Gimbels Administration Building (New York City, New York)

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226-foot, 16-story office building completed in 1912. Designed by William H. Gompert, it was originally called the Cuyler Building. It was later bought by the Gimbels department store across the street (now the Manhattan Mall) to use as their corporate offices. It extends through the block to 31st Street, and both facades have 3-story limestone bases, three bays wide. The ground floor has been covered in newer grey granite facing on 32nd Street. The main entrance is at the west end, with glass doors, and storefronts to the left. The ground floor on 31st Street has been partially covered with ribbed sheet metal panels, with additional storefronts.

The 2nd-3rd floors have black iron infill, with four windows in each bay. The center spandrel panel in each bay has a shield flanked by garlands, and the end panels are fluted. There are stylized capitals on the piers, and the base is topped by a modillioned and dentiled cornice.

The upper floors are clad in buff-colored brick, with five windows in each bay. Ornate white stone carvings highlight the center piers at the 4th floor. There is a projecting modillioned cornice above the 13th floor, and a green copper roof cornice with large modillions and dentils. The western elevation is clad in brown brick, with three bays of small windows on the 31st Street end, and a faded painted sign the Gimbels still at the top, visible from 31st Street. The 32nd Street Street end has one bay each of double-windows, triple-windows, and single-windows.

On 32nd Street, a 3-story Art-Deco skybridge clad in copper connects to the Manhattan Mall, which was Gimbels Department Store at the time of the skybridge's construction in 1926. The company bought the 8-story office building across the street at 116 West 32nd, and renamed it the Gimbels Administration Building. Designed by Shreve & Lamb, the triplex skybridge has broad windows and magnificent green-patina copper cladding. Although there is classical ornament, such as pilasters and coffers, the flat, machinelike character of the material suggests Art Deco, then barely emergent in the United States. It fill the western bay, from the 10th -12th floors. In 1995 plans to demolish it were filed, but did not proceed. The bridge endures, apparently unused, although open from at least one end. A former "ghost sign advertisement" from the Gimbels era can be viewed on the west side of the building over the uppermost floors on the 31st Street side.

The ground floor is occupied by Cafe R.