Hill Publishing Building

 office building  Add category

223-foot, 14-story Italian-Renaissance/Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1914. Designed by Starrett & Van Vleck, it opened as the McGraw-Hill Company Building, and served as their headquarters before their 42nd edifice was planned. The two main facades (east and south) are clad in white terra-cotta. The east facade on the avenue is six bays wide, with entrances in both end bays. They have black metal-framed glass double-doors with sidelights and transoms. The floors above have paired casement windows. The middle four bays have modern glass storefront at the ground floor, with black metal framing organizing them into three main panes below three transom panes. The piers around these bays are fluted, and the short capitals at the top of the 2nd floor have diamond shapes and ribbon-like moldings. The upper floors have triple casement windows. A dentiled band course underlines the 3rd floor, which is topped by a cornice. Flatter band courses with roundels inscribed in rectangle outlines separate the floors below the 6th, 8th, & 10th. The 12th-13th floors are set off by a dentiled band course, and the 2-story window openings are slightly recessed and segmental-arched, with black metal spandrels between these floors at the middle bays. The 13th floor is crowned by a projecting, modillioned, white terra-cotta cornice, and the top floor is set back above it, with a chamfered southeast corner.

The south facade on 36th Street spans 11 bays, with similar design to the east facade. The ground floor has a freight entrance at the west end bay, followed by two loading docks, a service entrance, and a secondary entrance with double-doors. The west and north elevations are clad in plain beige brick with no openings, except for a recessed area of the north facade, which has six bays of casement windows, arched at the 13th floor, and with smaller windows at the 14th floor.

The ground floor is occupied by Sean Kelly Gallery.

usmodernist.org/AMAR/AMAR-1915-0224.pdf