162 West 54th Street (New York City, New York)

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151-foot,12-story Beaux-Arts residential building completed in 1912. Designed by Neville & Bagge, it is clad in light-grey brick above a 3-story rusticated limestone base. The building is U-shaped above the ground-floor storefronts that line the avenue, with a deep light well in the middle.

The north facade on 54th Street has seven bays; the east bay has narrow double-windows, and the next four bays have roughly-square openings with tripartite windows (the widths of the various panes differs in each bay, though), followed by a bay of single-windows, and more tripartite windows in the west end bay. The windows within each bay are separated by black metal mullions. The middle two of the four tripartite bays near the center are framed by paired, square, fluted pillars at the 1st-2nd floors, rising from tall, paneled plinths and ending in stylized capitals with carved faces, supporting an entablature with a cornice featuring brackets, dentils, and panels. The main entrance is set in the eastern of these two bays at the ground floor, with recessed double-doors and sidelights under a black canvas canopy. The western of these two bays has show-windows at the ground floor, above a paneled base between the pillars. The spandrels above the ground floor in both bays have large scrolled keystones flanked by foliate ornament and topped by mustached, helmeted heads. The two ground-floor bays to the east are fronted by an areaway and black iron fence surrounding a stairway to the basement level. The three bays to the west have modernized windows for a storefront. All of the 1st- and 2nd-floor window openings are topped by splayed lintels, and the base is capped by a stone cornice with scrolled modillions.

The two wings of the base on the west facade each have three bays of single-window flanked by tripartite windows in square openings. The 2nd floor also has splayed lintels with keystones. At the south storefront on the ground floor, an original stone band across the top remains, with scrolled brackets at each end topped by a female head and a lion head, respectively. The modillioned cornice continues across the top of the base, but not along the inner walls of the light well, which is clad in brick even at the base. The rear wall of the light well has a bay of single-windows flanked by a bay of double-windows on either side. The south-facing wall of the light well has three bays of single-windows and a bay of double-windows at the rear, while the north-facing wall has only two bays of single-windows in front of the double-window bay.

The 4th floor has stone surrounds at each bay, with elaborate scrolled keystones. The single-window bays have egg-and-dart moldings lining the edges of the surrounds, while the tripartite bays have distinctive bands of short cylinders crossed by X-markings. The 4th floor is topped by a stone band course with rosettes spaced apart by bands of vertical incised bars. The floors above have stone sills and stone lintels with keystones; the tripartite bays have rows of roundels on either side of the keystones.

Another pair of band courses, with dentils along the bottom one, frame the 10th floor, which has surrounds matching those on the 4th floor. Similar, double-height surrounds frame the bays on the top two floors, which have banded piers and stone spandrels between the two floors featuring wreaths. A dark-green copper cornice with paired brackets and modillions crowns the north facade and the north wing on the west facade; it is missing from the south wing.

The east elevation is clad in reddish-brown brick, with seven bays of single-windows. The building contains 68 apartment units. The ground floor is occupied by Negociant wine & spirits, The Gift Shop, and Famous Original Ray's Pizza.