PGK Art: Skinny and Tall – Formerly, the Banco Di Sicilia headquarters, a grand Italianate skyscraper built in 1895 on the southwest corner of Broadway and Broome Street, made of a steel frame and masonry construction — notice the huge pillars that support the building. The top three stories are a baroque delight of pilasters and spandrel arches, crowned with a broad oxidized cornice. The “sliver building” at the southwest corner of Broome Street and Broadway is a skinny 12-story office building built by John T. Williams, an unorthodox architect-developer. The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District report calls it an “extravaganza,” only 28 feet wide on Broadway, but stretching back 200 feet all the way to Mercer Street. In the early days of the steel frame, developers sometimes experimented with such narrow buildings even though such construction was relatively uneconomic. In 1897 The New-York Daily Tribune noted that in this case, the narrow floor area offered every office an outside window; natural light and air was a prime concern in office building design through the 1910’s. Williams also designed and built similar buildings, but this one is notable because the robust terra cotta ornament is concentrated over such a striking shape.