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Ace Hotel (formerly The Hotel Breslin)
20 West 29TH Street
New York, NY
29th Street facade - Ace Hotel. The 1906 addition built two years after the hotel opened is clearly seen.
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Prior to the opening of the 269 room Ace Hotel at the corner of Broadway and 29th Street in 2009 - there was the Hotel Breslin.
The Hotel Breslin was built by United States Realty & Improvement Company in 1904 on the site of the former Sturtevant House Hotel. Upon its completion, the hotel was leased to prominent New York hotelier, Colonel James H. Breslin, for whom the hotel is named.
Breslin also operated the Gilsey House and the Hotel Walcott.
The architectural firm Clinton & Russell designed the Beaux-arts 12-story brick and terra cotta building. The firm also designed the Hotel Astor in Times Square and the landmark Apthorp Apartments on New York's West Side. The hotel was constructed on a trapezoidal lot at an estimated cost of $1 million.
The Breslin's mansard roof and corner cap were its signature attributes.
Upon its opening in 1904, the Breslin was noted for its salons and cafes, and for its unusual "ladies' grill room." The property was situated in the Times Square of the turn of the century -- an area full of clubs and restaurants, and New York's first neighborhood to be electrified with lighting and signage.
A block over (West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue) was Tin Pan Alley - a neighborhood flush with music publishers and songwriters that were the center of American popular music in the early 20th Century. It was thought the term Tin Pan Alley referred to the thin, tinny tone quality of cheap upright pianos used in music publisher's offices.
In 1906 Clinton & Russell were commissioned to extend the hotel to the south on 29th Street. It was promised to "harmonize" the additions building materials with the old building.
According to a 2001 New York Landmarks Preservation Commission Report the Hotel Breslin remains remarkably intact on the exterior above the first floor.
Following Breslin's passing in 1906 he was succeeded by Walter E. Hildreth as president of the Breslin Hotel Company.
Jim Breslin died of Bright's disease at his Hotel Wolcott apartment. Breslin was president of the Hotel Men's Association. Breslin's first job in the hotel industry was as a bellboy at the United States Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York. According to the NY Times "... to have been one of Jim Breslin's employees and with a recommendation from him meant a job in any hotel in the United States and at once..."
In 1911 Walter Hildreth representing Breslin Hotel Company and the United States Realty & Improvement Company sold the 400 room hotel for approximately $3,000,000 to an entity known as Hotel Operating Associates. According to the NY Times D.V. Mulligan of the Russell House Hotel, Ottawa, Canada was appointed the hotel manager. For many decades the Russell House served as Ottawa's foremost hotel. Mulligan was a well-known Canadian hotelier and he planned to focus on attracting Canadian businessmen to the Breslin.
Manager Mulligan received some publicity regarding his attempts to make the Breslin a "no tipping hotel". His thought was such a policy would increase business. Mulligan fired several hat check girls who accepted tips from the patrons, but he also understood he could not dictate to his patrons how to spend their money and it was useless to prohibit employees from receiving tips. So in 1913 he implemented a policy of reducing by 10% every restaurant bill - with the hope that most patrons would accept the reduction as a notice to leave a 10% tip in cash. It is not known how long he continued reducing restaurant bills by 10%.
In 1925 the Breslin Hotel was sold to Paul A. McGolrick and Sidney Claman, owner of the Times Square Hotel, purchased the Breslin in 1937. In 1955 it was sold to Max A. Goldbaum and three years later, in 1958, Goldbaum leased the hotel to the Beryl-Jason Holding Corporation. Edward Haddad, the principal with Broadway Breslin Associates, secured a 99-year lease on the Hotel Breslin in the 1950s. In time the building began to be known as the Broadway Breslin. It was known for very cheap monthly housing in a very good location.
By 2006 the Breslin Apartments had degraded to a rent-stabilized single-occupancy dive.
In April 2006, the hotel’s principal owner, Edward Haddad and GFI Capital Resources Group, took the first steps toward converting the shabby Breslin from an old single-room occupancy building to a luxury hotel.
In 2006, GFI Real Estate Partners bought the Breslin’s lease from landlord Edward Haddad for $40 million - at the height of the market. Haddad had put little work or money into the building for several years. A joint venture partner with GFI Capital in the Ace Hotel as well as in the Standard New York in the meatpacking district is Dune Capital Management who manages a real estate opportunity fund.
GFI Development secured another $35 million to finance its renovation.
In July 2007 GFI principals Andrew Zobler and Allen Gross (founder, CEO and President, GFI Capital Resources Group, Inc.) contracted Alex Calderwood, the co-founder of the Ace Hotel Group, to move to New York in early 2008 to take over management of the Breslin and its multi-million dollar reconstruction and transition.
Andrew Zobler is the founder The Sydell Group. Previously Zobler was a Partner, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of André Balazs Properties and also was with Starwood Hotels & Resorts as Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Development.
Alex Calderwood along with two friends, Wade Weigel and Doug Herrick founded Ace Hotels in 1999. Their first hotel was the Ace Seattle, a 28-room hotel in a former downtown halfway house. According to Alex Calderwood, Ace’s Modus operandi is straightforward: “Taking characterful old buildings in emerging neighborhoods and doing as much as we could with the existing infrastructure on a shoestring budget.”
Taking over a fully occupied, 344-unit building, GFI offered its rent stabilized residents $3,000 to move out. Reportedly the buyout amounts grew to $50,000 or more.
An attorney for the tenants brought suit to prevent "greedy big business" from turning the Breslin and its residents on its side. The tenants even produced a video “Voices of the Breslin” - a documentary about the disappearance of affordable housing in New York. In early 2008 about 150 tenants had accepted buyout agreements to move out yet many desired to stay. According to Alex Calderwood “The people who’ve remained, they get a brand-new HVAC system, brand-new windows. They have an option to move to a completely renovated unit if they want.”
As of March 2011 roughly 30 rent-stabilized tenants still live in the hotel, some of whom pay just $500 a month for their apartment.
Other notable New York City hotels with holdover tenants include the Carlyle Hotel and the Gramercy Park Hotel.
In May 2009, after court struggles and extensive renovations by architectural firm Roman & Williams, the trendy Ace Hotel was completed. Upscale shops replaced the street level stores and the sleek modern hotel rooms, purportedly available for under $300 per night, now attract a young, hip crowd.
Roman and Williams also completed the Royalton Hotel in 2007 and the Standard Hotel in 2009.
The lobby has three areas - the welcome area, the work-table area and in the back a lobby bar. The hotel rooms range from bunk rooms to lofts, and everything in between. The guest rooms are described as efficient. A clothes rack Roman & Williams made from bent plumbing pipes replaces a closet. Pipes also appear on bath accessories and as desk legs. Chalkboard paint on the walls and paintings & murals by emerging artists individualize each room. Rooms feature vintage furniture, Mascioni sheets and some rooms come with guitars, turntables and 50's Retro style refrigerators.
Proprietors’ restaurateur Ken Friedman and Chef April Bloomfield, of The Spotted Pig fame, operate The Breslin, a 130 seat no-reservation restaurant on the ground-floor which has a turn-of- the-century New York look. Also, April Bloomfield of the Breslin and Josh Even of the Spotted Pig have designed and created the menus for John Dory Oyster Bar in the Ace Hotel.
Portland coffee mecca Stumptown Coffee Roasters has its first Manhattan outlet in the Ace Hotel.
Ace Hotel's opening manager is Jan Rozenveld. Previously Rozenveld was GM at The Greenwich Hotel in NYC and GM at The Tides South Beach, Miami.
GFI Hotel Company was formed in 2008 as a division of GFI Development Company to manage and oversee hotels. Michael Rawson is president of GFI Hotels. Since its inception, GFI Hotel Company has opened two Ace Hotels (Palm Springs and NYC) and is currently developing a flagship, The NoMad Hotel in NYC, the former Johnston Building at 28th and Broadway. In February 2011 Andrew Zobler and L.A. billionaire Ronald Burkle co-partnered on the purchase of the Hotel Theodore (formerly the Mondrian) in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Photos and text compiled by Dick Johnson
November, 2011
richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individual memorials attached to trees throughout the National Memorial Arboretum, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England. Sadly, this one is not the newest one, but is a poignant reminder that wars go on, and men and women continue to die serving their country, their names as they fall added to a never ending list.
Gunner Cusack was participating in a routine reassurance patrol when he was killed aged 21 during a small arms fire engagement with insurgent forces in an area around Enezai Village.
He was born on 16 September 1989 in Stoke-on-Trent. He joined the Army in September 2006, attending the Army Foundation College, Harrogate.
Upon completion of his training, he was posted to 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, then based in Osnabrück, Germany.
He joined 97 Battery (Lawson's Company) and deployed to Afghanistan on Operation HERRICK 7 as a member of a light gun detachment. Upon returning from Afghanistan, he moved with the regiment to Topcliffe, North Yorkshire.
Having impressed with his fitness, aptitude and enthusiasm, Gunner Cusack was selected to transfer to a Fire Support Team and undertook extensive training in Canada between June and July 2009 before commencing Mission Specific Training for Operation HERRICK 12 in September last year.
His Fire Support Team moved under the command of 129 (Dragon) Battery at the beginning of 2010 and he deployed to Afghanistan in March, based in Nahr-e Saraj (South) with Malta Company, 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment, supporting 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles.
During his time in Afghanistan, his Fire Support Team conducted dozens of joint patrols with the Afghan National Army to reassure the local population in Nahr-e Saraj and prevent intimidation of villagers by the insurgents.
It was on one of these reassurance patrols in an area around Enezai Village that he was killed in action during a small arms fire engagement with insurgent forces.
A keen sportsman and fitness enthusiast, Gunner Cusack thrived on life. Whether boxing, playing football or in the gym, he gave his all.
He excelled in his position as Fire Support Team signaller and was a key personality within his crew. Socially gregarious, he was an extremely popular member of his battery, and his energy and enthusiasm were contagious.
An only child, he leaves behind his mother Tracey, father Sean and step-dad Dave.
"Gunner Zak Cusack was a big man with the personality to go with it. Young, fit and with a healthy love of life, he was always close to, or at the heart of, the action."
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Squier
Gunner Cusack's family said:
"Zak was a courageous, compassionate and charismatic young man. We are justly proud of not only the job that he did, but of the complete person we all knew and loved. For such a young man, Zak's infectious sense of humour, appetite for life and truly romantic heart inspired so many others.
"Zak's loss leaves a hole in our hearts, a chasm in our lives and many, many other broken hearts behind. He had a fire in his soul that will burn brightly in all our memories. He is our beautiful boy, loving son and best friend; in Zak's own words, 'he is a ledge' (legend)."
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Squier, Commanding Officer, 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"Gunner Zak Cusack was a big man with the personality to go with it. Young, fit and with a healthy love of life, he was always close to, or at the heart of, the action.
"A Stoke City fan in the North East Gunners will always have his work cut out, but his combination of cheeky charm and buoyant character always won out.
"As a soldier he had already given more than most in his short life. This was his second tour of Afghanistan having deployed in 2007 on his 18th birthday. True to his character and commitment he fought hard to move from the Gun Line to become a member of a Fire Support Team.
"Here his true potential shone through – he was a man made for the role. He fell as he had lived life, in the thick of things and with his mates in 97 Battery (Lawson's Company) and B (Malta) Company 1 MERCIAN.
"My thoughts and condolences go out to his parents Tracey and Sean and his many friends at home whose true loss we can only imagine. He will remain Forever Fourth."
Major Rich Grover, Company Commander B (Malta) Company, 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire) said:
"In the short time I had the privilege of commanding Gunner Cusack, he proved to be a highly professional and competent forward observer who carried a ready smile and fun loving attitude.
"The measure of the man was the fact that the platoons wanted him with them for the patrols as they trusted him, and he had already proven that when the going got tough, he was able to step up to the plate and deliver; just the type of man required in a tight spot.
"His loss will be felt by us all, and our thoughts go out to his family and friends, all those who love him."
"Although having only been attached to my Battery for a short time, Gunner Zak Cusack has made a lasting impression on all of us."
Major Nick Constable
Major Matt Birch, Battery Commander 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"Gunner Zak Cusack was an excellent man and soldier whom I got to know well whilst working in the confines of the same vehicle for a two month exercise in BATUS, Canada, last year.
"This was effectively the beginning of our build-up training for the current deployment to Afghanistan; I was immediately struck by his energy and work ethic whilst being in the field. This was Zak at his best, a fit and resourceful soldier who cared and worked tirelessly for the other members of the Battery.
"When we were challenged by hard times he would maintain a level head but also lighten our spirits with his enduring wit.
"This strength of character and fun loving attitude made him a central character on the Battery's social stage.
"His professionalism made him respected throughout the Battery; I already anticipated promoting him during this tour and he was displaying the capability to develop further within the Battery's Tactical Group.
"He proved himself on operations during both tours of Afghanistan, as the soldier that you wanted by your side in the face of adversity.
"He embodied the Lawson's spirit of professionalism and fun. His loss will affect the heart of the Battery family and we know that the remainder of us will have to work twice as hard to make up for the huge gap he has left.
"Zak personified the spirit of an artilleryman at its best and we will miss him deeply.
"Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this most difficult of times."
Major Nick Constable, Battery Commander 129 (Dragon) Battery, 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"Although having only been attached to my Battery for a short time, Gunner Zak Cusack has made a lasting impression on all of us.
"He was a young man with tremendous energy, a sharp wit and a zest for life.
"His stories of escapades on the town with his many friends were a constant source of amusement.
"I knew Zak as a soldier in a job which he loved and focussed on operations. He was an extremely capable forward observer with tremendous potential for the future, a talented radio operator and a courageous individual who would put his team members and friends before himself.
"Only one week prior to his tragic death, exhausted, whilst returning from a patrol which received a casualty he relieved a tiring stretcher party of their burden by putting his injured colleague over his shoulders and carrying him through boggy terrain to safety; such was the determined and selfless character of Gunner Cusack."
Capt Stu Lennox, Fire Support Team Commander, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"I have never seen Zak without a smile on his face. He was a constant source of morale and cherished not only by his Fire Support Team but the entire Battery.
"He had incredible potential and ability and also a thirst for fun and adventure.
"Zak was dedicated to his physical fitness, his friends and his job within the Fire Support Team.
"He was always a good addition to any social occasion and would often tell me stories of his crazy nights out.
"I have never seen Zak without a smile on his face. He was a constant source of morale and cherished not only by his Fire Support Team but the entire Battery."
Capt Stu Lennox
"However, at the same time, he would spend many hours a day in the gym ensuring he was both capable of doing his job and ready for the beach on post tour leave."
Warrant Officer Class Two (Troop Sergeant Major) Marc Ravenhill, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"Zak was a larger than life character in the Troop and indeed within the Battery who made friends easily.
"He was always a highly motivated individual who wanted to be involved in everything the Tactical Group took part in and would never shy away from a new challenge.
"Zak could always be found wherever the action was, be that at work, on the sports pitch or on a social basis with his friends.
"He was a keen, bright and talented soldier who was not scared to stand up for what he believed in.
"Zak will be sadly missed by all members of the Troop and the Battery. My sympathies go to his family and friends at this time."
Bombardier Paul Madden, Command Post Non-Commissioned Officer, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"He was a well known member of the Battery and the Regiment. He was always happy and making jokes even when times were hard.
"It is hard to believe that we saw him just the other week, he was so happy to see the boys, telling us how much he was enjoying himself. He will be sorely missed by his friends and our thoughts go out to him and his family."
Bombardier Dougie Collins, Forward Air Controller, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery said:
"Zak was the life and soul of the party, always there to make dull situations bright.
"Some looked upon him as being a bit of a Jack the Lad, I looked upon him as a man's man.
"Zak would always give 100% in everything that he did, be it at work, or at play, and never needing any encouragement, because he was always at the forefront of everything.
"As a friend he will be massively missed by all who knew him and he has left a void that can never be filled.
"He has written his own page in history and his memory will live on in all of us. Zak has brought us all joy and happiness and for that I am thankful."
Bombardier Dave Southern, Joint Fires Junior Non-Commissioned Officer, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery said:
"Zak was very much a lad's lad, he was always at the centre of everything, be it socially or professionally.
"He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. He has left a massive gap amongst his friends in the Regiment and the Tactical Group that knew him best. I will miss the banter whenever Bolton played Stoke.
"My deepest condolences go to his family and friends back home on their loss; Zak will always be a part of 97 Battery Tactical Group and will never be forgotten."
"I have never in my life known a lad like Zak, outgoing, easy to get on with and a wicked sense of humour, his ability to put most of us to shame in PT will stay with me."
Lance Bombardier Nath Mandall
Lance Bombardier Nath Mandall, Joint Fires Junior Non-Commissioned Officer, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"I have never in my life known a lad like Zak, outgoing, easy to get on with and a wicked sense of humour, his ability to put most of us to shame in PT will stay with me.
"He loved being a soldier and took great pride in his job and everything he did, always a team player and never needed to be asked twice to get something done.
"Zak will be sorely missed within the Battery and in the Regiment, as well as on nights out socially.
"My thoughts and best wishes go out to you and your family at this time. He will never be forgotten by all those who have had the great pleasure to have known him."
Lance Bombardier Paulo Liga, Gun Number, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"A good lad. He was a good bloke, always happy, one of the best guys in the Battery. He had something in him that no one else had – the personality and character he had was so special that I knew he was going a long way in his career.
"I was with him on the last HERRICK tour which clearly influenced him and he grew very strong.
"A good laugh out on the town in Germany, we will miss him. My condolences go to his family and may the good Lord continue to be with his family in these times.
"May his soul rest in peace."
Lance Bombardier Scott Casson, Joint Fires Junior Non-Commissioned Officer, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery said:
"Zak was a character who was larger than life; he was an extremely popular lad within the Battery, even more so within the Tactical Group.
"Zak was always up for a laugh, and the first one up for a party, and never short of a story of his escapades from the weekend.
"At work Zak was a very dedicated and professional soldier, always giving 100% all of the time.
"Highly respected and looked up to by the junior lads, and an equal amongst his peers, he will be sadly missed by all within the Regiment."
Gunner Daniel Pugh, Fire Support Team Signaller, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"Zak Cusack, what a guy. Serving alongside Cusack was an honour because he was a professional and selfless soldier who put others before himself, even in his personal life.
"He has made times feel so much better than what they have because he had a special way to bring the best out of every situation, bad or good and I will miss him greatly."
Gunner Graham Thompson, Joint Fires Signaller, 129 (Dragon) Battery, 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"Zak was a great friend who will be truly missed. He will never be forgotten; all the lads will remember him. I will miss those fun times we had and especially the nights on the town."
Gunner 'Chappy' Chapman, Fire Support Team Assistant, 97 Battery (Lawson's Company), 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, said:
"Zak was a friend in a million, with so many stories that will remain with me forever, thinking of you all at this very difficult time."
Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox, said:
"Gunner Zak Cusack made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of his country. He was killed whilst providing security to the local population following recent attempts by the Taliban to intimidate them.
"It is clear that he was hugely valued by his friends and comrades as a professional and selfless soldier, and they all speak highly of his wit and strong spirit.
"My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends and his colleagues who served with him on this vital mission as they come to terms with his loss."
St. Stephen 's Church ( Bratislava )
Coordinates 49 ° 8'43 " S 17 ° 6'19 " W
Architect Ignatius Feigler ml .
Neo-Romanesque style
Completion 1860 - 1861
Roman Catholic Church
Consecration St. Stephen
Address : Župné Square
Church of St Stephen of the Capuchin monastery is a sacral building located on a County Square in Bratislava, in the historic Old Town.
Capuchin complex in Bratislava is one of the important architectural monuments. Interesting is its history, unique architectural form and interior furnishings, reflecting ordinal habits, as well as works of art, their copyright and iconographic contexts.
History
In July 1676 came from Vienna to the then capital of Hungary members of the Order of Capuchins. Their first posting was at the chapel today on Michalska Street. Next thirty-five years here were held worship and other spiritual activities. As preachers were active in addition Brothers of Mercy, in uršulíniek and in other parishes; self-sacrificing service held during the plague epidemics.
The gain in 1698 buying land on the east side of the castle of Baroness Ghillányiovej that next year a gift of land from neighboring countess Czobor considerably widened. Thanks dobrodinstvu (open-handed) Eleanor Theresa, Countess de Strattmann and Payerbach, construction of Capuchin church and monastery on today's spot could start (in the chorus you can now notice a commemorative plaque with the German inscription - in translation: "Pray for the accidented founder Eleanor Teresa 1709"). The foundation stone of the monastery was laid 17 December 1708 and by the end of September of the following year it was ready chorus with a small tower, sacristy and adjacent oratory. 3 October 1709 was held the first Mass, which serves Hungarian Cardinal-Primate of Christian August of Saxony. Construction, led by religious Father John Damasceno (real name Johann Wers, died 04.25.1744 in Vienna) of the Vienna New Town, continued until 1712, when the monastery moved to our new friar.
The foundation stone of the church was laid on 20 decembra 1711. In 1717 the church was finished and 6 June consecrated it bishop of Nitra Ladislav Adam Erdödy.
In 1727 the monastery extended towards the skin street and Palffy Garden. The sacristy to briefly library hall. Outbuildings financed directly by Imrich Esterházy, a big supporter of the Capuchin Order.
In 1735 the church was about to happen, because allowed the basics (for it was the muddy soil). Therefore, let the archbishop Imrich Esterházy, at their own expense from the ground renovate church on the condition that the Capuchins take over management of the chapel of St. John the Merciful in the cathedral of St. Martin. Capuchins part of the church demolished and mandated military engineer Felice Donata Allia the rebuilding, which in the years 1736 - 1737 the building structurally secured and church went hand in hand with the builder - Capuchin friar Berthold (real name Ferdinand Ziegerhoffer, died 12/05/1763 at Tate), who also built a church altar.
