You’ve probably seen this in movies or on TV — the Bethesda Fountain is the heart of Central Park, and the subterranean arcade features a 50-ton ceiling made of encaustic tile designed by Jacob Wrey Mould and made by the famed Minton Tile Company.
Minton’s ornate encaustic tile was more commonly used as flooring, for instance in the US Capitol Building. This arcade originally had an encaustic floor, but that was removed in the early 20th century and only the ceiling remains. It is the only example in the world of a Minton tile ceiling and is constructed of 15,876 individual tiles assembled into 49 larger panels, each weighing a ton.
The arcade makes an appearance in the video for “I Just Had Sex” by The Lonely Island:
The alternating central medallions feature abstracted floral motifs:
The carved wall panels follow the themes of the Seasons, the Times of Day, and the Ages of Mankind:
Pan and zoom to get a closer look at the arcade here. The rest of the terrace features non-repeating ornamental details:
Read more about Bethesda Terrace and about the process of restoring the ceiling, which was completed in 2007.
Department of Everyday Visualingual 
The embellishments on the walls & stairs are really aggravating in that we can’t get anything like that nowadays in Ohio. Do our retaining walls, sound walls & overpasses really have to be so spartan?
Well, it was a grander time for civic design back then, although this much ornamentation was hardly the norm even in the 1850s.
Oh, wow! That’s an absolutely stunning space! I think I have seen this in a Woody Allen movie. It’s definitely familiar. In any case, I’ll be on the lookout for it in the future. Thanks so much for sharing this inspiring space!
ha, yeah, I don’t expect this kind of detail. Just some real simple detail like in this bistroshopped example would be nicer than what we have, tho.
Here’s examples of sound walls but could be applied to any wall, probably
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/03may/03.cfm
& something like this could be pretty slick
http://www.weitzmanstudios.com/cast_stone/time_passages_2.htm
Wow, Time Passages is very cool! I agree with you, and there are definitely some contemporary examples that go above minimal functionality and actually add something to the landscape, but that’s not the standard.
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