View allAll Photos Tagged Solidity
From recent memory i remembered that when the galaxy note was introduced, people jumped out of their sits to sneer at the massive 5 inch cinema, then the panamera showed up upside down in a leaked photo, i was wondering what the huge commotion was about, with car nerds calling it the most hideous car in the world. its been 3 years since they came to market, they seem to do well in spite of the backlash on the blogs and forums. And so did the ipad, nikon1, bmw 1series, nissan juke, iphone4s, man we do suck at predicting markets, or that people are too busy to read blogs.
Just shy of a few days from the announcement of leaked iphone 5c and the gold iphone 5s, a number of people is jumping in to declare how apple is at the end of the line. Many people would say that they wouldn't be surprised if apple can still sell millions. Actually I would be surprised, Apple products have the track history of being the underdog in the feature set, remember during the ipod days, creative audio and irivers have built in radios and recorder functions, archos has massive screen size, ipod has blehk, nothing. If this time round apple manages to sell millions, then it would be some sort of magic. It's not logical, they have inferior products, like the ipad mini vs the nexus 7. Oh yeah I bought the Nexus 7 and sold it, it lags, so I'm back to using an ipad2 and iphone4s.
I think what the iphone 5s should be is everything that the iphone5 is and a stupid 24hr battery, I think that's good news enough, oh and gold. The plastic 5c should be the iphone 5 with a slight solidity and free on contract. It's funny that such a decisive company is finally coming up with a lower tier, since we know that for companies to be taken seriously and make lots of monies they need a flagship, and for companies to keep afloat then they launch their budget line. I hope it works for apple, they are not a bad company, but it's a really crowded market, with excellent phones from htc, motorola and nokia. Who did I left out?
www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...
For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.
Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.
Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.
Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.
The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.
Ferstel
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Ferstel and Café Central, by Rudolf von Alt, left the men's alley (Herrengasse - Street of the Lords), right Strauchgasse
Danube mermaid fountain in a courtyard of the Palais Ferstel
Shopping arcade of the Freyung to Herrengasse
Entrance to Ferstel of the Freyung, right the Palais Harrach, left the palace Hardegg
The Ferstel is a building in the first district of Vienna, Inner City, with the addresses Strauchgasse 2-4, 14 Lord Street (Herrengasse) and Freyung 2. It was established as a national bank and stock exchange building, the denomination Palais is unhistoric.
History
In 1855, the entire estate between Freyung, Strauchgasse and Herrengasse was by Franz Xaver Imperial Count von Abensperg and Traun to the k.k. Privileged Austrian National Bank sold. This banking institution was previously domiciled in the Herrengasse 17/ Bankgasse. The progressive industrialization and the with it associated economic expansion also implied a rapid development of monetary transactions and banking, so that the current premises soon no longer have been sufficient. This problem could only be solved by a new building, in which also should be housed a stock exchange hall.
According to the desire of the then Governor of the National Bank, Franz von Pipitz, the new building was supposed to be carried out with strict observance of the economy and avoiding a worthless luxury with solidity and artistic as well as technical completion. The building should offer room for the National Bank, the stock market, a cafe and - a novel idea for Vienna - a bazaar.
The commissioned architect, Heinrich von Ferstel, demonstrated in the coping with the irregular surface area with highest conceivable effective use of space his state-of-the art talent. The practical requirements combine themselves with the actually artistic to a masterful composition. Ferstel has been able to lay out the rooms of the issuing bank, the two trading floors, the passage with the bazar and the coffee house in accordance with their intended purpose and at the same time to maintain a consistent style.
He was an advocate of the "Materialbaues" (material building) as it clearly is reflected in the ashlar building of the banking institution. Base, pillars and stairs were fashioned of Wöllersdorfer stone, façade elements such as balconies, cornices, structurings as well as stone banisters of the hard white stone of Emperor Kaiser quarry (Kaisersteinbruch), while the walls were made of -Sankt Margarethen limestone. The inner rooms have been luxuriously formed, with wood paneling, leather wallpaper, Stuccolustro and rich ornamental painting.
The facade of the corner front Strauchgasse/Herrengasse received twelve sculptures by Hanns Gasser as decoration, they symbolized the peoples of the monarchy. The mighty round arch at the exit Freyung were closed with wrought-iron bare gates, because the first used locksmith could not meet the demands of Ferstel, the work was transferred to a silversmith.
1860 the National Bank and the stock exchange could move into the in 1859 completed construction. The following year was placed in the glass-covered passage the Danube mermaid fountain, whose design stems also of Ferstel. Anton von Fernkorn has created the sculptural decoration with an artistic sensitivity. Above the marble fountain basin rises a column crowned by a bronze statue, the Danube female with flowing hair, holding a fish in its hand. Below are arranged around the column three also in bronze cast figures: merchant, fisherman and shipbuilder, so those professions that have to do with the water. The total cost of the building, the interior included, amounted to the enormous sum of 1.897.600 guilders.
The originally planned use of the building remained only a few years preserved. The Stock Exchange with the premises no longer had sufficient space: in 1872 it moved to a provisional solution, 1877 at Schottenring a new Stock Exchange building opened. The National Bank moved 1925 into a yet 1913 planned, spacious new building.
The building was in Second World War battered gravely particularly on the main facade. In the 1960s was located in the former Stock Exchange a basketball training hall, the entire building appeared neglected.
1971 dealt the President of the Federal Monuments Office, Walter Frodl, with the severely war damaged banking and stock exchange building in Vienna. The Office for Technical Geology of Otto Casensky furnished an opinion on the stone facade. On the facade Freyung 2 a balcony was originally attached over the entire 15.4 m long front of hard Kaiserstein.
(Usage of Leith lime: Dependent from the consistence and structure of the Leitha lime the usage differed from „Reibsand“ till building material. The Leitha lime stone is a natural stone which can be formed easily and was desired als beautiful stone for buildings in Roman times. The usage of lime stone from Eggenburg in the Bronze age already was verified. This special attribute is the reason why the Leitha lime was taken from sculptors and masons.
The source of lime stone in the Leitha Mountains was important for Austria and especially for Vienna from the cultur historical point of view during the Renaissance and Baroque. At the 19th century the up to 150 stone quarries of the Leitha mountains got many orders form the construction work of the Vienna „Ring road“.
At many buildings of Graz, such as the castle at the Grazer castle hill, the old Joanneum and the Cottage, the Leitha lime stone was used.
Due to the fact that Leitha lime is bond on carbonate in the texture, the alteration through the actual sour rain is heavy. www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2HKZ9_leithagebirge-leithak...)
This balcony was no longer present and only close to the facade were remnants of the tread plates and the supporting brackets recognizable. In July 1975, followed the reconstruction of the balcony and master stonemason Friedrich Opferkuh received the order to restore the old state am Leithagebirge received the order the old state - of Mannersdorfer stone, armoured concrete or artificial stone.
1975-1982, the building was renovated and re-opened the Café Central. Since then, the privately owned building is called Palais Ferstel. In the former stock exchange halls now meetings and presentations take place; the Café Central is utilizing one of the courtyards.
Fernando Amorsolo (1892-1972)
Portrait of a Lady
signed and dated 1955 (lower right)
oil on canvas
13” x 10” (33 cm x 25 cm)
Opening bid: P 220,000
Leon Gallery wishes to thank Mrs. Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo for confirming the authenticity of this lot
Provenance:
Private Collection, Manila
Lot 39 of the Leon Gallery auction on 18 February 2017. Please see www.leon-gallery.com for more details.
Some of the best painters in history have dedicated themselves to capturing the look of a well-dressed man or woman. The unidentified sitter provides Fernando Amorsolo with a misty, sensitive rendering of character. The portrait is subtly lit from one side, producing a soft contrast between light and shadow, and a sense of rounded form that cannot be captured with frontal lighting.
Fine brushstrokes following the direction of form give, in the face, a fine depiction of characte.r Pale rosy highlights are used to suggest roundness and solidity of features in the face down to the shoulders, while eyes, nose and mouth are rendered with sympathetic precision.
After such moments of calm concentration, Amorsolo relaxes over the accessories — the sheer delicacy of the shawl, the embroidered floral pinks on the dress. Amorsolo avoids the purely decorative effects of detailing, while still capturing the elements of fifties high society in the dress. A brushed-on solidity in the background provides a sense of depth to emphasize the radiant face, and the luminous qualities of the fabrics.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken towards the end of the second week of February 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
And, at the same time, the guys are clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
By Christina Mackie
Tate Britain Commission 2015
Mackie fills half of the exhibition space with 12-metre-high dipped silk nets suspended above pans of semi-crystalised dye, to create an ethereal installation. These are shown together with a free-standing sculpture and a plinth displaying chunks of raw glass.
Mackie uses a range of media, but colour and perception remain central to her work. In the Tate Britain Commission 2015, Mackie develops ideas set out in previous projects. The solidity of the building and sculpture contrasts the fluidity of paint, while the nets are kept in a permanent state of flux by the changing light and colour in the Duveen Galleries.
[Tate Britain]
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the second week of March 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
By now the guys had clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed had my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Now that we can see the cleaned, exposed riverbank, we can see a substantial bedrock. Clearly this is not liable to subsidence. And there evidence that sections of the slope had already been 'nailed' * to prevent slippage. But, in talking to the guys there, it would seem that further 'nailing' might be required later in the year.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
*
Soil nailing is a construction technique that can be used as a remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil slopes or as a construction technique that allows the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil slopes.
The technique involves the insertion of relatively slender reinforcing elements into the slope – often general purpose reinforcing bars (rebar) although proprietary solid or hollow-system bars are also available.
Solid bars are usually installed into pre-drilled holes and then grouted into place using a separate grout line, whereas hollow bars may be drilled and grouted simultaneously by the use of a sacrificial drill bit and by pumping grout down the hollow bar as drilling progresses.
Eugene Landry
Oil on canvas
Lent by Winona Mail Weber
A photo of Winona Mail Weber standing next to her portrait at an exhibition of Landry's art can be seen here: eugenelandry.com/exhibit-reception-highlights/
-----------------------------------
What is Native Art? Eugene Landry and the Creative Spirit
August 15 - November 1, 2025
Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum
Ilwaco, Washington
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Evaluation
This portrait of Winona by Eugene Landry demonstrates his commitment to figural painting rendered through bold, visible brushstrokes. Landry builds form through layered color planes rather than seamless blending, giving the face a structural, almost sculptural solidity. The sitter’s downcast gaze and slightly parted lips convey introspection and restraint, while the plain background keeps focus tightly on the subject. The cropped composition—tight around the head and shoulders—aligns with modernist portrait strategies, privileging immediacy and painterly construction over conventional finish.
Strengths: The earthy but harmonious palette emphasizes natural flesh tones against the muted dark grey ground, while the strokes remain loose yet controlled, capturing both volume and surface vitality. The sitter’s individuality is strongly present, yet the painting avoids sentimentality. Landry’s facture—his distinctive, confident mark-making—anchors the work within a mid-century modernist idiom, while still attentive to likeness.
Assessment: This is a highly competent and affecting portrait, showing Landry’s ability to merge regional Northwest figuration with broader modernist tendencies. It situates him in conversation with artists like Guy Anderson or William Cumming, painters who likewise sought to balance expressive brushwork with a rooted sense of human presence.
This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT.
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Eugene “Gene” Landry was a noted Northwest Native artist who painted from his wheelchair. His personal story is one of perseverance, of an artist who created despite setbacks, always with humor and style.
Landryʼs art offers a glimpse into a transitional and little-documented time in Northwest Native history. His paintings represent a Native artist’s portrayal of his own people during a time when Native Americans were erased, marginalized, and misrepresented by stereotypes in media and public education. Landry painted contemporary portraits of his people, depicting them as they were.
For a variety of reasons—timing, geographic isolation, physical barriers due to his disability, marginalization of Native Americans in mainstream culture—Landry’s art did not receive the recognition it deserved during his lifetime. This exhibition brings his work—and life—to light.
Learn about Landry’s creativity, spirit, and legacy in this exhibition organized by Judith Altruda and the Washington State History Museum on view at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco from August 15 – November 1, 2025. There will be an opening reception on August 15 from 5-7pm with a special welcome from the Chinook Indian Nation.
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About Eugene Landry and Native Art
"Gene was a fixture in our lives when we were growing up.
Gene was raised up with people who were totally fluent in their culture. [However] we also know that they were in a transition from their parents and grandparents… I couldn’t name somebody out here [Shoalwater Bay] in his life that was a practitioner of a traditional form of art—other than basket making. In terms of carving or two dimensional design work, I don’t know who would’ve been out here doing that [when Gene was growing up]. There was Mr. Landry dabbling in it, but he didn’t have some formal training in it, and wasn’t from “the neighborhood” exactly. [Fred Landry, Chippewa, hailed from North Dakota]. There is kind of this real classic coast Indian art from Washington’s coast that was the 1960s–70s style that has some relationship to the old style, but really is not “it.” I don’t doubt that Gene could have had some exposure to that or to the people dabbling in it, but I don’t know of anybody that he would have had real genuine exposure to. I think, as a person with an artistic interest, gift, it was pretty natural that he went to what he was doing.
And you can’t say that’s not Indian art because we would all see it as Indian art in any gallery today. While it’s not art specific to a Native culture—you’re not going to say he was doing Lower Chehalis art or Quileute art or Chinook art or whatever, that’s clearly not what he was doing—he was a Native person doing art and by the nature of it, it’s got to be Indian art.
Gene’s training, if he’d been twenty years later up in Seattle going to art school, he’d have probably been working with a Bill Holm, a Marvin Oliver, a Steve Brown—whoever—the “Duane Pascos” of the world. I really believe that fast-forward twenty years, Gene probably would have had the opportunity, and I’m guessing because it’s compelling, would have been compelled by it. But instead, he was going [pursuing] traditional training in European style, American style, arts, because that’s what he had the opportunity to study. That’s what drove him.
Now, I think we have the good fortune of a different level of access and exposure to our true Aboriginal art. I have someone practically every day send me things they’ve seen in someone’s private collection related to our style of art so it’s really inspiring and really accessible. My point is, it would have been really difficult for Gene, even had he decided to chase our Aboriginal art. It would have been a lot harder to get as far as we’ve gotten in a revival, revitalization, for him. For his [physical] limitations, his location.”
