REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

  

MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

Butterfly Nebula

Located in the constellation Scorpius. (The scorpion)

The Butterfly Nebula is one of the hottest known planetary nebulae.

Its central star may exceed 250,000°C (450,000°F).

Dust lanes in the center hide the dying star from direct view in visible light.

It’s a popular astrophotography target because of its dramatic bipolar shape

 

Coordinates

Right Ascension: 17h 13m 44s

Declination: −37° 06′ 16″

Magnitude: 7.1

Diameter: 2 light-years across

22 quadrillion miles from Earth

(22,000,000,000,000,000 miles)

(3,800 light-years away)

 

Rouken Glen Park is a historic park located next to Thornliebank, Giffnock and Newton Mearns.

 

It contains a range of features and facilities including the pavilion visitor centre which hosts various exhibitions throughout the year ranging from health awareness days to old photo exhibits of the park and surrounding areas, play area, walled garden, the Glen with its dramatic water falls and woodland paths, and a boating pond. There is also a garden centre, café and restaurant and art gallery located in the park.

 

Throughout the year the park hosts many events ranging from local Community Gala Days to national events like Armed Forces Day.

Mystery & Magic of Ladakh

 

Full of centuries old treasures and a rich vibrant culture, the landscape stretching from the green fertile lands of Kargil in the West to the highest desert in the world in the East, Ladakh is a land of mystique and magic. Watered by rivers Indus, Zanskar and Suru, and inhabited by the Changpas, Drogpas and Dards, Ladakh continues to fascinate visitors from across the world.

 

Mystery & Magic of Ladakh. (2018). [museum sign]. Leh, Ladakh, India: Hall of Fame.

 

As if to match its dramatic geography, Ladakh's history is one of tumult, intrigue, invasions, betrayal, plunder, internal strife, uneasy alliances and a half-blood prince who became its best-known ruler.

 

The first inhabitants of Ladakh were probably the Changpa-nomadic herdsmen from the Tibetan Plateau, who arrived in search of greener pastures. The Mons and Aryans moved into its valleys, while the Dards followed the Indus upstream from Gilgit. Later migrants were drawn by the strategic position of Ladakh, as a gateway to Central Asia. Following the disintegration of the Tibetan Empire these scattered tribes of Ladakh were overwhelmed by a large Tibetan migration sometime in 842 AD. Thus, Nyima-Gon, of Tibetan royalty, installed himself as the first ruler of Ladakh.

 

Around the 15th century, Islam arrived in Ladakh, brought by traders, mystics and warriors from Kashmir, Central Asia and Baltistan. In the years that followed, the religion wove itself into the fabric of this society. In some instances, it was the decision of the King that steered Ladakh in the direction of being a cradle for diverse cultures. Of note is the alliance of King Jamyang Namgyal with Gyal Khutun, daughter of the Balti King, Amir Mir. His son, Senggye Namgyal, half Buddhist, half Muslim, ascended the throne in 1616 and went on to become the most famous of Ladakh's kings, reclaiming lost land and building several monasteries.

 

Ladakh's next great transformative political experience came with the annexation of the region by the Dogra Empire in 1834. The advent of British imperialism and King Gulab Singh's pact with the East India company in March 1846 ensured that Ladakh remained under the control of the Dogras until India's independence, when finally, it became part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council came into being in 1995.

 

History of Ladakh. (2018). [museum display board]. Leh, Ladakh, India: Hall of Fame.

 

EPB_0711

Midtown Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Chanin Building, built in 1927-29, rises 56 stories at the comer of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street. Designed by the architectural firm of Sloan & Robertson with sculptural decoration by Rene Chambellan, it is a major example of Art Deco architecture in New York City. Erected under the supervision of the Chanin Construction Company, the building still serves as the organization’s headquarters.

 

Irwin S. Chanin (b.1892) established his firm in 1919 to build one-family houses in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, after studying engineering at Cooper union, working on subway construction in New York and Philadelphia, and participating in the construction of a poison gas factory for the U.S. Amy during World War I.

 

His first venture in Bensonhurst was so successful that he brought his brother Henry I. Chanin (1893-1973) into the firm, and they proceeded to build more houses and also apartment buildings in Brooklyn and then erected an office building in downtown Brooklyn. Extending their activities to Manhattan in 1924, they constructed the Fur Center Building. 'That same year the Chan ins expanded into the theater business, 'eventually building eight theaters, including the fabulous 6000-seat Roxy. The Chanins also managed a number of these theaters.

 

The 1400-roan Hotel Lincoln, on Eighth Avenue between 44th and 45th. Streets was completed and opened by the Chanins in 1S28. Following the completion of the Chanin Building in 1929, the firm expanded its activities into the Manhattan apartment field, building the Majestic and Century apartment houses on Central Park West. Extensive suburban building activity occupied much of the firm's tire during the 1930s and 1940s. A notable example was Green Acres, a residential park community in Valley Stream, Long Island, begun in 1936. During World War II the firm built 2000 pro-fabricated dwellings in Newport News,Virginia, five hangars at National Airport in Washington, the Naval Or dance Laboratory in White Oak, Maryland, and five Navy powder magazine buildings in Indian Head, Maryland.

 

Tte firm has also built numerous manufacturing buildings in the New York City area and the impressive Coney Island Pumping Station for the City of New York. By 1952 when Irwin S. Chanin was profiled in the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, the Chanin Organization was composed of approximately 25 firms and corporations engaged in architecture, engineering, and construction, and in ownership and operation of real estate.

 

In August 1926 the Chanins acquired a 105-year leasehold on the site of the Manhattan Storage Warehouse on the west side of Lexington Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets in order to build their new office tower. Plans were filed and work begun in 1927. When the steel structure work was completed on July 2, 1928, the Chanins followed their traditional practice of driving two gold rivets into a column on the uppermost floor. On January 23, 1929, exactly one year after Irwin S. Chanin drove the first rivet into the st.ee! frame, construction was completed—testimony to the skill of the workmen and the efficiency of the Chanin Construction Company. It was opened for business that January 29 and was hailed as "another step in the evolution of the skyscraper . At that time, it was the first major skyscraper to have been built in the area around Grand Central Terminal, anticipating a major shift in the business district of the city. Other notable skyscrapers such as the Chrysler and Daily News Buildings soon followed. Its 660-foot height was then exceeded only by the Woolworth Building and Metropolitan Life Tower in New York and the Cleveland Terminal Building in Cleveland. Irwin S. Chanin was not, however, interested in creating the world's tallest office building but rather in building an efficient, up-to-date, progressive structure that would attract the modern business man and be a credit to the Chanin firm.

 

To create this image, he commissioned the architectural firm of Sloan & Robertson.

 

Sloan & Robertson was one of the major New York architectural firms of the 1920s and '30s. John Sloan (1888-1954) studied architecture at New York University, then supervised construction for the U. S. Army In various capacities between 1900 and 1920. In private practice in 1920, he received the commission for the Pershing Square Building, 100 East U2nd Street. He formed a partnership in 1924 with T. Markoe Robertson (1878.-1962) who had been educated at Yale University and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In addition to the Chanin Building, the firm was responsible for the Graybar Building, 420 Lexington Avenue; the Maritime Exchange Building, 80 Broad Street; the 29 Broadway Office Building; the Plaza Building, 625 Madison Avenue; apartment buildings at 1 Beekman Place and 895 Park Avenue; and alterations, modernization, and an annex for the St. Regis Hotel.

 

The firm was also active 'in the design of buildings for hospitals and institutions, including the House of Detention for Women at 10 Greenwich Avenue, the Ward's Island Sewage Disposal Plant, the Rikers Island Penitentiary, buildings for the Harlem Hospital, and the Southampton Hospital, Architectural plans for the West Side Elevated Highway between Canal and 72nd Streets and the New York State exhibit building, marine amphitheatre and stage at the 1939 New York World's Fair were also carried out by the firm. In the Chanin Building as in so much of their work during the 1930s, they created a striking example of Art Deco architecture, using that most characteristic Art Deco building type, the skyscraper.

 

The Chanin Building rises 56 stories in a series of setbacks culminating in a tower, designed in accordance with the 1916 zoning ordinance. The site itself, which was bounded by streets on three sides, was governed by three sets of zoning rules. This made the tower rather than the street frontage the controlling factor in regard to massing. Critic Matlack Price praised the Chanin Building as "an impressive realization of the most hopeful predictions that were made years ago, when the zoning laws first imposed the set-back restrictions on tall structures. At once it becane necessary to design in

 

masses rather than in facades." The design of the tower was also influenced by the widely-publicized entry submitted by Eliel Saarinen in the competition for a new building for the Chicago Tribune (1922) .

 

The Saarinen design proved a fertile source for many Art Deco architects.

 

The first 17 stories completely cover tine plot except on the center of trie Lexington Avenue facade which is recessed above the fourth story. Major setbacks begin above the seventeenth story, forming a pyramidal base for the tower which rises uninterrupted from the thirtieth to the fifty-second story. The upper four stories of the tower are further recessed and accented with buttresses. The steel frame is clad with buff brick, terra cotta, and limestone, and is ornamented in such a way as to emphasize seme of the special functions within.

 

As was the customary in skyscraper design, the architects were interested in establishing a clearly-defined base for the composition and a strong interest at and relationship to the street. The first floor was intended for shops. Originally the plate glass shop windows were enclosed by bronze enframements set in Belgian black marble.

 

Later alterations have obscured sane of the original detail. Also at first floor level are major entrances on Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street. Above the first floor runs a bronze frieze telling the story of evolution. It shows different kinds of plant and animal life, beginning with low marine forms, then more complex forms, and finally birds and fish. At the second and third floors, which were intended for financial institutions, are triple window groups framed in bronze and divided between the floors by bronze spandrel panels with characteristic Art Deco ornament.

 

Each window group is flanked by limestone piers with ornamented terra-cotta capitals. Hie windows above the entrances are given a distinctive treatment with ornamental spandrel panels of a different design. Incorporated into the window framing are curved bronze supports holding canopies above the entrances. The canopies themselves have been altered. The fourth story is completely covered with an elaborate pattern of stylized plant forms executed in terra cotta. The use of such stylized forms is a characteristic associated with Art Deco design.

 

Trie ornament on these floors was designed by the noted architectural sculptor Rene Chambellan (1893-1955) in collaboration with Jacques Delamarre (b. 1907), head of the architectural staff of the Chanin Construction Company. Among the buildings for which Chambellan executed architectural sculpture were Radio City Music Hall and other buildings at Rockefeller Center, the East Side Airline Terminal, the Russell Sage Foundation Building, the Tribune Ttwer in Chicago, the Stirling Library at Yale, and the Pershing Stadium in Vincennes, France.

 

In the Chanin Building Delamarre was responsible for many of the details of the interior design and through the years supervised the many projects which the Chanin organization chose to design "in-house." Chambellan and Delamarre also collaborated on the design of the sculptural reliefs and bronze grilles adorning the vestibules inside the building entrances. They symbolically portray various aspects of the theme "the City of Opportunity," telling "the story of a city in which it is possible for a nan to rise from a humble station to wealth and influence by sheer power of his mind and hands." This, in fact, was a tribute to the success and achievement of Irwin S. Chanin.

 

Cc\ the Lexington Avenue side, a series of buttresses at the fifth and sixth stories accent the recessed portion of the facade. The form of these buttresses echoes the form of those at tine crown of the tower. Buttress forms extending from the thirtieth to the forty-ninth floor also accentuate the comers of the brick-faced tower.

 

The termination of the buttress forms at the forty-ninth floor indicates sore of the special functions in the floors above. The fiftieth and the fifty-first floors-now converted to office space— originally housed a theater which was to serve the theatrical division of the Chanin Organization. The Chanin offices continue to be housed in the crcKn of the tower which begins at tiie fifty-second floor. The most prominent features of the crown are the protruding buttresses which provide a distinctive termination for the tower.

 

Projecting ornament executed in abstract patterns at the fifty-second floor adds further interest to the Tower. Originally a battery of 212 flood-lights illuminated the crown of the tower at night adding to its dramatic effect of the skyline. This emphasis on dramatic illumination is another quality associated with Art Deco architecture, and it is characteristically displayed in one of Hugh Ferriss' noted renderings of the buildings.

 

When completed in 1929 the Chanin Building was praised by architectural, critic Matlack Price as being "a splendid contribution to twentieth century architecture.. .that.. .powerfully rationalizes all the novel features of this new style,-and.. .a splendid contribution to the architecture of all time because it is a good design."

 

The quality of the design and the ornament continue to delight and are now recognized as exemplifying the characteristics of the Art Deco skyscraper. it remains a striking visual asset to the Grand Central area and continues to function successfully as an office building.

 

- From the 1978 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Mystery & Magic of Ladakh

 

Full of centuries-old treasures and rich vibrant culture, the landscape stretching from the green fertile lands of Kargil in the West to the highest desert in the world in the East, Ladakh is a land of mystique and magic. Watered by rivers Indus, Zanskar and Suru, and inhabited by the Changpas, Drogpas and Dards, Ladakh continues to fascinate visitors from across the world.

 

As if to match its dramatic geography, Ladakh's history is one of tumult, intrigue, invasions, betrayal, plunder, internal strife, uneasy alliances and a half-blood prince who became its best-known ruler.

 

The first inhabitants of Ladakh were probably the Changpa-nomadic herdsmen from the Tibetan Plateau, who arrived in search of greener pastures. The Mons and Aryans moved into its valleys, while the Dards followed the Indus upstream from Gilgit. Later migrants were drawn by the strategic position of Ladakh, as a gateway to Central Asia. Following the disintegration of the Tibetan Empire, these scattered tribes of Ladakh were overwhelmed by a large Tibetan migration sometime in 842 AD. Thus, Nyima-Gon, of Tibetan royalty, installed himself as the first ruler of Ladakh.

 

Around the 15th century, Islam arrived in Ladakh, brought by traders, mystics and warriors from Kashmir, Central Asia and Baltistan. In the years that followed, the religion wove itself into the fabric of this society. In some instances, it was the decision of the King that steered Ladakh in the direction of being a cradle for diverse cultures. Of note is the alliance of King Jamyang Namgyal with Gyal Khutun, daughter of the Balti King, Amir Mir. His son, Senggye Namgyal, half Buddhist, half Muslim, ascended the throne in 1616 and went on to become the most famous of Ladakh's kings, reclaiming lost land and building several monasteries.

 

Ladakh's next great transformative political experience came with the annexation of the region by the Dogra Empire in 1834. The advent of British imperialism and King Gulab Singh's pact with the East India Company in March 1846 ensured that Ladakh remained under the control of the Dogras until India's independence when finally it became part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Council came into being in 1995.

 

History of Ladakh. (2018). [museum display board]. Leh, Ladakh, India: Hall of Fame.

 

EPB_9513

This stunning Delahaye was one of French coachbuilders Joseph Figoni and Ovidio Falaschi’s first aerodynamic coupe designs. With its dramatic enclosed fenders and hand-crafted aluminum body, it was built on one of the fifty short chassis designed by the Delahaye Company for sporty two-seater models. It was equipped with a four-speed competition-style manual transmission, appropriate to a sporty coupe intended for rally competition. The dashboard included a Jaeger rally clock, and the trunk had only enough room to carry a spare tire. The engine was a highly reliable 4-liter Delahaye six with three downdraft Solex carburetors.

 

The coupe’s striking design emphasized flowing lines with teardrop-shaped chrome accents on the hood and the front and rear fenders. The door handles and headlights were flush with the body. The dashboard was made of rich, golden wood, a Figoni &Falaschi signature. A sliding metal sunroof and a windshield that opened outward at the bottom afforded ventilation.

 

A French racing driver named Albert Perrot commissioned this coupe. The Comtesse de la Saint Amour de Chanaz displayed it at a concours d’elegance in Cannes. It was successfully hidden from the Germans during World War II. After the war, it reportedly belonged to actress Dolores del Rio, a well-known owner of exotic cars who lived in Mexico City and Los Angeles.

 

After several more owners, Don Williams, of the Blackhawk Collection, purchased the coupe in the late 1990s. Some time earlier, the Delahaye’s original engine had broken down; it was replaced with a postwar model, and the old engine was retained. In 2004, the Delahaye became the property of Mr. James Patterson, who re-installed the original engine and had the car beautifully restored.

Central Park West, Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America

 

Summary

 

Soaring over Central Park, the profile of the San Remo is among the most important components of the magnificent skyline of Central Park West. The first of the twin-towered buildings which give Central Park West its distinctive silhouette, and one of the New York's last grand apartment houses built in the pre-Depression era, it was designed by Emery Roth, then at the pinnacle of his career as a specialist in apartment house architecture. A residential skyscraper in classical garb, the San Remo epitomizes Roth's ability to combine the traditional with the modern, an urbane amalgam of luxury and convenience, decorum and drama.

 

Development of Central Park West

 

Central Park West, the northern continuation of Eighth Avenue bordering on the park, is today one of New York's finest residential streets, but in the mid-nineteenth century it was a rural and inhospitable outpost, notable for its rocky terrain, browsing goats and ramshackle shanties. With the creation of Central Park in the 1860s, followed by Riverside Park (begun 1876), as well as a series of transportation improvements such as the Ninth Avenue Elevated Railroad (1879), the Upper West Side in general experienced a period of intense real estate speculation. The 1880were the first decade of major development, and set the pattern for the Upper West Side, where rowhouses line the side streets, and multiple dwellings, commercial and institutional structures are sited on the avenues.

 

Not surprisingly, those avenues closest to the parks. Central Park West and Riverside Drive, were immediately considered the most desirable. (Ninth Avenue, re-christened Columbus in 1890, Tenth Avenue, renamed Amsterdam in the same year, and Broadway—the Boulevard before 1899 — were all, in varying degrees marred by cable car and elevated railway lines.)

 

The potential of the parkside avenues for development as prime locations led to an anticipatory increase in land values; prices rose to such extravagant heights that many speculative builders shied away from row house and tenement construction, from which they would realize relatively meager returns, while the very wealthy, who could afford to build mansions, for the most part remained on the more fashionable East Side- As a result, the development of Central Park West lagged behind the general development of the Upper West Side. It was not until the turn of the century that Central Park West's construction boom began and it emerged as a- boulevard of elegant tall apartments punctuated by impressive institutional buildings—a kind of grand proscenium to the architectural variety show of the Upper West Side.

