Other Philadelphia office-buildings which should be mentioned are the Wood building, which, though plain exteriorly, is one of the best arranged structures of its class in the city; the Forrest building, where some difficult problems of lighting have been well solved and a satisfac tory facade obtained; and the Record building, which flanks the post office and towers above it. The front is of granite, the piers are adorned with bundles of projecting roll-mouldings, the entrance has great corbels which carry nothing, and the openings are rectangular, yet the ensemble is imposing. Almost lofty enough to be called a tower, since its base is only about 5o feet square and its height at least twice as much, is the nine storey building of Brown Brothers & Company. It is of buff brick and white limestone, the ornamental details in the latter material, and is Re naissance, haying Corinthian pilasters running through several storeys.
The Drexel Building is the largest office- and bank-structure in Phil adelphia. The bank, the part first erected, though externally of two storeys, contains a single large hall. In style it conforms to the conven tional Italian Renaissance, with arches springing from piers framed by pilasters, and with small pediment-crowned pavilions at the angles. The material is white marble. The interior is spanned by immense girders hidden by ornamental cast-iron work, the style of which is in marked contrast to that of the building itself. The newer and larger portion is in the same style as the older part.
The Independence National Bank, adjoining the Drexel bank, forms as complete a contrast to the Drexel building as possible. Scarcely an inch of plain surface can be found in the structure; all is a mass of carving, wreaths, and female busts filling the front wherever it is not occupied by openings. The interior of this bank is, however, quiet and chaste, its chief drawback being its extreme narrowness. This small structure, except its façade, is entirely surrounded by the Drexel building.
The Keystone National notable is the Keystone (p. 65, fig. i), a massive seven-storey structure with a pro jecting semicircular staircase tower of picturesque outline matched on the ground-floor by a semicircular bay. The entrance is placed between the two semicircles. The materials of the façade are of Indiana limestone, with a base of polished granite from Somes Sound.
The .1Iutual Life Insurance Company of Fork, notwithstanding its adherence to the Italian palatial style, is one of the best of Philadel phia's office-structures, and stands as an example of what can be done by an artist-hand without abandoning the beaten paths of style. The east
front has pavilions with nearly detached columns alternating with por tions adorned with pilasters, and in the centre a balcony borne on trusses carries two gray-granite columns which support a second balcony. The south façade has three superposed loggias, each formed by two columns separated from each other and from the piers by long intercolumniations. The order on the ground-floor is Ionic; on the two above it, Corinthian. The facade has a half-basement, three lofty storeys, and a tall attic with well-arranged dormers in front of a mansard roof. The material is granite.
Columbia of the most pleasing small buildings to be found in New York City is the Columbia Bank. Above the lower floor, which is of stone, the structure is red brick and terra-cotta. The upper storey is the distinctive feature. Each of the square bays terminates upward in a portico of four terra-cotta columns with Ionic capitals placed in pairs. These por ticoes, immediately under a good cornice, give deep shadows and contrast well with the solid appearance of the rest of the structure. The square headed windows of the bays on the north front and of the recess between are in triplets, and are bound together by a moulded architrave and by diapered panelling between the storeys. Those of the lower and upper most floors are semicircular.
The Astor National Bank, New York City, is a striking example of mod ern Renaissance. Three large arches, with their pilasters, occupy the greater part of the width of the façade. In the recesses of these arches are inserted oriel-windows of metal, several storeys high. The soffits of the arches are enriched. The two lower storeys are of red stone relieved with flowing carving at the base of the pilasters, which are also adorned with a terra cotta enrichment on each floor. The windows in the piers right and left of the arches are surrounded by terra-cotta arabesques, but have no mould ings. The upper part of this building is occupied for the most part by a great gable filled with a diaper pattern and containing two storeys of win dows; on each side of this gable is a dormer. Two short and massive pol ished gray-granite columns emphasize the entrance, and the windows of the ground-floor have bracket-heads. Quaint though this structure is in members and in detail, it is symmetrical, and forms an attractive compo sition, which would, however, be improved by the absence of the metal bays.