NATURAL HISTORY BUILDING 47 



through certain lines of decorative features but are generally 17 

 inches high. 



In the first and second stories each pier is pierced by a heavily 

 architraved opening. The lower openings are 7 feet 9 inches wide by 

 14 feet 7^ inches high and have console-decorated heads supporting 

 balconies with stone balustrades at the second floor level. The open- 

 ings in the second story are 6 feet 3 inches wide by 12 feet 10^^ 

 inches high and also have console- decorated heads which support 

 square-headed pediments. As these piercings are through the center 

 of the piers they open upon the rotunda from the diagonal points of 

 the compass and emphasize and make prominent the entrances to the 

 stair towers and elevators. 



Each of the great arches consists of 27 voussoirs which are anchored 

 into the pendentive brickwork by means of wrought iron anchors. 

 The soffits of the arches are coffered and have a series of 13 nearly 

 square panels. 



The screens between the piers are identical in composition. Each 

 contains four columns in each of the three tiers, which, in the direct 

 elevation of the screens, are centered one over the other through the 

 successive stories. The columns are unfluted monoliths of breccia 

 stazzima marble, 2 feet in diameter in their lower part, with lime- 

 stone bases and caps. The two middle columns are spaced 11 feet 

 8 inches on centers, while each of these is spaced 10 feet 6 inches from 

 the outer columns, between which and the sides of the piers only nar- 

 row openings occur. The column treatment is recalled against these 

 sides by fluted limestone pilasters. 



The architectural order used in the decoration of the first story 

 tiers is the mutulary Doric, the columns, including a 22-inch roseal 

 marble plinth or pedestal base, being 17 feet 4^ inches high to the 

 under side of the entablature. The bases and caps of the columns, 

 together with certain moldings in the architrave and in the mutu- 

 lary cornice of the 4-foot f-inch entablature, have carved surfaces. 

 The second and third story orders are the Roman Ionic, both alike in 

 appearance but differing in the height of corresponding units. The 

 second story columns, including the 13^-inch height of a plinth course, 

 are 15 feet 2 inches high, and the entablature, the top of which is 12 

 inches below the third floor level, is 4 feet 1 inch "high. The columns 

 of the third story are 11 feet 9^ inches high, excluding the plinth 

 course which is below the floor level, and the entablature is 3 feet 

 ^ inch high, projecting 12 inches higher than the fourth floor level. 

 The architraves of the upper entablatures are free from carving, but 

 in the denticulated cornices certain moldings have carved surfaces 

 and of course the Ionic column caps are carved. 



Each screen is topped just above the fourth floor level by a lime- 

 stone balustrade, 2 feet 3^ inches high, with die blocks or pedestals 



