The Graybar Building is not an official landmark, but it certainly is distinctive, with colorful bas-relief figures somewhere between Assyrian and Art Deco.

To the left of the slab is an eight-foot-high obelisk, also covered with cuneiform, with a bas-relief figure chiseled into the top.

Handsome bas-relief figures memorializing Oregonians who fell in military service in World War I decorate the end walls.

On the left side, the rope is connected to a seated bas-relief figure.

The building is adorned with bas-relief figures, sculpted by Ulysses A. Ricci, symbolizing commerce and communication.

The cornice has molded bas-relief figures of American Indians in full headdress.

The monument, by the Bridgeport sculptor Paul Winters Morris (1865-1916) includes bas-relief figures of soldiers with heads bowed.

"Many prominent buildings in the United States and elsewhere have classical facades with Corinthian columns and bas-relief figures on a pediment," she wrote.

The composition of the monument includes four items: Taras Shevchenko, and three bas-relief figures complementing the composition.

Years ago, I couldn't wait to walk through the awesome entrance flanked by towering, gilded bas-relief figures, to head straight for the biographies, still my favorite reading.