Design
This commercial office building is clad in white terra cotta over a masonry wall. The Bayard Building was one of the first steel skeleton frame skyscrapers in New York City and the Department of Buildings raised numerous objections to the design before the plans were finally accepted. It is one of the first examples of the Chicago school style of architecture in New York City.
The division of the building into three sections – an ornamented base, a shaft of identical stacked floors, and a decorated crown – illustrates Sullivan's views on skyscraper design. At 13 stories and 162 feet (49 meters) high, the building does not attempt to disguise its height, but rather accentuates it by leaving relatively undecorated mullions and pilasters. Sullivan's signature ornate floral designs decorate the base and top of the facade, and across the spandrels below the window openings. Figural sculptures of angels were added at the request of the client, Silas Alden Condict, over Sullivan's objections.
Read more about this topic: Bayard-Condict Building
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.”
—Marilyn French (20th century)
“Delay always breeds danger; and to protract a great design is often to ruin it.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)
“What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)