Mercantile Building (New York City, New York) | office building

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148-foot, 12-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1910. Designed by Goldwin Starrett & Van Vleck, it is clad in buff-colored brick above a 3-story limestone base with grey granite plinths supporting the piers.

The east facade has seven bays, with the main entrance in the second bay from the south. It has a revolving door with a black metal canopy on top, and a traditional glass door on either side. The other bays have black iron, stone, and glass storefronts at the ground floor, all with transoms. There are carved panels of foliate ornament and dentils between the two lower floors within each bay, while the piers resting on granite bases are paneled and have stylized capitals at the 2nd floor. Each bay has a tripartite window configuration at the 2nd floor, with thin, paneled, black iron mullions. The 2nd floor is topped by a stone cornice with large modillions and a frieze of alternating fleur-de-lis and small square panels alternating circles and diamond shapes. The 3rd floor is transitional, clad in stone, but beginning the pattern of triple-windows on the upper floors. Here they are separated by paneled stone pilasters, and the piers are adorned with elaborate ornament including urns. The 3rd floor is topped by a dentiled band course.

The upper floors have banded brick piers and brick pilasters between the windows, and simple geometric forms in the brick spandrels. Another dentiled band course tops the 10th floor, where piers each have a large cartouche. The top two floors have paneled stone pilasters between the windows, and the piers are also stone, with elaborate vertical bands of Renaissance ornament. The building is crowned by a projecting, green metal roof cornice with scrolled brackets and rosettes.

The north facade on 16th Street has a matching design, spanning six bays. There is another entrance at the west end, this one using the address 120 East 16th Street. It has sliding glass doors in a black granite surround. There is some rough-textured stone block infill in some of the the bays to the east, with black metal vents along the tops. The roof cornice continues along this facade as well.

The secondary, south facade above the neighboring building is clad in plain brick, with a few bays of double- and single-windows without ornament.