Baer Building

 office building  Add category

299-foot, 24-story Renaissance-revival office building completed in 1926. Designed by Henry Ives Cobb, it is clad in buff-colored brick above a 4-story base of brick and stone. The east facade on the avenue is four bays wide, with five bays on the south facade along 38th Street. The ground floor is painted limestone, with a grey granite surround at the main entrance in the 2nd bay from the north, which has glass infill and doors, slightly recessed behind angled, black granite sidewalls. The other bays on the avenue are filled by plate-glass storefronts, as are the two eastern bays on 38th Street. The two to the left have brown iron infill, partially covered by a signboard, and there are service entrances at the west end. The ground floor is capped by a stone cornice.

The 2nd-4th floors have brick piers on stone bases, edged with rope moldings, and topped by stylized stone capitals. On the east facade the two outer bays are wider, with each bay's tripartite window divided by slender stone colonnettes. There are paneled stone spandrels between the floors. On the south facade the east bay is wider and also has colonnettes; the others simply have iron framing at the tripartite windows. There is a narrow extra bay at the west end, simply faced in brick between its two piers. On both main facades, the base is capped by a stone blind arcade and cornice.

The upper floors have three windows in each bay, except for the outer bays on the avenue (which have four), and the narrow western bay on 38th Street (which has single-windows). The only ornament on the shaft is a dentiled string course above the 5th floor, a band course above the 14th floor, and carved stone spandrels between the 15th & 16th floors. There is a small setback above the 16th floor, and at the 18th floor each window is topped by a round-arch, with another setback above. The southeast corner at the 19th-21st floors is chamfered, and the north and west halves of the facades are set back farther than the corner area. The are also topped by simple stone coping instead of the corbelled band course topping the 21st floor at the corner areas. The 22nd & 23rd floors are set back again, still with the chamfered corner, and have corbels between the window bays at the corner areas. The smaller penthouse level is clad in white brick and topped by a round water tower.

The front part of the north elevation, in front of the recessed neighboring building, is clad in buff-colored brick with vertical bands of dark-brown brick at the window bays, two of which remain uncovered. The front bay has single-windows, and the bay behind it has paired windows, starting above the base. There is a solitary single-window at the very front of the elevation, at the 11th floor; the single-window bays ends at the 17th floor due to the setbacks above. The ground floor is occupied by Angelina bakery, and New York Gifts & Luggage.