253 West 28th Street (New York City, New York)

 condominiums, 1896_construction

7-story residential building originally completed in 1896 as a 5-story stable and wagon storage facility. It was changed to light manufacturing and furrier use in the 1930s and was left vacant in the mid-1970s. It was converted to a co-operative in 1979 and subsequently the first floor and cellar was sold to a nightclub. A 2-story addition in a contrasting modern design was added on top in 2018, now containing condos.

The facade is clad in yellow-orange brick on the original section, above a parged and beige-painted ground floor. The main entrance is at the east end, with a recessed door of small glass panes in a black metal grid, flanked by matching sidelights and topped by a blue canvas clamshell canopy. To the left is a loading dock with a roll-down metal gate, a commercial entrance with two metal-framed glass doors, and service entrance at the west end with a black metal door below a gridded transom.

The upper floors have two sets of paired windows on the middle and single-windows at the end bays. The 2nd floor is banded and topped by a black stone band with rough-faced, black-painted stone lintels over the windows. The 3rd-4th floors have black stone sills and splayed brick-brick lintels with rough-faced keystones at each window. The 5th floor has the same sills, but the windows are topped by a bland stone band with lintels forms by multiple step-ups at each window. There are also subtle brick quoins at the edges of the 3rd-5th floors.

The newer top two floors are faced in black-painted pre-cast concrete, with smaller windows without ornament. The exposed parts of the side elevations are painted black. The ground floor is occupied by ADI Global Distribution.