Illustrated Architecture Dictionary

Piano nobile

The principal floor or main story of a building

In Renaissance structures the grand stairway usually led up to this main floor.

In France, sometimes called bel étage.

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Examples from Buffalo:

• Lockwood Memorial Library/Abbot Hall

Other examples:

• Drayton Hall, Charleston, S.C.
  
  
• University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
  
  
• Banqueting House at Whitehall, London, England

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