The Steinam Building

 office building, high-rise, Art Deco (architecture), 1927_construction

233-foot, 18-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1927. Designed by Margon & Glaser, it is also known as the Steinak Building. The facade is organized into five main bays, with two narrow bays around the middle one. It is clad in brown brick above a 2-story stone base. The ground floor has been refaced in polished black granite, except for the main entrance in the eastern narrow bay, which is limestone with a recessed brass-and-glass door topped by a glass round-arch; the edges of the entrance bay are beveled back toward the recessed doorway. The other narrow bay has a very deeply recessed service entrance, fronted by a metal roll-down gate. The other, wider bays have modern plate-glass storefronts. The 2nd floor is limestone, with large, brass-framed show-windows.

At the upper floor, set off from the base by a stone cornice, the center bay has four windows, while the outer main bays each have three. The two narrow bays have slightly wider single-windows. The rather narrow brick piers between each bay and the even narrower brick pilasters between each window all have projecting center sections, and rise uninterrupted to the setbacks at the top floors. The main end bays set back above the 10th floor, where the piers have cast-stone capitals extending above the stone coping of the setbacks. There are also blind cast-stone arches above each window. The middle bay and two narrow bays extend up to the 12th floor before setting back, creating the effect of a projecting central tower. Additional cascading setbacks every two floors continue to the roof line, although these upper setbacks lack the blind arches above the windows. The ground floor is occupied by The Drama Bookshop, About Coffee, and Butterfly Fabrics.