 

The stage had been set By two great monuments, the American Museum of Natural History between 77th and 81st Streets, (begun 1874, architects Vaux & Mould, and a designated New York City Landmark), and the Dakota, the pioneering luxury apartments at 72nd Street (1880-84. architect Henry Hardenbergh, and a designated New York City Landmark). Yet a survey of roughly a decade later revealed that more than half the block fronts along the park from 60th to 96th Streets remained vacant or contained only old, modest frame houses. A few rather unprepossessing apartment hotels (at

 

least, relative to the Dakota) were constructed in the early 1890s, among them the San Remo at 75th Street, designed in 1890 by architect Edward Angel 1.2 was described by Moses King in his Handbook as "an immense and imposing edifice, finely situated on the high ground of West 75th Street and facing on the lawns, woods and waters of Central Park. The rooms . . . are all in suites"; and more recently as "a ten-story, high Victorian pile, a mixture of Gothic and Romanesque details . . . unremarkable from an architectural standpoint except for the steep pyramidal towers at its corners."

 

Among the other apartment hotels on the avenue, were the Beresford at 81st Street, the Majestic (architect Alfred Zucker) just south of the Dakota, both erected in the early 1890s, and the El Dorado at 90th Street of 1901. These have all been replaced by their towered namesakes of the late 1920s and early '30s, but they had already been architecturally superceded by grand apartments houses of the early 1900s—such as the Prasada (1904) at 65th Street, the Langham (1905) at 73rd Street, the Kenilworth (1908) at 75th Street. This phase in Central Park West's development was interrupted by World War I, when construction ground to a halt. The second major phase of development began with the great prosperity of the '20s producing the Art Deco towered buildings, and Roth's Beresford and San Remo Apartments which now define the skyline.

 

The 1920s provided a generation of aspiring immigrants with the opportunity to move up in the world, both economically and geographically. Many Jewish immigrants, refugees from Csarist pogroms, had achieved prosperity in New York by the late 1920s, and looked from the Lower East Side and the Boroughs to the Upper West Side as a cultural and architectural haven. By the mid-1930s more than half the residents of the Upper West Side from 72nd to 96th Streets were Jewish, and more than a third of these families was headed by a parent born in Europe. Emery Roth was himself a Jewish immigrant of Horatio Algeresque stamina and optimism, a family man and Upper West Sider, although he arrived by a more circuitous route than most of his neighbors.

 

The Architect

 

Emery Roth was born in 1871 in the town or Galzecs, Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When he was thirteen the family's fortunes took a turn for the worse, and it was decided that young Emery, alone, would immigrate to America. Passing through Ellis Island, he continued on to Chicago where his success story began.

 

When still a teenager living a hand to mouth existence in Bloomington, Illinois, Roth determined to become an architect. He worked for both a local builder and a local architect. In 1889, having won a national-government sponsored contest, the Maize Competition—for which he drew a living room utilizing the corn plant as a decorative motif—Roth took his $100 prize money and set out for Kansas City. Apparently he could not find architectural employment there, but while he was still in Bloomington, had applied to join the office of Burnham & Root. Offered the job by mail. Roth moved on to Chicago and worked under Charles Atwood (who had succeeded John W. Root after his death in 1891.) Roth helped to prepare drawings for the celebrated Palace of Fine Arts. While at the fair, he met Richard Morris Hunt, the recognized dean of American architects, who offered to hire him if he ever came to New York. After the fair, with true to form optimism, Roth made his way to New York, where Hunt's casual offer was honored. Assigned to draft interior perspectives for The Breakers, the Newport mansion of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Roth came in contact with Ogden Codman, a noted architect, interior designer and socialite. In 1895 Roth went to work for Codman, where his decorative and planning abilities were sharpened.

 

By 1898 Roth believed himself ready for private practice. Two young architects, Theodore G. Stein and E. Yancy Cohen, after involved negotiations, sold Roth their architectural practice for $1000. As part of the agreement, Roth was entitled to represent himself as a partner in Stein, Cohen & Roth in order to capitalize on the good will of the existing firm. In fact, Roth was on his own.

 

Roth's first major commission was the Hotel Belleclaire of 1901-03 on upper Broadway, a designated New York City Landmark. While it was under construction Roth was approached by Leo and Alexander Bing, Manhattan real estate developers. The Bing brothers admired the Belleclaire and commissioned Roth to design a group of five-story apartment buildings in Washington Heights. This alliance inaugurated a lifelong association.

 

In the following years, Roth had several commissions, among them Bancroft Hall of 1910—a student housing facility for Columbia University, and a series of religious structures, including the Congregation Ahavith Achem of 1908 in Brooklyn and the First Reformed Hungarian Church of 1916 on East 69th Street in Manhattan.

 

The year 1918 was a traumatic one for Roth. He lost his vision in one eye, the result of glaucoma, and nearly died in the great influenza epidemic. But the prosperity of the 1920s was to carry him into a period of great achievement. After the hiatus in construction caused by the First World War, building was again undertaken. In New York City, a 1921 ordinance exempting new residential construction from real estate taxes for the next decade, opened the door to a building boom. The Bing brothers commissioned a series of apartment buildings and hotels from Roth, many of which Ruttenbaum aptly terras "fine background buildings," while two other developers, Samuel Minskoff and Harris H. Uris commissioned Roth to design a number of handsome medium height apartment houses which the architect dubbed "skyscratchers."

 

In 1926 Roth in association with Thomas Hastings, the surviving partner of the eminent firm of Carrere & Hastings, designed the Ritz Tower at Park Avenue and 57th Street, a 41-story apartment hotel In a neo-Renaissance style, its extreme height making it "a symbol of a new way to live for wealthy New Yorkers." After the Ritz Tower, Roth went on to design a host of luxury residential skyscrapers, among them the Oliver Cromwell Hotel on West 72nd Street (1928), the Beresford Apartments on Central Park West, and as a consultant to Margon & Holder, the Art Deco style El dorado Apartments also on Central Park West (1929-31, and a designated New York City Landmark). From the mid-1920s on, the signature of a major Roth apartment house was its tower(s). Initially designed to conceal water tanks, they evolved in the Beresford with its three towers into a major element of the design.

 

In the San Remo. among Roth's finest works, the towers are carried even further, becoming an integral component of this residential skyscraper. This fusing of the functional with the aesthetic was equally characteristic of his apartment plans. Roth's sons credit their father with the creation of the foyer plan, and if not the originator he was certainly a refiner of this type. Roth's best apartments seem effortlessly interlocked, wasteful corridor space reduced to a minimum, with spacious, well-lit rooms in their stead.

 

Roth's last great work was the Normandy Apartments on Riverside Drive of 1938-39 (a designated New York City Landmark), by which time his sons had joined the firm. The majority of his later buildings in concession to the Depression had smaller apartments and fewer amenities, while still maintaining high standards. Roth died in 1947, and his sons continued the firm, which has been prosperous and prolific.

 

The San Remo

 

In an advertisement of May 18, 1930, in the New York Times the San Remo was heralded as:

 

The Aristocrat of Central Park West Apartments Designed for You Built by the builders of the Beresford

 

Every detail of these sumptuous apartments has been carefully planned to make living in them the last word in luxury. Only private homes have ceilings as lofty as these and rooms as- spacious. Every chamber has its own colored tile bathroom and is well-supplied with deep closets. Many have dressing rooms too. The long galleries and living rooms with fireplaces offer splendid decorative possibilities. The kitchens have been fitted with the most modern appliances. Up in the towers are apartments such as New York has never before seen with windows on all four sides and views of Central Park, the Hudson, and Westchester. Other specially designed apartments have slate terraces overlooking the park.

 

Six to sixteen rooms, simplex and duplex apartments H.R.H. Construction Company 11

 

Contemporary writers essentially concurred with this euphoric description, and were impressed by the height of the building, the twin-towered silhouette, good plans and luxurious detailing. The New Yorker magazine (a publication which in 1930 seems, at least to modern eyes, to all but ignore the 1929 Crash) featured two articles on the San Remo, one by "Penthouse" [Marcia Clarke Davenport]. Davenport is impressed by the views, the size of the terraces and rooms, and "the remarkable sun and light everywhere." Perhaps a hint of the Depression can be detected in her interest in costs--"This is not one of the houses you use to illustrate that rents are lower on the West Side." An eighteen-room duplex was offered at $21,000 per year.

 

The second New Yorker contributor, "T-Square" [George S. Chappell] considers the San Remo in more strictly architectural terms and as a design by Roth "whose name must be inextricably associated with the development of this section" of Manhattan.

 

...the Italian baroque [is] skillfully adapted to modern conditions. Cornices are reduced to a minimum, becoming simply bandcourses, but such detail as is used is classic in derivation. The twin towers with their circular colonnades of Corinthian columns, crowned by bronze lanterns,

 

are fine in silhouette____ The proportions are

 

well-studied and the warm light brick used above the limestone substructure give a delightful effect.

 

Chappell also praises the watertank coverings and the innovative window design with upper and lower movable transoms.

 

Despite its popular success, the San Remo fell prey to the pervasive economic mayhem of the 1930s. A full year after it had officially opened, nearly a third of its apartments remained vacant, and the Bank of the United States which held its $5 million mortgage had collapsed, its officers charged with recklessly "gambling" on the San Remo. In an

 

effort to attract tenants rents were reduced, and some of the larger apartments were subdivided. But after a succession of owners and bankruptcies, in 1940 the San Remo was sold along with the Beresford, which was experiencing similar financial woes, for a mere $25,000 over existing mortgages.

 

In its near sixty-year history, the San Remo has had numerous well-known and famous tenants, among them David Nemerov and his wife, owners of Russeks Stores, and parents of Howard Nemerov, poet and critic, and Diane Arbus, photographer, Eddie Cantor, the singer and comedian, and more recently, singer Barry Manilow, and actors Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton, Tony Randall and Mary Tyler Moore.

 

Architectural Sources and Style

 

The San Remo is a skyscraper which, in the conservative early twentieth-century tradition, applies an historical style to a contemporary form. Roth, who had a lifelong predilection for classicizing styles (although he used others), here turned to the Late Italian Renaissance for inspiration,,. Broken pediments, both curved and triangular, cartouches, and boldly scaled pilasters and columns with composite capitals, and overlapping architectural elements—all hallmarks of the Late Italian Renaissance—are the components of the San Remo's detailing. Ruttenbaum has noted similarities in the crowning temples of the San Remo with the ancient Greek choragic monument of Lysicrates, which Roth had studied in his youth at the Chicago exposition. Certainly, there are parallels, especially in the proportions, but perhaps equally important are such Late Renaissance structures as Bramante's celebrated Tempietto in Rome, or—in terms of placement as much as form—Michelangelo's lantern atop St. Peter's dome.

 

Much closer to home are such general prototypes as McKim, Mead & White's Municipal Building of 1909-13, a skyscraper topped by a temple and designed in a neo-classical style.

 

Truly tall skyscrapers, rather than the "skyscratchers" of Roth's terminology, up until the 1920s had been almost exclusively erected as commercial structures. Roth's first very tall apartment building, the 41-story Ritz Tower of 1926, had been erected as an apartment hotel, for which less stringent building code requirements applied than for apartment houses. The Ritz Tower was exactly what the name implied—one preliminary scheme even called for a lantern clearly derived from the tower of the Florentine Palazzo Vecchio. In residential terms, this was a new building type, one which reached a fuller expression in the San Remo.

 

In early 1929, a new Multiple Dwelling Act was passed, allowing apartment houses of large ground area greater height and the use of towers. The San Remo, the first of the vast twin-towered West Side apartments, was designed in response to these new stipulations. An innovative design, based on Roth's experience with single-towered structures, it was quickly emulated: yet the sheer size and height of the San Remo apparently struck others as fundamentally "modern." The Century Apartments and the Majestic Apartments are exercises in the contemporary Art Deco style. Even the Normandy, Roth's own last great building combines elements of the Style Moderne with neo-Italian Renaissance motifs. Yet, as the architectural critic, Paul Goldberger (himself a resident of the San Remo) has remarked, "Roth's greatest gift was his ability to adapt Renaissance and classical details to modern building forms." 21

 

Description

 

The San Remo Apartments occupy the Central Park West blockfront from 74th to 75th Streets. A residential skyscraper, the main block of the building is 17 stories in height, with terraced setbacks from the 14th to 17th stories. Two symmetrical towers, each ten stories in height surmounted by elaborate suprastructures culminating in circular temples with lanterns give the building its dramatic profile. The building is executed in light brick. The first three stories are in rusticated limestone, lightly vermiculated at the first two stories, with smooth lower relief at the third. The facade is 26 bays wide, with two main entryways. The southern elevation is 19 bays wide, and the northern is 16. {The southern elevation is 180 feet in length, the northern, 150.) Each has a single main entrance. (There are four office entrances on the Central Park West facade, two on the south elevation, and three on the north. The towers are five bays wide on the facade and side elevations.

 

The rear, western elevation...which owing to its height above the side street rowhouses, is largely visible is executed in the same light brick, and is ranged around a T-shaped courtyard. The towers have terraced rear extensions. A large chimney abuts the north tower.

 

The facade and side elevations are articulated above the three-story base by shallow brick pilasters and slight projections signalized as pavilions by the Renaissance detailing at the upper stories. The facade of the main block of the building has a basic vertical arrangement of bays as: 1-1-1-6-1-6-1-6-1-1-1. At the terrace levels the central six bays and outermost three bays function as true pavilions between the setbacks. The towers have massive, pier-like enframements at the corners. Cornices are effectively and sparingly used to accentuate the upper stories of the main block of the building, the upper stories of the towers, and the suprastructures.

 

Architectural detailing, executed in stone, terra cotta and metal, is Late Italian Renaissance in character, and highlights entrances and window configurations at the upper stories. Balustrades, pilasters, engaged columns, broken pediments, both circular and triangular, garlands, urns, cartouches, scrolls, consoles and roundels are employed. The detail is executed in limestone up to the fourth story and in terra cotta above. The terraces have either terra-cotta balustrades or metal railings. The lantern is of copper. (All such detailing is described below.)

 

Detailing

 

Fenestration:

 

The windows are uniformly treated on the designed elevations, with metal casements featuring movable transoms above and below the principal windows. The upper transom swings out, the lower transom (or hopper) swings in. The central large windows open outward in the conventional manner. The windows have six panes (2 over 2 over 2). This innovative design was intended to facilitate the regulation of temperature and air circulation. There are some variations in width which reflect interior spaces (living rooms, bedrooms etc.) but the basic configuration remains the same, except in the second-story windows above the Central Park West entrances, and at the uppermost stories of the facade central pavilion, which are tripartite with nine panes of glass (3 over 3 over 3). On the rear elevation the windows are more varied in their treatment, with single double, triple and double leaf casement windows, some of which do not have the lower transom. A few windows have been altered, most notably on the rear tower elevations.

 

Main Entrances:

 

Facade [Central Park West] (two, symmetrically located at the 6-7th bays and 20-21st bays).

 

A broken triangular pediment surmounts the double doors , executed in bronze and glass with paneled, solid bronze transoms. The doors are each divided into three parts, with square panels ornamented by bronze medallions and bordering acanthus leaver set in a rectilinear bronze grillework. Metal and glass lanterns flank the doorway. A double-height limestone enframement surrounds the doorway and second-story tripartite window, and is composed of flanking pilasters with composite capitals , with reliefs depicting classical urns above, and supporting a dentiled curved, broken pediment. At the center of the pediment is a large scrolled cartouche draped by a garland which is looped over a rosette at each side. The doorways have sheltering canopies on bronze supports.

 

North [75 St.] and south [74th St.] elevations (one, located in the 13th bay, north side, and in the 11th bay, south side).

 

Both have deep reveals and limestone enframements with a surmounting console table on console-like supports with a central scrolled cartouche. The single bronze and glass doors follow the same design as those on the facade and have transoms with an octagonal panel with central medallion and acanthus leaves. Lanterns flank the doorways.

 

Office Entrances:

 

Facade [Central Park West] (four, symmetrically located at the 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th bays).

 

These have limestone enframements and surmounting entablatures with scrolled ornamental keystones. The single doors are of bronze with a glazed upper panel and transom.

 

North elevation [75th St.] (three, at the 4th, 8th, and 15th bays).

 

These are detailed like those on the facade.

 

South elevation [74th St.] (two, at the 6th and 14th bays).

 

Set within deep reveals and enframed by the rusticated walls, each has a bronze door with a glazed upper panel and transom.

 

Service Entrances:

 

North [75th St.] and south [74th St.] elevations, (two, located at the rear of each elevation).

 

A rusticated wall which follows the design of the building walls and extends to the second story contains an arched doorway with a large keystone and is surmounted by a paneled overdoor. A decorative metal gate with a panel reading "Service" fills the archway. At the south elevation, a metal railing atop a brick wall extends westward along the property line.

 

Third Story Window Enframements:

 

Facade [Central Park West], north [75th St. ] and south [74th St.] elevations, (four, each set at the second bay from the Central Park West corners).

 

The windows have limestone relief enframements with side elements in the shape of a console in profile, and rosettes. .. . .

 

Fourth Story Window Enframements:

 

Facade [Central Park West] (two, symmetrically placed, 5-8th bays and 19-22nd bays).

 

A balustraded balcony set upon four large ornamented console brackets extends for four bays. The central two bays have a limestone enframement and are separated by a smooth limestone panel. Flanking pilasters support an entablature upon which a triangular broken pediment is superimposed. At the center is a scrolled escutcheon with a garland and ornamental tablet.

 

Facade [Central Park West], north [75th St.] and south [74th St.] elevations, (four, each set at the second bay from the Central Park West corners).

 

Each has an entablature with a superimposed triangular pediment, both dentil led, and a central ornamented keystone flanked by plain stones. Pilasters and enframements surround the windows which also have a balustrade executed in high relief.

 

Fourth Story Cartouche:

 

Facade [Central Park West] (one, between the 13th and 14th bays).

 

A large scrolled cartouche, placed at the center of the facade, it has the completion date of the building 19—30 placed to each side.

 

Eleventh-Twelfth Story Window Enframements:

 

Facade [Central Park West] (two, symmetrically located at the 5-8th and 19-22nd bays).

