SM Adam volume 36/2

[8] Design for a building, 1787, unexecuted

Longitudinal section of a three-storey building, with a sunken basement. At the ground-storey level there is a stepped Doric portico entrance. Towards the rear of the building there is an apsidal lobby and grand staircase. At the first-storey level there is a balustraded balcony and a bowed Corinthian screen. Beyond this there is a one-and-a-half-storey circular room, with a domed ceiling ornamented with a central patera, encircled by a fan and a band of rosettes and festoons. Beyond this there are figurative roundels, a band of Vitruvian scroll, compartments containing balusters supporting oil burners, and further compartments ornamented with rosettes enclosed within lozenges. The room has composite screens flanked by niches containing urns. Beyond one screen there is a staircase, which has a bowed window to the rear. Above, there is a suspended oil lantern, and the stairwell is ornamented with a tablet containing a pedestal and urn in relief, flanked by winged griffins. In the attic storey there is a circular domed room containing bookcases set within niches, and surmounted by portrait busts. To the rear of the building the exterior of the left-hand wing is shown. At the basement-storey level there are entrances set within relieving arches, with semi-circular-headed windows within relieving arches above. At the first-storey level there is an oriel window, and in the upper register there are half-height windows