Sandstone arches under a patterned tile ceiling, the fountain and the lake beyond the far arch.
Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould designed Bethesda Terrace as the formal heart of Central Park, built in the 1860s. The arcade ceiling holds about 16,000 Minton encaustic tiles, the only such tile ceiling in the world. Emma Stebbins's fountain, Angel of the Waters, was dedicated in 1873 to mark the Croton Aqueduct that brought clean water to the city.
Source · Central Park Conservancy ↗
The encaustic tile ceiling in coffers, the sandstone arcade with carved niches, the fountain terrace and lake beyond. Mood: morning in the park. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.