View allAll Photos Tagged Accelerated
Leaders, social innovators, and decision makers from large and small businesses, corporations, higher education institutions, government, non-profits, social enterprises, social venture capital firms, and more joined in exploring how we can effectively collaborate to create a sustainable future as part of the Accelerate Collaborating for Sustainability Conference in Guelph ON, June 10-11, 2013.
To commemorate Ferrari's 16th victory in the Formula 1 Constructor's World Championship 2008, Ferrari unveiled the Scuderia Spider 16M at World Finals in Mugello. It is a convertible version of the 430 Scuderia.
The engine produces 510 PS (375 kW; 503 hp) at 8500 rpm and 470 N·m (350 lb·ft) torque at 5250 rpm. The car has a dry weight of 1,340 kg (2,954 lb) (80 kg lighter than the F430 Spider) and a curb weight of 1,440 kg (3,175 lb). It accelerates from 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.7 seconds, with a top speed of 315 km/h (196 mph).
499 vehicles were released beginning early 2009.
VEHICLE TYPE: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door roadster
BASE PRICE: $313,350
ENGINE TYPE: DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 263 cu in, 4308cc
Power: 503 bhp @ 8500 rpm
Torque: 347 lb-ft @ 5250 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed manual with automated shifting and clutch
DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 102.4 in
Length: 177.6 in
Width: 75.7 in Height: 47.9 in
Curb weight (C/D est): 3300 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):
Zero to 60 mph: 3.4 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 11.5 sec
Top speed (redline limited): 196 mph
FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST):
EPA city/highway: 11/16 mpg
Ferrari Ownership Requirements 12/7/2020
To own a Ferrari would fulfill the fantasy of many car enthusiasts. The famous Italian automaker excels in delivering luxury sports cars that bear a signature and unique exterior without sacrificing performance. This is only half of what makes the cars special though.
Ferrari's culture separates the company from other automakers in huge ways, affecting both its owners and the workers behind these miraculous machines. Although the company is one of the most valuable, it cares about something more than just earning money: it’s about making special cars that offer a driving experience unlike any other. When examining the company and its owners, it’s clear they’ve achieved this milestone, even after all these years.
Owners have to go to great lengths if they want the latest and greatest cars Ferrari churns out. Employees have to follow rules and regulations if they want to uphold the most important thing to Ferrari—which is not about making cars, but the brand itself. Whether one is a Ferrari owner or an employee that works at their factory plant, everyone has to follow the "Ferrari code."
It’s because of these rules that the brand is exclusive and widely coveted among car gurus today. If someone wants to own a Ferrari, they’re going to have to play by the company’s rules. The same goes for employees if they want to work at, what Autoblog notes, a company that won the award for Best Place to Work in Europe for 2007. We’re going to take a look at known rules both owners and employees have to follow if they want to remain in the good graces of Ferrari.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 - Owner Rule: Forced To Sign Contract Agreeing Not To Sell Car
People today become bombarded with agreements written in fine print. Most people don’t have the time or patience to read all that agreements detail though and decide to sign on the line regardless. According to Autoweek, Ferrari in the US makes their customers sign a contract upon purchasing a new vehicle.
In that agreement is a clause that prevents owners from reselling their car in the first year. The automaker makes buyers sign this in an attempt to discourage owners from flipping their cars. This is both a reminder to read the fine print and further demonstrates the automaker’s stringent protocol placed upon new owners.
19 - Employee Rule: Forbidden From Buying New Cars
Last September, Ferrari unveiled a pair of Roadsters long-time employees can appreciate. Even if the employees want the cars though and can afford them—tough luck. The Drive reports that the company makes their vehicles first and foremost available to the public.
One of Ferrari’s executives, Enrico Galliera, had this to say about employees getting second dibs on new cars: “The philosophy is that with such limited production and clients waiting so long to get their car, it's not nice if the car is delivered to employees.” The only exception to this rule are Scuderia Ferrari F1 drivers who can buy one from the company.
18 - Owner Rule: Leave The Logos Alone
Ferrari believes that as soon as their car rolls off the production line, it's perfect as is. There’s no shortage of Ferrari owners who feel differently though; here’s photographic proof of owners who took their Ferrari rides for granted. If Ferrari had it their way, they’d opt for owners to leave their iconic logos untouched.
According to Tech Dirt, the electronic DJ and artist Deadmau5 got in trouble for covering up his Ferrari logos with custom ones. His 458 Italia “Purrari” sports a blue vinyl wrap that has a Nyan cat painted on the side. It’s a move Ferrari supposedly issued a cease and desist order over.
17 - Employee Rule: Communicate On Their Terms
Ferrari has gone to extremes to sell cars before by tampering with some odometers on used cars, so it’s only natural they’d apply radical policies in the workplace as well. It appears that too many employees were reaching for the keyboard on too many occasions instead of opting for old fashioned face-to-face communication.
According to The Guardian, the executives at Ferrari advised their employees to “talk to each other more and write less.” Since it should be pretty easy for supervisors to monitor their employees’ computer activity, it's safe to assume workers adhere to this directive in order to stick around.
16 - Owner Rule: No Pink Ferraris
Ferrari isn’t fond of pink Ferraris. That’s what Executive Lifestyle reports, despite the company tolerating some customer paint jobs. The disapproval of pink came directly from Herbert Appleroth, the President and CEO of Ferrari Australia. “We do reject the exterior color pink,” Appleroth said, as per the same source.
He went on to say that Ferrari would never produce a pink car. Without a doubt, red is the most iconic color they wrap their cars in. At the same time, the company promotes the idea that no two Ferrari rides should be identical, they just wouldn't go so far as to stand out with a pink paint job.
15 - Employee Rule: No Discounts On Cars
Working for certain companies has its perks. For one, it allows employees to buy products made and sold by that company at a discounted rate. This luxury, however, is too generous to bestow upon Ferrari employees.
According to The Drive, should Scuderia Ferrari F1 drivers choose to purchase a personal Ferrari, they're required to pay full price for it. That puts them in an awkward position, considering it’d be hard to spot team members driving in anything else but a Ferrari; in a way, it forces their employees to invest back into the company without a price concession if they want to properly represent the brand.
14 - Owner Rule: Accept Ferrari’s Right To Buy Back Car
In an earlier entry, we noted that Ferrari in the US has made buyers sign a special contract. While that contract discouraged owners from selling their new Ferrari, it also adds another stipulation: the automaker can buy the vehicle back.
According to the site Car Keys, if someone wanted to get rid of their LaFerrari Aperta, it’s pursuant for Ferrari to purchase the vehicle back from the owner. It would appear that on the surface, Ferrari would rather the car go to someone who wants it instead of someone who doesn't. This is all part of that special contract owners may sign at the time of their purchase.
13 - Employee Rule: Sworn To Prevent Security Leaks
Whether someone is an actor in an upcoming Avengers movie or an employee at Apple, the bigwigs in charge want to keep details under lock and key—that includes any plot spoilers and future product releases. Ferrari is a similar company that’s always making new vehicles while wishing to work in secrecy.
To maintain a level of mystery, the whole operation depends on trustworthy employees. According to Kaspersky Lab Daily, something as simple as copying data to a USB drive has to go through an approval process. This in turn discourages employees from going routes that may lead to a security breach and exercises a higher level of caution.
12 - Owner Rule: Must Love The Ferrari Brand
The world is full of sides, clubs and camps. Those who are outside of them get picked on unless they join a team, while those inside a base pledge undying loyalty. Ferrari is no different. It’s more than just an automaker—it’s a special culture with its own philosophy, style and following.
As the site Car Guy points out, the company sifts through applicants and chooses who gets to buy certain models because they want to make sure their cars are properly taken care of. It’s a sure bet they’re going to pick someone who’s not just a Ferrari fan, but also lives and bleeds the brand.
11 - Employee Rule: Prohibited From Sending Certain Group Emails
Expanding further on an earlier point, Ferrari went to great lengths to crack down on employees emailing more instead of talking to each other. As a means to curb digital communication so that employees would talk to each other directly, they added terms to sending emails.
As per The Guardian, a spokesman for Ferrari said, “From now on, each Ferrari employee will only be able to send the same email to three people in-house.” This must have been a wake up call for employees at the time and discouraged them from falling into old habits of CCing everyone in the whole company on a single thread.
10 - Owner Rule: Buy Not One, Not Two, But Multiple Ferraris
Owning a Ferrari isn’t exactly enough to be a part of the club. As the site Car Guypoints out, it’s more suitable to own several Ferrari cars before one feels part of the bunch. That narrows down the list of potential owners to only a handful around the world with how much they cost.