 

A balustrade on Four console brackets, which visually echoes the fourth-story treatment below, extends across four bays. A double-height, two-bay wide central section is recessed, with flanking brick pilasters, in which the capitals are seemingly "overlapped" by the outer wall surface. Two embossed rosettes appear in the panel which is enframed by bandcourses between the 11th and 12th stories. Two additional embossed rosettes appear in the outer bays. A scrolled cartouche with garlands draped over rosettes, similar to those of the facade main entrances, surmount the composition.

 

Thirteenth to Fifteenth Story Window Enframements:

 

Facade (Central Park West], north [75 th St. ] and south [74 th St.] elevations, (four, each set at the second bay from the Central Park West corners).

 

Placed similarly to the window enframement of the fourth story, these three-story compositions also serve to accentuate and anchor the Central Park West corners of the building. In each,, ornamented console brackets at the 13th story level support a balustered balcony one bay wide. At the 13th story and balcony level, are bandcourses which continue along the walls, articulating the designed elevations. The 14th-story windows are surmounted by curved broken pediments and ornamented at the center by escutcheons. Garlands and floral motifs appear below the pediments, upon the window frames. The 15th-story windows are surmounted by a scrolled escutcheon. Double height brick pilasters with rosettes flank the windows and support a broken triangular pediment. Cartouches appear at the center. The band courses of the pilasters and broken pediments also continue along the wall surfaces and here help to define the three-bay wide corner pavilions. These pavilions are further defined by flanking brick pilasters with rosettes.

 

Thirteenth to Seventeenth Story Window Enframements:

 

Facade [Central Park West] (one, at the 12-13th bays).

 

This composition, which signalizes the central six-bay wide pavilion, reiterates many of the elements of the four corner compositions just described, although it is two bays wide, rather than one. Ornamented consoles at the 13th story support the 14th story balustered balcony. Instead of two windows there are single tripartite windows. The 14th and 15th story windows are detailed like those at the corners, but here the broken pediment enframing the carouche is curved rather than triangular. The composition continues to the 16th and 17th stories, which are also flanked by brick pilasters. The tripartite window at the 16th story is richly enframed with a central garlanded tablet, and a broken triangular pediment. At the 17th story is a central garlanded cartouche. The central pavilion has terminating brick pilasters with embossed rosettes like those of the corner pavilions.

 

Twenty-third Story Window Enframements:

 

Facade [Central Park West], north [75th St.] and south [74th St.] elevations, (four, set in the central bays).

 

These window, set mid way on the designed elevations of the towers, function as medallions on the relatively unadorned tower shafts. The windows have elaborate enframements with ornamental keystones and curved, broken pediments.

 

Twenty-sixth - Twenty-seventh Story Window Enframements:

 

Facade [Central Park West], north [75th St. ] and south [74th St. ] elevations, (four, set in the 2-4th bays).

 

Set between bandcourses and balustrade and pediment level, which continue on the wall surfaces of the towers, are these three boldly scaled three-bay wide compositions. The central bay has a projecting balustrade and above, double-height engaged columns on brackets, with foliate capitals. These columns enframe the two windows and support a curved broken pediment. At the center of the pediment is a large cartouche. The side bays have balustrades and above, double-height pilasters on podia, with foliate capitals. These pilasters flank the two windows and support triangular broken pediments.

 

Suprastructure Window Enframements:

 

Facade [Central Park West], north [75th St.] and south [74th St.] elevations and the two inner faces of the towers (six, set at the second story of the suprastructure and in the penthouses).

 

These double-height compositions each include a framed window with flanking brick pilasters with embossed rosettes at capital-level. Above the window is a broken triangular pediment and a central escutcheon. Six small penthouses with semi-circular roofs have their facades placed above the pediments. The windows of these are curved at top and bottom and elaborately enframed and have metal grilles. They are each flanked by console brackets which support the curved pediment of the penthouse.

 

Temples:

 

North and south towers, (two, located at the top of the building).

 

Above the suprastructure each tower is surmounted by a circular temple of brick and terra cotta, set upon a base articulated by boldly scaled console brackets on eight buttressing pedestals. Large urns, draped with garlands, crown each pedestal and the intervening walls are ornamented with scrolled cartouches beneath balustrades. The temples, set on simple brick podia, are encircled by colonnades of smooth columns with foliate capitals. These support plain dentil led friezes beneath balustrades. Above on each tower is a circular base with copestones, which supports the crowing element — a fenestrated and electrified copper lantern, above elongated foliate scrolled consoles. (The temples and lanterns have recently been restored.)

 

- From the 1987 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Explore May 6, 2011 #86

 

This Passion Vine (Passiflora vitifolia) grows along fences, over shrubs and garages here in South Florida. The leaves are glossy green and grape-leaf like. But what will simply knock your socks off are its dramatic, outrageous flowers! Surely they come from another planet! But no, they're from South America.

 

"Legend and romance surround the passion flower... legend because of historical associations with Christianity. And romance because of its suggestion of romantic passion. Early explorers and missionaries to the Southern hemisphere named these dramatic vines Passiflora or Passion Flower to help in their conversion of native Americans to Christianity. They used the beautiful intricate flower parts to tell the story of the death of Jesus, making the story more memorable to listeners. The family name, Passifloraceae, means Flower of the Passion or Flower of the Cross.

 

The color symbolized the blood shed on the cross; the 10 petals and sepals represented the 10 apostles present of the crucifixion; the 5 stamens, the 5 wounds, the 3 styles, the 3 nails ( or, in some versions, Christ and the 2 thieves crucified with him); the vine tendrils, the ropes and scourges; the 3 secondary leaf bracts, the holy trinity. The flower is usually open 3 days representing the 3 years of Christ's ministry on Earth."

Source: "Florida's Fabulous Flowers, Their Stories" by Winston Williams.

 

See my sets Passionate Passion Vines and Tantalizing Flowers and Blossoms for more images of this exotic, erotic flower.

Biscayne Park FL

www.susanfordcollins.com

  

This vibrant photograph captures an ornate Naga serpent sculpture at a temple in Khao Chi Chan, Sattahip District, Thailand. The mythical multi-headed serpent dominates the foreground with its dramatic, fan-like hood painted in golden yellow with intricate scaled patterns, while its open mouth reveals sharp white fangs and a red tongue. Crowned with elaborate gold and blue decorative elements typical of Thai religious art, the Naga's sinuous green and blue body coils gracefully through the temple grounds, adorned with colorful scales and spiny ridges along its back. Water cascades from the creature, suggesting it functions as a fountain. In the background, lush tropical greenery and palm trees frame the scene under a soft, overcast sky, with glimpses of traditional white temple architecture visible to the left, creating a serene and mystical atmosphere characteristic of Thai Buddhist sacred sites.

Thingvellir is one of Iceland’s most important historical and natural sites, located about 45 km northeast of Reykjavík. In 930 AD, it became the meeting place of the Alþingi, one of the world's oldest continuously existing parliaments, making Þingvellir a cornerstone of Icelandic history and national identity. The area is also famous for its unique geology, situated in a rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.

 

Today, Þingvellir is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the three stops on Iceland’s famous Golden Circle route. Visitors come to explore its dramatic landscapes, historic assembly sites, lava fields, waterfalls, and crystal-clear fissures.

 

Notable locations within Þingvellir

 

Almannagjá – the largest rift in the park and the historic route to the assembly grounds.

Lögberg – the "Law Rock," where laws were recited and speeches delivered during Alþingi gatherings.

Öxarárfoss – a picturesque waterfall surrounded by lava formations.

Silfra – a famous water-filled fissure known for exceptional underwater visibility.

Þingvallavatn – Iceland’s largest natural lake.

View from Gantry Plaza State Park

 

East 42nd Street, Midtown Manhattan

 

The Chrysler Building, a stunning statement in the Art Deco style by architect William Van Alen, embodies the romantic essence of the New York City skyscraper. Built in 1928-30 for Walter P. Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation, it was "dedicated to world commerce and industry."- The tallest building in the world when completed in 1930, it stood proudly on the New York skyline as a personal symbol of Walter Chrysler and the strength of his corporation.

 

History of Construction

 

The Chrysler Building had its beginnings in an office building project for William H. Reynolds, a real-estate developer and promoter and former New York State senator. Reynolds had acquired a long-term lease in 1921 on a parcel of property at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street owned by the Cooper Union tor the Advancement of Science and Art. In 1927 architect William Van Alen was hired to design an office tower to be called the Reynolds Building for the site. Publicized as embodying new principles in skyscraper design,*' the projected building was to be 67 stories high rising 808 feet, and it was "to be surmounted by a glass dome, which when lighted from within, will give the effect of a great jewelled sphere."-' In October, 1928, however, the office building project and the lease on the site were taken over by Walter P. Chrysler, head of the Chrysler Corporation, who was seeking to expand his interests into the real estate field.

 

Walter Percy Chrysler (1875-1940), one of America's foremost automobile manufacturers, was a self-made man who worked his way up through the mechanical an; manufacturing aspects of the railroad business before joining the Buick Motor Company as works manager in 1912. Because of his success in introducing new processes and efficiencies into the automobile plant, he rose quickly through the administrative ranks of General Motors (which had absorbed Buick) before personality conflicts with William C. Durant, head of General Motors, forced Chrysler to leave. In 1921 he reorganized Willys-Overland Company, and then took over as chairman of the reorganization and management committee of the Maxwell Motor Company, eventually assuming the presidency. This enabled Chrysler to introduce in 1924 the car bearing his name which presented such innovations as four-wheel hydraulic brakes and high compression motor.

 

Over 50 million dollars worth of cars were sold the first year, and in 1925, the Maxwell Motor Company became the Chrysler Corporation, Dodge Brothers was acquired in 1928 giving the Chrysler Corporation additional manufacturing facilities, a famous line of cars, and putting it in a position to challenge the leadership of Ford and General Motor By 1935, when Chrysler retired from the presidency of the Chrysler Corporation to become chairman of the board, the company was second in the automobile industry ir. volume of production.

 

It was while Chrysler was aggressively expanding his corporation in 1928 that he took over the office building project from Reynolds. In his autobiography, Chrysler said that he had the building constructed so that his sons would have something to be responsible for. He could not have been unaware, however, that the building would become a personal symbol and further the image of the Chrysler Corporation — even though no corporate funds were used in its financing or construction. To that end Chrysler worked with architect William Van Alen to make the building a powerful and striking design.

  

William Van Alen (1882-1954) studied at Pratt Institute before beginning his architectural career in the office or Clarence True, a speculative builder. Severs! years later while continuing his studies at the Beaux-Arts Institute 01 Design in the atelier of Donn Barber, Van Alen entered the office of Clinton * Russell as a designer. In 1908 he won the Paris Prize of the Beaux-Arts Institute and entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Atelier lLaloux. According to architect Francis S. Swales, "

 

His work at the Ecole indicated that the training was providing him with the mental freedom necessary to think independently, instead of merely the usual school -cargo of elements of architecture and a technique or competition by rules."0 Returning to New York in 1912 he introduced the concept of "garden11 apartments and also designed the Albemarle Building, a skyscraper without cornices. In the 1920s he became known for his innovative shop-front designs and for a series of restaurants for the Child's chain. With the Chrysler Building, Van Alen was able to apply modern principles of design to the skyscraper but at the same time created such a striking image that critic Kenneth Murchison dubbed him "the Ziegfield of his profession.

 

'In the 1930s he pioneered in prefabricated housing designs although they were never widely produced. Van Alen served for four years in the 1940s as director of sculpture for the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, and he was a member of the American Institute of Architects and the National Academy of Design.

 

Work began on the Chrysler Building on October 15, 1928, when Chrysler acquire the lease, with clearance of the site. Construction proceeded rapidly; foundations to a depth of 69 feet were completed early in 1929, and the steel framework was completed by the end of September of that year.

 

The design of the building, however, was altered from that for Reynolds. Chrysler, in his autobiography, credits himself for suggesting that it be taller than the 1000-foot Eiffel Tower. The design of the crowning dome was also changed, and the addition of a spire, which the architect called a "vertex," made the Chrysler at 1046 feet the tallest building in the world at the time. Kenneth Murchison fancifully depicts Chrysler urging Van Alen to win the race to construct the world's tallest building.

 

Van Alen himself had personal reasons for achieving this goal, as a former partner, ii. Craig Severance, was constructing the Bank of Manhattan, 40 Wall Street, at the same time with the aim of making it the world's tallest skyscraper. Thinking that the Chrysler Building would be only 925 feet high, Severance added a 50-foot flagpole to his building making it 927 feet. Meanwhile, Van Alen designed the 185-foot spire which would make the Chrysler Building the tallest. The spire was fabricated, then delivered to the building in five sections, and assembled secret at the 65th floor.

 

In November, 1929, it was finally raised into position by a 20-ton derrick through a fire tower in the center of the building, then riveted i place, the whole operation taking about 90 minutes. This engineering feat capture the popular imagination as well as that of professionals, and it helped to further the progressive image of the Chrysler Building. However, the Chrysler lost its height distinction two years later with the construction of the Empire State Building.

 

The first tenants moved into the Chrysler Building in April, 1930, even though construction was not completed. Formal opening ceremonies were held on May 27, 1930 in conjunction with the annual meeting of the 42nd Street Property Owners and Merchants Association. A bronze tablet was placed in the lobby of the building "in recongnition of Mr. Chrysler's contribution to civic advancement." The building was considered finished in August, 1930, but curiously, the completion date recorded in the records of the Manhattan Building Department is February 19, 1932.

 

The Chrysler Building and Art Deco

 

Waiter P. Chrysler wanted a progressive image and a personal symbol. Van Alen strove* to create such an image using the tenets of modernism as he interpreted them. In so doing he designed a building which has come to be regarded as one of the outstanding examples of Art Deco architecture.

 

The term. Art Deco, which is also referred to by several different names such as the Style Moderne and Modernistic, is adopted from the Exposition International: des Arts Decoratifs et Industrie]s Modernes--an important European influence or. the American Art Deco sty!e--held in Paris in 1925.

 

In the period following the first World War, architects in Europe and the united States had begun to simplify traditional design forms and to use -industrial materials in innovative ways in order to characterize the modern age.

 

The Art Deco style seemed to lend itself particularly well to skyscraper design because the skyscraper, more than any other building type, epitomized progress, innovation, and a new modern age. Although the Art Deco style was short-lived, it coincided with a great building boom at the end of the 1920s in New York. The many-skyscrapers which were erected in the Art Deco style gave New York and its skyline a characteristic and romantic image, popularized in theater and films, which persisted until the next great building boom of the early 1960s. In the Chrysler Building, Van Alen used a variety of materials, techniques, and design forms which are characteristic of Art Deco.

 

The Chrysler Building rises 77 stories in a series of setbacks which accord with the regulations of the 1916 New York zoning prdinance. As a freestanding tower occupying about half a block, the building is visible from four sides. Like many Art Deco architects. Van Alen believed strongly in designing steel structures so that they would not be imitative of masonry construction.'- Also unlike many earlier skyscrapers, the design of the Chrysler did not follow the formula of a column with ornamental base, bare shaft, and ornamental capital; rather the design was to be of interest throughout the entire height.13 Both the great height of the building and the mandated setbacks aided Van Alen in making this design decision,

 

The first four stories of the building cover the entire site arid are faced with polished black Shastone granite at the first story and white Georgian marble above. The most striking features of this portion of the building are the two entrances, on Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street. Each entrance rises for h height of three stories in proscenium fashion and is enframed by Shastone granite. Set back within the deep reveals of the entrances are sets of revolving doors beneath intricately patterned metal and glass screens.

 

The treatment is such as to heighten the dramatic effect of entering the building --a concern of Art Deco design There is a one-story entrance on 43rd Street. Also at first story level are iarge show windows for shops, framed in metal. Windows for offices may be seen at the second, third, and fourth stories. Ornamental spandrels are set at the bases of the second story windows. The exposed metal frames of the entries and windows art of "Nirosta" steel, a kind of rust-resistant, chromium nickel steel, manufactured for the first time in the United States specifically for the Chrysler Building according to a German formula from Krupp. This use of a new. material is in keeping with Art Deco principles.

 

Above the fourth story, the building is penetrated on the east and west sides by light courts extending to the face of the tower, while on the north and south the structure gradually rises in a series of setbacks. The facing of the walls through the first setback at the sixteenth story is of white brick with contrast! white marble strips creating a basketweave pattern. The use of a variety of colo and textures is characteristic of Art Deco. Windows are set in a regular grid pattern. An. unusual feature of all windows in the building is that they have no reveals; frames are set flush with the walls. This was seen is another means of indicating modernity and progress.

 

In the next setback, ending at the twenty-fourth floor, there is a vertical emphasis with piers of white brick alternating with vertical window strips. Aluminum spandrels between the windows aid this effect. Spandrels at the twentieth twenty-first, and twenty-second floors are adorned with polished abstract relief ornament. At the corners of the twenty-fourth floor are placed conventionalized pineapples, about nine feet high, of "Nirosta" steel, which had been fabricated < the site.

 

The next three stories, through the twenty-seventh, form the third setback. Horizontal banding and zigzag motifs in gray and black brick contrast with the verticality of the setback below. The fourth setback, to the thirty-first story marks the emergence of the tower shaft from the lower masses. At the thirty-first floor the corners of the building are extended outward and crowned by huge ornamental Chrysler radiator caps in "Nirosta" steel, spanning about 15 feet.

 

The- extension was necessary to overcome the optical effect that would otherwise make the tower appear wider at the top than at the base. Also at this floor is a frieze ir. gra; and white brick of stylized racing automobiles with polished steel hub caps. Th ornamental features are overt symbols of the Chrysler Corporation and characteristic of the types of effects created by Art Deco architects.

 

The building had a number of innovative and desirable features. THe soundproofed office partitions were of steel made in interchangeable sections so that arranges! of any office suite could be changed quickly and conveniently. Under-floor duct systems carried wiring for telephone and electric outlets.

 

The elevators, specifically at Chrysler's instruction, were capable of speeds of 1000 feet per minute although city codes in effect in 1930 only allowed 700 feet per minute. The building also had three of the longest continuous elevator shafts in the world To enhance public access to the building, an underground arcade led to the IRT subway system. The connection was strongly opposed by the IRT, but Chrysler prevailed and the passageway was built at his expense. In the dome was the private-Cloud Club, which still exists, and, in the very topmost floor, a public observation deck.

 

On display was Walter P. Chrysler's box of handmade tools, the emblem of his enterprise and personal success. The observatory has been closed for many years.