Tony A (naschio) Johnson is a sculptor, printmaker, metalsmith, and basket weaver. He is also chairman of the Chinook Nation since 2015 and a Chinook WaWa language teacher. This statement is from an interview conducted by Judith Altruda at the Shoalwater Bay Reservation, March 2019.
Ferstel
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Ferstel and Café Central, by Rudolf von Alt, left the men's alley (Herrengasse - Street of the Lords), right Strauchgasse
Danube mermaid fountain in a courtyard of the Palais Ferstel
Shopping arcade of the Freyung to Herrengasse
Entrance to Ferstel of the Freyung, right the Palais Harrach, left the palace Hardegg
The Ferstel is a building in the first district of Vienna, Inner City, with the addresses Strauchgasse 2-4, 14 Lord Street (Herrengasse) and Freyung 2. It was established as a national bank and stock exchange building, the denomination Palais is unhistoric.
History
In 1855, the entire estate between Freyung, Strauchgasse and Herrengasse was by Franz Xaver Imperial Count von Abensperg and Traun to the k.k. Privileged Austrian National Bank sold. This banking institution was previously domiciled in the Herrengasse 17/ Bankgasse. The progressive industrialization and the with it associated economic expansion also implied a rapid development of monetary transactions and banking, so that the current premises soon no longer have been sufficient. This problem could only be solved by a new building, in which also should be housed a stock exchange hall.
According to the desire of the then Governor of the National Bank, Franz von Pipitz, the new building was supposed to be carried out with strict observance of the economy and avoiding a worthless luxury with solidity and artistic as well as technical completion. The building should offer room for the National Bank, the stock market, a cafe and - a novel idea for Vienna - a bazaar.
The commissioned architect, Heinrich von Ferstel, demonstrated in the coping with the irregular surface area with highest conceivable effective use of space his state-of-the art talent. The practical requirements combine themselves with the actually artistic to a masterful composition. Ferstel has been able to lay out the rooms of the issuing bank, the two trading floors, the passage with the bazar and the coffee house in accordance with their intended purpose and at the same time to maintain a consistent style.
He was an advocate of the "Materialbaues" (material building) as it clearly is reflected in the ashlar building of the banking institution. Base, pillars and stairs were fashioned of Wöllersdorfer stone, façade elements such as balconies, cornices, structurings as well as stone banisters of the hard white stone of Emperor Kaiser quarry (Kaisersteinbruch), while the walls were made of -Sankt Margarethen limestone. The inner rooms have been luxuriously formed, with wood paneling, leather wallpaper, Stuccolustro and rich ornamental painting.
The facade of the corner front Strauchgasse/Herrengasse received twelve sculptures by Hanns Gasser as decoration, they symbolized the peoples of the monarchy. The mighty round arch at the exit Freyung were closed with wrought-iron bare gates, because the first used locksmith could not meet the demands of Ferstel, the work was transferred to a silversmith.
1860 the National Bank and the stock exchange could move into the in 1859 completed construction. The following year was placed in the glass-covered passage the Danube mermaid fountain, whose design stems also of Ferstel. Anton von Fernkorn has created the sculptural decoration with an artistic sensitivity. Above the marble fountain basin rises a column crowned by a bronze statue, the Danube female with flowing hair, holding a fish in its hand. Below are arranged around the column three also in bronze cast figures: merchant, fisherman and shipbuilder, so those professions that have to do with the water. The total cost of the building, the interior included, amounted to the enormous sum of 1.897.600 guilders.
The originally planned use of the building remained only a few years preserved. The Stock Exchange with the premises no longer had sufficient space: in 1872 it moved to a provisional solution, 1877 at Schottenring a new Stock Exchange building opened. The National Bank moved 1925 into a yet 1913 planned, spacious new building.
The building was in Second World War battered gravely particularly on the main facade. In the 1960s was located in the former Stock Exchange a basketball training hall, the entire building appeared neglected.
1971 dealt the President of the Federal Monuments Office, Walter Frodl, with the severely war damaged banking and stock exchange building in Vienna. The Office for Technical Geology of Otto Casensky furnished an opinion on the stone facade. On the facade Freyung 2 a balcony was originally attached over the entire 15.4 m long front of hard Kaiserstein.
(Usage of Leith lime: Dependent from the consistence and structure of the Leitha lime the usage differed from „Reibsand“ till building material. The Leitha lime stone is a natural stone which can be formed easily and was desired als beautiful stone for buildings in Roman times. The usage of lime stone from Eggenburg in the Bronze age already was verified. This special attribute is the reason why the Leitha lime was taken from sculptors and masons.
The source of lime stone in the Leitha Mountains was important for Austria and especially for Vienna from the cultur historical point of view during the Renaissance and Baroque. At the 19th century the up to 150 stone quarries of the Leitha mountains got many orders form the construction work of the Vienna „Ring road“.
At many buildings of Graz, such as the castle at the Grazer castle hill, the old Joanneum and the Cottage, the Leitha lime stone was used.
Due to the fact that Leitha lime is bond on carbonate in the texture, the alteration through the actual sour rain is heavy. www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2HKZ9_leithagebirge-leithak...)
This balcony was no longer present and only close to the facade were remnants of the tread plates and the supporting brackets recognizable. In July 1975, followed the reconstruction of the balcony and master stonemason Friedrich Opferkuh received the order to restore the old state am Leithagebirge received the order the old state - of Mannersdorfer stone, armoured concrete or artificial stone.
1975-1982, the building was renovated and re-opened the Café Central. Since then, the privately owned building is called Palais Ferstel. In the former stock exchange halls now meetings and presentations take place; the Café Central is utilizing one of the courtyards.
This building is such a class act. It is the essence of solidity and permanence and feels like a vault suitable for gold bullion. I had always assumed photography would be forbidden but this time I asked and got only the curt response "No Flash" to my question.
Go large and swim in gold: View On Black
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken towards the end of the second week of February 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
And, at the same time, the guys are clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
Ferstel
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Ferstel and Café Central, by Rudolf von Alt, left the men's alley (Herrengasse - Street of the Lords), right Strauchgasse
Danube mermaid fountain in a courtyard of the Palais Ferstel
Shopping arcade of the Freyung to Herrengasse
Entrance to Ferstel of the Freyung, right the Palais Harrach, left the palace Hardegg
The Ferstel is a building in the first district of Vienna, Inner City, with the addresses Strauchgasse 2-4, 14 Lord Street (Herrengasse) and Freyung 2. It was established as a national bank and stock exchange building, the denomination Palais is unhistoric.
History
In 1855, the entire estate between Freyung, Strauchgasse and Herrengasse was by Franz Xaver Imperial Count von Abensperg and Traun to the k.k. Privileged Austrian National Bank sold. This banking institution was previously domiciled in the Herrengasse 17/ Bankgasse. The progressive industrialization and the with it associated economic expansion also implied a rapid development of monetary transactions and banking, so that the current premises soon no longer have been sufficient. This problem could only be solved by a new building, in which also should be housed a stock exchange hall.
According to the desire of the then Governor of the National Bank, Franz von Pipitz, the new building was supposed to be carried out with strict observance of the economy and avoiding a worthless luxury with solidity and artistic as well as technical completion. The building should offer room for the National Bank, the stock market, a cafe and - a novel idea for Vienna - a bazaar.
The commissioned architect, Heinrich von Ferstel, demonstrated in the coping with the irregular surface area with highest conceivable effective use of space his state-of-the art talent. The practical requirements combine themselves with the actually artistic to a masterful composition. Ferstel has been able to lay out the rooms of the issuing bank, the two trading floors, the passage with the bazar and the coffee house in accordance with their intended purpose and at the same time to maintain a consistent style.
He was an advocate of the "Materialbaues" (material building) as it clearly is reflected in the ashlar building of the banking institution. Base, pillars and stairs were fashioned of Wöllersdorfer stone, façade elements such as balconies, cornices, structurings as well as stone banisters of the hard white stone of Emperor Kaiser quarry (Kaisersteinbruch), while the walls were made of -Sankt Margarethen limestone. The inner rooms have been luxuriously formed, with wood paneling, leather wallpaper, Stuccolustro and rich ornamental painting.
The facade of the corner front Strauchgasse/Herrengasse received twelve sculptures by Hanns Gasser as decoration, they symbolized the peoples of the monarchy. The mighty round arch at the exit Freyung were closed with wrought-iron bare gates, because the first used locksmith could not meet the demands of Ferstel, the work was transferred to a silversmith.
1860 the National Bank and the stock exchange could move into the in 1859 completed construction. The following year was placed in the glass-covered passage the Danube mermaid fountain, whose design stems also of Ferstel. Anton von Fernkorn has created the sculptural decoration with an artistic sensitivity. Above the marble fountain basin rises a column crowned by a bronze statue, the Danube female with flowing hair, holding a fish in its hand. Below are arranged around the column three also in bronze cast figures: merchant, fisherman and shipbuilder, so those professions that have to do with the water. The total cost of the building, the interior included, amounted to the enormous sum of 1.897.600 guilders.
The originally planned use of the building remained only a few years preserved. The Stock Exchange with the premises no longer had sufficient space: in 1872 it moved to a provisional solution, 1877 at Schottenring a new Stock Exchange building opened. The National Bank moved 1925 into a yet 1913 planned, spacious new building.
The building was in Second World War battered gravely particularly on the main facade. In the 1960s was located in the former Stock Exchange a basketball training hall, the entire building appeared neglected.
1971 dealt the President of the Federal Monuments Office, Walter Frodl, with the severely war damaged banking and stock exchange building in Vienna. The Office for Technical Geology of Otto Casensky furnished an opinion on the stone facade. On the facade Freyung 2 a balcony was originally attached over the entire 15.4 m long front of hard Kaiserstein.
(Usage of Leith lime: Dependent from the consistence and structure of the Leitha lime the usage differed from „Reibsand“ till building material. The Leitha lime stone is a natural stone which can be formed easily and was desired als beautiful stone for buildings in Roman times. The usage of lime stone from Eggenburg in the Bronze age already was verified. This special attribute is the reason why the Leitha lime was taken from sculptors and masons.
The source of lime stone in the Leitha Mountains was important for Austria and especially for Vienna from the cultur historical point of view during the Renaissance and Baroque. At the 19th century the up to 150 stone quarries of the Leitha mountains got many orders form the construction work of the Vienna „Ring road“.
At many buildings of Graz, such as the castle at the Grazer castle hill, the old Joanneum and the Cottage, the Leitha lime stone was used.
Due to the fact that Leitha lime is bond on carbonate in the texture, the alteration through the actual sour rain is heavy. www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2HKZ9_leithagebirge-leithak...)
This balcony was no longer present and only close to the facade were remnants of the tread plates and the supporting brackets recognizable. In July 1975, followed the reconstruction of the balcony and master stonemason Friedrich Opferkuh received the order to restore the old state am Leithagebirge received the order the old state - of Mannersdorfer stone, armoured concrete or artificial stone.
1975-1982, the building was renovated and re-opened the Café Central. Since then, the privately owned building is called Palais Ferstel. In the former stock exchange halls now meetings and presentations take place; the Café Central is utilizing one of the courtyards.
Bréton brut had as a style been established for a short while prior to this buildings inception, but it was its somewhat trend setting architect that gave widespread acceptability and validity to the movement. It captured the imagination of architects reacting against the recoil of New Humanism and restricted by the economics of the time.
The Unité d'Habitation built in Marseille, France in 1952 is absolutely of its time. Every tower block in the immediate vacinity appears to pay homage to the Unité, They are unashamed of their debt, aesthetic or otherwise, and yet even with benefit hindsight do not appear to be 'better buildings', mere pale imitations.
Steel being consumed in the war effort and the lack of skilled labour in France lead to the choice of concrete, with a more honest and rough finish. Banham says it is ever the more successful due to Corbusiers abandonment of the “pre-war fiction that reinforced concrete was a precise, ‘machine-age’ material”. This notion which had been maintained by extravagant and un-necessary means, such as “lavishing on it skilled labour and specialised equipment beyond anything the economics of the building industry normally permitted”. That is equipment that would give rise to the exacting edges and if these were not achieved then the “roughness and inaccuracies” were plastered over to give a more crisp image, hardly accepting the ‘realities of the situation’. The situation was firmly one of a “messy soup” with “dust, grits and slumpy aggregates, mixed and poured under conditions subject to the vagaries of weather and human fallibility”, hardly an image of high-technology.
The war had also changed Corbusiers perspective of technology’s place in architecture, compare for example the machine for living in, the Ville Savoye (Paris, 1929), compared with schemes such as (although later than the Unité) Notre Dame du Haut built at Ronchamp in 1954. The Unité had been described as “the first modern building that has room for cockroaches”, retort to Le Corbusier stating in a letter to Madame Savoye that “‘Home life today is being paralysed by the deplorable notion that we must have furniture” and that “This notion should be rooted out and replaced by that of equipment”. Banham in his book ‘The New Brutalism’ notes the Unité’s “originalities in sectional organisation”, with its rue Intérieure, apartments with double height spaces all of which in section span the entire width of the block. He also suggests “few buildings anywhere in the world had such a hold on the imagination of young architects especially in England”. Corbusier described his rough concrete style as béton brut, words which (rightly or wrongly) would come to be misinterpreted as representing the New Brutalist style as well as that of béton brut. The solidity of the Unité is furthered from mere concrete security by the setting back of “user-scale elements such as windows and doors” into the concrete frame of the building, giving a sense of a secondary boundary further to the superstructure of the building. As Banham describes it, a building where “word and building stand together in the psychological history of post-war architecture” . He attributes further its success to the “hard glare of the Mediterranean sun” . Something which does not quite translate so well in the greyer skies of Britain, something of the disappointment of driving a new car out of a showroom and home, notwithstanding your home being an equally apt setting.
www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...
For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.
Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.
Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.
Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.
The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.
West window by Hardman's, 1886.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken towards the end of the second week of February 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
And, at the same time, the guys are clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
Ferstel
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Ferstel and Café Central, by Rudolf von Alt, left the men's alley (Herrengasse - Street of the Lords), right Strauchgasse
Danube mermaid fountain in a courtyard of the Palais Ferstel
Shopping arcade of the Freyung to Herrengasse
Entrance to Ferstel of the Freyung, right the Palais Harrach, left the palace Hardegg
The Ferstel is a building in the first district of Vienna, Inner City, with the addresses Strauchgasse 2-4, 14 Lord Street (Herrengasse) and Freyung 2. It was established as a national bank and stock exchange building, the denomination Palais is unhistoric.
