View allAll Photos Tagged completion
ORATORIO: Detail
The following was written by the artist after the completion of THE PROCRUSTES TRILOGY:
ORATORIO portrays an event that occurred during the Second Holocaust, a performance of the Verdi Requiem at the Terezín concentration camp in 1944, with full orchestra and chorus of Jewish prisoners, for an audience of Nazis. The Procrustean overtones here are so obvious as to be grotesque and hideous in their irony. That this event precedes the Third Holocaust by barely a year increases its tragi-comedic theatricality. The laughter of Procrustes is his most terrifying edge and here, in ORATORIO, it is in full display. The Second Holocaust completes the cycle of biblical time initiated by J in the book of Genesis making possible the fulfillment of prophecies. The significance of ORATORIO is not the tragedy of the Jews but rather the paradox of theism: one man’s God is another man’s Satan.The portrayal of Jews in performance of a doctrinal Catholic requiem in a Nazi concentration camp is irony of such magnitude as to make Procrustes himself blush. The similarities of facial contortions involved with singing, screaming, and lamentation are so obvious as to be banal. The permission and encouragement of the Nazi propagandists for such a grandiose undertaking in the face of appalling circumstances is sadism of procrustean virtue.
The following is excerpted from Robert Cremean's THE TENTH ARCH, the sequel to VATICAN CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography:
ORATORIO was begun early in the summer of 1995. Sub-titled Variation On A Theme By Josef Bor, ORATORIO is an ambient composition of seven sculptures and a leaning wall eight feet high by thirty-two feet long. The chorus of images intends to cast into metaphor the significance of art in the face of death, the supreme confrontation of the real and the actual.
Eichmann was there and so was Moese. The event was the VERDI REQUIEM presented with full orchestra and chorus. . .
"The summer of the year 1944 was a time of storm.The shattered and demoralized German armies were retreating on all fronts, the German cities were transformed into heaps of bizzare ruins, and Hitler, inflamed into open madness by the attempt on his life, scattered death in the ranks of the Wehrmact. The Nazi empire was collapsing to its very foundations. None of this interfered with Eichmann’s plans. The tactics of his “final solution of the Jewish problem” in the field of Central Europe remained unchanged. Construction was completed on the strictly secret and perfectly disguised Birkenau work camp at Neu Berun,which had a capacity of ten thousand human bodies per twenty-four hours. And the chief device by which the disguise was maintained, a great assembly camp, the ghetto of Terezín, heretofore a place of suffering, hunger, and death, was in the short space of a few weeks rebuilt and decked out into a gigantic, astonishing film set, commissioned for the penultimate act of the tragedy of Terezín. In accordance with Eichmann’s scenario, living people had to help create this film set. And they believed in it; they began to hope and to live."
The Terezín Requiem
by Josef Bor
The performance was cut to an hour’s length to accommodate the official entourage, and the entire group of musicians was shipped off to Auschwitz a few days later. Procrustes is omnipresent; no myth he. He lives in simplistic answers and expedient solutions.... Artists are his favorite guests.
---------------------
THE PROCRUSTES TRILOGY:
Procrustes In Situ
Oratorio, Variation On A Theme By Joseph Bor
Martyrs Of The Cities Of The Plain
Collection:
Fresno Art Museum
Fresno, California
The Qutb complex (Hindi: क़ुतुब, Urdu: قطب), also spelled Qutab or Qutub, is an array of monuments and buildings at Mehrauli in Delhi, India. The best-known structure in the complex is the Qutb Minar, built to honor the Sufi saint Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. Its foundation was laid by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who later became the first Sultan of Delhi of the Mamluk dynasty. After the death of the viceroy, the Minar was added upon by his successor Iltutmish (a.k.a. Altamash) and much later by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, a Tughlaq dynasty Sultan of Delhi in 1368 AD. the construction of the Qubbat-ul-Islam Mosque or Dome of Islam [later corrupted into Quwwat-ul Islam] next to the Qutb Minar, in the Qutb complex, built on the ruins of Lal Kot Fort built by Tomar Rajput ruler, Anangpal in 739 CE and Qila-Rai-Pithora, Prithviraj Chauhan's city, the Rajput king, whom Ghori's Afghan armies had earlier defeated and killed, at the Second Battle of Tarain.
The complex was added to by many subsequent rulers, including Firoz Shah Tughlaq and Ala ud din Khilji as well as the British. Other structures in the complex are the Qutb Minar, the Quwwat ul-Islam Mosque, the Alai Gate, the Alai Minar, the Iron pillar, and the tombs of Iltutmish, Alauddin Khilji and Imam Zamin, surrounded by Jain temple ruins.
Today, the adjoining area spread over with a host of old monuments, including Balban's tomb, has been developed by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, and INTACH has restored some 40 monuments in the Park. It is also the venue of the annual 'Qutub Festival', held in November–December, where artists, musicians and dancers perform over three days. The Qutb Minar complex, with 3.9 million visitors, was India's most visited monument in 2006, ahead of the Taj Mahal, which drew about 2.5 million visitors.
ALAI DARWAZA
The Alai Darwaza is the main gateway from southern side of the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque. It was built by the second Khilji Sultan of Delhi, Ala-ud-din Khilji in 1311 AD, who also added a court to the pillared to the eastern side. The domed gateway is decorated with red sandstone and inlaid white marble decorations, inscriptions in Naskh script, latticed stone screens and showcases the remarkable craftsmanship of the Turkish artisans who worked on it. This is the first building in India to employ Islamic architecture principles in its construction and ornamentation.
The Slave dynasty did not employ true Islamic architecture styles and used false domes and false arches. This makes the Alai Darwaza, the earliest example of first true arches and true domes in India. It is considered to be one of the most important buildings built in the Delhi sultanate period. With its pointed arches and spearhead of fringes, identified as lotus buds, it adds grace to the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque to which it served as an entrance.
QUTB MINAR
The Qutb Minar is the tallest brick minaret in the world, inspired by the Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan, it is an important example of early Afghan architecture, which later evolved into Indo-Islamic Architecture. The Qutb Minar is 72.5 metres high, has five distinct storeys, each marked by a projecting balcony carried on muqarnas corbel and tapers from a diameter 14.3 metres at the base to 2.7 metres at the top, which is 379 steps away. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with surrounding buildings and monuments.
Built as a Victory Tower, to celebrate the victory of Mohammed Ghori over the Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan, in 1192 AD, by his then viceroy, Qutbuddin Aibak, later the first Sultan of Mamluk dynasty. Its construction also marked the beginning of Muslim rule in India. Even today the Qutb remains one of the most important "Towers of Victory" in the Islamic world. Aibak however, could only build the first storey, for this reason the lower storey is replete with eulogies to Mohammed Ghori. The next three floors were added by his son-in-law and successor, Iltutmish. The minar was first struck by lightning in 1368 AD, which knocked off its top storey, after that it was replaced by the existing two floors by Firoz Shah Tughlaq, a later Sultan of Delhi 1351 to 1388, and faced with white marble and sandstone enhancing the distinctive variegated look of the minar, as seen in lower three storeys. Thus the structure displays a marked variation in architectural styles from Aibak to that of Tughlaq dynasty. The inside has intricate carvings of the verses from the Quran.
The minar made with numerous superimposed flanged and cylindrical shafts in the interior, and fluted columns on the exterior, which have a 40 cm thick veneer of red and buff coloured sandstone; all surrounded by bands of intricate carving in Kufic style of Islamic calligraphy, giving the minar the appearance of bundled reeds. It stands just outside the Quwwatul mosque, and an Arabic inscription suggests that it might have been built to serve as a place for the muezzin, to call the faithfuls for namaz. Also marking a progression in era, is the appearance of inscriptions in a bold and cursive Thuluth script of calligraphy on the Qutb Minar, distinguished by strokes that thicken on the top, as compared to Kufic in earlier part of the construction.
Inscriptions also indicate further repairs by Sultan Sikander Lodi in 1503, when it was struck by lightning once again. In 1802, the cupola on the top was thrown down and the whole pillar was damaged by an earthquake. It was repaired by Major R. Smith of the Royal Engineers who restored the Qutub Minar in 1823 replacing the cupola with a Bengali-style chhatri which was later removed by Governor General, Lord Hardinge in 1848, as it looked out of place, and now stands in the outer lawns of the complex, popularly known as Smith's Folly.
After an accident involving school children, entry to the Qutub Minar is closed to public since 1981, while Qutub archaeological area remains open for public. In 2004, Seismic monitors were installed on the minar, which revealed in 2005 Delhi earthquake, no damage or substantial record of shakes. The reason for this has been cited as the use of lime mortar and rubble masonry which absorbs the tremors; it is also built on rocky soil, which further protects it during earthquakes.
QUWWAT-UL-ISLAM MOSQUE
Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque(Arabic: قوة الإسلام ) (might of Islam) (also known as the Qutub Mosque or the Great Mosque of Delhi) was built by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, founder of the Mamluk or Slave dynasty. It was the first mosque built in Delhi after the Islamic conquest of India and the oldest surviving example of Ghurids architecture in Indian subcontinent. The construction of this Jami Masjid (Friday Mosque), started in the year 1193 AD, when Aibak was the commander of Muhammad Ghori's garrison that occupied Delhi. The Qutub Minar was built simultaneously with the mosque but appears to be a stand-alone structure, built as the 'Minar of Jami Masjid', for the muezzin to perform adhan, call for prayer, and also as a qutub, an Axis or Pole of Islam. It is reminiscent in style and design of the Adhai-din-ka Jhonpra or Ajmer mosque at Ajmer, Rajasthan, also built by Aibak during the same time, also constructed by demolishing earlier temples and a Sanskrit school, at the site.
