Met History wrote:

> 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:
>
> "... 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

I always understood that cornices served 3 purposes
1- the prosiac shedding of weather from the entrqnce to the building
2- a symbolic "crowning' of the building
3- to make the building look taller [ see BP archives in re guesstimating the
heights of various items]

Drew Diaz