35-37 West 23rd Street - Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award Winner

The historic facade of this 1880 neo-Grec mixed-use building in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District has emerged after years in hiding. Designed by D. & J. Jardine for a furniture establishment, it is constructed of red brick and buff sandstone, with a two-story base framed by fluted cast-iron piers. Little of that was visible behind white paint and a minimal 1950s storefront.
The white coating that shrouded the original polychrome facade has been removed, and the masonry repaired. A new wood storefront and wood windows that match the original have supplanted dull replacements. A restored sheet metal cornice, featuring lovely cast-zinc sunflowers, caps off the building.
The project was completed in conjunction with the construction of a new residential building on an adjacent parking lot. That work required a special permit from the City, which called for 35-37 West 23rd to be brought to a “sound, first-class condition.” The results have done more than that. They have revealed a building that is rich with ornament, detail, color, and contrast.
PROJECT TEAM
Anbau Enterprises
CTS Group
Higgins Quasebarth & Partners
Jablonski Building Conservation, Inc.
Klaracon
Norfast Engineering
Preserv
WindowFix
Video: Gil Gilbert
The Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards are the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s highest honors for outstanding preservation. We are grateful for the generous support of the Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, which makes the Awards possible. Lucy Goldschmidt Moses was a dedicated New Yorker whose generosity benefited the City for over five decades. Mrs. Moses and her husband, attorney Henry L. Moses, shared a wide range of philanthropic interests. “I don’t think we’re worth anything unless we do for others,” said Mrs. Moses in a 1983 interview with The New York Times.