Thursday, April 30, 2015

Stanford White's NYU Library - Now part of Bronx College

The statues are life-sized.  The colors were beautiful, but it wasn't light enough to capture them.
I knew of the famous architect Stanford White long before I knew about New York or Architecture.  That is because he figures prominently in the book "Ragtime", by E L Doctrow.  And I read (consumed) "Ragtime" when I was younger: the prose, the cadence the imagery.  I loved that book!
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Anywho.
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On our Landmark Dash, we traveled out to the Bronx to see this library.  Designed as an outpost of NYU, the grounds have since been turned in the the Bronx College.

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The building is very classical, almost a temple to higher learning.  Inside 16 columns of Green marble are topped by gold gilded column toppers (also designed by the Architect).  Floating above them are 16 carved figures - each life sized although they look smaller by distance.  I didn't get a good shot of the top of the ceiling, where a large light fixture is.  Apparently it was a skylight until Vietnam protests destroyed it in the 1960s.
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It was very cool to see in person.
A shot of the interior.  Those are Dash participants counting the ceiling squares (Ed did that for our team and got the number exactly correct).
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Randy and Ed outside the library
Not long after completion.  The pergolas are still there and hold busts of famous people in categories like statesmen, artists, inventors, etc.