page_title: Century Building (17th Street, Manhattan)
section_title: 17th Street
hierarchical_section_title: Century Building (17th Street, Manhattan) / Design / Facade / 17th Street
caption_attribution_description: English: Front view of the Century Building in 2019, currently occupied by Barnes &amp; Noble This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 97001148
context_page_description: The Century Building is a Queen Anne style building at 33 East 17th Street between Park Avenue South and Broadway in Union Square, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by William Schickel and built in 1880–1881 by Arnold Constable & Company. The Century Building consists of five floors topped by a ​1 ¹⁄₂-story attic.
  The Century Building was constructed as a speculative development with no main tenant. The building contained the headquarters of the Century Publishing Company from 1881 until 1915, and was also occupied by various other commercial and industrial concerns. Left vacant in the late 1970s, it was renovated into a Barnes & Noble bookstore in 1995. The Century Building was designated a New York City landmark in 1986, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
context_section_description: The 17th Street facade contains three architectural bays and three layers of articulation: the single-story ground-level retail, the four stories of office floors above, and the ​1 ¹⁄₂ attic section with dormers protruding from the steeply pitched roof. 
  At ground level, the main entrance is located on the left (west) side of the facade, which leads to stairs to the upper floors. Stone-faced piers with  decorated capitals divide the ground-level facade into three major sections, which in turn are subdivided into several smaller sections. Between the two center piers is the Barnes & Noble entrance, with two sets of three double doors. The rest of the facade contains full-height windows with iron frames. The window openings from the basement have been sealed off and covered with iron grates. Immediately above the ground floor, the facade contains terracotta and stone trim, and above that, red brick. A cornice is located above the ground level. 
  The second through fifth floors comprise the central section of the facade's vertical articulation, and contain a mostly brick facing, with stone trim at the bottom of the fourth floor and the top of the fifth floor. The bays are separated by brick pilasters with minor styling, which slightly protrude from the facade. On the second through fifth floors, the bays to the left (west) and right (east) each contain two large windows. The second- and fifth-floor windows are rectangular while the third- and fourth-floor windows are slightly arched. The center bay contains more ornate fenestration, except on the second floor, which also contains two large rectangular windows. The center bay on the third and fourth floors contains an oriel window that protrudes slightly and contains three window panes, with the center window pane being twice as wide as the side panes. The oriel contains a triangular pediment above it. The fifth floor contains three narrow rectangular window panes of equal size. The lintels of the second floor windows are made of stone, while the windows on the third through fifth floors contain brick lintels with keystones made of stone. A brick entablature in the Doric order, and a stone cornice, runs above the stone trim on the fifth floor.
  The top 1.5 stories consist of a gambrel roof that includes the sixth-floor attic. Three brick-faced dormers protrude from the roof, corresponding to the architectural bays below; the dormers on the sides contain three windows, while the center dormer contains two windows. The tops of the original dormers included tablets with pediments, but S. Edison Gage added another row of roof-line dormers in 1913, These contain a similar articulation to the original dormers, though these are faced with terracotta instead of brick. A brick balustrade runs above the original brick dormers, just below the roof-line. An elevator shed and chimney are located behind the westernmost (leftmost) dormer.
caption: 17th Street facade
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