History
In 1855, the entire estate between Freyung, Strauchgasse and Herrengasse was by Franz Xaver Imperial Count von Abensperg and Traun to the k.k. Privileged Austrian National Bank sold. This banking institution was previously domiciled in the Herrengasse 17/ Bankgasse. The progressive industrialization and the with it associated economic expansion also implied a rapid development of monetary transactions and banking, so that the current premises soon no longer have been sufficient. This problem could only be solved by a new building, in which also should be housed a stock exchange hall.
According to the desire of the then Governor of the National Bank, Franz von Pipitz, the new building was supposed to be carried out with strict observance of the economy and avoiding a worthless luxury with solidity and artistic as well as technical completion. The building should offer room for the National Bank, the stock market, a cafe and - a novel idea for Vienna - a bazaar.
The commissioned architect, Heinrich von Ferstel, demonstrated in the coping with the irregular surface area with highest conceivable effective use of space his state-of-the art talent. The practical requirements combine themselves with the actually artistic to a masterful composition. Ferstel has been able to lay out the rooms of the issuing bank, the two trading floors, the passage with the bazar and the coffee house in accordance with their intended purpose and at the same time to maintain a consistent style.
He was an advocate of the "Materialbaues" (material building) as it clearly is reflected in the ashlar building of the banking institution. Base, pillars and stairs were fashioned of Wöllersdorfer stone, façade elements such as balconies, cornices, structurings as well as stone banisters of the hard white stone of Emperor Kaiser quarry (Kaisersteinbruch), while the walls were made of -Sankt Margarethen limestone. The inner rooms have been luxuriously formed, with wood paneling, leather wallpaper, Stuccolustro and rich ornamental painting.
The facade of the corner front Strauchgasse/Herrengasse received twelve sculptures by Hanns Gasser as decoration, they symbolized the peoples of the monarchy. The mighty round arch at the exit Freyung were closed with wrought-iron bare gates, because the first used locksmith could not meet the demands of Ferstel, the work was transferred to a silversmith.
1860 the National Bank and the stock exchange could move into the in 1859 completed construction. The following year was placed in the glass-covered passage the Danube mermaid fountain, whose design stems also of Ferstel. Anton von Fernkorn has created the sculptural decoration with an artistic sensitivity. Above the marble fountain basin rises a column crowned by a bronze statue, the Danube female with flowing hair, holding a fish in its hand. Below are arranged around the column three also in bronze cast figures: merchant, fisherman and shipbuilder, so those professions that have to do with the water. The total cost of the building, the interior included, amounted to the enormous sum of 1.897.600 guilders.
The originally planned use of the building remained only a few years preserved. The Stock Exchange with the premises no longer had sufficient space: in 1872 it moved to a provisional solution, 1877 at Schottenring a new Stock Exchange building opened. The National Bank moved 1925 into a yet 1913 planned, spacious new building.
The building was in Second World War battered gravely particularly on the main facade. In the 1960s was located in the former Stock Exchange a basketball training hall, the entire building appeared neglected.
1971 dealt the President of the Federal Monuments Office, Walter Frodl, with the severely war damaged banking and stock exchange building in Vienna. The Office for Technical Geology of Otto Casensky furnished an opinion on the stone facade. On the facade Freyung 2 a balcony was originally attached over the entire 15.4 m long front of hard Kaiserstein.
(Usage of Leith lime: Dependent from the consistence and structure of the Leitha lime the usage differed from „Reibsand“ till building material. The Leitha lime stone is a natural stone which can be formed easily and was desired als beautiful stone for buildings in Roman times. The usage of lime stone from Eggenburg in the Bronze age already was verified. This special attribute is the reason why the Leitha lime was taken from sculptors and masons.
The source of lime stone in the Leitha Mountains was important for Austria and especially for Vienna from the cultur historical point of view during the Renaissance and Baroque. At the 19th century the up to 150 stone quarries of the Leitha mountains got many orders form the construction work of the Vienna „Ring road“.
At many buildings of Graz, such as the castle at the Grazer castle hill, the old Joanneum and the Cottage, the Leitha lime stone was used.
Due to the fact that Leitha lime is bond on carbonate in the texture, the alteration through the actual sour rain is heavy. www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2HKZ9_leithagebirge-leithak...)
This balcony was no longer present and only close to the facade were remnants of the tread plates and the supporting brackets recognizable. In July 1975, followed the reconstruction of the balcony and master stonemason Friedrich Opferkuh received the order to restore the old state am Leithagebirge received the order the old state - of Mannersdorfer stone, armoured concrete or artificial stone.
1975-1982, the building was renovated and re-opened the Café Central. Since then, the privately owned building is called Palais Ferstel. In the former stock exchange halls now meetings and presentations take place; the Café Central is utilizing one of the courtyards.
Gerard David, Oudewater ca. 1450/1460 - Brügge 1523
Virgo inter virgines / Virgin among the Virgins (1509)
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen
The altarpiece of the Virgo inter Virgines was donated in 1509 to the convent of the Carmelites of Sion in Bruges. Mary, enthroned between two musical angels, holds the Baby Jesus, who is picking grapes off a bunch – a symbol of the Eucharist. She is receiving the homage of a gathering of martyrs with a child-like charm, recognisable by their attributes, each depicted in the manner of precious ornaments.
From left to right :
Dorothy with her basket of roses (the lawyer Theophilus had promised to convert to Christianity if she sent him roses and apples from the Garden of Christ)
Catherine of Alexandria with a crown adorned with the Catherine Wheel (which miraculously broke instead of killing her)
Agnes, with a lamb at her feet (the saint was killed aged 14 because she refused to marry a pagan),
Behind her, an anonymous woman
Fausta with a saw (the instrument of her martyrdom) Apollonia with a set of tongs (which were used to pull out her teeth)
Godelina with a scarf (which her husband used to have her strangled)
Cecilia beside an organ (she sang praises to the Lord until her dying breath)
Barbara, whose headdress is adorned with a tower (her father had her locked away there)
Lucy holding her eyes (which some maintain were gouged out while others assert that she gouged them out herself)
The man, in the upper left corner is the painter Gérard David himself, and the woman on the right in the white cornet is most probably his wife, Cornelia.
The saints stand out against a neutral background with a visual force reminiscent of a bas-relief, but which is animated by the faces and the beauty of the materials. In this dense ensemble, the unusually accentuated upright stance of the Virgin, in its almost statuesque solidity, seems to echo the Madonna of Bruges of Michelangelo, who arrived in the city in 1506.
install shots from "Just a conspiracy of cartographers, then?" at Narwhal Art Projects, 2013. Photos by Jimmy Limit.
A fairly simple MOC with a knight inspired aesthetic. One of my more fun characters to pose, and a build I'm generally happy with in terms of solidity and flow. I'm also pretty proud of the color blocking. This one, Minnix and Glaereth were all meant to be sister MOCs when they were originally created, hence them all having twin tails. They all quickly ended up with their own design styles though.
A rather chunky unlicensed Ferrari Enzo by an unknown Chinese manufacturer. Sourced from Temu meaning it didn't actually come in any actual manufacturers packaging, just a plastic bag with the name of the importer! Such things do annoy me!
Its chunky proportions are perhaps intentional as the other castings made by said unknown maker also share the same traits, it does however give off an impression of solidity and robustness.
Featuring clear lense headlights and intricate alloy effect wheels with a pullback function to complete the package.
Mint and "boxed".
To the south of the high altar stands the chantry chapel of Edward le Despenser (d.1375) opposite the tomb of his father. Edward's effigy is unique, a kneeling, praying figure with its original colouring set beneath a canopy on the roof of the chapel (best viewed from the opposite side of the sanctuary). Within the chapel has a delicate fan-vaulted ceiling and a well preserved mural of the Trinity.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the second week of March 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
By now the guys had clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed had my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Now that we can see the cleaned, exposed riverbank, we can see a substantial bedrock. Clearly this is not liable to subsidence. And there evidence that sections of the slope had already been 'nailed' * to prevent slippage. But, in talking to the guys there, it would seem that further 'nailing' might be required later in the year.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
*
Soil nailing is a construction technique that can be used as a remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil slopes or as a construction technique that allows the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil slopes.
The technique involves the insertion of relatively slender reinforcing elements into the slope – often general purpose reinforcing bars (rebar) although proprietary solid or hollow-system bars are also available.
Solid bars are usually installed into pre-drilled holes and then grouted into place using a separate grout line, whereas hollow bars may be drilled and grouted simultaneously by the use of a sacrificial drill bit and by pumping grout down the hollow bar as drilling progresses.
1992 Tetsuo HARADA
LE 38ème PARALLÈLE
1992s234-38th parallele-kajigawa-Japan
Hauteur 4 m, l’axe 20 m, dallage 25 m2
Granit rose de la Clarté
Kajigawa, Niigata, Japon
La ville de Kajigawa, au Japon, est située sur le 38ème parallèle (latitude). Cette ligne sépare la Corée du Nord de la Corée du Sud.
Tetsuo Harada a réalisé cette sculpture pour la paix et la réconciliation entre les deux Corée. Les deux blocs de la pyramide se rejoignent exactement au niveau du 38ème parallèle et sont unis par une spère.
Le Tricot de la Terre, porteur de paix et d’union, est également présent dans cette sculpture.
Comme Tetsuo Harada, la ville de Kajigawa et le Ministère de l’Equipement qui ont commandé cette sculpture, souhaitent exprimer ce message de paix. Ils invitent les autres villes du monde situées également sur le 38ème parallèle à exprimer cet espoir par la culture, l'art ou le sport.
La ville d’Athènes, également située sur le 38ème parallèle, a adopté ce thème “38ème parallèle, horizon” pour le programme artistique et culturel des Jeux olympiques de 2004. Le 38ème traverse : Italie, Espagne, Portugal, Turquie, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Chine, Corée, Japon, Californie, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.
1992
THE 38th PARALLEL
Height 4 m, axis 20 m, paving 25 m2
Pink Granite of Clarity
Kajigawa, Niigata, Japan
The city of Kajigawa, Japan, is located on the 38th parallel (latitude). This line separates North Korea from South Korea.
Tetsuo Harada created this sculpture for peace and reconciliation between the two Koreas. The two blocks of the pyramid meet exactly at the level of the 38th parallel and are joined by a marker.
The Knit of the Earth, bearer of peace and union, is also present in this sculpture.
As Tetsuo Harada, the city of Kajigawa and the Ministry of Equipment who commissioned this sculpture, wish to express this message of peace. They invite the other cities of the world also located on the 38th parallel to express this hope through culture, art or sport.
The city of Athens, also located on the 38th parallel, has adopted this theme "38th parallel, horizon" for the artistic and cultural programme of the 2004 Olympic Games. The 38th parallel runs through: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, China, Korea, Japan, California, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.
1992 KAGIGAWA-NIIGATA (JAPON)
ASSOCIATION DE VILLE ET DE L’EQUIPEMENT
Le 38ème parallèle sépare la Corée de nord de celle du Sud. Ce lieu particulier devient dans la ville de Kagigawa le symbole de la Paix. Tetsuo HARADA semble tout à fait indiqué en y installant le Tricot de la Terre. Les liens du Tricot de la Terre se tournent vers cette sculpture, forte, pyramidale, rehaussée d’une très belle colonne de granit. La solidité et le temps semble imposer leur sérénité. On y vient à pied, en vélo, en voiture sur cet air destiné à la rencontre et au dialogue. Du train on l’aperçoit petite et de plus en plus grande avant de disparaître dans son écrin de verdure et de rizières. Plus qu’une simple destination le 38ème parallèle entoure la terre et se veut réunir les hommes de Paix. Athènes contribue à donner une suite ...
Sur le 38ème le programme est ouvert pour Hamonten (Chine), San Fransisco (USA), Sado (Japon).
1992 KAGIGAWA-NIIGATA (JAPAN)
CITY AND EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATION
The 38th parallel separates North and South Korea. This particular place becomes in the city of Kagigawa the symbol of Peace. Tetsuo HARADA seems quite appropriate by installing there the Knitting of the Earth. The links of the Knitwear of the Earth turn towards this sculpture, strong, pyramidal, raised by a very beautiful granite column. Solidity and time seem to impose their serenity. One comes there on foot, by bicycle, by car on this air intended for the meeting and the dialogue. From the train you can see it small and getting bigger and bigger before disappearing into its green and rice fields. More than a simple destination, the 38th parallel surrounds the earth and is intended to bring together men of Peace. Athens contributes to give a continuation ...
On the 38th the program is open for Hamonten (China), San Fransisco (USA), Sado (Japan) ...
————————
ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY AND THE EQUIPEMENT
The 38th parallel separtes North and South Korea. The sculpture represents in a way the union of both these countries. This particular site in Kagigawa city becomes symbol of Peace. Tetsuo Harada’s ideas and interests find a great deal of expression here, through the theme of the “Earth Weaving”. The links of the “Earth Weaving” head towards this sculpture, strong pyramidal, matched with an imposing granite column. The solidity and the permanence seem to surround the site with serenity. One can go there walking or by car, the area is dedicated to meetings ans dialogue. By train, one can catch the sight of it, slowly disappearing amongst the setting of greenery and paddy fields. More than a mere destination, th e38th parallel surrounds the earth and aims to unify men of peace. Athena contributes to giving a continuation...
One the theme of the 38th, opportunieies are to be found the Hamonten (China), San Francisco (USA), Sado (Japan)...
El paralelo 38 separa Korea del norte de Korea del sur. La escultura representa en cierta manera la union de estos dos paises. Tetsuo Harada parece completamente la persona indicada en este lugar para construir “La tejeduria de la tierra”. Los vinculos de La tejeduria de la tierra vuelven hara esta escultura, fuerte piramidal realjada par una manestuosa columna de granito. La solidez y la parecn imponer su serenidad. Se viene en este sitio destinado a los encuentros y al dialogo andando, en bicideta, en coche. Desde el tren se preda divisar pequerran mas y mas grande, rapidamente desapareciedo joyera de verdura y de arrozales. Mas que una simple destincion, “el 38 paralelo” rodea toto el planeta y quiere runir los hombres de paz. Alterras contribuye a dar una continuacion...
