The Rotunda's Marble Floor

While McKim designed the Library with the aim to draw the eye upward, he was equally attentive to the ground below. This is one of several surviving drawings that record the firm’s careful planning for the pavement of the Rotunda, which pays homage to the sixteenth-century Casina Pio IV (Villa Pia) in the Vatican Gardens. McKim asked the sculptor Waldo Story, who was living in Rome, to scout antique marble samples of a variety of hues, with a particular focus on securing the central disc of deep-red-purple porphyry.