that "it is one of my very favorite sculptures"; he already had a print of the same work. Before Moonbird was installed, the 58th Street side of the plaza had a "mobile" by Alexander Calder. Solow removed the mobile after realizing the work could fall onto pedestrians in the wind. Features Basement and lobby 9 West 57th Street is structurally supported by columns above the public plaza, creating the appearance of an arcade. Storefronts on either side were originally planned. Two basement shopping levels were originally connected to the plaza by a pairs of escalators on both 57th and 58th Street. The retail space, covering , remained empty for thirty years after the building's completion. Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates then designed the Brasserie 8 1/2 restaurant in the space, which opened in 2000. The 230-seat restaurant covers and is accessed by a stair inside a cylindrical entrance from the lobby. The basement also has a parking garage. The lobby was designed to extend the entire block between 57th and 58th Streets, with glass walls on either side. The lobby is clad with marble. During the Solow Building's construction, Bunshaft had said that marble "is beautiful, it weathers beautifully and it expresses structure in design". Because Solow wanted to maintain an "exclusive aura", he banned tenants from using phones in the lobby. The 58th Street side of the lobby has a newsstand and a retail area. The first floor also houses Solow's private art gallery, including works by Franz Kline, Henri Matisse, and Alberto Giacometti. The gallery is managed under the non-profit Solow Art and Architecture Foundation, which receives tax exemptions from being nominally open to the public. However, the gallery is perpetually closed, even to tenants. Some of the artwork was visible from the street despite being inaccessible. This prompted criticism and the creation of a parody website describing the gallery's operating hours as "Monday, inaccessible; Tuesday, closed; Wednesday, no public hours; Thursday, not open; Friday, same as the rest of the week; Saturday, none; Sunday, absolutely not". After Solow's death in late 2020, his widow Mia Fonssagrives-Solow announced she would open his art collection to the public. Upper stories The second floor was designed with a ceiling, although a mezzanine above the second floor was erected during the Solow Building's construction. Designed by Bernard M. Deschler for the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, the mezzanine was installed because Morgan Guaranty