The Martin Building

 office building, 1905_construction

166-foot, 14-story Beaux-Arts/Italian Renaissance office building originally completed in 1905 as an 11-story building for fur company Revellon Freres. Designed by Warren & Wetmore, it extended through the block to 30 West 35th Street, and was expanded on the east end of the south facade a year later. Revellon Freres moved further uptown in 1918, and Bedell Company, a women’s “cloak and suit” store, took over the former Revillon Building. Upper floors were leased to wholesale garment dealers like Rotary Frocks, Inc.

In 1928 architect Joseph Urban was commissioned to update the façade of the Bedell store. The banded limestone was replaced with four floors of sleek Art Deco polished black granite. Panels of streamlined zig-zag motifs and waterfall light fixtures contrasted with the dark stone. The entrance was protected by a lavish two-story Art Deco bowed screen. Meanwhile, on West 35th Street the old Revillon Freres façade lived on.

The wonderful Art Deco façade of Joseph Urban was demolished only a few years later. By the 1940s it had been replaced with a nondescript slab as Lerner Shops took over most of the building and installed arcade windows at street level. At the turn of the 21st Century, the building was renamed the Martin Building, which is emblazoned on the 3rd floor. Banana Republic took over the lower floors and the façade was once again revamped. Interestingly, Banana Republic’s entrance includes a 2-story bowed section reminiscent of Urban’s design. While Banana Republic remains, the building management again changed names to the Gray Building, joining it internally with another facade at 26 West 35th, which was completed in 1909 by Seymour & Schonewald. Both of the north facades extend to 11 stories.

The main south facade on 34th Street now has a 2-story base of painted, rusticated stone in grey and black. The main building entrance is at the west end, and the retail entrance is centered, with glass doors under a suspended metal canopy at the ground floor, and a rounded bay of glass at the 2nd floor, recessed at the ends. The 3rd floor is white stone, organized into three bays: the center has two windows with a horizontal pane over two vertical panes, and a smaller recessed square panel between the two windows. The outer bays both have three similar windows, with the center one being slightly narrower.

Above a projecting cornice, the upper floors are clad in limestone; the original west part of the facade is symmetrical, with three windows grouped in the center, and a single-window on either side. The eastern addition spans an additional three bays. Floors 4 & 5, and 6 & 7 are grouped together in pairs, set off by small cornices. The windows are floors 4 & 6 have rounded corners, while those on floors 5 & 7 are segmental-arched. The 8th-floor openings are round-arched with more distinct molded surrounds. All of the windows on the west section have keystones, while those on the east do not. The west part of the facade is also decorated with carved faced on the keystones at the 7th floor, and elaborate brackets supporting the dentiled cornice above the 8th floor. The 9th-floor windows are square-headed, and those on the 10th are segmental-arched with keystones (west side only). The 11th floor has window opening with rounded corners, and is topped by a projecting green copper cornice. The top three floors are recessed behind the cornice, faced in brown smooth stucco, with smaller square-headed windows.

On the north facade at 35th Street, the original design of the lower floors can be seen. The 2-story base is three bays wide, clad in banded limestone. There is a modernized storefront in the middle, but the twin entrance at the end bays remain. They are round-arched, with glass transoms, and have intricate carved oak leaves and acorns in the architraves and keystones. Cornices above the entries lead into segmental-arched window openings at the 2nd floor, with a wider segmental-arch in the center bay. All the 2nd-floor openings are filled in with metal louvers. The end arches have keystones, and the center arch is topped by a cartouche bearing the initial RF (for Revellon Freres) flanked by oak leaves. The cartouche, along with elaborate shield brackets at the ends, support a modillioned cornice that sets off the 3rd floor. This floor is faced in rusticated limestone, divided into four bays, as are all the upper floors. Each bay has rounded corners and recessed windows, and the 3rd floor is topped by an intricate frieze with flowers.

The 4th & 5th and 6th & 7th floors are grouped together in pairs, matching the south facade, with round-shouldered and segmental-arched openings and keystones. A cornice separates the lower pair from the upper, which has four carved faces on the 7th-floor keystones - two smug looking women and two aghast men. The 8th floor has an openwork balustrade at the bottom and keystones at the round-arches. Two large cartouches at the ends support a modillioned cornice; another cornice above the 10th floor has similar end cartouches and center brackets. The windows on the top floors are also round-shouldered and segmental-arched with keystones.

The non-matching, adjoining facade at the east is much plainer. It has a 2-story limestone base with three metal service doors at the ground floor, and five square-headed windows at the 2nd floor. The beige brick upper floors also have five bays, with square-headed windows and stone sills; the three middle windows are grouped closer together. A small, simple stone cornice caps the roof line at the 11th floor.

The western elevation is faced in brown smooth stucco with a mix of double- and single-windows. At mid-block, a central section juts out, lined with more single-windows; a metal vent pipe runs up the south side of this extension to above the roof line. The base is occupied by Banana Republic, with the small storefront on 35th Street occupied by Costas restaurant.

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