While the style of Beaux-Art buildings was adapted from historical models , the construction used the most modern available technology . The Grand Palais in Paris ( 1897 – 1900 ) had a modern iron frame inside ; the classical columns were purely for decoration . The 1914 – 1916 construction of the Carolands Chateau south of San Francisco was built to withstand earthquakes , following the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake ) . The noted Spanish structural engineer Rafael Guastavino ( 1842 – 1908 ) , famous for his vaultings , known as Guastavino tile work , designed vaults in dozens of Beaux-Arts buildings in the Boston , New York , and elsewhere . Beaux-Arts architecture also brought a civic face to the railroad . ( Chicago 's Union Station , Detroit 's Michigan Central Station , Jacksonville 's Union Terminal and Washington , DC 's Union Station are famous American examples of this style . ) Cincinnati has a number of notable Beaux-Arts style buildings , including the Hamilton County Memorial Building in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood , and the former East End Carnegie library in the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood . An ecclesiastical variant on the Beaux-Arts style is Minneapolis ' Basilica of St. Mary , the first basilica in the United States , which was designed by Franco-American architect Emmanuel Louis Masqueray ( 1861 – 1917 ) and opened in 1914 . Two of the best American examples of the Beaux-Arts tradition stand within a few blocks of each other : Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library . Another prominent U.S. example of the style is the largest academic dormitory in the world , Bancroft Hall at the abovementioned United States Naval Academy . The tallest railway station in the world at the time of completion , Michigan Central in Detroit , was also designed in the style
Jacksonville 's Union Terminal
Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center
Beaux-Arts architecture