A proposito des 38 paralelo, los aportunidades quedan abiertas en Hamonten (China), San Francisco (Estados Unidos), Sado (Japon)...
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the first week of October 2014. We tended to loose sight of the fact that (more) critically important has been on-going near the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 carriageway.
Bank stabilisation works involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure are being carried out by JONS Construction also on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. One Friday afternoon I took a trip up there, walking back to the site along the side of the carriageway! Recognised some old faces. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Another old photo from 2005, revisited, in black and white.
This is a view of the architecture just outside where I used to work in Chicagoland (Illinois). I loved the texture of the stucco, the rigid lines, the square cut-outs that gave a sense of depth and solidity, and the mere fact that the tan, tactile design unfailingly reminded me of home, Albuquerque, where adobe and stucco were the most commonplace building styles. It is unusual to see echoes of the great Southwest anywhere north of New Mexico or Colorado, and I always enjoyed my daily passage through this windowed portal, savoring the nostalgia of my youth.
(2005-08-03-portal-2154-new2)
#CapturedPhotoContest_Inhabitat
Interesting story how a "Wendy House" got it's name:
From Wikipedia "A Wendy house is small play house for children. It is big enough for one or more children to go into and should not be confused with a doll's house. Size and solidity can vary from a toddler-high cheap and cheerful plastic kit to something resembling a small garden shed. Usually there is one room, a doorway with a window on either side and little or no furniture other than that which the children improvise.
The original was built for Wendy Darling in J. M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. Wendy was shot by the Lost Boy Tootles after arriving in Neverland, so Peter Pan and the Lost Boys built a small house around her where she had fallen. It was inspired by the wash-house behind Barrie's childhood home in Kirriemuir[1] and first appeared in story form in The Little White Bird in which fairies build a house around Mamie Mannering — the prototype for Wendy — so protecting her from the cold.
A prop house was created by Barrie for the first stage production of the play in 1904. It was constructed like a tent so that it could be erected quickly during a song which Wendy starts with
"I wish I had a darling house
The littlest ever seen,
With funny little red walls
And roof of mossy green.”
John's hat was used as a chimney and a slipper was used as a door knocker. Toy manufacturers soon created replicas of the stage Wendy house which then became a standard toy found in the British garden since then.
In South Africa, a wendy house is much like a shed."
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the 2nd week of September 2017.
Hard to believe - but I've been recording this project now for 5+ years.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress was rapid, the full stretch of wall completed, and the guys worked on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
They then clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed had my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Back in March of this year we could see the cleaned, exposed riverbank, we can see a substantial bedrock. Obviously this is not liable to subsidence. And there was evidence that sections of the slope had already been 'nailed' * to prevent slippage. But, in talking to the guys there, it would seem that further 'nailing' might be required later in the year.
6 months later, when passing by, I stopped to check . . . and confirmed that they had already completed the task of sheathing+nailing that section of the slope at most risk of destabilisation over the long term.
In 10, 20, 50 years time . . . what odds on further protection work here.
Hell, 10 10, 20, 50m months time . . . what odds . . . .!
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
*
Soil nailing is a construction technique that can be used as a remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil slopes or as a construction technique that allows the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil slopes.
The technique involves the insertion of relatively slender reinforcing elements into the slope – often general purpose reinforcing bars (rebar) although proprietary solid or hollow-system bars are also available.
Solid bars are usually installed into pre-drilled holes and then grouted into place using a separate grout line, whereas hollow bars may be drilled and grouted simultaneously by the use of a sacrificial drill bit and by pumping grout down the hollow bar as drilling progresses.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the second week of March 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
By now the guys had clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed had my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Now that we can see the cleaned, exposed riverbank, we can see a substantial bedrock. Clearly this is not liable to subsidence. And there evidence that sections of the slope had already been 'nailed' * to prevent slippage. But, in talking to the guys there, it would seem that further 'nailing' might be required later in the year.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
*
Soil nailing is a construction technique that can be used as a remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil slopes or as a construction technique that allows the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil slopes.
The technique involves the insertion of relatively slender reinforcing elements into the slope – often general purpose reinforcing bars (rebar) although proprietary solid or hollow-system bars are also available.
Solid bars are usually installed into pre-drilled holes and then grouted into place using a separate grout line, whereas hollow bars may be drilled and grouted simultaneously by the use of a sacrificial drill bit and by pumping grout down the hollow bar as drilling progresses.
1992 Tetsuo HARADA
LE 38ème PARALLÈLE
1992s234-38th parallele-kajigawa-Japan
Hauteur 4 m, l’axe 20 m, dallage 25 m2
Granit rose de la Clarté
Kajigawa, Niigata, Japon
La ville de Kajigawa, au Japon, est située sur le 38ème parallèle (latitude). Cette ligne sépare la Corée du Nord de la Corée du Sud.
Tetsuo Harada a réalisé cette sculpture pour la paix et la réconciliation entre les deux Corée. Les deux blocs de la pyramide se rejoignent exactement au niveau du 38ème parallèle et sont unis par une spère.
Le Tricot de la Terre, porteur de paix et d’union, est également présent dans cette sculpture.
Comme Tetsuo Harada, la ville de Kajigawa et le Ministère de l’Equipement qui ont commandé cette sculpture, souhaitent exprimer ce message de paix. Ils invitent les autres villes du monde situées également sur le 38ème parallèle à exprimer cet espoir par la culture, l'art ou le sport.
La ville d’Athènes, également située sur le 38ème parallèle, a adopté ce thème “38ème parallèle, horizon” pour le programme artistique et culturel des Jeux olympiques de 2004. Le 38ème traverse : Italie, Espagne, Portugal, Turquie, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Chine, Corée, Japon, Californie, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.
1992
THE 38th PARALLEL
Height 4 m, axis 20 m, paving 25 m2
Pink Granite of Clarity
Kajigawa, Niigata, Japan
The city of Kajigawa, Japan, is located on the 38th parallel (latitude). This line separates North Korea from South Korea.
Tetsuo Harada created this sculpture for peace and reconciliation between the two Koreas. The two blocks of the pyramid meet exactly at the level of the 38th parallel and are joined by a marker.
The Knit of the Earth, bearer of peace and union, is also present in this sculpture.
As Tetsuo Harada, the city of Kajigawa and the Ministry of Equipment who commissioned this sculpture, wish to express this message of peace. They invite the other cities of the world also located on the 38th parallel to express this hope through culture, art or sport.
The city of Athens, also located on the 38th parallel, has adopted this theme "38th parallel, horizon" for the artistic and cultural programme of the 2004 Olympic Games. The 38th parallel runs through: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, China, Korea, Japan, California, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.
1992 KAGIGAWA-NIIGATA (JAPON)
ASSOCIATION DE VILLE ET DE L’EQUIPEMENT
Le 38ème parallèle sépare la Corée de nord de celle du Sud. Ce lieu particulier devient dans la ville de Kagigawa le symbole de la Paix. Tetsuo HARADA semble tout à fait indiqué en y installant le Tricot de la Terre. Les liens du Tricot de la Terre se tournent vers cette sculpture, forte, pyramidale, rehaussée d’une très belle colonne de granit. La solidité et le temps semble imposer leur sérénité. On y vient à pied, en vélo, en voiture sur cet air destiné à la rencontre et au dialogue. Du train on l’aperçoit petite et de plus en plus grande avant de disparaître dans son écrin de verdure et de rizières. Plus qu’une simple destination le 38ème parallèle entoure la terre et se veut réunir les hommes de Paix. Athènes contribue à donner une suite ...
Sur le 38ème le programme est ouvert pour Hamonten (Chine), San Fransisco (USA), Sado (Japon).
1992 KAGIGAWA-NIIGATA (JAPAN)
CITY AND EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATION
The 38th parallel separates North and South Korea. This particular place becomes in the city of Kagigawa the symbol of Peace. Tetsuo HARADA seems quite appropriate by installing there the Knitting of the Earth. The links of the Knitwear of the Earth turn towards this sculpture, strong, pyramidal, raised by a very beautiful granite column. Solidity and time seem to impose their serenity. One comes there on foot, by bicycle, by car on this air intended for the meeting and the dialogue. From the train you can see it small and getting bigger and bigger before disappearing into its green and rice fields. More than a simple destination, the 38th parallel surrounds the earth and is intended to bring together men of Peace. Athens contributes to give a continuation ...
On the 38th the program is open for Hamonten (China), San Fransisco (USA), Sado (Japan) ...
————————
ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY AND THE EQUIPEMENT
The 38th parallel separtes North and South Korea. The sculpture represents in a way the union of both these countries. This particular site in Kagigawa city becomes symbol of Peace. Tetsuo Harada’s ideas and interests find a great deal of expression here, through the theme of the “Earth Weaving”. The links of the “Earth Weaving” head towards this sculpture, strong pyramidal, matched with an imposing granite column. The solidity and the permanence seem to surround the site with serenity. One can go there walking or by car, the area is dedicated to meetings ans dialogue. By train, one can catch the sight of it, slowly disappearing amongst the setting of greenery and paddy fields. More than a mere destination, th e38th parallel surrounds the earth and aims to unify men of peace. Athena contributes to giving a continuation...
One the theme of the 38th, opportunieies are to be found the Hamonten (China), San Francisco (USA), Sado (Japan)...
El paralelo 38 separa Korea del norte de Korea del sur. La escultura representa en cierta manera la union de estos dos paises. Tetsuo Harada parece completamente la persona indicada en este lugar para construir “La tejeduria de la tierra”. Los vinculos de La tejeduria de la tierra vuelven hara esta escultura, fuerte piramidal realjada par una manestuosa columna de granito. La solidez y la parecn imponer su serenidad. Se viene en este sitio destinado a los encuentros y al dialogo andando, en bicideta, en coche. Desde el tren se preda divisar pequerran mas y mas grande, rapidamente desapareciedo joyera de verdura y de arrozales. Mas que una simple destincion, “el 38 paralelo” rodea toto el planeta y quiere runir los hombres de paz. Alterras contribuye a dar una continuacion...
A proposito des 38 paralelo, los aportunidades quedan abiertas en Hamonten (China), San Francisco (Estados Unidos), Sado (Japon)...
Ceiling of the main auditorium, the Plaza Theatre, which was below the Regent, Collins Street, Melbourne, opened on 10 May, 1929. It seated 1235 in its single-level Spanish-style auditorium, with its entrance adjacent to that of the Regent.
"Seating only twelve hundred people, and furnished in true old-world Spanish style, the Plaza provides the acme of comfort for every patron. Every seat is a luxurious lounge armchair. The entire floor space is covered with deep rich carpets. At every turn an objet d'art, never obtrusive but bringing a dash of old-world adventure and romance to the new world masterpiece of theatre construction." [Plaza Theatre advertisement (full-page), The Herald, 10 May, 1929, p. 11].
"Following the recent practice of designing theatres in accordance with the style of some particular period, the Plaza is Spanish in its decorative scheme. Entrance from Collins Street is by way of stairs leading to a court constructed after the manner of a Spanish close. the floor simulates the rough paving of a courtyard, and on one side a fountain pays. Through archways to the right is a rockery with orange trees, and here furniture of the appropriate Spanish period has been placed.
The auditorium also is decorated in a Spanish scheme, in which atmosphere rather than any particular period is suggested. On the roof a variegated design in which red, yellow and green are prominent, gives an appearance of solidity, and the scheme is extended to the leather chairs...
The 'talkies' provide their own accompaniment, and consequently an orchestra is unnecessary. An organ had been installed, however, to supplement the pictures when that is called for, and for solo items." [The Argus, 11 May, 1929]
Gustav Michael Pillig was in entire charge of the designing of decoration and the figure modelling for the Plaza Theatre.
In February, 1959, a new Cinerama screen and projection system were installed in the Plaza. The Regent Plaza Theatre is cited as one of the few cinemas adapted for Cinerama outside of North America.
The Cinerama screen was well forward of the proscenium, in front of the pit and the organ chambers. Although the organ was no longer able to be played in public, it was still operable, and was used by organists playing at the Regent for practice between the Cinerama sessions.
The Plaza closed in November, 1970. In December that year an auction was held at the theatre where everything that was not bolted down was auctioned off, raising a few thousand dollars.
Entrepreneur David Marinner earmarked the Regent for restoration when he established a revival movement for classical performing arts theatres in Melbourne during 1991. The Plaza Theatre was also fully and magnificently restored to its original ballroom format and reopened in 1996.
After the first black-and-white test film of my Rolleiflex 3.5F model-3 (or « K4F », see details given below), I decided to do a negative-color film with a roll of Kodak Ektar 100. I expected for some weather improvements but finally it was essentially overcast during the session giving a very soft light to the scene. The sun came after on my way back for a moment only.
For all the frames, the Rolleiflex was equipped with the Rollei RII protecting filters (UV) on both lenses and the taking lens additionally equipped with the Rollei RII original shade hood. The film was exposed for 100 ISO. Light-metering was done using a Minolta Autometer III equipped with a 10° finder for selective measures privileging the shadow areas or with the integrating white dome for incident light metering. The camera was held using the brand-new leather neck strap for the Rolleiflex that I received from China.
View Nr. 5 : 1/125s, f/5.6 focusing @ 1.12m, incident light metering
Blossoming Magnolia sp., March 25, 2025
Jardin Botanique de Lyon
Parc de la Tête d'Or
69006 Lyon
France
After the view #12 exposed, the film was fully rolled to the taking spool and was developed using the C41 protocol by a local laboratory service (one-hour service).
Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) held on a Minolta vertical macro stative device and adapted to a Minolta MD Macro lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The light source was a LED panel (approx. 4x5') CineStill Cine-lite fitted with film holder "Lobster" to maintain flat the film.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe software Lightroom Classic (14.2) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printed files with frame or the full size JPEG together with some documentary smartphone pictures.
About the camera
I got this stunning Rolleiflex 3.5F from a French artist near Paris, France. The camera came in it original box and leather bag with accessories and a reference book year 1955. The whole kit is in a remarkable state of conservation.
The Rolleiflex 3.5F is the model-3 that Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke produced in about 50.000 units in Germany from 1960 to 1965. The Rolleiflex originates from 1928 for the very first model and was produced still in a limited number until the years 2000’s. The 3.5F model 3 was available etheir with a Schneider-Kreuznak Xenotar taking lens or the Call Zeiss Planar 1:3.5 f=75mm as this camera. The Rolleiflex, that was a quality reference for many professional photographers in the 50’s for the medium-format 6X6 camera’s. Many worked both with the Leica M3 (starting from 1954) as small-format 24x36mm camera and the Rolleiflex for other appliances. The Rolleiflex remained one of the most iconic and trusted camera of all the times.
