Architecture
The Kings County Savings Bank building was built between 1860 and 1867. It is 43½ by 81 feet on the outside dimension and is constructed of Dorchester sandstone. It has three main floors, each a single large room. On the first and second floors, the main rooms contain six tall Corinthian columns, formed of cast iron, while the third floor is entirely open. The first floor retains its massive gas chandeliers and ornately carved woodwork.
Although the designer of the bank, King's partner William H. Wilcox, is relatively unknown, the building is a superb example of the French Second Empire style. For example, the building displays the characteristic Mansard roof, which conceals the fourth story attic.
Read more about this topic: Kings County Savings Bank
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.”
—John Ruskin (18191900)
“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.”
—John Ruskin (18191900)
“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
—Federico García Lorca (18981936)