Statue of the patron saint of the church in the niche on the facade, the work of Anton Brand.
In 1737 Francis Portenhauser, under the supervision of Archbishop Imre Eszterházyho, has completed the construction of the monastery, which was built two more tracts with sacristy and library. The gate was built a new wing with five forehead for domestic and foreign. In the garden was established a hospital.
In 1779 the church received a new bench, in the years 1819-1824 was built a chorus, in which Juraj Klokner built a new organ.
A major reconstruction was neoslohová update the front facade in the years 1860-1861 Bratislava builder Ignatius Feigler ml, thus entered into a romantic look. Then was in recess located on the front stone statue patron of the church (the work of sculptor Anton Brand Bratislava), which replaced the original painting. 1892 placed in the interior of the church Calvary with reliefs from the Upper Austrian carver M. Gaige (drawings by prof. Klein). In the nineteenth century was carried repainting the interior, which, however, undermined its original simplicity.
In 1895, the church got a restoration. At that time in Bratislava monastery and study theology.
Another repair of the church took place after a fire in 1913. In the second half of the 20th century it came to several modifications, interior (wooden wall coverings, fixtures and supplement historicist supplement).
In the years 1867 - 1895 was fixed crypt, which was later filled up, even today we do not know its fate lobby or buried bodies. According to available data, would it be buried more than 200 people, among them the painter Anton Rosier and Prince Lobkowitz Georg Christian de Sagan.
Architecture church
Churches of all the Capuchin religious buildings have individual character. Capuchins - reformed branch of the Franciscan order, strictly comply with the requirement set out religious poverty of St. Francis of Assisi and applied it to the shape of their temples. Their churches were without the tower: the street is proceeds around a simple gable, tectonically unitary facade. Were arched barrel vault with lunettes. The interior walls were smooth, tectonically unitary, painted in white, from which well reflect modest sĺpové dark brown altars. Unlike polychrome and richly decorated interior fittings other churches were Capuchin altars covered with walnut graining, which could revive only lighter inlaid ornaments and beads and capitals in ivory color.
General view of the Church. Stephen with Marian column in front of the main entrance.
Austere character and visual simplicity Capuchin church corresponds to the pastoral aims of this order as their efforts to lead the faithful to deepen the internal life according to the Gospel. Extending the temple area to the side spaces on one side chapels allowing individual piety and confessional room, allowing internal focus - believers preparing for confession. Medieval church against the Mendicant Orders, where the choir stalls stood before the main altar, in the Capuchin church rendition of the main altar in the Oratory associated with specific presbytery into a single unit. The two spaces separated by only a massive baroque main altar of artistic expression on the front and the back. Under strict monastic cloister area visually separated from the church accessible to lay people, but also downsized voices and singing brothers odbavujúcich prescribed watch, what is the visitor of the church to act as engrossing example.
Outside the church
Church building is located in the southeast-northwest direction. The floor of the church is well below the surrounding terrain. Monolithic facades without vertical structuring is finished off with a steep ridge. The portal is designed by predstavanou hall, with a distinctive rosette window, culminating in a gabled roof, over the hallway is a stone niche with a statue of St. Stephen.
The interior of the church
Nave church of St. Stephen's arched barrel vault with lunettes. The ship is separated from the chancel triumphal arch. An interesting feature is the building interior architecture separating the chancel altar of the Oratory Brothers. On the right side of the church is the chapel and sacristy, the left side of the monastery hall.
The church is entered through predstavanú hall. Above the entrance to the ship of the church is the Latin inscription in the form of a chronogram of 1860 (in translation): "Behold! Pokojamilovným open the door to these Seraphic cells of which were rebuilt from God's favor and innate love of King Franz Joseph."
Internals of the church (benches, altars, pulpit) is of tmavomoreného wood, decorated with inlays (a typical phenomenon in the Capuchin church in western Slovakia). Brother Berthold, who completed the construction of the monastery complex, built the altar in the church.
The main altar
The main altar of St. Stephen from 1737 consists of a massive baroque architecture, separating the sanctuary from the oratory, visual design on both sides. Monumental altarpiece (created in 1737) is probably the work of monk Udalricha from Wels (real name Thomas Wimberger, died 19.7.1743 in Buda).
The main altar with the image of the monk Udalricha in 1737
The picture shows the first Hungarian King Stephen I. giving the Virgin Mary to protect his son Imre and Hungary, symbolically expressed on a pillow lying royal crown.
The picture is interesting from an architectural point of view: namely silhouette captures the contemporary Bratislava with its important buildings, the castle, house and city hall. It is expected that the show was not accidental starts of Bratislava. Bratislava has been since 1563 coronation city, which it wanted to pay tribute to the author of the image and at the same time emphasize the importance of capturing buildings symbolizing the three components of the then society - not sovereign, suzerain ecclesiastical and municipal administration.
Scenes on the side of the main altar are paintings of St. Joseph and St. Theresa of Avila .
The side altars
The side altars of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony Padua (from around 1737) stands on the sides of the triumphal arch and mast have the same architecture. Altarpieces - Stigmatization of St. Francis and St. Anthony's Vision - painted by Karol Anton Rosier, a student of G. R. Donner. The Raiser altar are paintings Holy Fidelius with a book and an angel (on the altar of St . Francis) and St. Felix with an angel (on the altar of St . Anton).
The boat is in nike altar of the Holy Cross (from 1737), which forms columnar baroque architecture with a central image of a cross with the corpus. Construct it gave Karol ble. Counterpart of the altar is the altar of St. Fidelism of Sigmaringenu, martyr and saint of the Order of Capuchins. The altar dates from 1749 and has a post-top architecture. Altarpiece painted the Death of St. Fidelis Capuchin Father Norbert from Vienna (real name Johann Baumgartner, died 29.09.1773 in Vienna). By the same author as well as religious paintings of saints and two box- reliquaries of 1st half of the 18 century.
Shrine of Our Lady (from 1742) on the right side chapel has a post-top baroque architecture, but the statue of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus came into being in the 20th century. Below the niche is on an oval painting of St. John of Nepomuk.
Other sights include the church cycle of eight large paintings in the nave, showing Christ's suffering (work Frater Udalricha), two box and two pyramidal reliquaries in the rococo frame, a late baptistery of 18 century baroque oratory behind the main altar, Stations of the Cross in 1892 (Work Upper Austrian woodcarver M. Gaige).
In 1725, erected on the Esplanade in front of the church baroque column with a statue of the Immaculate, built in 1723, standing in front of the county near the house .
Interestingly
Church in Bratislava is the only Capuchin church dedicated to St. Stephen throughout the former Kingdom of Hungary.
sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostol_sv%C3%A4t%C3%A9ho_%C5%A0tefana_(Bratislava)
China, Shanghai, Pǔdōng district, seen from the Puxi's historic Bund promenade. Pudong with the early 1990 developed Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, therefore also for many of Shanghai's spectaculars buildings, such as the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Jin Mao Building with the Gran Hyatt from the 50th to thr 88th floor, the SWFC, the Shanghai World Financial Center & also the site of the future impressive 632 mtr tall, 128 floors above ground, the office & hotel Shanghai Tower, construction started in 2009, completion is planned (& certainly will be archived) for 2015.
...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you &
over 1.900.000 visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
Hwy.62/102 Interchange Improvements.& 8th Street Widening (Bentonville)
49
d9 District 9
County:
Benton County
Length:
1 Miles
Location:
Log Mile 85.85 - 86.85
Work Began:
March 2017
Est. Completion:
Mid 2019
ARDOT Job Number:
090376
RE Office:
94
Contractor:
Crossland Construction Co., Inc.
Contract Amount:
$28.8 Million
Description:
The purpose of this project is to extend 8th Street and construct a new interchange at 8th Street on I-49, make improvements to the interchange at Hwy. 62/102, and add auxiliary lanes on the I-49 between the two interchanges in Benton County.
The good doctors celebrated the return of spring and the completion of our Pataphysical Slot Machine on a balmy Saturday afternoon.
We held a ritual blessing of the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine, to guide it on its way to its new home at the Figurines Ranch. We ended with another butt-shaking dance break to cap it all off.
We then gathered in the art garden for a special awards ceremony led by Dr. Truly, who presented the beautiful medals she created for each doctor: they are amazing works of art, carefully designed to highlight the unique talents of each creator. Thank you for these wonderful gifts, Dr. Truly!
In other news, Drs. Rindbrain and Figurine completed a new ‘pataphysical flagpole, with the help of Dr. Maurizzio, visiting from Lucca, Italy. Dr. Pozar hobbled over with his new crutches and supervised the playground with his acolytes, while Dr. Tout d’Suite created more ‘pataphysical talismans and Dr. Jardin decorated her lab coat. Dr. Igor inspected the slot machine one last time and pronounced it ready for next week's move. Dr. Really gave our last slot machine demo in this studio. Drs. Canard and Fabio finally got the sounds to work on Mother of Yes — which was the last thing we wanted to fix before our move. :)
The mojo is stronger than ever in the art garden. Fire in the hole!
View more 'Pataphysical photos: www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157623637793277
Watch 'Pataphysical videos: vimeo.com/album/3051039
Learn more about Pataphysical Studios: pataphysics.us/
The moated manor of Clausholm dates back from the 13 century, and its current house and gardens from 1690 feature primarily long tree-lined avenues and ponds.
As one of the few good examples of a modern completion of a historic layout, the cascades are a 1970's addition/reinterpretation by danish landscape architect Carl Theodor Soerensen.
This conceptual visualization shows plans for the new SR 509/South 160th Street Interchange in Burien. This southbound view shows the new roundabout interchanges at South 160th Street and new noise walls that will be constructed to the southwest and northeast of the interchange.
Learn more at: wsdot.wa.gov/construction-planning/search-projects/sr-509-completion-project
The Cupboard Under the Stairs
Tucked under the front stairs of number four, Privet Drive was Harry's first 'bedroom' - a forgotten, cramped and rather cluttered storage cupboard. Set decorator Stephenie McMillan sourced many of the assorted props from her own basement.
Harry's Spectacles
This is one of the original pairs of glasses worn by Daniel Radcliffe. On completion of filming, he asked to keep a pair as a memento.
People the world-over have been enchanted by the Harry Potter films for nearly a decade. The wonderful special effects and amazing creatures have made this iconic series beloved to both young and old - and now, for the first time, the doors are going to be opened for everyone at the studio where it first began. You'll have the chance to go behind-the-scenes and see many things the camera never showed. From breathtakingly detailed sets to stunning costumes, props and animatronics, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London provides a unique showcase of the extraordinary British artistry, technology and talent that went into making the most successful film series of all time. Secrets will be revealed.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London provides an amazing new opportunity to explore the magic of the Harry Potter films - the most successful film series of all time. This unique walking tour takes you behind-the-scenes and showcases a huge array of beautiful sets, costumes and props. It also reveals some closely guarded secrets, including facts about the special effects and animatronics that made these films so hugely popular all over the world.
Here are just some of the things you can expect to see and do:
- Step inside and discover the actual Great Hall.
- Explore Dumbledore’s office and discover never-before-seen treasures.
- Step onto the famous cobbles of Diagon Alley, featuring the shop fronts of Ollivanders wand shop, Flourish and Blotts, the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and Eeylops Owl Emporium.
- See iconic props from the films, including Harry’s Nimbus 2000 and Hagrid’s motorcycle.
- Learn how creatures were brought to life with green screen effects, animatronics and life-sized models.
- Rediscover other memorable sets from the film series, including the Gryffindor common room, the boys’ dormitory, Hagrid’s hut, Potion’s classroom and Professor Umbridge’s office at the Ministry of Magic.
Located just 20 miles from the heart of London at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the very place where it all began and where all eight of the Harry Potter films were brought to life. The Studio Tour is accessible to everyone and promises to be a truly memorable experience - whether you’re an avid Harry Potter fan, an all-round movie buff or you just want to try something that’s a little bit different.
The tour is estimated to take approximately three hours (I was in there for 5 hours!), however, as the tour is mostly self guided, you are free to explore the attraction at your own pace. During this time you will be able to see many of the best-loved sets and exhibits from the films. Unique and precious items from the films will also be on display, alongside some exciting hands-on interactive exhibits that will make you feel like you’re actually there.
The magic also continues in the Gift Shop, which is full of exciting souvenirs and official merchandise, designed to create an everlasting memory of your day at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.
Hogwarts Castle Model - Get a 360 degree view of the incredible, hand sculpted 1:24 scale construction that features within the Studio Tour. The Hogwarts castle model is the jewel of the Art Department having been built for the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct the first version which was then rebuilt and altered many times over for the next seven films. The work was so extensive that if one was to add all the man hours that have gone into building and reworking the model, it would come to over 74 years. The model was used for aerial photography, and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes.
The model, which sits at nearly 50 feet in diameter, has over 2,500 fibre optic lights that simulate lanterns and torches and even gave the illusion of students passing through hallways in the films. To show off the lighting to full effect a day-to-night cycle will take place every four minutes so you can experience its full beauty.
An amazing amount of detail went into the making of the model: all the doors are hinged, real plants are used for landscaping and miniature birds are housed in the Owlery. To make the model appear even more realistic, artists rebuilt miniature versions of the courtyards from Alnwick Castle and Durham Cathedral, where scenes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone were shot.
Riyadh, Elf-One, AWACS, Aug-Nov 1981
·
In May 1981, I re-enlisted in the Air National Guard at the completion of my first 4 year hitch. I had made E-5, Staff Sergeant, and was enjoying my time in the service. Our unit had gone to Korea for a Team Spirit exercise in the spring and Pusan had been a lot of fun.
I was working as a security guard and going to Sac State. When the Air Guard asked me if I would like to spend a couple fo months in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in August, I jumped at the chance to travel again. My aunt Clyda had been working as a nurse at King Faisal Hospital in Riyadh for several years and liked it (and the money she was making) well enough to stay there.
So, some time in August 1981 (don't remember exact dates) I boarded a flight for Oklahoma City, site of Tinker AFB, the headquarters of the 552nd AWACS Wing as well as the 3rd Combat Comm Group, a regular Air Force equivalent to my own ANG 162nd Combat Comm Group. I was on loan to the 3rd Herd for my stay in Saudi.
After a day or two at Tinker, we flew via C-141 to Rhein Main AFB in Frankfurt, Germany,refueled and from there continued on to Riyadh. Like Rhein Main, the air base at Riyadh shared runways with the commercial airport.
We were supporting Exercise Elf One, which was playing I Spy on the Iran-Iraq War. The Saudis had asked the US to fly AWACS radar planes and have radar ships in the Gulf to watch the Iranians, in case they decided to attack Saudi Arabia, which was suporting the Iraqis in the war. I don't think the Iranians ever did attack the Saudis, but they did bomb Kuwait one day when we were there. After that, I think the Kuwaits asked that we warn them if any Iranian planes came their way. We had picked up the Iranian planes going to and from Kuwait, but had no agreement to inform them before that.
In those days, the Iranians were flying US made F4s and F14s, while the Iraqis had Soviet MiGs and French Mirages. We didn't know it at the time, but the Iranians were getting parts for their planes under the Iran-Contra deal.
There are western compounds in Riyadh, where the normal Saudi rules are relaxed. The US Army had a training mission, and companies such as Lockheed and British Aircraft also had compounds. Alcohol was strictly forbidden under Saudi Sharia law, but the western compounds would brew jungle juice and serve it at parties, with the Saudis turning a blind eye, as they needed the Americans, Brits and others to keep things working. I saw the aftereffects of bathtub grapefruit wine on some of the guys and decided I could wait until I got back to Germany and have some decent German beer.
Our compound or Elf One was the ai Yamama Hotel on Airport Road between downtown and the airport (duh!!!). It was a regular hotel, but had been taken over by USAF for the Elf One people. The regular staff managed it, and we ate breakfast and dinner in the hotel dining room for free. After a while, the same 6 or 7 items for dinner did get old, and we would sometimes eat at other restaurants in town, but Riyadh is not known for its swinging night life.
I was one of two Teletype techs in Riyadh while I was there. We also had crypto, sattelite radio, HF radio, ground power, HVAC maint people, who hung out in our shop van near the flight line on base, as well as a bunch of radio and Teletype operators who did the work of running the gear. The maint people mainly hung out, repaired problems, and did periodic maintenance on the equipment. That explains the photos of us hanging out in the shop van, reading, napping, playing cards and generally goofing off.
The aircraft maint people worked elsewhere.
USAF had KC-135 tankers and E3 AWACS planes in Riyadh for Elf One. An E3 was in the air at all times, flying in 12 hour shifts. We could, if we wanted to, go on "morale flights" on the AWACS, but I never did as sitting in a plane for 12 hours with nothing to do sounded slightly less appealing than sitting in the shop van for 12 hours with nothing to do.
We could also, take morale flights on the KC-135s when they went up to refuel the AWACS every afternoon. They left about the same time every day, taking off southbound over downtown Riyadh and our hotel and you could always tell the 135 by the distinctive sound of its water injection turbojets as it flew over.
I went up on two morale flights on KC-135s and on the first one I remarked to the pilot that I would love to take photos of the refueling. He was cool with it, so the second time I went up, I brought my camera and asked permision from the pilot on that trip. He didn't care, although I think the Saudis did not want people taking arial photos of the country. Oh well. This was 35 years ago and all of the air crews on these planes are out of the service or retired by now.
I have to say that the midair refueling of the AWACS as seen from next to the boom operator on the KC-135 is one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed. Boom operators joke that they have 3 college graduates fly them around so they can pass gas, and USAF does midair refueling dozens of times a day all over the world, but it is remarkable to see two planes flying close together, connected by a refueling boom.
My TDY was originally for 2 months, but with no job to return to and having missed the Fall 1981 semester at Sac State, I extended it for another month.
In 1981, Riyadh had a rail connection to the Gulf at Damman with a daily passenger train, and freight service. I saw the passenger train at Riyadh, but did not feel comfortable taking out my camera to get any photos. It had a GP38 (IIRC) pulling new stainless steel cars that had been made in Europe. I've heard that one of the Twin/Nebraske Zephyr sets wound up in Saudi Arabia (the other is at Illinois Railway Museum), but I saw no sign of it and I did not try to take a ride on the railway as we only had one day off a week and a round trip required an overnight stay. I did get a few photos another day when I found the yard and shop. One is posted here, and when I find the others, I will post them. The Saudis had some F7s and I saw a couple of those as well as what I think is a GL8, an EMD export model.
I tried to meet Aunt Clyda during the whole time I was there, but she could not get into the al Yamama and I could not get into her nurse's quarters, and,as I said, there were not a lot of places to meet in downtown Riyadh. I knew she worked at the hospital's blood bank and we could give blood there, so toward the end of my stay, I joined the guys donating blood and at least was able to say hi to Clyda for a few minutes.
The weather was very hot when we got there, dry heat, of course, but by November, things had cooled off and we even had a bit of rain before I left in mid-November.
I planned to stop off in Europe and travel around for a month before returning to the US, so I mailed most of my stuff home before I left and when our plane got to Rhein Main, I joined the crowd heading to the bar for a beer, then went to the base hotel for the night.
The next morning was rainy and green and rain and green never looked so good!
May 27, 2021—New York City —Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, joined by Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, Budget Director Robert Mujica, and MTA Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber, announces the completion of civil construction on East Side Access - the MTA's megaproject connecting the Long Island Rail Road to a new 350,000-square-foot passenger terminal under Grand Central Terminal. This is the largest new train terminal to be built in the United States since the 1950s and the first expansion of the LIRR in more than 100 years. The new connection will double the LIRR's capacity into Manhattan with up to 24 trains per hour and cut travel time for Queens commuters by 40 minutes per day. Afterwards, Governor Cuomo toured part of the new East Side Access Project with Mr. Lieber. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)
LUC has worked with a large multi-disciplinary team to deliver a sustainable infrastructure and development masterplan to guide the long term transformation of Shawfield in Glasgow’s East End. LUC also led the design and implementation of an advanced phase of public realm and landscape works that now forms a framework for new development to be realised over a 20-25year horizon.
Prior to construction the site was heavily contaminated and consisted of large areas of vacant and derelict land together with dated business and industrial premises. The site was completely cleared and underwent significant ground remediation in advance of the public realm works to ensure the site is ‘development ready’.
LUC developed a green infrastructure strategy to inform the masterplan design with an emphasis on integrated surface water drainage and pedestrian connectivity to surrounding communities, transport nodes and the River Clyde corridor.
The Clyde riverbanks have been manipulated to provide new pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and this now provides an extension to the strategically important Clyde Walkway.
An ecologically diverse mosaic of riparian woodland, grassland and wetland habitats has been created that will improve the biodiversity of the River Clyde corridor.
A new strategic pedestrian and cycling link has been created linking the new South Dalmarnock Smart Bridge with the centre of the masterplan site, improving connectivity in the area. In contrast with the more naturalistic riverside treatment this link is more formal in character with strong tree avenue planting, lighting and paving patterns.
For more information, visit: www.landuse.co.uk
Weeks from completion, a methane reactor with endothermic gasifier surrounds Doug Jernigan, a three-generation family farm owner (with his wife Aileen) and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of it’s kind, in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.
Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”
The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day. Piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.
The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.
With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”
Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation, a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).
Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.
In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”
For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...
