40 West 37th Street (New York City, New York)

 office building  Add category

158-foot, 13-story office building completed in 1924. Designed by Springsteen & Goldhammer, it is clad in grey-brown brick above a 2-story beige-painted limestone base. The ground floor has a pair of slightly recessed entrances at the east end, with double glass doors framed in black marble, and topped by a modern steel canopy, with a black marble panel above it. To the right are a pair of small stainless steel and glass storefronts. The 2nd floor has three joined tripartite windows, with lower transoms, and is separated from the ground floor by paneled spandrels. The base is capped by a stone cornice.

The upper floors are divided into three bays. The 3rd floor has wide window openings, divided by black iron framing into 4-over-2 panes, with narrow transoms on top, surmounted by three recessed brick round-arches in each bay. Stone circles with heraldic shields ornament the piers, and the floor is topped by a band course with a wave motif and row of dentils.

The floors above has paired windows in each bay, with separate stone sills, and are dotted by protruding air-conditioning units. The 11th floor has full stone surrounds at each window, beveled back toward the openings. At their bases they have projecting sills and at the tops there are cornices at each bay with rows of five corbelled round-arches. The end bays set back above the 11th floor, joined to the middle bay by side walls angling sharply back, each with a single-window. The end bays have single-windows, and the center bay has two square windows at the 13th floor, and a single window with an elaborate stone surround at the 12th floor, rounded at the top. The roof line is marked by a corbelled parapet. The ground floor is occupied by Exquisite Gems & Jewelry, and Gotham Quilts.