According to a Persian inscription still on the inner eastern gateway, the mosque was built by the parts taken by destruction of twenty-seven Hindu and Jain temples built previously during Tomars and Prithvi Raj Chauhan, and leaving certain parts of the temple outside the mosque proper. Historical records compiled by Muslim historian Maulana Hakim Saiyid Abdul Hai attest to the iconoclasm of Qutb-ud-din Aibak. This pattern of iconoclasm was common during his reign, although an argument goes that such iconoclasm was motivated more by politics than by religion.
However, many historians were unanimous regarding the fact that Qutb ud-Din Aibaq like many other Muslim rulers, had a pathological bigotry and distaste towards henotheistic values, and intolerance on cultures considered anathema in Islamic dogma, which had impelled him to vandalise those historic monuments.
The mosque is built on a raised and paved courtyard, measuring 43x32 m, surrounded by pillared cloisters added by Iltutmish between 1210 and 1220 AD. The stone screen between prayer hall and the courtyard, stood 16 m at its highest was added in 1196 AD, the corbelled arches had Arabic inscriptions and motifs. Entrances to the courtyard, also uses ornate mandap dome from temples, whose pillars are used extensively throughout the edifice, and in the sanctuary beyond the tall arched screens. What survives today of the sanctuary on the western side are the arched screens in between, which once led to a series of aisles with low-domed ceilings for worshippers. Expansion of the mosque continued after the death of Qutb. Qutbuddin's successor Iltutmish, extended the original prayer hall screen by three more arches. By the time of Iltutmish, the Mamluk empire had stabilised enough that the Sultan could replace most of his conscripted Hindu masons with Muslims. This explains why the arches added under Iltutmish are stylistically more Islamic than the ones erected under Qutb's rule, also because the material used wasn't from demolished temples. Some additions to the mosque were also done by Alauddin Khilji, including the Alai Darwaza, the formal entrance to the mosque in red sandstone and white marble, and a court to the east of the mosque in 1300 AD.
The mosque is in ruins today but indigenous corbelled arches, floral motifs, and geometric patterns can be seen among the Islamic architectural structures. To the west of the Quwwat ul-Islam mosque is the tomb of Iltutmish which was built by the monarch in 1235.
IRON PILLAR
The iron pillar is one of the world’s foremost metallurgical curiosities. The pillar, 7.21-metre high and weighing more than six tonnes, was originally erected by Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (375–414 AD) in front of a Vishnu Temple complex at Udayagiri around 402 AD, and later shifted by Anangpal in 10th century CE from Udaygiri to its present location. Anangpal built a Vishnu Temple here and wanted this pillar to be a part of that temple.
The estimated weight of the decorative bell of the pillar is 646 kg while the main body weighs 5865 kg, thus making the entire pillar weigh 6511 kg. The pillar bears an inscription in Sanskrit in Brahmi script dating 4th century AD, which indicates that the pillar was set up as a Vishnudhvaja, standard of god, on the hill known as Vishnupada in memory of a mighty king named Chandra, believed to Chandragupta II. A deep socket on the top of this ornate capital suggests that probably an image of Garuda was fixed into it, as common in such flagpoles.
TOMS
IOMB OF ILTUTMISH
The tomb of the Delhi Sultanate ruler, Iltutmish, the second Sultan of Delhi (r. 1211–1236 AD), built 1235 CE, is also part of the Qutb Minar Complex in Mehrauli, New Delhi. The central chamber is a 9 mt. sq. and has squinches, suggesting the existence of a dome, which has since collapsed. The main cenotaph, in white marble, is placed on a raised platform in the centre of the chamber. The facade is known for its ornate carving, both at the entrance and the interior walls. The interior west wall has a prayer niche (mihrab) decorated with marble, and a rich amalgamation of Hindu motives into Islamic architecture, such as bell-and-chain, tassel, lotus, diamond emblems.
In 1914, during excavations by Archaeological Survey of India's (ASI) Gordon Sanderson, the grave chamber was discovered. From the north of the tomb 20 steps lead down to the actual burial vault.
ALA-UD-DIN KHILJI´S TOMB AND MADRASA
At the back of the complex, southwest of the mosque, stands an L-shaped construction, consisting of Alauddin Khilji's tomb dating ca 1316 AD, and a madrasa, an Islamic seminary built by him. Khilji was the second Sultan of Delhi from Khilji dynasty, who ruled from 1296 to 1316 AD.
The central room of the building, which has his tomb, has now lost its dome, though many rooms of the seminary or college are intact, and since been restored. There were two small chambers connected to the tomb by passages on either side. Fergusson in his book suggested the existence, to the west of the tomb, of seven rooms, two of which had domes and windows. The remains of the tomb building suggest that there was an open courtyard on the south and west sides of the tomb building, and that one room in the north served as an entrance.
It was the first example in India, of a tomb standing alongside a madarsa. Nearby stands the Alai Minar, an ambitious tower, he started constructing to rival the Qutub Minar, though he died when only its first storey was built and its construction abandoned thereafter. It now stands, north of the mosque.
The tomb is in a very dilapidated condition. It is believed that Ala-ud-din's body was brought to the complex from Siri and buried in front of the mosque, which formed part of the madrasa adjoining the tomb. Firoz Shah Tughluq, who undertook repairs of the tomb complex, mentioned a mosque within the madrasa.
ALAI MINAR
Alauddin Khilji started building the Alai Minar, after he had doubled the size of Quwwat ul-Islam mosque. He conceived this tower to be two times higher than Qutb Minar in proportion with the enlarged mosque. The construction was however abandoned, just after the completion of the 24.5-metre-high first-story core; soon after death of Ala-ud-din in 1316, and never taken up by his successors of Khilji dynasty. The first story of the Alai Minar, a giant rubble masonry core, still stands today, which was evidently intended to be covered with dressed stone later on. Noted Sufi poet and saint of his times, Amir Khusro in his work, Tarikh-i-Alai, mentions Ala-ud-din's intentions to extend the mosque and also constructing another minar.
OTHER MONUMENTS
A short distance west of the enclosure, in Mehrauli village, is the Tomb of Adham Khan who, according to legend drove the beautiful Hindu singer Roopmati to suicide following the capture of Mandu in Madhya Pradesh. When Akbar became displeased with him he ended up being heaved off a terrace in the Agra Fort. Several archaeological monuments dot the Mehrauli Archaeological Park, including the Balban's tomb, Jamali Kamali mosque and tomb.
There are some summer palaces in the area: the Zafar Mahal, the Jahaz Mahal next to Hauz-i-Shamsi lake, and the tombs of the later Mughal kings of Delhi, inside a royal enclosure near the dargah shrine of Sufi saint, Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki. Here an empty space between two of the tombs, sargah, was intended for the last king of Delhi, who died in exile in Rangoon, Burma, in 1862, following his implication in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Also standing nearby is the Moti Masjid mosque in white marble.The ruins of the alai minar are currently in the qutb complex.
WIKIPEDIA
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]
Quadri ChamanDargah Shareef
Founder : Hazrat Syed Omer Hussaini Alias Sayyadusshuyukh R.A.(From To)
Father: Hazrat Parvarish Ali Hussaini R.A.born at Qazipura Hyderabad Deccan in 17theRabiul…..168…. On the sad demise of his beloved father at thevery young age of four was raised and brought up in the supervision of his brother Khwaja Saheb R.A. He completed his education his religious education under the supervision of Hazrat Khwaja Mahbooballah Qazipura.
Note: Hazrath Omer Pir and Khawaja Saheb’s parents are the direct descendents of the HolyProphet Sallallallaho Alaihewo Sallam (PBUH) and to Hazrat Ali and Lady Fatimatuzzahra (RA) PBUH. Hazrat Omer Saheb’s School of thought is directly linked to Hazrat Syedna Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani Ghousul Azam R.A and Hazrat Mahbooballah R.A ie. Teaching of Quran and Sunnah Tasawwuf for the Elite and shariah for the common folk. A Great Sufi Saint great preacher reviver of Sunnah , a theologian.
His services to the people of Deccan during the time of Plague were notable . His works Tafseer –e- Quadriya and translation of the Holy Quran are the most commendable and a continuing sawab e jaariya. This legacy of the completion of translation of Quran-e-Pak was accomplished by his noble son Hazrat Syed Mohammad Badshah Hussaini R.A alias Layeeq. These are some of the notable services to the society during his times. His powerful oratory skills of Sermons and Waaz transformed and attracted huge masses towards better understanding Quran, Islamic values and Prophetic traditions with his unparalled knowledge of Deen and exemplary practice of Zikr. These Manjalis and religious convocations reflected upon illuminating the souls of the elite and common folks to this day. Even the Nizam of Hyderabad used to attend to his Sermons and Manjalis with great devotion. Hazrat shaikhulislam Badshah Hussaini Qibla Passed away in ……… leaving behind his three great sons.
