New York Telephone Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, telecommunication, 1924_construction, 1917_construction

223-foot, 12-story telecom hotel building originally completed in 1917 as a 5-story building at 206-228 West 36th. Designed by McKenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin, it was originally the New York Telephone Building. A 12-story annex on the west end was completed in 1924, along with four new floors on the original structure. The facades very nearly match, with only a slightly more orange shade of brick on the newer annex, and a cornice at the 7th floor visually terminating the front walls.

There is a low limestone base with square windows and iron grilles for the raised basement. The original building spans 17 bays, with an additional 16 bays along the annex. At the far west end there is a roll-down metal gate fronting an alleyway back to a final recessed bay. The original entrance is in the 6th bay from the east, framed in stone along with the two flanking bays that have narrow windows. The doorway is recessed under a round-arch with a scrolled keystone; the two flanking bays have pairs of triglyphs supporting a stone entablature with the inscription "TELEPHONE BUILDING". The matching annex entrance is at the first three bays at the east end of the annex, with the only differences being the lack of the inscription in the entablature, and a small set of steps leading up to a more modern metal-and-glass door (the original entrance now acts as a service entrance, with a metal gate and metal louvers over the door). Each of the windows in the other bays have stone sills and brick lintels. The opening in the 4th bay east of the annex is bricked in at the first four floors. The 1st floor is capped by a stone band course.

The upper floors have matching rows of windows, a few replaced with metal louvers. A thin stone cornice tops the 2nd floor, and another at the 5th marks the original roof line. At the 6th-7th floors, the openings at alternating groups are either very slightly recessed and have modillioned sills at the 7th floor, or have stone panels in the spandrels between the two floors. All of the 7th-floor windows have keystones the tops. A dentiled cornice tops the 7th floor.

The 8th & 9th floors are recessed, with similar windows as the lower floors. At both ends, the outer four bays are topped by a triangular pediment with a metal roof. Behind another small setback the annex portion rises three more floors. At the 12th floor the eight middle windows are set back, and the four windows on either end are topped by two more triangular pediments with metal roofs. Each of the pediments have a round window below the peak. Behind and above the eastern of the two taller pediments is a mechanical penthouse, also with a sloped metal roof, and at the far west end is the deeply recessed end bay, also topped with a sloped metal roof.

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