 

Conclusion

 

Critics such as Lewis Mumford who favored the International Style denigrated the Chrysler Building for its "inane romanticism,... meaningless voluptuousness, ... /and/ void symbolism," " but it was these qualities which captured the popular imagination and helped make it one of the most famous buildings in New York. We can appreciate the comments of the editor of Architectural Porum who wrote:

 

It stands by itself, something apart and alone. It is simply the realization, the fulfillment in metal and masonry, of a one-man dream, a dream of such ambition and such magnitude as to defy the comprehension and the criticism of ordinary men or by ordinary standards.

 

The Chrysler Building still stands proudly in the New York skyline, its gleaming spire and soaring tower capturing the eye and imagination of the viewer. While it may no longer symbolize the Chrysler Corporation, it still embodies the romantic essence of the Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, with its dramatic effects, elegant materials, and vivid ornamental details. Built as a monument to progress in commerce and industry, it remains as one of New York's finest office buildings and great examples of the Art Deco style.

 

- From the 1978 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The ground floor interior of the Chrysler Building which the Commission designates an Interior Landmark, has been called one of the great Art Deco spaces in New York City. Built in 1928-30 according to the designs of architect William Van Alen, it provides an elegant and dramatic entrance to one of New York's great skyscrapers which had been dedicated by Walter P. Chrysler to "world commerce and industry." A variety of design features create this effect and enhance its progressive image.

 

HISTORY OF CONSTRUCTION

 

The Chrysler Building had its beginnings in an office building project for William H. Reynolds, a real-estate developer and promoter and former New York State senator. Reynolds had acquired a long-term lease in 1921 on a parcel of property at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street owned by the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In 1927 architect William Van Alen was hired to design an . office tower to be called the Reynolds Building for the site. Publicized as embodying new principles in skyscraper design, the projected building was to be 67 stories high rising 808 feet, and it was "to be surmounted by a glass dome, which when lighted from within, will give the effect of a great jewelled sphere."

 

In October, 1928, however, the office building project and the lease on the site were taken over by Walter P. Chrysler, head of the Chrysler Corporation, who was seeking to expand his interests into the real estate field.

 

Walter Percy Chrysler , one of America's foremost automobile manufacturers, was a self-made man who worked his way up through the mechanical and manufacturing aspects of the railroad business before joining the Buick Motor Company as works manager in 1912. Because of his success in introducing new processes and efficiencies into the automobile plant, he rose quickly through the administrative ranks of General Motors before personality conflicts with William C. Durant, head of General Motors, forced Chrysler to leave.

 

In 1921 he reorganized Willys-Overland Company, and then took over as chairman of the reorganization and management committee of the Maxwell Motor Company, eventually assuming the presidency. This enabled Chrysler to introduce in 1924 the car bearing his name which presented such innovations as four-wheel hydraulic breaks and a high compression motor.

 

Over 50 million dollars worth of cars were sold the first year, and in 1925, the Maxwell Motor Company became the Chrysler Corporation. Dodge Brothers was acquired in 1928 giving the Chrysler Corporation additional manufacturing facilities, a famous line of cars, and putting it in a position to challenge the leadership of Ford and General Motors.

 

By 1935, when Chrysler retired from the presidency of the Chrysler Corporation to become chairman of the board, the company was second in the automobile industry in volume of production.

 

It was while Chrysler was aggressively expanding his corporation in 1928 that he took over the office building project from Reynolds. In his autobiography, Chrysler said that he had the building constructed so that his sons would have something to be responsible for. 6 He could not have been unav^ure, however, that the building would become a personal symbol and further the image of the Chrysler Corporation— even though no corporate funds were used in its financing or construction, lb that end Chrysler worked with architect William Van Alen to make the building, including the ground floor interior, a powerful and striking design.

 

Work began on the Chrysler Building on October 15, 1928, when Chrysler acquired the lease with clearance of the site. Construction proceeded rapidly; foundations to a depth of 69 feet were completed early in 1929, and the steel framework was completed by the end of September of that year. The design of the building, however, was altered from that for Reynolds. Chrysler, in his autobiography, credits himself for suggesting that it be taller than the 1000-foot Eiffel Tower.

 

The design of the crowning dome was also changed, and the addition of a spire, which the architect called a "vertex," made the Chrysler at 1046 feet the tallest building in the world at the time. Kenneth Murchison fancifully depicts Chrysler urging Van Alen to win the race to construct the world's tallest building.

 

Van Alen himself had personal reasons for achieving this goal, as a former partner, H. Craig Severance, was constructing the Bank of Manhattan, 40 Wall Street, at the same time with the aim of making it the world's tallest skyscraper. Thinking that the Chrysler Building would be only 925 feet high, Severance added a 50-foot flagpole to his building making it 927 feet.

 

Meanwhile, Van Alen designed the 185-foot spire which would make the Chrysler Building the tallest. The spire was fabricated, then delivered to the building in five sections, and assembled secretly at the 65th floor. In November, 1929, it was finally raised into position by a 20-ton derrick through a fire tower in the center of the building, then riveted into place, the whole operation taking about 90 minutes. This engineering feat captured the popular imagination as well as that of professionals, and it helped to further the progressive image of the Chrysler Building. However, the Chrysler lost its height distinction two years later with the construction of the Empire State Building.

 

The first tenants moved into the Chrysler Building in April, 1930, even though construction was not completed. Formal opening ceremonies were held on May 27, 1930, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the 42nd Street Property Owners and Merchants Association. A bronze tablet was placed in the lobby of the building "in recognition of Mr. Chrysler's contribution to civic advancement." H It may still be seen in the 42nd Street entrance lobby. The building was considered finished in August, 1930, but curiously, the completion date in the records of the Manhattan Buildings Department is February 19, 1932.

 

The Chrysler Building and Art Deco

 

Walter P. Chrysler wanted a progressive image and a personal symbol. Van Alen strove to create such an image using the tenets of modernism as he interpreted them. In so doing he designed a building which has come to be regarded as one of the outstanding examples of Art Deco architecture. The ground floor interior is one of the great Art Deco spaces in the country.

 

The term Art Deco, which is also referred to by several different names such as the Style Moderne and Modernistic, is adopted from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Deooratifs et Industriels Modemes— an important European influence on the American Art Deco style— held in Paris in 1925.

 

In the period fallowing the first World War, architects in Europe and the United States had begun to simplify traditional design forms and to use new industrial materials in innovative ways in order to characterize the modem age. The Art Deco style seemed to lend itself particularly well to skyscraper design because the skyscraper, more than any other building type, epitomized progress, innovation, and a new modem age. Although the Art Deco style was short-lived, it coincided with a great building boon at the end of the 1920s in New York. The many skyscrapers which were erected in the Art Deco style gave New York and its skyline a characteristic and romantic image, popularized in theater and films, which persisted until the next great building boom of the early 1960s. The Art Deco ground floor interiors of these skyscrapers were equally effective, giving an air of drama to the act of entering a building.

 

In the Chrysler Building and its ground floor interior, Van Alen used a variety of materials, techniques, and design forms which are characteristic of Art Deco.

 

Three entrances provide access to the ground floor interior of the building—one each from 42nd and 43rd Streets and Lexington Avenue. The three entrance lobbies lead into the triangular main concourse with two massive octagonal piers. The shape of the concourse and the placement of the piers help to channel traffic efficiently to the four elevator halls. In his autobiography, Walter P. Chrysler claimed that he asked the architect to redesign the lobby so that "when people come into a big building they...sense a change, get a mental lift that will put them in a frame of mind to transact their business.'^* The triangular concourse was the result.

 

Rich materials, a characteristic feature of the Art Deco style, enhance the spatial effects and enrich the experience of entry. The walls of the entrance lobbies and main concourse as well as the octagonal piers are faced with a type of red Moroccan marble known as Rouge Flarrme.

 

The marble is distinguished by variegated markings in tones of buff. Complementing the marble on the walls is the yellow Sienna travertine floor set in diagonal patterns—another subtle directional device to guide the user of the building. Shop windows opening onto the entrance lobbies and main concourse as well as directory boards are elegantly framed in "Nirosta" steel, a kind of rust-resistant, chromium nickel steel, manufactured for the first time in the United States specifically for the Chrysler Building according to a German formula from Krupp.

 

Handsome crenellations of "Nirosta" steel—in characteristic Art Deco forms—surmount these enframements. The entrance doors, as well as the service doors, are also of "Nirosta" steel. Set between the service doors opposite the Lexington Avenue entrance is an information booth of red marble with "Nirosta" steel back rising from it.

 

One of the most striking and dramatic features of this interior is the lighting system. Vertically-placed panels of polished Mexican onyx are placed in a stepped pattern above the elevator halls and the three street entrances. Vertical reflector troughs of "Nirosta" steel set with lamps are placed in front of the onyx panels. As the light is reflected off these panels it is given an amber glow.

 

Set in front of the lights marking the entrances are vertically-placed letters forming the names of the streets outside. The octagonal piers in the main concourse also provide a light source. V-shaped recesses lined with onyx contain the same type of vertical reflector troughs and lamps as those over the entrances and elevator halls.

 

On the ceiling scanning the main concourse and the Lexington Avenue entrance lobby is a large mural by artist Edward Trumbull. The use of such murals was a favorite device of Art Deco designers. In addition to heightening the dramatic effect and enriching the experience of interior spaces, they also were a means of achieving the Art Deco ideal of the unity of design.

-

Edward Trumbull was one of the foremost American moralists of his generation. As a student at the Art Student's League in New York he studied with Robert Raid; in London from 1906 to 1912, he was a student of Frank Brangwyn. Returning to the United States, he was commissioned to do nine panels for the Heinz Administration Building in Pittsburgh.

 

Among the important ccnmissions of his career, in addition to the Chrysler Building, were murals for: the Pennsylvania State Building at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, the Graybar Building, the Oyster Bar and Restaurant at Grand Central Station, the waiting rooms in Union Station in Washington, D.C., the dining rocms in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Building, the cafeteria of the Kress Store at 444 Fifth Avenue, and a branch office of the Union Dime Savings Bank at Madison Avenue and 39th Street.

 

For Inland Steel, he painted "The Story of Steel" which was presented to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In 1932 Trumbull was appointed Color Director for the art program of Rockefeller Center to supervise more than 40 murals and 50 sculptural pieces.

 

The mural in the Chrysler Building depicts "the vision, human energy and engineering ability which made possible the structure." The composition is divided into several parts, each with its own theme. A triangular panel placed over the information booth displays a large muscular Atlas figure. Radiating out from this are three bands which follow the triangular form of the main concourse. The first, showing a series of abstract patterns and lines, was supposed to symbolize primitive, natural forces.

 

The second, depicting construction workers and techniques, has a specific analogy to the construction of the Chrysler Building. The third shews the development of modem transportation with an emphasis on airplanes. Extending outward over the Lexington Avenue entrance lobby is a large panel with a rendering of the b building as seen from the exterior. The warm tones of the mural harmonize well with the rich colors of the marble and onyx below.

 

The four elevator halls are lined with the same red marble as the entrance halls and main concourse. The doors of the twenty-eight passenger elevators are a strikingly handsome Art Deco design, displaying an abstract lotus pattern executed in metal and inlaid wood veneers. The elevator cabs are of four design types.

 

All are abstract patterns, again executed in a variety of inlaid wood veneers. The woods include Japanese ash, English gray hardwood, Oriental walnut, dye ebonized wood, stainwood, Cuban plum pudding, myrtle burl, and curly maple. Ceiling fans in the elevator cabs are of metal, also executed in striking abstract designs. The use of such rich materials to create a luxurious and dramatic effect is characteristic of Art Deco.

 

The curved staircases at the north and south ends of the main concourse lead to the mezzanine at the second floor and to the basement. The use of highly polished black marble on the curved walls heightens the dramatic effect of these staircases. The railings, which follow the curve of the stairs, are of "Nirosta" steel, and the inner railings have zigzag motifs characteristic of Art Deco design set between the balusters.

 

At ground floor level, the railings terminate in massive red marble newel posts. The steps are of gray and black terrazzo. Handsome molded glass light fixtures hang from the ceilings above the staircases. These ceilings are finished with aluminum, leaf.

 

All features of the ground floor interior combine together to create one of the great Art Deco spaces in the city and country. The elements of the design and the rich materials are not only characteristic of the Art Deco style but are also same of the finest examples of their type. All appropriately enhance the progressive image of One of New York's finest office buildings.

 

The Chrysler Building and the Image of Progress

 

When completed the Chrysler Building was praised as "an expression of the:intense activity and vibrant life of our day" and as "teeming] with the spirit of modernism,...the epitome of modem business life,.. .standjing] for progress in architecture and in modem building methods." Walter P. Chrysler had sought to create the most desirable office building of the day:

 

The Chrysler Building is dedicated to world commerce and industry. It was created with a desire to meet the demand of business executives of today who, with their intense activities, must have the most favorable office surroundings and conditions.

 

The need for abundant light and air resulted in a building of fine proportions and great height. The importance of accessibility and transit facilities dictated the location. The desire for the utmost in conveniences determined the inclusion of unusual facilities of every necessity contributing to the contentment and satisfaction of the business man in his office home.

 

As an environment in which work may be accomplished efficiently and in comfort, it is believed the finished structure establishes a new ideal—one which will stand as a measure of comparison for office buildings of the future.

 

The Chrysler Building is therefore dedicated as a sound contribution to business progress.

 

The building had a number of innovative and desirable features. The soundproofed office partitions were of steel made in interchangeable sections so that the arrangement of any office suite could be changed quickly and conveniently. Under-floor duct systems carried wiring for telephone and electric outlets.

 

The elevators were not only beautiful in design but also,, specifically at Chrysler's instruction, capable of speeds of 1000 feet per minute although city codes in effect in 1930 only allowed 700 feet per minute. The building also had three of the longest continuous elevator shafts in the world. To enhance public access to the building, an underground arcade led to the IRT subway system. The connection was strongly opposed by the IRT, but Chrysler prevailed and the passageway was built at his expense.

 

In the dome was the private Cloud Club, which still exists, and, in the very topmost floor, a public observatory. On display was Walter P. Chrysler's box of handmade tools, the emblem of his enterprise and personal success. The observatory has been closed for many years.

 

Conclusion

 

Critics such as Lewis Mumford who favored the International Style denigrated the Chrysler Building for its "inane romanticism, .. .meaningless voluptuousness,.. ./and] void symbolism^ " but it was these qualities which captured the popular imagination and helped make it one of the most famous buildings in New York. We can appreciate the comments of the editor of Architectural Forum who wrote:

 

It stands by itself, something apart and alone. It is simply the realization, the fulfillment in metal and masonry, of a one-man dream, a dream of such ambition and such magnitude as to defy the comprehension and the criticism of ordinary men or by ordinary standards.

 

The Chrysler Building with its ground floor interior remains one of New York's finest office buildings—the elements of its design capturing the eye and imagination of the viewer.

 

The total design of the ground floor interior helped toe carry out Walter P. Chrysler's aim of dedicating the building to world commerce and industry. With its dramatic effects, elegant materials, and striking ornamental details, the ground floor interior of the Chrysler Building is an outstanding example of the Art Deco style— among the finest in the city and the country.

 

- From the 1978 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Clinton Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

In the last decades of the 19th century the city of Brooklyn developed into one of the largest and wealthiest urban centers in the United States. The affluence of the city was reflected in the size and quality of the buildings erected in its residential neighborhoods during the last quarter of the century.

 

Substantial mansions and rowhouses were erected throughout Brooklyn, but even more important as symbols of the city's established success were grand public monuments such as clubs, schools, philanthropic and cultural institutions, and, most importantly, churches. St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church, built in 1888-91 on Clinton Avenue, one of Brooklyn's most elite thoroughfares, is among the largest and finest of the ecclesiastical structures built in the city during the 19th century, and, like the other major buildings from the period, it reflects a sense of optimism in Brooklyn's future.

 

During the course of the 19th century, Brooklyn developed from a small rural village and farming center into the third most populous city in America. With the advent of reliable ferry service between New York City and Brooklyn, beginning in the 1820's, Brooklyn began to attract middle-class families who were, seeking residential areas that were separate from the commercial life of the city. In New York City, the expansion of business sections into once elegant residential neighborhoods caused the population to more farther and farther north. As land values on Manhattan Island rose, many people chose to move elsewhere. Brooklyn became the choice location for those who found life in New York City to be unpleasant or who could not afford to live in Manhattan. Brooklyn never developed an extensive commercial center, relying instead on New York City for business activity. Thus, Brooklyn became almost entirely a residential community. At the end of the century one historian wrote:

 

Brooklyn has always been an adjunct of the metropolis rather than a city with a complete civic life of its own, a dwelling-place for business folk and employees who possess moderate incomes, and those of greater means who abhor the feverish and artificial joys of the modern Babel. It is a vast aggregation of home and family life, and of the social pleasures thai: appertain thereto. There is little to be seen in Brooklyn save the streets and avenues, hundreds of miles of them, filled with rows of dwelling houses ....All of Brooklyn, indeed, with the exception of the waterside streets and range of cloud piercing office buildings [in the Down town area]... is the exclusive domain of women and children during the daylight hours.

 

Daring the 19th century tens of thousands of substantial dwellings were erected in Brooklyn to house this new population. As each .residential section began to develop, church organizations were founded to lend a requisite moral tone to the new neighborhood and fulfill the. spiritual needs of the populace. The tremendous growth of Brooklyn during the 19th. century created fertile ground for the development of new church societies and the erection of fine new church buildings. By 1850, the appellation "City of Churches" had been applied to Brooklyn.

 

During the period prior to the Civil War, major architects designed fine church buildings in Brooklyn, but few of these were on the scale of those in neighboring New York City. After the Civil War, however, as Brooklyn's wealth increased, its church buildings began to rival those of New York. Churches in the exclusive neighborhoods of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, and Grant Square/St. Marks, such as Sr.. Luke's Episcopal Church, the Emmanuel Baptist Church (1887), the First Dutch Reformed Church (1887-89), and the New York Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church (1889-92) are of the scale and architectural sophistication of contemporary churches built in the other large cities of America.

