535 8th Avenue

 office building, high-rise, 1926_construction

266-foot, 20-story office building completed in 1926. Designed by Schwartz & Gross, its main facade its three bays wide, clad in white brick above a 3-story limestone base. The ground floor has been remodeled with polished black granite framing brass-and-glass storefronts in the outer bays that have recessed entrances. The main entrance in the middle bay has brass-and-glass double doors set within a rusticated round-arch with a scrolled keystone. There are pink-grey granite strips on either side, with modern Art-Deco wall lanterns. A small cornice with an egg-and-dart molding tops the entrance. The 2nd & 3rd floors have bands of three large show-windows in each bay, with grey-brown metal frames and transoms. The base is capped by a small cornice.

The upper floors have four windows divided by black metal mullions in the center bay, and three windows separated by narrow brick pilasters in the end bays. There are simple brick spandrels and stone sills. The outer bays set back above the 12th floor, marked by elaborately carved spandrels and projecting stone pilasters. The center bay extends two more floors before the first setback, marked by similar ornament. Short angled walls with one window per floor join the center bay to the recessed end bays. This pattern continues at the 14th, 16th, 18th, & 19th-floor setbacks, except that at the end bays the setbacks have plain stone copings with no ornament. At the roof line the center bay is crowned by a copper cornice and steeply slope copper roof.

The south facade is windowless up through the 6th floor, where a neighboring building used to stand. The upper floors are clad in buff-colored brick, with white brick at the front edge. There are four bays of double-windows, and one bay of single-windows at the back edge. The spandrels are of darker brick. The north facade, above the neighboring 6-story building, matches that southern one. The ground floor is occupied by Zoni Language Center, and a 7-Eleven convenience store.