The Monolith Building

 office building  Add category

150-foot, 12-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1907. Designed by Howells and Stokes, it spans through the block to a narrow frontage on 35th Street. The 2-story base on 34th Street is faced in beige-painted limestone, with a recessed entrance at the west end that has glass doors and a metal-and-glass canopy; a vertical sign attached to the wall above the canopy has the building address on it. The rest of the ground floor consists of a modern storefront of glass and black metal, with large wood-planked panel across the top. The 2nd floor has a wide horizontal windows flanked by two smaller windows, centered over the storefront.

The 3rd floor is faced in stone, with four windows centered on the facade, and additional windows in the two end bays. There are projecting panels on the piers. Above a band course, the upper floors are clad in stone at the end bays, with windows matching those below. The middle section is framed from the 4th-8th floors by a band of ornate carvings. Within the band there are three bays per floor, with triple-windows in the center and double-windows in the other two bays. The triple-windows are divided by iron mullions. Narrow stone pilasters separate the three bays and stone spandrels separate the floors in each bay. The 9th floor has an arcade of eight round-arches, spaced wider apart at the end bays. Narrow brackets frame each arch and support a stone cornice above. The 10th -11th floors have a continuation of the carved bands and window configuration seen below. The top floor is set off by a stone cornice that projects further forward and has dentils at the middle section. It consists of six square-headed windows, capped by a final modest stone cornice.

The 35th Street facade has a 2-story base framed in rusticated limestone. At the ground floor there is a small service entrance under a triangular pediment at the right side, and a roll-down metal gate at the left. A black cast-iron spandrel separates the 2nd floor, which has a large central window pane and multi-paned side windows. The limestone 3rd floor, with cornice at the bottom and top, has four square-headed windows and shallow panels on the piers. The rest of the upper floors match the south facade, only without the end bays seen on 34th Street.

The east elevation is faced in stone at the front, with stucco further back. The front bay of windows matches the end bays on the south facade, while the other bays have double-windows. The ground floor is occupied by a Levi's store.