Humanities and Social Sciences Library, New York Public Library
The Carrere & Hastings building was created to be the centerpiece of the new library system that was to serve Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island. Therefore, the Humanities and Social Sciences Library was built as the main library in the Beaux-Arts design, which was extremely popular at the time. The structure was built to impress, suggesting the grandness of a Roman temple to knowledge but accessible to all the people.
The ornate façade of the building contains columns, a three-arched entrance that resembles a Roman triumphal arch, and statuary. This arch leads into Astor Hall, the largest free-standing marble structure in the world. All three Greek orders of columns (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) were used on the three floors of the building. The columns on the arched main entrance are Ionic, with Corinthian columns decorating the façade of the building front.
The ornateness of the main library of NYPL is so extravagant that it is impossible to summarize what the façade of the building and the inside look like.