Even older models are going up in value, as the 1964 Ferrari Prototype demonstrates. The same source points out that the most committed owners, at minimum, are the ones who upgrade their old Ferrari to a newer model. It’s not enough to purchase a one-off Ferrari and call it a day if someone wants to be a true fan.
9 - Employee Rule: Required To Wear Red And White Uniforms
An amusement park can make its employees wear costumes that match the park’s theme; a restaurant may have its employees wear a vest and bow tie; an office requires business casual attire. Ferrari is like most jobs, requiring its employees adhere to a dress code.
According to Freep, those on the manufacturing campus must wear red and white uniforms. They have the company’s iconic yellow logo stitched on, which unites all the employees under the same banner and purpose. There are plenty of people around the world who would love to wear these uniforms, but only a select number ever get to suit up in one.
8 - Owner Rule: Be Older Than 40
Despite Ferrari being one of the most famous car brands today, many people aren’t aware of its history or the automaker's philosophy. There are so many facts about the legendary automaker, we dedicated a whole piece to things most people don't know about Ferrari.
It’s not unusual for potential owners to go through a rigorous process that feels commensurate to a background check. According to the site Car Keys, automaker won’t hesitate to request a customer’s history of ownership for review. Even more, the same source suggests that Ferrari dealers are more likely to sell a car to a new owner who’s over the age of 40.
7 - Employee Rule: Formula 1 Team Must Win
When Scuderia Ferrari struggles, it affects the whole company. The site News.com.au reports that despite being the "most iconic team” in Formula 1 racing, Ferrari was unable to secure a Grand Prix win in 2016. The team only has one remedy when this happens: winning.
As F1-Fansite points out, they were able to bounce back in early 2017, with Vettel winning the first race and securing 5 race wins. The Formula 1 team not only represents the automaker but carries the pride of the entire brand. It’s important that they do well in order for the brand to continue thriving.
6 - Owner Rule: Treat Fellow Ferrari Owners Like Family
Buying a car from certain automakers, such as Tesla, Porsche or Ferrari, feels like joining a family. When someone purchases a Ferrari, they enter into a brotherhood and sisterhood alongside fellow owners. As the site the Car Guy notes, entering into the Ferrari fraternity means that owners help each other when the need arises.
This is one of those unspoken rules the automaker hopes and expects its customers will follow. Even outsiders who don’t own one may find it easy to support someone who does as an expression of their admiration towards the brand. Ferrari owners got to stick together.
5 - Employee Rule: Must Adopt The “Formula Uomo” Philosophy
The company not only cares about its customers, but its employees too. They recognize that these are the people that make it all possible. Autoblog reports that Ferrari launched a project called “Formula Uomo” in the 1990s which lays down many of the tenants employees live and breathe by.
The same source notes that this philosophy deals with the working conditions, one’s professional growth and personal benefits. Each individual is important and must embody these principles in order for the whole enterprise to work properly. As a Ferrari employee, “Formula Uomo” lays the groundwork for one’s success while working there.
4 - Owner Rule: Must Have Fame, Fortune And More
To own some of the world’s best supercars, all it takes is a lot of dough. If that wasn’t enough though, Ferrari raises the bar on what they expect from their owners. Part of what makes their cars so exclusive are the limited number they make. Take the LaFerrari for example, which Wired reports only 499 exist.
In order for their cars to get attention, they have to give them to owners who can not only afford them but put them in the spotlight. The same source notes that even high-profile buyers who applied for the vehicle weren't able to land one.
3 - Employee Rule: “Clients First”
Ferrari cares about its customers. The company doesn’t treat its clientele as a dollar sign—although they do get a lot of money for the cars they deliver—but instead seeks to make a bond with its owners. The company is like a father who’s entrusted his child with the keys to the treasured car.
They want to know their cars are in good hands, which is possible through respect. That’s why they make clients a priority. The Drive reports that Enrico Galliera, a Ferrari executive said, “It is clients first.” Behind those words is a whole company of employees who live by this aim.
2 - Owner Rule: Respect Ferrari’s Way Of Doing Things
No one likes obeying rules. If there’s a realm with enough rules as it is, it’s driving on the road. The last thing people want is more rules they have to follow as a car owner. Under the Ferrari umbrella though, there are lots of expectations one has to follow as an owner.
That means going with their unique way of doing things. The site Car Keys reports that the automaker’s politics, including their selection process for who they deem is eligible to purchase limited edition cars, is one such rule owners have to follow. It may not be easy to accept, but it’s part of playing the game.
1 - Employee Rule: Protect The Brand At All Times
Ferrari has managed to be an independent automaker over the years while still making loads of money. Part of what makes them so successful is the brand’s reputation, which is about making flawless cars that perform well.
One of the executives, Stefano Lai, as per Freep said, “My job ... is to protect the brand as much as possible.” This is a principal that trickles down to employees, affecting their conduct and the image they project in and out of the workplace. Many employees likely have the Ferrari logo on them throughout the day, making them an extension of the company wherever they go. That means they have to watch what they say and do since they represent the company’s image.
Sources: Autoblog , Tech Dirt , Wired , Executive Lifestyle , Car Guy , Car Keys , Autoweek , The Drive , Freep , The Guardian , Kaspersky Lab Daily , News.com.au , F1-Fansite.
www.hotcars.com/rules-ferrari-owners-must-follow-and-the-...
Leaders, social innovators, and decision makers from large and small businesses, corporations, higher education institutions, government, non-profits, social enterprises, social venture capital firms, and more joined in exploring how we can effectively collaborate to create a sustainable future as part of the Accelerate Collaborating for Sustainability Conference in Guelph ON, June 10-11, 2013. www.naturalstep.ca/
Lila Tretikov, Chief Executive Officer, Terrawatt Initiative, France; Young Global Leader speaks at the press conference "Accelerating Energy Decarbonization." The World Economic Forum holds the Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2017 in New York, NY USA. Copyright by World Economic Forum / Ben Hider
Leaders, social innovators, and decision makers from large and small businesses, corporations, higher education institutions, government, non-profits, social enterprises, social venture capital firms, and more joined in exploring how we can effectively collaborate to create a sustainable future as part of the Accelerate Collaborating for Sustainability Conference in Guelph ON, June 10-11, 2013.
Leaders, social innovators, and decision makers from large and small businesses, corporations, higher education institutions, government, non-profits, social enterprises, social venture capital firms, and more joined in exploring how we can effectively collaborate to create a sustainable future as part of the Accelerate Collaborating for Sustainability Conference in Guelph ON, June 10-11, 2013.
The Bournemouth Air Festival took place from the 31st August to 3rd September 2017. Voted best Tourism Event by Visit England and celebrating it’s 10th year, the Bournemouth Air Festival is the UK’s biggest, best and free aviation festival! RAF Red Arrows displayed on ~ Thursday 31st August ~ Friday 1st September – and Saturday 2nd September .
Bournemouth .With seven miles of golden sands and sparkling sea, the vibrant cosmopolitan town of Bournemouth has it all - a vast variety of shops, restaurants and holiday accommodation, buzzing nightlife and endless countryside with beautiful award winning gardens and water sports galore. Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the mid-year estimates for 2010 from the Office for National Statistics the town has a population of 168,100, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth. With Poole and Christchurch, Bournemouth forms the South East Dorset conurbation, which has a total population of about 400,000.
Founded in 1810 by Lewis Tregonwell, Bournemouth's growth accelerated with the arrival of the railway, becoming a recognised town in 1870. Historically part of Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974. Since 1997 the town has been administered by a unitary authority, meaning that it has autonomy from Dorset County Council. The local authority is Bournemouth Borough Council. Bournemouth's location on the south coast of England has made it a popular destination for tourists. The town is a regional centre of business, home of the Bournemouth International Centre and financial companies that include Liverpool Victoria and PruHealth.
Although Bournemouth is on the coast, the centre of the town lies inland - the commercial and civil heart of the town being the Square. From the Square the Upper and Lower Pleasure Gardens descend to the seafront and the pier. Areas within Bournemouth include Bear Cross, Boscombe, Kinson, Pokesdown, Westbourne and Winton. Traditionally a large retirement town, Bournemouth (mostly the Northbourne, Southbourne and Tuckton areas of Bournemouth together with the Wallisdown, and Talbot Village areas of Poole) has seen massive growth in recent years, especially through the growth of students attending Bournemouth University and the large number of language schools teaching English as a foreign language.
Bournemouth is located directly to the east of the Jurassic Coast, a 95-mile ( 153 km ) section of beautiful and largely un spoilt coastline recently designated a World Heritage Site. Apart from the beauty of much of the coastline, the Jurassic Coast provides a complete geological record of the Jurassic period and a rich fossil record. Bournemouth sea front overlooks Poole Bay and the Isle of Wight. Bournemouth also has seven miles ( 11 km ) of sandy beaches that run from Hengistbury Head in the east to Sandbanks, in Poole, in the west.
