Elephant House interior ca. 1940

The architectural heart of the Bronx Zoo is Astor Court, a group of Beaux-Arts pavilions designed by Heins & La Farge. The principal building, originally called the Elephant House, is structured as a series of Guastavino vaults crowned by a two-tiered dome covering a central rotunda. The shallow inner dome features a distinctive herringbone tile pattern pierced by a ring of circular skylights. Polychrome tiles initially finished the tall outer dome, later re-clad in metal.