1. Hazrat syed Mohammed Habeeb Omer Al Hussaini R.A
2. Hazrat Syed Manjle Saheb R.A
3. Hazrat Qasim Hussaini Saheb chote Saheb R.A
Hazrat syed Mohammed Habeeb Omer Al Hussaini R.A followed the footsteps of his father Hazrat ShaikhulIslam Badshah Hussaini Qibla and continued his holy mission and rendered commendable services in the Rahmatabad Shareef and Godavari areas with his Telugu translation of Quran and free distribution to reach the masses and helping the needy and the poor. This Lamp of knowledge and Ashiq e Rasool sank in the Holy month of Ramadan and passed into Eternity in 1993. His services to the common folks and the needy could be seen in the large number of people visiting the Dargah Quadri Chaman for solace, faiz, peace and for fulfilling their worldly needs.2. Hazrat Syed Khaleeq Manjle Saheb Qibla R.A passed away at a younger age after a brief illness. May Allah sanctify His Mausoleum in Quadri Chaman. He was blessed with his four able sons who inherited their ancestral spiritual faiz and were given Qilafat by Hazrat syed Mohammed Habeeb Omer Al Hussaini R.A the then Sajjadah Nasheen of Dargah Quadri Chaman.
1. Hazrat Mukarram Pasha Saheb
2. Hazrat Ali Pasha Saheb
3.Hazrat Saif Pasha Saheb inherited the spiritual knowledge, barkath and fuyuz from his uncle and Spiritual guide Hazrat Syed Habeeb Omer AlHussaini Bade Saheb Qibla R.A. And he is presently continuing the legacy and spiritual lineage of Quadriya Silsila at Quadri Chaman and was bestowed Qilafat of the Silsila
4.Hazrat Faiz Pasha Saheb
5. Hazrat Qasim Hussaini (Chote Saheb) Qibla is survived by his 5 sons
1.Hazrat Ibrahim hussini (Sajjad Pasha) Saheb qibla the present custodian of the holy Shrine is the heir of the Chote Saheb who was the successor Sajjadah Nasheen of his brother Hazrat syed Habeeb Omer Hussini Qibla R.A the Sajjadah Nasheen of Dargah Quadri Chaman.
2. Hazrat Asim Pasha Saheb
3. Hazrat hyderPasha Saheb
The Quadri Chaman mission:
The Quadri Chaman mission is to preserve and pass on the legacy of the silsila e quadriya and the holy spiritual values of Holy Qurn, Prophetic Traditions and Islamic values under the guidance and teachings of Sultanul Aulia GousePak,
KOKIRI
Kokiri (II) 1951-1971. (Cargo) USSCo. 1951-1968.
ON: 179931
LR/IMO/ID: 5191529
Year: 1951
KOKIRI
Type: Cargo ship
Flag: NZL
Launch Date: 23.5.51
Date of completion: 9.51
Owner: USSCo. NZ Ltd., Wellington.
Builder: Henry Robb, Leith.
Yard No: 400
Link: 1623
Starke: V1951 #425
GRT: 2,470
NRT: 1,326
DWT: 3,129
LOA: 93.1
LPP: 88.5
Beam: 13.3
Draft: 17’ 6â€
2D-10 knots.
Subsequent History:
1954 the aft two derricks were removed at Auckland.
1958 Mar.12th she ran onto rocks at the end of the breakwater while entering Greymouth; repairs required replacement of 17 hull
plates.
1965: Two men were killed when a mystery explosion rocked the fore hold of the vessel as she was arriving at Wellington on 13
March 1965. Believed to be caused by a build up of coal gas.
1968 sold to Litonjua & Co., Manila & r/n JUNIOR K.L. (TheShipsList says 1967)
Disposal Data:
Missing during typhoon Elaine whilst on passage from Tanjong Mani to Hong Kong.
- last report from 13.00N/112.46E 5.10.1971 (~20*)
Kokiri was the last in a series of six AC class colliers built for the Union Steam Ship Company.
She spent almost all of her life shipping coal from Greymouth to Wellington, although other ports were visited on occasion.
Details: Mirimar Ship Index
Photo Credits: Many thanks to Gary Lane for the lovely pics he sent me.
By Steven Hoover
steve.hoover@korea.army.mil
CAMP HUMPHREYS – More than 350 people, dressed is various shades of pink, turned out to help Army Community Service’s Exceptional Family Member Program and the Girls Scouts join forces, Oct. 21, to host the “Breast Cancer Walk to Raise Awareness,” at Zoeckler Track.
With October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Takesha Green, the Camp Humphreys Exceptional Family Member Program manager and the event organizer, said she wanted “to provide a platform for our community that would bring awareness to not only Breast Cancer but cancer as a whole.”
Leslie Edens, the wife of Brig. Gen. Timothy J. Edens, the 2nd Infantry Division assistant division commander for support, provided opening remarks and then helped lead the first lap of walkers around the track during the “silent lap.” With the completion of the first lap, Staff Sgt Jorge Jimenez, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion (Attack), 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade, played music throughout the remaining laps.
Green said that she wanted every “woman, man and adolescent across all age groups aware of the importance of breast health and screening exams.”
Today, with advanced medical treatments and early detection, breast cancer is no longer considered a death sentence. There are more than 2.6 million breast cancer survivors in the United States alone. And with early detection the survival rate is over 90 percent.
“This event was more than I could have ever imagined,” Green said. “It kind of took on a mind of its own. The overwhelming support from the community and throughout the Peninsula was mind blowing. I had to pause for a minute just to take it all in. I couldn't have asked for better weather and greater community support. The vibe alone was just amazing.”
Whether they were running or walking, “people were enjoying themselves and having a great time,” she added. “This event definitely exceeded my expectations.”
U.S. Army photos by Steven Hoover
The Maryland National Guard Freestate Challenge Academy held their course completion ceremony for the 22 week residency phase for 104 cadets of class #47 at Havre de Grace High School, Havre de Grace, Md., Dec. 10, 2016. .
.
Retired Air Force Gen. Larry O. Spencer, who served as the VIce Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, spoke to the cadets as the keynote speaker..
.
The Academy is a two-phased 17-month intervention program for underemployed, drug-free, “at-risk” high school dropouts from the state of Maryland between 16-18 years of age. Following graduation from the resident phase, the cadets are mentored for an additional 12 months, during which time they are placed into jobs, continue their higher education, or vocational trades training or enter the military..
.
The mission of the Academy is to intervene in and reclaim the lives of at-risk youth and to produce graduates with the values, skills, education and self-discipline needed to succeed as adults..
.
The students were brought into a structured and highly disciplined quasi-military academic setting that builds confidence and self-esteem to become productive and contributing members of our society. Cadets attend academic classes to prepare them for the test for the General Education Development (GED) credential and Maryland High School Diploma.
It's funny, you have it fixed in your mind as to what you remember of a previous visit to a church, and you go in and find your memory was totally wrong.
I was met in the churchyard by two volunteers who were in the middle of strimming the graveyard, but were having a break and eating a picnic from a wicker basket.
As you do.
--------------------------------------------
More interesting than beautiful, the church consists of nave, chancel and central tower. The nave is twelfth century - a north window still dates from this period. In the thirteenth-century chancel is the outstanding sedilia, probably erected to mark the completion of the rebuilding works at that end of the church. Its shafts are of Bethersden marble and the top is boldly embattled. The church boasts a fine Royal Arms of George III. The corbels that supported the rood beam may still be seen while at the opposite end of the building is a charming eighteenth-century gallery built for musicians. Outside, on the south wall, we can find the remains of two mass dials.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Waltham
------------------------------------------
WALTHAM
LIES the next parish southward from Petham, taking its name from its situation among the woods. It is written in antient records, Temple Waltham, from the knights templars, early possessors of it. This parish is only part of it in the hundred of Bridge and Petham; another part, that is, so much as is in Town borough, is in the hundred of Wye; and the residue is in the hundred of Stowting. There are four boroughs in it, viz. of Waltham, Town Borough, Yoklets, and Bere.
WALTHAM lies still further in the same wild and dreary country, obscutely situated among the hills, and interspersed with woods, having a deep valley running through the midst of it, along which is the road from Canterbury through Petham to Elmsted and Hastingleigh. The soil of it is very chalky, poor, and covered with sharp slint stones; at the eastern boundaries is the Stone-street road, and near it, among the woods, Wadnall. On the other side of the valley, on the opposite hill, stands the church, with the village called Kakestreet, at a little distance from which is the hamlet and green called Hanville, so called after the family of Handville, or Handfield, whose habitation, (now belonging to Mr. Lade, of Canterbury) was close to it. Several of them lie buried in this church; they afterwards removed to Ulcombe, Ashford, and Canterbury, at the former a descendant of them still remains. They bore for their arms, Argent, a lion rampant, within an orle of nine crosses, formee, sable. (fn. 1) Southward from the church is Grandacre, for many years the habitation of the Proudes, alias Prudes, now belonging to the Rev. Mr. Marsh, of Bredgar; Yoklets, now belonging to Mr. Browning, who lives in it; and still further, at the southern boundary of the parish, in a wild, heathy country, is the once more noted habitation of Ashenfield, situated near the end of the ridge of hills which extend themselves above Crundal and Eggarton. Mr. Dodsworth is the present possessor of it.
THE MANOR OF WALTHAM, alias TEMPLE, was once part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and was given to the knights templars by archbishop Theobald, in king Stephen's reign, as appears by the inquisition of their lands, taken anno 1185, now in the exchequer, at which time Hamo de Chilham held this manor of them. Upon the dissolution of that order anno 17 Edward II. this manor, among the rest of their possessions, was given to the knights hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, with whom it continued till their suppression in the 32d year of Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, who granted it in his 34th year, in exchange, among other premises, to the archbishop, (fn. 2) by whom it was again exchanged with the crown, where it lay till queen Elizabeth granted the scite of it, in her 8th year, to Thomas Manwaring, (fn. 3) and in the latter end of her reign, the manor itself to his descendant John Manwaring, esq. by whose daughter and heir Hope Manwaring, it went in marriage to Humphry Hamond, whose son Mr. Manwaring Hamond, alienated it to Mr. Robert Stapleton, his mother's second husband, (fn. 4) who owned it in 1660, and his heirs passed it away to Sir William Honywood, bart. of Evington, in whose descendants it has continued down to Sir John Honywood, bart. now of Evington, the present owner of it.
