Lawrence & Eris Field Building, Baruch College

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256-foot, 16-story Italian Renaissance-revival university building completed in 1930. Designed by Thompson, Holmes, & Converse, it was built on the original location of the CCNY Free Academy from 1847 (the first institution of free public higher education in the United States and an essential piece of Baruch’s heritage). It houses the South Campus of Baruch College, and was formerly known as Mason Hall. The building is clad in buff-colored brick with limestone trim and a limestone ground floor.

The west facade on Lexington Avenue has four large bays in the middle of the base, with glass infill at the ground floor containing two revolving doors in the middle two bays. The four bays are separated by rounded columns and shallowly arched on the tops, surmounted by a broad band of bronze-colored stone that undulates along the bottom the follow the curve of the arches. The section was a major part of a remodeling from 2017-2020. The end bays remain unchanged, both with paired windows in the thick limestone walls. The 2nd-3rd floors complete the base, and have brick and stone banding, with the large limestone piers framing the end bays continuing up uninterrupted from the ground floor. The six bays each have a double-height, pointed-arch window opening with stone extrados lining the tops. Between the tops of the middle bays are three large stone shields surrounded by ribbons and flowers. A stone band course caps the base.

The upper floors on the west facade have six bays of paired 2-over-3 windows, with the end bays separated by wider piers. The windows have stone sills and brick lintels, and there is a thin string course below the 5th floor. The spandrel panels between floors have geometric brick patterns, except for those between the 8th & 9th floors, which have pairs of brick round-arches. The bays also end in paired arches at the top of the 11th floor, where there is a setback with a dentiled stone cornice. The end bays have single-windows on the next two floors, and there is another setback above the 13th floor. The top three floors have six bays of windows, with double-height round-arches at the 15th-16th floors. As at the two setbacks below, the roof line is lined with a row of round-arches.

The north facade on 23rd Street has a granite water table at the base, with a rounded top edge. The main entrance has three doors recessed between fluted pillars with Corinthian capitals, below a panel carved with the inscription "ON THIS SITE FROM 1849 TO 1928 STOOD THE ORIGINAL BUILDING OF THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK", surmounted by an entablature with floral ornament and a dentiled cornice. There is a wrought-iron wall scone on either side of the entrance. To the west the ground floor has a single-window and four bays of paired windows, while to the east there is a single-window, one paired-window bay, and then three freight entrances with black metal double-doors below iron grilles, set in molded surrounds. There is a final metal door at the far east end in an extension of the base, paired with a small window. The 2nd-3rd floors have double-height arched openings like those on the west facade, with five bays in the middle, and another three spaced farther apart at each end. At the outer bays the windows do not extend all the way to the tops of the arches, but instead there are stone panels. There is a setback at the middle of the building, with the base topped by a brick parapet with two stone "grilles" consisting of five X-shapes each, with a stone coping across the top. Between these is a large panel reading "THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK", crowned by a shield, ogees, and a flagpole.

The middle section of the upper floors is set back behind this, with six bays of 2-over-3 windows grouped into pairs by wider brick piers. There is also a single-window at each end of the recessed middle section. The brick spandrels are similar to the west facade. The outer wings flanking the middle section both have only a single bay of windows running up the middle of each, with three single-windows at the 11th floor, above which is a setback. The large spaces around the windows are filled by a sparse pattern of projecting bricks forming crosses and dots. Scalloped courses of small arches cross the tops of the 8th & 11th floors. The inward-facing side walls of the outer wings have three bays of single-windows with matching spandrels. At the west-facing wall of the east wing, however, the middle bay has no openings from the 4th-7th floors. The outer wings have three single-windows on the 12th-13th floors, and then another setback to the rest of the tower.

There are double-height arched bays at the 15th-16th floors, spanning eight bays, plus another false-bay at each end. Slightly projecting are the end towers, both with a single-window on the 14th & 15th floors, and a smaller circular window at the 16th floor. A brick-clad mechanical penthouse rises from the center of the roof.

The building houses classrooms, science labs, a student lounge, and faculty and staff offices. It was renamed the Lawrence and Eris Field Building after philanthropist Lawrence N. Field and his late wife, Eris, and renovated again in 2017.