The room was so crowded the F.D.A. had to set up a closed-circuit television in the hotel's second-floor lobby to accommodate the overflow.

"Looking down on the patterned carpeting from the second-floor lobby, the main floor looks active and populated," he said, "even when it's not occupied."

A visitor to Gale's headquarters today enters a second-floor lobby that looks like a small museum exhibit.

This year's painting will take its place on the wall of the insurance company's second-floor lobby and work area, joining a growing corporate art gallery.

In the second-floor lobby, volunteers, well-wishers, contractors and job-seekers sought an audience to promote their credentials.

A glass elevator will whisk guests to the serene white-and-beige second-floor lobby (inset).

Both works are installed in the second-floor lobby, and from there "Open Ends" branches off into five thematic shows.

Inside, a staircase spirals from the entrance vestibule to the second-floor lobby.

The change occurred in the mid-1930's, when the museum's grand exterior staircase, leading to a second-floor lobby, was removed in the interests of easier access.

A week later its second-floor lobby was filled with guests waiting for rooms and a drink from the still unfinished bar.