Situated on an urban residential block, J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library appears strikingly distinct yet surprisingly at home. Architect Charles Follen McKim drew on Italian Renaissance precedents to design a contemporary American building that conveyed power and permanence, intimacy and grandeur. “Above all,” he told his client, “we are desirous that the design shall represent your views and reflect your judgment, in order that it may become a worthy monument to your munificence and public spirit.”
The building was complete by 1906, and Morgan was satisfied. Daniel Chester French, the prominent sculptor, stopped by to see it and wrote to reassure the exhausted McKim: “Of course Mr. Morgan likes his library. Who would dare not to?”