Puck Building

The Puck Building is a mixed-use building at 295–309 Lafayette Street in the SoHo and Nolita neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The building was designed by Albert Wagner in the Romanesque Revival style, with elements inspired by the German Rundbogenstil style. It is composed of two sections: the original seven-story building to the north and a nine-story southern annex. The Lafayette Street elevation of the facade was designed by Herman Wagner in a style similar to that of the original building. The Puck Building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Puck Building occupies the block bounded by Lafayette, Houston, Mulberry, and Jersey streets. The red brick facade is divided vertically into bays of uniform width. The facade is also divided horizontally into several tiers of arcades, with wider arches at the top and narrower arches at the bottom. The sculptor Henry Baerer crafted two sculptures of the Shakespeare character Puck for the facade. The building is topped by a penthouse structure. The original interiors were arranged as open plan offices, which largely remained intact in the late 20th century. There is retail space in the basement and first two stories; office and studio space on the intermediate stories; and six penthouse apartments on the highest stories. The building was the longtime home of Puck magazine, a humor cartoon whose founders Joseph Keppler and Adolph Schwarzmann acquired the site in 1885 with J. Ottmann. The original building was completed the following year, and the annex was built between 1892 and 1893. When Lafayette Street was extended through the neighborhood in the late 1890s, the western section of the building was demolished, and a new facade and entrance were built on Lafayette Street. Puck magazine...