WADENHALL, or Wadnall, as it is usually called, is a manor, situated on the eastern boundary of this parish, next to Stelling. It was antiently parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and continued so till archbishop Lanfranc granted it in see, to be held by knight's service, to two of his knights, Nigell and Robert; and he afterwards gave the tithes of the demesnes of it to the hospital of St. Gregory, in Canterbury, on the foundation of it, as will be further mentioned hereafter. After which it came into the possession of a family of its own name, and in the inquisition taken of knights fees in this county, anno 12 and 13 king John, returned into the exchequer, Thomas de Wadenhale then held it as one knight's fee. After which it became the property of the eminent family of Haut, who held it of the archbishop, and they frequently resided at it, as one of their principal mansions in this part of Kent. William de Haut, who resided here, and anno 5 king Edward I. founded a chapel at this seat. Nicholas was knight of the shire anno 18 Richard II. and the next year kept his shrievalty at Wadenhall. He left two sons, Nicholas, of Hauts-place, in the adjoining parish of Petham, and William, who was of Bishopsborne, and on his father's death became possessed of this manor, which continued in his descendants down to Sir William Haut, of that place, who in Henry VIII.'s reign, leaving two daughters his coheirs, Elizabeth, the eldest, carried it in marriage to Thomas Colepeper, esq. of Bedgbury, who in the 32d year of that reign, exchanged it with the king for other premises, and the fee of it remained in the crown till queen Elizabeth, in her 42d year, granted it to Sir John Sotherton. baron of the exchequer, whose heir sold it to Mr. Benjamin Pere, of Canterbury; from which name it afterwards passed to Richard, and from thence again to Butler, of Sussex, in whose descendants it continued down to John Butler, of Warminghurst-park, knight of the shire several times for that county, and he died in 1767, as did his son James in 1785, possessed of the fee of it, which now belongs to his heirs; but the rents and possession of it have been for some time vested in George Gipps, esq. M.P. of Canterbury, who has since sold them to Sir John Honywood, bart. and he is now entitled to them.
WHITACRE is a small manor in the southern part of this parish, which once likewise belonged to the see of Canterbury, and was granted by archbishop Lanfranc, with Wadenhall above-mentioned, to Nigell and Robert, his two knights, to hold in fee by knights service; and he afterwards gave the tithes of the demesnes of it to the hospital of St. Gregory, in Canterbury, on his foundation of it, as may be seen further hereafter. After which it came into the possession of owners of the same name, one of whom, Nigellus de Whiteacre, probably, by the similarity of the name, a descendant of that Nigell to whom archbishop Lanfranc first granted it, held it in like manner. After which it came into the name of Hilles, descended from those of Ash, near Sandwich, one of whom, William Hilles, gent. died possessed of it in 1498, s. p. and devised it to feoffees, who, in pursuance of his will, sold the mansion and adjacent demesnes of this manor to Simon a Courte, who at his death in 1534, gave them to his son-in-law John Gayler, who had married his daughter Dionise, and they alienated them to Moyle, as he did to Proude, in which name they continued for some time, together with two other estates in this parish, called Upper Andesdoor and Cernells, which have been since sold off, and now belong to Mr. Goddard, of Westenhanger, and to Mrs. Sutton, and till they were at length alienated to alderman William Cockaine, afterwards knighted and lord-mayor of London in 1619, descended from a family very early seated in Derbyshire, and son of William Cockaine, citizen and skinner of London, and bore Argent, three cocks, gules, crested and jelloped, sable, a crescent, or, a crescent for difference. (fn. 5) He passed them away to Sawkins, and James Sawkins, gent. of Liminge, died possessed of them in 1628, whose descendant sold this estate of Whitacre, since called the WALNUT TREE FARM, to Beacon, who was possessed of it in 1660, whose heirs afterwards conveyed it to Sir William Honywood, bart. of Evington, whose descendant Sir John Honywood, bart. of Evington, now owns it.
BUT THE MANOR OF WHITACRE, alias CRANESBROOKE, as it was then stiled, with the courts, rents, services, &c. continued in the name of Hilles some time longer, but at length it was alienated to William Boys, who did homage to archbishop Morton for it anno 7 Henry VII. and his descendant Sir John Boys; of St. Gregory's, by his will in 1612, settled it on the warden and poor of his new founded hospital, called Jesus hospital, in Canterbury, and they sold it lately, (under the powers of the land-tax redemption act) to Mr. R. Kelly, of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, the present possessor of it. A court baron is held for this manor.
ASHENFIELD, as it is now usually called, but more properly Eshmerfield, is another manor, lying at the southern boundary of this parish, in Wye hundred, which was formerly part of the possessions of St. Augustine; accordingly it is thus entered, under the general title of their lands, in the survey of Domesday:
In Wy hundred, the abbot himself holds Esmerefel, and Anschitil of him. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is one carucate, and there is in demesne. . . . with five borderers and six acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth forty shillings, and afterwards twenty shillings, now forty shillings.
Anschitil above-mentioned, appears to have held this manor of the abbot in fee, by a certain rent in lieu of all service, &c. as did after him Ralph Fitzbernard, of whom it was again held by Bertram de Criol, who gave it to his younger son John, and he died possessed of it in the 48th year of Henry III. during whose time Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester, lord of Tunbridge, and founder of the priory there, vir nobilis & omni laude dignus, died, as it was thought, of poison, in 1262, on a visit to him at this manor-house. (fn. 6). His son Bertram left two sons, John and Bertram, and a daughter Joane, who afterwards married Sir Richard de Rokesle, and on both her brothers deaths, s. p. became their heir, and this manor afterwards descended to her two daugh ters and coheirs, Agnes, wife of Thomas de Poynings, and Joane, wife of Sir William le Baud; and upon the division of their inheritance, Joane had this manor allotted to her. After which it passed into the name of Lovel, and from thence to Haut, in which it continued till Alice, daughter of Sir William Haut, of Bishopsborne, carried it in marriage to Sir John Fogge, of Repton, who sold it to Thomas Kempe, bishop of London, who devised it to his nephew Sir Tho. Kempe, K. B. of Ollantigh, whose descendant, of the same name, dying in 1607, without male issue, Mary his daughter and coheir entitled her husband Sir Dudley Diggs to the possession of it, and he sold it to Thomas Twysden, esq. of Wye, the younger brother of Sir William Twysden, bart. of Roydon-hall, whose son, of the same name, passed it away to Sir John Ashburnham, of Ashburnham, in Sussex, who died in 1620, (fn. 7) leaving Elizabeth his widow, daughter of Sir Thomas Beaumont, of Leicestershire, surviving, who held this manor in dower. She afterwards married Sir Thomas Richardson, speaker of the house of commons, and afterwards chief justice of the king's bench, and was in 1627 created baroness Cramond, in Scotland. After her death, her heirs, in king Charles II.'s reign, alienated it to Francis Barrell, sergeant-at-law, who died possessed of it in 1679, as did his grandson Francis, Barrell, esq. of London, whose third wise Frances, daughter and coheir of William Hanbury, esq. of Herefordshire, surviving him, held it in jointure till her death, when it came by his will to his two daughters and coheirs, and on the division of their estates, this manor has been allotted to the youngest, Catherine, married to the Rev. Frederick Dodsworth, S. T. P. and canon of Windsor, who is the present owner of it.
By the remains of the mansion-house of this manor some years ago, it appeared to have been a castellated mansion of some size and consequence. It is now a modern built farm house.
The chapel of Eshmerfield was one of the four appendant to the church of Waltham, to which the tithes of this manor were given in very early times, as will be further taken notice of hereafter.
There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually the same.
WALTHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St Bartholomew, consists of one isle and a chancel, having a low pointed tower between them, in which there is one bell. The church, which seems antient, has no monuments or inscriptions in it, worthy of notice. There was a chantry in this church.
¶This church was antiently appendant to the manor of Waltham, and probably continued so till archbishop Lanfranc separated them, by giving the former, as well as the tithes of the manors of Whitacre and Wadenhall, to his new-founded hospital of St. Gregory; and archbishop Hubert in king Richard I.'s reign, confirmed to it, among its other possessions, the church of St Bartholomew, of Waltham, with the land called Joclet, and the tithes of knights and husbandmen, with the four chapels of Elmsted, Esmeresfield, Wadenhall, and Dene. Of these, Elmsted has been long since a separate independent vicarage, in which the desecrated chapel of Dene is merged, being in that parish, and the chapels of Ashenfield and Wadnall, in this parish, long since likewise desecrated, are merged in the church of Waltham. Soon after which, the church of Waltham with its appendages, became appropriated to the above priory; in which state, together with the advowson of the vicarage, it remained till the dissolu tion of the priory in king Henry VIII.'s reign, when they came to the crown, where they did not stay long, before they were granted with the scite, and other possessions of the priory in exchange to the archbishop, part of the revenues of whose see they continue at this time, Sir John Honywood, baronet, being the present lessee of this parsonage; but the advowson of the vicarage, his grace the archbishop, who has now only the alternate presentation to it, reserves in his own hands.
In 1698 this vicarage was united to that of Petham, with the consent of the patrons of both, the archbishop, as patron of this vicarage, to have one turn, and the family of Honywood, patrons of the vicarage of Petham, the next turn, and so on in future alternately, in which state the advowson of them still continue.
