Ralph Walker, the architect of the Irving Trust Company's faceted, limestone
skyscraper at 1 Wall Street, discussed his decision to avoid cornices and
stringcourses on the building in an article in Architectural Forum in May
1930:

"As we went up vertically in designing the building we found that the long
flutings did not require much above them.  Our eye was able to pass over this
break without interruption.  The mistake we made on the [Barclay-Vesey]
Telephone Building was that we placed too much decoration in certain places.
In this new building the design ... reads from the point of view of the man
on the street looking up who should feel the power of that vertical lift
upwards throughout the entire wall height.  The design keeps on up with a
slightly different rhythm as it approaches the top, where it breaks into a
crowning rhythm."

No mention of rain, sleet or snow.      Christopher Gray