15 West 37th Street | office building, high-rise, 1921_construction

 office building, high-rise, 1921_construction

200-foot, 16-story office building completed in 1921. Designed by Schwartz & Gross, it is clad in brown brick above a 3-story limestone base. There are narrow end bays at the base, and three wider middle bays. At the ground floor the middle bays have plate-glass storefronts; the eastern end bay has the main entrance, framed in grey granite; and the western end bay has a metal service entrance. The stone piers are paneled, with stylized capitals supporting an entablature above the 2nd floor. The end bays have single-windows, and the middle bays have tripartite windows with transoms at the 2nd floor. The 3rd floor has three windows in each of the middle bays, and the main piers are ornamented with circles. A cornice caps the base.

The upper floors are divided into three bays; with three windows in the middle bay and four windows in the outer bays. The brick spandrels have stone sills and brick headers, and are decorated on alternating floors with stone diamond shapes. Bracketed, dentiled cornices top the windows in the outer bays at the 9th floor, and these bays set back above the 10th floor, where the piers have stone cartouches. The middle bay extends up to 11th floor, where it has a matching cornice to those on the ends, but with doubled brackets at its ends. At the end bays, there are additional setbacks every other floor, each with cartouches at the piers. The middle bay has a triangular pediment atop the 13th floor, before it also sets back to the top floors.

The west elevation, exposed in front of the set-back neighboring hotel building, has one bay of single-windows just in front of that building's facade, running up to the first setback. The east elevation is faced in beige smooth stucco, and has a couple offset bays of single-windows. The ground floor is occupied by Scott's Flowers, Magazine Cafe, Alpha Graphics, and 90 Degree by Reflex sportswear outlet.