Pennsylvania Exchange Bank Building

 office building  Add category

246-foot, 21-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1925. Designed by George & Edward Blum, it is clad in buff-colored brick above a 3-story white limestone base. The south facade on 26th Street spans seven bays, with the main entrance in the 3rd bay from the east. It has a slightly-recessed round-arched doorway in a sleek molding, with three glass doors below the large, arched transom. The interesting steel canopy above consists of a row of thin, vertical metal fins that form a band to either side of the entrance, above the ground floor, but at the entry bay they rotate and project out in a rounded form, creating a wedge-like sail shape. The east end bay has a freight entrance with metal double-doors separated from a window above by a black iron panel with three rosettes and a decorative border. The other bays have modern glass-and-metal storefronts, with the metal fins extending over the bay to the east of the entrance and the two bays to the west. Simple black metal panels separate the lower two floors at the two western end bays.

The 2nd floor has very large windows, mostly with larger outer panes separated by two stacked narrow panes in the middle, except for the east end bay which has a tripartite window configuration, and the bay above the main entrance, which is smaller with a tripartite window. The 3rd floor has a wide 4-over-2 window in each bay.

The west facade on the avenue has four bays, with more storefront bays on the ground floor, and the two floors above follow the established pattern. The base is capped by a stone cornice with a band of foliate ornament on both facades.

The upper floors have three windows in each bay, and the brick spandrels between floors each have an outlined brick square. On the south facade there is a setback above the 12th floor, except at the east end bay and the 2nd bay from the west, both of which set back above the 14th floor. The north two bays at the west facade also set back above the 12th floor, as does the south bay, with an angled corner at the 13th-14th floors. Additional cascading setbacks continue every two floors to the roof line on both facades. The angled southwest corner narrows as the setbacks ascend, culminating in an 8-sided corner tower (with wider main planes and narrower corners) that terminates at the 20th floor.

The east facade is clad in reddish-brown brick, except for a short return of the buff-colored brick at the front edge. It has a bay of three windows and another bay of paired windows at the south end, reducing as the setbacks begin. The north facade is similarly clad, with a bay of double-windows at the east end that opens onto projecting balconies with metal railings. Next to these are a single-window and a smaller double-window. The west end of the north elevation has two bays of three windows and another single-window, with the western two bays reducing at the setbacks begin.

The ground floor is occupied by a convenience store, and Yasubee ramen restaurant.