Lawrence Building

 office building, high-rise, 1923_construction

188-foot, 16-story office building completed in 1923. Designed by George & Edward Blum, it is clad in buff-colored brick above a 3-story painted limestone base. There are two narrow end bays with entrances, and four main bays in the middle, each with a storefront at the ground level. The main, eastern entrance has been remodeled and is now framed in grey granite with glass double-doors. The service entrance at the west end retains the original pointed-arch and has metal doors. The piers all sit of short, grey granite bases. The 2nd floor has black cast-iron-framed tripartite windows in the four main bays, and smaller single-windows in the end bays. Black cast-iron spandrels with Neo-Gothic arched patterns separate the 1st & 2nd floors in the main bays; these bays are enframed by double-height moldings.. The 3rd floor also has tripartite windows and single-window end bays, but lacks the spandrels and moldings. A small cornice caps the base.

The upper floors have ten evenly-spaced windows per floor, between continuous piers. Each of the brick spandrels have three vertical rectangles of darker brick. The six eastern piers end at the 10th floor with stone capitals, while the four western windows extend another two floors before setting back, with angled piers at the edges and recessed panels on the piers in the middle. There are additional setbacks on the east side, and each is capped by taller spandrels with four narrow pointed-arches in dark brick. At the upper floors on the west side, the four windows extend up to the 15th floor, with the outer two angled back. The top floor is further recessed. The ground floor is occupied by Benjamin Taylor Collection apparel, Best Bagel & Coffee, A Beautiful Child wholesale manufacture & showroom, and Milano 40 Inc. boutique.