20 West 36th Street

 office building  Add category

150-foot, 12-story Renaissance-revival office building from 1911. Designed by Samuel Sass, it is clad in dark-brown brick above a 3-story limestone base. There are twin entrances at the ends of the ground floor, with a modernized storefront in the middle. The entrances are framed by paneled piers with black granite bases, and topped by entablatures with dentiled cornices. The east side has the main entrance, with a service entrance at the western bay. The 2nd floor has single-windows in the end bays, with full stone surrounds. The wide window band in the middle has four center panes and two wider end panes, divided by black cast-iron pilasters. Each floor above has three equal bays. Those on the 3rd floor have tripartite windows with transoms and black metal frames, all joined by a sill course with corbelled brackets. The base is capped by a simple cornice.

The upper floors have triple-windows between the brick piers, with iron mullions and fluted spandrels decorated with medallions in the centers. At the top of the 10th floor, the piers have carve stone caps, and support a frieze and dentiled cornice. The top two floors have 2-story stone pilasters between the piers, and stone spandrels. The tops of the piers have different carved capitals from those at the 10th floor, which - along with keystone brackets above the center of each bay - support a stone roof cornice. A large water tower on the roof is visible from the street. The ground floor is occupied by Capsule pharmacy.