 Walker sought to incorporate a program of ornament to attract the interests of passersby and to temper the building's large mass.For the Barclay–Vesey Building, Walker eschewed traditional motifs, such as egg-and-dart patterns, which he saw as cliched.He wrote that the decorative elements should be "so complicated in its structure as not to be readily comprehended; its framework should be as hidden as the steel structure itself."