WeWork Bryant Park Coworking

 office building, interesting place

122-foot, 11-story office building completed in 1903 as a clubhouse. Designed by York & Sawyer, it opened as the Republican Club, the first of several club buildings on this block. Three bays wide, it is clad in white brick and terra-cotta above a 2-story limestone base, which is rusticated and dominated by four banded Tuscan columns. The three bays are recessed between the columns, with doorways in the eastern two, and a window in the western bay, set behind a low balustrade. Above the ground-floor window and doors are one large console bracket and two smaller brackets in each bay, supporting shallow, rounded stone balconies at the 2nd floor, with elaborate wrought-iron railings. The 2nd-floor windows consist of two tall main panes surrounded by smaller transom-style panes at the sides and top. The windows are surmounted by roaring lion's heads and carved garlands, above which is an entablature supported by the columns; its frieze has alternating roundels and triglyphs, surmounted by a cornice with an egg-and-dart molding. The soffit, or underside, of the cornice has a pattern of alternating checkerboard-like squares and diamond shapes.

A balustrades stone railing rises from the cornice, with two flagpoles projecting from the end bays. The brick facade has terra-cotta banding at the ends and between the bays of the 3rd floor, each of which has a large window with a banded surround, topped by pediments - the center pediment is rounded, while the other two are triangular. The floors above have paired windows in each bay, with simple stone sills and keystones. At the 5th and 8th floors, each bay has a shallow stone balcony supported on small brackets, with wrought-iron railings. A band course runs atop the 8th floor, above which most of the original ornament has been stripped off the facade. The 9th floor has paired windows as below, and the shadow of where a metal cornice once stood, while the 10th floor has larger, square, multi-paned windows. The top floor consists of a mansard roof pierced by three rounded dormers.

In 1963, after the Republican Club moved out, the building was overtaken by Daytop Village, the country's oldest drug counseling service, who remained in the building until 2012. The building is now occupied by WeWork-Bryant Park, offering co-working space for lease as well as event space.

The ground floor is also occupied by Blue Bottle Coffee.

www.wework.com/buildings/135-w-41st-st--new-york-city--...