 

The Church of St. Luke and St, Matthew traces its roots to the founding of Trinity P.E. Church, Brooklyn, in 1835. Soon after its organization. Trinity built a substantial church building on the west side of Clinton Avenue between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue. The church was a rubble-stone structure designed in a vernacular Greek Revival style with stone pilasters, a square tower, and a steeple. At the time of its construction, the area surrounding Trinity was a sparsely populated farming neighborhood located at a great distance from the settled parts of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the Clinton Hill section did not have a population that was large enough to support such a substantial building and the congregation was forced to disband. On December 14, 1841, a new Episcopal organization, St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church, was organized in the area and on February 1, 1842, the vestry of the new church voted to purchase the property of Trinity Church. This proved to be a wise investment, for by the 1850s wealthy families had begun to move into Clinton Hill, erecting large homes along Clinton Avenue, such as the picturesque Italian Villa that still stands to the south of the church at 532 Clinton Avenue. Clinton Avenue attracted wealthy families because it had one of the highest elevations in Brooklyn and was, therefore, considered to be extremely healthy. In addition, the street had been laid out in the 1820s as a wide tree-lined boulevard suitable for the residences of affluent families.

 

By 1853 the former Trinity Church building was found to be too small for the growing congregation of St. Luke's and the vestry commissioned an extension from the noted ecclesiastical architectural firm of Wills & Dudley. Frank Wills and Henry Dudley were among the most prominent, architects of Episcopal churches in America during the mid-19th century. Either separately, or in partnership, they designed a large number of Episcopal churches in New York, including St. Mary's, Staten Island (1853), St, George's, Flushing (1854), and St. James', Fordham (1861-65). Wills & Dudley's plan for St. Luke's called for enlarging the rectangular Greek Revival church into a cruciform structure. With financial assistance from Trinity Church, New York, this work was soon completed, although the church was not consecrated until 1883 when its building debt was paid off.

 

On November 27, 1887, five years after the consecration of the enlarged church, a fire destroyed or seriously damaged the building. Shortly after the fire the vestry considered rebuilding the church, but by January 1888 they had begun to entertain the idea of erecting a now church edifice. On January 16, 1888 the vestry minutes record that a member of the parish had offered to build and equip a Sunday school on the lot to the south of the church "free from any expense of any kind to the corporation. This proposal was submitted to the church by Colonel Henry P. Martin, one of the congregation's wealthiest members, on the condition that the vestry agree to erect a new church building on the site of the old structure. The vestry readily acquiesced to Martin's proposal so long as "the party making it will agree that his building shall be made to conform in style of architecture to that selected for the new church and provided that the plans of such building shall be first submitted and approved of by the Vestry or a Committee duly authorized by them. Martin agreed, and on January 19, 1888, he presented a certified check for $40,000 to the vestry of the church. Martin donated the money for the Sunday school as a memorial to his daughter who had recently died. Her initials, "EMM," are carved into the cornerstone of the building and her portrait is carved on the column capitals that support the entrance porch.

 

The vestry solicited plans for the new Sunday school from several prominent Brooklyn architects including John Welch, Rudolph Daus, and J.W. Walter. On February 24, 1888 Welch's Italian Romanesque style design was selected. John Welch (1824-1894) was born in Scotland and received his architectural training in Scotland and in England. He immigrated to America in 1849, settling in Newark, New Jersey. In Newark, Welch established himself as a church architect, designing a number of notable Greek Revival and Gothic Revival style churches. Of special note is Welch's South Park Presbyterian Church (now Park-Calvary United Presbyterian Church) of 1853-55, a superb Greek Revival style structure with twin round towers. In about 1860, Welch is thought to have moved to Brooklyn. There are five churches still standing in Brooklyn that are known to have been designed by Welch, all dating from the 1880s. The earliest of these are Gothic Revival style structures, such as the Janes M.E. Church oft Monroe Street and Re id Avenue, that reflect a lingering influence of Victorian Gothic polychromy, particularly atone banding. In the late 1880s Welch's work began to show the influence of the Romanesque Revival and he designed three churches in an extremely bold and personal version of the style. Although his late churches are his finest, Welch's career seems to have declined. His obituary records that "owing to financial difficulties, Mr. Welsh [sic] lived in poor circumstances, and had been peddling books for a living."

 

Besides St. Luke's, Welch's other major Brooklyn buildings are the First Methodist Episcopal Church, known as the Sands Street Memorial Church (now demolished), erected between 1889 and 1891 in Brooklyn Heights, and All Saints P.E. Church (1892-93) at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 7th Street in Park Slope. The idiosyncratic Sands Street Church was a Romanesque Revival style structure with an unusual fenestration pattern, a monumental round-arched corner entrance, and a large square tower placed at one end of the building, AM Saints P.E. Church, Welch's last known church design, combines Romanesque, Gothic, and Egyptian motifs to create one of the more singular ecclesiastical structures in New York City.

 

Although Welch's plans for the Sunday school of St. Luke's were accepted by the vestry, they proved to be very expensive; the lowest bid for construction was $45,900 exclusive of heating and furnishing. Welch was« asked to modify the plans so that the building would cost no more than $35,000. Ground was finally broken for the building in July 1888 and construction continued while plans were discussed for the erection of the adjoining church.

 

Welch's designs for the church were extremely sumptuous. They included a huge sanctuary with marble: columns, a monumental facade composed of a variety of materials, and a tall corner tower.

 

In order to construct this building the congregation would have had to secure a large loan and a heavy mortgage. By October 1888, the vestry had realized that the church could not handle such an extensive debt, In November the vestry minutes noted that "Building project should be revived on basis of a smaller church, less expensive exterior, omission of tower for the present and a cost not exceeding $40,000."® Welch submitted new plans for the building that omitted the tower and replaced the interior marble columns with columns of yellow pine that were to be painted in imitation of marble.

 

As construction proceeded on the. new church, money was acquired for the enlargement and improvement of the chancel of the old building which had survived the fire. According to the. vestry minutes "the chancel is to be deepened 8 feet and the roof of the choir and sanctuary raised to a height that will correspond with the height of the new nave." It is not clear whether Welch was responsible for this alteration, although it seems likely. In addition to the church arid Sunday school buildings, Welch designed the Woolsey Memorial Hall, which is connected to the rear of the main building, on Vanderbilt Avenue. This simple building, designed in 1888 and constructed in 1889-90, was paid for by the Church Guild and Auxiliary.

 

Welch's designs for St. Luke's church, chapel and Sunday school are loosely based on the Romanesque churches build in northern Italy, particularly in. Emilia and the Veneto, during the 12th century. Welch had traveled in Italy and had a first-hand knowledge of Italian Romanesque architecture. In its 1889 discussion of St. Luke's Church an article in the Churchman noted that "long training arid examination, of church architecture in England and on the Continent, with special study in. Italy, had made him a master and he has in the present work given expression to the idea of the Italian Romanesquewith eminent success.

 

Like most late 19th-century American architects who designed buildings based on -historic precedents, Welch did not imitate i. specific building. He combined forms and dc-tails common to Italian Romanesque churches, but in a manner that bespoke not the 12th century, but the religious needs of an urban parish in the 19th century . The scale of St, Luke ' s , the combination of a church and Sunday school, the use of varied materials creating a subtle polychromatic effect on the front facade, and the arrangement of the decorative ornament are all 19th-century devices, merely cloaked in an Italian Romanesque veneer.

 

Welch's church is basc-d on the basilican plans of Romanesque churches, but the plan has been accommodated to the need;- of the Episcopal liturgy by the addition of transepts and a deep chancel.. The front facade, with its wide nave, projecting round-arched entrance porch, large wheel window, corbelled cornice, and octagonal towerlettes has many precedents in Italian Romanesque churches including such monuments as Modena Cathedral and S. Zeno, Verona, both of which date from the 12th century.

 

St. Luke's, however, is not an imitation of these churches, but is instead an adaptation of certain design motifs found on these and contemporary buildings.

 

In America, the Romanesque Revival style was first used for an Episcopal Church by architect Henry Hobson Richardson at his Trinity Church, Bos ton, built between 1873 and 1877.- At Trinity. Richardson introduced a completely new style of architecture. The church is a massive structure constructed of contrasting heavy stone blocks of red and pink stone loosely based on French Romanesque prototypes. Trinity, and Richardson'e later buildings, had a dramatic influence on the course of American architecture. In the 1880s many Episcopal churches were designed in variations of the Romanesque, style, although the Romanesque never totally supplanted the Gothic sl;yle as the primary source for church architecture.

 

Certain major Niew York architects, particularly William Potter, made use of tbo Romanesque forms and color spectrum devised by Richardson. Ocher architects, however, while indebted to Richardson for establishing the stylistic trend, used the Romanesque forms in a more personal manner. This is true for example of R.H. Robertson who designed some of his finest churches in the Romanesque Revival style , As Montgomery Schuyler noted, Robertson's church architecture "owes little if anything to the work or Richardson beyond the suggestion of its general style." Welch too falls into this category, using the vocabulary of the Romanesque, but in an individual way.

 

The design for St. Luke's is no more derivative of a Richardson church than it is of a 12th-century Italian ohurch. The design shows the influence of both these stylistic types, but it is an original and exciting statement in its own right.

 

One of the more unusual features of St. Luke's is the use of six carefully modulated materials on the. facade. These varieties of rough and smooth stone and terra cotta serve to create a subtle drama on the building. The church has a soft grayish cast enlivened by stone details in brown and white and ornate gray terra cotta. Splashes of brighter color mark the entrances to both the church building and the chapel and Sunday school structure.

 

These entrances are flanked by columns of pale reddish Scotch granite. The twin columns that support the round corner towers of the main church were said to have been the largest blocks of Scotch granite ever imported into this country.

 

The first phase of construction, dating from 1S88 to 1889, included the chapel and Sunday school building paid for by Colonel Martin and the two-story cloister that links the church and chapel. This section was financed by the. congregation of St. Luke's. The chapel is a two-story, peaked-roof structure anchored by a tall square tower with a pyramidal root". The building is entered through a recessed, triple-arched porch supported by columns of Scotch granite.

 

The carved capitals of the central columns are in the form of female heads that are supposed to be. portrait busts of Col. Martin's deceased daughter. These capitals are carx'ed of light-colored stoue-and are the focal point of the entrance porch. Recessed behind the porch is the entrance to the building with its paneled dovible doors and pairs of stained-glass windows.

 

Above the porch are three tall, narrow, round-orched windows separated by attenuated colonnettes with capitals carved with religious symbols. A round-arched corbelled cornice that culminates ir- a niche once capped by a cross runs along the roofline of the building. Welch's original plan called for a series of small round-arched windows in this area rather than the blind arches now present.

 

These windows were undoubtedly removed from the plans when Welch was requested to simplify the design.

 

The beautifully modeled tower of the chapel is based on the campanile bell towers found on Italian Romanesque churches, and it is a sophisticated essay it; the use of round arches. Excluding the roof, the ivy-covered tower is divided into four levels; a battered base with a single round-arched opening; a tall second level articulated by long narrow arches; a short intermediate stage that rises above the roof of the chapel and is surrounded by a continuous arcade of tiny arches resting on dwarf columns; and an open belfry with paired arches on each face.

 

A corbelled cornice above the open arches supports the steep sloping roof.

 

The chapel is connected to the main sanctuary by a two-story cloister. On its first floor level, this cloister is supported by an arcade of four arches,two of which are open and lead to an entrance and two of which are enclosed. This arcade continues the line of the arched chapel entrance and visually links it to the entrance portico of the church. The second floor of this connecting element is rigidly symmetrical, with a pair of centrally-placed rectangular windows enframed by narrow colonnettes of white-colored stone.

 

This group of windows is flanked by crisply-cut rectangular openings. A particularly deep corbelled cornice runs along the roofline of the cloister. Welch's original design called for a small gable with a wheel window in the center of the cloister, This gable would have echoed the form of the chapel and church roofs and added a further visual link between the two sections. Undoubtedly the gable was removed from the plans when the vestry requested that Welch lower the construction costs.

 

In 1889 construction began of the main church. When it was completed in 1891, Clinton Avenue was graced by one of New York City's finest ecclesiastical monuments. The sanctuary is entered through en impressive projecting round-arched portal supported by clustered columns of Scotch granite.

 

This portal, with its wide central arch and flanking narrow arches, is in the form of a grand triumphal arch. The main arch is ornamented with a series of Romanesque-inspired decorative forms including a band of intertwining foliage, a rope molding, and a dog-tooth molding, Above the arch is a pediment with terra-cotta panels of foliate design. The entrance portal leads to the main doors with their stained-glass roundel panels and transom lights.

 

To either side of the portal are squat columns of Scotch granite that support projecting towerlettes. Each towerlette is divided into two main sections — an austere round base and an octagonal drum articulated by elongated colonnettes and topped by an octagonal cap with a crowning crocket.

 

These caps were originally designed to be steep, sloping pinnacles, but their design was changed when it was decided to eliminate the north tower. The projecting towerlettes frame the large wheel window that is the main focus of the church facade. The window has a diameter of twenty-eight feet, making it one of the largest in. Brooklyn. Wooden tracery in the form of dwarf columns and round arches divides the wheel window into twelve bud-shaped lights, twelve small round outer lights, and a central roundel.

 

These lights are filled with stained-glass windows depicting cherub heads. The wheel is set within a compound arch ornamented with a variety of Romanesque chevron moldings. A corbelled cornice and cross form the crowning element of the front facade.

 

Welch's original plan for St. Luke's called for a massive, two-hundred foot, six-stage tower to be built adjoining the north side of the church. The tower would have had a battered base, round-arched openings, gables, pinnacles, and an extremely steep roof crowned by an ornate iron cresting and finial.

 

If the tower had been built it would have hidden the north side aisle, clerestory, and transept from view. Now, however, the side aisle with its paired round-arched windows, the clerestory with its slate siding and triplet windows topped by single roundels, and the transept are visible.

 

On October 17, 1891, the congregation of St. Luke's celebrated the solemn opening of its sumptuous new church. The church was not consecrated, however, until October 19, 1896, when the building debt was paid off. Little expense was spared in making the interior of the church-as beautiful and comfortable as possible, The church was one of the first buildings in Brooklyn to be lit by electricity. On December 8, 1890, the church signed a contract with the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn for electric lighting; this was a little over a year after the first Edison incandescent service in Brooklyn was put into operation on September 2, 1889.

 

On Che interior (which is not part of this designation) the church has a barrel-vaulted nave with an arcade of five round arches supported by wooden columns painted in imitation marble. Above each arch is a clerestory window divided into three arched openings and a roundel, all filled with stained glass.

 

The deep apsidal chancel is lit by seven round-arched stained-glass windows that represent Christ and the six apostles. A most unusual feature of the design is the stained-glass window set in the vaulted ceiling of the chancel. This window represents a cross floating in a background of clouds and radiating beams of lights.

 

Its dramatic placement adds greatly to the majesty of the interior of the building. The finest windows at St. Luke's are the series of superb memorial windows in the side aisles, many of which are signed examples of designs by Tiffany Studios.

 

The finest of these windows is the pair of Tiifany designs in the north aisle given in memory of Henry Patchen Martin (1827-1906), the donor of the chapel and Sunday school building. These windows represent the archangels Gabriel and Michael.

 

The interior of the church was originally highly decorative, with an extensive use of polychromatic stenciling and other detail. The color quality of the wall surfaces was enhanced by the stained glass and by the beautiful floors; the floors of the aisles are all mosaic and the floor of the chancel is inlaid with brilliantly colored marble and encaustic tiles. The altar is of white Italian marble and is flanked by floating angels of carved Caen stone.

 

Much of the original interior decoration was destroyed by a fire that swept through the church on the evening of March 10, 1914. Although the front facade of the church was not severely damaged, the chapel and Sunday school building was completely destroyed on the inside. Part of the main sanctuary was also damaged, particularly in the chancel and south transept areas, and many of the memorial windows were cracked.

 

The congregation which "included in its membership some of the wealthiest men in the city," hired the architectural firm of Dodge & Morrison, specialists in church design, to repair the damage. In 1914 Dodge & Morrison presented plans for tie reconstruction of the chapel and Sunday school, and in 191.5 the church was repaired and the entire structure was reconsecrated on October 19, 1915. The church records note that three of the stained-glass windows were removed during the reconstruction and reset by Tiffany Studios.

 

Fortunately for the church, the congregation of 1914 could afford the necessary repairs to the damaged structure.

 

A few years later the population of the surrounding area began to change. The wealthy residents of Clinton and Washington Avenues and the surrounding streets began to move away and the old mansions and rowhouses were divided into apartments. In 1943 a decline in church attendance and a shift in the neighborhood population caused the parish of St, Luke's to merge with St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, which had been located on the corner or Tompkins Avenue and McDonough Street.

 

The united Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew has continued to serve a neighborhood that has seen a tremendous change in the last decades. The congregation o! the church is now largely drawn from the West Indian population

 

of the area. The influx of people from the British West Indies in the last twenty years has reinvigorated many Episcopal churches and has allowed St. Luke and St. Matthew's to maintain its magnificient church edifice, as well as continue its important mission to tha surrounding community.

 

- From the 1981 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Middle of North America waiting for a load The Sleeping Giant in the back ground

 

The Sleeping Giant is a formation of mesas and sills on Sibley Peninsula which resembles a giant lying on its back when viewed from the west to north-northwest section of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. As one moves southward along the shoreline toward Squaw Bay the Sleeping Giant starts to separate into its various sections. Most distinctly in the view from the cliffs at Squaw Bay the Giant appears to have an Adam's Apple. The formation is part of Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. Its dramatic steep cliffs are among the highest in Ontario (250 m). The southernmost point is known as Thunder Cape, depicted by many early Canadian artists such as William Armstrong.

 

One Ojibway legend identifies the giant as Nanabijou, who was turned to stone when the secret location of a rich silver mine now known as Silver Islet was disclosed to white men.[3]

This stunning Delahaye was one of French coachbuilders Joseph Figoni and Ovidio Falaschi’s first aerodynamic coupe designs. With its dramatic enclosed fenders and hand-crafted aluminum body, it was built on one of the fifty short chassis designed by the Delahaye Company for sporty two-seater models. It was equipped with a four-speed competition-style manual transmission, appropriate to a sporty coupe intended for rally competition. The dashboard included a Jaeger rally clock, and the trunk had only enough room to carry a spare tire. The engine was a highly reliable 4-liter Delahaye six with three downdraft Solex carburetors.

