Clinton Hell's Kitchen Studios

 theatre, apartment building

10-story residential building/theater originally completed in 1930 as a factory. It was renovated into artist studios, rehearsal and performance spaces, offices for not for profit theater companies, music studios, and two galleries. The building houses the Ensemble Studio Theater on the 2nd floor, a compact black box theater founded in 1968 by Curt Dempster with a group of 20 theater artists. It has since grown into a company of actor, directors, playwrights and designers, and produces original, provocative, and authentic new plays.

The main facade is clad in red brick above a 2-story limestone base. There are recessed entrances at both ends, framed by 2-story pilasters, with glass-and-metal double-doors below tall transoms. The 2nd floor has a narrow double-window in both end bays, and the wide center bay has triple-windows, with larger glass panes at the ground floor and smaller industrial panes at the 2nd, both with transoms, both framed in black iron, and with an iron spandrel in between. The base is capped by a dentiled stone cornice.

The upper floors have three bays of double-windows in the middle, and narrower double-window end bays; they have simple stone sills. At the top two floors the brick is painted a slightly darker shade, and the window bays are recessed, with smaller openings with single-windows.

Set back at the east end is a brick-clad elevator shaft with no openings (although a bay of former windows on the east side has been bricked-in). The rear section of the east facade, behind the elevator shaft, has three bays, each with three single-windows, and the floors and bays are divided by stone bands. Some of the openings are bricked-in here as well. Extending from the east end is a small, 1-story commercial wing, set back from the lot line. It is occupied by Cybert Tire.