The Cass Gilbert Condominium

 condominium, interesting place, Art Deco (architecture), Egyptian Revival (architecture)

246-foot, 20-story Assyrian-Revival/Art-Deco residential building completed in 1928. Designed by Cass Gilbert as an office, showroom, and manufacturing building called the S.J.M. Building, it was converted in 2004 to residential, and renamed after its architect.

The 2-story base has glass-and-metal storefronts flanked by white travertine marble-framed entryways. The rest of the facade is composed of brick, with large, metal-framed, industrial windows, and terra-cotta at the spandrel panels, window sills, and cornices, as well as in panels over the two main entrances. The two large storefronts in the middle have large, plate-glass windows in metal framework, with sections of the original metal grill beneath the glass. The double-height metal piers at the outside and between the two stores are original. Each store has a central entrance with double glass doors recessed between the windows. The eastern entrance is for freight, while that on the west is for pedestrians. Each opening is topped by mirror-image terra-cotta panels displaying a hunting scene of two men standing in a horse-drawn chariot. One has a bow and arrow pointed towards a running antelope, with a smaller cat running beneath the horse's legs. The terra-cotta designs are in light tan on a darker brown background. The panels are flanked by highly-stylized, three-dimensional terra-cotta figures of fiercely-roaring lions, their heads and front legs seeming to emerge from the marble wall. Recessed within the marble at the western side is a bronze and glass doorway composed of three doors topped by a bronze cornice bearing the words "130 West Thirtieth Street." Above the cornice is a transom divided into three sections by bronze mullions. The marble surround, terra-cotta panel and bronze insignia are the same on the eastern entrance. Recessed within it however, is a non-historic freight entrance.

Above the base, the building rises straight up for eight floors. It is symmetrically arranged with a center section eight bays wide and side sections, each one-bay wide. The side bays are faced with brick and each has a single, 3-over-3 window at each floor. In the spandrels between each floor, the brick is laid as headers, creating a patterned effect. Within each bay of the center section is a large window, separated from its neighbor by a narrow metal pier which rise continuously to the bottom of the first cornice.

Beneath each window, completely filling the area between the floors, is a rectangular panel in monotone tan terra-cotta. Each panel is completely filled with patterns and designs, including a central circle containing a bird with spread wings, surrounded by a grid in which each section contains a flower. Strips of geometric designs frame each panel. At the top of this section is a cornice that extends across the front and both sides of the building. The frieze consists of panels of stylized terra-cotta designs featuring light tan motifs on a darker brown ground. Two patterns alternate: facing winged beasts (lions bodies with horses heads), and facing winged lions with human heads on top of the animal heads. Between each panel is a narrow section containing a stylized palm tree. The entire cornice is framed by strips of zig-zag patterns.

Above the 10th floor, the front facade steps back the width of one-half a bay. The pattern of the entire front facade, with eight central bays and single side bays, is repeated at this story, and includes another terra-cotta cornice with the same design that begins next to the center section and extends across the side bays and on both sides of the building.

At the 11th floor, the two side bays step back another half a bay, while the center section continues straight up through three more stories. At the top of the 14th floor is another cornice that goes across the entire front and both sides of the building. Across the center section and its reveals, the cornice is set in a metal frame around each panel, with gargoyles that project between each bay. At the 15th floor the entire front facade steps back another half bay, with the terra-cotta cornice starting again at each side bay and continuing around the sides of the building. Above the 15th floor the two side bays again step back a half bay while the center section rises through the next two floors. At the top of the 17th floor is another terra-cotta cornice with metal enframements around each panel where it crosses the center section. The entire front facade steps back again after this floor. Another floor rises above this cornice with windows in the center section, while the two side bays continue as unfenestrated towers for several stories. Each is capped by a terra-cotta cornice around all four facades.

The side facades of this building are primarily faced in plain brick above the neighboring buildings, except for the terra-cotta cornices, that highlight each side and the one or two bays of industrial windows with sash similar to that on the front which are located near the front, center and rear of the side facade.

The building now contains 45 condominium units. The ground floor is occupied by Congregation Beit Simchat Torah.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2101.pdf
archive.org/details/atlantic-terra-cotta-vol-9-1927-280...