 

The coupe’s striking design emphasized flowing lines with teardrop-shaped chrome accents on the hood and the front and rear fenders. The door handles and headlights were flush with the body. The dashboard was made of rich, golden wood, a Figoni &Falaschi signature. A sliding metal sunroof and a windshield that opened outward at the bottom afforded ventilation.

 

A French racing driver named Albert Perrot commissioned this coupe. The Comtesse de la Saint Amour de Chanaz displayed it at a concours d’elegance in Cannes. It was successfully hidden from the Germans during World War II. After the war, it reportedly belonged to actress Dolores del Rio, a well-known owner of exotic cars who lived in Mexico City and Los Angeles.

 

After several more owners, Don Williams, of the Blackhawk Collection, purchased the coupe in the late 1990s. Some time earlier, the Delahaye’s original engine had broken down; it was replaced with a postwar model, and the old engine was retained. In 2004, the Delahaye became the property of Mr. James Patterson, who re-installed the original engine and had the car beautifully restored.

The Colorado River is the principal river of the Southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. The 1,450-mile (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Rising in the central Rocky Mountains in the U.S., the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada line, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the large Colorado River Delta where it naturally emptied into the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora, though it no longer reaches its delta or the sea.

 

Known for its dramatic canyons and whitewater rapids, the Colorado is a vital source of water for agricultural and urban areas in the southwestern desert lands of North America. The river and its tributaries are controlled by an extensive system of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts, which divert 90% of its water in the U.S. alone to furnish irrigation and municipal water supply for almost 40 million people both inside and outside the watershed. The Colorado's large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Since the mid-20th century, intensive water consumption has dried the lower 100 miles (160 km) of the river such that it has not consistently reached the sea since the 1960s.

 

After the greater Colorado River basin became part of the U.S. in 1846, the bulk of the river's course was still largely the subject of myths and speculation. Several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century, one of which, led by John Wesley Powell in 1869, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that would later be used to develop the river for navigation and water supply. Large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid- to late-19th century, with steamboats providing transportation from the Gulf of California to landings along the Colorado River that linked to wagon roads into the interior of New Mexico Territory. Lesser numbers settled in the upper basin, which was the scene of major gold strikes in Arizona and Nevada in the 1860s and 1870s.

 

Major engineering of the river basin began around the start of the 20th century, with many guidelines established in a series of domestic and international treaties known as the "Law of the River". The U.S. federal government was the main driving force behind the construction of hydraulic engineering projects in the river system, although many state and local water agencies were also involved. Most of the major dams in the river basin were built between 1910 and 1970, and the system keystone, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, with every drop of its water fully allocated.

 

The damming and diversion of the Colorado River system have been flashpoint issues for the environmental movement in the American Southwest because of their impacts on the ecology and natural beauty of the river and its tributaries. During the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, environmental organizations vowed to block any further development of the river, and a number of later dam and aqueduct proposals were defeated by citizen opposition. As demands for Colorado River water continue to rise, the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

  

Names:

Lysimachia punctata, loosestrife, dotted loosestrife, large yellow loosestrife, spotted loosestrife.

 

Lysimaque ponctuee.

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

  

From Wikipedia:

  

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

The surreal image of dwellings on the track bed at the North end of old Whitby Railway Station. Built on what had until the mid 1960s been the railway that ran from Scarborourgh through Robin Hood's Bay, Whitby and onto Saltburn by the Sea. Constructed in the 1880s, the line closely followed the North Yorkshire coast with incredible views of the North Sea and its dramatic coastline; it was by all accounts, one of the most scenic railways ever built in Britain.

Copyright PS

Burj Al Arab luxury hotel tower, Chicago/Jumeira, Dubai...........

 

Enlarge:

1. Simply click the upper-right diagonal arrows.

2. Further enlarge: Then press F11 on a PC, or Fullscreen. Allow re-focus.

 

Sail image rising above the Gulf sea.

 

A dramatic building (Atkins), forming focus of the coastal beach resort, and a landmark from miles around. Towering in a sweeping-up curve, this high-rise is over 67 storeys (1,000ft) tall -- then the highest hotel in Europe and Asia. Forward-looking with modern integrity. Luxury hospitality for the international and Arab élite.

 

Iconic image for Dubai.

 

The shape is inspired by the traditional sailing dhows of the area. The plan is a V of duplex apartments, with a void across the opening for the full height but enclosed by a curved double-membrane surface (right in photo).

World's largest atrium, 180m.

Woven glass-fibre and teflon sail fabric -- largest fabric wall ever built.

 

Concrete walls with steel-frame exoskeleton.

 

Many innovations to tight programme.

 

The whole tower soars above the endless white-sand Gulf beach from an artificial island connected 270m by a bridge. Its dramatic form of vertical spine against arcing curve is a great landmark --- designed entirely on prestige. Opulence and style. Two-hundred-and-two lush luxury suites. Interior fitouts have more-sumptuous style associations than the modern purity of the exterior.

 

Lavish Arab palace interior.

.........

.

Enlarge:

1. Simply click the upper-right diagonal arrows.

2. Further enlarge: Then press F11 on a PC, or Fullscreen. Allow re-focus.

Or

3. Max enlarge: If flickr's +cursor is showing, click it for max enlargement and allow to re-focus. Explore detail moving cursor.

.

 

.

 

The Postcard

 

A postally unused carte postale that was published by Taschen of Köln in 2000. On the divided back of the card it states:

 

'Thomas Struth

Louvre IV 1989

C-print, 184 x 217 cm (framed)

Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler,

Berlin

From the Taschen book:

Art at the Turn of the Millennium.'

 

The Raft of the Medusa

 

The Louvre's visitors are looking at a painting called The Raft of the Medusa.

 

The Raft of the Medusa (French: Le Radeau de la Méduse) – originally titled Scène de Naufrage (Shipwreck Scene) – is an oil painting of 1818–19 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791–1824).

 

Completed when the artist was 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism. At 491 by 716 cm (16 ft. 1 in by 23 ft. 6 in), it is an over-life-size painting that depicts the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania on the 2nd. July 1816.

 

On the 5th. July 1816, at least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation and dehydration and practised cannibalism (the custom of the sea).

 

The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain.

 

Géricault chose this large-scale un-commissioned work to launch his career, using a subject that had already generated widespread public interest.

 

The event fascinated him, and before he began work on the final painting, he undertook extensive research, and produced many preparatory sketches. He interviewed two of the survivors, and constructed a detailed scale model of the raft.

 

He visited hospitals and morgues where he could view, first-hand, the colour and texture of the flesh of the dying and dead.

 

As he had anticipated, the painting proved highly controversial at its first appearance in the 1819 Paris Salon, attracting passionate praise and condemnation in equal measure. However, it established his international reputation, and today is widely seen as seminal in the early history of the Romantic movement in French painting.

 

Although The Raft of the Medusa retains elements of the traditions of history painting, in both its choice of subject matter and its dramatic presentation, it represents a break from the calm and order of the prevailing Neoclassical school.

 

Géricault's work attracted wide attention from its first showing and was then exhibited in London. The Louvre acquired it soon after the artist's death at the age of 32. The painting's influence can be seen in the works of Eugène Delacroix, J. M. W. Turner, Gustave Courbet, and Édouard Manet.

 

The Louvre

 

The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, is the world’s largest art museum, housed in a historic former royal palace featuring over 35,000 masterpieces.

 

Spanning 72,735 square metres of exhibition space, it is most famous for hosting iconic Western artworks such as Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

 

In 2014 the museum received more than 9.26 million visitors.

 

-- Curatorial Departments

 

The massive collection is organized chronologically and regionally into eight distinct branches:

 

-- Egyptian Antiquities: Covering pharaonic eras from the prehistoric period to the Christian period.

 

-- Near Eastern Antiquities: Showcasing ancient Levant, Mesopotamia, and Persia civilizations.

 

-- Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities: Collecting Mediterranean masterpieces from the Neolithic to the 6th. century AD.

 

-- Islamic Art: Spanning 1,300 years of Islamic history across carpets, ceramics, glass, and metalwork.

 

-- Sculpture: Focusing on post-classical and modern European sculptures.

 

-- Decorative Arts: Displaying jewelry, tapestries, clocks, and furniture from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

 

-- Paintings: Showcasing European works from the 13th. century up to 1848.

 

-- Prints and Drawings: A vast collection of works on paper, which are often rotated in order to prevent light damage.

 

-- Visiting the Louvre

 

The Louvre is open Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM; Wednesday and Friday (nocturnal sessions) from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM; Closed on Tuesdays.

 

Standard entry (2026) is €22 for EEA residents and €32 for non-EEA visitors. Mandatory advance time-slot booking is required for all visitors during peak seasons.

 

To beat the crowds, book the earliest morning slot. Head straight to the Denon Wing if your priority is viewing the Mona Lisa before the rooms become intensely congested.

 

Alternative Entrance: Skip the main glass pyramid queue by entering through the Carrousel du Louvre underground shopping mall entrance. It is step-free and usually faster.

Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais

 

Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais is a Roman Catholic parish church located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, on Place Saint-Gervais in the Marais district, east of City Hall (Hôtel de Ville). The current church was built between 1494 and 1657, on the site of two earlier churches; the facade, completed last, was the first example of the French baroque style in Paris. The organists of the church included Louis Couperin and his nephew François Couperin, two of the most celebrated composers and musicians of the Baroque period; the organ they used can still be seen today. The church contains remarkable examples of medieval carved choir stalls, stained glass from the 16th century, 17th century sculpture, and modern stained glass by Sylvie Gaudin and Claude Courageux. Saint-Gervais was a parish church until 1975, when it became the headquarters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem.

 

History

 

A church dedicated to Saints Gervasius and Protasius, two Christian martyrs from Milan, is recorded as existing on the site in the 7th century, making it one of the first parish churches on the right bank in Paris. It was attended mostly by boatmen and fishermen, because it was close to the river port at the Place de Grève. It was built on a slight hill, the Monceau Saint-Gervais, to be safe from the floods of the Seine. After the completion of the wall of Philippe-Auguste, built between 1190 and 1209, the neighborhood was protected against attack and the population began to grow. The church had come under the sponsorship of several of the important confreries or guilds of Paris, including the wine-merchants. With their financial help, a larger church was built on the site in the early 13th century. .[1]

 

Construction of the present church began in 1494, but was delayed by the Wars of religion and by a shortage of funds. It was begun in the Gothic style; the chapels of the apse were finished in 1530 and the transept in 1578.[2] While the interior of the church was largely Gothic, the facade was built in an original new style, the French Baroque, on a plan by architect Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626). The first stone of the facade was placed by the young King Louis XIII in 1616. Between 1600 and 1628, a second row of chapels was built on the north side including the golden chapel ornamented with painted woodwork.[3]

 

During the 17th and 18th century the church was attended by many members of the aristocratic families who lived in the Marais, including Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, and the Chancellor of Louis XIV, Michel Le Tellier, whose funeral monument is found in the church.

 

Beginning in 1653, the church employed and sheltered the Couperin family, one of the most famous dynasties of French musicians, for more than two centuries. On one side of the church, the home of the celebrated harpsichordists, organists, and composers still stands, with a plaque commemorating the Couperins' tenure. The organ used by Louis and François Couperin still exists today inside the church; it was built by the most famous organ builders of the time, François-Henri Clicquot, Louis-Alexandre Clicquot, and Robert Clicquot.

 

In the 18th century, the facade of the church was greatly admired, though it was nearly blocked from view by a row of houses. Voltaire wrote, "It is a masterpiece which is lacking nothing except a place from which to see it." The houses blocking the view were finally demolished in 1854, opening up the view of the facade. .[4]

 

During the French Revolution, the church was emptied of many of its treasures and turned into a Temple of Reason and Youth, before being returned to the Church in 1802.

 

On 29 March 1918, a German shell, fired by the long-range "Paris Gun", fell on the church, killing 91 people and wounding 68 others; the explosion collapsed the roof when a Good Friday service was in progress. This was the worst single incident involving a loss of civilian lives during the German bombardment of Paris in 1918.[5] Among those killed was Rose-Marie Ormond Andre-Michel, the niece and a favorite model of John Singer Sargent.[6]

 

In 1975 the church became the headquarters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem, founded in that same year by Père Pierre-Marie Delfieu with the authorisation of the then Archbishop of Paris, François Marty. The order is devoted to carrying on monastic life in an urban context; most of its members work part-time in civil occupations. The church is known for its distinctive and ecumenical liturgy; for example, adopting Lutheran hymn music and Orthodox troparia. The order has founded several other communities in France, at Mont St. Michel, Vezelay, and Magdala Sologne and elsewhere in Europe, in Florence, Brussels, Cologne, Warsaw, and Montreal.

 

Five new stained glass windows by Sylvie Gaudin were added to the southwest chevet of the church in 1993–95. Another series of six windows by Claude Courageux was added in the early 2000s in the upper level of the church, in the south nave, the transept and the choir, replacing those destroyed over the centuries.[7]

 

Facade

 

The facade of the church was begun in 1616, well after the nave of the church, with the cornerstone laid by Louis XIII. The design was by Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626), whose other major Paris work was the Luxembourg Palace. While the nave of the church was late or flamboyant gothic, the facade introduced an entirely new classical style, which opened the way for the French Baroque. The facade placed the three classical orders of architecture one atop the other. The ground floor featured three bays with pairs of columns with capitals of the simplest Doric order, with a classical pediment. Above this is a level of three bays with columns of the ionic order, and above that is a single bay with paired columns of the Corinthian order, holding up a curved pediment. In order to attach the new facade to the gothic portion of the church, de Brosse designed a traverse and two semicircular chapels on either side of the facade. The facade served as model for other churches in France and Europe, most notably the church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, the church of the Jesuits, not far away in the Marais, which was the first church in Paris built entirely in the new style. [8]

 

Since the Middle Ages, an elm tree has been planted in front of the church; it served as a meeting place, and a place where disputes were sometimes settled by judges. The trees were replanted regularly over the centuries. Carvings of the trees from earlier centuries are found on the walls of some of the neighboring buildings.

 

Nave

 

The nave of the church (1600–1620) is notable for its dramatic height and the simplicity and purity of its lines. While the lower level of the nave is late gothic, the upper level of the nave shows the influence of the Renaissance, with large semi-circular arches containing a series of large stained glass windows, filling the church with light. The upper windows are 21st-century, by Claude Courageux, illustrating the story of Adam and Eve, Noah's ark, and the patriarchs and their spouses. The ceiling of the nave, where the arches of the walls come together in an elaborate embroidery, symbolizes the vaults of heaven.

 

Choir stalls

 

The wooden choir stalls (16th–17th century), from the reigns of François I and Henri II, are richly carved with scenes of daily life, the different professions, and grotesque animals. Out of sight from those attending mass, they were designed as a place where the Canons of the church could relax during the service. Some of the figures were too intimate for more puritanical later centuries, and had to be censored, including a carved image of a man and woman bathing together.[8]

 

Chapel of the Virgin

 

The chapel of the Virgin, at the back of the church, has a dramatic late gothic vaulted ceiling, featuring a hanging crown of stone 2.5 meters in diameter, and abstract designs resembling flames. The room is often used for silent meditation by church visitors. The chapel has some of the oldest stained glass windows in the flamboyant gothic style, made by Jean Chastellain in 1517, illustrating the life of the Virgin Mary. [8] Another remarkable window by Chastellain, "The Judgement of Solomon", made in 1533 in the colorful Renaissance style, is found in a side chapel.

 

Painting and sculpture

 

The church contains a number of notable works of art.

 

- A painting by the Venetian artist Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Vital intercede for the souls in Pugatory, located in the Chapel of Saint Philomene. This was brought from Venice to Paris by Napoleon after his Italian campaign.

 

- The paintings The Beheading of John the Baptist and The Adoration of the Magi by Claude Vignon (1593–1670), located in the Chapel of the Virgin.

 

- A statue of Christ carved in oak by Antoine-Augustin Préault (1809-1879) in the Chapel of the Virgin.

 

- Statues from the funeral monument of Michel Tellier (1603–1685) the Chancellor of Louis XIV, by Pierre Mazeline (1632–1685) and Simon Hurtelle (1648–1724). The figures include the Chancellor, in prayer; a weeping 'genie' praying at his feet; and two draped figures representing Faith and Religion. Two other figures from the group, Justice and Prudence, are found in the Louvre.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Gervais-et-St-Protais

 

---------------------------------------

 

St Gervais et St Protais has 21 mid 16th century misericords and 21 early 17th century misericords.

 

More information can be found here:-

 

www.misericords.co.uk/stgervaisandstprotais.html

 

————————————

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church - Paris

 

A church dedicated to the twin martyrs Gervais and Protais

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church is located on the eastern side of the Hôtel-de-Ville.

 

It stands on a hillock known as Monceau Saint-Gervais and replaced the Chapelle Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais.

 

This chapel served the fishing village that developed on the small mound during the 5th century. This community was one of the few on the Rive Droite, which then was a vast marsh today known as Marais.

 

The chapel was dedicated to the twin Roman officers who were martyred under the reign of Nero (1st century AD).

 

Place Saint-Gervais, the church square was initially called Carrefour de l'Orme. It was named after the huge elm that marked its centre and was felled at the French Revolution.

 

It was enlarged and renamed during Haussmann's renovation of Paris of the mid 19th century.

 

The cemetery was decommissioned in 1765 to give way to Place Baudoyer, the square that serves the town hall of the 4th district.

 

Sarcophagi and burial artifacts dating back to the 1st century AD were discovered during construction works.

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church ,is a fine illustration of French architecture.

 

The Hôtel-de-Ville district developed in the 13th century and gave rise to a thriving community. The little Saint Gervais Saint Protais Chapel became obsolete, a larger church was much needed!

 

However, the construction of the new church dragged on from 1494 to 1660 due to the lack of funds.

 

Amazingly, this slow progress turned Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church into a perfect illustration of the evolution of French architecture.

 

Salomon de Brosse designed the French Baroque (Jesuit Style) facade with the three classical orders, the first of its style in Paris.

 

The 25m high Gothic Flamboyant nave and the 16th and 17th century stained glass windows are equally impressive.

 

Francois-Henri Clicquot built the organ in 1601. The wind-chests, reeds and two-thirds of its stops are original and turn the instrument into one of the oldest organs in Paris.

 

The composer François Couperin is among the prestigious organists who played in Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church, which is to this day a major centre of Sacred Music.

 

The church has two other, but smaller, organs which are located in the side chapels

 

www.travelfranceonline.com/saint-gervais-saint-protais-ch...