This specific 3.5F is labelled on the right side with nice badge made of enameled brass « T » « Telos » that was the exclusive first French importer of Rollei to France until 1972.
The Rolleiflex 3,5 F model 3 is equipped with the Synchro-Compur central shutter MXV CR00 with cone-wheel differential. The distance scale is only in meters here with automatic DOF indication.
Serial number with ‘3,5F’ prefix on of top name shield.
I detailed the camera and accessories and studied carefully the user manual and the book to be more familiar with this beauty before waiting for a quiet moment to prepare for a test film. I did not trust the solidity of the old leather original neck strap to carry this precious machine on the field to avoid the real risk to drop the camera. I first used my modern Peak-Design Leach safe strap before using a Chinese nice remake of the original leather strap, reproducing even the famous « crocodile » connectors.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the 2nd week of September 2017.
Hard to believe - but I've been recording this project now for 5+ years.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
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Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress was rapid, the full stretch of wall completed, and the guys worked on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
They then clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed had my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Back in March of this year we could see the cleaned, exposed riverbank, we can see a substantial bedrock. Obviously this is not liable to subsidence. And there was evidence that sections of the slope had already been 'nailed' * to prevent slippage. But, in talking to the guys there, it would seem that further 'nailing' might be required later in the year.
6 months later, when passing by, I stopped to check . . . and confirmed that they had already completed the task of sheathing+nailing that section of the slope at most risk of destabilisation over the long term.
In 10, 20, 50 years time . . . what odds on further protection work here.
Hell, 10 10, 20, 50m months time . . . what odds . . . .!
Some repair/reinforcing work was going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
We can now see 2 metal 'collars' firmly surrounding the structure, preventing expansion of the stone sections.
*
Soil nailing is a construction technique that can be used as a remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil slopes or as a construction technique that allows the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil slopes.
The technique involves the insertion of relatively slender reinforcing elements into the slope – often general purpose reinforcing bars (rebar) although proprietary solid or hollow-system bars are also available.
Solid bars are usually installed into pre-drilled holes and then grouted into place using a separate grout line, whereas hollow bars may be drilled and grouted simultaneously by the use of a sacrificial drill bit and by pumping grout down the hollow bar as drilling progresses.
1992 Tetsuo HARADA
LE 38ème PARALLÈLE
1992s234-38th parallele-kajigawa-Japan
Hauteur 4 m, l’axe 20 m, dallage 25 m2
Granit rose de la Clarté
Kajigawa, Niigata, Japon
La ville de Kajigawa, au Japon, est située sur le 38ème parallèle (latitude). Cette ligne sépare la Corée du Nord de la Corée du Sud.
Tetsuo Harada a réalisé cette sculpture pour la paix et la réconciliation entre les deux Corée. Les deux blocs de la pyramide se rejoignent exactement au niveau du 38ème parallèle et sont unis par une spère.
Le Tricot de la Terre, porteur de paix et d’union, est également présent dans cette sculpture.
Comme Tetsuo Harada, la ville de Kajigawa et le Ministère de l’Equipement qui ont commandé cette sculpture, souhaitent exprimer ce message de paix. Ils invitent les autres villes du monde situées également sur le 38ème parallèle à exprimer cet espoir par la culture, l'art ou le sport.
La ville d’Athènes, également située sur le 38ème parallèle, a adopté ce thème “38ème parallèle, horizon” pour le programme artistique et culturel des Jeux olympiques de 2004. Le 38ème traverse : Italie, Espagne, Portugal, Turquie, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Chine, Corée, Japon, Californie, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.
1992
THE 38th PARALLEL
Height 4 m, axis 20 m, paving 25 m2
Pink Granite of Clarity
Kajigawa, Niigata, Japan
The city of Kajigawa, Japan, is located on the 38th parallel (latitude). This line separates North Korea from South Korea.
Tetsuo Harada created this sculpture for peace and reconciliation between the two Koreas. The two blocks of the pyramid meet exactly at the level of the 38th parallel and are joined by a marker.
The Knit of the Earth, bearer of peace and union, is also present in this sculpture.
As Tetsuo Harada, the city of Kajigawa and the Ministry of Equipment who commissioned this sculpture, wish to express this message of peace. They invite the other cities of the world also located on the 38th parallel to express this hope through culture, art or sport.
The city of Athens, also located on the 38th parallel, has adopted this theme "38th parallel, horizon" for the artistic and cultural programme of the 2004 Olympic Games. The 38th parallel runs through: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, China, Korea, Japan, California, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.
1992 KAGIGAWA-NIIGATA (JAPON)
ASSOCIATION DE VILLE ET DE L’EQUIPEMENT
Le 38ème parallèle sépare la Corée de nord de celle du Sud. Ce lieu particulier devient dans la ville de Kagigawa le symbole de la Paix. Tetsuo HARADA semble tout à fait indiqué en y installant le Tricot de la Terre. Les liens du Tricot de la Terre se tournent vers cette sculpture, forte, pyramidale, rehaussée d’une très belle colonne de granit. La solidité et le temps semble imposer leur sérénité. On y vient à pied, en vélo, en voiture sur cet air destiné à la rencontre et au dialogue. Du train on l’aperçoit petite et de plus en plus grande avant de disparaître dans son écrin de verdure et de rizières. Plus qu’une simple destination le 38ème parallèle entoure la terre et se veut réunir les hommes de Paix. Athènes contribue à donner une suite ...
Sur le 38ème le programme est ouvert pour Hamonten (Chine), San Fransisco (USA), Sado (Japon).
1992 KAGIGAWA-NIIGATA (JAPAN)
CITY AND EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATION
The 38th parallel separates North and South Korea. This particular place becomes in the city of Kagigawa the symbol of Peace. Tetsuo HARADA seems quite appropriate by installing there the Knitting of the Earth. The links of the Knitwear of the Earth turn towards this sculpture, strong, pyramidal, raised by a very beautiful granite column. Solidity and time seem to impose their serenity. One comes there on foot, by bicycle, by car on this air intended for the meeting and the dialogue. From the train you can see it small and getting bigger and bigger before disappearing into its green and rice fields. More than a simple destination, the 38th parallel surrounds the earth and is intended to bring together men of Peace. Athens contributes to give a continuation ...
On the 38th the program is open for Hamonten (China), San Fransisco (USA), Sado (Japan) ...
————————
ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY AND THE EQUIPEMENT
The 38th parallel separtes North and South Korea. The sculpture represents in a way the union of both these countries. This particular site in Kagigawa city becomes symbol of Peace. Tetsuo Harada’s ideas and interests find a great deal of expression here, through the theme of the “Earth Weaving”. The links of the “Earth Weaving” head towards this sculpture, strong pyramidal, matched with an imposing granite column. The solidity and the permanence seem to surround the site with serenity. One can go there walking or by car, the area is dedicated to meetings ans dialogue. By train, one can catch the sight of it, slowly disappearing amongst the setting of greenery and paddy fields. More than a mere destination, th e38th parallel surrounds the earth and aims to unify men of peace. Athena contributes to giving a continuation...
One the theme of the 38th, opportunieies are to be found the Hamonten (China), San Francisco (USA), Sado (Japan)...
El paralelo 38 separa Korea del norte de Korea del sur. La escultura representa en cierta manera la union de estos dos paises. Tetsuo Harada parece completamente la persona indicada en este lugar para construir “La tejeduria de la tierra”. Los vinculos de La tejeduria de la tierra vuelven hara esta escultura, fuerte piramidal realjada par una manestuosa columna de granito. La solidez y la parecn imponer su serenidad. Se viene en este sitio destinado a los encuentros y al dialogo andando, en bicideta, en coche. Desde el tren se preda divisar pequerran mas y mas grande, rapidamente desapareciedo joyera de verdura y de arrozales. Mas que una simple destincion, “el 38 paralelo” rodea toto el planeta y quiere runir los hombres de paz. Alterras contribuye a dar una continuacion...
A proposito des 38 paralelo, los aportunidades quedan abiertas en Hamonten (China), San Francisco (Estados Unidos), Sado (Japon)...
Close up detailing of the fabulous stone facade of the south portal, with large chunks of local Forest stone quarried not far from the north portal, giving this tunnel the look of longevity and solidity. Fantastic. While the area around here is now a wooded idyll, it's hard to picture that as recently as the 1950's it was still a bustling scene of coal mining and its associated activities, with tramways and coal screens above the tunnel, and a lot more besides.
The Iron Bridge is a bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781, it was the first arch bridge in the world to be made of cast iron, and was greatly celebrated after construction owing to its use of the new material.
In 1934 it was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and closed to vehicular traffic. Tolls for pedestrians were collected until 1950, when ownership of the bridge was transferred to Shropshire County Council. It now belongs to Telford and Wrekin Borough Council. The bridge, the adjacent settlement of Ironbridge and the Ironbridge Gorge form the UNESCO Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site. The bridge is a Grade I listed building, and a way-point on the South Telford Heritage Trail.
The site, adjacent to where a ferry had run between Madeley and Benthall, was chosen for its high approaches on each side and the relative solidity of the ground. The Act of Parliament described how the bridge was to be built from a point in Benthall parish near the house of Samuel Barnett to a point on the opposite shore near the house of Thomas Crumpton. Pritchard died on 21 December 1777 in his tower-house at Eyton on Severn, only a month after work had begun, having been ill for over a year.
The masonry and abutments were constructed between 1777 and 1778, and the ribs were lifted into place in the summer of 1779. The nascent bridge first spanned the river on 2 July 1779, and it was opened to traffic on 1 January 1781.
The bridge is built from five cast iron ribs that give a span of 30.6 metres (100 ft). Exactly 378 long tons 10 cwt (847,800 lb or 384.6 t) of iron was used in the construction of the bridge, and there are almost 1700 individual components, the heaviest weighing 5.5 long tons (5.6 t). Components were cast individually to fit with each other, rather than being of standard sizes, with discrepancies of up to several centimetres between 'identical' components in different locations.
Decorative rings and ogees between the structural ribs of the bridge suggest that the final design was of Pritchard, as the same elements appear in a gazebo he rebuilt. A foreman at the foundry, Thomas Gregory, drew the detailed designs for the members, resulting in the use of carpentry jointing details such as mortise and tenon joints and dovetails.
Two supplemental arches, of similar cast iron construction, carry a tow-path on the south bank and also act as flood arches.
suite à la sculpture le 38th parallel au Japon Kajigawa - Harada travaille avec Maira Chronopoulos pour faire les Jeux olympiques de l'art à Athénes pendant les jeux olympiques de 2004 - Cesar Minoru HARADA fait plusieurs installations dans la grotte et autres endroits pour parler de Paix.
1992 Tetsuo HARADA
LE 38ème PARALLÈLE
1992s234-38th parallele-kajigawa-Japan
Hauteur 4 m, l’axe 20 m, dallage 25 m2
Granit rose de la Clarté
Kajigawa, Niigata, Japon
La ville de Kajigawa, au Japon, est située sur le 38ème parallèle (latitude). Cette ligne sépare la Corée du Nord de la Corée du Sud.
Tetsuo Harada a réalisé cette sculpture pour la paix et la réconciliation entre les deux Corée. Les deux blocs de la pyramide se rejoignent exactement au niveau du 38ème parallèle et sont unis par une spère.
Le Tricot de la Terre, porteur de paix et d’union, est également présent dans cette sculpture.
Comme Tetsuo Harada, la ville de Kajigawa et le Ministère de l’Equipement qui ont commandé cette sculpture, souhaitent exprimer ce message de paix. Ils invitent les autres villes du monde situées également sur le 38ème parallèle à exprimer cet espoir par la culture, l'art ou le sport.
La ville d’Athènes, également située sur le 38ème parallèle, a adopté ce thème “38ème parallèle, horizon” pour le programme artistique et culturel des Jeux olympiques de 2004. Le 38ème traverse : Italie, Espagne, Portugal, Turquie, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Chine, Corée, Japon, Californie, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.
1992
THE 38th PARALLEL
Height 4 m, axis 20 m, paving 25 m2
Pink Granite of Clarity
Kajigawa, Niigata, Japan
The city of Kajigawa, Japan, is located on the 38th parallel (latitude). This line separates North Korea from South Korea.
Tetsuo Harada created this sculpture for peace and reconciliation between the two Koreas. The two blocks of the pyramid meet exactly at the level of the 38th parallel and are joined by a marker.
The Knit of the Earth, bearer of peace and union, is also present in this sculpture.
As Tetsuo Harada, the city of Kajigawa and the Ministry of Equipment who commissioned this sculpture, wish to express this message of peace. They invite the other cities of the world also located on the 38th parallel to express this hope through culture, art or sport.
The city of Athens, also located on the 38th parallel, has adopted this theme "38th parallel, horizon" for the artistic and cultural programme of the 2004 Olympic Games. The 38th parallel runs through: Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, China, Korea, Japan, California, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia.
1992 KAGIGAWA-NIIGATA (JAPON)
ASSOCIATION DE VILLE ET DE L’EQUIPEMENT
Le 38ème parallèle sépare la Corée de nord de celle du Sud. Ce lieu particulier devient dans la ville de Kagigawa le symbole de la Paix. Tetsuo HARADA semble tout à fait indiqué en y installant le Tricot de la Terre. Les liens du Tricot de la Terre se tournent vers cette sculpture, forte, pyramidale, rehaussée d’une très belle colonne de granit. La solidité et le temps semble imposer leur sérénité. On y vient à pied, en vélo, en voiture sur cet air destiné à la rencontre et au dialogue. Du train on l’aperçoit petite et de plus en plus grande avant de disparaître dans son écrin de verdure et de rizières. Plus qu’une simple destination le 38ème parallèle entoure la terre et se veut réunir les hommes de Paix. Athènes contribue à donner une suite ...
Sur le 38ème le programme est ouvert pour Hamonten (Chine), San Fransisco (USA), Sado (Japon).
