Tower 39

 office building  Add category

266-foot, 25-story Neo-Gothic office building completed in 1928. Designed by Charles B. Meyers, it is clad in buff-colored brick above a 3-story limestone base (painted beige at the ground floor). On the east facade there are three bays of differing widths, and on the north facade there are five wide bays and a very narrow bay at the west end. The ground floor has the main entrance in the narrow south bay on the avenue, with recessed brass-and-glass doors framed by projecting piers on large black granite plinths, topped by pointed Gothic forms. The other bays all have brass-and-glass storefronts divided into lower and upper windows by horizontal, brass-colored metal panels, and topped by brass vents - except for the narrow end bay at the west, which has a service entrance. The ground floor is capped by a small cornice. The 2nd & 3rd floors have 2-story stone piers and simple stone spandrels between the two floors in each bay. The north facade has bands of three show-windows in each bay, except for the wider second-from-east bay which has four windows, and the narrow end bay with single openings filled by metal louvers. The east facade has three windows in the north bay, four in the middle bay, and a single-window in the south bay above the entrance. On both facades the base is capped by a cornice with a band of alternating diminutive crests with faces.

The upper floors have similar bay divisions. On the east facade there are three windows in both main bays (the windows themselves are wider in the wider bay), and single-windows in the narrow south bay. On the north facade there are three windows in each bay, except for four in the 2nd from east, and single-openings all with metal louvers in the narrow west bay. All the windows have simple stone sills, and there are square panels in the brick spandrels.

There are a series of shallow setbacks at the top floors, starting at the ends bays above the 17th floor. The two middle bays on the north facade extend to the 19th floor before setting back; each of these first setbacks is marked by vertical brick bands above the windows and angled projections with stone caps on the piers. There are additional setbacks every two floors above, marked by simpler stone copings. Three round water towers are visible on the roof.

The front of the south elevation, exposed by the recessed nature of the neighboring building's facade, is clad in reddish-brown brick with no openings. There are thin rectangular outlines in light-colored brick of the main, lower wall section and the setbacks above. The west elevation matches that on the south, with outlined rectangles at the setbacks. The ground floor is occupied by Golden Paradise jewelers, 7-Eleven convenience store, and Moge Tee sushi/bubble tea.