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The Traffic Building · 163 West 23rd Street
The Traffic Building
1

[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

169 West 23rd Street

[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.

IMAGE DATE1975
FromMuseum of the City of New York logoMuseum of the City of New York

(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.

ByHistoric Districts Council logoHistoric Districts Council
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