USDA Photo by Lance Cheung
*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%
Originally dating to around 1320, the building is important because it has most of its original features; successive owners effected relatively few changes to the main structure, after the completion of the quadrangle with a new chapel in the 16th century. Pevsner described it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county", and it remains an example that shows how such houses would have looked in the Middle Ages. Unlike most courtyard houses of its type, which have had a range demolished, so that the house looks outward, Nicholas Cooper observes that Ightham Mote wholly surrounds its courtyard and looks inward, into it, offering little information externally.[9] The construction is of "Kentish ragstone and dull red brick,"[10] the buildings of the courtyard having originally been built of timber and subsequently rebuilt in stone.[11]
The moat of Ightham Mote
The house has more than 70 rooms, all arranged around a central courtyard, "the confines circumscribed by the moat."[10] The house is surrounded on all sides by a square moat, crossed by three bridges. The earliest surviving evidence is for a house of the early 14th century, with the great hall, to which were attached, at the high, or dais end, the chapel, crypt and two solars. The courtyard was completely enclosed by increments on its restricted moated site, and the battlemented tower was constructed in the 15th century. Very little of the 14th century survives on the exterior behind rebuilding and refacing of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The structures include unusual and distinctive elements, such as the porter's squint, a narrow slit in the wall designed to enable a gatekeeper to examine a visitor's credentials before opening the gate. An open loggia with a fifteenth-century gallery above, connects the main accommodations with the gatehouse range. The courtyard contains a large, 19th century dog kennel.[12] The house contains two chapels; the New Chapel, of c.1520, having a barrel roof decorated with Tudor roses. [13] Parts of the interior were remodelled by Richard Norman Shaw.[14] wikipedia
16th century-late 19th century
The house remained in the Selby family for nearly 300 years.[3] Sir William was succeeded by his nephew, also Sir William, who is notable for handing over the keys of Berwick-upon-Tweed to James I on his way south to succeed to the throne.[4] He married Dorothy Bonham of West Malling but had no children. The Selbys continued until the mid-19th century when the line faltered with Elizabeth Selby, the widow of a Thomas who disinherited his only son.[5] During her reclusive tenure, Joseph Nash drew the house for his multi-volume illustrated history Mansions of England in the Olden Time, published in the 1840s.[6] The house passed to a cousin, Prideaux John Selby, a distinguished naturalist, sportsman and scientist. On his death in 1867, he left Ightham Mote to a daughter, Mrs Lewis Marianne Bigge. Her second husband, Robert Luard, changed his name to Luard-Selby. Ightham Mote was rented-out in 1887 to American Railroad magnate William Jackson Palmer and his family. For three years Ightham Mote became a centre for the artists and writers of the Aesthetic Movement with visitors including John Singer Sargent, Henry James, and Ellen Terry. When Mrs Bigge died in 1889, the executors of her son Charles Selby-Bigge, a Shropshire land agent, put the house up for sale in July 1889.[6]
Late 19th century-21st century
The Mote was purchased by Thomas Colyer-Fergusson.[6] He and his wife brought up their six children at the Mote. In 1890-1891, he carried out much repair and restoration, which allowed the survival of the house after centuries of neglect.[7] Ightham Mote was opened to the public one afternoon a week in the early 20th century.[7]
Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson's third son, Riversdale, died aged 21 in 1917 in the Third Battle of Ypres, and won a posthumous Victoria Cross. A wooden cross in the New Chapel is in his memory. The oldest brother, Max, was killed at the age of 49 in a bombing raid on an army driving school near Tidworth in 1940 during World War II. One of the three daughters, Mary (called Polly) married Walter Monckton.
On Sir Thomas's death in 1951, the property and the baronetcy passed to Max's son, James. The high costs of upkeep and repair of the house led him to sell the house and auction most of the contents. The sale took place in October 1951 and lasted three days. It was suggested that the house be demolished to harvest the lead on the roofs, or that it be divided into flats. Three local men purchased the house: William Durling, John Goodwin and John Baldock. They paid £5,500 for the freehold, in the hope of being able to secure the future of the house.[8]
In 1953, Ightham Mote was purchased by Charles Henry Robinson, an American of Portland, Maine, United States. He had known the property when stationed nearby during the Second World War. He lived there for only fourteen weeks a year for tax reasons. He made many urgent repairs, and partly refurnished the house with 17th-century English pieces. In 1965, he announced that he would give Ightham Mote and its contents to the National Trust. He died in 1985 and his ashes were immured just outside the crypt. The National Trust took possession in that year.[8]
In 1989, the National Trust began an ambitious conservation project that involved dismantling much of the building and recording its construction methods before rebuilding it. During this process, the effects of centuries of ageing, weathering, and the destructive effect of the deathwatch beetle were highlighted. The project ended in 2004 after revealing numerous examples of structural and ornamental features which had been covered up by later additions.[1]
The extension of MetroTram M17 from Schöneweide to Adlershof sees the completion of the second stage of improving public transport connections to the WISTA Science and Technology Park in Berlin-Adlershof, the first stage of which was completed in September 2011.
The new section between S Adlershof and S Schöneweide which replaces bus route 163 over this section and which will also be re-routed to open up new areas, includes five new tram stops. It will be served by tram routes M17 and 61, with the 24/7 M17 running every 10 minutes between 06:00 and 21:00, as well as tram route 63 which will be extended to Johannisthal Landschaftspark.
Mit der Verlängerung der MetroTram M17 von Schöneweide nach Adlershof wird die zweite Stufe der Straßenbahnanbindung des Wissenschafts- und Technologieparks WISTA in Berlin-Adlershof abgeschlossen, deren erste Stufe im September 2011 fertiggestellt wurde. Der neue Abschnitt zwischen S Adlershof und S Schöneweide umfasst fünf Haltestellen und ersetzt auf diesem Abschnitt die Buslinie 163, die ebenfalls neu geführt wird, um neue Gebiete zu erschließen. Sie wird von den rund um die Uhr Straßenbahnlinien M17 und 61 bedient, wobei die M17 zwischen 06:00 und 21:00 Uhr im 10-Minuten-Takt verkehrt, sowie von der Straßenbahnlinie 63, die bis zum Landschaftspark Johannisthal verlängert wird.
Pier 45 (Christopher Street Pier), Greenwich Village, Manhattan
The Empire State Building is today the best-known symbol of New York City. Its name, Its profile, and the view from its summit are' familiar the world over, and a visit to New York is generally conceded to be incomplete without a trip to the Empire State Building's observatory.
The Empire State was the final and most celebrated product of the skyscraper frenzy produced by the economic boom of the 1920s, and'the most prominent of the modernistic towers that created the midtown skyline in those years. Its completion in April, 1931, on the former sits of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, marked the transformation of midtown from New York's preeminent residential area for the social elite into the commercial center of the metropolis.
The engineering and construction of the Empire State Building were perhaps the most awesome accomplishments of its creators. Its design, in many ways shaped by the constraints of time, cost, and structure, was the finest work of architect William Lamb, chief designer for Shreve, Lamb 6 Harmon. The slender, modernistic silhouette he created fit the building so well that even today, when it is no longer the tallest, it remains one of the handsomest of New York's skyscrapers.
With the decline in construction which accompanied the Depression, and the tendency in the post-war period towards shorter, denser office buildings, the Empire State it 1250 fser remained the world's tallest building until the 1970s, when the Sears Building in Chicago took the title of the world's tallest, end the World Trade Center took the title of New York's tallest. Yet despite the loss of the title which was one of the sources of its original renown, the Empire State Building remains New York's most widely recognized symbol, and the city's quintessential landmark.
The Site Development of Midtown Manhattan into the commercial center of New York
The site of the Empire State Building was part of a farm, owned by John Thompson, which was acquired In 1827 by William B. Astor. The site remained in Astor hands over a hundred years of development until Its purchase, in 1929, by the Empire State Building Interests.
Astor was the second son of John Jacob Astor, founder of the Astor dynasty in America. Using the family fortune, he acquired a great deal of undeveloped property in Manhattan, foreseeing that the northward expansion of New York along the island would eventually make his property worth many times its original price. Over the next fifty years, the area around 34th Street and Fifth Avenue developed first into an outlying rowhouse neighborhood of New York, and then into the city's most fashionable residential area.
By the 1850s, Fifth Avenue was lined with the palaces of the Vanderbilts, A.T. Stewart (the "merchant prince," one of New York's wealthiest men), and other millionaires. The Astors themselves moved from Astor Place up to Fifth Avenue in 1859, when John Jacob Astor, Jr., built his house at the northwest corner of Fifth and 33rd Street; shortly thereafter his brother William Backhouse Astor built an adjoining house at the southwest corner of Fifth and 34th Street. The Astor houses soon became known as the central meeting place of New York society, and home to the famous balls thrown by Mrs. Astor for "the four hundred," New York's social elite.
Following the traditional pattern of Manhattan growth, the city's hotels, theaters, clubs, and restaurants followed the residential development up Fifth Avenue. By the 1890s, guides to the city identified "the great hotel district" as lying "between 23d and 59th Streets, and Fourth and Seventh Avenues.... in that territory, which is little less than two miles long by a half mile wide, are half of the leading hotels of the metropolis.
In 1890, William Waldorf Astor, son of John Jacob Astor, Jr., having decided to move to London, tore down his house and filed plans for the Waldorf Hotel, a thirteen-story building designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh and completed in 1893. in 18S7, the neighboring Astor house having been demolished, the Astoria Hotel was erected by Astor's aunt, and connected to the Waldorf to form the Waldorf-Astoria. The new hotel soon became a major social institution of New York.
Forty years later the area was changing again, largely because of the influx of department stores just before and after World War i. During the final decades of the 19th century New York's fashionable stores had clustered in the area called the "Ladies Mile," along Fifth and Sixth Avenues and Broadway between 11th and 23rd Streets.
Altman's started the new trend northward by moving in 1906 from Sixth Avenue and 18th Street to Fifth Avenue at 34th Street. Others followed, and by the early 1920s Fifth Avenue was lined from 34th Street north by stores such as Best s, Tiffany's, Franklin Simon, Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor and Arnold Constable. Along with the department stores came several tall
office buildings, beginning in 1902 with the Flatiron Building at Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street.' Rider's New York City Guide noted that "Hotels and restaurants that have long been landmarks, such as the Manhattan, the Buckingham and Sherry's, have disappeared and tall office buildings are multiplying even on the side streets.
Newspapers picked up on the changes taking place in the area. Capt. William J. Pedrick, executive vice-president of the Fifth Avenue Association, was quoted extensively on the development of Fifth Avenue; he noted in particular the avenue's new tall commercial buildings: the 15-story New York Trust, the 34-story Squibb Building, the 58-story Salmon Jower (500 Fifth Avenue), and the plans for the Empire State Building.
To demonstrate the rate of change on Fifth Avenue, Rider's Guide gave a capsule history of the site across Fifth Avenue from the Waldorf-Astoria: a house belonging to Dr. "Sarsaparilla" Townsend, popularlzer of soft drinks, was replaced in 1867 by the "marble palace" of A.T. Stewart; in the 1890s the house was converted for use by the Manhattan Club; in 1901 it was demolished to make way for the four-story Knickerbocker Trust Building, to which, finally, in 1920-21 were added another twelve stories to create the Columbia Trust Building.
The changeover of Midtown Manhattan from social to commercial center was finally consummated by the demolition In 1930 of the Waldorf-Astoria Itself, and the opening on its site the following year of the Empire State Building, a speculative office building and the tallest In the world.
A New, Modernistic Midtown Skyline and the Skyscraper Race
A new skyline was created for the newly commercial Midtown by the progressively larger office buildings being erected during the 1920s, Since the beginnings of skyscraper development in New York in the last decades of the 19th century, architects had tried to adapt historical sty.es to the modern American invention of the skyscraper. The most successful and famous of these attempts produced the Woolworth Building (Cass Gilbert, 1913), the sixty-story Gothic tower christened the "Cathedral of Commerce." Towards the end of the 1920s, however, under the influence of a "modernism" derived in part from the European Art Deco, New York architects created a new "skyscraper style" which, it has been argued, more fully expressed the nature--the verticality, the metal structure, the sense of an industrial and technological future—of the skyscraper. The series of skyscrapers constructed in midtown, including ;be Chrysler, Daily News, McGraw-Hill, Chanin, RCA (now GE), Fuller, and Empire State buildings, helped Introduce the new modernistic Art Deco style to urban America, and defined midtown's characteristic look for the next several decades, until the new round of skyscraper buildings began in the 1960s.
At the same time, the builders of skyscrapers began to reach for progressively greater heights. The WooIworth Building's sixty stories
had rested unchallenged for a decade, and Its observatory was considered to have the finest view of New York.
In the late 1920s, however, the new commercial buildings began to challenge the title. A 110-story building announced in 1926 by developer John Larkin was never built, but in 1929 two towers, the Bank of Manhattan (927 ft, 70 stories) downtown on Wall Street, and the Chrysler Building (1,050 ft, 77 stories) in Midtown on East **2nd Street, competed in a race to see which would be the new tallest building in the world. The race was heightened by the rivalry between the architects of the two buildings, H. Craig Severance and William Van Alen, who had formerly been partners.
Chrysler won by arranging to have the building's spire secretly constructed inside the building and then jacked up through the top at the last minute. Shortly thereafter, however, the Chrysler Building lost Its title to the Empire State Building.
The Empire State Building was a speculative office building planned by John J. Raskob, who hired former New York State Governor A1 Smith to be president of the Empire State Company. As an executive of General' Motors, Raskob no doubt considered himself a rival in many ways of Walter Chrysler.
According to rental manager Hamilton Weber, the originally planned 86 stories of the Empire State Building were only four feet higher than the Chrysler Building, and "Raskob was worried that Walter Chrysler would pull a trick—like hiding a rod in the spire and then sticking it up at the last minute." Hence, according to Weber, the Idea for the 14-story dirigible mast which raised the building's height to 1250 feet but proved, in the end, to be unusable for its Intended purpose. The Chrysler and Woolworth buildings, seeing there could be no hope of competition with the Empire State, eventually closed their own observatories.
The 1920s procession of skyscrapers might have continued producing ever taller buildings: according to a Herald Tribune article discussing the Empire State project in 1930, "Charles F. Noyes let it be known some time ago that he was considering erecting 150 floors over two square blocks in the old mercantile district downtown."
The Depression put an end to any such plans, however, and the Empire State Building remained the tallest by far of the city's commercial towers.
John Jacob Raskob and Al Smith.
The man who conceived the idea for the world's tallest speculative office building was a self-made multi-millionaire industrialist named John J. Raskob.
Born Into a poor family in Lockport, New York, Raskob went to work early In life to support his widowed mother and family. He found work as a secretary for a small street railway company in Lorain, Ohio, that happened to be owned by Pierre Du Pont, of the Du Pont chemical industry family.
When Du Pont bought the Dallas Street Railway Company In Texas, he made Raskob treasurer, and eventually he took Raskob with him to Wilmington, Delaware, where Du Pont became president of E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Raskob became vice president in charge of finance.
Early In the century, Raskob Invested heavily In the newly formed General Motors Corporation, and convinced Du Pont to do the same.
In 1915, Du Pont became chairman of General Motors, and in 1918 Raskob became chairman of its Finance Committee. The spectacular growth of the value of General Motors stock made Raskob a multi-millionaire, and one of the wealthiest men in the country. Shortly before the Depression Raskob co-authored an article in the Ladies' Home Journal entitled "Everybody Ought to be Rich."'
Aside from his organizational abilities, Raskob's chief contribution to General Motors was the invention of the installment plan for buying automobiles.
Like many businessmen of the time, Raskob was interested in politics, and like most millionaires he was a Republican. His entry into politics, however, was as a contributor to the gubernatorial campaign of populist Democratic governor A1 Smith. Raskob was introduced to Smith in New York City in 1926.16 The two men came from similar backgrounds--poor Irish Catholic famlies—and shared a dislike of the Prohibition amendment, an issue in Smith's later campaign for the presidency. They became friendly, and Raskob volunteered generous contributions to Smith's 1926 gubernatorial re-election campaign. Although many of Smith's closest aides distrusted Raskob, they were unable to prevent his appointment two years later as campaign manager for Smith's unsuccessful 1928 race with Hoover for the Presidency, an appointment which resulted in the anomaly of a conservative Republic millionaire becoming Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
(One of Raskob's first actions as Chairman was to move thecommittee to offices in the General Motors Building on West 57th Street.)
Although Raskob was blamed by some Smith aides for the loss of the 1928 election, and by others for Smith's gradual shift towards a more conservative political philosophy, the relationship between the two men remained strong. When Raskob decided to get into the real estate business, and to build the tallest building in the world, he offered Smith the $50,000 a year job of President of the Empire State Corporation.
Al Smith and the World's Tallest Building: Public Relations at the Highest Levels."
Raskob's rationale for building the world's tallest building, and for making Governor Smith its president, was never clearly stated, although several explanations have been offered. Unlike its immediate predecessors—the Woolworth Building for Frank W. Woolworth and his company, the Manhattan Company Building for the Bank of Manhattan, and the Chrysler Building for Walter Chrysler and his company—the Empire State was not built to symbolize one man or company: it was not the General Motors Building or Raskob Tower, for instance.
The Empire State Building was instead simply a speculative office building, and it was named for New York State, home of the building and the state of which Al Smith had been four times governor. Rather than being a corporate symbol, the building became identified as the world's tallest building and a venture of Al Smith's.
The explanation of its height offered by the company in Its various promotional brochures was simply that of a human adventure, carrying on "the Pharaoh's dream":
Down through the ages, men have yearned and toiled and planned, that they might build a structure nearer to the skies than ever had been built before. Something of this great desire burned in the souls of the Pharaohs of Egypt, when the Great Pyramid of Gizeh was erected, 451 feet high, equal to thirty-four stories. St. Peter's, at Rome, lifts its dome 435 feet toward the sky. That slender and marvelous minaret in Cairo spears the heights at 280 feet and the Cremona Campanile in Italy rises 396 feet above the earth. The famous Cathedral of Cologne attains an altitude of 512 feet; the Washington Monument is 555 feet high. Then came the era of steel, heralded by the world-famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, 984 feet high, useless except as an awe-inspiring demonstration of what men, steel and machinery can accomplish.
The Woolworth Tower was for long the world's tallest building, rising in beautiful Gothic design to a height of sixty stories, 792 feet. The Bank of Manhattan at last surpassed it with its height of 838 feet, only to be in turn surpassed by the 1046 foot elevation cf the Chrysler Building's topmost spire. But Empire State is higher than all these. It carries to triumphant completion the vaulting ambition of the Pharaohs, of Pope Julius when he began the building of St. Peter's.
As for bringing ex-Governor Smith into the project, Raskob apparently suggested at the time that he was going to build the Empire State Building to give his old friend a job. Smith, having lost the presidential election and retired from the governorship of New York, faced an uncertain future.
His friend, actor and producer Eddie Dowling, recalled being present at the moment of Raskob's offer, the occasion being a dinner thrown by the New York State Democratic party for newly elected Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Smith and Dowling had gone to the men's lounge during a lull in the proceedings, and Smith was telling him of his worries, when Raskob appeared and announced, "Don't worry, A1, I'm going to build a new skyscraper--biggest in the wor!d--and you're going to be president of the company," maintaining that he was doing it all to give Smith a high-paying job.
The key to understanding the actual motives behind the height of the building and the involvement of Governor Smith seems to involve a newly developing science that was becoming more and more important to the art of architecture: advertising.
Advertising seems to have become an accepted function of office buildings in the 1920s. Arthur Tappan North, writing on the subject, noted:
The incorporation of publicity or advertising features in a building is frequently an item for consideration.... This feature, when possessing intrinsic merit, is consonant with and is a legitimate attribute of good architecture. It stimulates public interest and admiration, is accepted as a genuine contribution to architecture, enhances the value of the property and Is profitable to the owner in the same manner as are others forms of legitimate advertising.
The Empire State Company in fact launched an extensive advertising campaign capitalizing on several features of the building: its "historic site," formerly that of the Astor Mansion and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel; its convenience ot the two rail terminals in midtown; "a board of directors that inspires confidence;" and its advertising campaign, run by the public relations firm of Belle Moscowitz, former political aide to Al Smith, hit all the leading New York newspapers 'week after week with very clever ads.
The value of advertising for the Empire State Building was picked up by the Real Estate Magazine, in an article entitled "Good Publicity Something More Than 'Hitting1 Front Page," in which the Empire State Building was singled out as an excellent example of how it should be done:
The Empire State Building has received extensive newspaper attention because of former Governor Smith's connection with the enterprise and through a number of clever creative publicity stunts, notable the mast which will top the building as a mooring spot for Zeppelins duly authorized by official Washington with reporters and cameramen obligingly on hand.-1
The two primary subjects of the advertising, however, the two attributes most closely identified with the building, were the involvement of Al Smith, and the building's unmatched height.
Al Smith's relationship to the enterprise was frankly stated In the booklet released on May ], 1931> for the building's opening ceremonies:
Raskob and his associates selected a leader, a man so well known to the public that his very presence placed the seal of integrity upon their undertaking. He was Alfred E. Smith, four times Governor of New York State, Presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.... known and beloved by his countrymen. He became president of Empire State, Inc. even while the mighty structure was only a dream.
Lists of the building's board of directors invariably began with Alfred E. Smith, and ended humbly with John J. Raskob. A New Yorker article of early
1931 noted that the building was "inevitably associated with ex-Governor Al Smith, fn its earlier stages his picturesque statements made excellent publicity and drew all New York's attention to the steelwork as it grew to dizzy heights."
Smith's biographers have noted that his functions at the building were "largely ceremonial.... The staff handled all the rental and maintenance problems, while Smith served as attention getter, greeter, and publicity man delux." To the public, however, the building was Al Smith's, and from the opening ceremonies, when his grandchildren, as representatives of "posterity," cut the ribbon at the main entrance, through the following years of giving tour upon tour to visiting royalty, politicians, sports heroes, and celebrities of every kind, he remained the building's symbol.
Similarly, the building's height played a major role in the company's public relations campaign. Besides constantly comparing the building's height to other tall monuments, the company emphasized the extraordinary daring of the construction workers involved in erecting the world's tallest building by commissioning photographer Lewis Hine to document the work.
The Company arranged for a special mechanical cage that would enable Hire to be swung out into the air to photograph the most difficult feats. The photographs were then used in advertisements, and put on display in the ground floor store windows.
The publicity value of tall buildings was apparently considered to be great enough that it could actually be figured in as a legitimate "expenditure," designed to bring increased prestige and, presumably, income. R.H. Shreve, one of the Empire State Building's architects, wrote in 1930 that the constraints of zoning, wind-bracing, and general costs of a very tall building determine a point...
