353 West 30th Street

 apartment building  Add category

6-story residential building originally completed as two 3-story townhouses in the 1870's. A renovation in 1934 joined the two houses internally and converted them to apartments. The former carriage way was incorporated into the structure and now became the entrance. The lower floors, which retain their original red-brick Italianate facades, were joined, and three new floors of postmodern design were added in 2009.

The (original) lower three floors of the east facade have a small stoop with black iron handrails, leading up to what now is a service entrance with a black metal door set in a black metal surround. It is still topped by a brownstone cornice on two console brackets. To the left are two single-windows with brownstone sills and black metal lintels with thin cornices. Below them, a partially raised brownstone basement level has two windows with iron grilles, and there is a basement entrance below the stoop. The 2nd & 3rd floors have three bays of single-windows like those at the ground floor, only shorter and with shorter lintels. This part of the facade is topped by a black metal roof cornice with brackets and dentils.

The (original) lower three floors of the west facade (which was formerly No. 355) are slightly wider. The ground floor is faced in brownstone, and has the main entrance at the center, with iron-framed glass double-doors flanked by paneled pilasters carrying a broad lintel. To either side is a double-window with a black iron mullion. The 2nd floor has outer bays with projecting, black iron, 3-window oriels with angled sides. In the middle is a double-window with a black iron mullion and brownstone sill and lintel. The 3rd floors has three such windows, and is crowned by a larger black metal cornice with four acanthus-leaf brackets, modillions, and panels with inscribed roundels.

The newer floors consist of two stories of red brick on the west side, rising above the cornice, with two bays of double-height openings; a grid of black metal panels organizes them into two bays of paired windows on both floors. The rest of the upper floors is set back, and clad in light-grey pre-cast stone, scored into small panels. On the east side are two bays of 2-over-3 windows (with black metal air-conditioning vents in the lower panes) at all three floors. On the west side the 6th floors has shorter windows. The roof line is crenelated, with metal railing between each segment.