NATURAL HISTORY BUILDING 55 



The upper 3 feet in the height of the vestibule is occupied by a 

 plaster cornice and ceiling, some of the moldings of which are deco- 

 rated. The lower members of the cornice extend unbroken around 

 the entire compartment, but the upper moldings, combining with the 

 members of the beams, extend across the ceiling, dividing it into 

 panels. Centered with each of the three door openings is a large 

 square panel subdivided to an octagonal design and having a rosette 

 center decoration. The spaces intervening between the large panels 

 are occupied by a single shallow rectangular panel. 



Lobby. — The lobby occupies the entire width of 116 feet 2 inches 

 of the north wing, from the main part of which it is separated by 

 a structural wall having a central opening, 8 feet 6 inches wide by 

 13 feet 2| inches high, giving access to the middle hall. In the 

 northeast corner, in a recessed pavilion, is the landing of one of the 

 principal stairs, but otherwise the walls are essentially straight, the 

 width of the room in front of the vestibule being 35 feet 5 inches, 

 and elsewhere 37 feet. A doorway at each end leads into the adjoin- 

 ing range, and also communicating with the lobby are two pas- 

 senger elevators, a stairway leading to the elevator pit and an office 

 room, all directly west of the vestibule ; a battery room between the 

 vestibule and main stairway, and a watchmen's room at the south- 

 east corner. 



Extending east and west through the center of the middle part 

 of the lobby is a row of four white Vermont marble piers enclosing 

 the structural steel columns elsewhere described, of which each of 

 the middle ones is distant 9 feet 3 inches and the outer ones 25 feet 

 9 inches from the north and south axis of the room. The two end 

 piers, including the thickness of a pilaster 19J inches wide on each 

 face, are 2 feet 1^ inches square. A marble column stands directly 

 in front of both the north and south faces, and the treatment of the 

 piers is recalled by corresponding pilasters and columns on the 

 opposite north and south walls and a pilaster on both the east and 

 west walls. The middle piers are double, measuring 2 feet 1^ inches 

 by 4 feet 5f inches. They have a single pilaster on the narrow sides 

 and two on the broader sides, which latter are repeated on the 

 north and south walls. There is also a pilaster 'on each end wall in a 

 line with the wall between the vestibule and the lobby. The piers 

 and the wall pilasters are jointed, but the shafts of the columns are 

 monoliths and have molded caps and bases of solid pieces. All of the 

 wall surfaces of the middle part of the room between the pilasters 

 with columns, including two large panels on either side of the en- 

 trance to the middle hall, are of the same white marble, as are also 

 the architraves of all door openings. The stone has a putty polish 

 finish. The walls at both ends of the lobby are finished in plaster. 



