Stair hall from the Metcalfe House, Buffalo, New York

McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm whose drawing practice established a foundational language for Beaux-Arts design in the United States. The partnership produced thousands of architectural drawings that served as both design instruments and finished presentations, employing classical proportions and ornamental systems derived from European precedent. Their drawings were featured in the Museum of Modern Art's 1975 exhibition on École des Beaux-Arts architecture, cementing their influence on early twentieth-century American institutional and civic design.