Wilson Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, 1912_construction

161-foot, 12-story office building completed in 1912. Designed by Rouse & Goldstone, both its main facades are clad in limestone, coursed at the upper floors and rusticated at the top two floors of the 3-story base. The west facade along Broadway is nine bays wide, and the north facade on 33rd Street spans seven bays; they meet at a narow 1-bay rounded corner at the northwest. The ground floor is dark-green cast-iron, with highly ornamented piers around storefronts. An iron lintel above the storefronts is marked at each bay by an overlapping iron shield and garland. An ornate foliate band runs above this lintel, topped by a stone band course with a Greek-fret design at the base of he 2nd floor. The main entrance is at the southernmost bay on Broadway, and a service entrance in at the easternmost bay on 33rd Street - the only ground-floor bays in stone. The main entrance has modern glass doors and transom, a lightly carved surround, and narrow brackets supporting a modillioned and dentiled cornice above. The service entrance has metal doors, and rosettes in the surround; the brackets and cornice match that on the main entrance, but are topped by a cartouche.

The 2nd & 3rd floors have tripartite windows in each bay, with brown iron mullions. At the southernmost bay on Broadway, the 2nd floor window has a stone surround with simple circles, curved buttresses, and a cartouche on top. A stone shield is located between the 2nd- and 3rd-floor single-windows at the rounded corner. The entire base is capped by a dentiled cornice above a ornate carved frieze.

The upper floors have paired windows, divided by stone pilasters with carved designs. The 10th floor has carved shields on the piers and is topped by another cornice and frieze. The top two floors have an arcade of 2-story paired round-arches in each bay, grouped together under larger ornately carved arches with cartouches. The stone spandrels between the two floors are also intricately carved. Both facades are crowned by an impressive stone roof cornice with a frieze, dentils, console brackets alternating with rosettes, and finials along the top edge. The ground floor is occupied by a Duane Reade pharmacy, and My.Suit made-to-measure men's clothing store.