This vicarage is valued in the king's books at 7l. 15s. 5d. and the yearly tenths at 16s. 0½d. Archbishop Juxon, in 1660, augmented this vicarage with twenty pounds per annum, to be paid out of the great tithes. In 1588 here were one hundred and forty-six communicants. In 1640, one hundred and twenty, and it was valued at sixty-five pounds. (fn. 8)
Des Moines, Iowa-based artist Gary Keenan moved nearer to completion on his bear carving in front of Wingo Hall at the University of Central Arkansas on Thursday. The large carving, done with a myriad of chainsaws, will be receiving a coat of stain to make its coloring closer to that of an actual bear.
Final completion of all platform repair/replacement which included the installation of non-slip edging tactile indicators.18th November 2011.
The Ellicott Square Building is an office complex in Buffalo, New York, USA. It was designed by Charles Atwood of D. H. Burnham & Company, and completed in May, 1896. At the time of its completion, it was the largest office building in the world.[1] In 1896 and 1897, the building was the site of Edisonia Hall and the Vitascope Theater, which is the earliest known dedicated motion picture theater in the world.[2]
At 10 stories high – with the capacity to support 10 more floors – and 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2), the Ellicott Square Building was the largest office building in the world for the sixteen years after it opened in 1896. It was built at a cost of $3.5 million in less than one year. The building was named after Joseph Ellicott, the planner and surveyor who laid out the then-village of Buffalo.
Ellicott Square Building first floor elevators
The mantra of architect Daniel Burnham was "make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men’s blood; think big." Built in the Italian Renaissance style, the exterior of the Ellicott Square Building is made of granite, iron and terra cotta with a veneer of pearl gray brick. The majestic interior courtyard contains a marble mosaic floor designed by William Winthrop Kent and James A. Johnson. Imported from Italy, the 23 million pieces of marble on the mosaic depict sun symbols from civilizations around the world. The interior court resembles that of the Rookery Building in Chicago.
A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiative with Ricoh Innovations Pvt. Ltd in Bangalore by www.trinitycarefoundation.com/csr for a Government High School.
If you would like to create impact with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives. Write to us – [ support@trinitycarefoundation.org ] . Partner with Trinity Care Foundation & reach your Sustainable Development Goals !
| www.instagram.com/trinitycarefoundation | twitter.com/tcfindia | www.facebook.com/trinitycarefoundation |
Excellent Surf and Levels Displayed for Completion of Round 2 at Yop Reunion Pro Junior
Trois Bassins, Reunion Island (Monday, April 11, 2011) –The third day of action saw a rise of level and action at the ASP Men’s 3-Star Yop reunion Surf Pro Junior presented by Hollywood. With thirty-two men taking to the water and consistent walling-up five-foot (1.5 meter) waves breaking at Trois-Bassins, Europe’s top Under-21 athletes stepped-up in style.
The explosive combination of talents brought progressive surfing and commitment to the line-up, usual suspects throwing fins-out turns and vertical re-entries to stamp their authority and advance through to Round 3, last round before the event enters the one-to-one match-ups.
Event No. 3 seed and considered a favorite for the crown, local athlete Medi Veminardi (St Gilles, REU) found his rhythm to secure a Round 3 ticket confidently. Taking both left and righthanders at Trois-Bassins, the 20-year-old surfer managed to express his style netting a good 13.50 point heat total.
“I felt a little bit of pressure before my heat and was looking to get bigger scores actually,” Veminardi said. “The off-shore winds were very strong and it made it hard to get the board out and vertical. I hope I can get my game going and secure bigger scores in Round 3.”
For his first appearance in an ASP event on his home island, Veminardi was much expected by crowds and media for his second round surf, the solid regular-foot athlete dealing with the pressure and conditions comfortably.
“I’ve been close to the European title a few times but suffered from injuries every year,” Veminardi continued. “I am looking to start the year strong and have a shot at the title before heading full-time onto the ASP World Tour Star Series. My main goal is to do well here.”
Rising in style against the group of French surfers and showing great determination and talent, the Portuguese contingent was in form on the third day of competition, former ASP European Junior No. 3 Frederico Morais (Ericeira, PRT) and Fransisco Alves (PRT) both advancing out of Heat 6.
Morais, Portugal’s best Under-21 surfer and former ASP World Junior Tour qualifier (2009), hit the water with confidence after showing some impressive skills free-surfing at the world-famous break of St Leu since he landed in Reunion.
With the wave forecast showing consistency throughout the entire week and some fun contestable conditions scheduled, event officials put the event on-hold after completion of Round 2, leaving fifteen hours of competition before wrapping-up both men and women events.
Set to kick-off tomorrow, the ASP 2-Star Women’s Rexona Girls Pro Junior will gather twenty of Europe’s best Under-21 female surfers for the launch of the 2011 ASP European Women’s Junior Series.
“The level is high and today was a tricky one with the strong off-shore winds for all thirty-two surfers,” ASP European Junior Series Head judge Aitor Aguirremota said. “With four surfers out on the same peak, it is always going to be a tight battle and we are looking forward to seeing these top surfers battle it out in Round 3.”
Aerial specialist William Aliotti (St Martin, FWI), Maxime Huscenot (REU), Tristan Guilbaud (FRA), Hugo Dubosc (REU) and Dimitri Ouvre (BRB) were all able to advance today and will be back for their 4-man battles when competition resumes. All surfers, women and men, will meet tomorrow Tuesday, April 12, at 10 AM.
YOP REUNION SURF PRO JUNIOR ROUND 2
Heat 1 : PV Laborde (FRA) 15.00, Ramzi Boukiam (MAR) 11.60, Hugo Palmarini (FRA), Gaspard Larsonneur (FRA)
Heat 2 : Dimitri Ouvre (BRB) 11.50, Hugo Dubosc (REU) 9.50, Nelson Cloarec (FRA) 8.40, Yann Guyonneau (FRA) 6.50
Heat 3 : Vasco Ribeiro (PRT) 12.15, Jules Thomet (REU) 8.90, Ian Fontaine (FRA) 8.00, Txaber Gaminde (EUK) 6.50
Heat 4 : Kieran Bulard (REU) 14.75, Ugo Robin (FRA) 11.75, Alex Gironi (EUK) 9.10, Ethan Egiguren (EUK) 5.90
Heat 5 : Medi Veminardi (REU) 13.50, Tom Cloarec (FRA) 11.10, Pablo Pola (FRA) 7.50, Tom Neuschwanger (REU) 7.00
Heat 6 : Frederico Morais (PRT) 12.00, Fransisco Alves (PRT) 11.60, Angelo Bonomelli (ITA) 9.15, Toby Donachie (GBR) 8.10
Heat 7 : Maxime Huscenot (REU) 13.25, Tristan Guilbaud (FRA) 10.35, Borja Agote (EUK) 8.90, Ander Mendiguren (EUK) 7.65
Heat 8 : William Aliotti (BLM) 13.50, Martin Jannier (REU) 9.25, Jose Ferreira (PRT) 8.80, Marc Audo (FRA) 4.45
Photo © Aquashot/aspeurope.com
Small updates as I near completion. I used brick texture styrene to create a rudimentary stencil which I used on the black panelling to add thermal brick texture.
Then today I shaped the command bridge from Delrin before detailing it in the usual way- textured paper and resin. I also realised that the windows on all the modules were way oversized and betrayed the scale making the ship look disproportionate, so I painted over them and drew them back in by hand. Another pass of brushwork and airbrushing to increase tonality and textures also helped bring more life into the ship.
The final parts to focus on are the spherical joints, I've used LEGO 2x2 dishes with tank wheels kitbashed on, and some resin pieces on the 'docking spheres' on four joints, but the backs and insides of the spheres are proving to be a pain...
Click here to learn more about Camp Humphreys
U.S. Army photos by Warren W. Marlow
Camp Humphreys breaks ground on Conference and Dining Center for Soldiers, civilians and families stationed in Korea
CAMP HUMPHREYS –Army officials broke ground on a $22.5 million project to construct the Camp Humphreys Conference and Dining Center here, May 16.
“This building will be a centerpiece for people to gather and will provide us a capability to meet the needs of our growing community,” said Col. Joseph P. Moore, United States Army Garrison Humphreys commander. “This is something we’ll need here as Camp Humphreys grows into one of the primary hubs of U.S. Forces in Asia.”
The project, slated for completion in mid-July 2014, will include a large Conference Center and banquet hall, a name-brand restaurant, an amphitheater, a covered deck, a game room, outdoor decks and an atrium. Moore noted that the combined banquet hall-conference center will have its own kitchen facility – providing U.S. Forces in Korea a place to hold military balls, large meetings and conferences.
The Conference and Dining facility has been on the drawing board for more than 10 years. It is the largest Non-Appropriated Fund construction project in the Army and will be paid for through Soldier-generated dollars.
Home to the 2nd Infantry Division's combat aviation brigade and the Army's most active overseas airfield, the number of Soldiers stationed at Camp Humphreys is expected to grow in the coming years by 238 percent, from 6,670 to 22,497, and the number of families is on track to grow by 1,270 percent.
As part of its transformation, U.S. Forces Korea will relocate from areas in and north of Seoul, to two enduring hubs south of the Han River; the northwest/Pyeongtaek hub, consisting mainly of USAG-Humphreys and Osan Air Base; and the southeast /Daegu hub, comprised mainly of USAG Daegu and Chinhae Naval Base.
Moore talked about planning a project of this size and expressed his appreciation for the support IMCOM leaders provided throughout the process.
“The construction is actually the easy part, compared to all of the planning and programming required to get us where we are today,” Moore said. “We wouldn’t be here today, were it not for the vital support we received from the leadership at Installation Management Command.”
