The Madison Belmont Building, 181 Madison Avenue (also variously known as 183 Madison Avenue, 40 East 34th Street, 44-46 East 34th Street), ca. 1990.

Built in 1924 “as an office and showroom space for silk companies in the developing Silk District of mid-town Manhattan,” per the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Madison Belmont was among the first buildings in the city to incorporate Art Deco design elements.

Architects Warren & Wetmore, along with the Cheney Silk Company, the first major tenant, hired Edgar Brandt to design the entrances and display windows — areas where Art Deco influences are most clearly pronounced. Here, Brandt’s iron and gilded bronze and gold transom design employs a “frozen fountain” effect, a common Art Deco motif.