1992 KAGIGAWA-NIIGATA (JAPAN)
CITY AND EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATION
The 38th parallel separates North and South Korea. This particular place becomes in the city of Kagigawa the symbol of Peace. Tetsuo HARADA seems quite appropriate by installing there the Knitting of the Earth. The links of the Knitwear of the Earth turn towards this sculpture, strong, pyramidal, raised by a very beautiful granite column. Solidity and time seem to impose their serenity. One comes there on foot, by bicycle, by car on this air intended for the meeting and the dialogue. From the train you can see it small and getting bigger and bigger before disappearing into its green and rice fields. More than a simple destination, the 38th parallel surrounds the earth and is intended to bring together men of Peace. Athens contributes to give a continuation ...
On the 38th the program is open for Hamonten (China), San Fransisco (USA), Sado (Japan) ...
————————
ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY AND THE EQUIPEMENT
The 38th parallel separtes North and South Korea. The sculpture represents in a way the union of both these countries. This particular site in Kagigawa city becomes symbol of Peace. Tetsuo Harada’s ideas and interests find a great deal of expression here, through the theme of the “Earth Weaving”. The links of the “Earth Weaving” head towards this sculpture, strong pyramidal, matched with an imposing granite column. The solidity and the permanence seem to surround the site with serenity. One can go there walking or by car, the area is dedicated to meetings ans dialogue. By train, one can catch the sight of it, slowly disappearing amongst the setting of greenery and paddy fields. More than a mere destination, th e38th parallel surrounds the earth and aims to unify men of peace. Athena contributes to giving a continuation...
One the theme of the 38th, opportunieies are to be found the Hamonten (China), San Francisco (USA), Sado (Japan)...
El paralelo 38 separa Korea del norte de Korea del sur. La escultura representa en cierta manera la union de estos dos paises. Tetsuo Harada parece completamente la persona indicada en este lugar para construir “La tejeduria de la tierra”. Los vinculos de La tejeduria de la tierra vuelven hara esta escultura, fuerte piramidal realjada par una manestuosa columna de granito. La solidez y la parecn imponer su serenidad. Se viene en este sitio destinado a los encuentros y al dialogo andando, en bicideta, en coche. Desde el tren se preda divisar pequerran mas y mas grande, rapidamente desapareciedo joyera de verdura y de arrozales. Mas que una simple destincion, “el 38 paralelo” rodea toto el planeta y quiere runir los hombres de paz. Alterras contribuye a dar una continuacion...
A proposito des 38 paralelo, los aportunidades quedan abiertas en Hamonten (China), San Francisco (Estados Unidos), Sado (Japon)...
Técnica mixa (Aguafuerte, aguatinta, collagraph y linoleografía).
Papel Artesano Paperki 400 gr.
72x72 cm
2005
Representa la esfera terrestre. Dentro de la obra aparecen el círculo, el cuadrado y la cruz como elementos geométricos usados en todas las culturas, para representar a la tierra.
En la imagen central, aparece un círculo inscrito en un cuadrado, y a su vez dividido en cuatro partes por una cruz. El número cuatro está cargado de simbología (totalizador, sólido, completo.....). En estas cuatro partes podemos ver los cuatro elementos que forman el globo terráqueo: agua, fuego, aire y tierra.
Los puntos cardinales están representados por cuatro toros (en cada extremo) que a su vez soportan la bola terráquea.
Tanto lo humano, como lo vegetal o animal, aparecen simbolizados mediante las siguientes imágenes:
Animales acuáticos (peces), mamíferos (caballos), representan al mundo animal.
Las máscaras, simbolizan lo humano.
Los dibujos geométricos nos muestran el mundo vegetal.
En los gofrados (zonas en relieve sin color), vuelve a aparecer toda la simbología terrestre: cuadrados, círculos, cruces, mundo vegetal y animal.
••Represents the Terrestrial globe. In this work we find represented figures as the circle, the square and the cross, geometrical elements that are used in all these cultures to represent the Earth.
The central image shows a circle inside a square, as well divided in four parts by a cross. Number 4 has in itself a variety of simbolic meanings, like those of globality, solidity and the sense of something complete. In those four parts, we can recognize the four elements that compose the terrestrial globe: water, fire, air and land.
The cardinal points are represented by 4 bulls in the outer part, holding the terrestrial globe.
The human elements and those related to nature are symbolized through the following images:
Aquatic animals (fishes) and mammals (horses), represent the animal world.
Masks, symbolize the human element.
Geometrical elements represent the plant world.
In the embossing areas (parts of the work in relief), we find all the same terrestrial symbols: squares, circles, crosses and nature.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken towards the end of the third week of February 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
And, at the same time, the guys are clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the second week of March 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
By now the guys had clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed had my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Now that we can see the cleaned, exposed riverbank, we can see a substantial bedrock. Clearly this is not liable to subsidence. And there evidence that sections of the slope had already been 'nailed' * to prevent slippage. But, in talking to the guys there, it would seem that further 'nailing' might be required later in the year.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
*
Soil nailing is a construction technique that can be used as a remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil slopes or as a construction technique that allows the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil slopes.
The technique involves the insertion of relatively slender reinforcing elements into the slope – often general purpose reinforcing bars (rebar) although proprietary solid or hollow-system bars are also available.
Solid bars are usually installed into pre-drilled holes and then grouted into place using a separate grout line, whereas hollow bars may be drilled and grouted simultaneously by the use of a sacrificial drill bit and by pumping grout down the hollow bar as drilling progresses.
Wall monumen by Ricketts ,with mourning cherub & carved portrait in the south chapel to "Edward Tomkins Machen of Eastbach Court, esq, who exchanged time for eternity April 10th in the 72nd year of his age in the year of redemption 1778
Through life honour and integrity , goodness of heart and solidity of judgement, sincere in friendship and tennets of religion ........... "
(Land at Eastbach was held under English Bicknor manor by Alexander Baynham 1524 (son of Thomas Baynham 1499 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/b34x0r and descended with an estate in Mitcheldean to Joseph Baynham the owner in 1608 who died in 1613 . His son and heir Alexander sold all or part of the Eastbach land to Edward Machen of Gloucester by 1616. In 1633 Edward settled his Eastbach estate on his son Richard. 1673 and in 1675 it was settled on Richard's widow Mary 1678 who passed it on to her son Edward Machen of Abenhall 1708 who left it to his daughter Elizabeth wife of Thomas Tomkins 1711 . Elizabeth 1712 was succeeded by her brother Richard Machen 1735, from whom the estate, including lands he had purchased from John Hopkins and others, passed to his brother Edward who had bought Blackthorns farm in English Bicknor in 1730 was succeeded at his death in 1740 by his nephew EDWARD TOMKINS who added the surname MACHEN and died in 1778
Edward left the estate to his wife Hannah 1789 and James Davies. James Davies, who took the surname Machen under the terms of Edward's will but sometimes used that of Davies owned over 453 acres in the parish in 1792. He became deputy surveyor of the Forest of Dean in 1806. At his death in 1832 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/250Fcj the Eastbach estate passed to his son Edward Machen (formerly Davies), who was deputy surveyor from 1808 until 1854. Edward, who had purchased 350 acres in the parish from the Crown and had inherited the Bicknor Court estate in the 1820s, died in 1862 and was succeeded by his son Edward, rector of Staunton. Edward 1893 left the estate in turn to his wife Sophia 1893 and son Charles 1917 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/wxadyz who sold Bicknor Court and its land and was succeded in turn by his wife Lucy 1932 and son Henry. The estate, which was further reduced by sales after 1917, (fn. 7) passed from Henry (d. 1958) (fn. 8) to his son and daughter, James Machen and Joan Agutter, and they sold the remaining part. (fn. 9) Eastbach Court and most of the land were purchased by the tenant Ernest Knight and in 1964 were bought by the Symonds family, which having built a new house higher up to the south-east, sold Eastbach Court and c. 12 ha. (c. 30 a.) to David Rowe-Beddoe in 1989 and retained c. 101 ha. (c. 250 a.) in 1993.
www.englishbicknor.org.uk/information/history.html - Church of St Mary the Virgin, English Bicknor, Gloucestershire,
www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-steps-up-vaccine-push-...
Biden Steps Up Vaccine Push as U.S. Cases Surpass Records
President Biden stepped up his vaccination push as cases reported in the U.S. rose to new records, saying unvaccinated people would suffer the worst of the Omicron-driven surge in infections.
The development came as the U.K. government said it would try to ride out a record wave of infections without further restrictions in England, and French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to “mess with” unvaccinated people.
Mr. Biden urged the 35 million American adults who aren’t yet vaccinated to get a shot, saying unvaccinated people were taking up hospital beds and crowding emergency rooms and intensive-care units that others needed.
“If you’re unvaccinated, you have some reason to be alarmed,” he said, saying some people would become seriously ill and needlessly die.
“We have in hand all the vaccines we need to get every American fully vaccinated, including the booster shot. So, there is no excuse—no excuse for anyone being unvaccinated.” He said the number of unvaccinated adult Americans had fallen to 35 million from 90 million in the last six months.
In what could be one of the final steps before boosters are made available to younger adolescents, vaccine experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are due Wednesday to consider whether 12-to-15-year olds should gain access to them for the first time.
Hong Kong, which is following a zero Covid policy, will ban passenger flights from the U.S., U.K., France, Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan and Philippines, for 14 days from midnight Friday. The ban followed the first identified Omicron case to develop in someone who hadn’t come from abroad. The city also closed bars and banned dining in restaurants after 6 p.m., while museums, gyms and swimming pools were ordered to shut for two weeks.
On Monday, the U.S. reported a record 1.08 million Covid-19 infections, pushing the seven-day average of daily reported infections to 480,273, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That is nearly double the peak reached during the previous peak last winter.
U.S. case data has always underreported the true number of infections, according to public-health experts, but several issues are making tracking the Omicron surge particularly difficult. Many states are starting to catch up on reporting that was delayed over the holidays and a surge in testing demand has slowed the processing of results in some places. At-home test results often aren’t reflected in state data.
Hospitalizations for confirmed or suspected Covid-19 cases reached a seven-day average of 105,138 Tuesday, according to data posted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That is up 51% in the past two weeks, but below the pandemic peak of 137,510 on Jan.10, 2021.
In France, Mr. Macron lashed out at unvaccinated people, framing their refusal to inoculate as a betrayal of citizenship.
“The unvaccinated, I really want to annoy them,” Mr. Macron told the Le Parisien newspaper, using a vulgar word, emmerder, that can mean “piss off.”
“They undermine the solidity of a nation. When my freedom threatens that of others, I become irresponsible. An irresponsible person is no longer a citizen,” he said.
Mr. Macron’s comments were published Tuesday evening, as lawmakers considered legislation to tighten France’s vaccination rules. The proposal would require people to be fully vaccinated to enter restaurants, gyms and other gathering places, removing an option that allowed the unvaccinated to show a negative Covid test taken in the previous 24 hours.
In the U.K., where the number of reported cases is more than twice the previous record, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday that he would seek to face down the virus with minimal further restrictions in England. The governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all imposed stricter restrictions than apply in England.
“We have a chance to ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again,” Mr. Johnson said at a press conference.
Government scientific advisers said that infections caused by variant hadn’t yet peaked and were still rising rapidly in older age groups. Still, Mr. Johnson said that new restrictions weren’t currently warranted given that many in England are vaccinated and Omicron is less likely to cause hospitalization and critical illness than previous variants.
Write to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com, Stephen Fidler at stephen.fidler@wsj.com and Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com
www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/health/andrew-pollard-booster-vacc...
'We can't vaccinate the planet every six months,' says Oxford vaccine scientist
(CNN) A leading expert who helped create the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine said Tuesday that giving everyone in the world booster shots multiple times a year is not feasible.
"We can't vaccinate the planet every four to six months. It's not sustainable or affordable," Professor Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and head of the UK's Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, told The Daily Telegraph in an interview published Tuesday.
Pollard also stressed the "need to target the vulnerable" going forward, rather than administering doses to everyone age 12 and older. More data is needed to ascertain "whether, when and how often those who are vulnerable will need additional doses," he said.
Pollard also said he thought further evidence was needed before offering a fourth Covid-19 shot to people in the UK, which is currently rolling out third shots to healthy people 18 and older, and at-risk people 16 and older.
In a separate interview with Sky News on Tuesday, Pollard also cited the glaring unevenness of vaccine rollouts across the world.
"It's just not -- from a global perspective -- affordable, sustainable or deliverable to give fourth doses to everyone on the planet every six months," Pollard said. "And remember that, today, less than 10% of people in low-income countries have even had their first dose, so the whole idea of regular fourth doses globally is just not sensible."
Israel has already begun its rollout of a fourth vaccine dose, offering it to all medical workers and people 60 and older as of Monday.
And in late December, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told public broadcaster ZDF that Germans "will need a fourth vaccination" against Covid-19.
But Pollard struck an optimistic note in his interview. The "worst is behind us" and the world "just needs to get through the winter," he said.
"At some point, society has to open up," he added. "When we do open, there will be a period with a bump in infections, which is why winter is probably not the best time."
He concluded by issuing a stark warning about the dangerous consequences of vaccine misinformation, highlighting that even "unintentional" comments from politicians can wreak havoc.
"Let's just say that comments made in mainland Europe affected people in Africa," he said.
Meanwhile in the United States, it's too early to be discussing a potential fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine for most people, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on December 24.
"I think it's too premature to be talking about a fourth dose," Fauci told Michael Wallace and Steve Scott of WCBS Newsradio 880.
"One of the things that we're going to be following very carefully is what the durability of the protection is following the third dose of an mRNA vaccine," Fauci said. Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are mRNA vaccines.
"If the protection is much more durable than the two-dose, non-boosted group, then we may go a significant period of time without requiring a fourth dose," Fauci said. "So, I do think it's premature -- at least on the part of the United States -- to be talking about a fourth dose."
Blythe size stand made of painted acrylic resin.
It shows a little bit of a cobbled street including a storm drain and it's inspired by cities like Rome or Lisbon.
Because of the nature of the material used, it has a nice strong and compact presence and a stone-like solidity.
The pole is removable and it's crossed by a tin wire that can be bent to grab the doll.
Measures
Base height: 0.8 inch / 2 cm.
Total height: 7.5 inch / 19 cm.
Diameter: 4.7 inch / 12 cm.
Weight: 0.8 pounds / 370 g. aprox.