Moore will be retiring from the Army next month, but said he made it a personal goal to break ground on the center before he departed.
USAG Humphreys Deputy Command Mark Cox also participated in the ceremony and commented on the importance of preparing for the planned influx of Soldiers, civilians and family members in the coming years.
“As Humphreys expands, so too will our need for additional conference, entertainment and dining facilities” said Cox. “The garrison is committed to providing our community the services and support they need while stationed here.”
Ceremony narrator Sean McManus noted the wide impact the project will have.
“This facility will provide dozens of jobs to our Korean partners and provide a facility second-to-none for our Soldiers, Family members, and both American and Korean civilian employees,” he said. “This is another example of our commitment to the long-term friendship between the U.S. and people of South Korea.
Don Claycomb, Humphreys Director of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, echoed Moore’s sentiments about the long-term impact of the new facility.
“Camp Humphreys will be growing by leaps and bounds over the next few years, and breaking ground on this new facility now means that we will be ready to meet many of their needs when they arrive. A major portion of the planning process was looking at the future, identifying perceived needs and building a facility that will meet those needs. With the amount of time and money involved between today’s ground-breaking and the actual start of operations, we wanted to get it right the first time.”
Claycomb praised the work of the entire Community in helping move the Conference and Dining Center from paper to the actual start of construction.
“This didn’t just happen,” he said. “The Command, Director of Public Works and, of course, our FMWR team headed by Business Operations Division Chief Mike Ross spent countless hours in developing the plan. Now it’s up to the Seoyong Construction Co. to turn the vision into reality.”
Seoyong is one of Korea’s leading construction firms and has built many structures and facilities throughout the Korean peninsula, including several World Cup Stadiums major bridges and convention facilities.
“I think we’re in good hands with Seoyong,” Claycomb said, “and, like everyone else, I will be excited to watch the dream grow into reality over the next two years.”
Obelisk commemorating the completion of the Newkirk Viaduct (Grays Ferry Bridge). See description of the set for the full engraved text.
The east (primary) face of the obelisk:
PHILADELPHIA WILMINGTON AND BALTIMORE RAILROAD
COMPANY
President
MATTHEW NEWKIRK
Vice President
JACOB J COHEN JR
Directors
Philadelphia Baltimore Matthew Newkirk JJ Cohen Jr John Hemphill Chas F Mayer John Connel John McKim Jr Wm 0 Lewis James Swan Wilmington WA Patterson James Canby Delaware James Price Thomas Smith David C Wilson Chester James A Bayard Solicitor William Chandler Samuel Edwards
Secretary JAMES WILSON WALLACE WILLIAM P BROBSON Ass t Treasurer ALLAN THOMSON AUBRY H SMITH Ass't
This view shows (clockwise, from left) STS-125 Mission Specialist 3 (MS3) John Grunsfeld, MS2 Megan McArthur, MS4 Mike Massimino, MS5 Andrew Feustel, and MS1 Michael Good posing for a photo in Atlantis' airlock after the completion of the fifth session of extravehicular activity (EVA5). Grunsfeld and Feustel are attired in their Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits.
Credit: NASA
The completion of the work to rehabilitate seven stations along the D Line in Brooklyn was marked on August 2, 2012, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by MTA leaders and local elected officials.
We installed great new artwork at each of the seven stations. Here are details for the artwork shown in this image and its location.
18th Avenue Station -
Artist: Francesco Simeti
Title: Bensonhurst Gardens
Date: 2012
Medium: Laminated glass
Location: Platform windscreens
Fabricator: Tom Patti Design
Francesco Simeti’s artwork entitled “Bensonhurst Gardens” for the 18th Avenue Station illustrates a selection of plants and flowers that are culturally meaningful to the community around the station. Bensonhurst Gardens depicts imaginary landscapes comprised of native plants with an unexpected array of flowers growing side by side. Simeti selected plants and flowers that are culturally meaningful to the three main ethnic groups currently found in Bensonhurst: Chinese, Italian, and Jewis. The 32 laminated glass panels were created through a process of collage.
One of these examples includes the rose and lilly which reference the Santa Rosalia Festival which is highly celebrated in the neighborhoods served by the station. The artist’s aim is not to make the individual panels immediately recognizable to a specific culture but to function as a framework, creating surreal compositions that belong to different times, cultures and habitats. In addition, Simeti’s “light-box” compositions comment on society’s relationship to nature by showing the soil which nurtures the plants also collecting society’s cast-off detritus.
For more information about art throughout the New York transit system, download the Meridian app.
Photo: MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design.
Members of the U.S. Military Academy Class of 2025 proudly display their motto as they complete the final leg of a 12-mile road march signifying the successful completion of Cadet Basic Training, August 9, 2021. Family, friends, and alumni joined in the celebration of the completion of Beast Training, West Point, New York.. (U.S. Army Photo by John Pellino/USMA)
Ulmer history(ies): The Ulmer and their Münster
New window with an enlarged view: Ulmer stories
© City of Ulm (further pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Whether of obsession or out of aesthetic sensitivity: the cathedral tower was 161.53 meters high, as Ulm on 31 March 1890 celebrated its completion. Half a century later, on 17 December 1944, laid Allied bombers waste to the city of Ulm. But the Minster withstood the firestorm almost undamaged. The city was allowed to keep its most important identity marker. And what does the cathedral mean to the people of Ulm today? Of course, it forms an essential basis of their self- consciousness. Their primordial fear, the Minster may fall over once, even going so far as to occasionally donate something for the preservation of this building.
New window with an enlarged view: Münster 1
As is known, the Gothic cathedral has the highest spire in Christendom. This applies, however, only since it was brought to its present height in 1890.
Even before that this church had been a Rekordbau (record structure) . In 1488, exactly 111 years after the foundation stone was laid, noted the well-traveled Ulmer Dominican friar Felix Fabri the special advantages which the Ulmer Münster "ahead of all parish churches throughout Christendom" has.
First, it is the largest parish church in general, and larger than many episcopal Dome. Then it was the most beautiful of all the churches, because of the light, which can penetrate into every corner thanks to the architecture. Third, the cathedral has more altars than any other parish churches, namely 51. And they would, along with the concomitant clergy - sometimes up to five per altar -, exclusively funded by Ulmer citizens. So many clergymen do not exist it in any analogous parish church. Anyhow, the joy to donate of the citizens in Ulm was greater than anywhere else, and this permits, that the position of the pastor of Ulm was comparable with that of a bishop.
The 30th June 1377
New window with an enlarged view: Foundation stone laid Münster
© City of Ulm
Relief of the foundation stone
The Ulmer Münster, as claimed Fabri 1488 was better attended than all the other churches in the whole of Christendom: Despite its size prevails in it on feast days "a dense crowd to the corner of the altar", and usually would take there at Easter time more than 15 000 people the sacrament. There would be no such parish in which every day so many children are baptized - an average of five. Accordingly it was with confession and communion, and with the burials on the two cemeteries. In his list of superlatives Fabri has informed us about the real meaning of the Ulm Minster: It was and is the largest citizens church. Its construction was not financed by any ecclesiastical or secular princes, but by the citizens.
100 gold pieces
The initial relief that contains this text and is embedded in one of the south-eastern nave pillars and outside at the Bride portal into the church wall, and shows those former Mayor (Altbürgermeister) Lutz Krafft. Together with his wife, he literally saddled the first cathedral-builder, Heinrich II Parler, the construction project on his shoulders. The relief also shows how according to the then planning status the cathedral should look like: A hall church with three equal towers.
To these arid data Fabri provides the story: After an immense pit was dug, gathered on 30 June 1377 all of Ulm on the site. Former Mayor Lutz Krafft and some of the chief men of the city went down into the pit. With a crane the great foundation stone was lowered. This one Krafft covered with 100 gold pieces. His example was followed by the patricians and the people.
What had the Ulmer moved to this mammoth project? On the one hand, Fabri points to a safety aspects: the former parish church was located outside the city walls, in what is now Old Cemetery. To visit , meant an increased risk for city dwellers during the frequent military events.
Gates older than the cathedral
New window with an enlarged view: Bride portal Münster
© City of Ulm
The bride portal of the cathedral to the north
But money did not matter, too, because the donations of Ulm flowed to the within the city situated monasteries, their service for salvation literally was closer. Moreover, a role will have played that the old parish church was on Reichenauer terrain and thus the Reichenau monks had the right to the parish tithes.
After the construction decision for the new parish church was taken, the old - although only shortly before modified - or rebuilt - was removed. "On the shoulders", should have tranported the Ulmer the stones in the city. In fact, all the components of the old church have been incorporated into the cathedral, for example, the around 1360 created bride portal as well as the northern side portals, one of which bears the date 1356. And quite normal stone blocks of the old church can be found in the brick masonry of the choir.
Today, one can hardly imagine that the Ulmer of the late 14th Century began a construction project of which they knew they would not live long enough to see its completion. Could they have imagined that this work would develop a momentum of its own, the result should differ thoroughly from the original plans? Finally, the relatively simple hall church on the above-mentioned establishment relief no longer has much to do with the imposing building that is pictured in the 1493 published Schedel's World Chronicle and practically nothing at all with the "mountain city ", which today rises from the old town.