 

See also:-

 

www.spottinghistory.com/view/4397/st-gervais-et-st-protai...

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Gervais-et-St-Protais

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The William J. Syms Operating Theater, built 1890-1892, was the most advanced operating theater in the world when it opened and one of the first equipped for aseptic surgery. The result of a collaboration of the architect William Wheeler Smith and the prominent American surgeon Charles McBurney, the building represented the attempt in the 19th century to reconcile architecture with technological advances.

 

The appearance of the building, subtle and simple in detail but striking in its massing, especially in the form of its semi-conical roof, is expressive of the unusual functional demands of the building, an effort to harmonize the design with the other Roosevelt Hospital buildings, and the well-developed personal style of the architect for medical buildings.

 

Syms was the fourth of several major pavilions (see below) built as part of the pavilion plan 'of Roosevelt Hospital begun in 18 69, and as such is both part of one of the earliest pavilion plan hospitals in America, and a rare early survivor of a once highly influential approach to hospital design. Syms was the center of medical education in New York City in its early years, and it was the site of numerous advances in surgical practice at a time when modern surgery was taking shape.

 

Roosevelt Hospital

 

The Syms Operating Theater was one of a series of pavilions built according to the original pavilion plan of Roosevelt Hospital. The pavilion plan was an important early step, proposed by the French Academy of Sciences in 1788 but not executed until much later, in applying scientific knowledge to the design of hospitals. At first it called for small parallel two-story buildings, called pavilions, set in a symmetrical plan oriented for access to light and air.

 

Disease and infections were believed to be carried in vapors, odors, dirt, and other "miasms" which were dispelled by light and goo d ventilation. Later, improved lighting and mechanical ventilation systems led to the acceptance of larger pavilion buildings. Syms' location, siting, massing, and exterior detail as well as its institutional history all relate to the original plan for Roosevelt Hospital and to the architecture of its early buildings.

 

Roosevelt Hospital was established by the bequest of James Henry Roosevelt (1800-1863) who left about $1,000,000 to build a hospital "for the reception and relief of sick and diseased persons."2 Roosevelt Hospital occupies the full block bounded by 58th and 59th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. Although the land was part of the 1811 Commissioners Plan of Streets, 59th Street was only opened in 1851, and in 1866 when Roosevelt Hospital bought its site the area was still mostly scattered houses and small farms. The trustees of the hospital adopted the pavilion plan in 1866. This was among the earliest in the United States and, as far as is known, the first in New York City.

 

Although no early plan of the hospital survives, the original intention was to build a series of four parallel pavilions. In the first building campaign (1869-72), the prominent New York architect, Carl Pfeiffer, designed all the major buildings, three pavilions along 59th Street. They were built in the High Victorian Gothic Style with red brick walls and light colored "Ohio Stone" trim, and had lively roof lines. The one-story Surgical Pavilion next to the future site of the Syms Operating Theater was the smallest and most simply detailed of the group. The pavilion plan was largely adhered to in several expansions of the hospital, including a group of buildings designed by W. Wheeler Smith in the 1880s and 1890s, until about 1940.

 

Surgery, Medical Education, and Operating Theaters

 

In the 19th century, surgery developed from a remedy of last resort to a common medical procedure, in part due to the introduction of anesthesia in 1847 and to the development of two theories of modern surgery, antiseptic surgery developed by Joseph Lister in 1867, followed by aseptic surgery about 1890. The operating theater was developed in the early 19th century on the model of anatomical theaters which had been the center of medical training since the Renaissance.

 

In the 1870s, many new operating theaters, including the first one at Roosevelt Hospital, were built for the rapidly growing population of student surgeons. Usually incorporated in larger hospital buildings but occasionally occupying their own pavilions, these were well-ventilated wood rooms, often decorated, amply lit by large windows and gas lamps, which accommodated up to 3 00 observers. The best-known operating theater of this generation was at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, built between 1877 and 1885.

 

These were superseded by a new generation of operating theaters about 189 0 for aseptic surgery, among the very first of which were the McLane Operating Room^ (now demolished), designed in 18 9 0 by W. Wheeler Smith at Roosevelt Hospital for gynecological surgery, and the Syms Operating Theater. These had improved heat and ventilation from mechanical forced air systems, improved lighting from electric lights, and, with the understanding that absolute cleanliness was essential, smooth, impervious materials for all surfaces.

 

Aseptic operating rooms were bright, clean, hard, undecorated spaces, they were the "high tech" spaces of their day. They utilized the latest technology to produce places suitable for the latest medical practices in a rapidly changing period.

 

History of Syms Operating Theater

 

The Syms Operating Theater was built with $3 50,000 left by William J. Syms (1818-89), $250,000 to build the theater and the remainder to be invested as an endowment for its work. Syms expressed in his will the desire to erect an operating theater which would be "an enduring monument to himself" and of "great service to suffering humanity."8

 

Syms was a partner in the New York firm of Blunt and Syms, for more than 2 5 years the largest gunmaker and dealer in New York. Syms was also a founder of the Metropolitan Gas Company and the Forty-second and Grand Street Railroad Company, and he was President of the Franklin Telegraph Company and Vice-president of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company. At his death, the Times said that he was' "one of the largest land and house owners" in New York.

 

Syms stipulated that the surgeon, Dr. Charles McBurney (1845-1913) would have complete charge of the building's design and operation. McBurney was a prominent New York surgeon and professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

 

In the year before William Syms died, McBurney achieved international recognition for his identification of the diagnostic point on the abdomen for appendicitis, still called "McBurney's Point." In his years at Syms, he described "McBurney's Incision," a method for removing the appendix, and made numerous other well publicized advances in the practice of surgery. Under McBurney, Syms became a world renowned center for surgeons. McBurney had been called when President McKinley was shot because of his long experience in treating such cases at Roosevelt Hospital.

 

Indeed, McBurney took an active role in the design of the Syms Operating Theater. He made a tour of the most modern operating facilities in Europe and America including "all the large hospitals in England, France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland" and worked closely with the architect, W. Wheeler Smith, in the design of Syms. It appears that McBurney wrote a detailed program for the building and closely critiqued Smith's plans, finally accepting a fourth effort.13

 

Application for a building permit was made on October 15, 1890 and the building was completed on October 17, 1890. It opened on November 3, 1892 and at that time was considered the most advanced operating theater in the world.

 

In addition to "McBurney's Incision," described above, which was developed largely at Syms, a number of other notable surgical advances were made here. These included the popularization of the use of rubber gloves, the invention of the "Roosevelt clamp," the first use by Thomas Bennett of the nitrous oxide-ether sequence and his subsequent development of the Bennett inhaler, and the development of the Connell Airway Anesthetometer by Dr. Karl Connell."

 

Design and Construction

 

The design of the Syms Operating Theater followed the very latest standards for a scientifically correct surgical operating theater. Syms was planned to serve several complex objectives and its simple exterior form belies the substantial complexity of the interior. Named for its dramatic focal point, the surgical amphitheater, the building also contained numerous additional rooms with varied requirements for light, air, and location. These included visitors' rooms, recovery rooms, living quarters for nurses and assistant surgeons, a decorated private chief surgeon's room, laboratory rooms, rooms for photography and

 

microscopes, two small operating rooms, surgeons' rooms, an ether room, various preparation rooms for bandages, instrument sterilization and storage, and separate circulation systems for visitors, the surgical staff, patients, and residents of the building. Visitors entered the building from the street; patients and medical staff entered via the connecting corridor to the surgical ward next door.

 

The Syms Operating Theater, a "fireproof" building,17 was built of loadbearing brick walls above a stone foundation with rolled-iron floor and roof beams and brick floor arches, and a slate roof. In addition, iron was used extensively for lintels and to create special spaces and features, notably the wheel-ramp leading from the amphitheater to the recovery room, and the amphitheater itself. The amphitheater, whose design was an innovative solution to the problem of lighting such spaces, had a semi-conical iron roof structure supporting tiers of skylights that provided diffused light without glare to the arena.

 

Exterior materials include Haverstraw brick with Trenton molded brick and terra-cotta details, granite window trim, copper downspouts, slate roofing, and "Hayes Skylights." Inside, "No device has been omitted to repel the invasion of dirt and dust...," to dispel dampness, or to admit light.

 

These devices included mosaic tile floors with curved corners, light colored impermeable wall surfaces of marble and painted hard plaster, cement floors in the amphitheater, floor traps, and a basement floor of cement mixed with felt to absorb moisture.

 

The building had a sophisticated heating and ventilating system operated from an engine room and a fan room in the basement. Important features of the system visible from the outside are the air intake tower which projects above the west wing of the building abutting the recovery rooms, brick chimneys in a symmetrical arrangement on either side of the amphitheater roof, and the massive exhaust chimney at the rear of the amphitheater roof.

 

In designing the exterior of the Syms Operating Theater the architect endeavored to make the building harmonize with its High Victorian Gothic style neighbors at Roosevelt Hospital in its setback from the street, the massing of its volumes, the contrasting use of red brick with light stone trim, and picturesque roof form. In particular, it related to the old Surgical Pavilion next door in the height of its one-story wings and in the rhythm and placement of its stone lintels.

 

While the round entrance arch and the main exhaust chimney recall the Romanesque, the overall design reflects the personal approach of the architect for hospital buildings. The principal features were decorative detail largely confined to variations of color and texture in flat walls, recessed windows which minimized

 

interior reveals, curved corners, and modest cornices. In 1892 when it opened, the restrained use of decorative detail was unusual for a prominent medical building. Most contemporary New York hospital buildings were more stylish and more lavishly ornamented, built generally for private paying patients or institutions with religious affiliations. Their designs may have been more fully in the hands of institutional benefactors or architects rather than doctors, and their outward appearances had more to do with aesthetic or conventional symbolic associations than with the practical function of a hospital. For example, Presbyterian Hospital, built in the Romanesque Revival Style at the same time as Syms, was designed by J.C. Cady and was a picturesque composition of Richardsonian elements that conveyed both an ecclesiastical and a club-like character to the building, and St. Luke's Hospital, designed by Ernest Flagg the year Syms opened employed a Beaux-Arts composition and French Baroque ornament in a sophisticated way that conveyed the power, permanence, and reliability of the institution.

 

In contrast to these, at Syms the exterior appearance was considered important but secondary to the primary scientific function of the building.20 Making a virtue of a restricted budget for its exterior, the design appears neither frugal nor lacking expressiveness, but serious and straightforward, evoking the high place of medical science in determining its form, and the priority of science over symbolism in the medical care to be provided within.

 

As a work of architecture, Syms must be seen in the context of hospital buildings and operating spaces not just in New York City but internationally. In this context it is a remarkable building representative of an alliance of medical science and architecture that produced some of the most advanced buildings of the 19th century.2-1

 

William Wheeler Smith22

 

William Wheeler Smith (1838-1908), designer of the Syms Operating Theater, practiced architecture in New York from 18 65 to 1908. During an unusually long career, he designed a number of notable buildings including the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church (1872, demolished ca. 1933) at 48th Street and Fifth Avenue; the James White Building (1881), a cast-iron commercial structure, now a designated New York City landmark, at 361 Broadway; the W. & J. Sloane Store (1882), a large commercial structure now included in the Ladies Mile Historic District; and the Syms Operating Theater. Smith was successful and well regarded in his day but most of his major buildings have been demolished and little else survives to give us a full picture of his life and career.

 

Born in New York City, "Mr. Smith was described by his friends and associates as an 'old school architect' who had inherited the fondness and ability for his profession from his father, a well-known builder of this city.112 3 He apprenticed with one of the leading architects of the day, James Renwick, and studied at the University of London. He practiced on his own from about 1865 until his death in 1S08.

 

Along with his architectural practice Smith invested in real estate. He left an estate worth more than $3,000,000, almost all of which was to build "a country sanitarium for poor convalescents who must be sent away from St. Luke's [Hospital] before they have fully regained their strength."

 

Smith's philanthropic interest in hospitals was long standing. Over a period of many years he designed several buildings for Roosevelt Hospital including the Syms Operating Theater, without pay.

 

Smith's career seems to fall into two periods, an early period of general practice and a later period of specialization in hospital architecture and real estate development. The hospital and medical buildings, including the Sloane Maternity Hospital (1886), the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1888), and the Vanderbilt Clinic (1889) , all on the block across 59th Street from Roosevelt Hospital (and all demolished), and the McLane Operating Room (1890), the Accident Building (1898) (both demolished), the Syms Operating Theater, and Private Patients Pavilion (1896) of Roosevelt Hospital all resembled one another. A late project of Smith's was the Kingston Avenue Hospital in Brooklyn. A perspective rendering shows a pavilion plan hospital organized much like McKim, Mead, and White's Columbia College Campus and in the same general style.

 

Later History

 

Syms was refurbished in 1934 but remained an operating theater only until 1941 when the new Private Patients pavilion was opened with new surgical rooms. For some time, Roosevelt's role as a teaching hospital had been diminished, styles of teaching surgery had changed, and the theatrical presentation to large crowds was considered obsolete.

 

In 1942 the blood bank and mortuary of the Hospital were moved into Syms. In 1948, Syms was used as a temporary emergency room. In 1953 the rear portion of the building (17 feet 6 inches deep) was removed to make way for the new Tower Building, the upper tier of skylights was covered in copper sheets, the semi-opaque glass on the ground floor was replaced by clear glass, the amphitheater was gutted, and the building was occupied by the Department of Pathology.

 

Since that time, air-conditioning equipment has been placed in the front lawn, ducts have been run through several windows, parts ' of the areaway have been obstructed by pipes, trees have been allowed to grow in the front lawn, and the old amphitheater and other spaces have been remodeled to suit changing office and laboratory space needs of the Hospital.

 

Description

 

The Syms Operating Theater is a nearly rectangular structure at the southwest corner of West 59th Street and Ninth Avenue. The building is set back on its two street fronts behind narrow planted strips which are bordered along the sidewalk by an iron fence on a granite base with granite capped brick posts.

 

In its massing the building consists of a central block with an elongated semi-conical roof, one-story wings on either side, a narrow three-story L-shaped wing adjacent to the central block on the south and west sides, and a square air intake tower adjacent to the west side of this wing above the one-story wing.

 

The walls of the building are brick with curved corners. Brick is of two types, each laid in the same plane in Flemish bond and differentiated by their finish: smooth and evenly colored around windows and corners, rough and varicolored between windows. The smooth brick framing was in a form suggesting quoins creating two-story bays at the basement and first story levels. Windows have granite sills and lintels and occasional granite mullions in wider windows, sometimes with egg and dart moldings or block modillions of terra cotta.

 

The roof, whose distinctive form signals the amphitheater below, is crowned by a decorative iron finial in the form of a caduceus surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, and is clad in two tiers of skylights across the front, slate shingles on the sides, and tin flashing.

 

The roof is pierced by a large unadorned chimney in either flank, above the back wall of the amphitheater, and a massive exhaust chimney behind the amphitheater with a Romanesque corbelled cornice. The building is entered through a large rounded arch of glazed brick which is reached by a short flight of stairs. Above this arch is a granite panel with raised letters saying "The Wm. J. Syms Operating Theater of the Roosevelt Hospital, 1891."

 

Alterations

 

Today the exterior of the building is as built except for the loss of the entire south facade (the new facade abuts the adjacent Tower Building), the loss of the southernmost bays of the east and west facades, the addition of copper sheeting over the principal skylights, the presence of modern HVAC equipment, and the overgrowth of the lawn.

 

Although the alterations to the building are extensive (more so on the interior, which is not the subject of this designation, than on the exterior) and mostly irreversible, the visual character of this highly distinctive building is still largely intact. Its subtly decorated flat brick walls with rounded corners, its strong entranceway and name panel, its massing as visible from most angles, and especially the distinctive shape of its roof are all present.

 

- From the 1989 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Clinton Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

In the last decades of the 19th century the city of Brooklyn developed into one of the largest and wealthiest urban centers in the United States. The affluence of the city was reflected in the size and quality of the buildings erected in its residential neighborhoods during the last quarter of the century.

 

Substantial mansions and rowhouses were erected throughout Brooklyn, but even more important as symbols of the city's established success were grand public monuments such as clubs, schools, philanthropic and cultural institutions, and, most importantly, churches. St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church, built in 1888-91 on Clinton Avenue, one of Brooklyn's most elite thoroughfares, is among the largest and finest of the ecclesiastical structures built in the city during the 19th century, and, like the other major buildings from the period, it reflects a sense of optimism in Brooklyn's future.

 

During the course of the 19th century, Brooklyn developed from a small rural village and farming center into the third most populous city in America. With the advent of reliable ferry service between New York City and Brooklyn, beginning in the 1820's, Brooklyn began to attract middle-class families who were, seeking residential areas that were separate from the commercial life of the city. In New York City, the expansion of business sections into once elegant residential neighborhoods caused the population to more farther and farther north. As land values on Manhattan Island rose, many people chose to move elsewhere. Brooklyn became the choice location for those who found life in New York City to be unpleasant or who could not afford to live in Manhattan. Brooklyn never developed an extensive commercial center, relying instead on New York City for business activity. Thus, Brooklyn became almost entirely a residential community. At the end of the century one historian wrote:

 

Brooklyn has always been an adjunct of the metropolis rather than a city with a complete civic life of its own, a dwelling-place for business folk and employees who possess moderate incomes, and those of greater means who abhor the feverish and artificial joys of the modern Babel. It is a vast aggregation of home and family life, and of the social pleasures thai: appertain thereto. There is little to be seen in Brooklyn save the streets and avenues, hundreds of miles of them, filled with rows of dwelling houses ....All of Brooklyn, indeed, with the exception of the waterside streets and range of cloud piercing office buildings [in the Down town area]... is the exclusive domain of women and children during the daylight hours.

 

Daring the 19th century tens of thousands of substantial dwellings were erected in Brooklyn to house this new population. As each .residential section began to develop, church organizations were founded to lend a requisite moral tone to the new neighborhood and fulfill the. spiritual needs of the populace. The tremendous growth of Brooklyn during the 19th. century created fertile ground for the development of new church societies and the erection of fine new church buildings. By 1850, the appellation "City of Churches" had been applied to Brooklyn.

