Citibank (New York City, New York)

 bank, interesting place

2-story Art-Deco commercial building completed in 1931 as a cafeteria. Designed by F. P. Platt & Brother with decorating by Rambusch Studio, it is clad in beige cast-stone and terra-cotta, with a pink-orange granite water table. There are entrances in the two end bays with stainless-steel-and-glass double-doors, and a large, 2-story area of glass infill in between, divided by black metal framing into six windows, with a signband at the top of both floors. The end bays have tall bay windows with slightly angled end panes at the 2nd floor, with brown terra-cotta frames and simple Art-Deco shapes on top. The roof parapet has gentle arches at the end bays, with simple detailing in brown terra-cotta.

The building opened as the Horn & Hardart Cafeteria. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart opened their first restaurant in Philadelphia on December 22 1888. In 1912 they expanded into New York with “waiterless restaurants” in which customers chose food items from glass-doored compartments, inserted a coin and removed the food. The 2-story automat built here could accommodate at least 200 patrons. The automat closed in 1967, but the building continued to house a restaurant on the first floor, including a Gray’s Papaya in the 1990s; while over the decades the upper floor was home to a business school, a “physical culture establishment,” and a billiard hall.

In the 2000s, the entire building housed the Acker Merrall & Condit wine store, and is now occupied by a Citibank branch.

www.landmarkwest.org/building/170-172-west-72nd-street-...
usmodernist.org/AMAR/AMAR-1930-08.pdf
www.americanbuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/109138