330 West 34th Street

 office building, high-rise, 1926_construction, commercial building

199-foot, 18-story Chicago School-style office building completed in 1926. Designed by Schultze & Weaver for the J.C. Penney Company as an office and warehouse building, it is clad in brown brick above a 3-story rusticated limestone base. On the 34th Street side (the main facade), there is a 2-story extension at the west end, also clad in limestone. The main facade, nine bays wide, has double-height round-arched entrances at the ends. The eastern entrance is the most fanciful, framed in gleaming brass. A revolving door is flanked by two side doors; above is a large glass transom with a triangular pediment on top. The top of the arch is filled by glass. The western entrance also has a revolving door with two side doors and a large glass transom. There is a carved stone panel above, and cast-iron framing within the top of the arch. The bays in between have large show-windows in tripartite form, as well as two secondary entrances. Wide, black iron bands divide each bay into lower and upper halves; the upper halves have similar windows, topped by shorter black bands. At the 2nd floor, between the tops of the arches, each bay has paired windows, except for one opening in the center with metal louvers. The 3rd floor is the same, except it has additional, narrower paired windows in the end bays, above the arches. A simple stone band course caps the base.

The 2-story extension on the west end spans three bays, with the same design on the ground floor as the rest of the facade. The 2nd-floor openings are all filled by metal louvers, except for one window. A series of stone balustrades runs along the 3rd-floor level.

The upper floors of the main facade has the same layout of paired windows (narrower at the end bays) as below. The end bays are framed by brick quoins; many of the openings toward the center of the facade are filled by black metal louvers. The 12th floor, in stone, has a series of small round-arches supported by piers that lean forward; the windows of the arches are grouped in to threes (twos at the end bays) by the other arches which have flat stone panels decorated with shields.

The 13th & 14th floors are set back, and match the window pattern and quoins from below. The 14th floor is topped by a stone parapet lined with balustrades. The top four floors are further set back, with round-arched windows at the 17th floor, except for at the end bays. The 18th floor has stone piers ornamented with crests and shields. A thin, modillioned cornice caps the roof line. A brick mechanical penthouse is set further back on the roof.

The rear facade on 33rd Street is clad in brown brick, coursed at the lower two floors. The ground floor has two small entrances at the east end, loading docks in the next four bays, three more bays with wide horizontal windows covered by green metal bars, and a service entrance at the west end. Brick voussoirs top the bays of the ground floor. The floors above have the paired windows matching the north facade on 34th. A stone band course caps the 2nd floor, and the end bays of the upper floors are framed by brick quoins. Here, again, some of the center openings have black metal louvers in place of windows. The three middle bays set back above the 8th floor, and the outer bays set back above the 7th floor. The end bays and the middle section are capped by corbelled cornices at the setbacks. There are additional setbacks above the 10th, 12th, and 14th floors. There is a metal railing around the terrace at the 11th floor. The 18th floor matches the front facade, with ornamented stone piers. A central light court splits the top four floors into two wings, with the 2-story mechanical penthouse rising up above on the west end.

The brown brick west elevation is similar to the others, with 2-over-2 windows, quoins at the edges (and framing the northern bay), and coursing on the lower two floors. A projecting, rectangular brick columns juts out from the center of the facade, rising straight up to the rooftop. The northern wall of this protrusion has small concrete balconies with metal railings and doors opening out onto the balcony at each floor. The stone arches of the 12th floor carry onto the north bay of the west elevation, as do the balustrades atop the 14th floor. At the 17th floor the windows are round-arched, except for at the end bays, and the top floor again has ornamented stone piers.

The ground floor on 34th Street is occupied by a Starbucks coffee, Just Salad, Pokeworks, and MedRite Urgent Care.