Next door to the east, the roughly 57,000-square-foot American Piano Company Building at 27-29 West 57th Street occupied most of its 4,820-square-foot property and faced the thoroughfare with a 48-foot-wide brick and stone façade. It was listed as a notable neighborhood amenity in the promotional material for the One57 tower down the street. Though not an official landmark, the store was a local favorite. The building’s upper floors housed the store’s auxiliary functions. Like its neighbor at number 33, the building’s six stories measured around 11,000 square feet. The marble surround, which framed the front door within the expansive glass pane, was crafted by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates to match the original 5th Avenue interior door frame. The chandeliers, as well as the second floor oak bookcases, were relocated from their old Fifth Avenue home. Intricate metalwork composed storefront frames, chandeliers, and wall sconces. White plaster bas-reliefs decorated the ceiling above the two-story lobby. The store’s three floors were lined with bookshelves of carved wood. Fortunately, the dramatic interior was preserved when the Rizzoli Bookstore moved in in March 1985, relocating from a Fifth Avenue property. On the ground level, a 32-foot arch fronted a vaulted, intricate showroom, which opened to the public in October 1920. Almiroty bestowed the building at 31 West 57th with a restrained Italian facade. Sohmer’s new headquarters replaced a former Rothschild mansion. Sohmer & Company was the first piano firm to move to 57th Street, where Carnegie Hall stood as the nation’s premier classical music venue since 1891. In its later years, the lower floor tenants of the roughly 11,000-square-foot building spanned both high culture and pop culture, ranging from Hammer Galleries to Spirit Halloween NYC. repurposed the mansion for commercial use and outfitted its lower two levels with a pointed arch, matching the storefronts of its new neighbors to the east. The top floor, re-fitted in the style of a as a mansard roof in its later years, rose above the cornice. An ornate, dark green cornice added a splash of color, matching the 1891 Bowne House to the west. Deep window apertures and projecting lintels gave the neoclassical, stone-clad façade a sense of depth. Rapallo, a lawyer for the Rothschilds who lived next door at house number 31. The six-story townhouse at 33 West 57th was once home to Edward S. Vogar Building at 37-39 West 57th (far left), Bowne House at 35 W 57th (left), Raphallo Mansion at 33 W 57th (center), and Sohmer Piano / Rizzoli Bookstore (right).
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