Just how important is the rear facade of the New York Public Library, asks architectural historian Christopher Gray: "Rarely does the back of a structure receive critical notice, but the Bryant Park facade has attracted appreciative remarks over the years, especially from modernists. 'Perhaps the origin of straight-line architecture in America,' mused American Builder in 1930, and in 1952, Lewis Mumford called it 'the most successful' of the four facades, even though he thought that Thomas Hastings had 'little appreciated this fact.'" [NYT; previously; photo by Harris Graber]
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