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Entrance detail at il Gesu. The principal church of the Jesuits in Rome, il Gesu was built between 1568 and 1575, to the designs of Vignola and Giacomo della Porta; and Baciccia, Antonio Raggi and Leonardo Retti (nave ceiling). The marble decoration of the nave interior is of a later date.
The Joseph Hansom-designed Birmingham Town Hall of 1833 takes centre-stage, its Anglesey-faced stone having recently been cleaned. Looming in the distance is Alpha Tower, which has been Birmingham's tallest building since it was completed in 1973.
A certain whiff of scandal surrounded Alpha Tower at the time - in common with London's Centre Point, the two buildings were left unlet for several years until commercial rents had escalated. Indeed, Alpha Tower has a further common denominator with Centre Point, as both were designed by the same architect, Richard Seifert - a devotee of the Brutalist School. Seifert was widely reviled for doing more damage to the London skyline than the Luftwaffe, but his Birmingham effort has mellowed over time, and attempts have been made to award Alpha Tower with Listed Building status (greatly resisted by its owners, be it noted).
One section of the Roman Forum, with the Arch of Titus in the background.
It's really incredible, walking amongst these ruins and knowing that this very place was the center of activity for the whole Roman Empire. That figures like Julius Caesar, among many others, so famous as to be practically legend, lived and walked here is nearly unbelievable.
And now it's all ruins. As grand and impressive and beautiful these structures are, as incredible that some of them survived millenia, it is powerful to see so much ruins here, laying perhaps as they have lain for hundreds and hundreds of years. It forces one to imagine what it once looked like, and prompts one to think that maybe, just maybe, there were Romans themselves - Imperial subjects - who were here when it crumbled.
What an image. What sadness, and yet greatness. This is the greatness of Rome, and its fall, right here.
September 2013.
Open House is the annual opportunity to explore hundreds of buildings in London for free and see the architecture. Many of the buildings are not normally open to the public.
The main Foreign Office building in King Charles Street was built by George Gilbert Scott in partnership with Matthew Digby Wyatt. George Gilbert Scott was responsible for the overall classical design of these offices, but Matthew Digby Wyatt, the India Office’s Surveyor, designed and built the interior of the India Office. It was built with rich decoration to impress foreign visitors.
Entrance of il Gesu. The principal church of the Jesuits in Rome, il Gesu was built between 1568 and 1575, to the designs of Vignola and Giacomo della Porta; and Baciccia, Antonio Raggi and Leonardo Retti (nave ceiling). The marble decoration of the nave interior is of a later date.
Sunbathers, tourists and residents soaking up the late summer sun on the green in front of the Royal Crescent in bath.
The 18th century Royal Crescent was the work of architect John Wood the Younger, to the design of his father.
Dating from the Georgian period and built between 1767 and 1774, it was the first crescent in Bath – and England – with its giant Ionic columns marking it out as Palladian in style.
The shape of the street is believed to have been inspired by either the Colosseum in Rome or by the New Moon, complimenting the sun-like shape of the King’s Circus, which was built a decade earlier.
As was typical at the time, the architects only designed and oversaw construction of the front of the houses, with the rear built by those who bought the properties and thus lacking the same uniformity.
The crescent was laid out to embrace the open landscape on the slopes below.