The European dimension
New window with an enlarged view: steeples of Europe
© City of Ulm
From left: Vienna, 136.70 m , Cologne, 157 meters , Ulm 161.53 m, 142 m Strasbourg, Freiburg 116 m
The construction of the cathedral was thus a process with an uncertain outcome. Architects of international renown, who worked in several European cultural centers have contributed to it: Michael and Heinrich III. Parler had already helped build in Prague on Karlsdom, and Heinrich III. later went to the Opera del Duomo in Milan. Members of the Parler family initiated the Dombauhütten (cathedral masonry works) in Prague, Strasbourg, Vienna and Ulm. Ulrich von Ensingen that followed the Parlern in Ulm and here planned the colossal main tower, was also found in Strasbourg and in Esslingen, his son Matthäus Ensinger learned in Strasbourg. Before he came to Ulm, he directed the construction of the Bern Cathedral and the Esslinger Frauenkirche.
Matthew Böblinger also worked in Esslingen, before he presented a new plan for the main tower in Ulm. This should be a model for the completion of the tower four centuries later. Böblinger but had the misfortune that during his time as a cathedral builder the insufficient foundation of the main tower gave way.
Panic among the sermon
New window with an enlarged view: Lobby Main Tower
© City of Ulm
Looking through the lobby of the main tower
The misfortune that Sunday of the year 1492, when two stones fell from the vault in the church, described the shoemaker and chronicler Sebastian Fischer, who incidentally made by hand and some awkward the most original drawings of the Cathedral.
Fischer's mother had then attented the midday sermon. "Since the Leut fled blocking system of the churches (people fled out of church), because they thought that the Münster wanted to fall over"; he says. "But the stones Hetten niemants affected (nobody was affected). "Whether the builder actually had to flee as Fischer adds, is controversial because Böblinger is still three years later on record in the hut books of the Cathedral.
This lowering of the tower was always stated as the reason why the building was not brought out much more over the 1494 completed square wreath. Although Böblinger had already begun with the next section, which has an octagonal floor plan. But was stopped after five meters, and then protected with a pyramidal temporary roof.
Böblinger's successor Burkhard Engelberg is considered as the savior of the Cathedral. By dividing the still relatively new side aisles, he prevented that the tensions tore the church apart.
Iconoclasm
New window with an enlarged view: the choir stalls
© City of Ulm
Men's side of the choir stalls by Jörg Syrlin the Elder, 1468-1474
Good two decades later, in November 1530, the Ulmer avowed in a referendum to Protestantism. The equipment of the church with its over 50 altars stood in stark contrast to the new doctrine. The result was the "Iconoclasm" of the year 1531, which is not to be misunderstood as a wild orgy of destruction. Rather, the Council urged the owners of the altars, to remove them from the cathedral. Some might not have been interested in the then unfashionable Gothic art works anymore and they burned as "old G'lomp" (old junk).
The choir stalls the Council put under his protection. This unique work of art, with its depictions of Greek and Roman artists, scholars and Sibyls breathing the spirit of humanism, emerged from 1468 to 1474 in the workshop of the Ulmer master carpenter Syrlin Jörg the Elder. What for needs a citizens church choir stalls? There probably the many priests of the private altars will have taken place. Maybe Ulm wanted but also compete with the cathedral chapter in Constance, which had just accorded itself such a choir.
Huge Torso
New window with an enlarged view: South Munster
© City of Ulm
South of Münster Jacob Geiger, 2 Half of the 17th century
In 1543, ie 166 years after construction began, the Council had suspended the work on the cathedral, "to prevent the costs". But even as a torso, it was considered the most powerful church in Germany - even if the Strasbourg Cathedral was higher.
The fate not to have been completed, the Ulmer Münster shared with a number of other medieval cathedrals, such as those of Cologne, Regensburg, Bremen and Meißen. This fact allows the construction to appear in a different light: It was probably not only static and financial reasons, but rather the changed Zeitgeist (spirit of the times): One wanted on the threshold of the Renaissance no more money invest in the completion of a building in the style of the now outdated Gothic.
Only the nationalism of the 19th Century and the awakening enthusiasm for the Middle Ages raised the completion of these buildings - especially the Cologne Cathedral - to a national matter. In Ulm, however, it was first of all a question to preserve the cathedral, in the meantime become dilapidated, before the collapse. It was also reflected about the expansion of the main tower.
The ship wobbles
New window with an enlarged view: View of the Ulmer Münster
© City of Ulm
The Minster 2007 - in full size with the town as a partner
1844, the builder's hut was reopened . The nave, which fluctuated with every storm had to be stabilized. To these purpose, minster builder Ferdinand Thrän between 1856-1870 stretched the 18-meter-wide, mad of stone, and yet so delicate flying buttresses over the aisles. Then the two choir towers were built, which were completed in 1880.
The expansion of the main tower should be based on the plans of Matthew Böblinger. But Minster architect August von Beyer stretched the tower by ten meters compared with the original plan, which had 151 meters provided. Why? Wanted the Ulmer the Cologne Cathedral with its 157 meters put in the shadow of their minster?
This still entertained suspicion was reported already during the extension work of Cologne, but was strongly rejected in Ulm. The Ulmer tower, so the counter-argument, had yet in the Middle Ages been created more powerful as the towers of Cologne. As another reason for the heightening the perspective is invoked: To make the proportions of the tower for the observer on the cathedral square appear more harmonious, Beyer had not only the height corrected to the top but also the relationship between the two sections of the new part for the benefit of the upper one changed.
www.ulm.de/ulmer_geschichte_die_ulmer_und_ihr_muenster.42...
Desert View Watchtower Level 3 murals after completion of conservation work, October5, 2017
Grand Canyon National Park is working with area tribes and art experts to restore the Fred Kabotie murals and The rock art images, painted by Fred Geary, which have been damaged by water. The first phase of the project is being funded through a grant from American Express obtained by Grand Canyon Association.This grant will help with the evaluation, documentation and testing process that is a critical component of all historic preservation projects. The park intends to preserve the murals while remaining true to Mary Colter’s design. Over the next year, a conservation specialist will analyze and restore the murals with the help of students participating in an intern training program.
On January 1, 2015, the Watchtower was purchased from the concessionaire managing it and designated a National Park Service building. NPS plans to return the Watchtower to its intended purpose, as a tribute to the Native American tribes who have cultural ties to Grand Canyon. The park is moving forward with plans to restore the tower to reflect Mary Colter’s original vision for the building.Visitors first enter through the large, open Kiva Room. Until recently, this room was filled to capacity with a large gift shop. The gift shop has since been removed from the rotunda and reduced to a much smaller footprint. The new Grand Canyon Association Park Store fits into the original space Colter envisioned for a gift shop: a corner off to the side of the rotunda. All the proceeds support the park.
Originally the Watchtower was designed as a space where visitors could see Native American craft demonstrations by weavers and basket makers. The park will bring Native American artists back into the space to share tribal traditions, dances, songs, skills, art and oral histories with the public. The park is also considering turning the old Desert View visitor center into a Native American cultural center.The transformation of the Watchtower back to its original intent is already proving to be a dramatic experience for visitors and park staff. NPS Photo/M.Quinn
Details of the etched glass panes on the cupboard doors in the Coolmore Dining Room.
Upon entering the massive double front doors of Coolmore, one immediately steps into one of the grandest spaces that could ever be imagined. The entrance hall is by far the most elaborate room in the mansion and has all of its original faux marbelized wall, trompe l'oeil ceiling and hand-painted, canvas cloth floor covering. Statuary niches are found here, as well as the Grand Spiral Stairhall. It is said that the marble statues, imported from Europe, arrived in Baltimore, but due to the beginning of the Civil War were never shipped south to Coolmore. They supposedly remain somewhere up north today.
Almost all interior decoration, furniture, floor coverings, wallpapers, artwork, trompe l'oeil wall and ceiling paintings are original to the completion date of 1860.
Coolmore Plantation was built from 1857-1860 by Dr. Joseph John Willis Powell and his wife, Martha Branch Whitaker Powell, both of Halifax County. Dr. Powell moved to Edgecombe County to run what was to become Coolmore Plantation for his Uncle Richard Harrison, one of antebellum North Carolina's wealthiest planters and businessmen, subsequently inherited the 2800 acres in 1856 and proceeded almost immediately to build one of the grandest plantation houses in the entire South. It was designed by Baltimore architect, E. G. Lind.
Premier Christy Clark was joined by the Honourable James Moore, Minister Responsible for British Columbia and Member of Parliament for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, B.C.'s Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone, and TransLink board chair Marcella Szel in announcing the start of Evergreen Line tunnel construction and officially naming the tunnel boring machine.
Read More: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/03/next-step-towards-evergree...
The completion of the work to rehabilitate seven stations along the D Line in Brooklyn was marked on August 2, 2012, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by MTA leaders and local elected officials.
We installed great new artwork at each of the seven stations. Here are details for the artwork shown in this image and its location.
Bay Parkway -
Artist: Xin Song
Title: Tree Of Life
Date: 2012
Medium: Laminated glass
Location: Mezzanine window
Fabricator: Depp Glass, Inc.
Xin Song’s artwork will be located in the mezzanine window at the Bay Parkway Station. Entitled “Tree of Life,” Song's work is a combination of contemporary photo collage and traditional Chinese paper cuts to evoke the historic status of the Bay Parkway Station. Her work features colorful imagery, intricate patterns, and symmetry. The work can be viewed from two sides. A black silhouette seen from the outside of the window creates a graphic filigree reminiscent of Brooklyn’s historic iron work; while from the mezzanine the same design will be cut from Song’s photographs of contemporary life in the neighborhood. In the medium of glass, the work will become the center of attention upon entering this particular station, and echo the surrounding Asian-American community that has blossomed in recent years.
For more information about art throughout the New York transit system, download the Meridian app.
Photo: MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design.
