Bonwit Teller & Company Department Store Building (New York City, New York)

 office building  Add category

150-foot, 11-story office building completed in 1912. Designed by Buchman & Fox as the first location of the Bonwit Teller & Company Department Store, it has a wing extending through the block to 37th Street. All three facades are clad in limestone above 2-story bases of cream-colored stone. The 5th Avenue facade is nine bays wide, with the north facade spanning 16 bays, and the south facade (of differing design) having three bays.

The main entrance is in the 3rd bay from the south on the avenue, set between paneled piers supporting an entablature with a dentiled cornice. Below the entablature is a short metal-and-glass marquee that covers the doorway, emblazoned with a medallion bearing the building's address, 417. The other bays have modernized storefronts of white and black stone, metal and glass. Some of the middle bay on the north facade have smaller show-windows and canopies. On the west facade the southern two bays are separated from the rest, above the ground floor, by a narrow groove. The 2nd floor has large square windows in black metal frames, with grid-like metal boxes at the tops and bottoms that recall the marquee over the entry. A pair of flagpoles flank the 2nd-floor window above the entrance. The six western bays on the north facade match those on the west, while the eastern bays are doubled, with larger 3-over-3 windows and black iron spandrels. The base is capped by a dentiled cornice.

The 3rd floors is transitional, with each pier decorated by a panel with a keystone at the top, and hanging laurels across and down the sides. This floor is capped by a band course above a frieze with a Greek-fret motif, interspersed with roundels. The upper floors have square opening with tripartite windows in each bay, divided by black iron mullions. Each has a projecting stone sill. Those at the 9th floor are segmental-arched and have keystones. At the top of the 9th floor each pier has a cartouche, connected by a dentil course running below a cornice. At the top floors each bay is divided by a fluted Corinthian column,and the tripartite windows are separated by slender pilasters with projecting bases at the spandrels. Both the north and west facades are crowned by a projecting brown roof cornice with modillions and dentils.

The south facade on 37th Street is clad in beige brick above the limestone base. A patterned molding frames the bays of the base, which are divided by a pair of dark-brown, paneled iron piers - the middle bay is slightly wider. There are storefronts at the ground floor, and a secondary entrance at the east end. There are short windows bands in iron frames at the top of the ground floor. The 2nd floor is separated by iron spandrels with ornamented panels, and the 2nd floor has slender colonnettes dividing the tripartite windows. The base is capped by a dentiled cornice. The 3rd floor is transitional, like on the other facades, and has the same ornament on the piers and cornice. The upper floors have simple paired windows in each bay, with stone sills. At the 9th floor they are segmental-arched and have keystones. The top two floors are set off by a dentiled cornice, and have paneled piers and pilasters between the windows. This facade is also topped by a metal roof cornice, painted black, with modillions and dentils.

The ground floor on the avenue is occupied by Zales jewelers, Astro Gallery of Gems, and Ritenow restaurant.