Because of the coastal processes that operate in Poole Bay, the area is often used for surfing. An artificial reef was expected to be installed at Boscombe, in Bournemouth, by October 2008, using large sand-filled geotextile bags. However, this deadline was not met, and the construction was actually finished at the end of October 2009. The Boscombe Reef was constructed as part of the larger Boscombe Spa Village development. Bournemouth also has several chines ( e.g., Alum Chine ) that lead down to the beaches and form a very attractive feature of the area.
The Dorset and Hampshire region surrounding Bournemouth has been the site of human settlement for thousands of years. However, in 1800 the Bournemouth area was largely a remote and barren heathland. No one lived at the mouth of the Bourne River and the only regular visitors were a few fishermen, turf cutters and gangs of smugglers until the 16th century. During the Tudor period the area was used as a hunting estate, Stourfield Chase, but by the late 18th century only a few small parts of it were maintained, including several fields around the Bourne Stream and a cottage known as Decoy Pond House, which stood near where the Square is today.
With the exception of the estate, until 1802 most of the Bournemouth area was common land. The Christchurch Inclosures Act 1802 and the Inclosure Commissioners' Award of 1805 transferred hundreds of acres into private ownership for the first time. In 1809, the Tapps Arms public house appeared on the heath. A few years later, in 1812, the first residents, retired army officer Lewis Tregonwell and his wife, moved into their new home built on land he had purchased from Sir George Ivison Tapps. Tregonwell began developing his land for holiday letting by building a series of sea villas. In association with Tapps, he planted hundreds of pine trees, providing a sheltered walk to the beach ( later to become known as the ~ Invalids walk ). The town would ultimately grow up around its scattered pines. In 1832 when Tregonwell died, Bournemouth had grown into small community with a scattering of houses, villas and cottages.
Rana Karadsheh-Haddad, Regional Industry Director, Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services, Asia Pacific, International Finance Corporation
Amit Midha, President, Asia Pacific and Japan, Dell
Adam Whinston, Global Head of ESG, SHEIN
Read my blog | Like me on Facebook | Follow Me on Instagram
Breeders' Cup Classic winner Accelerate at Lane's End where he stands at stud.
All rights reserved. Protected with PIXSY
Leaders, social innovators, and decision makers from large and small businesses, corporations, higher education institutions, government, non-profits, social enterprises, social venture capital firms, and more joined in exploring how we can effectively collaborate to create a sustainable future as part of the Accelerate Collaborating for Sustainability Conference in Guelph ON, June 10-11, 2013.
37 West 39th Street, Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The Haskins & Sells building, designed by architect Frederick C. Zobel, was originally constructed in 1912 as a speculative venture of the Brunswick Realty Company, a real estate enterprise headed by Zobel's brother Robert. The building, located at 35-37 West 39th Street in Midtown Manhattan, was adjacent to the renowned Engineers' Club and Engineering Societies' buildings, and was initially referred to as the Commercial Engineers Building in hopes of attracting engineering-related businesses. From the beginning, however, the building was home to a variety of tenants. From 1920 to 1930, the building served as the principle location for the accounting firm of Haskins & Sells, recognized as the first major auditing firm founded by American accountants. Haskins & Sells was started in 1895 by Charles Waldo Haskins, nephew of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Elijah Watt Sells. Although the company only owned the building for five years, an indelible reminder of their presence has been left in the form of a first-story frieze bearing the inscription 'Haskins & Sells', the years of the firm's founding and acquisition of the building, and the name of the architect.
The 12-story Renaissance Revival-style building is an imaginative and graceful combination of architectural elements and details.
The tripartite design features an arcaded base characterized by two-story round-arched openings and elaborate terra-cotta ornament inlaid with marble details. The door and window openings of the first and second stories are further articulated by cast-iron details featuring intricate grillwork, elongated baluster columns, and semi-circular foliated pediments. From the base, the structure ascends to a canted tower constructed primarily of blonde brick and crowned by even more exuberant terra-cotta and marble detailing, including a modillioned cornice. A balustraded terra-cotta balcony is located at the fourth story, where the tower begins its canted ascent.
Architect Frederick C. Zobel was particularly active in the first decade of the 20th century. Zobel primarily designed commercial structures, including several buildings designated as part of the Tribeca East, Soho Cast-Iron, Ladies' Mile, and Greenwich Village Extension II historic districts. Zobel was also considered an expert in the field of building engineering, particularly with respect to skyscraper construction techniques.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
West 39th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
At the turn of the 20th century, West 39th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, the future site of the Haskins & Sells building, was at the crossroads of several rapidly-evolving Midtown neighborhoods. In the late 1800s, Fifth Avenue between 34th and 59th Streets had been established as one of the most fashionable addresses in Manhattan, and residential rowhouses lined the blocks to the east and to the west.
By 1900, however, various real estate forces were coalescing to permanently alter the character of this part of Manhattan. Construction of Grand Central Terminal at East 42nd Street between Madison and Lexington Avenues, and the decking of the railroad tracks running north from the station, accelerated the commercialization of eastern Midtown and spurred the development of an important hotel and business district. With respect to the blocks surrounding the future site of the Haskins & Sells building, considered the northwest periphery of the Murray Hill neighborhood, the construction of or conversion of private residences into exclusive retail shops, restaurants and office buildings, was already well underway by the close of the century.
Midtown Manhattan, west of Fifth Avenue, was being similarly transformed at the turn of the 20th century. A growing transportation hub at Herald Square , featured cross-town streetcars, the Sixth Avenue Elevated, and the Hudson Tubes to New Jersey, and helped secure the continued commercial development of this part of Midtown.
The successful openings of two department stores at Herald Square, Saks & Co. in 1900 followed by R.H. Macy's in 1901-02, anchored a new shopping district that encouraged similar businesses to relocate northwards from Madison Square. The construction of restaurants and hotels to meet shoppers' needs logically followed. The opening of Pennsylvania Station at 34th Street and Seventh Avenue in 1910 precipitated even higher demand for realty in the blocks surrounding the station, which had become known as the 'Pennsylvania terminal loft zone' due to the large number of plans filed for manufacturing and business structures which proceeded the announcement of plans for the station.
In 1899, the block surrounding the future site of the Haskins & Sells building, bounded by Fifth and Sixth Avenues, West 39l and West 40th Streets, was still lined with the four-story rowhouses that had been built in the mid-century. By 1903, the New York Times had cited this block as an example of how commercial forces were "already being felt in the side streets" off of Fifth Avenue by "the recent leasing for business purposes" of the houses along the street.
Many of the residences which were not converted for commercial use were demolished for the construction of new, larger commercial structures. On the south side of West 40th Street, opposite the newly constructed New York Public Library , the Engineers' Club was built in 1905, part of the same architectural commission as the much larger Engineering Societies' Building, constructed along West 39th Street in the same year. Adjacent to the latter building, the two four-story rowhouses at 35 and 37 West 39th Street were sold in 1911 for construction of the 12-story office tower which would later become known as the Haskins & Sells building.
At least four other rowhouses on the block were also sold within the year, including 3, 7, 9 and 11 West 39th Street. By the end of the 1920s, virtually no traces of the one-time residential character of the block remained.
Early History of the Haskins & Sells Building
The two mid-19 -century rowhouses at 35 and 37 West 39th Street were purchased in 1911 by the Brunswick Realty Company and were soon demolished for construction of the 12- story office tower, completed in 1912 at a projected cost of $185,000. Located adjacent to the renowned Engineers' Club and Engineering Societies' buildings , 35-37 West 39th Street was initially referred to as the Commercial Engineers Building in hopes of attracting high- paying tenants in the engineering professions.
The Real Estate Record and Builder's Guide went so far as to assert that the venture would be "the first step in the creation of an engineering center which must naturally radiate from buildings so prominent as the United Engineering Societies' Building [sic], which immediately adjoins the proposed building, and the Engineers' Club, which is to the rear of the new building." It was also reported that the building was designed "as to conform" architecturally with its renowned neighbor, although an aesthetic relationship between the two structures is not evident.
Upon completion, the new building at 3537 West 39th Street was referred to by its engineering moniker in advertisements, which also touted the building's "absolutely fireproof' construction and amenities including a mezzanine, offices and studios. In 1912, the New York Times described the interior of the building as designed to meet the requirements of engineers requiring office space.
