Kaskel & Kaskel Building | commercial building

 historical layer / disappeared object, commercial building

6-story Beaux-Arts mercantile building completed in 1902. Designed by Charles L. Berg (of the firm of Cady, Berg & See) for Kaskel & Kaskel, is it clad in marble and brick. Kaskel & Kaskel was a leading haberdashery at the turn of the century, providing shirts for the city’s wealthiest gentlemen, including the President of the United States. In 1915 the company opened a second store at 535 Fifth Avenue, and six years later the firm consolidated the stores into a single location at Fifth Avenue and 46th Street.

The building's original storefronts have been almost totally lost to various alterations, with the ground floor now covered by a hodgepodge of cluttered signage. The ground floor has upper-level windows of various sizes above the main storefronts. At the west end is the main entrance, surrounded by grey-painted stone.

The narrow east facade on the avenue has a 3-story recessed, segmental-arched central section framed by rusticated marble with beveled edges. The infill is green cast-iron with three windows at each floor, including a projecting, angled bay at the 2nd floor. The center window of this bay is topped by a small triangular pediment. The iron spandrels between the 3rd & 4th floors have ornamented panels. The top of the arch is highlighted by an elaborate cartouche bearing the initial "K", and flanked by acanthus leaves. To either side, an ornamental bracket supports a cornice that sets off the 5th floor - this floor has a triple-window in the center, between paneled piers, and as topped by a winged cartouche. The top floor consists of a slate mansard roof edge with green copper. A large copper dormer breaks the mansard on the east facade, with 3-over-2 windows and a triangular pediment.

The northeast corner of the building is rounded, and the western bay 3snd Street matches the east facade. The remaining five bays to the east are clad in banded beige brick. The first four are identical, with tripartite-windows framed in green cast-iron. The 4th-floor bays are topped by splayed brick lintels below the cornice that continues from the marble bays to the left. The 5th floor has keystones above the center windows in each bay. Four more, less ornate, copper dormers break the mansard at the 6th floor, each with a peaked pediment. The easternmost bay, above the stone entrance, projects forward, with a single stone-enframed window at each floor. Those on the 5th & 6th floors have elaborate keystones. A shorter mansard roof, edged in copper, tops the 6th floor's window.

The ground floor was occupied by Small Peace Soup & Smoothie, NY Gift Souvenirs, Golden Bough copy/photo, Black Fish tattoo, Mobile Flex mobile repair shop, Tonymoly cosmetics, and Basic Wireless.

The building was demolished in 2018 to be replaced with a residential tower designed by FXFOWLE.

daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/07/1902-kaskel-kask...
archive.org/details/sim_architectural-record_1903-05_13...
dcmny.org/islandora/object/nyhs%3A229
archive.org/details/isbn_9780486281469/page/30/mode/1up
digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-9a80-a3d9-e0...