Kaufman Wales Building

USA / New Jersey / West New York / West 36th Street, 242
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158-foot, 13-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1923. Designed by Schwartz & Gross, it is clad in brown brick above a 2-story beige-painted sandstone base. There are five main bays, the widest in the middle, and two smaller end bays. The ground floor has a central entrance recessed within a beveled stone frame and topped by a modest cornice. On either side are narrow entrances to the bordering plate-glass storefronts. There are two more storefronts in the next bays, and service entrances in the narrow end bays, which have recessed single-windows at the 2nd floor. The other bays have tripartite windows at the 2nd floor, except for the middle bay, which has four windows separated by stone pilasters. The stone piers dividing the bays have simple stylized capitals at the 2nd floor. The base is capped by a stone band course above a frieze with a simpler circle above each pier.

At the upper floors the middle bay has four windows, and the other main bays have three, each grouped with stone sill courses. The end bays have narrow openings with deeply recessed windows. Some protruding air-conditioning units dot the facade. A dentiled cornice runs across the 10th floor, except at the middle bay, with heraldic shields at the piers framing the end bays. There is a setback above this floor, except for the middle bay, which extends three more floors to a gabled roof with dentiled cornice, heraldic shields at the ends, and a dentiled cornice along the gable and wrapping around the sides. On either side of the middle bay, the 11th floor has three windows slightly set-back, and the 12th floor has a single window. The ground floor is occupied by L.A. New York boutique, Alberto Makali boutique, Genuine Wholesale, and Belma Fashions.
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Coordinates:   40°45'10"N   73°59'29"W
This article was last modified 2 years ago