Three marble entrance arches, a vaulted ceremonial hall and twin stair silhouettes surround a freestanding portrait salon.
Astor Hall is the marble entrance lobby of the New York Public Library at 476 Fifth Avenue, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Carrere and Hastings won the design competition in 1897 and the library opened on May 24, 1911. Busts of both architects stand in niches at the foot of the stairs that flank the hall. In November 1974 Astor Hall, the central stairs and the McGraw Rotunda became New York City's first interior landmark.
Source · NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, LP-2592 ↗
White marble; triple portal rhythm; vaults; patterned gray floor; lateral stair flights. Astor Hall, not the existing Rose Reading Room. Mood: through the fifth avenue doors. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.