While the Engineers' Club and Engineering Societies' Building were considered the epicenter of engineering in the United States for nearly six decades, and despite the presence of a few related businesses in the neighborhood, the Haskins & Sells building was only ever home to a handful of tenants in the engineering professions. One of the building's longest tenancies, and one of the few related to engineering, was that of the American Society of Refrigerator Engineers .
The group occupied space in the building beginning in the late 1920s, and remained until at least 1940. In 1924, the Institute of Radio Engineers, which would later merge with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers , leased a small suite of rooms, relocating in 1946 when they had outgrown the space. The New York Unity Society of Scientific Christianity, which held Sunday services in the auditorium of the Engineering Societies' Building, was headquartered in the Haskins & Sells building for several years during the 1920s.
During the Second World War, the Office of the Chief of Engineers of the War Department appears to have leased space in the building.
Among the building's earliest tenants were the Mumm Champagne and Importation Company, previously located at 60 Warren Street in Lower Manhattan, whose lease of the store and basement of the building was announced in 1913. Another importing company, Renken & Yates Smith, Inc., was noted in the building in 1919. The Brunswick Realty Company, whose offices were previously located at East 28th Street, relocated to the building in 1913-14. They remained in the building, which they owned and managed, until 1920, the year they sold it to the Haskins & Sells Company.
Another early tenant was the State and National Association Opposed to Political Suffrage for Women, an organization headed by women and headquartered in the building beginning c. 1914. As the debate surrounding suffrage intensified, at least one related organization also came to lease space in the building, the Man Suffrage Association Opposed to Political Suffrage for Women, located in room 305 starting c. 1917. Both organizations, as suggested by their names, hoped to forestall attempts to pass a Constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. Such opposition, of course, failed when, in May 1919, the House of Representatives voted to pass the 19th Amendment, prohibiting the denial of any citizen the right to vote based on gender, followed by the Senate in June of the same year. It is probably not a coincidence that the New York City League of Women Voters had moved into the very same building by the autumn of 1919.
The Manhattan Borough League of Women Voters, founded in 1920, the year the act was ratified, the New York City League of Women Voters, and the New York State League of Women Voters, which also had offices at Grand Central Terminal, were all headquartered at 35-37 West 39th Street by 1922. Although the New York State League of Women Voters relocated to an office on East 45th Street c. 1924, the New York City League of Women Voters remained in the building through the end of the decade.
The Haskins & Sells Company
In July 1920, the Brunswick Realty Company sold the building at 35-37 West 39th Street to the Haskins & Sells Company, recognized as the first major auditing firm founded by American accountants. From 1920 to 1930, the building served as the principle location for the firm, started in 1895 by Charles Waldo Haskins and Elijah Watt Sells . Although the company only owned the building for five years, an indelible reminder of their presence has been left in the form of a first-story frieze bearing the inscription 'Haskins & Sells', the years of the firm's founding and acquisition of the building, and the name of the architect.
Born in Brooklyn, Charles Waldo Haskins was the nephew of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the well-known American writer and leader of the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. His father, Waldo Emerson Haskins, was a New York banker and broker. Haskins, who was educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and in Paris, learned the accounting trade while serving as bookkeeper for various railroads and within the federal government. He first set up his own accounting business in 1886 and was known throughout his career as a strong advocate of accounting standards, writing and lecturing widely on the subject.
In 1893, Haskins and Sells were appointed as experts under the Joint Commission of the 53rd Congress to revise the accounting system of the United States. According to his New York Times obituary, Haskins was instrumental in the passage of an 1896 act regulating the profession of public accounting. The act also prescribed a Board of Examiners to be appointed by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. Haskins later served as president of this board. In 1900, Haskins & Sells founded New York University's School of Commerce, Accounts and Financing. Haskins served as the school's first dean and established the first professorships in accounting.
Elijah Watt Sells was born in Muscatine, Iowa. He attended Baker University in Kansas, but left at the age of 16 to become a station agent for the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad. He gained his accounting experience over the following two decades, serving as bookkeeper and accountant for various railroads. His father, Elijah Sells, had served at various times as Secretary of the State of Iowa and Auditor of the Treasury Department under President Abraham Lincoln. Following Haskins death in 1903, Sells successfully managed the firm for more than two decades. The prestigious Elijah Watt Sells Award, established in 1923, is presented to Certified Public Accountant candidates who earn the highest grades on the CPA exam.
The accounting firm of Haskins & Sells was originally located at 2 Nassau Street, but moved just a year later to 30 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. In 1920, the firm acquired the building at 35-37 West 39th Street and made it their headquarters, retaining the downtown location for its general practice. Though Haskins & Sells sold the 39th Street building in 1925, records indicate the firm continued to be headquartered there through at least 1930, at which time they opened new offices at 15 Broad Street and at 75 East 45th Street. Haskins & Sells expanded internationally to several countries in 1952, and, following a series of mergers and name changes, continues to exist today under the name Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu . It is one of the four largest accounting and professional services organizations in the world which, together with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG, are known as the "Big Four." The global headquarters of Deloitte & Touche continue to be located in New York City.
Other Notable Tenants and Subsequent History
In 1920, the Garment Center Realty Company, an association of 38 large manufacturers of women's clothing, developed two sites along Seventh Avenue between 36th and 38th Streets, in direct response to the economic forces that were driving New York City's garment district northward from Madison Square, where it had been centered in 1910. By 1931, the area of Midtown between 30th and 42nd Streets, Sixth and Ninth Avenues - conveniently located near hotels, the city's main retail district, and its two most important rail terminals - had the largest concentration of apparel manufacturers in the world. By the late 1920s, the Haskins & Sells building, located on the cusp of the newly established Garment District, had become particularly attractive to milliners and trimmings companies. During this era, tenants such as Brandee & Stark , Julian D. Cohen , Daniels & Fishers Stores Co., Evergreen California Hats Inc., and Myers H&E&S , rented sales offices, showrooms, and even engaged in some light manufacturing within the building. As hats went out of fashion in the decades following the Second World War, many of the tradesmen left the area, leaving behind an assortment of tenants, many of whom paid as little at $10 per square foot for space in the Haskins & Sells building.
The Haskins & Sells Company only owned the building at 35-37 West 39th Street for five years, conveying it to the 35-37 West 39th Street Corporation in December 1925. Within three years, the property was resold, to the Titusville Building Corporation, a subsidiary of the American Radiator Company, whose building at 40-46 West 40th Street abuts the Haskins & Sells building to the rear. In 1941, the Haskins & Sells building was physically linked to the American Radiator Building by means of a bridge at the sixth story. This bridge was removed in 1950, the same year the building was sold to the Dallas Realty Corporation. Within just a few months, the Haskins & Sells building was turned over to yet another owner, the Wellington Realty & Management Corporation. Over the course of the next few decades, the Haskins & Sells building continued to pass through the ownership of numerous corporations, remaining remarkably intact throughout the years.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the neighborhood, so closely associated with the garment industry, offered only limited appeal to other kinds of office tenants—even after large amounts of garment production returned to lower Manhattan neighborhoods such as Chinatown and the Lower East Side, and despite the proximity of Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station. In the late 1980s, the area along Fifth Avenue from the Empire State Building at 34th Street to the New York Public Library experienced an economic revitalization. At the same time, the office buildings located on the side streets off Fifth Avenue continued to garner less than half the rent of those on the main thoroughfare. In 1988, in an effort to improve its economic standing, the Haskins & Sells building underwent a full renovation. The structure's mechanical system was upgraded, and the original freight elevator was replaced by a passenger car. The lobby of the building, last refurbished in the 1950s, received new marble floors and walls, a new tenant directory and a concierge desk. The upgrades had the desired effect, and the building soon acquired a new tenant, the International Design Group, an architecture firm that rented the 4,000 square-foot top floor. The building's association with the garment industry, however, was not entirely eradicated. New showroom space, also included as part of the renovation, allowed the owners to aggressively market the building to manufacturers of fashion accessories. By 1993, nine of the building's 36 tenants were in accessory-related businesses. Today, a variety of businesses continue to occupy the building, including some related to the garment industry, in addition to accounting, law, engineering consulting, and architectural offices.
The Brunswick Realty Corporation and Frederick Charles Zobel
The Brunswick Realty Corporation, developers of the Haskins & Sells building, were specialists in building development, brokering and management. The company was run by Robert Paul Zobel , president, and his brothers Jason A. Zobel and Frederick Charles Zobel. The three brothers were born in Breslau, Germany and immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s. Jason is occasionally listed in directories as secretary of the company, while Frederick appears to have served both as vice president and, more notably, as chief architect on most, if not all, of the company's numerous development projects, including the Haskins & Sells building. Advertisements for the company, which appeared in the New York Times as early as 1906, touted the firm as a full-service real estate enterprise which helped companies relocate, either to one of the buildings they managed or to new structures that the company would construct based on client needs. The Brunswick Realty Corporation's earliest offices appear to have been located at 118 East 28th Street. They remained at this location until shortly after completion of the Haskins & Sells building, first appearing in Trow's City Directory as being located in the new building in 1913-14.
