floor are banded and have limestone bases and caps. A stone sill course sets off the upper floors, where the window groups all have stone sills. The brick in the spandrels and across the top of the ground floor is redder than on the piers. Like on the south facade, there is a setback above the 6th floor, creating terrace space in front of the recessed upper floors. The top floor is also faced in black metal and glass with an angled top.