257 West 38th Street

 office building  Add category

19-foot, 16-story office building completed in 1928. Designed by George & Edward Blum, it is clad in brown brick above a 4-story base of limestone and cast-iron. The facade is organized into three main bays separated by two narrower bays. The main entrance is in the westernmost bay, with modern glass doors, while the easternmost bay has a service entrance. Both have a tall, brown metal panel on top, with a darker brown metal surround enclosing the bay. The middle bay has a plate-glass storefront with entrances in the two narrow bays on either side. The middle bay is also topped by metal panels in a lighter shade of brown and has a thinner brown metal surround. At the 2nd-4th floors, the three main bays are framed in dark-brown cast-iron surrounds with tiny, paired dentil courses on the sides. The outer bays each have three windows, while the wider middle bay has four; the floors within the bays are divided by simple spandrel panels. The two narrow bays have single-windows and taller, paneled stone spandrels. The base is capped by blind cast-stone arcade.

The bay division continues on the upper floors, with paired windows in the end bays, single-windows in the narrow bays, and three windows in the middle bay. The piers between the bays have paired dentil courses from the 5th floor to the lower part of the 7th. The spandrels above the 5th floor have elaborately ornamental stone panels, but those above have simple geometrically paneled brick. The three outer windows set back above the 11th floor, where there are cast-stone capitals. The middle section sets back above the 13th floor, creating the effect of a projecting central tower with angled sides. There are additional shallow setbacks leading up to the roof line; all the setbacks have cast-stone and patterned brick ornament with stone coping. The ground floor is occupied by Sil Thread.