10 East 23rd Street (New York City, New York)

 office building  Add category

6-story Renaissance-revival/Neo-Classical office building completed in 1892. Designed by Napoleon Le Brun & Sons, it is clad in grey-painted cast-iron. A matching, but narrower, building was constructed at the same time on the other side of 14 East 23rd. There is a small modernized entrance, with three storefronts on the ground floor. Above, the original frieze with dentils and rows of swags remains. The upper floors are split into two even halves, each with four windows divided by slender decorated pilasters. A dentiled sill course joins the windows on each side. The 2nd-floor windows have short transoms; those on the 3rd & 4th floors are topped by narrow patterned lintel courses. Above the 5th floor, another frieze with swags and dentils sets off the top floor, which has six round-arched windows per half, with spiral rope pilasters and carved spandrels. A light-grey roof cornice with larger dentils and modillions caps the facade.

When the band KISS first got together in 1972, they rehearsed here in a 4th-floor loft. The ground floor is occupied by Bellagio Nails & Spa, Made Man Barber Shop, and Natural Deli, with Cosmic Comics on the 2nd floor.