ng to the future ownership of the plant by the city.
Several plans were taken up looking to the construction of a power
house of massive and simple design, but it was finally decided to
adopt an ornate style of treatment by which the structure would be
rendered architecturally attractive and in harmony with the recent
tendencies of municipal and city improvements from an architectural
standpoint. At the initial stage of the power house design Mr.
Stanford White, of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, of New York,
volunteered his services to the company as an adviser on the matter of
the design of the facework, and, as his offer was accepted, his
connection with the work has resulted in the development of the
present exterior design and the selection of the materials used.

The Eleventh Avenue facade is the most elaborately treated, but the
scheme of the main facade is carried along both the 58th and 59th
Street fronts. The westerly end of the structure, facing the river,
may ultimately be removed in case the power house is extended to the
Twelfth Avenue building line for the reception of fourteen generating
equipments; and for this reason this wall is designed plainly of less
costly material.

The general style of the facework is what may be called French
Renaissance, and the color scheme has, therefore, been made rather
light in character. The base of the exterior walls has been finished
with cut granite up to the water table, above which they have been
laid up with a light colored buff pressed brick. This brick has been
enriched by the use of similarly colored terra-cotta, which appears in
the pilasters, about the windows, in the several entablatures, and in
the cornice and parapet work. The Eleventh Avenue facade is further
enriched by marble medallions, framed with terra-cotta, and by a title
panel directly over the front of the structure.

The main entrance to the structure is situated at its northeast
corner, and, as the railroad track passes along just inside the
building, the entrance proper is the doorway immediately beyond the
track, and opens into the entrance lobby. The doorway is trimmed with
cut granite and the lobby is finished with a marble wainscoting.

The interior of the operating room is faced with a light,
cream-colored pressed brick with an enameled brick wainscoting, eight
feet high, extending around the entire operating area; the wainscoting
is white except for a brown border and base. The offic