The Beaux-Arts Style in architecture is named after the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris, where the style was taught. Originating in France in the 1830s, the Beaux-Arts Style had enormous influence in Europe and the Americas through the end of the 19th century and well into the 20th, especially for institutional and public buildings. Beaux-Arts architecture is based on classical (especially Roman imperial) models, combined with French and Italian Renaissance and Baroque influences. Characteristic features are arched and pedimented doorways, rusticated masonry, balustrades, swags, acroteria and lavish use of sculpture.

Many of the world’s most celebrated buildings are examples of the Beaux-Arts Style. These include the Sainte-Geneviève Library, Paris, (Henri Labrouste, 1844–50); the Monte Carlo Casino, Monaco (Jules Dutrou and Charles Garnier, 1878–79); the Petit Palais, Paris (Charles Girault, 1900); the Art Institute of Chicago (Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, 1893); Low Memorial Library, Columbia University, New York (Charles F. McKim, 1895–97); Kansas City Union Station (Jarvis Hunt, 1910–14), and the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House (Arthur Brown Jr. and G. Albert Landsburgh, 1927–1932). Web resources here and here.

John M. Carrère and Thomas Hastings. Façade of the New York Public Library. 1897–1911.