Frederick C. Zobel, who did not work exclusively for the Brunswick Realty Company, was established as an architect and builder in New York City in 1893. Though his career lasted through 1936, he was particularly active in the first decade of the 20th century. Zobel primarily designed commercial structures, and was noted in the Real Estate Record and Builder's Guide in 1911 as "an architect who has had a large part in designing modern business buildings in the central part of the city." Among the buildings designed by Zobel over the course of his long career are several designated as part of the Tribeca East, Soho Cast-Iron, Ladies' Mile, and Greenwich Village Extension II historic districts. During his years of practice, Zobel was also considered an expert in the field of building engineering, with particular respect to fireproof construction and the erection of modern steel buildings. His New York Times obituary credited him with the design of "several features of skyscraper construction." Zobel was also involved in planning and civic endeavors, in New York City and abroad.
The Architecture of the Haskins & Sells Building
The 12-story Renaissance Revival style Haskins & Sells building is an imaginative and graceful combination of architectural elements and details. The tripartite design features an arcaded base characterized by two-story round-arched openings and elaborate terra-cotta ornament inlaid with marble details. The door and window openings of the first and second stories are further articulated by cast-iron details featuring intricate grillwork, elongated baluster columns, and semi-circular foliated pediments. From the base, the structure ascends to a canted tower constructed primarily of blonde brick and crowned by even more exuberant terra-cotta and marble detailing, including a modillioned cornice. A balustraded terra-cotta balcony at the fourth story, where the tower begins its canted ascent, can be accessed only via window. A 10-foot alleyway between the building and its neighbor to the east, which the Real Estate Record and
Builder's Guide noted as "giving the new structure particularly good advantages for light and air," in concert with the canted tower, has assured these qualities for the building's tenants for nearly a century. A 1914 anecdote printed in the American Club Woman, and accompanied by a photo, seems to confirm this point, stating how rooms occupied by the War Children's Christmas Fund were absolutely "flooded with sunshine in the mornings"
While the buildings erected east of Fifth Avenue after the turn of the 20th century tended to exhibit a more subdued architectural and social atmosphere, the theaters, stores and hotels constructed west of Fifth Avenue were typically more exuberantly ornamented. The Haskins & Sells building, with its facade "almost entirely of glazed terra cotta" was considered one of the more "interesting structures" erected on 39th Street west of Fifth Avenue. Given Zobel's reputation as an innovator of fireproofing and construction techniques, it is not surprising that the structure was also touted as cutting edge with respect to its construction.
Though common today, the building's departure from the typical plan featuring open stairs within the hall in favor of stairways entirely separated and enclosed by fireproof partitions and self-closing doors, was considering highly innovative at the time. Its elevators were also enclosed in shafts so as to prevent the penetration of smoke or flames from one story to another.
Remarkably, the exterior of the Haskins & Sells building has remained virtually untouched since its construction nearly a century ago. At the first story, the glass doors and showroom windows have been replaced, but the surrounding terra-cotta and cast-iron details have been left almost entirely intact. The same stands true for the rest of the building, where windows, but little else, have been replaced. As a result, the Haskins & Sells building stands today as a lasting visual reminder of the commercial transformation of West 39th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues after the turn of the 20th century.
Description
The Haskins & Sells building is a 12-story Renaissance Revival style office structure with two visible elevations and one partially-visible elevation.
South Facade: The building's primary facade fronts onto West 39th Street and is divided into a tripartite vertical composition consisting of a three-story terra-cotta base, seven-story blonde brick shaft and two-story terra-cotta capital.
Base: The base of the building is symmetrically divided into three bays, each featuring a two-story round-arched opening articulated by elaborate terra-cotta molding and foliate keystones. At the central bay, a terra-cotta frieze, capped by a small molded terra-cotta cornice, separates the first and second stories and features an inlaid yellow marble panel with the inscription 'Haskins & Sells Building,' the years '1895' and '1920,' and in much small lettering, the name 'F.C. Zobel.' Similar friezes at the outer bays feature sculptural swags and wreaths with centers of yellow marble. The outer bays of the double-height first story contain glass double-doors , while the central bay features a fixed show window .
The extended height of the first story allows for large, fixed rectangular transoms above each of the door and show window openings. Elongated cast-iron baluster columns flank the first- story door openings and elaborate cast-iron grillwork surrounds and enhances each of the transoms, the transom bars, and the rounded-arch window openings of the first and second stories. Round pediments sit above the transom bars at the outer bays and feature foliate details and bronze address numbers.
Pink marble trim rises several feet at the building's base. Just above the round-arched opening of the second story, terra-cotta hood moldings and red terracotta roundels span between large terra-cotta cartouches. A large molded, denticulated terra
cotta cornice rests above the second story and appears to serve as a sill course for the third- story fenestration. Each third-story bay contains paired rectangular window openings separated by a thin, foliated colonette. A pair of pilasters featuring elaborate terra-cotta detailing and Corinthian capitals flanks each pair of window openings at the third story while robust swags, cartouches, and red terra-cotta roundels span between the pilasters. Circular terra-cotta details and inset yellow marble panels flank the central bay.
A delicate, molded terra-cotta band rests above the pilasters of the third story, above which is found a large, molded terra-cotta cornice. A substantial terra-cotta cartouche further adorns the third story towards the left edge of the elevation, while a similar cartouche wraps around the rightmost edge of the elevation. Above the rightmost bay at the fourth story is a terra-cotta balustrade which features a molded rail, inset post details, and foliated balusters. Alterations: Some cast-iron details have been removed from the central bay at the first story to accommodate a modern show window and commercial sign.
A low, pink granite step at the leftmost bay was matched and replaced in 1987-89, at the same time all new glass at the first-story door and window openings and sidelights was installed . The center storefront was revised around this same time, and all cast- iron ornamental elements were painted. Four globe lamps on cast-iron armatures at the first story were added after 1985. Four non-original bronze address numbers are also affixed at the first story, along with some small, non-historic signs.
Shaft: The seven-story blonde-brick shaft of the building is also divided into three bays, with the rightmost bay canted at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the building . Each bay at the shaft features paired rectangular window openings separated by terra-cotta posts with foliate details. Terra-cotta lintels with roundel details surmount each of the paired window openings at the fourth through ninth stories.
Engaged Doric colonettes separate the paired window openings of the 10th story, which are surmounted by molded terra-cotta lintels with scroll keystones. The lintels above the 10th-story window openings are incorporated into the large, molded terra-cotta cornice which rests above the 10th story, and which appears to serve as a sill course for the 11th- story fenestration. A heavy, bracketed terra-cotta balconette can be found at the eighth-story window opening of the right-most, canted bay of the shaft.
The balconette features many of the same motifs found elsewhere on the building, including a molded rail, swags, and foliate details. The balconette is flush with the lintel of the paired seventh-story window openings beneath it. Alterations: All the windows of the shaft appear to have been replaced.
Capital: The two dynamically detailed stories of the building's capital feature many of the same motifs found at the first through third stories of the building. Like the base and shaft, the capital is similarly divided into three bays, with the rightmost bay canted at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the elevation. Each bay of the capital contains paired window openings, rectangular at the 11th story and featuring round-arched upper sashes at the 12th story.
A foliated colonette, continuous from the 11th to 12th stories, separates each of the paired window openings, while simple Doric colonettes flank each pair. Terra-cotta panels featuring sculptural wreath details with inlaid yellow marble centers surmount each window opening at the 11th story. Molded terracotta lintels surmount each round-arched window opening at the 12th story, spanning between the colonettes. The terra-cotta panels of the 11th story and lintels of the 12th story are slightly recessed within round-arched molded terra-cotta surrounds, continuous from the 11th to 12th stories.
At the 12th story, the spandrels beneath the round-arched surrounds feature circular terra cotta details and inlaid yellow marble panels. The outer corners of each bay at the 12th story is adorned by small, red terra-cotta roundels. Each bay of the capital is flanked by a larger, more
elaborate version of the pilasters flanking each paired window opening at the third-story, continuous here from the 11th to 12th stories. A molded terra-cotta architrave rests on the pilasters, above which is a frieze featuring a series of red terra-cotta rosettes spanned by foliate terra-cotta details. An overhanging, molded terra-cotta cornice supported on large foliate brackets crowns the elevation. Alterations: The windows of the capital appear to have been replaced at the 11th story, though the 12th story windows may retain historic upper sashes.