This is a remarkable factory, hidden away down winding industrial lanes and warehouses it looks quite out of place. The architect and teh owners were clearly out to impress with this place. It is a strange note that for all the pretensions of solidity and permanence the factory produced some remarkably transient architecture in the form of prefabricated lightweight corrugated iron buildings. These were dispatched from here across the empire, and even included items such as flat-pack churches.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lysaght
The interior remains decked out completely in Royal Doulton tiles, pained ceilings and carved timber.
The American Radiator Building (since renamed to the American Standard Building) is a landmark skyscraper located at 40 West 40th Street, in midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was conceived by the architects John Howells and Raymond Hood in 1924 and built for the American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Company. The structural form is based on Eliel Saarinen's unbuilt competition entry for Chicago Tribune building. The architects combined Gothic and modern styles in the design of the building. Black brick on the frontage of the building (symbolizing coal) was selected to give an idea of solidity and to give the building a solid mass. Other parts of the facade were covered in gold bricks (symbolizing fire), and the entry was decorated with marble and black mirrors. Once again, the talents of Rene Paul Chambellan were employed by Hood and Howells for the ornamentation and sculptures.
In 1998, the building was sold to Philip Pilevsky for $150 million. Three years afterwards, the American Radiator Building was converted into The Bryant Park Hotel with 130 rooms and a theatre in the basement.
The landmark status of the exterior required the conversion pay special attention to the renovation of the facade decor, and prohibited proposed changes such as bigger guestroom windows. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was also the subject of Georgia O'Keeffe in 1927 in her noted painting Radiator Building - Night, New York.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Radiator_Building
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the second week of March 2017.
These are the critical stabilisation works at the Silverbridge site, adjacent to the N11 dual-carriageway:
Back in November 2014, we'd observed bank stabilisation works here involving excavation, repair and building of a support wall structure -- carried out by JONS Construction on behalf of the National Roads Authority.
We would occasionally catch sight of this work in the distance. Quite an impressive little piece of structural engineering.
Having built a retaining concave wall, backfilled for solidity, they were also drilling, fixing and sealing ground anchors to pin the entire structure together.
Now we see that further works are being undertaken.
Word has it that extra ‘stabilisation work’ had to be done to protect the integrity of the riverbank.
At the section here we can see that there’s not much space between the edge of the rock face and the Armco at the side of the dual-carriageway.
Have yet to determine what precisely that will entail. Serious work to reinforce the side access ramp down to the river.
The N11 carriageway runs adjacent to this sunken side of the riverbank -- barely 2 (large) paces divide the two. Even with twin strips of Armco along the roadside, it's perilously close. Traffic speeds along this stretch (maximum speed 100 kmp). Only needs a touch from a heavy vehicle to cause secondary impact, which (worst possible scenario) could result in something going airborne.
Working in these confined spaces puts a premium of safety and communication.
The guys have hard-filled a working shelf on the riverbed, to allow machinery access to the rockface. Obviously some serious drilling is called for before a form of extra 'pinning' is put in place.
They have sunk a series of hollowed tubes/casings -- obviously to form the foundations of a more extensive structure.
And some investigative work around the transverse buttress of the access bridge, parallel to the heavy-duty pipeline carrying water down from the Vartry reservoir.
At a (rough) guess -- I'd say the foundations were sunk to a depth of approx 4+m.
With such secure foundations in place, they would then look to construct a substantial bank of material, and/or retaining wall (similar to that in place further along the roadside bank).
=================================================
Previously the guys drilled and sunk 4+metre deep reinforced tubing and rods along a newly laid concrete base. Those stubs were then used to attach steel rod cradles -- which, in turn, were filled with poured concrete. Result - the wall quickly rises. Variation on the method they've used elsewhere along this stretch of the river.
A continuous stretch of protective wall has now been poured, and joined up with the section originally erected back in 2014.
As we can see from the side-on shot, the base of the wall has pre-cut openings for the retaining pins that have been driven into the side wall of the roadside cliff. These have been sealed and capped.
Progress has been rapid, the full stretch of wall is completed, and the guys are now working on back-filling the empty space between the protective wall and the roadside rock face. You don't just throw in a few trucks loads of soil and hope for the best. You load, layer, level and compress.
By now the guys had clearing away material used to build access ramps down into the riverbed.
The thought crossed had my mind -- in doing so (removing the stone-filled gabions etc,) are they potentially exposing the river bank on that side to erosion, slippage etc?
We know the destructive force of fast running waters. Hell, this is precisely why the protective works have been carried out along the rest of the stretch, down to the Bray Harbour. Unless they have other plans to stabilise it, what is going to be left here is loose soil -- very close to the access road into the halting site itself.
Now that we can see the cleaned, exposed riverbank, we can see a substantial bedrock. Clearly this is not liable to subsidence. And there evidence that sections of the slope had already been 'nailed' * to prevent slippage. But, in talking to the guys there, it would seem that further 'nailing' might be required later in the year.
Some repair/reinforcing work is going on here to protect the (old) buttress that supports the pipework carrying water to the Bray region.
*
Soil nailing is a construction technique that can be used as a remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil slopes or as a construction technique that allows the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil slopes.
The technique involves the insertion of relatively slender reinforcing elements into the slope – often general purpose reinforcing bars (rebar) although proprietary solid or hollow-system bars are also available.
Solid bars are usually installed into pre-drilled holes and then grouted into place using a separate grout line, whereas hollow bars may be drilled and grouted simultaneously by the use of a sacrificial drill bit and by pumping grout down the hollow bar as drilling progresses.
Ferstel
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Ferstel and Café Central, by Rudolf von Alt, left the men's alley (Herrengasse - Street of the Lords), right Strauchgasse
Danube mermaid fountain in a courtyard of the Palais Ferstel
Shopping arcade of the Freyung to Herrengasse
Entrance to Ferstel of the Freyung, right the Palais Harrach, left the palace Hardegg
The Ferstel is a building in the first district of Vienna, Inner City, with the addresses Strauchgasse 2-4, 14 Lord Street (Herrengasse) and Freyung 2. It was established as a national bank and stock exchange building, the denomination Palais is unhistoric.
History
In 1855, the entire estate between Freyung, Strauchgasse and Herrengasse was by Franz Xaver Imperial Count von Abensperg and Traun to the k.k. Privileged Austrian National Bank sold. This banking institution was previously domiciled in the Herrengasse 17/ Bankgasse. The progressive industrialization and the with it associated economic expansion also implied a rapid development of monetary transactions and banking, so that the current premises soon no longer have been sufficient. This problem could only be solved by a new building, in which also should be housed a stock exchange hall.
According to the desire of the then Governor of the National Bank, Franz von Pipitz, the new building was supposed to be carried out with strict observance of the economy and avoiding a worthless luxury with solidity and artistic as well as technical completion. The building should offer room for the National Bank, the stock market, a cafe and - a novel idea for Vienna - a bazaar.
The commissioned architect, Heinrich von Ferstel, demonstrated in the coping with the irregular surface area with highest conceivable effective use of space his state-of-the art talent. The practical requirements combine themselves with the actually artistic to a masterful composition. Ferstel has been able to lay out the rooms of the issuing bank, the two trading floors, the passage with the bazar and the coffee house in accordance with their intended purpose and at the same time to maintain a consistent style.
He was an advocate of the "Materialbaues" (material building) as it clearly is reflected in the ashlar building of the banking institution. Base, pillars and stairs were fashioned of Wöllersdorfer stone, façade elements such as balconies, cornices, structurings as well as stone banisters of the hard white stone of Emperor Kaiser quarry (Kaisersteinbruch), while the walls were made of -Sankt Margarethen limestone. The inner rooms have been luxuriously formed, with wood paneling, leather wallpaper, Stuccolustro and rich ornamental painting.
The facade of the corner front Strauchgasse/Herrengasse received twelve sculptures by Hanns Gasser as decoration, they symbolized the peoples of the monarchy. The mighty round arch at the exit Freyung were closed with wrought-iron bare gates, because the first used locksmith could not meet the demands of Ferstel, the work was transferred to a silversmith.
1860 the National Bank and the stock exchange could move into the in 1859 completed construction. The following year was placed in the glass-covered passage the Danube mermaid fountain, whose design stems also of Ferstel. Anton von Fernkorn has created the sculptural decoration with an artistic sensitivity. Above the marble fountain basin rises a column crowned by a bronze statue, the Danube female with flowing hair, holding a fish in its hand. Below are arranged around the column three also in bronze cast figures: merchant, fisherman and shipbuilder, so those professions that have to do with the water. The total cost of the building, the interior included, amounted to the enormous sum of 1.897.600 guilders.
The originally planned use of the building remained only a few years preserved. The Stock Exchange with the premises no longer had sufficient space: in 1872 it moved to a provisional solution, 1877 at Schottenring a new Stock Exchange building opened. The National Bank moved 1925 into a yet 1913 planned, spacious new building.
The building was in Second World War battered gravely particularly on the main facade. In the 1960s was located in the former Stock Exchange a basketball training hall, the entire building appeared neglected.
1971 dealt the President of the Federal Monuments Office, Walter Frodl, with the severely war damaged banking and stock exchange building in Vienna. The Office for Technical Geology of Otto Casensky furnished an opinion on the stone facade. On the facade Freyung 2 a balcony was originally attached over the entire 15.4 m long front of hard Kaiserstein.
(Usage of Leith lime: Dependent from the consistence and structure of the Leitha lime the usage differed from „Reibsand“ till building material. The Leitha lime stone is a natural stone which can be formed easily and was desired als beautiful stone for buildings in Roman times. The usage of lime stone from Eggenburg in the Bronze age already was verified. This special attribute is the reason why the Leitha lime was taken from sculptors and masons.
The source of lime stone in the Leitha Mountains was important for Austria and especially for Vienna from the cultur historical point of view during the Renaissance and Baroque. At the 19th century the up to 150 stone quarries of the Leitha mountains got many orders form the construction work of the Vienna „Ring road“.
At many buildings of Graz, such as the castle at the Grazer castle hill, the old Joanneum and the Cottage, the Leitha lime stone was used.
Due to the fact that Leitha lime is bond on carbonate in the texture, the alteration through the actual sour rain is heavy. www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2HKZ9_leithagebirge-leithak...)
This balcony was no longer present and only close to the facade were remnants of the tread plates and the supporting brackets recognizable. In July 1975, followed the reconstruction of the balcony and master stonemason Friedrich Opferkuh received the order to restore the old state am Leithagebirge received the order the old state - of Mannersdorfer stone, armoured concrete or artificial stone.
1975-1982, the building was renovated and re-opened the Café Central. Since then, the privately owned building is called Palais Ferstel. In the former stock exchange halls now meetings and presentations take place; the Café Central is utilizing one of the courtyards.
Bow Bridge
In the background you can see The San Remo
Im Hntergrund sieht man The San Remo
The Bow Bridge/ˈboʊ/ is a cast iron bridge located in Central Park, New York City, crossing over the Lake and used as a pedestrian walkway.
It is decorated with an interlocking circles banister, with eight planting urns on top of decorative bas-relief panels. Intricate arabesque elements and volutes can be seen underneath the span arch. Its 87-foot-long (27 m) span is the longest of the park's bridges, though the balustrade is 142 feet (43 m) long. While other bridges in Central Park are inconspicuous, the Bow Bridge is made to stand out from its surroundings. The Bow Bridge is also the only one of Central Park's seven ornamental iron bridges that does not traverse a bridle path.
The bridge was designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, and completed in 1862. It was built by the Bronx-based iron foundry Janes, Kirtland & Co., the same company that constructed the dome of U.S. Capitol Building. The bridge was restored in 1974.The bridge was closed again in November 2023 for a two-month renovation.
(Wikipedia)
The San Remo is a cooperative apartment building at 145 and 146 Central Park West, between 74th and 75th Streets, adjacent to Central Park on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1929 to 1930 and was designed by architect Emery Roth in the Renaissance Revival style. The San Remo is 27 stories tall, with twin towers rising from a 17-story base. The building is a contributing property to the Central Park West Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places–listed district, and is a New York City designated landmark.
The 17-story base surrounds an internal courtyard to the west, while the 10-story towers rise from the eastern portion of the base. There are numerous setbacks between the 14th and 17th stories, which double as terraces. The first three stories are clad in rusticated blocks of limestone, with two main entrances at ground level. The remainder of the facade is made of light brick with terracotta ornamentation, as well as movable windows to improve air circulation. The tops of the towers contain "temples" with round colonnades and lanterns. The building has twin terrazzo and marble lobbies with molded plaster ceilings. On the upper stories, many apartments contain living and dining rooms arranged around a central gallery, as well as bedrooms in the rear. There were originally 122 apartments, each with six to sixteen rooms, but several apartments have been split or combined over the years.
The San Remo replaced an 11-story apartment building with the same name, built in 1891. The current apartment complex was the first building on Central Park West to incorporate large twin towers. The building opened in September 1930, attracting large amounts of commentary from the media. It soon went into receivership following the collapse of the Bank of United States, which held the mortgage. The San Remo experienced financial difficulties throughout much of the 1930s before being acquired in 1940 by an investment syndicate. The building was converted to a housing cooperative in 1972 following a failed conversion attempt in 1970. Over the years, the San Remo has been renovated several times. Its residents have included directors, actors, and musicians.
History
By the late 1920s, high-rise apartment buildings were being developed on Central Park West in anticipation of the completion of the New York City Subway's Eighth Avenue Line, which opened in 1932. Central Park West was concurrently widened from 48 to 63 ft (15 to 19 m). Under the Multiple Dwelling Act of 1929, this allowed the construction of proportionally taller buildings on the avenue. Just before the passage of the act, Emery Roth had designed the Beresford, seven blocks north of the old San Remo Hotel. In contrast to the San Remo, the Beresford had three towers, which were octagonal and relatively short.
Development
The New York Herald Tribune reported in mid-November 1928 that the original San Remo Hotel might be replaced with a 30-story apartment hotel. Two weeks later, a syndicate led by Henry M. Pollock bought the old San Remo from the Brennan estate, as well as several adjacent four-story houses to the west. The Pollock group planned to spend $7 million on a new building on the site. In April 1929, the Times Holding Corporation (which owned the San Remo Hotel) acquired a house at 4 West 75th Street. The firm planned to raze the house, which occupied part of the footprint of the new building's courtyard. The San Remo Hotel closed the same month, and the Ravitch Brothers filed plans for a new apartment hotel on the same site. That July, San Remo Towers Inc. transferred a $5 million mortgage loan on the new building to the Bank of United States. Within a month, leasing agents Pease & Elliman were renting out apartments at the new San Remo.