...where the balance begins to swing back and the rate of return on capital investment begins to diminish as the building goes higher, unless the owner gets a markedly greater unit return for the higher space, or charges the decrease in the direct net return to "advertising."
Justification for this approach was probably found in the tremendous public interest which developed during the late twenties in skyscraper heights.
The New York Sun published a list of the fifty tallest buildings in New York, arranged by height, and shortly afterwards the architectural journal Pencil Points found It necessary to reprint it, in January 1931, noting that "Interest in the heights of New York skyscrapers does not seem to abate, if we may judge by the inquiries concerning them received in this office."
A cartoon in the same issue showed an architect with a rendering of a pointed skyscraper and a caption reading: "Enthusiastic Architect: 'You See, This Spike Runs Down the Entire Length of the Building and if Anyone Builds a Taller Building We Can Jack Up the Spike and Still Be the Tallest!"
In short, Raskob's strategy was based on an aggressive advertising campaign to market the Empire State Building, a speculative real-estate venture, as the world's tallest building, headed by the world's most popular former politician, with the world's most competent board of directors, on the world's most prestigious site, and the world's most
daring engineering feat, with Ai Smith personally conducting the world's famous to see the world's most overwhelming view.
If advertising was indeed the goal of the builders of the Empire State Building, they were extraordinarily successful. Twenty years later, Collier's described the effect of the building on the publicity-minded:
Douglas Leigh, who makes those superspectacular signs for Broadway, is itching to transform the top into a giant soft-drink bottle, or a glowing cigarette. Human flies want to walk up the front, flagpole sitters want to sit on the lightning rod, and high-wire artists want to traipse through space over to the Chrysler tower at Forty-second Street,
The effort spent on public relations paid off much sooner than the building's promoters imagined. Two weeks after the project was announced the stock market crashed, and throughout the early years of the Depression the building remained seriously undertenanted. The Empire State Building was saved from bankruptcy, in part, by the million or so visitors to the observation decks each year who paid one dollar a piece admissions.
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon
John J. Raskob was no doubt attracted to Shreve, Lamb 6 Harmon by their business-like approach to architecture. Raskob first encountered Shreve S Lamb in 1926 when his company, General Motors, commissioned a new headquarters on West 57th Street from the firm. He must have been impressed by their performance; he may also have considered it an advantage that Shreve, Lamb £ Harmon had been called in as consulting architects for the Bank of Manhattan Building, and therefore had some experience in races for the "tallest building" title, as well as experience working with the Starrett & Eken construction company which built the^Bank of Manhattan and which was later awarded the Empire State contract.
Richmond Haroid Shreve (1877" 1946) was born in Cornwall is, Nova Scotia, son of a former Dean of Quebec Cathedral. He studied architecture at Cornell University, graduated in 1502, and spent the next four years on the faculty of the College of Architecture there. While at Cornel! he supervised construction of Goldwiri Smith Hall, designed by the prominent New York firm of Carrere £ Hastings, and at the conclusion of the work he joined the firm.
William Frederick Lamb (1883-1952), son of New York builder William Lamb, was born in Brooklyn. After graduating from Williams College in 1904, he studied at the Columbia University School of Architecture, and then went to Paris to study at the Atelier Deglane. Having received his diploma from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1911, he returned to New York and joined Carrere S Hastings. in 1920, both Shreve and Lamb became partners in the new firm of Carrere £ Hastings, Shreve & Lamb.
Four years later they broke away to form Shreve & Lamb, and in 1925 they were joined by Arthur Loomis Harmon (1878-1958) to form Shreve, Lamb & Harmon.Harmon, born in Chicago, had studied at the Art Institute there, and graduated from the Columbia University School of Architecture in .1901. From 1902 to 1911 he was a designer in the office of McKim, Head & White, in 1912-13 an associate of the firm of Wall is & Goodwlllie, and then practiced under his own name until joining Shreve £ Lamb. His work alone included battle monuments at Tours, Cantigny and Somme-Py in France, a YMCA in Jerusalem, and the award-winning Shelton Hotel in New York.
Of the three architects in the firm, Lamb was generally acknowledged to be the designer, and Shreve the administrator. Shreve was also active as a planner outside the firm's work; he was the director of the Slum Clearance Committee of New York after its formation in 1933, and chief architect of the group preparing plans for the Williamsburg Housing Project, as well as chief architect of the Vladeck Houses on the Lower East Side and also of Parkchester in the Bronx.
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon worked principally on commercial office buildings, although they also designed a number of estates and residences in the New York suburbs, and a few apartment houses in Manhattan, Their residential work largely in the neo-Tudor and other popular styles of the 1920s, while their commercial work tended to be spare and functional, reflecting little of the Beaux-Arts ornament for which Carrere & Hastings had been famous.
Their buildings in New York, including 500 Fifth Avenue, 14 Wall Street, the Lefcourt National Building, and the Mutual of New York Building, and also their commissions outside the city, such as the Standard Oi! Building in Albany, the Reynolds Tobacco Company building in Winston-Salem, and the Chimes Building In Syracuse, are all similarly designed with unadorned limestone cladding, metal framed windows, and simple set-back massing, occasionally with Art Deco or Streamlined ornamental motifs.
The spareness and economy of the firm's designs were a reflection of several architecturai notions gaining currency in the 1920s. As office buildings grew larger and their engineering and financing more complex, the nature of architecture had to adapt to new conditions, Many architects in the 1920s and 1930s, recognizing new constraints, adapted the language of the international Style and functionalist schools of thought and wrote about a new art of architecture.
All three architects in the firm wrote on the subject of the changing nature of architecture. Harmon listed the various forces at work on design as: steel construction, congested business areas, the need for light and air, property shape, internal lighting, zoning, the ratio of rentable area to overall area, the cost of steel, wind bracing, and elevators. William Lamb, the partner concerned least with organization and most with design, concurred:
An interesting development in the planning of present day office buildings is the change in the conception that the architect has of his work. The day that he could sit before his drawing board and make pretty sketches of decidedly uneconomic monuments to himself has gone. His scorn of things "practical" has been replaced by an intense earnestness to make practical necessities the armature upon which he moulds the form of his idea. Instead of being the intolerant aesthete, he Is one of a group of experts upon whom he depends for the success of his work, for the modern large building with its complicated machinery is beyond the capacity of any one man to master, and yet he must, in order to control the disposition and arrangement of this machine, -have a fairly accurate general knowledge of what it is all about. Added to this he must know how to plan his building so that it will "work" economically and produce the revenue for which his clients have made their investment.39
Lamb's design inclinations corresponded very well to the kind of work that Shreve brought into the office. Mrs. Lamb recalls that his tastes in most matters tended to the simple and classical. The architecture he loved best was the spare Romanesque of the southern French cathedrals. Among his contemporaries he greatly admired Raymond Hood, particularly his spare, vertical Daily News Building; HoGd also wrote about the practical side of architecture, dismissing fantastic design as unnecessary. The two men were close friends. Although Lamb's "work had much of the Modernistic to it, his opinion of the flamboyant variety of Moderne represented by the Chrysler Building was rather low—he referred to it once as the "Little Nemo school of architecture," meaning fancy and fantastic, like the comic strip. He never considered his work to be in any way describable as "Art Deco."
Precisely because the firm was a well-organized producer of practical and unadorned office buildings, it was able to organize the myriad elements involved and produce a striking, handsome, but still economical design for the Empire State Building, which was above all a creation of business considerations and an unrivalled engineering feat.
Conception and Design
According to the architects, the Empire State Building was largely shaped by the various economic and engineering considerations involved.
The program was short enough—a fixed budget, no space more than 28 feet from window to corridor, as many stories of such space as possible, an exterior of limestone, and completion by May 1, 1931, which meant a year and six months from the beginning of sketches, The first three of these requirements produced the mass of the building and the latter two the characteristics of its design.
Planning of the building's layout — involving the placement of elevators, utilities, ventilation, and pipe shafts in such a way as to obtain the maximum amount of rentable office space-~centered on a prototypical plan for the 30th floor, at which point the tower legally began to rise with a zoning-mandated floor-area of one-quarter the lot size.
The principles, established by these cooperative investigations, which covered a period of four weeks, together with the owner's requirements... formed the complete program. The "parti" was arrived at in two hours, the evening before a meeting of the owner's corporation. An all-night "charette" produced the next day a series of five or six of the essential plans, an elevation, a perspective, and a fairly accurate tabulation of rentable areas and cube.
Lamb described the plan arrived at through the various consultations:
The logic of the plan is very simple. A certain amount of space in the center, arranged as compactly as possible, contains the vertical circulation, toilets, shafts and corridors. Surrounding this is a perimeter of office space 28 feet deep. The sizes of the floors diminish as the elevators decrease in number. In essence there is a pyramid of non-rentable space surrounded by a greater pyramid of rentable space....^
The massing of the building was to a great extent affected by the elevator system. The elevators were placed in four banks parallel to the building's main axis, with those on the east and west sides being the low-rise group. The low-rise elevators drop off as the building rises, enabling the tower to step back...
...from the long dimension of the property to approach the square form of the shaft, with the result that instead of being a tower, set upon a series of diminishing setbacks prescribed by the zoning law, the building becomes all tower rising from a great five-story base.^
Elevators and budget were said to be the determining factors of the building's height. The elevator contractor, and Starrett Brothers and Eken, asked independently to calculate the height limit of the building based on their economic priori tie:;, each arrived at a limit of eighty stories plus five for the executive offices.
Floor-plan, massing, and height arrived at, the architects turned to the building's exterior. The spare design, based on massing and vertical window strips, was a product of both the building program's practical needs, and Lamb's aesthetic preferences.
The exterior is defined almost entirely by a system of vertical strips of windows, projecting slightly beyond the limestone walls, set in continuous vertical metal surrounds, and separated by dull aluminum spandrels; these strips are arranged singly, in pairs, and in sets of three, and run continuously from bottom to top. There is almost no ornamental detail, other than modernistic ripples in the aluminum spandrels and modernistic caps where the window strips terminate at building setbacks.
The practical source of the window system was "the last and perhaps_ the most important item in the owner's program-speed of construction."
Completion of the building by May 1st was required because that was the traditional day for the signing of new commercial leases in the city, and therefore of crucial importance in the economic planning of a speculative office building. With such a complex building program, construction had to proceed smoothly and as quickly as possible. The advantages of the system were outlined by Shreve in a special article.
The total effect of the massing, height, and window-spandrel-wall design is of a very tall tower, rising from a five-story base, and topped by a modernistic spire. The window strips break up the mass of the building, and emphasize its verticality, while the elimination of reveals creates effectively a smooth glass, metal, and stone skin. The expression
of the building's taliness is simple arid elegant, the epitome of the kind of design most admired by William Lamb.
On the question of the building's style, Lamb wrote:
Whatever "style" it may be is the result of a logical and simple answer to the problems set by the economic and technical demands of its unprecedented program.
He never thought of it as Art Deco. Much of the ornament can only be described as "modernistic," especially the glass and steel dirigible mooring mast, and in that sense would fall under the generic term "Art Deco" or "Moderne," but the design of the building has little in common with that of the flamboyant Chrysler Building, almost its contemporary and the generally accepted prototypical Art Deco skyscraper.
In its reliance on stacked massing, vertical window strips, and simplicity of materials, and in the public insistence by its architects that these elements were largely determined by sheer practical necessity, the Empire State Building seems closer to Raymond Hood's Daily News Building, also contemporary with it.
It is quite possible that Lamb discussed his work with his close friend Hood; he admired his work, and the Daily News was Hood's most recent success at the time. The Daily News Building is also riot a purely Art Deco creation, but in some respects an International Style slab; similarly, Hood's contemporary McGraw-Hill Building combines aspects of both, If the Empire State Building, a spare tower on a base with some modernistic details, belongs In a line of succession, it might be that of the News and McGraw-Hill Buildings, followed by the RCA tower in Rockefeller Center, of which Hood was a chief designer.
By contrast with the News Building, however, the Empire State is thoroughly symmetrical, and not treated with bright colors. Unlike many skyscrapers, it does not present an overwhelming mass: in midtown, pedestrians are conscious only of its five-story base, which blends into the scale of the area, while from a distance It presents 3 slender silhouette, rising from the center of the metropolis, which Is visible and recognizable from almost every point in the city and some beyond. In this sense, the Empire State Building is in its own class, and its design reflects what it, uniquely, is.
Description
Although the 1250-foot high Empire State Building is often described as 102 stories tall, that is not quite accurate. The major portion of the building is comprised of 80 stories of commercial office space, with five stories above that for the building's executive offices, and the observatory at the 86th floor. The enormous metal "mooring mast" above the building contains only an elevator encircled by a staircase, and no floors per se; its height, however, is considered by the Empire State Building management to be the equivalent of 14 stories; these, added to the 86 offices floors and two basement levels, produce the figure of 102 stories.
The building's tower sits on a five-story base, with facades at the lot line on West 33rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and West 34th Street. The base is a monumental modernistic version of a classical scheme: basement, colonnade, and attic. The basement is formed by the first floor shops and entrances •> the colonnade is approximated by a giant order of molded stone piers piers flanking vertical window strips; and the attic consists of small windows alternating with molded stone panels.
The Fifth Avenue facade centers on the building's main entrance which consists of a central pair of doors flanked on either side by a revolving door; a three-story high, three-bay wide set of windows set in modernisticalIy-designed patterns; and an attic story of a pair of windows, all set off from the rest of the facade by two giant molded-stone piers topped by stylized stone eagles above which are inscribed the words EMPIRE STATE. The rest of the facade is comprised of monumental bays, three on either side.
Each bay consists of a storefront of chrome-metal and glass at the first floor levei, two three-story vertical window strips separated by a narrow stone mull ton and flanked by a wide stone pier with a modernistic top in place of a capital, and two windows at the fifth-floor level separated by a narrow squat molded-stone mull ion and flanked by wide squat stone piers. These three bays are set off from the central*-entrance bay by a half-bay comprising one vertical strip of windows, and end at either corner with a half-bay set between two monumental stone piers.
The identical 33rd and 34th Street facades each comprise three sections of monumental bays, similar to those on the Fifth Avenue facade, separated by two entrance bays. The three sections consist of six, seven, and six bays, slightly emphasising the central section. The two entrance bays on either facade, which project slightly outward, are less elaborate versions of the main Fifth Avenue entrance bay: doors at the first floor level, three vertical window strips, and a three-window attic story, all enframed by a wide stone surround.
The two West 33rd Street entrances, however, are actually recessed; these entrances have sets of side doors perpendicular to the building front, and front revolving doors; a moderne light fixture hangs In the center of the recess; the doors are aluminum, set in marble walls.
Streamlined metal marquee-type canopies with curving corners project over the entrances on West 33rd and West 34th Streets; each is ringed by three sets of continuous horizontal metal bands. The original storefronts are almost entirely glass-fronted. Each has a black-granite base, a cornice of horizontal molded-aluminum bands framing a black-granite panel, and a central recessed entrance, and each is separated from the next by narrow molded aluminum mull ions topped by modernistic finials.
The storefronts form a glass wall which projects three feet beyond the five-story base and forms a banding around it; the continuous black-granite cornices are at the same level as the metal canopies over the 33rd and 34th Street entrances and form a black band course at that level. Several of the storefronts have been unsympathetically altered.
The design scheme above the five-story base is determined simply by massing and fenestration. On both the eastern, Fifth Avenue, facade and the western, rear, facade, the tower is dramatically set back above its base, and rises, with shallow setbacks at the 21st and 25th floors, to the 30th floor; from there It rises unobstructed to a .shallow setback at the 72nd floor, then to the 81st floor setback, somewhat more pronounced, which marks the top of the commercial office portion of the building--wi th corresponding elevator banks—and the beginning of the five-story executive suite; a final setback at the 85th floor marks the observatory. Above the tower rises the metal-faced dirigible mooring mast, topped by an enormous television broadcasting antenna.
The tower on the east and west facades is nine bays wide from the sixth to the 25th floor, seven bays wide to the 72nd floor, six bays wide to the 81st floor, and five bays wide to the mooring mast.
The north (34th Street) and south (33rd Street) facades, wider than the east and west facades, are fifteen bays wide from the sixth to the 21st floor, eleven bays wide to the 30th floor, and nine bays wide to the mooring mast; the nine bays from the 30th floor up are divided into three sections of three bays each: a central section enframed by two projecting side sections; the central section rises unbroken to the 85th floor, while the flanking projecting sections rise to a shallow setback at the 72nd floor and another at the 81st. The various setbacks produce a symmetrical massing that emphasizes the verticality of the building, and creates at the lower levels the effect of a tower rising from a layer of surrounding tapered masses.
A fenestration pattern of long vertical window strips is used to break up the mass of the building and emphasize Its verticality. Each window In the vertical strips protrudes slightly from the Indiana limestone cladding of the tower, and is enframed by a strip of nickel-chrome-steel ; each window is separated from the one above by a dull aluminum spandrel with modernistic molding. Where the vertical window strips rise to a setback, they end in simple modernistic metal caps, and begin again above the setback. The three central window strips on the north and south sides end at the 85th-floor level in much larger and more elaborate modernistic metal plates.
The strips on most of the building are arranged in pairs, each level comprising two adjacent windows separated by a nickel-chrome-steel mull ion and enframed by nickel-chrome-steel surrounds, each window having an accompanying dull aluminum spandrel; several bays however comprise triple window strips, while others comprise single window strips. The alternation between paired, triple, and single strips Is used to create a horizontal rhythm of vertical lines accentuating the center of each facade.
On the east and west facades, all windows are arranged in paired vertical strips, with these exceptions: the outer bay on either side from the sixth to the 25th floor, and the outer four bays on either side from the 21st to the 25th floor, consist of single vertical window strips; the outer bay on either side from the 72nd to the 81st floor likewise consists
Sf a single vertical window strip, and also the outer two bays from the 81st to the 84th floods. The arrangement on the wider north and south fronts Is more complicated. The outer two bays, on either side, which rise from the sixth to the 21st floor, are paired vertical window strips.
The next five bays on either side, rising from the sixth floor to a shallow setback at the 25th, and projecting out past the central section, are symmetrically arranged with a centra! paired-window strip bay in the center flanked on either side by two single window strips; these bays above the 25th floor setback to the 30th floor are rearranged as two paired vertical strips and a triple strip. The central five bays, from the sixth to the 30th floors, are paired vertical window strips. Above the 30th floor, where these facades are divided into two projecting sections flanking a central section, the latter comprises three paired window strips, while the former are symmetrically arranged as a triple-window strip flanked on either side by a paired window strip.
Rising above the 86-story office building is the aluminum, chrome-nickel-steel and glass mast, originally designed to be used for mooring dirigibles but now serving only as a support for the upper observatory tower, and housing for display lights, Four progressively smaller rectangular levels form a base from which springs a cylindrical shaft rising to a conical top. The sides of the levels forming the base are ringed by continuous horizontal metal banding. At each of the four corners of the cylindrical shaft, rising to half its height, Is a set of three overlapping metal wings from which the shaft appears to grow; the four sides of the shaft are formed by continuous glass walls.
The top is Jr. three sections: a cylindrical enclosed observation level, still used, of the same circumference as the shaft; a second, smaller cylindrical level surrounded by an open-air observation area, no longer in use, originally Intended as a landing platform for dirigible passengers; and a top section In the shape of a truncated cone--pierced by eight circular openings--which houses the mooring mechanism and beacon lights, and which is topped by a metal mooring pole; each of these three sections is ringed by continuous tubular metal bands. The mooring mast Is now the base for a 200-foot high television antenna, added In 1953, which completes the silhouette of the building as It has been known since that year.
Empire State Building: Symbol of New York
Following the uncertain first years of the Depression, during -which the half-tenanted building was nicknamed "Smith's Folly*" or the "Empty State Building," the Empire State became a successful commercial office building. The continuing northward trend of Midtown took the prime corporate tenants whom Raskob had hoped to attract away to office buildings north of 42nd Street; the tenancy of the building therefore has since bean largely drawn from the surrounding garment district. Among others housed In the building are the notions, shoe, shirt and hosiery industries, as well as many international corporations and banks.
The Empire State Building, however went beyond the aspirations of
Raskob for a prestigious and profitable commercial office building. The success of the observatory in drawing crowds of tourists, arid the guided tours by Governor Smith for all visiting celebrities, started a process which helped make the building famous the world over. March 1940 saw the building's four-millionth visitor (actor Jimmy Stewart), and May 1971 its forty millionth. "
The Empire State Building's place as symbol of New York derives perhaps equally from its function as a place to visit, from where the most spectacular view of Mew York can be had, and its function as a centrally located landmark, whose slender, pointed silhouette can be seen literally from miles around, marking out midtown Manhattan, the center of the metropolis. The famous silhouette has been reproduced in countless images, and small statues of the. building have been spotted in Far-Eastern bazaars 55 as well as In Times Square tourist shops. The building has figured In television and movies--most famous of these being King Kong—as a symbol of the summit of New York, the greatest creation of a great city.
In the 1970s, when the building lost Its title as world's tallest, the office of Shreve, Lamb & Harmon announced a plan to remove the mooring mast above the 86th floor observatory and replace it with twenty stories of office space, to reestablish the building's position as world's greatest skyscraper. The plan—apparently more a public relations ploy than a serious proposal —was quickly forgotten, and indeed would have been counter-productive, as It would have destroyed the silhouette by which the building is known.
Despite the loss of Its "world's tallest." title, In fact, the Empire State Building has lost none of Its original distinction or renown. Its design, its history, and perhaps also its position In the center of the city, have all helped it retain Its symbolic significance.
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary—May 1, 1981--a special proclamation was Issued by the Mayor of New York, declaring the week of May 1-8, 1981, to be "Empire State Building Week."