East Facade: The east facade of the Haskins & Sells building is mostly comprised of blonde brick laid in a common bond and is largely not designed, with the notable exception of the first bay at the first through third stories. The terra-cotta details of this portion of the elevation wrap from the primary elevation and match the details of the individual bays of the primary elevation. Within the two-story round-arched opening of this leftmost bay, paneled, white brick is found at the first story in lieu of a door opening or show window.
The large rectangular transom above the brick paneling is closed-off and guarded by iron security grilles. Cast-iron grillwork, matching that of the primary elevation, is found at the round-arched window opening of the second story at this bay. Above the third story, continuous with the rightmost bay of the primary elevation, is the same terra-cotta balustrade which features a molded rail, inset post details, and foliated balusters, above which rises the canted bay of the primary elevation.
Beyond this first bay, the first story features four tall rectangular window openings with projecting, rectangular masonry sills and iron security grilles. A one-story pavilion towards the right of the elevation is flush with the rest of the elevation and features only masonry coping and a single rectangular door opening. Just to the left of the pavilion is a second rectangular door opening which features a large, flush masonry lintel. At the second through 12th stories, the elevation features six bays.
The first, fourth, fifth and sixth bays feature single, rectangular window openings with projecting, rectangular masonry sills. The second and third bays feature triple rectangular window openings with continuous projecting, rectangular masonry sills. A solid brick parapet caps the elevation and features terra-cotta coping. A large duct is affixed to the pavilion at the right of the elevation , as is a large amount of conduit and wiring.
Towards the left of the elevation, a large, cylindrical mechanical unit is affixed on an iron armature at the first story. A masonry gateway belonging to the neighboring building and spanning the 10-foot alleyway between the two structures abuts the elevation at the first story, closer to West 39th Street . Alterations: All windows of this elevation have been replaced.
West Facade: The west facade of the Haskins & Sells building, only partially visible above the eight-story of the neighboring building, is mostly comprised of red-brick and is not designed, although some of the materials from the south facade wrap around slightly onto this elevation. The irregular roofline of the west facade reveals a penthouse unit. Where visible, the facade appears to feature a number of irregularly spaced rectangular window openings. A large metal duct, affixed to the facade towards West 39th Street, rises above the 12th story and is attached to the penthouse. Alterations: Portions of this elevation appear to have been repointed and painted. All visible windows appear to have been replaced.
- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Zooming with the 17-40L...still waiting for my brother Vic to land. No enhancements just one exposure.
11.45 pm Cork Airport
...to 350 MPH and pulling 15g’s at this point. This fat 18 lb rocket takes her time getting off the pad. (next frame, 1/3 sec later)
(7-second video of the blastoff. The sound was still impressive where we were perched up on a bluff top)
Weight loss acceleration means to burn stored fat at a faster rate than what would be natural for the person. Many modern people would like to see their efforts accelerate weight loss as rapidly as possible. Call at 800 287 6145 for details. www.superfoodweightloss.com/
The Natural Step Canada hosted the 2nd annual Accelerate: Collaborating for Sustainability Conference June 5-6, 2014, at the Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, Ontario www.naturalstep.ca/.
Leaders, social innovators, and decision makers from large and small businesses, corporations, higher education institutions, government, non-profits, social enterprises, social venture capital firms, and more joined in exploring how we can effectively collaborate to create a sustainable future as part of the Accelerate Collaborating for Sustainability Conference in Guelph ON, June 10-11, 2013.
We made our annual trip to London in November. We travel down by coach from Slaithwaite and stay at The Cumberland Hotel at Marble Arch. It’s actually a weekend ladies shopping trip that is run as a fundraiser for Slaithwaite Brass Band – I’m the only bloke that goes every year! We decided ( the two of us) to stay down in London until Thursday this time as we wanted to see weekday London and be able to explore a bit further afield on foot. We covered up to 16 miles a day, which is tough going on crowded pavements with hundreds of busy roads to cross. I photographed anything that looked interesting but I bent a contact in the CF card slot, fortunately I had quite a few SD cards with me and the 5D has dual slots so I was able to carry on using it. It’s currently at Lehmann’s getting fixed.
With it being close to Christmas the decorations are up everywhere so there was plenty of colour at night. In Hyde Park the Winter Wonderland was in full swing, we’ve never bothered going to it before but I went twice at night this time. It is massive this year, I couldn’t get over how big it is and the quality of some of the attractions. The cost and effort involved must be phenomenal – it was quite expensive though. It was very difficult to photograph, with extremes of light (LED’s) and darkness and fast moving rides into the bargain. I think I have some decent usable stuff but at the time of writing I am only part way through the editing process so I don’t know for sure.
We set off at around 8.15 am every day and stayed out for at least 12 hours. The weather was poor for a day and a half with drizzle and very dull grey conditions, fortunately we had some pleasant weather (and light) along the way as well. Being based at the end of Oxford Street – Europe’s busiest shopping street – meant that I did quite a bit of night shooting on there. Although I carried a tripod everywhere I only used it once and that was during the day! Because there is always a moving element in almost every shot it seemed pointless using a tripod. I would have got some shots free of movement – or I could have gone for ultra-long exposures to eliminate people and traffic but it would have been problematic I felt. In the end I wound the ISO up and hand held – fingers crossed.
We walked out to Camden Market and Locks but it had been raining and we were a bit early as many were only just setting up for the day. We tried to follow routes that we hadn’t used before and visit new places. We paid a fortune to get in St Pauls but you can’t use cameras. This something that I fail to see the point of, ban flash if you want but if you are going to encourage tourism why ban cameras when there is nothing in particular happening in there. It’s a rule that seems to be applied arbitrarily in cities around the world. Fortunately we could take photos from the outside of the dome, which was real reason for visiting, and we had some great light. Expensive compared with a couple of euros in some famous cathedrals. I’ve wanted to walk to Canary Wharf for a number of years and this year we did. We crisscrossed the Thames a few times and tried to follow the Thames path at other times. We covered around ten miles but it was an interesting day. It was also very quiet for the last four or five miles. We got there about 12.00 and managed to get a sandwich in a café in the shopping centre at the foot of the high rise office blocks before tens of thousands of office workers descended from above. It was mayhem, packed, with snaking queues for anywhere that sold food. We crossed to the other side of The Isle of Dogs and looked across to the O2 Arena and the cable car, unfortunately there isn’t a way across for pedestrians and it was around 3.00 pm. With darkness falling at around 4.30 we decide it was too late to bother. We made our way back to the Thames Clipper pier to check the sailing times. They sail every twenty minutes so we had a couple of glasses of wine and a rest before catching the Clipper. Sailing on the Thames was a first in 15 trips to London. The Clipper is fast and smooth, the lights had come on in the city and there was a fantastic moon rise. It was nigh on impossible to get good shots at the speed we were traveling though and there were times that I wished I could be suspended motionless above the boat. Again, hopefully I will have some usable shots.
We felt that the shopping streets were a little quieter, following the Paris massacre it was to be expected, I might be wrong as we were out and about at later times than previous trips. I think I have heard that footfall is down though. It was good to get into some of the quieter backstreets and conversely to be stuck in the city business district – The Square Mile- at home time. A mass exodus of people running and speed walking to bus stops and the rail and tube stations. It was difficult to move against or across the flow of bodies rushing home.
Whilst the Northern(manufacturing) economy is collapsing, London is a giant development site, it must be the tower crane capital of Europe at the moment. It was difficult to take a shot of any landmark free of cranes, it was easier to make the cranes a feature of the photo. It’s easy to see where the wealth is concentrated – not that there was ever any doubt about it. The morons with too much money are still driving their Lambo’s and Ferraris etc. like clowns in streets that are packed with cars , cyclists and pedestrians, accelerating viciously and noisily for 50 yards. They are just sad attention seekers. From Battersea to Canary Wharf we walked the Thames Embankment, the difference between high and low tide on the river is massive, but the water was the colour of mud – brown! Not very attractive in colour. We caught a Virgin Train from Kings Cross for £14.00 each – a bargain!. We had quite a bit of time to kill around midday at Kings Cross so I checked with security that I was OK to wander around taking photos, without fear of getting jumped by armed security, and set off to photograph the station and St Pancras International Station across the road. I haven’t even looked at the results as I type this but I’ll find out if they are any good shortly. Talking of security, following Paris, there was certainly plenty of private security at most attractions, I don’t know if it was terrorism related though, I can’t say I noticed an increased police presence on the streets. It took us three hours and five minutes from Kings Cross to being back home, not bad for a journey of 200 miles. I can’t imagine that spending countless billions on HS2 or HS3 is going to make a meaningful (cost effective) difference to our journey. Improving what we have, a little faster, would be good. There are some bumpy bits along the route for a mainline and Wakefield to Huddersfield is the equivalent of a cart track – and takes over 30 minutes – it’s only a stone’s throw.