The San Remo Hotel had been demolished by September 1929, and the site of the new building was being excavated. The next month, Emery Roth filed plans for a 16-story apartment building on the site of the San Remo Hotel to cost $2.5 million. The plans were subsequently revised to a 26-story building, and the HRH Construction Corporation was hired that December as the general contractor.
The Bank of United States provided a $5 million loan in January 1930 to City Financial Corporation, one of its subsidiaries, which owned the building. The bank acquired 100 shares of San Remo Towers Inc. for about $1 million as part of a larger, $8 million transaction. By then, L. J. Phillips & Co. had taken over as the building's leasing agent. The San Remo ultimately cost $5.5 million to construct. HRH was paid $125,000 for its role as general contractor at the San Remo. HRH also agreed to manage the San Remo (as well as the Beresford, which it also built) in exchange for two percent of the buildings' gross profits. In a New York Herald Tribune article on September 14, 1930, the HRH Construction Company indicated that the San Remo would open that October.
Rental house
Opening and receivership
The building was completed on September 21, 1930. The developers advertised the San Remo as "The Aristocrat of Central Park West". Almost immediately, the San Remo experienced financial issues, despite critical acclaim in the architectural media. The surrounding area had suffered after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and shantytowns were built directly across the street from the San Remo during the Great Depression. After the Bank of United States experienced a bank run in December 1930, it shut down and its top officials were charged with recklessly using depositors' funds for speculation. The New York State Banking Department took over the bank's holdings, including the San Remo's mortgage. Early the next month, contractors placed $423,000 worth of liens against San Remo Inc., and the Bank of United States moved to foreclose on the building's $5 million mortgage loan.[ Joseph Ravitch, head of HRH Construction, testified that the bank and its affiliates owed him $40,000 for the San Remo's construction. In April 1931, a court-appointed receiver for the San Remo received permission to borrow $60,000 to pay the building's property taxes.
In spite of all these issues, a broker claimed in mid-1931 that large apartments at the San Remo were being steadily rented. Following further negotiations, the Banking Department liquidated all claims against the San Remo except for its own lien. The Banking Department announced in October 1931 that it would foreclose on the building. At the time, 88 of the 128 apartments had been rented,[representing 70 percent of the units. These tenants paid an estimated $513,000 annually, more than sufficient to cover the operating costs. In early 1932, a court-appointed referee recommended that the building and land be sold together.[86] The San Remo was placed for sale at a foreclosure auction that February, and the Bank of United States (still part of the Banking Department) acquired the building, bidding $1,021,000. In December 1932, the bank gave a new first-mortgage loan of $1.5 million to the San Remo Realty Company, a subsidiary of the bank that had taken over the building.
1930s to early 1970s
Throughout the Depression, the building went bankrupt several times and passed to numerous owners. The owners reduced rents and created 20 additional apartments by subdividing four of the duplexes in the south tower and some vacant units at the base. The Banking Department announced in July 1935 that it would refinance the building with a $3.1 million loan from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and would use the funds to distribute dividends to the Bank of United States' depositors. Some creditors expressed opposition to the mortgage, but a representative of the Banking Department said the state government wished to sell the building and that a mortgage would facilitate such a sale. A state judge approved the mortgage that September. By 1938, there were 117 families in the building. As the state was trying to find a buyer for the building, its staff went on strike in March 1938 and again in November 1938. The journalist Peter Osnos wrote that the San Remo and other Central Park West apartment houses contained many Jewish residents during the 1930s and 1940s, since these buildings were not "restricted", unlike others on the East Side.
In July 1940, a group of anonymous investors acquired the San Remo and Beresford, assuming a combined $7.4 million in mortgages on the two structures. The buildings themselves cost only $25,000, although they had cost a combined $10 million to build. One observer likened the sale to "buying the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth for pocket change". The investment group was known as the Sanbere Corporation, a portmanteau of the two buildings' names. The San Remo's staff occasionally went on strike, such as in 1942 and in 1950. The San Remo also had twenty rooms for maids, many of which had been converted to tenant storage spaces or offices by the early 1960s.
By the mid-1960s, a dozen apartment buildings on Central Park West had been converted into housing cooperatives. At the end of the decade, Harry B. Helmsley and his partner Lawrence Wien proposed converting the San Remo into a cooperative. Helmsley had an option to acquire the San Remo for $12 million and planned to sell it to tenants for $15 million. Most residents supported the idea of a co-op conversion, but 86 percent of residents objected that the prices for each apartment, at over $100,000 each, were far too high. A group of tenants organized to express opposition to the proposal. Helmsley and Wien withdrew their plan in June 1970 because not enough residents had purchased shares in the cooperative, despite having lowered the prices for each apartment. For the offering to go into effect, at least 35 percent of the residents had to buy shares. Helmsley lost $1.25 million in the process, amid a weakening market for co-op apartments, and the San Remo reverted to its previous owners.
Cooperative conversion
1970s to 1990s
An investment syndicate, the Nominee Realty Corporation, bought the building for $9 million in July 1971. Nominee Realty did not originally intend to convert the building into a co-op, but it agreed to sell the building to its tenants to reduce costs. The tenants released a $10.8 million co-op offering plan in May 1972, including a $1 million contingency fund. About 85 percent of tenants bought shares in the cooperative within four months, and the co-op offering went into effect in September 1972. The co-op board initially did not seek official city-landmark status for the building, as that would have raised the cost of maintenance. The building retained most of its original windows, except for two upper-story apartments, where the windows were replaced with single panes in the early 1970s. Afterward, the San Remo's co-op board banned window replacements in anticipation of a potential city-landmark designation. Paul Goldberger, president of the co-op board, said the board members had a "self-imposed tradition of treating the building as if it were a landmark".
The San Remo's co-op board began restoring the facade in the early 1980s. The terracotta details atop the building's temples were replicated in lightweight concrete. All other terracotta was preserved or replaced in the same material. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the San Remo as a city landmark in March 1987. As a result, the LPC was obliged to review all proposed changes to the exterior. The board planned to replace the multi-paned windows with three-pane windows that resembled the original design. Due to the high cost of renovating the windows, the San Remo's co-op board decided to replace the windows only when apartments had been vacated. The exterior restoration ultimately lasted about one decade.
By 1996, units in buildings on Central Park West were in high demand. For instance, one unit in the San Remo was purchased after being listed for just three days, while another unit received an unusually high number of inquiries from Upper East Side residents. Another renovation of the exterior began in the late 1990s. The south tower had been restored by the end of 1999, and work on the north tower was scheduled to be conducted.
2000s to present
The San Remo's board voted in 2000 to impose a six-month time limit for apartment renovations, imposing heavy fines on residents who violated the rule. Many residents had complained that director Steven Spielberg and entrepreneur Steve Jobs were conducting multi-year renovations of their respective apartments. In 2006, the San Remo's co-op board banned residents from using fireplaces. By the end of the decade, prices exceeded $3 million even for comparatively small apartments with two bedrooms. Some residents owned their apartments for long periods. When an apartment in the south tower was placed for sale in 2010, only one south-tower apartment had been sold in the preceding 16 years. In another case in 2011, the previous owner had resided in the apartment since the 1950s.
The San Remo attracted many residents in the entertainment industry, especially as compared to other Central Park West buildings, where wealthy people lived in relative obscurity. By the 2010s, many of the celebrities who had lived in the San Remo had moved out, and a growing proportion of residents worked in the finance industry. Among the remaining celebrities in the San Remo in 2017 were musician Bono and actor Steve Martin.
Impact
Reception
Because the San Remo was the earliest twin-towered apartment building on Central Park West, its completion attracted large amounts of commentary from the press. The New York Times characterized it as "an imposing addition to the tall structures overlooking Central Park". In March 1931, the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects presented a model of the San Remo Towers, describing it as "an interesting development of the new dwellings law where large plottage permits the erection of towers". George S. Chappell, writing under the pseudonym "T-Square", praised the design of the casement windows in The New Yorker.
Several observers also commented specifically on the San Remo's towers. Chappell wrote that the towers "are fine in silhouette". In the 1970s, Paul Goldberger described the San Remo as "the best of the four twin‐towered buildings that bring such splendid life to the Central Park West skyline", at a time when Roth's firm mostly designed buildings with glass facades. Carter B. Horsley of The New York Times described the spires in 1972 as having been included "almost as an excuse to imitate the architecture of the past". Horsley subsequently listed the San Remo as having one of the ten best water-tower enclosures in New York City. The writer Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis said in 2021: "The San Remo's Choragic towers served as outward markers of architectural elegance that could be used to lend distinction to broad, tall apartment buildings that might otherwise run the risk of being drably similar to one another."
The building's architectural style and materials were also the subject of commentary. Goldberger favorably compared the San Remo's classical design with that of the Majestic, which was designed at exactly the same time in a modern Art Deco style. John Freeman Gill of the Times wrote in 2005 that the San Remo was one of several buildings on Central Park West whose bases exhibited "the comfortable old solidity of limestone". Eric Nash, in his 2005 book Manhattan Skyscrapers, wrote that "the towers play powerfully against the background element of the sky, etching the setback image in negative space", similarly to the Petronas Towers.
In the late 20th and early 21st century, the San Remo generally had a reputation for being luxurious. In 1996, a writer for Interior Design magazine said the San Remo was "among the Upper West Side's top-drawer co-ops, the buildings that evoke the basic emotions of lust and envy when one thinks-or dreams-of the apartments within". During the 2000s, The New York Times said the presence of Central Park West's "architectural gems", such as the San Remo, contributed to increased housing prices on the eastern side of Central Park, along Fifth Avenue. The Wall Street Journal referred to the Beresford, the Dakota, and the San Remo as the "three grand dames of the West Side". Additionally, the artist Max Ferguson created an oil painting of the San Remo in 2004. Several books have used the painting on their covers, including a 2011 edition of the Jack Finney novel Time and Again.
Landmark designations
The building is a contributing property to the Central Park West Historic District, which was recognized by the U.S. National Register of Historic Places when its nomination was accepted on November 9, 1982. In 1984, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) hosted hearings to determine whether the Century, Majestic, San Remo, Beresford, and El Dorado should be designated as city landmarks. Manhattan Community Board 7 supported all five designations, but the San Remo's co-op board was concerned about whether a landmark designation would hinder the replacement of windows on the building. The LPC designated the San Remo as a city landmark on March 31, 1987. The San Remo is also part of the Upper West Side Historic District, which became a New York City historic district in 1990.
(Wikipedia)
The San Remo ist ein exklusives unter Denkmalschutz stehendes Apartmenthochhaus in Manhattan auf der Upper West Side in New York City, Vereinigte Staaten. Es ist neben dem The Majestic, dem The Century und dem The El Dorado eines von vier in den 1930er Jahren gebauten Häusern mit Zwillingstürmen an der Central Park West (Eighth Avenue).
Beschreibung
Das Hochhaus steht an der Central Park West zwischen der West 74th Street und West 75th Street direkt gegenüber dem Central Park, in dem sich nur 200 Meter entfernt die Gedenkstätte Strawberry Fields für John Lennon befindet. Ein bekanntes Nachbargebäude ist das ein Block südlich stehende The Dakota, in dem einst John Lennon wohnte. An der Ecke Central Park West/West 72nd Street befindet sich ein Zugang zur Station 72 Street der New York City Subway, die von den Linien und bedient wird.
Der vom Architekten Emery Roth 1930 fertiggestellte Bau ersetzte das vorher an dieser Stelle stehende Hotel „San Remo“, dessen Name für das neue Apartmentgebäude übernommen wurde. Es ist mit einer Höhe von 121,9 Meter (400 Fuß) und 27 Etagen das höchste von mehreren bekannten Apartmentgebäuden an der Westseite des Central Parks. Weitere von Roth in der Central Park West gebaute Häuser sind: The Beresford, The Eldorado und The Ardsley. Weniger als ein Drittel so hoch ist das The Dakota.
Das Gebäude hat einen U-förmigen Grundriss mit einem T-förmigen Innenhof und nimmt die gesamte Blocklänge zwischen der 74th und 75th Street ein. Den Übergang vom 17-stöckigen Sockel zu den beiden Türmen bilden mehrere Rücksprünge und Terrassen. Die nahezu identischen rechteckigen Türme haben zehn Stockwerke und werden von runden Türmchen im römischen Stil gekrönt, die von fünf Meter hohen korinthischen Säulen und mehreren von Urnen gekrönten Eckpfeilern umgeben sind. Den Abschluss der Turmspitzen bilden kupferne Knäufe. Der dreistöckige Sockel ist mit Kalkstein verkleidet, darüber besteht die Fassade aus Ziegelstein und Terrakotta. Das Gebäude beherbergt 136 Genossenschaftswohnungen (Co-op). Die Nord- und Südhälften haben je eine eigene Lobby und einen separaten Eingang mit eigener Adresse (Südhälfte: 145 Central Park West, Nordhälfte: 146 Central Park West). Vom Central Park aus gesehen bildet The San Remo ein beliebtes Foto- und Malereimotiv.
The San Remo wurde am 31. März 1987 von der Landmarks Preservation Commission zum Denkmal der Stadt New York erklärt. Das Gebäude ist Bestandteil des am 9. November 1982 vom National Register of Historic Places ausgewiesenen Central Park West Historic Districts, und es ist des Weiteren Teil des Upper West Side Historic District, der 1990 zu einem historischen Viertel von New York City ernannt wurde.
Prominente Bewohner
Heute ist das San Remo mit der Lage am Central Park eine der gefragtesten und mit Apartmentpreisen zwischen drei und 24 Millionen US-Dollar auch eine der teuersten Adressen in New York City. Einige der prominentesten Bewohner sind oder waren Steven Spielberg, Dustin Hoffman, Bono, der sein Apartment von Steve Jobs kaufte – welcher die Immobilie aufwändig renovieren ließ, aber nach Auskunft des Maklers[8] nie eine Nacht dort verbrachte –, und Bruce Willis.
Madonna hingegen hat vergeblich versucht, ein Apartment im San Remo zu kaufen. Sie scheiterte am Widerspruch des „Board“ – der Eigentümervertretung.
(Wikipedia)