The Empire State Building remains New York's preeminent landmark.
- From the 1981 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
LIFE photo, source Google/Life 2008 (Free). SCAN AND REMASTERED by Dan Beaumont. WIKIPEDIA INFO CUT: After the successful completion of 7, Collins was assigned to the prime crew of Gemini 10 with John Young, with White moving onto Project Apollo. Their three-day mission called for them to rendezvous with two different Agena Target Vehicles, undertake two EVAs, and perform 15 different experiments. The training went smoothly, as the crew learned the intricacies of orbital rendezvous, controlling the Agena and, for Collins, EVA. For what was to be only the fourth ever EVA, underwater training was not undertaken, mostly because Collins just did not have the time. To train to use the nitrogen gun he would use for propulsion, a super smooth metal surface about the size of a boxing ring was set up. He would stand on a circular pad that used gas jets to raise itself off the surface. Using the nitrogen gun he would practise propelling himself across the "slippery table".[2]:177–198 For the three day flight, Collins received $24.00 in travel reimbursement.
For his first EVA Collins did not leave the Gemini capsule, but stood up through the hatch with a device that resembled a sextant. In his biography he said he felt at that moment like a Roman god riding the skies in his chariot.[2]:78
Viaje a EEUU - Día 3
The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story steel-framed landmarked building located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902, it was one of the tallest buildings in the city at 20 floors high and one of only two skyscrapers north of 14th Street – the other being the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, one block east. The building sits on a triangular block formed by Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and East 22nd Street, with 23rd Street grazing the triangle's northern (uptown) peak. As with numerous other wedge-shaped buildings, the name "Flatiron" derives from its resemblance to a cast-iron clothes iron.
The building, which has been called "one of the world's most iconic skyscrapers and a quintessential symbol of New York City", anchors the south (downtown) end of Madison Square and the north (uptown) end of the Ladies' Mile Historic District. The neighborhood around it is called the Flatiron District after its signature building, which has become an icon of New York City.
The Flatiron Building was designated a New York City landmark in 1966, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham as a vertical Renaissance palazzo with Beaux-Arts styling.Unlike New York's early skyscrapers, which took the form of towers arising from a lower, blockier mass, such as the contemporary Singer Building (built 1902–08), the Flatiron Building epitomizes the Chicago school conception: like a classical Greek column, its facade – limestone at the bottom changing to glazed terra-cotta from the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company in Tottenville, Staten Island as the floors rise – is divided into a base, shaft and capital.
Early sketches by Daniel Burnham show a design with an (unexecuted) clockface and a far more elaborate crown than in the actual building. Though Burnham maintained overall control of the design process, he was not directly connected with the details of the structure as built; credit should be shared with his designer Frederick P. Dinkelberg, a Pennsylvania-born architect in Burnham's office, who first worked for Burnham in putting together the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, for which Burnham was the chief of construction and master designer.[23] Working drawings for the Flatiron Building, however, remain to be located, though renderings were published at the time of construction in American Architect and Architectural Record.
Construction phases:
Building the Flatiron was made feasible by a change to New York City's building codes in 1892, which eliminated the requirement that masonry be used for fireproofing considerations. This opened the way for steel-skeleton construction. Since it employed a steel skeleton[25] – with the steel coming from the American Bridge Company in Pennsylvania – it could be built to 22 stories (285 feet) relatively easily, which would have been difficult using other construction methods of that time. It was a technique familiar to the Fuller Company, a contracting firm with considerable expertise in building such tall structures. At the vertex, the triangular tower is only 6.5 feet (2 m) wide; viewed from above, this pointed end of the structure describes an acute angle of about 25 degrees.
The "cowcatcher" retail space at the front of the building was not part of Burnham or Dinkelberg's design, but was added at the insistence of Harry Black in order to maximize the use of the building's lot and produce some retail income to help defray the cost of construction. Black pushed Burnham hard for plans for the addition, but Burnham resisted because of the aesthetic effect it would have on the design of the "prow" of the building, where it would interrupt the two-story high Classical columns which were echoed at the top of the building by two columns which supported the cornice. Black insisted, and Burnham was forced to accept the addition, despite the interruption of the design's symmetry. Another addition to the building not in the original plan was the penthouse, which was constructed after the rest of the building had been completed to be used as artists' studios, and was quickly rented out to artists such as Louis Fancher, many of whom contributed to the pulp magazines which were produced in the offices below.
Once construction of the building began, it proceeded at a very fast pace. The steel was so meticulously pre-cut that the frame went up at the rate of a floor each week. By February 1902 the frame was complete, and by mid-May the building was half-covered by terra-cotta tiling. The building was completed in June 1902, after a year of construction.
a colour shot of one of Walters rebuilt and refurbished Lorain cranes.it would seem that there is not much to do now to complete the transformation from USAF useage to one of Walters finished gems. behind the crane of note is the road tanker body that is being used as a fuel storage tank for Walters fleet.
I recently took part in my first Triathlon - The 2008 Blenheim Triathlon. The story of how I got to this starts at the end of my first ear of University, in the year 2000. I contracted glandular fever, and a doctor told me that I would feel "awful for two weeks, low in energy for a year, and have less energy for the rest of my life". I thought it would be a good idea to pull my finger out and work on getting fit, to prove the doctor wrong. My first efforts were extremely painful, and very short, and showed me quite how unfit I had become after a year of partying and very little exercise. When I spent two years in Japan, things moved up a couple of gears, and I started running, cycling and swimming longer distances. I found that the more exercise one does, the more one is inclined to do, until I was running half-marathon distances after work and cycling up mountains with friends (there's material for a retrospecitve blog if ever there was). Since these were the main sports I was doing, I wanted to do Triathlon, but I knew running was still my weak spot. With this in mind, I entered the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham on my return to the UK.
The marathon was massively painful in one of my knees, but because it was the event I had been building up to, I ran to the finish. Afterwards, it took about a week to be able to walk normally, and I concluded that running is not good for me. Supporting evidence for this is the fact that several members of my family on both my mother and father's sides have had knee problems to the point of surgery, and there is a history of arthiritis, so I decided to listen to the painful alarm bells. The training route to the triathlon consisted mainly of carrying on as before, and in fact the main hurdle was getting hold of all the equipment. I had foreseen the main expense as being the bike, but in fact it turned out to be the wetsuit. I managed to snag a basic raodbike for a mere 116 quid at Decathlon in their winter sale, and she is still going strong after over 700 miles.
My wetsuit is an Aquasphere Mako, hurriedly purchased from "Mike's Diving" in the week leading up to the Triathlon, and fortunately it fits like a glove. Thus prepared, George, his girlfriend and I headed up to Blenheim Palace on the day of the event, though not without a hitch as the following photo illustrates:
On arrival, we had to rack up, which basically means putting your bike and running gear in a rack in the transition zone and hopefully remembering their location. We then made our way down to the lake in our as-yet untested wetsuits, and had a briefing. Briefing over, we made our way to the pier, and followed the triathletes, leaping like lemmings into the remarkably chilly lake. The icy bite of the lake made things painful during the seemingly long wait for the starting claxon. I reassured George that the pain would go away once we started swimming, having no idea whether it actually would. Finally the claxon sounded and the lake transformed from idyllic tranquility to a frothing tumult of swimmers, all vying for position. I had read that the first 200-400 metres are the most stressful part of any triathlon, and that a lot of triathletes freak out at this point due to the combination of cold water on the face, sudden exertion, and being in water teeming with other people, all of whom seem to want to swim over you. Having been forewarned, I was prepared for this and kept switching from crawl to breast stroke to keep my bearings, and my head.
At the end of the swim, we clambered out of the water and some helpful attendants unzipped our wetsuits as we made our way up the hill for the 400m run to the transition zone.
At transition, I spent about two minutes trying to extricate myself from my wetsuit, writhing around on the gravel in a most undignified fashion, before finally emerging and grabbing my t-shirt and bike from the rack, clipping on my helmet and wheeling the bike towards the exit of the transition. There are so many tules dictating what one can and cannot do in transition, I was quite worried about getting disqualified for doing something that was banned, like putting my helmet on at the wrong time, or walking inappropriately... Once on the bike I made a mental note to not go too hard, as I am wont to do on my commute when anyone overtakes me. I wanted to pace myself to leave something in reserve for the run. The route was three laps of a track through the beautiful grounds of Blenheim Palace, adding up to just under 20km. There were several downhill sections marked with "slow down", which obviously were the most fun parts to go as fast as possible on, and build up some momentum for the ensuing hill-climbs. I still had not encountered George by the end of the third lap, and was pondering this when I heard a shout of "COME ON CHUFFY!" as George flew by on his trusty steed. I gave chase and we entered transition at the same time, in our appalling-looking skimpy swimming trunks.
The second transition should have been more straightforward than the first, as no wetsuit removal was necessary. Despite this fact, I managed to remove my helmet too early, earning a shouting-at from one of the marshalls. George and I then headed out of transition heading in completely the wrong direction, and the same marshall alerted us to our glaring error before witheringly shouting "The run exit is over there where there's a huge sign saying 'RUN EXIT'!". Thus informed, we set off on the run leg of the event. George had to drop back briefly as he was suffering from cramp owing to the transition from one leg-intensive exercise to another. I didn't want to go into cramp so I kept jogging steadily. I ran alongside a friendly Aussie called Coops and we chatted until the end, when he had challenged me to a sprint finish.
As the time approached, Coops said he didn't really feel the sprint coming on, and I could totally sympathise with him after my previous marathon experience, so I went for it, and here is a video of the finish: [video:youtube:O7cHwRKMHZI] All in all, it was a fantastic event, with much less painful after effects than the half marathon. It is definitely something I want to repeat. In fact, George and I have booked places at the Nottingham Triathlon on August 3rd.
This is very cool, because it shows you where this chunk fit originally in the dome.
The Frauenkirche was built as a Lutheran (Protestant) cathedral, even though Saxony's Prince-elector, Frederick August I, was Catholic.
The original Baroque church was built between 1726 and 1743, and was designed by city architect George Bähr, who did not live to see the completion of his greatest work. Bähr's distinctive design for the church captured the spirit of the Protestant liturgy by directly centering the altar, pulpit, and baptismal font in view of the entire congregation.
In 1736, famed organ-maker Gottfried Silbermann built a three-manual, 43-stop instrument for the church. The organ was dedicated on 25 November and Johann Sebastian Bach performed on it on the first of December.
The church's most distinctive feature was its 314-foot-high 12,000-ton sandstone dome, called "die Steinerne Glocke" or "Stone Bell," which had no internal supports. Despite initial doubts, the dome proved to be extremely stable: witnesses in 1760 said that the dome was hit by more than 100 cannonballs fired by the Prussian army led by chinchilla-like Friedrich II during the Seven Years' War.
The completed church gave the city of Dresden a distinctive silhouette, captured in famous paintings by Bernado Bellotto and Johan Christian Dahl.
In 1849 the church was at the heart of the revolutionary disturbances known as the May Uprising. The Frauenkirche was surrounded by barricades, and fierce fighting raged for days before those rebels who had not already fled were rounded up in the church and arrested.
The church survived two days and nights of the Allied bombing and the eight interior sandstone pillars supporting the colossal dome held up long enough for the evacuation of 300 people who had sought shelter in the church crypt, before succumbing to the heat generated by some 650,000 incendiary bombs that were dropped on the city. The temperature surrounding and inside the church eventually reached 1,000 degrees Celsius. The dome finally collapsed at 10 a.m. on 15 February. The pillars glowed bright red and exploded, the outer walls shattered, and nearly 6,000 tons of stone plunged to earth. The altar relief by Johann Christian Feige was only partially damaged; the altar and the chancel were among the remnants left standing.
In 1982, the ruins began to be the site of peaceful protests against the East German regime. On the anniversary of the bombing, 400 Dresdeners came to the ruins in silence with flowers and candles, part of a growing East German civil rights movement.
The blackened stones lay in a pile in the center of the city for around 45 years as residents of Dresden began salvaging unique fragments and numbering them for future use in reconstruction. Popular sentiment discouraged the authorities from clearing the ruins away to make a car park and the pile was conserved as a war memorial as a direct counterpart to the ruins of Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed by German bombing in 1940 and also serves as a war memorial. Because of the continuing decay of the ruins, Dresden decided in 1985 (after the Semperoper was finished) to rebuild the Frauenkirche after the completion of the reconstruction of the Dresden castle.
After the reunification of Germany, efforts were revived. In 1989, a 14-member group of enthusiasts headed by musician Ludwig Güttler formed a Citizens' Initiative, which developed into "The Society to Promote the Reconstruction of the Frauenkirche" and began an aggressive private fundraising campaign. The organization grew to over 5,000 members in Germany and 20 other countries. A string of German auxiliary groups were formed, and three promotional organisations were created abroad.
The charmingly named Günter Blobel, a German-born American, saw the original Frauenkirche as a boy when his refugee family took shelter in a town just outside of Dresden, days before the city was bombed. In 1994, he became the founder and president of the nonprofit "Friends of Dresden, Inc.", an American organization dedicated to the reconstruction, restoration, and preservation of Dresden's artistic and architectural legacy. In 1999, Blobel won the Nobel Prize for medicine and donated the entire amount of his award money (nearly US$1 million) to the restoration of Dresden, to the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche and the building of a new synagogue.
In Britain, the "Dresden Trust" has the Duke of Kent as its royal patron and the Bishop of Coventry among its curators. Additional organizations included France's "Association Frauenkirche Paris" and Switzerland's "Verein Schweizer Freunde der Frauenkirch."
Rebuilding the Frauenkirche cost €180 million (£122 million / US$217 million). The Dresdner Bank financed more than half of the reconstruction costs via a "donor certificates campaign," collecting almost €70 million after 1995. The bank itself contributed more than seven million euros, including more than one million donated by its employees. Over the years, thousands of watches containing tiny fragments of Frauenkirche stone were sold, as were specially printed medals. One sponsor raised nearly €2.3 million (US$2.75 million) through symbolic sales of individual church stones.
Using original plans used by Georg Bähr in the 1720s, reconstruction finally began in January 1993, under the direction of church architect and engineer Eberhard Burger. As far as possible, the church – except for its dome – was rebuilt using original material and plans, with the help of modern technology. The heap of rubble was documented and carried off stone by stone; the approximate original position of each stone could be determined from its position in the heap. Every usable piece was measured and catalogued and a computer imaging program (CATIA) that could move the stones three-dimensionally around the screen in various configurations was used to help architects find where the original stones sat and how they fit together.
Of the millions of stones used in the rebuilding, more than 8,500 original stones were salvaged from the original church, approximately 3,800 were reused in the reconstruction, with 2,000 pieces of the original altar being incorporated into the new structure. As the older external stones are covered with a darker patina, due to fire damage and weathering, the difference between old and new will be clearly visible for years after reconstruction.
The builders relied on thousands of old photographs, memories of worshippers and church officials, and old purchase orders detailing the quality of the mortar or pigments of the paint (as in the 18th century, copious quantities of eggs were used to make the color that provides the interior its almost luminescent glow).
When it came time to duplicate the oak doors of the entrance, the builders had only vague descriptions of the detailed carving. Because people often posed for photos outside the church doors, they issued an appeal for old photographs and the response included entire wedding albums.
The new gilded orb and cross on top of the dome was forged by Grant Macdonald Silversmiths in London using the original 18th-century techniques as much as possible. It was constructed by Alan Smith, a British goldsmith from London whose father, Frank, was a member of one of the aircrews who took part in the bombing of Dresden. Before travelling to Dresden, the cross was exhibited for five years in churches across the United Kingdom, including Coventry, Liverpool, St. Giles, and St. Paul's Cathedral. In February 2000, the cross was ceremonially handed over by Prince Edward, to be placed on the top of the dome some days after the 60th commemoration of D-Day, on the 22nd of June, 2004. The cross that once topped the dome, now twisted and charred, stands to the right of the new altar.
Seven new bells were cast for the church. They rang for the first time for the Pentecost celebration in 2003.
It was decided not to reproduce the Silbermann organ, which resulted in the "Dresdner Orgelstreit." A 4,873 pipe organ was built by Daniel Kern of Strasbourg, France and completed in April 2005. The Kern organ contains all the stops which were on the stoplist of the Silbermann organ. Additional stops also are included, especially a fourth swell manual in the symphonic 19th-century style.
The 1885 bronze statue of Martin Luther, which survived the bombings, has been restored and again stands in front of the church (where it serves as an excellent meeting point for, say, couchsurfers). It is the work of sculptor Adolf von Donndorf.
The foundation stone was laid in 1994, the crypt was completed in 1996, and the inner cupola was finished in 2000. The rebuilding was entirely completed in 2005, one year earlier than originally planned, in time for the 800-year anniversary of the City of Dresden in 2006. The church was reconsecrated with a festive service one day before Reformation Day.
From October 2005 through the year 2010, there will be an exhibition on the history and reconstruction of the Frauenkirche at the Stadtmuseum (City Museum) in Dresden's Alten Landhaus.
Liking the darker reds, this will make a find stand-in for the otherwise older dinky Bloodthirster from the 90's (80's?).
100% Games Workshop components, and alarmingly easy to accomplish.
Details on how it was built and painted can be found at my blog: battle-brothers.blogspot.com
No visit to York would be complete without a walk around the City Walls. At 3.4 kilometres long, the beautifully preserved walls are the longest medieval town walls in England. About 2.5 million people walk along all or part of the City walls each year, enjoying some amazing views. The completion of the entire circuit will take approximately 2 hours. There are five main bars or gateways, one Victorian gateway, one postern (a small gateway) and 45 towers.
York City Walls
The city or ‘bar’ walls of York are the most complete example of medieval city walls still standing in England today. Beneath the medieval stonework lie the remains of earlier walls dating as far back as the Roman period.
The Roman walls survived into the 9th century when, in AD 866, York was invaded by the Danish Vikings. The Vikings buried the existing Roman wall under an earth bank and topped with a palisade – a tall fence of pointed wooden stakes.
The wooden palisade was replaced in the 13th and 14th centuries with the stone wall we see today.
The medieval city walls originally included 4 main gates or ‘bars’ (Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and Micklegate Bar), 6 postern or secondary gates and 44 intermediate towers. The defensive perimeter stretched over 2 miles encompassing the medieval city and castle.
By the late 18th century, however, the walls were no longer required as defences for the city and had fallen into disrepair. In 1800, the Corporation of York applied for an Act of Parliament to demolish them. In addition to the poor condition of the walls at the time, the narrow gateways of the bars were inconvenient and the walls themselves hindered the city’s expansion.
Many other cities, including London, were removing their outdated, medieval city walls at this time. In York, however, the city officials met with fierce and influential opposition and by the mid-nineteenth century the Corporation had been forced to back down.
Unfortunately, the call for preservation came too late for some parts of the walls – the barbicans at all but one of the gateways (Walmgate Bar) had been torn down along with 3 postern gates, 5 towers and 300 yards of the wall itself.
Since the mid-nineteenth century the walls have been restored and maintained for public access, including the planting of spring flowers on the old Viking embankment. Today the walls are a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade 1 listed building.
Bootham Bar
There has been a gateway here for nearly 2000 years - Bootham Bar is on the site of one of the four main entrances to the Roman fortress.
The existing structure is not Roman but it has been around for quite a while. The archway itself dates from the 11th century and the rest of the structure is largely from the 14th century. In 1501 a door knocker was installed as Scots were required to knock first and seek permission from the Lord Mayor to enter the city.
The bar was damaged during the siege of York in 1644. Like Micklegate Bar, it was sometimes used to display the heads of traitors, the heads of three rebels opposing Charles II’s restoration were placed here in 1663.
Bootham Bar was the last of the gates to lose its barbican, demolished in 1835.
Fishergate Bar
1315AD - 1487AD
Fishergate Bar is one of six gateways in the city walls. It faces South towards Selby. Nearby used to be the large flooded area known as the King’s Fishpond.
‘Barram Fishergate’ is the first documented reference to the bar, in 1315. A central stone above the archway reveals the date of the current bar. It contains the York coat of arms and an inscription which reads:
‘A.doi m.cccc.lxxx.vii Sr Willm Tod knight mayre this wal was mayd in his days lx yadys’
This tells us that sixty yards of the wall, including the bar, was built in 1487 under Sir William Tod, mayor of York.
But just two years later, in 1489, Fishergate Bar suffered considerable damage in the Yorkshire peasants’ revolt against Henry VII. The rebels burned the gates of the bar after murdering the Earl of Northumberland. The gateway was bricked up soon after and wasn’t re-opened until 1834, to give better access for the cattle market.
Micklegate Bar
Micklegate Bar was the most important of York’s four main medieval gateways and the focus for grand events. The name comes from 'Micklelith', meaning great street.
It was the main entrance to the city for anyone arriving from the South. At least half a dozen reigning monarchs have passed through this gate and by tradition they stop here to ask the Lord Mayor's permission to enter the city.
The lower section of the bar dates from the 12th century, the top two storeys from the 14th. The building was inhabited from 1196. Like the other main gates, Micklegate Bar originally had a barbican built on the front, in this case demolished in 1826.
For centuries the severed heads of rebels and traitors were displayed above the gate, the many victims include Sir Henry Purcey (Hotspur) in 1403 and Richard, Duke of York in 1460. The last of the severed heads was removed in 1754.
Monk Bar
Monk Bar is the largest and most ornate of the bars, it dates from the early 14th century. It was a self-contained fortress, with each floor capable of being defended. On the front of the bar is an arch supporting a gallery, including 'murder-holes' through which missiles and boiling water could be rained down upon attackers.
Monk Bar has the city’s only working portcullis, in use until 1970. Like the other main gateways, Monk Bar originally had a barbican on the front. This was demolished in 1825.
The rooms above the gateway have had various uses over the years, including as a home and as a jail for rebellious Catholics in the 16th century.
The Red Tower
1490AD - 1491AD
The Red Tower, built in 1490, forms the only brick section of York’s famous city walls. Because it was built of brick its construction did not sit well with the local stone masons. So much so that it was the cause of dispute, and even murder.
