1239 Broadway (New York City, New York) | office building

 office building  Add category

217-foot, 17-story office building completed in 1917. Designed by Katz & Feiner as a factory, it is one of the few buildings that does not align with the gridiron of Manhattan's streets. Instead, the north, east and south walls align with the angle of Broadway. Originally known as the Colonial Building, it is clad in brown brick, with a shallow but wide light court on the north side.

The Broadway facade has a 3-story limestone base, painted beige at the ground floor with a high orange granite water table. The entrance to the upper floors is at the north end, under a rounded red canopy, with a show-window at the south end, also under a red canopy, and a brass and glass storefront in the center. At the top of the ground floor are faux balustrades balconies at the end bays, and a dentiled cornice with finials surmounted by panels at the center. The 2nd & 3rd floors have iron-framed tripartite windows in the middle bay, with pale green iron spandrels panels between the floors. The end bays have tall, narrow single-windows. A dentiled cornice caps the base.

The upper floors are clad in sandstone-colored brick. The 4th floor has stone surrounds at the windows, three in the center bay and one at each end bay, all topped by cornices; those at the end bays also have rounded finials on the cornices. The floors above have triple-windows in the center bay, divided by black iron mullions. All the windows have stone sills.The 14th floor is set off by a cornice at top and bottom. The windows at the 15th & 16th floors are narrower, with piers separating the three center windows, which are topped by a cornice with four large modillions at the main roof line.

The 6th Avenue facade has a tall ground floor of grey-painted stone; there are entrances in the end bays and a wider storefront in the middle. At the 2nd-4th floors, four brick piers with slightly-projecting centers separate the end bays with their double-windows from the triple-windows in the center bay. The piers have stylized stone capitals and support a stone cornice across the 4th floor. The brick spandrels between the floors in each bay are ornamented with small stone squares around the edges, and a stone diamond shape in the center.

On the upper floors, the fenestration pattern of triple-windows in the middle and double-windows at the end bays continues. Along the entire facade the brick has a faint crosshatch pattern. Another stone cornice caps the 14th floor and the main roof line above the 16th floor has a brick parapet with a shallow peaked center, ornamented by a single stone diamond shape.

The very wide northern and southern facades are clad in brown brick. The south side has 14 bays of paired windows above the adjoining lower buildings to the south. The west and east ends of this elevation are windowless; the west end is faced over in concrete stucco, and both sides have large signs at the upper floors. A metal vent pipe runs up the facade to the right of center, and the whole elevation is dotted with protruding air-conditioning units. In the center, the parapet wall extends up higher, with a pair of water towers mounted on its roof. A smaller penthouse level is also located above the main roof line. The north facade has five bays of paired windows on the north-facing wall of the light court. A single bay of windows lines each side-facing wall, with the eastern one covered by a metal fire escape. The outer wings of the north elevation have fewer windows. The east wing has a bay of paired windows at the far east end, and another bay of single-windows near the center, above the level of the 6th floor. At the lower portion the shadow of the former adjoining building is visible, now covered with advertising signs. The west wing has a single bay of paired windows at the west end.

A very large billboard is attached to the roof of the building at the east end, fixed by metal braces that extend down onto the 16th floor. The ground floor is occupied by U.S. Jewelry.