GRAND LOBBY ENTRANCE - SOUTH-EAST CORNER
"The marble-faced lower zone of the grand lobby north and
south walls continues the black-and-silver
motif of the slightly concave east (entrance) wall. Above
a 'baseboard' of channeled chromium, slender horizontal
and vertical strips of the same metal frame four shallow
rectangular niches set above grilled vents. Intermediate
horizontal strips further subdivide the relatively broad
expanses of marble between the niches, and all horizontals
are aligned with those of the east wall. A metal frieze,
wider than the strips and embossed with two interlocking
rows forming a rectilinear wave pattern, runs just below
the narrow marble course that caps the zone.
The lower zones of the north and south walls form podia
supporting lofty piers between which are seven false windows
set within approximately four-foot-deep reveals.
The piers are over 35' high, end, except for the broad
concave channels and rounded nosings of their forward
edges, are nearly rectangular in plan. They are surfaced
in vermilion-painted plaster. The plaster soffits of
the seven bays are incised with an abstract geometrical
floral motif and are gilded. The 'windows' are also
over 35' high. Thin metal muntins, arranged in a geometrical
pattern to suggest very slender stalks ending
in highly abstract flowers, divide the etched amber glass
of the 'windows' into trapezoidal shapes. The glass is
illuminated by reflected light projected from within the
piers into shallow light chambers, producing an evenly
diffused softly glowing effect.
Each of the marble window ledges supports a nearly life-sized
and very conventionalized group of gilded plaster
dancers. The groups in the first, third, fifth, and
seventh bays each represent a line of four identically
posed female dancers. They are cast from two similar
but mirror-image molds and are so placed that the lines
of their bodies all lead the eye toward the middle (fourth)
bay. The second, fourth, and sixth bays contain identical
groups representing three female nudes amid a very stylized
swirl of foliage or drapery. All of these groups have
the effect of railings, or window guards, in their respective bays."
- Historic American Buildings Survey Document No. CA-1976
|