The masons who worked on the majority of York’s walls and buildings were unhappy about the employment of tilers to build the Red Tower; their unhappiness led to them attempting to sabotage the building of the tower. The tilers had to ask for protection from the city council to stop the masons from threatening them and breaking their tools.
This protection made little difference, however. In 1491, the tiler John Patrik was murdered. Two leading masons, William Hindley and Christopher Homer, were charged with the murder but quickly acquitted.
The first recorded use of the name “The Red Tower” was in 1511, presumably in reference to its red brick colour rather than its bloody past.
Despite forming an important and unique part of the city walls, the Red Tower fell quickly into disrepair. It had to be repaired multiple times, notably in 1541 and 1545, and was in ruins by 1736. It was roughly restored in 1800 and became known as ‘Brimstone House’ – probably a reference to its former use as a manufactory for gunpowder. It has two storeys, and a garderobe. The way that the tower appears now is thanks to G F Jones’ restorations in 1857-8.
Walmgate Bar
Walmgate Bar is the most complete of the four main medieval gateways to the city, it is the only bar to retain its barbican, portcullis and inner doors.
Its oldest part is a 12th century stone archway, the walled barbican at the front dates from the 14th century, the wooden gates from the 15th century and the timber-framed building on the inside from the 16th century.
It was burned by rebels in 1489 and battered by cannon during the siege of 1644.
Baile Hill
William the Conqueror ordered two castles to be built in York, one on either side of the River Ouse.
They formed a defensive system in response to the recent violent unrest.
'York Castle' was later reinforced and eventually rebuilt in stone and so now appears much more substantial. But originally both castles were of a similar size and layout.
Baile Hill is the name given to all that remains of York's other castle. It was the man-made mound, or motte, of the castle.
Excavations in 1979 revealed remains of timber buildings and a strong fence at the summit of the mound, together with a staircase up one side. The surrounding bailey was defended by a bank of earth built on top of the original Roman city wall.
Barker Tower
This river-side tower was built in the 14th century. It was positioned at the boundary of the medieval city-centre and, in conjunction with Lendal Tower on the opposite bank, was used to control river traffic entering the city. A great iron chain was stretched across the river between the two towers and boatmen had to pay a toll to cross it. The chain also served as a defence for the city. As early as 1380 Thomas Smyth was named as the tower’s ‘keeper of the chain’.
For boats coming downstream it would be the second toll in quick succession; St Mary's Abbey had its own tower and toll collection system a little further up the river.
Barker tower was leased for long periods to various ferrymen (and at least one woman) who ran passengers across the Ouse until Lendal Bridge was built in 1863. The ferry ran 'in summer and winter, fair weather and foul, Sundays and weekdays'.
The ferry was put out of business when Lendal Bridge opened in 1863. The tower has had plenty of other uses over the years, including as a mortuary for a brief time in the 19th century.
1968-1979
Upon completion of The Basic School at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, in 1968, Pace was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division in the Republic of Vietnam, serving first as Platoon Leader of Golf Company's Second Platoon and subsequently as assistant Operations Officer.
Returning from overseas in March 1969, he reported to Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.. During this tour, he served as Head, Infantry Writer Unit, Marine Corps Institute; Platoon Leader, Guard Company; Security Detachment Commander, Camp David; White House Social Aide; and Platoon Leader, Special Ceremonial Platoon. He was promoted to Captain in April 1971. In September 1971, Pace attended the Infantry Officers' Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. Returning overseas in October 1972, he was assigned to the Security Element, Marine Aircraft Group 15, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Namphong, Thailand, where he served as Operations Officer and then Executive Officer.
In October 1973, he was assigned to Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., for duty as the Assistant Majors' Monitor. During October 1976, he reported to the 1st Marine Division, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, where he served as Operations Officer, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines; Executive Officer, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines; and Division Staff Secretary. He was promoted to Major on November 1, 1977. In August 1979, he reported to the Marine Corps Command and Staff College as a student.
1980-1988
Upon completion of school in June 1980, he was assigned duty as Commanding Officer, Marine Corps Recruiting Station, Buffalo, New York. While in this assignment, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in October 1982. Reassigned to the 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton, Pace served from June 1983 until June 1985 as Commanding Officer, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. In June 1985, he was selected to attend the National War College in Washington, D.C.
After graduation the following June, he was assigned to the Combined/Joint Staff in Seoul, South Korea. He served as Chief, Ground Forces Branch until April 1987, when he became Executive Officer to the Assistant Chief of Staff, C/J/G3, United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/United States Forces Korea/Eighth United States Army. Pace returned to Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C. in August 1988 for duty as Commanding Officer. He was promoted to Colonel in October 1988.
1990s
In August 1991, Pace was assigned duty as Chief of Staff, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune. During February 1992, he was assigned duty as Assistant Division Commander. He was advanced to Brigadier General on April 6, 1992, and was assigned as President of the Marine Corps University and Commanding General of Marine Corps Schools at the Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Virginia, on July 13, 1992. While serving in this capacity, he also served as Deputy Commander, Marine Forces, Somalia, from December 1992 to February 1993, and as the Deputy Commander, Joint Task Force - Somalia from October 1993 to March 1994. Pace was advanced to Major General on June 21, 1994, and was assigned as the Deputy Commander/Chief of Staff, U.S. Forces, Japan. He was promoted to Lieutenant General and assigned as the Director for Operations (J-3), Joint Staff, Washington, D.C., on August 5, 1996.
Pace served as the Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Atlantic/Europe/South from November 23, 1997 to September 8, 2000.
2000s; Joint Chiefs of Staff
He was promoted to General and assumed duties as the Commander-in-Chief, United States Southern Command on September 8, 2000 until September 30, 2001, when he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On August 12, 2005, he was succeeded as Vice Chairman by Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani.
On April 22, 2005, at a White House press conference, President George W. Bush nominated Pace to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The previous Chairman, Richard Myers, retired from the position on September 30, 2005.
On his nomination, Pace said, "This is an incredible moment for me. It is both exhilarating and humbling. It's exhilarating because I have the opportunity, if confirmed by the Senate, to continue to serve this great nation. It's humbling because I know the challenges ahead are formidable."
On June 29, 2005, Gen. Pace appeared before the Armed Services Committee for consideration of his nomination[5] and was later confirmed by the Senate. On September 30, 2005, Gen. Pace was sworn in as the 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
On November 29, 2005, Gen. Pace was present at a press conference given by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, where Rumsfeld said that "the United States does not have a responsibility" to prevent torture by Iraqi officials. Pace disagreed with Rumsfeld, saying "It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it".
After White House officials asserted that Iran was supplying insurgents in Iraq with munitions, Gen. Pace questioned the validity of the claim in a February 2007 press conference. Specifically, Gen. Pace questioned the existence of direct evidence linking the Iranian Government to the supply of the weapons, explosively-formed penetrators.
Retirement
On June 8, 2007, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that he would advise the President not to renominate General Pace because of concerns about contentious confirmation hearings in the Democratic-controlled Congress. The President nominated the former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Mullen to replace Pace. On October 1, 2007, General Pace officially retired at Fort Myer, Virginia.[
After his retirement ceremony, Pace left to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. There, he left seven handwritten notes dated for that day, with a set of his four-star General insignia attached to each one. Each note was similar to this one:
"For Guido Farinaro USMC These are yours — not mine! With love and respect, your platoon leader, Pete Pace."
On 1 October 2007, the editors of the National Review encouraged Virginia voters to draft Pace to run in 2008 for the Senate seat to be vacated by retiring Senator John Warner. The magazine cited Pace's conservative Catholic beliefs in making its suggestion.[18]On 2 October 2007, the Wall Street Journal's Political Diary ran a piece about Virginia Republicans attempting to persuade Gen. Pace to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. John Warner in 2008.[
On April 3, 2008, private equity firm Behrman Capital announced that Pace had joined the firm as an operating partner and been named chairman of the board of Behrman portfolio company, Pelican Products. He was also named a director of ILC Industries, Inc., also a Behrman company.
Pace also currently serves on the Secretary of Defense's Policy Board.
May 12, 2019 - Aqua Tower is a mixed-use residential skyscraper located at 225 North Columbus Drive. Design Architect: Jeanne Gang of Gang Studio. Architect of Record: Loewenberg & Associates. (2009)
"From the moment it appeared on the Chicago skyline, the Aqua Tower has earned numerous awards for design excellence. However, it hasn’t kept all the glory for itself.
It’s fair to say Aqua is a star-maker, with its 2009 completion putting the city’s newest neighborhood, Lakeshore East, on the tip of everyone’s tongue. And though Aqua certainly wasn’t architect Jeanne Gang’s first project, it is the one that put her on Chicagoans' architectural radar The Aqua Tower’s design is a brilliant new approach to the problem long ago identified by Louis Sullivan—how to create an aesthetic for a functional tall building. The basic structure is a standard, modern box. But Jeanne Gang and her firm, Studio Gang, surrounded this box with slow-rippling, white concrete balconies, giving the skyscraper a sculptural quality.
Each individual balcony is unique in size, shape and protrusion, allowing residents to chat with neighbors above or below. The balconies also help to break up wind vortices, minimize wind shear, shade neighboring apartments and prevent birds from colliding with windows. Each balcony is part of a greater floor slab. Contractors used GPS coordinates to precisely pour each of the 82 designs. Building Aqua was a feat of engineering.
Those not staying in Aqua’s Radisson Hotel (floors 1 through 18) or living in the residential units (floors 18 through 81) can experience the building’s majesty, even from afar. The curving white concrete balconies and colored glass create the impression of water cascading down the building's sides.
Situated next to Lake Michigan in Lakeshore East, the building’s water motif connects residents and visitors to the city’s most remarkable natural landform. Also paying homage to the Midwest’s natural beauty is Gang’s decision to make the Aqua Tower planet-friendly, through rainwater collection systems, heat resistant and fritted glass, and energy-efficient lighting.
Aqua is the tallest building in the United States designed by a woman-owned firm."
Previous text from the following website: www.architecture.org/learn/resources/buildings-of-chicago...
The southern facade of the Ingenium Building (nearing completion) adjacent to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
As per Wikipedia:
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Ingenium, (Long name: Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation) formerly called the Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation, is a Canadian Crown corporation responsible for overseeing national museums related to science and technology. The name is based off the Latin root of the word ingenuity.
The corporation oversees the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The organization is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario.
The corporation's museums are associated with the Canadian Museum Association, the Virtual Museum of Canada and the Canadian Heritage Information Network. Ingenium has an
open documents portal where the corporation shares working documents and corporate plans. It also maintains an open data portal.
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Alumni Hall—built in 1925 as the university’s first student center and listed on the National Register of Historic Places—is nearing completion of the only renovation in its 88-year history. The renewed Collegiate Gothic-style building will offer expanded terraces, an exercise room, a café, and new classroom and gathering spaces.
Victory Artistic Gold Box series by G.J. Hayter, Bournemouth.
No guide illustration.
About 800 pieces.
24 x 18 in.
Pre-1970.
The finished article. Not the most exciting image, which is probably why I was able to acquire it for a very reasonable price, but all the same an enjoyable project. The pieces were in remarkably good condition.
By zooming in it should be possible to see the figurals (whimsies).
VM Houses Ørestad
Plot Architects, Ørestad 2004-2005
PLOT Architects (2001-2006):
Julien De Smet (later JDS)
Bjarke Ingels (later BIG)
M HOUSE:
12500 m2
95 housing units
COST: 95 000 000 DKK.
COMPLETION 2004
V HOUSE
12500 M2
114 housing units
COST: 97 000 000 DKK.
COMPLETION 2005
PROJECT TEAM:
JULIEN DE SMEDT, BJARKE INGELS
ALISTAIR WILLIAMS, ANNA MANOSA, ANNETTE JENSEN, BENT POULSEN, CHRISTIAN FINDERUP, CLAUS TVERSTED, DAVID ZAHLE, DORTE BØRRESEN, FINN NØRKJÆR, HENNING STÜBEN, HENRICK POULSEN, INGRID SERRITSLEV, JAKOB CHRISTENSEN, JAKOB LANGE, JAKOB MØLLER, JAKOB WODSCHOU, JØRN JENSEN, KARSTEN HAMMER HANSEN, MADS H LUND, MARC JAY, MARIA YEDBY LJUNGBERG, NADJA CEDERBERG, NARISARA LADAWAL, OLE ELKJÆR-LARSEN, OLE NANNBERG, OLIVER GRUNDAHL, SANDRA KNÖBL, SIMON IRGENS-MØLLER, SOPHUS SØBYE, SØREN STÆRMOS, THOMAS CHRISTOFFERSEN, XAVIER PAVIA PAGES.
The VM Houses are two residential blocks formed as the letters V and M. The blocks are formed as such to allow for daylight, privacy and views. The vis-à-vis with the neighbour is eliminated by pushing the slab in its centre, ensuring diagonal views to the vast and open, surrounding fields. All apartments have a double-height space to the north and wide panoramic views to the south. The logic of the diagonal slab utilized in the V house is broken down in smaller portions for the M house. In this project, the typology of the Unite d’ Habitation of Le Corbusier is reinterpreted and improved; the central corridors are short and receive light from both ends, like bullet holes penetrating the building. The VM Houses offer more than 80 different apartment types that are programmatically flexible and open to the individual needs of contemporary life – a mosaic of different life forms.
THE MANIPULATED PERIMETER BLOCK IS CLEARLY DEFINED IN ITS FOUR CORNERS BUT OPENED INTERNALLY AND ALONG THE SIDES. THE VIS-A-VIS WITH THE NEIGHBOUR IS ELIMINATED BY PUSHING THE SLAB IN ITS CENTER, ENSURING DIAGONAL VIEWS TO THE VAST OPEN FIELDS AROUND. THE BUILDING VOLUME PROVIDES OPTIMAL AIR, LIGHT AND VIEWS TO ALL FLATS. ALL APARTMENTS HAVE A DOUBLE-HEIGHT SPACE TO THE NORTH, AND WIDE PANORAMIC VIEWS TO THE SOUTH.
THE LOGIC OF THE DIAGONAL SLAB UTILIZED IN THE V HOUSE IS BROKEN DOWN IN SMALLER PORTIONS FOR THE M HOUSE. IN THIS PROJECT THE TYPOLOGY OF THE UNITE D'HABITATION OF LE CORBUSIER IS REINTERPRETED AND IMPROVED: THE CENTRAL CORRIDORS ARE SHORT AND GET LIGHT FROM BOTH ENDS, LIKE BULLET HOLES PENETRATING THROUGH THE BUILDING.
Source:
Battery Russell (1904-1944) - Battery Russell was built at Fort Stevens in Clatsop County, Oregon between March 1903 and August 1904 and was transferred for service August 12, 1904 at a cost of $125,000. Battery Russell was named for Bvt. Major General David A. Russell who was killed in action September 19, 1864 at Opequan, Virginia, during the U.S. Civil War (earlier in his career he served as commander of Fort Yamhill). Deactivated December 29, 1944 upon completion of Battery 245. (www.fortwiki.com/Battery_Russell)
On the night of June 21, 1942 the Japanese submarine I-25 commanded by Capt Tagami Meiji surfaced near the mouth of the Columbia River, having followed American fishing boats to evade the minefields in the area. It had previously patrolled the Oregon Coast and grounded the SS Connecticut. Now it aimed to attack the harbor defenses at Fort Stevens, which still retained its old Endicott Batteries, which were now 40 years outdated. Surfacing about 16 km from shore, I-25 opened fire at Battery Russell, the nearest defenses at Fort Stevens, with 144 mm shells, jarring awake the artillery garrison. Immediately the commander of the fort ordered the lights cut out of the fort, plunging the entire area into darkness. The gun crews were quickly ready, but permission to fire was denied, mostly because I-25 was firing wide and the commander did not want a reply to allow the submarine to pinpoint the positions to either fire at or triangulate for more serious attacks. After firing 17 shots, I-25 was attacked by an A-29 Hudson. Successfully evading the attacks, the Japanese submarine submerged and disappeared. Though two of the shells landed near Battery Russell the only damage the Japanese shells did was to cut several large telephone cables and destroy a baseball backstop.
The bombardment of Fort Stevens was the first military fortification to come under attack on U.S. soil since the War of 1812 and the only time the Axis powers would attack a military installation on the continental United States during WWII. It was also the second attack on US soil since I-17 bombarded the oil refinery at Ellwood four months earlier.
I-25 would have one more role to play in attacks on the US during WWII. On August 15, Warrant Officer Nubuo Fujita flew a Yokosuka E14Y floatplane stored on I-25 to launch incendiary attacks on the Pacific Northwest, hoping to burn a large part of the Oregon forest. Light wind, wet weather and sharp lookouts quickly foiled the attack near Brookings, Oregon, which caused no damage. On September 29 Fujita tried again near Port Orford, but to this day there has been no evidence of the bombing recovered in Oregon. Nevertheless the two air attacks Fujita performed would be the only time the United States has been subjected to an aerial attack by a foreign power. Unsuccessful, I-25 then crippled the SS Camden and sank the SS Larry Doheny as well as the Soviet L-16 (which was technically neutral, being mistaken for an American submarine) before returning to Japan. I-25 would be sunk a year later.
In November 1944 facing the threat of defeat, the Japanese began launching what would eventually number some 9400 fire balloons, hydrogen balloons carrying antipersonnel bombs or incendiaries to the United States. Carried by the jet stream, the bombs were the first intercontinental weapon ever used. The attack was dramatic but largely ineffectual; at least 300 made it to the United States, some landing as far East as Texas and Michigan. Interestingly on March 10, 1945, one balloon landed at the Hanford Site in Washington, site of the Manhattan Project's nuclear production facility; the balloon short-circuited electricity to the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but power was restored almost immediately by backups. Only one caused fatalities; on May 5, 1945 Pastor Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife Elsie and five of his Sunday school children went to picnic in the forest of Gearhart Mountain in Southern Oregon. While Archie parked the car, Elsie and the kids looked for a picnic spot. Two rapid explosions then killed all six. Investigators guessed that an incendiary bomb had landed weeks before and that the bomb had been set off when kicked. Elsie Mitchell, Edward Engen, Jay Gifford, Joan Patzke, Dick Patzke, and Sherman Shoemaker were the only known deaths in US soil as a result of enemy action during WWII.
Along with the Bombardment of Ellwood and the German sabotage attempt Operation Pastorius, these would constitute the only Axis attacks on the United States during WWII (both Alaska and Hawaii, as well as the Philippines, Midway, Wake and American Samoa were territories). Oregon, being one of the closest locations in the continental United States to Japan, would thus be the unlucky state to bear to brunt of the pinprick Axis attacks on the home front.
In 1962, Nubuo Fujita, who survived WWII, was invited to Brookings, Oregon by the Brookings Junior Chamber of Commerce, to great local controversy. Nevertheless, Fujita arrived with his family and in a well-regarded ceremony, presented his family samurai sword to the city. Treated with respect and affection, he would return to Brookings several times, planting a tree in 1992 at his bombing site 50 years earlier. He died in 1997 having received an honorary citizenship of Brookings. In his obituary in the New York Times it was revealed that in the 1962 visit, Fujita had actually planned on using his ceremonial sword to commit seppuku if he faced a hostile reception at the hands of his former enemies. As it is, Fujita's samurai sword remains in a place of honor at the Brookings, Oregon library.
For the past few years I have heard about a funny little near ghost town in the middle of nowhere rugged Montana. It's called Ingomar and it has quite a past--it's a very interesting place! To get there you have to drive some pretty desolate roads. You hardly see another car and all you have to accompany you is wind and dust. It's worth the trip!
Ingomar is a town in decline. It has some very notable buildings, but they are falling into disrepair (save for the newly remodeled depot). In the days to come you'll be seeing two more sets of Ingomar photos--because it has alot to offer for a photographer :)
Here's the history (it's very worth reading!):
"Upon completion of the Milwaukee Railroad in 1910, Ingomar became the hub of commerce in an area bounded by the Missouri River to the north, the Musselshell River to the west and the Yellowstone River to the south and east. Ingomar was an ideal location for a railhead and shipping center for the thousands of acres between the Yellowstone and the Missouri Rivers. The town site was platted in 1910 by the railroad and named by railroad officials. The depot was completed in 1911.
Contributing to the growth of the area north to the Missouri and south to the Yellowstone was the Homestead Act of 1862, later amended to give settlers 320 acres of land which, if proved up in 5 years, became their own. The railroad advertised the area as "Freeland" and was responsible for bringing settlers into the area.
Ingomar was also the sheep shearing center to the migratory sheep men using the free spring, summer and fall grass. Ingomar became the site of the world’s largest sheep shearing and wool shipping point. Two million pounds of wool a year were shipped from Ingomar during the peak years. Shearing pens in Perth, Australia, were designed using the Ingomar pens as a model. Wool was stored in the wool warehouse located adjacent to the shearing pens, and shipped out by rail through 1975, when the wool warehouse was sold to William Magelssen. Rail service was discontinued in 1980.
Since potable water could not be found at the town site, water was supplied by the Milwaukee Railroad using a water tender. The water tender was left in Ingomar as a gift by the Milwaukee Railroad when services were discontinued. In late 1984, a water system was installed for the few remaining Ingomar residents.
Between 1911 and 1917, there were an average of 2,500 homestead filings per year in this area. The post office was established in 1910, with Si Sigman as the postmaster. Ingomar soon became a bustling town of 46 businesses, including a bank, 2 elevators, 2 general stores, 2 hotels (of which, one remains), 2 lumber yards, rooming houses, saloons, cafes, drug store, blacksmith shop, claims office, doctor, dentist, maternity home and various other essential services. To the northeast of the town site is what remains of Trout Lake, a body of water impounded by the embankment of the railroad, which provided boating and swimming in summer, skating in winter, and a source of ice that was cut, harvested and stored in 3 ice houses to provide summer refrigeration. Fires, drought and depression have wreaked havoc on this community over the years. The dreams of homesteaders vanished as rain failed to come in quantities to assure a crop with sufficient frequency to enable them to make a living. A reluctance to abandon the town has kept it alive through the devastating fire of 1921, which destroyed a large portion of it. Some businesses rebuilt, but others moved on.
