The soaring temple of commerce at 11 West 42nd Street has been casting a shadow over Bryant Park since 1927.
Now home to NYU’s Midtown campus, the building features 32 floors and an ornate lobby (shown off in this slideshow).
Yet perhaps its quirkiest detail is on the facade: the 12 very detailed zodiac signs carved into the stone entrance, with the corresponding months listed beneath each one.
Eleven West 42nd Street has a few other distinctions. Above the zodiac signs are carved figures representing various professions—a likely nod to the building’s use as a modern office tower.
And on a more bittersweet note, the ground floor was the last home of Coliseum Books, one of New York’s premier independent bookstores until it went out of business in 2007.
Tags: 11 West 42nd Street, 42nd Street office buildings, Art Deco New York, Bryant Park history, Coliseum Books New York, New York in the 1920s, office towers New York, Salmon Tower, zodiac sign carvings
Ephemeral New York 
April 3, 2013 at 12:30 am |
Since the building is to the north of Bryant Park, the shadow it casts onto the park can only be metaphorical. 🙂
April 3, 2013 at 1:23 am |
Ah yes, I’m using it in the metaphorical sense!
April 3, 2013 at 6:18 am |
[…] The zodiac signs on a Bryant Park office tower (ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com) […]
April 3, 2013 at 7:47 am |
But Coliseum Books also stood on 57 Street & Broadway since the 1970s and what a huge store that was. I’d spend hours in the place, they had every title imaginable. That was an ideal bookstore.
April 3, 2013 at 2:40 pm |
I loved the store on 57th Street and spent many lunch hours in the late 1990s there. Magical.
April 3, 2013 at 9:47 am |
Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.
April 3, 2013 at 10:32 am |
Even more amusing is the sculpture above the door. In a Greek mode (continued on the interior mailbox) office workers and artists are horzisontally arrayed. The toga-wearing typist is my favorite.
April 3, 2013 at 11:36 pm |
[…] The zodiac signs on a Bryant Park office tower (ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com) […]
April 4, 2013 at 10:54 pm |
The 43rd Street entrance has same zodiac sign facade.
May 20, 2013 at 7:01 am |
[…] Today, 42nd Street looking toward Fifth Avenue reveals more glass office buildings, a replica of an old street lamp, but many of the same buildings from 1974, like the Grace Building and the Gothic-like entrance to 11 West 42nd Street. […]
August 25, 2016 at 1:16 pm |
Ok, but who are the characters depicted ATOP the same arch?!?