[West 23rd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.]
From left, 169, 167, and 165 West 23rd Street, north side (decorative roofs now demolished). On right, the Traffic Building, 163 West 23rd Street.
1975
[West 23rd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.]
From left, 169, 167, and 165 West 23rd Street, north side (decorative roofs now demolished). On right, the Traffic Building, 163 West 23rd Street.
(1927, Abraham Fisher) This six-story commercial building is notable for its striking façade and unusual name, a reference to the “Traffic Cafeteria” that occupied the lower two stories in the late 1920s. “Traffic” referred to the trucking industry in its nascent years. Cafeteria-style restaurants catering to budget-conscious urbanites became popular in the 1920s. Designed by little-known architect Fisher, the building is a wonder of patterned brickwork and rich, Celtic-inspired terra cotta ornament. Rather than bearing weight, this façade is a “curtain wall” held up floor-by-floor by the building’s concealed steel frame. Fisher’s treatment of the Traffic Building’s façade as a tapestry and use of diagonally-laid brick acknowledge this up-to-date reality. At the same time, traditional elements make it seem anachronistic. It is one of those buildings which, when noticed, rivet and reward.