We made our annual trip to London in November. We travel down by coach from Slaithwaite and stay at The Cumberland Hotel at Marble Arch. It’s actually a weekend ladies shopping trip that is run as a fundraiser for Slaithwaite Brass Band – I’m the only bloke that goes every year! We decided ( the two of us) to stay down in London until Thursday this time as we wanted to see weekday London and be able to explore a bit further afield on foot. We covered up to 16 miles a day, which is tough going on crowded pavements with hundreds of busy roads to cross. I photographed anything that looked interesting but I bent a contact in the CF card slot, fortunately I had quite a few SD cards with me and the 5D has dual slots so I was able to carry on using it. It’s currently at Lehmann’s getting fixed.
With it being close to Christmas the decorations are up everywhere so there was plenty of colour at night. In Hyde Park the Winter Wonderland was in full swing, we’ve never bothered going to it before but I went twice at night this time. It is massive this year, I couldn’t get over how big it is and the quality of some of the attractions. The cost and effort involved must be phenomenal – it was quite expensive though. It was very difficult to photograph, with extremes of light (LED’s) and darkness and fast moving rides into the bargain. I think I have some decent usable stuff but at the time of writing I am only part way through the editing process so I don’t know for sure.
We set off at around 8.15 am every day and stayed out for at least 12 hours. The weather was poor for a day and a half with drizzle and very dull grey conditions, fortunately we had some pleasant weather (and light) along the way as well. Being based at the end of Oxford Street – Europe’s busiest shopping street – meant that I did quite a bit of night shooting on there. Although I carried a tripod everywhere I only used it once and that was during the day! Because there is always a moving element in almost every shot it seemed pointless using a tripod. I would have got some shots free of movement – or I could have gone for ultra-long exposures to eliminate people and traffic but it would have been problematic I felt. In the end I wound the ISO up and hand held – fingers crossed.
We walked out to Camden Market and Locks but it had been raining and we were a bit early as many were only just setting up for the day. We tried to follow routes that we hadn’t used before and visit new places. We paid a fortune to get in St Pauls but you can’t use cameras. This something that I fail to see the point of, ban flash if you want but if you are going to encourage tourism why ban cameras when there is nothing in particular happening in there. It’s a rule that seems to be applied arbitrarily in cities around the world. Fortunately we could take photos from the outside of the dome, which was real reason for visiting, and we had some great light. Expensive compared with a couple of euros in some famous cathedrals. I’ve wanted to walk to Canary Wharf for a number of years and this year we did. We crisscrossed the Thames a few times and tried to follow the Thames path at other times. We covered around ten miles but it was an interesting day. It was also very quiet for the last four or five miles. We got there about 12.00 and managed to get a sandwich in a café in the shopping centre at the foot of the high rise office blocks before tens of thousands of office workers descended from above. It was mayhem, packed, with snaking queues for anywhere that sold food. We crossed to the other side of The Isle of Dogs and looked across to the O2 Arena and the cable car, unfortunately there isn’t a way across for pedestrians and it was around 3.00 pm. With darkness falling at around 4.30 we decide it was too late to bother. We made our way back to the Thames Clipper pier to check the sailing times. They sail every twenty minutes so we had a couple of glasses of wine and a rest before catching the Clipper. Sailing on the Thames was a first in 15 trips to London. The Clipper is fast and smooth, the lights had come on in the city and there was a fantastic moon rise. It was nigh on impossible to get good shots at the speed we were traveling though and there were times that I wished I could be suspended motionless above the boat. Again, hopefully I will have some usable shots.
We felt that the shopping streets were a little quieter, following the Paris massacre it was to be expected, I might be wrong as we were out and about at later times than previous trips. I think I have heard that footfall is down though. It was good to get into some of the quieter backstreets and conversely to be stuck in the city business district – The Square Mile- at home time. A mass exodus of people running and speed walking to bus stops and the rail and tube stations. It was difficult to move against or across the flow of bodies rushing home.
Whilst the Northern(manufacturing) economy is collapsing, London is a giant development site, it must be the tower crane capital of Europe at the moment. It was difficult to take a shot of any landmark free of cranes, it was easier to make the cranes a feature of the photo. It’s easy to see where the wealth is concentrated – not that there was ever any doubt about it. The morons with too much money are still driving their Lambo’s and Ferraris etc. like clowns in streets that are packed with cars , cyclists and pedestrians, accelerating viciously and noisily for 50 yards. They are just sad attention seekers. From Battersea to Canary Wharf we walked the Thames Embankment, the difference between high and low tide on the river is massive, but the water was the colour of mud – brown! Not very attractive in colour. We caught a Virgin Train from Kings Cross for £14.00 each – a bargain!. We had quite a bit of time to kill around midday at Kings Cross so I checked with security that I was OK to wander around taking photos, without fear of getting jumped by armed security, and set off to photograph the station and St Pancras International Station across the road. I haven’t even looked at the results as I type this but I’ll find out if they are any good shortly. Talking of security, following Paris, there was certainly plenty of private security at most attractions, I don’t know if it was terrorism related though, I can’t say I noticed an increased police presence on the streets. It took us three hours and five minutes from Kings Cross to being back home, not bad for a journey of 200 miles. I can’t imagine that spending countless billions on HS2 or HS3 is going to make a meaningful (cost effective) difference to our journey. Improving what we have, a little faster, would be good. There are some bumpy bits along the route for a mainline and Wakefield to Huddersfield is the equivalent of a cart track – and takes over 30 minutes – it’s only a stone’s throw. Time to get back to editing.
Harald Hirschhofer, Senior Advisor, TCX Investment Management Company, speaks at the press conference "Accelerating Energy Decarbonization." The World Economic Forum holds the Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2017 in New York, NY USA. Copyright by World Economic Forum / Ben Hider
The Natural Step Canada hosted the 2nd annual Accelerate: Collaborating for Sustainability Conference June 5-6, 2014, at the Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, Ontario www.naturalstep.ca/.
43072 accelerates away hard from Loughborough station with a service for St. Pancras.
The HST wears the attractive East Midlands Trains blue and white scheme.
This is the point at where the Great Central main line crossed the Midland, and is the focus of the "Bridge the gap" fund - a superb and ultimately ambitious scheme to link the two separated halves of the GC - The Great Central Railway, and The Great Central Railway (North), which will achieve an 18 mile stretch of preserved main line.
Details can be found at:
and in the photographers' opinion, is definitely worth contributing to.
Accelerating having negotiated the Drax branch junction, Freightliner 'Shed' 66 619 'Derek W Johnson MBE' is pictured heading west at Heck Ings amid the last vestiges of autumn with Drax Power Station-Peak Forest limestone empties. @11.31
Accelerating Climate Action through Philanthropic-Public-Private-Collaboration
Gim Huay Neo, Managing Director, Centre for Nature and Climate, World Economic Forum; Ray Dalio, Founder, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer, Bridgewater Associates, USA; Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, European Commission; Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
Copyright: World Economic Forum/Jeffery Jones
Sustainable Development Impact Meetings, New York, USA 19 - 23 September
The Natural Step Canada hosted the 2nd annual Accelerate: Collaborating for Sustainability Conference June 5-6, 2014, at the Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, Ontario www.naturalstep.ca/.
The panel Miranda A. Ballentine, Managing Director, Business Renewables Center, Rocky Mountain Institute, USA, Ibrahim Baylan, Minister for Policy Coordination and Energy of Sweden, Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, European Commission, Brussels, Dev Sanyal, Chief Executive, Alternative Energy; Executive Vice-President, Regions, BP, United Kingdom, Yang Woong-Chul, Vice-Chairman and Chief Research and Development Officer, Hyundai Motor Company, Republic of Korea, and Naomi Oreskes, Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, USA, speaking during the session, Accelerating Sustainable Energy Innovation, at the Annual Meeting 2018 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 26, 2018. Copyright by World Economic Forum / Ciaran McCrickard
The last church from a hectic October; what with trips to London and Norwich as well as work, it was a busy month all round.
My plan had been to go to Harbledown to see the two churches there, but for some reason I did not find them, but did visit 4 others, including Blean.
Blean is a village just outside Canterbury, on a hill overlooking the city, and for the most part, it seems to be a fairly modern village spread out along the Canterbury to Whiststable road, then to find just behind a row of modern shops is an ancient site, with such an unusual church comes as a surprise.
