Study for the Fifth Avenue Elevation of the New York Public Library

Whitney Warren Jr.'s architectural elevation drawing presents the monumental facade of the New York Public Library's main branch as conceived for Fifth Avenue. The study depicts a Classical Beaux-Arts composition with fourteen bays of regularly spaced windows arranged across a rusticated base and ornamental entablature. Centrally positioned, a larger opening marks the principal entrance. Decorative sculptural elements frame the facade at both ends. This working drawing reveals the systematic geometric ordering and architectural vocabulary that would define one of America's most iconic civic institutions when completed in 1911.