The Ingomar Hotel located at the corner of Main Street and Railway Avenue was built in 1922 and connected to an older dining room which was managed by Mrs. H. J. Broom, and by Stena Austin after Mrs. Broom’s death. The mortgagor, Emil Lura, took over ownership and management of the property, after twice foiling Stena’s efforts to torch the hotel. At that time rates were 50 cents per night and no women allowed; after World War II rates were raised to $1 per night. The building was purchased by Bill Seward in 1966 and is no longer operated as a hotel. The present day Jersey Lilly had its beginning as a bank in 1914, known as Wiley, Clark and Greening, Bankers. On Jan. 1, 1918, the bank was reorganized from a probate bank to Ingomar State Bank; it received a federal charter, and operated as the First National Bank of Ingomar from January until July 21, 1921, when it closed. On October 13, 1921, the bank went into receivership. In June, 1924, William T. Craig was charged in Federal Court in Billings with misapplying certain funds of the bank. Craig was found guilty and sentenced to 16 months and fined $1,000. In April, 1925, the Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed the Montana decision and the indictment was ordered quashed. Craig was dismissed. The money lost by the bank customers was never repaid.
In 1933, Clyde Easterday established the Oasis bar in the bank building; Bob Seward took over the bar in 1948 and named it the Jersey Lilly after Judge Roy Bean’s bar of the same name in Langtry, Texas. Bob’s son, Bill, purchased the building in 1958, and the Jersey Lilly continued under his ownership, serving as the local watering hole, cafe and general gathering place for area residents until August, 1995, when it was purchased by Jerry J. Brown. The Jersey Lilly is internationally known for its beans and steaks. The cherry wood, back bar of the Jersey Lilly is one of two which were transported from St. Louis by boat up the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers and installed at Forsyth in the early 1900s. This bar was stored at Forsyth during Prohibition, sold to Bob Seward, and installed here in 1933; the other back bar was destroyed in 1912, when the American Hotel burned in Forsyth.
The original frame school building, the Jersey Lilly and Bookman Store were all placed on the National Registry of Historic places in September, 1994. Both the original frame school building and the Milwaukee Depot are now privately owned.
Ingomar retains its post office and one rural route with mail delivered every Friday in spite of snow, rain, heat or gloom of night.
Area residents banded together to construct a rodeo arena, which has become the home of one of the best NRA rodeos. Rodeos are held throughout the summer and early fall.
Across the street from the Jersey Lilly, the local 4-H club has constructed a park with horseshoe pits and picnic tables for public use.
A campground with hookups is open throughout the year. If you are planning a stay in Ingomar, call the Jersey Lilly at 358-2278 for information.
From the grazing of buffalo to Texas cattle to early sheep men and through the homestead era, this land has completed a cycle, bringing it back to its primary use, production of natural grasses. Ingomar survives today because of the social needs of the people of this vast and sparsely populated area." -ultimatemontana.com
Manchester Metrolink at Shadowmoss Road, Wythenshawe on the Airport Extension due for completion in 2016!
The latest change to the tram fleet at Beamish Museum is now nearing completion. The 1935-built former Oporto 196 has now been re-liveried as South Shields 196 and will re-enter service soon (hopefully by the end of August 2012) and will no doubt be very popular with passengers and tram enthusiasts alike.
This tram, a four-wheeled single decker, was built by Boavista Works of Companhia Carris de Ferro do Porto (Oporto Tramways Company) to a 1909 American design. It is mounted on a Brill 21E design of truck, equipped with a pair of GE(USA) 270A 55hp motors, controlled from licensee-built B54E controllers.
The change is, perhaps, a little fanciful in that South Shields Corporation never had any trams of this type and, although their fleet did include single deckers, their highest fleet number when they closed in 1946 was "52" - so they never actually had a "196".
The other area of doubt is the colour of the livery. There are no known reliable coloured photographs of South Shields trams and so the colours used are as close as possible to the bus fleet of the former Corporation. In my opinion they are a little too colourful!
On a positive note, the tram looks magnificent and will be even better when the eight advertising hoardings (including the iconic "Shop at Binns") are added to the roof. Another credit to the work of Phil Anderson.
Copyright © 2012 Terry Pinnegar Photography. All Rights Reserved. THIS IMAGE IS NOT TO BE USED WITHOUT MY EXPRESS PERMISSION!
42nd Street, Midtown Manhattan, New York City
The 35-story blue-green McGraw-Hill Building sitting in the midst of parking lots , tenements and a bus station on the west side of Midtown, has been unique since its completion in 1931. Since its creation, the building has been hailed as New York's first monument to the International Style, reclaimed by proponents of the Moderne, and decried as an ugly "green elephant. It has been thought the key to great developments on the west side, and lamented as an "overinprovement" for a hopelessly depressed area.
As a design, it was the product of the gradual shift in architectural taste from the machine-age abstract decorativeness of the Moderne or Art Deco style to the corporate-age utility of the International Style, and of the constantly innovative and growing architectural genius of Raymond Hood. As a real-estate venture it was the product of the forces of extraordinary corporate growth in the 1920s which saw the merger of two small independent specialist publishing houses into a giant institution, and of the efficiency and economy-mindedness of James H. McGraw.
McGraw-Hill
James Herbert McGraw (1860-1948) and John Alexander Hill (1858-1916) were pioneers in the publication of specialized journals for the electrical and engineering fields.- Hill, originally from Sandgate, Vermont, grew up in Mazcmanie, Wisconsin; after working as a railway engineer out west he came to New York City in 1888 to join the American Machinist Publishing Company.
He quickly became editor of Locomotive Engineer. buying it in 1891 and going on to build the Hill Publishing Company (formed in 1901) which, by the tine of his death, was publishing five major engineering journals: American Machinist, Power, Engineering News, Engineering and Mining Journal, and Coal Age. In 1914 he built the twelve-story Hill Building for his growing company at 469-473 Tenth Avenue at 36th Street, and incorporated into it several innovations—including an early version of air conditioning combined with unopenable windows.
McGraw and Hill first joined forces in 1909. Each had branched out into the publication of engineering books, and in that year they merged their side-line operations into tiie McGraw-Hill Book Company -- a flip of a coin determined that Hill would be its president and that McGraw's name would ccme first in the new company's name. Following Hill's death in 1916 the two journal-publishing companies, which had been major rivals, considered merging as well, and in 1917 the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company cane into being, with James H. MoGraw its president.
McGraw-Hill expanded tremendously over the next twelve years. The new company moved into the Hill Building at Tenth Avenue, and sold the McGraw ruilding to the United Publishing Corporation, although the Book Company .remained as tenant until 1921 when it moved into the Penn Terminal Building at 370 Seventh Avenue at 31st Street. With the United Publishing Corp. the company purchased the Newton Falls Paper Company in 1920. In 1926 McGraw-Hill Catalog and Directory Conpany, Inc., was formed.
By 1929 McGraw-Hill was publishing over thirty journals, and its branches were spread all over New York City. The publishing company was becoming cranped for space in the old Hill Building, even though a thirteenth story had been added. The building's elevators could not handle the increasing loads. Even after the freight elevators had been adapted for passenger use, a memo was sent out requesting employees to walk up one and down one or two flights to help free up the service.
Clearly a new building was called for. In October 1929, a new building committee was appointed by the Board of Directors which was now chaired by James McGraw. The following year the Annual Report announced:
The present headquarters building has long been outgrown; offices of the Book Company, McGraw-Hill Catalog and Directory Company, the Business Publishers International Corporation, the Circulation Department, and Atlantic District Sales staff of the Publishing company being located at different addresses in New York City.
For the purpose of bringing all these units under one roof and effecting substantial economies in operation and improved efficiencies in administration, a thirty-three story modem office building is now being erected by an associated company, in which we will be the principal tenants under a favorable lease. It will occupy a plot of ground containing approximately 50,000 square feet can West Forty-Second Street extending through to ^orty-First Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and will provide every facility for the complete publishing operation
Site
The site of the McGraw-Hill Building is one of its peculiarities — the location of a tall office building west of Eighth Avenue was as much an anomaly fifty years ago as it is today. On the 42nd Street portion of the site were three four-story and two five-story tenement buildings; along the West 41st Street front were six four-story buildings.
Many of these had been converted to offices and stores by 1930. A 1940 real-estate assessment described the building's immediate neighbors on West 42nd Street as "old, obsolete structures, of limited, height.... cheap stores and restaurants.... poorer class lofts, offices
and teaming houses with considerable vacancies." Along Wast 41st Street, were "old mercantile and rooming house structures, commercial garages and parking lots." There were also a "local Greek settlement" and "tenements with colored occupancy."
Despite the depressed state of the area, however, developer John A. Larkin, head of the 330 West Forty-Second Street Corporation, had assembled over three years "one of the largest plottages under one control on the west side of midtown Manhattan" comprising roughly 47,500 square feet in tie middle of the block bounded by 42nd and 41st Streets and Eighth and Ninth Avenues. In 1926 he surprised the real-estate world by filing plans for a 110-story, $22*5 million skyscraper on the site. The project, like many in the later 1920s, came to nothing, and in 1930 larkin effectively gave away the property to McGraw-Hill, in exchange for the old Hill Building and its site.
McGraw-Hill's new building conmittee had been looking at real estate between 34th and 47th Streets from Second to Ninth Avenues. After several possibilities had been considered and rejected, two final sites were put forward: the Larkin property, and a plot just around the comer from it at the northeast comer of West 41st Street and eighth Avenue.
The reasons for locating a major business headquarters so far west of midtown were strictly practical and economic, involving considerations of zoning, transportation, and land costs. McGraw-Hill planned to house its printing plant on the Iower floors of the new building, something the city's zoning laws did not permit between Third and Seventh Avenues.
West 42nd Street, even so far over, was a major traffic artery, and the site had easy access to Grand Central Terminal and Perm Station, as well as to post offices. A 1931 advertisement for the building included a map showing the "8 minutes walk to Grand Central Terminal."
Another consideration was that various engineering societies were close by, especially the Engineers' Club on West 40th Street which McGraw frequented to keep to with developments in the world serviced by his journals. The move in any case was not entirely into new territory, as the Hill Building was o:ily a few blocks away at Tenth Avenue and 36th Street.
A final consideration was the high cost of land in Manhattan. Not only was land cheaper outside of midtown, but the committee had worked out the exchange arrangement with Larkin, and felt that, "If these figures work out as we anticipate, we will acquire this new building in which all our activities in New York can be housed under one roof without raising any new money except by mortgaging our new property. "
Two days after the memo, McGraw-Hill and Larkin came to an agreement; this was announced in the Times on May 30, 1930, and the final exchange took place on July 1.
McGraw-Hill used only part of the plot for its building, reserving the western portion for future expansion or sale. The buildings there were demolished with the intention of erecting in their place an "attractive locking 'taxpayer'"; ultimately the lot was left vacant, however, to be used for parking, and finally sold in 1951, at which time the present post office was constructed.
Having chosen an out-of-the-way site in a depressed part of the city, McGraw-Hill spokespeople developed a tradition of rosy optimism about the area's future. In 1932, Frank Gale, editor of the McGraw-Hill News, wrote in the New York Herald Tribune that only six of the 33 stories of the building remained unrented, and
that property values in the neighborhood were going up thanks to the presence of McGraw-Hill. He quoted E.D. Conklin, president of the 342 Wast 42nd Street Corporation, which owned the building, as saying:
Interesting plans are afoot for the improvement of West Forty-Second Street. These plans, should they go through may give to our building the distinction of being a key structure in a great architectural scheme involving development and beautification of the area. Such plans would fit in perfectly with the presence at the comer of Eighth Avenue and Forty-Second Street of the world's largest subway station.
Four years later, in a similar burst of enthusiasm on the occasion of the opening of a bank branch in the ground floor of the building, the McGraw-Hill Bulletin announced:
The opening of Clinton Trust Company's "McGraw-Hill Building Office" (that's what they have named it) is evidence of a vast change that is taking place in the West Side. Zoning laws recently enacted will, in the course of a few years, eliminate many of the dwellings in this section, opening the space to business and industry. As the elevated motor highway is extended up the Hudson, it will become the main artery of traffic leading to the North. The New York Central Railroad has plans under way to put its tracks in a subway and turn Eleventh Avenue into a boulevard.
Nothing of the kind ever happened, and the 1940 appraisal of the building concluded that "the McGraw-Hill Building as a real-estate enterprise is an ever-improvement for the location."
The area had not changed significantly by the time McGraw-Hill finally sold its headquarters in 1970 on moving to Rockefeller Center.
At the McGraw-Hill Building he carried the advertising notion to its logical conclusion by crowning the building with eleven-foot high terra-cotta letters spelling "McGRAW-HILL," making the conpany's nana an inljegral part of the design.
When McGraw-Hill approached Hood in 1930, he was at the height of his career. He had been appointed one of the eight supervising architects for the Chicago World's Fair; he was one of the architects for Rockefeller Center; and his Daily News Building was rising on East 42nd Street. Articles about him were appearing everywhere, and one summed up his position in the architectural world as follows:
Leading the New York modernists at this moment are Ralph Walker, Ely Jacques Kahn, and Raymond Hood. ....Raymond Hood possesses the position in architecture that he wants. He is its brilliant bad boy.
The Building
In accordance with James McGraw's instincts for economy and utility, and with Raymond Hood's business-like approach to architecture, the design and construction of the McGraw-Hill Building were to an extent the results of practical considerations: "Economy, efficiency and good working conditions were the three factors uppermost in mind when we first started plans."23 To McGraw-Hill's requirements for space, approximately 350,000 square feet, were added 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of rentable area, enough to "yield sufficient income to insure our occupancy at a rental of 90C per sq. ft. without putting us too far i^to the real estate business."24 n^e conpany decided against using the entire Larkin plot for its building, because that would have produced "a squat type of structure with larger areas in the lower floors than could be economically used by us or rented. "
Instead, 130 feet of frontage was taken on West 42nd Street leaving enough to allow reasonable development on the rest of the plot in the future. The floor area requirements of the company, in oonbination with the setback requirements of the zoning law resulted in a 32-story tower.
Inside, the McGraw-Hill Building, although intended to be the office headquarters of a major corporation, was designed not as as an office building but instead as a less expensive "ordinary better grade loft type" building. 26 Fouilhoux, Hood's partner, explained:
The requirements for large areas for manufacturing purposes in the lwsr stories, and for big clerical forces in the office floors in the upper portion, also the dimensions of the property, led us to plan floors in large units extending from street to street.
The plans for consolidation of all the various McGraw-Hill functions in one building included housing the conpany's presses on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors, although the printing operation ultimately proved uneconomical and was sold in 1933. The second through tenth floors were therefore designed for the extra heavy loads necessary for manfacturing and printing industries, and given extra high ceilings — throughout the building these range from 12 feet to 18 feet 6 inches. Within these spaces the departments were arranged in the most efficient order possible.
Hood and Fouilhoux insisted, as they had for the American Radiator and Daily News Buildings, that the profile of the McGraw-Hill Building was the result of zoning laws, internal lighting needs, and economic requirements.
The same laws and requirements, however, had faced the same architect in the same year ca the eastern edge of the same street for a similar type of client, the Daily News, but had produced a thoroughly different profile. Raymond Hood's notions about skyscrapers were changing, and he handled the design of the McGraw-Hill Building in what to his contemporaries was a very striking, unusual, and, to some, unsettling manner.
In fact, the building has two distinct profiles. The setbacks, just one bay wide, create "a pleasant [shape] as it is seen when approached from the east or west. " This is a Deco contour, not unlike tliat of the Chrysler or Empire State Buildings, of a broad base narrowing in steps, out of which rises a slender tower, crowned by the ribbed pylon-like narrow end of the McGraw-Hill sign. It is the shape seen in most photographs of the building, in views from either end of midtown, and especially in views from across the Hudson River, where it joins the outline of the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings as the major elements in the midtown skyline. But these setbacks "are not apparent from the north or south. "
Seen from those angles the building seams to be a slab rising straight up with no break to the crowning insignia — a classic International Style design.
The greatest amount of light possible was provided by the over 4000 double-hung windows: "every floor, whether it is the 28th, the 13th or the 6th, is wall lighted no matter what the position of the sun." Employees had adequate natural light from 40 to 60 feet away from tine windows, which were "placed as close to the ceiling of each floor as the building regulations would permit, and run down to about desk height from the floor. "
They were not arranged, however, in the standard Deco fashion of indefinitely long vertical strips, as for example in the Daily News Building, but rather as horizontal bands circling the mass of the building — the "ribbon windows" typical of the utilitarian International Style. They look, in fact, quite like factory loft windows. This arrangement gave the entire building a horizontal sense — even the individual windows were composed only of horizontal elements, narrow panes divided by muntins, with no mull ions used at all.
The vertical organization of Deco buildings vividly expressed the tallness of skyscrapers as compared to their surrounding lower neighbors. The horizontal organization of McGraw-Hill instead expressed the structure of the building, 33 floors laid one on top of another. The window bands are broken only on the eastern front, where two wide vertical brick strips run up the middle to meet the crowning ribbed pylon, accentuating the Deco profile of that side. The arrangement of its windows, more than any other single feature, marked the building for critics and historians as one of the first major examples of the International Style in New York City.
To the unusual profile and window arrangements of the McGraw-Hill Building Hood added the totally unexpected element of colored terra-cotta. Architectural terra-cotta had come into use in America following George B. Post's 1878 design for the Long Island Historical Society in Brooklyn Heights, and had been used to
face entire buildings, including the Bayard-Condict Building, the neo-Gotidc Liberty Tower and the Woolworth Building. McGraw-Hill claimed t)iat theirs was the "largest application of machine-made terra cotta on record."
The terracotta was manufactured by the Federal Seaboard Terra Cotta Corporation in South , Amboy, New Jersey.
When asked why steel and terra cotta were used on the face of the building instead of the usual brick or stone, Mr. Hood said that after six months or a year, the usual brick or stone facing begins to grow dingy and dank in appearance. Steel and terra Cotta are just as durable as brick or other materials usually used, and it has the decided advantage of not becoming dingy or nondescript.
The color of the terra-cotta sheathing, however, was completely without precedent. Many different colors were considered, including yellow, orange, green, gray, red, "and even Chinese red. "
The blue-green, or sea-green, finally chosen was said to be McGraw's own choice. Exactly what color it is was not unanimously agreed on: Rood called it blue, while McGraw-Hill has always called the terra-cotta green, and their headquarters "the Green Building," or "the Green Kremlin."
Hood's approach to the color, unlike his approach to the windows, was thoroughly Moderne and Art Deco in inspiration. The color has dimmed somewhat with time, but a contemporary account describes its original appearance in detail
This color was chosen because of its atmospheric quality, effective under all conditions of sky color and brightness, enhanced by the glazed reflecting surface. The metal covered vertical piers are painted a dark green-blue, almost black. The metal windows are painted an apple green color. A narrow band of Vermillion is painted on the face of the top jambs of the windows and across the face of the metal covered piers.
Vermillion is also used on the underside of the horizontal projections on the pent house and on the signs on the sides of the pent house and over the front entrance. The golden color of the window shades effectively complements the cool tone of the building. They have a broad blue-green vertical stripe in the center tying them into the general color scheme.
Their color is an unusually important element of the exterior design. The entrance vestibule is finished in sheet steel bands enameled dark blue and green alternately, separated by metal tubes finished in silver and gold. A portion of the main corridor adjoining the transverse elevator corridor is finished like the entrance vestibule. The walls of the main and elevator corridor are finished in sheet steel enameled a green color.
The color scheme was carried inside the building, where "experts have studied with interest the use of two shades of green for interior walls, a combination believed to give the maximum of rest to the eyes of office workers." Even the elevator cabs were finished in "green baked enamel an steel" and the elevator operators wore green uniforms with silver stripes.
Hood's own description of the exterior color gives away sctne of his true feelings about architectural color; he called it:
Dutch blue at the base, with sea green window bands, the blue gradually shading off to a lighter tone the higher the building goes, till it finally blends off into the azure blue of the sky. The final effect is a shimmery, satin finish, somewhat on the order of the body of an automobile.
The gradual shading of color — used also in buildings by Ralph Walker and others — and the reference to the automobile are both classic Art Deoo notions. The editor of the McGraw-Hill News continued the reference to the automobile, describing the colored steel bands at the entrance as being "lacquered like the body of a motor car, " and noting that in the future they would be "simonized, just like the old car."
The company was aware that its building's color was unusual, but was very proud of it, claiming its distinction as the largest polychromed building in the world:
We haw enough faith in the attractiveness and utility of color in business building exteriors and interiors to hcpe that our pioneering effort will set a good example for the designers of future tall bui.ldings.
The crowning "McGRAW-HILL" sign, Hood's final step towards making a building advertise its owner, was also a Moderne notion, adopted from the Russian Constructivist movement of the 1920s — a similar sign can be seen at the top of the PSFS Building in Philadelphia. Hood intimated that it was a terra-cotta version of the electric signs then prevalent on New York buildings.
Each letter, eleven feet high, was specially constructed of hand made hollow terracotta blocks. The main part of each letter was white, but each had an orange stripe inset into it in separate blocks. The sign served also to hide the building's viter tanks and other utility spaces. The horizontal ribs at the ends of the sign were also very much Moderne in inspiration, suggesting something of the German Expressionism of Eric Mendelsohn (cf. addition to the Rudolf-Mosse--Haus in Jerusalemer Strasse, Berlin, 1921-23).