The Dedication shows how old the church is. And the site itself is ancient, being the site of a large Roman Villa, and a fortified Saxon manor house, the moat of which partly survives.
My shots did not come out well, it was a dull day and the lighting in the church was very poor. Shots of the windows came out fine, though.
--------------------------------------------------------
How wonderful to find an unlocked isolated church in an area where many are kept closed! This charming flint building stands on a well-used public footpath (the former Roman Salt Road) that runs across a dry valley outside Canterbury. Its tree-shaded churchyard contains venerable yews and the church itself, dedicated to Ss Cosmas and Damian (see also Challock) is welcoming indeed. The nave and chancel are thirteenth century - see the typical lancet windows - but the huge north aisle, doubling the church in size, dates from the 1860s. Its arcade, however, is a good copy of thirteenth century work with huge cylindrical piers and an easternmost arch that stops short of the floor as if to allow space for a Rood Screen. The interior is light and spacious with much emphasis on the rustic medieval roof timbers. The twin-lancet east window contains some good mid-Victorian glass by Henry Holiday. The altar rails are seventeenth century whilst tucked behind the main door is a huge early eighteenth century memorial. As part of their millennium celebrations the locals reordered the church to great effect, moving the clumsy organ to the back and replacing it by the pulpit. These works have improved the interior no end.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Blean
-----------------------------------------------------
In common with most churches and other old buildings, little is known with any degree of certainty during the dark ages between the departure of the Romans in 4th Century and the Norman conquest of the 11th Century.
However, the Blean Historical and Archaeological Group undertook some very detailed research in the period 1982-86 (on which much of the information herein is based), and established beyond doubt that a substantial Roman villa existed to the south-west of the church from 1st to 3rd centuries.
(Indeed, fragments of Roman brick, which would logically have derived from this site, have long been known to be incorporated into the west exterior wall of the present church).
It is also known that a fortified manor was built on the same site in the 13th century, so it is fairly likely that there were Jutish-Saxon settlements or small estates in this immediate area for much, if not all, of the intervening periods.
By the time of the Domesday Book (1086), there were twelve surrounding farmsteads or holdings within the bounds of the manor, but clearly it had been well-established as a community long before that date.
A church was noted on the present site in 1086 (not the present building), with a strong suggestion of an early pre-Conquest church prior to that. There is an (unproven) folklore suggestion that the site of the present church actually dates from 598, when the early monks accompanying Augustine from Rome set up a shrine to the Saints Cosmus and Damian at this point on the ancient Salt Road to the north Kent coast at Seasalter (which runs past the church).
Dedications to these two saints are very unusual in Britain (there are, in fact, only four in the whole country), but they were at that time very well known in Rome, where the church in their names had been opened in the Forum as recently as 530 (the Basilica of Saints Cosmus & Damian).
Whether true or not, the whole site appears to have been fortified at some point during the dark ages, resulting in the somewhat unusual relics of a wall and moat around what is now our graveyard - it was most likely a fortified manor within which a simple wooden church was included. The site became too restricted after the Conquest, resulting in the manor itself being moved onto what had once been the Roman villa.
These were times of great unrest, and clearly the presence of a fortified structure belonging to Robert de Crevequer (regarded as a "rebel" at a time of virtual civil war) at such a strategic location proved too much for King Henry III, who in 1259 ordered that the walls be razed to the ground and the moat filled in - in fact, only one wall alongside the road was razed, although that was sufficient for military purposes.
To no avail, since the manor was confiscated anyway - such was the political turbulence of the time!
The present flintstone church, roofed with Kent peg tiles, was rebuilt before 1233, by order of the Crown, and the "Calendar of Liberate Rolls" for 1233 shows Henry lll repaying the sum of £20.3s.8d to Walter de Kirkeham for carrying out this instruction.
From about 1200 onwards, the Eastbridge Hospital had acquired a growing interest in the area, the lordship
of the manor being formally confirmed in 1359, and the Master of Eastbridge still remains the Patron of the parish. It would appear that the fortunes of the manor itself declined after this, and severe fire damage in the late 14th or early 15th century resulted in the site being abandoned.
It seems likely that the local population was then in decline in any case, possibly as a result of the ravages of the Black Death.
Depopulation was a continuing problem right up until the present time, since the local communities polarised towards either Blean or Tyler Hill, a process accelerated by the opening of the present main roads to Whitstable and Herne Bay respectively.
The rebuilt church of circa 1233 is characterised by the lancet windows of Early English Gothic style and has changed little, apart from the closing of two lancets in the west wall and their replacement during the 14th century by a window in the Perpendicular late Gothic style, plus a similar new window in the south wall of the nave.
This latter alteration coincided with the institution of the post of Vicar in the Blean (c.1375), and culminated in the building of the church's finest possession, its timber crown-post roof.
The church at this time was very colourful, with many of the windows being in stained glass (of which only a few fragments remain in one of the chancel lancet windows), a painted rood screen (the marks where it was fitted are still visible in the beams above the pulpit) and several wall paintings dedicated to St. Thomas, the Virgin Mary, and of course our "own" Saints Cosmus and Damian. With sets of candles in front of each, the impression would have been one of a highly coloured interior, typical of the medieval fashions.
Naturally, it all had to go in the religious upheavals following the Reformation, and whitewash became the order of the day - even the stone altar had to be broken up, its wooden replacement itself landing the then Vicar in serious trouble in 1551 as it was judged by the Archdeaconry Court as being "indistinguishable from the stone altar it had replaced!"
Hard times indeed - by the visitation of Archbishop Parker in 1573, it was reported that the church was "devoid of all glazing" - and we complain today of draughts! Apart from the walls and roof, the only major fittings remaining are the 15th Century stone font, the John Boys memorial of 1612 and the Communion Rails of 1697.
According to Edward Hasted's book History of the County of Kent, Canterbury 1782 vol. 3 ...The Church is but small and mean. It consists of only one aisle and a chancel having a low pointed turret at the west end...Anciently an appendage of the manor and remained so until Hamo le Crevequer called in the Charter. Hamo de Blen son of Etardus le Crevequer, gave the church to the Master and Brethren of the Hospital of Eastbridge, Canterbury. The gift was confirmed to the Hospital by the Archbishop Stephen Langton between 1206 and 1228. Blean was known as Cossmasblene in a document of 1548 by which the Master and co-Brethren of the Eastbridge Hospital confirmed their gift of about one virgate of land, subject to a rental of 3s a year, to William Harter and his wife. This piece of land and "a lyttel tennemant besyde the church of Cosmes Bleane" was referred to in a survey of houses and lands of the Manor of Hothe and Blean (calendared 'late 16th Century'), and gyven by the Masters of the Hospitall longe tyme past to the Auncesters of the wiff of one William Harter yet lyving and her heirs....
The Victorian rebuilding and extension was certainly enthusiastic, although unfortunately much of the original appearance of the church appears to have been obliterated in the process. The whole north wall disappeared to accommodate a sizeable extension, whilst the present single bell gable replaced the earlier wooden turret above the old building (the timbers from which are alleged to have been used in the stables of the then vicarage at Mulberry Down).
The old windows were replaced by new stained glass ones - including work by the well-known Victorian artist Henry Holiday.
Some fragments of the earlier glass were built into one window however, and perhaps more importantly, the quality of the work done has withstood the test of time, and we are very fortunate today in that we have inherited a basically sound structure in relatively good repair. Nevertheless, there is currently a scheduled programme of work to repair and restore these beautiful windows.
The plain open pews, choir and pulpit date from 1866, whilst the new organ (strangely sited by today's tastes) was installed in 1909. We are told that the original seating was for 273 souls - perhaps they were thinner in those days! The present main altar is comparatively modern, being designed in 1964 by Harold Anderson (architect to Canterbury Cathedral and a Churchwarden in Blean for 49 years!).
In 2000, after considerable consultation within the parish, the opportunity was taken to re-order the church with the objective of making it more accessible for worship and community use. The restrictive pew layout and the poor acoustics were tackled. In particular the organ was moved to a more appropriate location at the west end of the church. The font was moved away from the main door to the eastern end of the (‘new’ Victorian) north aisle.
The pulpit was moved to the place where the organ had originally been sited and we believe that the opening up of the sight lines resulting from this show off the magnificent timber crown-post roof in all its splendour. In 2005, we succeeded in raising sufficient money to bring water to the church hall providing much needed lavatory and kitchen facilities. Further developments to that hall are planned.
We are determined that our church building should provide the flexibility and modern facilities needed for the Christian message to continue to be proclaimed for another thousand years in this ancient place.
There are several plaques and memorials in the church which may be included on this page. For the time being here are two Plaques and signs in the church, one giving an interesting bequest and another the list of Vicars up to 1995.