British Empire Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, Art Deco (architecture), 1933_construction

7-story Art-Deco office building completed in 1933. Designed by The Associated Architects, it is a twin of La Maison Francaise to the south, separated from each other by the Channel Gardens. The facade is clad in limestone, rising five floors before narrowing with lateral setbacks. A garden occupies the eastern half of the 6th-floor roof. At the west, the building rises one and a half additional floors.

On all four facades of the British Building the ground floor is devoted to storefronts and display windows. A slightly cusped ground-floor cornice (with an incised bead-and-reel molding) separates the retail spaces from offices on the 2nd-7th floors. The walls of the upper floors are articulated with flat limestone piers of uniform width which terminate in a faceted ribbon molding. The same molding appears along the building's lateral setbacks and at the roof line, creating a slightly ridged profile against the sky. Over each window is a limestone spandrel whose vertical ridges relate the low-rise building to the taller towers of the complex.

The Fifth Avenue facade is symmetrically arranged around a double-height portal, crowned by a limestone cartouche. As in La Maison Francaise, the triple doors and decorative jambs of the main entrance are recessed behind a broad limestone enframement that projects in four shallow steps. The building's granite base is higher in the northeast corner where the cornerstone is inscribed "BRITISH//EMPIRE//BUILDING//MCMXXXII". On either side of the main entrance is a bronze-framed storefront. Above the 6th floor are four limestone bas-reliefs, and the facade has three projecting flagpoles - two at the 3rd floor, and the center one at the 5th.

The northern and southern facades are nearly identical, with four broad ground-level retail bays on either side of a narrower building entrance, deep set under a decorative lintel and sculptural relief by Lee Lawrie. The entrances themselves consist of a central revolving door and two single doors set within decorative jambs, with a metal grille above.

The rear (sunken plaza) facade rises sheer from the pavement, but narrow with lateral setbacks above the 5th and 7th floors. Divided into three ground-level bays, it has no entrance but rather, two large display windows at center and right, and a smaller display window at left. The reduced size of the latter results from the staircase that leads up to 50th Street. Each of the facade's four piers holds a bronze light hood.

Above the main entrance is a cast bronze relief panel depicting the diverse peoples and industries of the British Empire, designed by Paul Jennewein. Unlike its counterpart treatment at La Maison Francaise where Alfred Janniot treated the problem as a single, densely filled decorative unit, Jennewein segmented his composition by emphasizing the vertical divisions of his triple doors. The panel consists of nine gold leaf figures on a dark blue patina base, arranged in three vertical ribbons over the triple doors. Included are the major industries of the British Isles, each standing upon a corbeled pedestal. Among them are a fisherman, seaman and coal miner. The commerce of India, Canada, Australia, and Africa are also represented.

The imperial theme is continued in the polychrome limestone cartouche above the panel. A heraldic, gold crowned lion and unicorn (with gilded horn, crown and chain) frame the red, blue, and gold British coat of arms. It is encircled by the gilded motto of the Order of the Garter: "Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense" (Evil to him who thinks evil). At the base of the bas relief is a furled rose ribbon inscribed with the gilded motto of the British Royalty: "Dieu et Mon Droit" (God and My Right).

The impieral theme is similiarly elaborate in four limestone reliefs by Rene Paul Chambellan. Carved into the spandrels above the 6th-floor windows, and recessed slightly behind the facade's chevron-crested piers, these panels represent the coats of arms of the four historical subdivisions of the British Empire. Reading from left to right are the griffon and heraldic plume of Wales, England's lion and Tudor rose, Scotland's unicorn and thistle, and finally, the stag, harp, and shamrock of Ireland.

The ground floor is occupied by Penhaligon's Perfume Store, Bose Personal Audio Store, Teuscher Chocolatier, Cole Haan, T2 Tea, Coach Fashion, and The LEGO Store.