Sketch Plan for Library Museum for J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq., New York

Architect Whitney Warren Jr.'s design proposal for a museum to house J. Pierpont Morgan's expanding art and manuscript collection in Manhattan. The plan demonstrates Beaux-Arts principles with a symmetrical layout organizing the library and exhibition galleries around a central vestibule. Flanking wings contain service spaces and intimate viewing rooms, while gardens frame the exterior. Warren's measured drawing shows the careful coordination of circulation, natural light, and spatial hierarchy that characterized institutional architecture at the turn of the twentieth century. Though this scheme was not executed, it reflects the ambitions of Gilded Age collectors to create permanent repositories for their holdings.