The Beaux Arts style was taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The school taught academic design which emphasized composition and symmetry based on Greek and Roman models.

Many prominent American architects studied at this institution, including architects who later worked in the Bay Area. Among them were Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, John Bakewell, Arthur Brown, John Reid, Jr., Albert Pissis, Gustave Lansburgh, George Kelham, and George Applegarth.

Distinctive Beaux Arts features are:

• central pavilion
• monumental paired columns
• balustrade
• enriched cornice
• statuary, caryatids and atlantes
• attic story and rusticated basement