8 of the Best Beaux Arts Buildings in NYC
After the Baroque era, a spin on classical architecture known as Beaux Arts emerged from Paris in the 1800s. While staying true to the tenets of classicism—symmetry, articulated form, and a common vocabulary—Beaux Arts builders were more interested in decorative flair and monumental grandeur than the perfection of scale and proportion. They often dipped into other past styles to accomplish their goals. The Beaux Arts style took firm root in the United States during the Gilded Age, particularly after the success of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, in which an entire neoclassical city was showcased. For those with means, Beaux Arts represented stately European sophistication. The style was hugely popular for many decades, even as modernism spread, and New York was a hotbed for Beaux Arts buildings: Here are eight of the city's best.
Getty Images/iStockphoto1/8Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library
Over a million books were shelved at New York Public Library’s main branch in Bryant Park just prior to its opening in 1911. The lion statues that flank the building's entrance are an iconic symbol of the library.
Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images2/8Grand Central Terminal
Huge windows and a clock framed in elegant granite figures make the façade of Grand Central Terminal far from just neoclassical—Beaux Arts ornamentation is at work here.
Getty Images3/8New York Yacht Club
Cornices and cartouches support characters in this architectural drama. The stars at the New York Yacht Club are the three windows shaped like the sterns of little ships, complete with sculpted water splashing down the outer wall.
Getty Images4/8The Ansonia
The Ansonia is rich in architectural detail. From a Parisian mansard roof to the careful framing of each window, the building is quintessential New York Beaux Arts.
Getty Images5/8The Bronx Zoo
Pick up on the zoological motifs adorning some of the Bronx Zoo’s older buildings during your next visit. The former elephant house, shown here, is perhaps the zoo’s finest example of Beaux Arts work.
Getty Images/Lonely Planet Images6/8The Henry Clay Frick House
Industrialist Henry Clay Frick’s New York mansion was turned into a museum in 1935. The monumental Fifth Avenue property was designed to showcase Frick’s art collection and to speak to his incredible wealth.
7/8The Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum, one of the United States's largest, was designed by the star architectural team at McKim, Mead & White in the 1890s. The museum was to be the center of a cultural district in the borough.
Getty Images8/8The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Built over the course of decades, one of the most significant additions to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was the Fifth Avenue façade created by Richard Morris Hunt in 1902 in the Beaux Arts style.
