Con Edison West 49th Street Substation (New York City, New York)

 electrical substation  Add category

Postmodern-style electrical substation completed in 2005. It is comprised of two buildings that occupy nearly the entire block, with a small parking lot in between them. The facades are clad in brick in various shades of orange and variegated browns and tans, with warm limestone water tables and parapet bands.

On 50th Street, the smaller building's north facade has three large bays of grey metal grating and a smaller bay to the west of the easternmost one that has dark-brown metal infill with a service door set in it. Above is a panel of brown brick. Wide piers of orange brick with lighter-orange stone bands separate each bay; the piers at narrower at the tops. The east facade on Eleventh Avenue has alternating bands of lighter and darker orange brick. At the north end are two bays of metal grating that are narrower than those on the north facade, with another two at the south end. In the middle is a garage door below a panel of brown brick. The south facade on 49th Street is a little narrower than the north facade, with two large bays of grating flanking a narrow center bay with a garage door and brown brick above.

Linking the smaller building to the larger west building is a parking lot enclosed by a 1-story wall with stone base and top, orange-brick piers, and metal grating in between. The south wall on 49th Street has four panels, with one replaced by a gate, and the north wall on 50th Street has only one panel and a gate.

The larger west building extends to Twelfth Avenue. Its cladding is predominantly variegated brown brick in larger blocks, interspersed with three large bays of metal grating on the east half of the south facade. There is a steel service door at the far east end, and the taller west half has a tall garage door, as well as small service door at the far end, along with a few smaller vents. The west facade along Twelfth Avenue is the same height, and the large-block cladding is organized into nine bays by thin pilasters of the same material, extending up to a horizontal stone band near the top, with a tall parapet above. Most of the bays have some brown metal vents, while the middle one has a garage door, the one to its south has a steel service door, the northernmost has steel double-doors, and the 3rd bay from the south has a square opening near the top, just below the stone band.

The north facade on 50th Street is similar, organized into three bays at the taller west end, followed by four large bays of metal grating alternating with narrower brown-brick bays. One of the grated bays has a garage door inserted into it.