Critical Evaluation
Critical response to the McGraw-Hill Building has depended to an extent on the importance attached by reviewers to its different stylistic aspects. In the 1930s, immediately following the building's completion, Moderne or Art Deco was the norm, and what struck reviewers most about the new building was its leaning, towards International Style forms.
The New Yorker in 1931 strongly disapproved of that leaning, expressing a dislike for the horizontal lines "which so many of our avant-garde have borrowed from Germany," and calling the colored terra-cotta "a rather dispiriting grayish-green tile." Its writer however noted approvingly that the design was "austerely free from any architectural ornament, since Mr. Hoed has adhered to his theory that ornament has no place m a business building any more than it has in a dynamo or a turbine."
Alfred T. North, writing in 1932, expressed seme of the general bewilderment about the building.
Today, it is necessary to establish new bases for appraising architectural excellence because the contemporary concept of architecture is new, as exemplified, for instance, in the recently constructed McGraw-Hill Building. Lacking all of the earmarks of historical architecture, this building is running the gauntlet of criticism.
....Mr. Hood undoubtedly has given an expression of his idea that architecture is the business of manufacturing shelter....
North saw its horizontality and practicality as major characteristics, but he was mostly taken with the building's colors, and described at length its changing hues at sunrise and sunset — which must have pleased Hood considering his interest in the "atmospheric qualities" of his choice. North ultimately postponed judgment, declaring the building to be "undoubtedly a decided step in a direction which, we cannot clearly distinguish at this time..."46
That direction was towards the International Style, and later that year the McGraw-Hill won the honor of being one of four American, buildings, and the only one in Mew York, to be included in Henry-Russell Hitchcock's and Philip Johnson's classic exhibition and book, The International Style. In the exhibition catalog, Hitchcock wrote:
Hood's latest important work, the McGraw-Hill Building, on West 42nd Street, built in 1931, marks a significant turning point in skyscraper design. It is the first tall commercial structure consciously horizontal in design executed by an architect since Sullivan's Schlesinger-Mayar Building in Chicago built in. 1903.
.... The continuous spandrels of the McGraw-Hill Building faced with sea green tiles, the vertical supports sheathed with dark green painted metal, and the wide groups of windows produce a standard wall pattern at once logical and agreeable.
In The International Style Hitchcock and Johnson praised the building for its "lightness, simplicity and lack of applied verticalism," but they ignored its coloring and Moderne entrance and lobby, and lamented the extraordinary McGraw-Hill sign, which they called "an illogical and unhappy break in the general system of regularity," suggesting that the body of the building was betrayed by an applied top and bottom.
By 1936, McGraw-Hill had accepted the label of "International Style" for its building:
The McGraw-Hill Building is what architects call the "International" Style, which was imported from Europe where it is popular in Holland and France.
----It is typical of this style to insist on the horizontal accent, and the late Raymond Hood emphasized that feature when he designed this building.
As the International Style became increasingly prominent, McGraw-Hill became more and more important as its first American example. Lewis Mumford t note in 1953 that it was "the first to discard vertical emphasis for horizontal bands of windows," observing that New York in the '30s brought the skyscraper "to its logical end: The Empire State Building, for its actual height, the Daily News for its proud verticality, the McGraw-Hill for its horizontal bands of windows, and the New York Hospital for its spacious setting."
Two years later, Emory Lewis wrote that post-war skyscrapers "have followed the pioneering McGraw-Hill building (1931) and discarded vertical emphasis for horizontal bands of windows."
Recent historians, however, in response to the revival of interest in Moderne and Art Deco, have claimed the McGraw-Hill Building as a Moderne or Deco creation:
In the McGraw-Hill Building of 1929-30 (sic) Hood turned to a machine aesthetic in tine streamlined lobby and ground floor exterior. Yet his surfacing material for the building above was the colored^craft material, terra-cotta, of the first Art Deco buildings.
In truth, the building is, in the words of Ada Louise Huxtable, "a unique blend of Moderne and International Style," a transitional step between the two approaches to architectural design.
The building's lobby and crowning sign, its "atmospheric" color, and its eastern and western profiles, are unmistakably Moderne in style. Even the "ribbon windows" are really a decorative illusion created by the painted metal dividers between the sets of double-hung windows. Yet it remains the first appearance of that type of window in a New York skyscraper, and the McGraw-Hill Building therefore has the double distinction of being both one of New York's major Moderne or Deco monuments, and the herald of the newly emerging International Style.
Conclusion
In 1970, McGraw-Hill left their 42nd Street building to move to new headquarters at Rockefeller Center, for precisely the same reasons they had originally moved to 42nd Street. The building was an embarrassment and its future uncertain. At the same time a growing awareness of its unique place in New York's architectural spectrum was eliciting pleas for its preservation. The company originally sold the building to the CRF Equity Corporation for $15 million; in 1973, however, CRF backed
out, leaving McGraw-Hill with a down payment and an empty building. McGraw-Hill maintained the building while proposals for using it as hospital space or housing ware considered.
It was filially bought in 1974 by Group Health Insurance, for use as its headquarters. As a result of that occupancy, the ' sign above the deer has been changed and the roof sign painted a dull color to obscure the terra-cotta letters. GUI recently sold the building, but remains as tenant.
Hopes for West 42nd Street and the Times Square area are rising again. The Port Authority Bus Terminal is building an addition directly abutting the McGraw-Hill Building to the east; theaters and actors' housing have been brought to 42nd Street wast of Eighth Avenue. As the West Side approaches what might be its long awaited revival, it is appropriate that this most conspicuous architectural gem receive its proper recognition.
- From the 1979 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Radio City Music Hall is the popular heir to the aristocratic Opera, planned but never executed at Rockefeller Center. It is one of four theaters originally envisioned for the complex by RKO, and the sole survivor of the two actually constructed. With 6,200 seats, the Music Hall was, upon its completion in 1932, the world' largest indoor theater.
RKO was formed in late 1928 by RCA's David Sarnoff and Joseph P. Kennedy (father of the late John and Robert F. Kennedy) who had controlling interest in the 7ilm Hooking Office (F30) production agency. Through a series of mergers between the Keith-Albee-Orpheum vaudeville chain, and later with Pathe Pictures (of which Kennedy was a major stockholder), Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) emerged as one of the six leading producers of motion pictures in America.[2]
Created on the eve of the Depression and encouraged—at least initially---by its distraction-seeking audiences, RKO intended to construct at Rockefeller Center two small theaters for drama and comedy and eventually television as well as a large movie house and an even larger showcase for two-a-day vaudeville spectaculars.
The grand scheme ripened as a result of Samuel Lionel Rothafel ("Roxy"1) who left his new namesake theater (located just one block west of Rockefeller Center) to join RKO.
Born in 1892 in a small Minnesota town, Roxy was the son of Gustave Rothafel, a shoemaker. His parents moved to New York when he was twelve, and after working in a department store as a cash boy, he entered the Marines. Seven years later Roxy traveled as a house-to-house peddler and ended up in Pennsylvania where he met his future wife. While working in his father-in-law's bar, Roxy transformed the large dancing hall at the rear into a movie house.
He bought a second-hand screen and projector, rented 200 chairs from an undertaker, hired a pianist and charged a nickel admission. He then moved on to Minneapolis and later Milwaukee, introducing such innovative entertainments as music and dance performances to movie theaters.
Roxy returned to New York City in 1913 to manage the Regent Theater at 116th St. and Seventh Avenue (generally recognized as the first "movie palace") where he improved the traditional program with novel lighting effects and a 100-piece orchestra. In the following years Roxy moved on to the newly completed Strand, then to the Rialto and Rivoli theaters, and in 1923 to the Capitol heater from which he broadcast "Roxy and his Gang," one of the most popular radio shows in America.
Roxy's brilliant theatrical reputation reached a peak in 1927 when he assumed management and gave his name to William Fox's Roxy Theater at West 50th St. and Seventh Avenue. With nearly 6,000 seats this opulent movie house was the largest in the world. Roxy allegedly intended to further enlarge the theater as a center for varied entertainments but when negotiations with William Fox failed, he found a most cordial welcome at Rockefeller Center.
By luring the impresario away from Fox, RKO won over its most serious competition. In return Roxy was made vice president, producer and manager of RKO's theaters at Rockefeller Center. Roxy's only rival was his record of past theatrical achievements. He surpassed it brilliantly, especially at Radio City Music Hall, where he realized "the aspirations of a lifetime."[5] Roxy brought in the noted theater architects C.W. and G.L. Rapp to advise on the Music Hall's design.[6] And while it was actually built by the Associated Architects, the Music Hall everywhere bore the influence of Roxy's own imagination and comprehensive knowledge of theater design.
On December 21, 1931, construction began on the "RKO Roxy" (rechristened in 1934 as the "Center Theater"). located to the south of the RCA Building on the southeast corner of 49th Street and Sixth Avenue (site of the present Simon & Schuster Building addition), this 3,700 seat house was Roxy's "intimate" theater.[7] It was designed for a mixed bill of motion picture and stage entertainment. Work was simultaneously undertaken on the "International (later Radio City) Music Hall," located on the other (north) side of the RCA Building on Sixth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets. It was built in conjunction with the RKO Building which was partially constructed over the Music Hall's lobby.[8] In 1938 the Music Hall's east wall was abutted by the newly constructed Associated Press Building.
The exteriors of the two theaters were similar in their low-lying limestone massing, a feature dictated by the building code then in effect which forbade construction above theater auditoriums. The (121 foot) high Music Hall, however, was almost twice as large as the RKO Roxy and considerably more decorative. Its exterior sculpture reflected the unique kind of entertainment which Roxy intended to showcase. Unlike his previous theaters which featured a mixed bill of stage and screen entertainment, the Music Hall was designed as a center for diverse and sophisticated entertainments such as legitimate drama, ballet and opera, combined with jazz, a revival of rapidly waning vaudeville and precision dances by the "Roxyette" chorus girls.
The more popular entertainments of the Music Hall were represented toy six bronze plaques over the entrance and side of the theater's vestibule on Sixth Avenue. The series was designed by Rene Chambellan and is closely related to that which he executed for the doors of the Grand Foyer on the theater's interior. The series shows scenes from International vaudeville acts. Heading from left to right are five Russian minstrels who accompany a gypsy dancer, two Black banjo players and a tap dancer, a seated German accordionist and saxophonist who play as a patient cat listens, five American precision dancers (the "Roxyettes"), an old French cellist and female violinist who play as a dog (in clown costume) sits upright, and finally a seated Jewish drummer with a tuxedo clad singer/dancer.
The more legitimate stage arts were depicted in a classically-inspired series of metal and enamel plaques installed 60 feet above West 50th Street on the Music Hall's sprawling south facade. Designed by Hildreth Meiere and executed by Oscar B. Bach, these L8 foot roundels represent a major technical and artistic achievement. They were fashioned from copper, bronze, aluminum, chrome nickel steel and vitreous enamels. Although polychromed metals had been used before, most notably in Sweden, they were largely ignored by American artists.
Meiere not only introduced the technique, but did so at unprecedented scale.[9] She drew on her skill as a painter and mosaicist to brilliantly enliven the r:usic Hall's wall and achieved, in the words of a Rockefeller Center spokesman, "a striking relief from the usual severe [mural] surfaces of theater buildings."
Meiere also drew on her previous success in Bertram Goodhue's Nebraska State Capitol and especially his National Academy of Sciences in Washington where Meiere painted similar inhabited roundels on the pendentives of its dome.
Dance is located at the far left of the wall, closest to Sixth Avenue- The plaque is dominated, as are the two companion plaques, by nude or semi-nude figures whose skin tone changes from matte nickel to a glowing metallic white, varying with the position of the sun.
Dance is represented by an animated female, copper symbols in her raised arms, who leaps across the wall as her brown-red hair flies upward over the geometrically patterned metal and enamel frame. Behind is a copper helmeted matte silver foot soldier (in a black and gold enamel moderne-patterned uniform). He attempts to catch the bacchanalian dancer in a blue and gold drape which billows around her and emphasizes the circular composition of the plaque.
Drama, the middle plaque, is represented by a monumental Athena-like figure, draped in a shiny patterned silver chiton with copper bodice. She radiates on the wall, particularly in the glare of afternoon sun. The muse wears an enormous fan-shaped copper and enamel crown, and is framed by a brown and red drape (with gold details and dark blue enamel trim). Her drape falls in angular cascades in a splendid Art Deco design, 'he muse is flanked by two crouching females who raise large comic and tragic masks (shiny silver with copper mouths and blue enamel hair).
Song returns the viewer back to Sixth Avenue as a dorsal performer prances west, her green and blue shawl flapping behind. A brown-draped, piper is seated to her left on a silver Greek stool. He plays while three shiny silver birds flutter around the animated singer.
The decorative aspect of the Music Hall's exterior is furthered by its two moderne verticals and marquee which wraps around the theater's southwestern corner, only to be continued In three additional segments along West 50th Street. The theater's north and south facades are also relieved at ground level by a variety of bronze-framed display windows and screens.
Above, and to the right of Hildreth Meiere's medallions, are eight long vertical screens. They mask with a diaper-like pattern the fire escapes that mar the exteriors of so many other theater theaters, Similar screens appear on the W. 51st Street facade which, facing away from the entertainment complex, is somewhat less decorative.
The Music Hall had its gala opening on December 27, 1932 with performances by twenty different entertainers including Martha Graham, Harold Kreutzberg and ids ballet, the contralto Vera Schwartz, comedians Weber & fields, the Tuskegee Institute choir singing Negro spirituals and more. Vet despite the varied program, the entertainment was disappointing.
It hardly mattered, as it was the theater itself that stole the show. As one critic wrote, "...the new -Music Hall need[ed] no performers... its beauty and comforts alone [were] sufficient to gratify even the greediest of playgoers. Rockefeller himself found it "beautiful, soul satisfying, inspiring beyond anything [he] dreamed possible.
Technically advanced and lavishly embellished through the unique collaboration of some of the finest decorative artists of the day, the Music Hall was nonetheless a tremendous financial disaster, for the first time in his thirty year career Roxy had misjudged his audience. To his ruinous dismay, there was no interest in his supra-vaudeville revival.
Within two weeks of its opening the Music Hall abandoned Roxy's entertainment policy, adopting in its place the film-and-stage show format of the smaller RAO Roxy (which had premiered just two days after the Music Hall). The change effectively eclipsed--and ultimately killed - the RKO Roxy. In subsequent years it showcased films, then musicals, later ice skating marvels, and finally television before being demolished in 1954.
The switch to a combined film-and-stage show policy in early 1933 barely sustained the sumptuous but unprofitable Music Hall, now suffering in the throes of the Depression.
The situation only worsened when RKO went into receivership in late January of the same year. A joint RCA-Rockefeller Center committee of six replaced the disgraced and now physically ailing Roxy in management of the Music Hall, extracting his resignation within the year.
The theater limped through 1934; for a time it even accepted "IOUs" in lieu of its $.35 - $.55 admission fees. But by mid-decade audiences were attracted to the Music Hall's varied bill, most movie palaces having abandoned live entertainment. By the early 1940s it had become one of Mew York's greatest attractions with first run Hollywood films and spectacular precision dancing by the Rockettes (previously named the "Roxyettes" but renamed after Roxy's resignation).
For decades the Music Hall remained "The Showplace of the Nation" before faltering perilously in the late 1960s and 1970s as a result of changes in popular entertainment habits. After closing for a brief period the house was revived in the late 1970s. Recently it has featured stage shows and popular concerts, ironically realizing Roxy's failed attempt to present varied live entertainment.
Radio City Music Hall is physically linked with No.1270 Avenue of the Americas, whose tower rises partially above the Music Hall's lobby. The Music Hall's main entrance at the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 50th Street is recessed under the lower wing of No.1270, and an enormous marquee and twin vertical signs are attached to this frontage, which is therefore being described with the Music Hall.
This wing rises five stories above the entrance, to a major setback, behind and above which rises the tower of No.1270, which turns the corner at 51st Street and continues east for seven bays. The south elevation of the complex, rising six and eight stories from the lot line, and the north elevation, proceeding eastward from the eighth bay, form the remainder of the Music Hall's exterior.
The major entrance to Radio City Music Hall is through a recessed rectangular areaway at the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and 50th Street. It is covered by a giant marquee which is supported on three polygonal piers faced in polished granite. In the long, north-south wall of the areaway are set a wide central pair of double-doors, a single double-door to its north, and two single double-doors to its south.
These are separated from each other by thick piers faced in polished bronze, with polished granite bases and bronze-enframed announcement boards, capped by a horizontal, modernistic banding with abstract floral ornament. Above these doorways are polished granite blocks serving as background for the series of bronze reliefs on entertainment themes (see p. 47 ). The north, short wall of the areaway is faced with polished granite, and holds a wide, ornamental bronze announcement board with one of the bronze entertainment reliefs above.
The enormous marquee over the areaway curves around the corner onto 50th Street, and continues along the street in three additional, separate segments which are cantilevered over the sidewalk. Their long vertical faces are divided into a wide upper zone and a narrow lower zone by three modernistic bands. These bands are formed by four narrow continuous metal strips, within which are set three neon tubes. The wide upper zone holds the words "Music Hall" in cursive neon lettering and the words "RADIO CITY" in bold neon capitals, repeating sequentially along the marquee. The lower band is reserved for changing announcements of current attractions.
Twin seven-story tall vertical signs rise at the north and south ends of the Sixth Avenue portion of the marquee; the northern vertical is placed perpendicular to the avenue, and the southern vertical parallel to it. Tall, narrow and rectangular, their narrow ends are faced with ridged metal plates, while their two wide feces hold the words "RADIO CITY" in vertically placed bold capital neon lettering, and, beneath, the smaller words "MUSIC HALL" in neon lettering on a diagonal. Each vertical is capped with a curving modernistic metal top. The top of the
northern vertical attaches directly to a seventh story setback, while the top of the southern vertical is continued down to the fifth-story setback of the adjoining lower facade.
The remainder of the Sixth Avenue elevation of Radio City Music Hall, in appearance an extension of No.1270's tower design, is treated in the standard Center manner of vertical window-spandrel bays alternating with limestone piers? spandrels are vertically ridged, and bays terminate in 2-eyelet foliage.
On 50th Street, the first three bays from the corner of Sixth Avenue are window-spandrel bays above the curve of the marquee. The marquee continues in three separate sections. Beneath it is a continuous polished granite wall, into which are inset, from west to east, a bronze-enframed double entrance, four bronze-enframed announcement boards continuing the decorative features of those in the areaway, and a series of bronze doorways.
Above the marquee, the wall is blank from the second through fifth stories, clad in limestone, and serves as a backdrop for three enormous polychromatic metal and enamel reliefs (see p. 48 ). Above the western end of this blank surface is one story of four window bays, while above the more extensive eastern end rise two stories of nine window bays, each bay combining windows, spandrels and grilles in an irregular order; these bays are topped with 2-eyelet foliage.
To the east of the large portion of blank wall is a set of eight four-story high vertical grilles at the second- to fifth-story level; these are continued in the stories above by triple spandrels, a single casement window, and terminal 2-eyelet foliage. The final ten easternmost bays revert to the typical window-spandrel bays set between limestone piers; these bays are grouped in a 2-3-2-3 pattern.
The ground level of this section contains, from west to east, three enormous bronze-enframed announcement boards with modernistic grilles and abstract floral ornament, and a series of intermingling smaller announcement boards and entrances. The entire treatment of the 50th Street elevation reflects the windowless auditorium of the Music Hall behind it.
The 51st Street elevation of the Music Hall is simply a smaller version of the 50th Street elevation. It includes a blank wall with no reliefs, and a six-story high vertical over a two-section marquee with curved corners and neon lettering. The ground-floor level is faced with polished granite, and contains bronze-enframed announcement boards and entrances. The portion of the elevation east of the blank wall and marquee is articulated with multi-story grilles similar to those on 50th Street; beneath them are large bronze-enframed announcement boards.
The final ten bays are treated with typical window-spandrel bays set between limestone piers. Towards the eastern end of the elevation at the ground floor level, two sets of
bronze-enframed doors are capped by an inventive grille based on conic-tragic masks symbolizing theater. There are also grilles on windows and on a pair of doors.
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Significant features include but are not limited to:
SIXTH AVENUE FACADE
- Buff colored shot sawed Indiana limestone cladding
- Vertically ridged slate-gray aluminum spandrels
- Decorative pier terminations
- Polished granite base and polished granite entrance wall
- Polished granite polygonal piers
- Bronze-enframed entrances
- Bronze-enframed announcement boards
- Bronze banding
- Bronze abstract floral ornament
- 2/1 double-hung steel sash
- Terminal foliage of the 2-eyelet variety
- Six bronze entertainment reliefs (see p. 47 )
- Marquee with neon lettering
- Two vertical signs with neon lettering
50TH STREET FACADE
- Buff colored shot sawed Indiana limestone cladding
- Beveled and scalloped window sills (at the east end of the
first story)
- Vertically ridged slate-gray aluminum spandrels
- Decorative pier terminations
- Polished granite base along the entire ground-floor level
- Bronze-enframed entrances
- Bronze-enframed entrances with grille doors
- 2/1 double-hung steel sash
- Bronze-enframed announcement boards with modernistic grilles
- Bronze abstract floral ornament
- Three polychromatic metal and enamel reliefs (see p. 48 )
- Marquees with neon lettering
51ST STREET FACADE
- Buff colored shot sawed Indiana limestone cladding
- Vertically ridged slate-gray aluminum spandrels
- Decorative pier terminations
- Polished granite base along the entire ground-floor level
- Bronze-enframed entrances
- Bronze grilles with comic-tragic masks
- Bronze-enframed entrances with grille doors
- 2/1 double-hung steel sash
- Bronze grilles over windows at ground-floor level
- Bronze-enframed announcement boards with modernistic grilles
- Bronze abstract floral ornament
- Terminal foliage of the 2-eyelet variety
- Marquee with neon lettering
- Vertical sign with neon lettering
- From the 1985 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report