...one giant room inside (70 feet clear, from floor to ceiling), apparently
serviced by some sort of crane (not indicated on plans) which stacked the
blocks of ice.  Building is 50 foot facing the street, 100 feet deep.  No interior
columns, just a nominal 50x92 foot space, 70 feet high.  No windows.

Columns of brick on the perimeter walls, 2 feet square and ten feet apart,
make up the structural system - that is, the roof spans cross at the point the
columns reach the top.

Normal practice would be to put the perimeter wall all the way out to the
property line with the columns protruding only inside - that would maximize the
space.

But with this building, the columns are centered <<within>> the wall, so that
the project one-third inside the room and one-third outside (the other third
within the wall plane).  The resulting notches on the exterior mean a "waste"
of space of about 300 square feet.

I first thought ventilation system - using the notches - but no ventilation
detailed on plans, and no other explanation.

Christopher Gray