The Theater Building

 theatre, interesting place

6-story Beaux-Arts theater building completed in 1926 as a Con-Edison electrical distribution station, with offices on the top floors. Designed by William Whitehill, it was later converted to other uses, with a number of small theater groups moving here in the 2000s. Among these are The Tank, The Chain Theater, Workshop Theater, and the Barrow Group.

The facade is clad in variegated light-hued brick with limestone trim, above a red granite base that is capped by a rounded band. At each end is a granite entry surround rising up almost twice the height of the granite base; each has a round-arch with glass double-doors set within, and a cornice across the top. There is also a metal service door at the east end of the base. The bigger central bay is largely clad in stone, dominated by a large round-arch, with the base split by a pair of glass double-doors. The arch above is framed by small pilasters, themselves flanked by double-height recessed pilasters with stylized capitals. A modern glass wall fills the main space of the arched opening, with an iron band separating the upper glass fanlight. On either side of the grand arch is a small, narrow, round-arched window. A stone cornice with stylized dentils caps the lower section of the facade.

The center bay at the upper floors consists of two wall arcades of three round-arched window bays and four stone pilasters each. The lower arcade is two stories, and stone spandrel panels separate the 2nd and 3rd floor windows. The upper arcade is compressed in detail. The side bay consists of a largely blank brick wall surface, relieved only with recessed central sections and narrow, round-arched lancet windows demarcating each floor. A dentiled stone cornice caps the building. The east bay at the ground floor now contains a storefront, occupied by Jayasara Video.