The MTA and NYCDOT announced the completion of bus priority lanes and related infrastructure on 149 St in the Bronx on Friday, Oct. 9.
The 2.7 miles of bus lanes along the highly-trafficked 149 St corridor are equipped with transit signal priority (TSP) technology. New enforcement cameras will help ensure that only buses and other essential vehicles utilize priority sections of the roadway.
The corridor is home to four popular bus routes (Bx2, Bx4, Bx17, and Bx19) and runs through some of the busiest destinations in the Bronx, including Lincoln Hospital.
(Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit)
We held a ceremony to recognize the first cohort to complete our Nuclear Regulator Apprenticeship Network program. They are working as inspectors, technical reviewers, risk analysts, and program and project managers. To complete the program and land a permanent position, they successfully completed a significant number of technical training courses, seminars and assignments, finish a group project and complete several hands-on apprenticeships – including some at NRC-licensed nuclear facilities.
Visit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's website at www.nrc.gov/.
Photo Usage Guidelines: www.flickr.com/people/nrcgov/
Privacy Policy: www.nrc.gov/site-help/privacy.html.
For additional information, or to comment on this photo contact: OPA Resource.
This photograph sits in a set, click on here.
View over Pyongyang towards the The Ryugyong Hotel September 2011.
Which will be the world's tallest hotel, only one year from its completion date....
-----------
North Koreans revamp 'world's worst building'
The Independent. Friday, 18 July 2008
by Jon Herskovitz in Seoul
A hotel in Pyongyang once described as "the worst building in the history of mankind" is back under construction after a 16-year break.
According to foreign residents, the Egyptian conglomerate Orascom has just begun refurbishing the top floors of the pyramid-shaped Ryugyong Hotel, whose 330m (1,083ft) frame dominates the skyline of the capital of North Korea, which is one of the world's most reclusive and destitute countries.
The firm has put glass panels into the concrete shell, installed telecommunications antennae – even though the North forbids its citizens to own mobile phones – and put up an artist's impression of what it will look like. An official with the group said its Orascom Telecom subsidiary was involved in the project, but gave no details. The hotel consists of three wings rising at 75-degree angles capped by several floors arranged in rings, which are supposed to hold five revolving restaurants and an observation deck. A creaky building crane has for years sat unused at the top of the 3,000-room hotel in a city that tourists are only occasionally allowed to visit.
"It is not a beautiful design. It carries little iconic or monumental significance, but sheer muscular and massive presence," Lee Sang Jun, a professor of architecture at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, said.
The communist North started construction in 1987 in a possible fit of jealousy at South Korea, which was about to host the 1988 summer Olympics and show off to the world the success of its rapidly-developing economy. A concrete shell built by North Korea's Paektu Mountain Architects & Engineers emerged over the next few years. A proud North Korea put a picture of the hotel on postage stamps and boasted about the structure in the state media.
According to intelligence sources, the then North Korean leader, Kim Il-sung, saw the hotel as a symbol of his big dreams for the state he founded, while his son and current leader, Kim Jong-il, was a driving force in its construction. But by 1992, work was halted. The North's main benefactor, the former Soviet Union, had dissolved a year earlier and funding for the hotel had vanished. For a time, the North airbrushed images of the Ryugyong Hotel from photographs. As the North's economy took a deeper turn for the worse in the 1990s, the empty shell became a symbol of the country's failure, earning the nicknames "Hotel of Doom" and "Phantom Hotel".
Mr Lee and other architects said there were questions raised about whether the hotel was structurally sound, and a few believed completing the structure could cause it to collapse.
It would cost up to $2bn (£1bn) to finish the Ryugyong Hotel and make it safe, according to estimates in South Korea's media. That is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the North's annual economic output. Bruno Giberti, the associate head of California Polytechnic State University's department of architecture, said the project was typical of what has been produced recently by many cities which were trying to show their emerging wealth by constructing gigantic edifices that were not related in scale to anything else around them.
Mr Giberti, when asked about Esquire magazine's comment about the hotel, said: "If this is the worst building in the world, the runners-up are in [Las] Vegas and Shanghai."
A touch of old Hollywood meets modern chic. This home came with extra personality in each space. We had fun creating her vision and the results were nothing short of glamorous!
Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
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
The first half of Handsworth Park I entered was from the Hamstead Road entrance, near St Mary's Church. Went anti-clockwise around the lake and exited from the same entrance.
So was unaware of the bridges over the Soho railway line to the other half of the park (I would shortly after re-enter the park via Holly Road).
Handsworth Park (originally Victoria Park) is a park in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, England. It lies 15 minutes by bus from the centre of Birmingham and comprises 63 acres (25 hectares) of landscaped grass slopes, including a large boating lake and a smaller pond fed by the Farcroft and Grove Brooks, flower beds, mature trees and shrubs with a diversity of wildlife, adjoining St. Mary's Church, Handsworth to the north, containing the graves of the fathers of the Industrial Revolution, James Watt, Matthew Boulton and William Murdoch, and the founders of Aston Villa Football Club and the Victoria Jubilee Allotments site to the south opened on 12 June 2010. The completion of a £9.5 million restoration and rejuvenation of Handsworth Park was celebrated with a Grand Re-Opening Celebration led by Councillor Mike Sharpe, the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, speaking from the restored bandstand at 2.00pm on Saturday 8 July 2006, followed by a count down by a large enthusiastic crowd and the release of clouds of confetti; in the words of one observer "Great wedding! Now we must make the marriage a success."
SS Journey is a sculpture in Handsworth Park that is part of the Handsworth Park Arts Trail that started in 2017. It was sculpted by Luke Perry.
ORATORIO: Detail
The following was written by the artist after the completion of THE PROCRUSTES TRILOGY:
ORATORIO portrays an event that occurred during the Second Holocaust, a performance of the Verdi Requiem at the Terezín concentration camp in 1944, with full orchestra and chorus of Jewish prisoners, for an audience of Nazis. The Procrustean overtones here are so obvious as to be grotesque and hideous in their irony. That this event precedes the Third Holocaust by barely a year increases its tragi-comedic theatricality. The laughter of Procrustes is his most terrifying edge and here, in ORATORIO, it is in full display. The Second Holocaust completes the cycle of biblical time initiated by J in the book of Genesis making possible the fulfillment of prophecies. The significance of ORATORIO is not the tragedy of the Jews but rather the paradox of theism: one man’s God is another man’s Satan.The portrayal of Jews in performance of a doctrinal Catholic requiem in a Nazi concentration camp is irony of such magnitude as to make Procrustes himself blush. The similarities of facial contortions involved with singing, screaming, and lamentation are so obvious as to be banal. The permission and encouragement of the Nazi propagandists for such a grandiose undertaking in the face of appalling circumstances is sadism of procrustean virtue.
The following is excerpted from Robert Cremean's THE TENTH ARCH, the sequel to VATICAN CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography:
ORATORIO was begun early in the summer of 1995. Subtitled Variation On A Theme By Josef Bor, ORATORIO is an ambient composition of seven sculptures and a leaning wall eight feet high by thirty-two feet long. The chorus of images intends to cast into metaphor the significance of art in the face of death, the supreme confrontation of the real and the actual.
Eichmann was there and so was Moese. The event was the VERDI REQUIEM presented with full orchestra and chorus. . .
"The summer of the year 1944 was a time of storm.The shattered and demoralized German armies were retreating on all fronts, the German cities were transformed into heaps of bizzare ruins, and Hitler, inflamed into open madness by the attempt on his life, scattered death in the ranks of the Wehrmact. The Nazi empire was collapsing to its very foundations. None of this interfered with Eichmann’s plans. The tactics of his “final solution of the Jewish problem” in the field of Central Europe remained unchanged. Construction was completed on the strictly secret and perfectly disguised Birkenau work camp at Neu Berun,which had a capacity of ten thousand human bodies per twenty-four hours. And the chief device by which the disguise was maintained, a great assembly camp, the ghetto of Terezín, heretofore a place of suffering, hunger, and death, was in the short space of a few weeks rebuilt and decked out into a gigantic, astonishing film set, commissioned for the penultimate act of the tragedy of Terezín. In accordance with Eichmann’s scenario, living people had to help create this film set. And they believed in it; they began to hope and to live."
The Terezín Requiem
by Josef Bor
The performance was cut to an hour’s length to accommodate the official entourage, and the entire group of musicians was shipped off to Auschwitz a few days later. Procrustes is omnipresent; no myth he. He lives in simplistic answers and expedient solutions.... Artists are his favorite guests.
---------------------
THE PROCRUSTES TRILOGY:
Procrustes In Situ
Oratorio, Variation On A Theme By Joseph Bor
Martyrs Of The Cities Of The Plain
Collection:
Fresno Art Museum
Fresno, California
Governor Hochul announces the completion of Plug Power's newest manufacturing facility, located at the Vista Technology Campus in Slingerlands, Albany County. The new location supports the company's efforts to significantly expand its line of GenDrive fuel cell systems, which are used to power electric motors in the electric mobility market. The company has committed to creating more than 1,600 new green jobs at this Capital Region location, complementing New York State's efforts to be a national leader in growing the green economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and combating climate change.
The 111 cadets of Class #53, Freestate ChalleNGe Academy were formally recognized for their achievements before family members, friends and local dignitaries during the completion ceremony at Morgan State University’s Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center Dec. 13, 2019.
Freestate ChalleNGe Academy gives Maryland teens who have withdrawn from high school a second chance at an education in a highly-structured environment. During the 22-week quasi-military residential program, cadets have the opportunity to earn a GED.
Photos by Rachel Ponder, APG News