The conventionalized lily petals decorating the summit of the tower
suggest the highest forms of plant life. The delicate lace-like finials,
rising from the highest points of court and tower alike, express
aspiration. The chanticleers on the finials surrounding the court
symbolize the dawn of Christianity.

The star-like clusters of lights, raised aloft, two in the main court
and four in the north court, deepen the ecclesiastical atmosphere by
suggesting the golden monstrance emblematic of the rays of the sun and
of the radiating presence of God, and used in the Catholic Church as a
receptacle for the sacred host.

--M. W. R.



Florentine Court
Palace of Transportation

The Florentine Court and the Venetian Court lie east and west
respectively of the Court of the Universe. They are sometimes called the
Aisles of the Rising and the Setting Sun. While in reality only
connecting avenues, the wealth or careful detail lavished upon them
makes of them charming interludes between the larger and more imposing
courts, and yet so skillfully do they conform to the general plan that
they blend one larger court with another, without expressing a distinct
individuality of their own. They were planned by W. B. Faville of San
Francisco. While identical in design upon three sides, their adaptation
upon the fourth side to the courts which they adjoin, east and west, and
the variety in landscape effects, insure against exact duplication.