from that direction. The Shubert's facade is made of white brick, laid in English-cross bondwork, as well as terracotta. The bricks are laid in alternating courses of headers (with their short sides exposed) and stretchers (with their long sides exposed). An early source described the theaters' facades as being made of white marble, with stucco and faience panels. The main section of the theater rises six stories and is topped by a cornice with dentils. Above the cornice is a sheet-metal mansard roof. A critic for Architecture magazine wrote that Herts had "discovered an excellent motive for a single facade", although it "would perhaps have been more amusing" if the two theaters had contained different facades. According to the New-York Tribune, the theaters' use of hand-carved sgraffito for decoration made Herts "the first man to have used sgraffito for this purpose". The sgraffito was used because of New York City building codes that prevented decorations from projecting beyond their lot lines. These decorations were colored light-gray, placed on a purple-gray background. The sgraffito on the two theaters is one of the few such examples that remain in New York City. A contemporary source said the theaters' facades were "free from much of the gaudy trappings that has made some of the recent playhouses commonplace in appearance". 44th Street At ground level, the 44th Street elevation contains a tall water table of painted stone, above which is a band with rusticated blocks of terracotta. There are three arches at the center of the facade, which provide an emergency exit from the lobby. Each archway originally contained a pair of paneled wooden double doors, but these have since been replaced with glass doors. On either side of the arches are rectangular sign boards topped by triangular pediments. Within the archways above the doors are sgraffito paintings, which depict figures within aedicules. These paintings are partially obscured by a modern marquee that is cantilevered from the wall above. The archways are surrounded by rusticated voissoirs. Above the archways, the theater's facade is made of brick. The brick section of the facade is surrounded by a stucco band of sgraffito decorations, which is painted white and contains bas reliefs of classical-style foliate ornamentation. Outside this stucco band is another sgraffito band, divided into panels that depict female figures and griffins. The extreme left (west) and right (east) ends of the facade contain vertical sequences