Remsen Building (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / Madison Avenue, 148
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226-foot, 16-story Neo-Gothic office building completed in 1916. Designed by Wallis & Goodwillie, it was built at the same time and with matching floor heights as the building to the south. Both main facades are clad in grey brick above a 4-story white terra-cotta base. The Madison Avenue facade has a wide center bay with three windows, and single-window end bays; the 32nd Street elevation has five bays - wider in the center.

The ground floor has the entrance to the upper floors at the south, a large show-window in the center, and entrance to the storefront at the north end on the avenue. Both the entrances have double-doors, and are topped by triple arched niches backed with black tile; the shorter side arches have Gothic ornament on top, and the taller middle arch is topped by a Gothic spire extending up to the base of the 2nd floor. The main entrance also has a panel reading "REMSEN BUILDING" just above the doors, and a gold-leaf ribbon around a colorful shield at the base of the narrow arches. The large plate-glass show-window in the center is topped by three square transoms with leaded-glass. The piers and spandrels of the base are faced in patterned terra-cotta tiles.

The three eastern bays on the north facade have more storefronts , with the transoms either filled with leaded glass or metal louver vents. The 2nd-westernmost bay has a storefront entrance topped by brown metal panels and vents, and two lower squares of leaded glass. The farthest east bay has a freight entrance with metal service doors topped by a panel reading "FREIGHT" and narrow round-arches of equal size. The 2nd & 3rd floors have tripartite windows in the center, with the western side windows in the 2nd-to-westernmost bay replaced by metal louvers. The eastern bay has a double-window, and the westernmost bay narrow, paired openings: a window topped by a metal vent on the left, and a recessed balcony with an iron railing on the right. On the east facade, the 2nd-4th floors all have triple-windows in the center and narrower windows at the end bays. The 4th-floor triple-window is divided by terra-cotta pilasters instead of the metal mullions seen below. At the north facade, the 4th floor has paired windows in the middle bays (the westermost replaced by a metal louver), and double-windows separated by pilasters in the end bays.

The brick upper floors also have paired windows in the middle, with single-windows at the eastern bay, and the paired combination of window and recessed balcony with iron railing in the western bay. The east facade continues the pattern of three center windows and single-windows in the end bays.

The 13th floor is underscored by a cornice at the center bays of both facades, with the 14th floor framed at top and bottom by narrow string courses. Below the bottoms string course (at the top of the 13th floor) a cornice-like stone projection forms a base for the stone pilasters that each bay at the top three floors into three windows. Ornamental carved spandrels with cartouches are located above each 14th-story window, including at the end bays (except for the western end bay on 31st Street). Shallow Gothic arches terminate the window at the top of the center bays; above them the roof line is decorated by an ornate band course that projects out and down at the center bays. The western elevation is a blank brick wall. The ground floor is occupied by Fields Good Chicken, and Five Guys burgers.
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Coordinates:   40°44'47"N   73°59'3"W
This article was last modified 7 months ago