345 Seventh Avenue (New York City, New York)

 office building, high-rise, Neoclassical (architecture), 1929_construction

308-foot, 24-story Neo-Classical office building completed in 1929. Designed by John H. Knubel, it is clad in buff-colored brick above a 4-story base. The ground floor has a central main entrance, with a trio of glass doors below a transom, set in a double-height grey granite surround. Mounted above the transom are steel numbers "345". To either side of the entrance are glass-and-metal storefronts, with a metal band dividing the windows into upper and lower halves. To the south the storefront has glass double-doors, while to the north there is a single glass door as well as another set of double-doors. At the north end is a freight entrance with metal double-doors. There is a thin bend of metal vents above the upper windows on the ground floor, surmounted by a stone egg-and-dart molding and band course with shells along the upper edge.

The 2nd-4th floors have six 3-story fluted limestone piers articulating two adjoining middle bays and two outer bays to each side. Each of the six bays has a double-window with narrower 1-over-1 outer panes that are separated by slender, fluted stone pilasters. An additional pilaster divides the two middle bays instead of a wider pier seen at the other bays. The 2nd floor is underlined by a projecting stone band with a row of heart-shapes. The stone spandrels between floors are painted a darker grey; those at the outer bays have a pattern with a row of bird forms, while the middle bays have alternating forms resembling pinecones or pineapples and onion shapes. A fluted stone band caps the base, with flattened lions' heads at each bay, and pairs of geometric rectangle ornament above each pier.

The upper floors have six bays of three windows each. The 5th floor is transitional, with slightly wider windows and a thin stone cornice across the top. The upper floors have brick spandrels with recessed panels at each bay. At the 9th floor the typical 1-over-1 windows are replaced by 3-over-2 windows with smaller panes.

The outer bays set back above the 16th floor, where there are shallow arches above the windows. The middle two bays set back above the 18th floor, with a pair of vertical, projecting stone bars above each window, larger vertical bars above the pilasters, and the top of this section angling slightly up toward the center just before the setback. The piers are also ornamented by simple stone capitals at each setback. Additional setbacks occur at every 2nd floor up to the main roof line.

The south elevation is clad in reddish-brown brick and has three bays of four single-windows each, without ornament. The north facade is similar, but with only one 4-window bay (at the west end) and a 3-window bay in the middle. The rear, east-facing facade has the same brick as the north and south elevations, with four bays of triple-windows at the south end, followed by a recessed bay with a fire escape, and a section at the north end with no openings.

The ground floor is occupied by an Apple Bank branch, and a mini-mart.