English: Seen at Columbus Circle in downtown Syracuse, New York: the Onondaga County Courthouse (left) and the Columbus Monument (right). A majestic example of Beaux-Arts Neoclassicism designed by the prolific locally-based architect Archimedes Russell, the courthouse dates to 1906, cost $1.5 million to build, is the fourth to house the county judiciary, and sports a design inspired by McKim, Mead & White's Rhode Island State Capitol. Its façade is executed in Indiana buff limestone with gray granite accents and positively brims with Classical detailing, first and foremost in the temple-front portico that serves as the central feature of the main façade overlooking Columbus Circle. Set above a grand staircase, it's composed of an octet of composite columns that support a frieze bedecked with wreath reliefs and a pediment wherein - consecutively - modillion brackets, a dentil row, and a bead-and-reel string course undergird the base and rake below the sloping sides. At the top, flanked by a pair of handsome Classical balustrades defining the flat roofline, a grand cupola with a ribbed dome stands sentinel, surrounded by a quartet of nearly identical smaller cupolae at each corner of the building. The variations in fenestration between each floor: square, interspersed with rustication, and topped with splayed lintels on the ground floor; square and interspersed with rustication but without any window heads on the second story, round-arched and separated by Doric pilaster strips on the third; square and separated by Doric pilaster strips on the fourth - is a nod to Italian Renaissance architectural principles. The exquisitely ornamented interior continues the emphasis on the Beaux-Arts aesthetic. As for the monument, it was a cooperative work of Florentine artist Renzo V. Baldi (who designed the statue and other sculptural elements) and locally-based architect Dwight James Baum (who designed the pedestal and site layout), that consists of a 29-foot pink granite obelisk symbolic of majesty and might, atop which stands Baldi's eleven-foot cast bronze depiction of Columbus as a young man, facing westward with maps and charts clutched in his left hand. At the base of the obelisk are a quartet of bronze reliefs depicting Columbus' voyage to the New World and triumphant return to Spain, and below that is a fountain where gargoyles of turtles, shells, and grotesque sea creatures symbolize the perils of the trans-Atlantic voyage. The square itself was designed in mimicry of an Italian piazza and fulfills its function well - the square is a gathering place for office workers during the workday and a frequent festival venue off-hours. Like many of the monuments to Columbus that dot the cities and towns of the U.S. today, Syracuse's was conceived as an expression of the ethnic pride of the Italian-American community that had begun to coalesce on the north side of the city in the closing decades of the 19th century. The monument was the brainchild of Syracuse University art professor Torquato DeFelice, who began planning for it in 1910; however, groundbreaking was delayed until 1932, by which time the intended location had changed from Onondaga Park to what had heretofore been known as St. Mary's Circle. The monument was refurbished in 1992 in a state-of-the-art process directed by the Healy Brothers Foundry of Rhode Island, but has recently been the center of controversy in the midst of the 21st-century reassessment of Columbus' historical legacy: in 2020, Syracuse mayor Ben Walsh announced plans to remove the statue and redevelop the site in honor of both Italian-American and Native American heritage, a decision that drew immediate backlash and still-ongoing legal challenges.