 

During the period prior to the Civil War, major architects designed fine church buildings in Brooklyn, but few of these were on the scale of those in neighboring New York City. After the Civil War, however, as Brooklyn's wealth increased, its church buildings began to rival those of New York. Churches in the exclusive neighborhoods of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, and Grant Square/St. Marks, such as Sr.. Luke's Episcopal Church, the Emmanuel Baptist Church (1887), the First Dutch Reformed Church (1887-89), and the New York Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church (1889-92) are of the scale and architectural sophistication of contemporary churches built in the other large cities of America.

 

The Church of St. Luke and St, Matthew traces its roots to the founding of Trinity P.E. Church, Brooklyn, in 1835. Soon after its organization. Trinity built a substantial church building on the west side of Clinton Avenue between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue. The church was a rubble-stone structure designed in a vernacular Greek Revival style with stone pilasters, a square tower, and a steeple. At the time of its construction, the area surrounding Trinity was a sparsely populated farming neighborhood located at a great distance from the settled parts of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the Clinton Hill section did not have a population that was large enough to support such a substantial building and the congregation was forced to disband. On December 14, 1841, a new Episcopal organization, St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church, was organized in the area and on February 1, 1842, the vestry of the new church voted to purchase the property of Trinity Church. This proved to be a wise investment, for by the 1850s wealthy families had begun to move into Clinton Hill, erecting large homes along Clinton Avenue, such as the picturesque Italian Villa that still stands to the south of the church at 532 Clinton Avenue. Clinton Avenue attracted wealthy families because it had one of the highest elevations in Brooklyn and was, therefore, considered to be extremely healthy. In addition, the street had been laid out in the 1820s as a wide tree-lined boulevard suitable for the residences of affluent families.

 

By 1853 the former Trinity Church building was found to be too small for the growing congregation of St. Luke's and the vestry commissioned an extension from the noted ecclesiastical architectural firm of Wills & Dudley. Frank Wills and Henry Dudley were among the most prominent, architects of Episcopal churches in America during the mid-19th century. Either separately, or in partnership, they designed a large number of Episcopal churches in New York, including St. Mary's, Staten Island (1853), St, George's, Flushing (1854), and St. James', Fordham (1861-65). Wills & Dudley's plan for St. Luke's called for enlarging the rectangular Greek Revival church into a cruciform structure. With financial assistance from Trinity Church, New York, this work was soon completed, although the church was not consecrated until 1883 when its building debt was paid off.

 

On November 27, 1887, five years after the consecration of the enlarged church, a fire destroyed or seriously damaged the building. Shortly after the fire the vestry considered rebuilding the church, but by January 1888 they had begun to entertain the idea of erecting a now church edifice. On January 16, 1888 the vestry minutes record that a member of the parish had offered to build and equip a Sunday school on the lot to the south of the church "free from any expense of any kind to the corporation. This proposal was submitted to the church by Colonel Henry P. Martin, one of the congregation's wealthiest members, on the condition that the vestry agree to erect a new church building on the site of the old structure. The vestry readily acquiesced to Martin's proposal so long as "the party making it will agree that his building shall be made to conform in style of architecture to that selected for the new church and provided that the plans of such building shall be first submitted and approved of by the Vestry or a Committee duly authorized by them. Martin agreed, and on January 19, 1888, he presented a certified check for $40,000 to the vestry of the church. Martin donated the money for the Sunday school as a memorial to his daughter who had recently died. Her initials, "EMM," are carved into the cornerstone of the building and her portrait is carved on the column capitals that support the entrance porch.

 

The vestry solicited plans for the new Sunday school from several prominent Brooklyn architects including John Welch, Rudolph Daus, and J.W. Walter. On February 24, 1888 Welch's Italian Romanesque style design was selected. John Welch (1824-1894) was born in Scotland and received his architectural training in Scotland and in England. He immigrated to America in 1849, settling in Newark, New Jersey. In Newark, Welch established himself as a church architect, designing a number of notable Greek Revival and Gothic Revival style churches. Of special note is Welch's South Park Presbyterian Church (now Park-Calvary United Presbyterian Church) of 1853-55, a superb Greek Revival style structure with twin round towers. In about 1860, Welch is thought to have moved to Brooklyn. There are five churches still standing in Brooklyn that are known to have been designed by Welch, all dating from the 1880s. The earliest of these are Gothic Revival style structures, such as the Janes M.E. Church oft Monroe Street and Re id Avenue, that reflect a lingering influence of Victorian Gothic polychromy, particularly atone banding. In the late 1880s Welch's work began to show the influence of the Romanesque Revival and he designed three churches in an extremely bold and personal version of the style. Although his late churches are his finest, Welch's career seems to have declined. His obituary records that "owing to financial difficulties, Mr. Welsh [sic] lived in poor circumstances, and had been peddling books for a living."

 

Besides St. Luke's, Welch's other major Brooklyn buildings are the First Methodist Episcopal Church, known as the Sands Street Memorial Church (now demolished), erected between 1889 and 1891 in Brooklyn Heights, and All Saints P.E. Church (1892-93) at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 7th Street in Park Slope. The idiosyncratic Sands Street Church was a Romanesque Revival style structure with an unusual fenestration pattern, a monumental round-arched corner entrance, and a large square tower placed at one end of the building, AM Saints P.E. Church, Welch's last known church design, combines Romanesque, Gothic, and Egyptian motifs to create one of the more singular ecclesiastical structures in New York City.

 

Although Welch's plans for the Sunday school of St. Luke's were accepted by the vestry, they proved to be very expensive; the lowest bid for construction was $45,900 exclusive of heating and furnishing. Welch was« asked to modify the plans so that the building would cost no more than $35,000. Ground was finally broken for the building in July 1888 and construction continued while plans were discussed for the erection of the adjoining church.

 

Welch's designs for the church were extremely sumptuous. They included a huge sanctuary with marble: columns, a monumental facade composed of a variety of materials, and a tall corner tower.

 

In order to construct this building the congregation would have had to secure a large loan and a heavy mortgage. By October 1888, the vestry had realized that the church could not handle such an extensive debt, In November the vestry minutes noted that "Building project should be revived on basis of a smaller church, less expensive exterior, omission of tower for the present and a cost not exceeding $40,000."® Welch submitted new plans for the building that omitted the tower and replaced the interior marble columns with columns of yellow pine that were to be painted in imitation of marble.

 

As construction proceeded on the. new church, money was acquired for the enlargement and improvement of the chancel of the old building which had survived the fire. According to the. vestry minutes "the chancel is to be deepened 8 feet and the roof of the choir and sanctuary raised to a height that will correspond with the height of the new nave." It is not clear whether Welch was responsible for this alteration, although it seems likely. In addition to the church arid Sunday school buildings, Welch designed the Woolsey Memorial Hall, which is connected to the rear of the main building, on Vanderbilt Avenue. This simple building, designed in 1888 and constructed in 1889-90, was paid for by the Church Guild and Auxiliary.

 

Welch's designs for St. Luke's church, chapel and Sunday school are loosely based on the Romanesque churches build in northern Italy, particularly in. Emilia and the Veneto, during the 12th century. Welch had traveled in Italy and had a first-hand knowledge of Italian Romanesque architecture. In its 1889 discussion of St. Luke's Church an article in the Churchman noted that "long training arid examination, of church architecture in England and on the Continent, with special study in. Italy, had made him a master and he has in the present work given expression to the idea of the Italian Romanesquewith eminent success.

 

Like most late 19th-century American architects who designed buildings based on -historic precedents, Welch did not imitate i. specific building. He combined forms and dc-tails common to Italian Romanesque churches, but in a manner that bespoke not the 12th century, but the religious needs of an urban parish in the 19th century . The scale of St, Luke ' s , the combination of a church and Sunday school, the use of varied materials creating a subtle polychromatic effect on the front facade, and the arrangement of the decorative ornament are all 19th-century devices, merely cloaked in an Italian Romanesque veneer.

 

Welch's church is basc-d on the basilican plans of Romanesque churches, but the plan has been accommodated to the need;- of the Episcopal liturgy by the addition of transepts and a deep chancel.. The front facade, with its wide nave, projecting round-arched entrance porch, large wheel window, corbelled cornice, and octagonal towerlettes has many precedents in Italian Romanesque churches including such monuments as Modena Cathedral and S. Zeno, Verona, both of which date from the 12th century.

 

St. Luke's, however, is not an imitation of these churches, but is instead an adaptation of certain design motifs found on these and contemporary buildings.

 

In America, the Romanesque Revival style was first used for an Episcopal Church by architect Henry Hobson Richardson at his Trinity Church, Bos ton, built between 1873 and 1877.- At Trinity. Richardson introduced a completely new style of architecture. The church is a massive structure constructed of contrasting heavy stone blocks of red and pink stone loosely based on French Romanesque prototypes. Trinity, and Richardson'e later buildings, had a dramatic influence on the course of American architecture. In the 1880s many Episcopal churches were designed in variations of the Romanesque, style, although the Romanesque never totally supplanted the Gothic sl;yle as the primary source for church architecture.

 

Certain major Niew York architects, particularly William Potter, made use of tbo Romanesque forms and color spectrum devised by Richardson. Ocher architects, however, while indebted to Richardson for establishing the stylistic trend, used the Romanesque forms in a more personal manner. This is true for example of R.H. Robertson who designed some of his finest churches in the Romanesque Revival style , As Montgomery Schuyler noted, Robertson's church architecture "owes little if anything to the work or Richardson beyond the suggestion of its general style." Welch too falls into this category, using the vocabulary of the Romanesque, but in an individual way.

 

The design for St. Luke's is no more derivative of a Richardson church than it is of a 12th-century Italian ohurch. The design shows the influence of both these stylistic types, but it is an original and exciting statement in its own right.

 

One of the more unusual features of St. Luke's is the use of six carefully modulated materials on the. facade. These varieties of rough and smooth stone and terra cotta serve to create a subtle drama on the building. The church has a soft grayish cast enlivened by stone details in brown and white and ornate gray terra cotta. Splashes of brighter color mark the entrances to both the church building and the chapel and Sunday school structure.

 

These entrances are flanked by columns of pale reddish Scotch granite. The twin columns that support the round corner towers of the main church were said to have been the largest blocks of Scotch granite ever imported into this country.

 

The first phase of construction, dating from 1S88 to 1889, included the chapel and Sunday school building paid for by Colonel Martin and the two-story cloister that links the church and chapel. This section was financed by the. congregation of St. Luke's. The chapel is a two-story, peaked-roof structure anchored by a tall square tower with a pyramidal root". The building is entered through a recessed, triple-arched porch supported by columns of Scotch granite.

 

The carved capitals of the central columns are in the form of female heads that are supposed to be. portrait busts of Col. Martin's deceased daughter. These capitals are carx'ed of light-colored stoue-and are the focal point of the entrance porch. Recessed behind the porch is the entrance to the building with its paneled dovible doors and pairs of stained-glass windows.

 

Above the porch are three tall, narrow, round-orched windows separated by attenuated colonnettes with capitals carved with religious symbols. A round-arched corbelled cornice that culminates ir- a niche once capped by a cross runs along the roofline of the building. Welch's original plan called for a series of small round-arched windows in this area rather than the blind arches now present.

 

These windows were undoubtedly removed from the plans when Welch was requested to simplify the design.

 

The beautifully modeled tower of the chapel is based on the campanile bell towers found on Italian Romanesque churches, and it is a sophisticated essay it; the use of round arches. Excluding the roof, the ivy-covered tower is divided into four levels; a battered base with a single round-arched opening; a tall second level articulated by long narrow arches; a short intermediate stage that rises above the roof of the chapel and is surrounded by a continuous arcade of tiny arches resting on dwarf columns; and an open belfry with paired arches on each face.

 

A corbelled cornice above the open arches supports the steep sloping roof.

 

The chapel is connected to the main sanctuary by a two-story cloister. On its first floor level, this cloister is supported by an arcade of four arches,two of which are open and lead to an entrance and two of which are enclosed. This arcade continues the line of the arched chapel entrance and visually links it to the entrance portico of the church. The second floor of this connecting element is rigidly symmetrical, with a pair of centrally-placed rectangular windows enframed by narrow colonnettes of white-colored stone.

 

This group of windows is flanked by crisply-cut rectangular openings. A particularly deep corbelled cornice runs along the roofline of the cloister. Welch's original design called for a small gable with a wheel window in the center of the cloister, This gable would have echoed the form of the chapel and church roofs and added a further visual link between the two sections. Undoubtedly the gable was removed from the plans when the vestry requested that Welch lower the construction costs.

 

In 1889 construction began of the main church. When it was completed in 1891, Clinton Avenue was graced by one of New York City's finest ecclesiastical monuments. The sanctuary is entered through en impressive projecting round-arched portal supported by clustered columns of Scotch granite.

 

This portal, with its wide central arch and flanking narrow arches, is in the form of a grand triumphal arch. The main arch is ornamented with a series of Romanesque-inspired decorative forms including a band of intertwining foliage, a rope molding, and a dog-tooth molding, Above the arch is a pediment with terra-cotta panels of foliate design. The entrance portal leads to the main doors with their stained-glass roundel panels and transom lights.

 

To either side of the portal are squat columns of Scotch granite that support projecting towerlettes. Each towerlette is divided into two main sections — an austere round base and an octagonal drum articulated by elongated colonnettes and topped by an octagonal cap with a crowning crocket.

 

These caps were originally designed to be steep, sloping pinnacles, but their design was changed when it was decided to eliminate the north tower. The projecting towerlettes frame the large wheel window that is the main focus of the church facade. The window has a diameter of twenty-eight feet, making it one of the largest in. Brooklyn. Wooden tracery in the form of dwarf columns and round arches divides the wheel window into twelve bud-shaped lights, twelve small round outer lights, and a central roundel.

 

These lights are filled with stained-glass windows depicting cherub heads. The wheel is set within a compound arch ornamented with a variety of Romanesque chevron moldings. A corbelled cornice and cross form the crowning element of the front facade.

 

Welch's original plan for St. Luke's called for a massive, two-hundred foot, six-stage tower to be built adjoining the north side of the church. The tower would have had a battered base, round-arched openings, gables, pinnacles, and an extremely steep roof crowned by an ornate iron cresting and finial.

 

If the tower had been built it would have hidden the north side aisle, clerestory, and transept from view. Now, however, the side aisle with its paired round-arched windows, the clerestory with its slate siding and triplet windows topped by single roundels, and the transept are visible.

 

On October 17, 1891, the congregation of St. Luke's celebrated the solemn opening of its sumptuous new church. The church was not consecrated, however, until October 19, 1896, when the building debt was paid off. Little expense was spared in making the interior of the church-as beautiful and comfortable as possible, The church was one of the first buildings in Brooklyn to be lit by electricity. On December 8, 1890, the church signed a contract with the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn for electric lighting; this was a little over a year after the first Edison incandescent service in Brooklyn was put into operation on September 2, 1889.

 

On Che interior (which is not part of this designation) the church has a barrel-vaulted nave with an arcade of five round arches supported by wooden columns painted in imitation marble. Above each arch is a clerestory window divided into three arched openings and a roundel, all filled with stained glass.

 

The deep apsidal chancel is lit by seven round-arched stained-glass windows that represent Christ and the six apostles. A most unusual feature of the design is the stained-glass window set in the vaulted ceiling of the chancel. This window represents a cross floating in a background of clouds and radiating beams of lights.

 

Its dramatic placement adds greatly to the majesty of the interior of the building. The finest windows at St. Luke's are the series of superb memorial windows in the side aisles, many of which are signed examples of designs by Tiffany Studios.

 

The finest of these windows is the pair of Tiifany designs in the north aisle given in memory of Henry Patchen Martin (1827-1906), the donor of the chapel and Sunday school building. These windows represent the archangels Gabriel and Michael.

 

The interior of the church was originally highly decorative, with an extensive use of polychromatic stenciling and other detail. The color quality of the wall surfaces was enhanced by the stained glass and by the beautiful floors; the floors of the aisles are all mosaic and the floor of the chancel is inlaid with brilliantly colored marble and encaustic tiles. The altar is of white Italian marble and is flanked by floating angels of carved Caen stone.

 

Much of the original interior decoration was destroyed by a fire that swept through the church on the evening of March 10, 1914. Although the front facade of the church was not severely damaged, the chapel and Sunday school building was completely destroyed on the inside. Part of the main sanctuary was also damaged, particularly in the chancel and south transept areas, and many of the memorial windows were cracked.

 

The congregation which "included in its membership some of the wealthiest men in the city," hired the architectural firm of Dodge & Morrison, specialists in church design, to repair the damage. In 1914 Dodge & Morrison presented plans for tie reconstruction of the chapel and Sunday school, and in 191.5 the church was repaired and the entire structure was reconsecrated on October 19, 1915. The church records note that three of the stained-glass windows were removed during the reconstruction and reset by Tiffany Studios.

 

Fortunately for the church, the congregation of 1914 could afford the necessary repairs to the damaged structure.

 

A few years later the population of the surrounding area began to change. The wealthy residents of Clinton and Washington Avenues and the surrounding streets began to move away and the old mansions and rowhouses were divided into apartments. In 1943 a decline in church attendance and a shift in the neighborhood population caused the parish of St, Luke's to merge with St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, which had been located on the corner or Tompkins Avenue and McDonough Street.

 

The united Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew has continued to serve a neighborhood that has seen a tremendous change in the last decades. The congregation o! the church is now largely drawn from the West Indian population

 

of the area. The influx of people from the British West Indies in the last twenty years has reinvigorated many Episcopal churches and has allowed St. Luke and St. Matthew's to maintain its magnificient church edifice, as well as continue its important mission to tha surrounding community.

 

- From the 1981 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Chassis n° S80

 

Bonhams : the Zoute Sale

Estimated : 900.000 - 1.100.000

Sold for € 890.281

 

Zoute Grand Prix 2019

Knokke - Zoute

België - Belgium

October 2019

 

"The low chassis Invicta was probably the best-looking sports car in the vintage tradition ever to be produced in England. I can think of no contemporary unsupercharged motor-car of similar capacity, made here, which could outperform it - and very few built elsewhere..." – J R Buckley, 'The 4½-litre S-Type Invicta', Profile Publications, 1966.

 

In an era when most cars stood tall, the 4½-litre S-Type Invicta, with its dramatically under-slung chassis, caused a sensation: few sports cars before or since have so looked the part. The Invicta Company's origins go back to the year 1924 when Noel Macklin and Oliver Lyle, both of whom already had motor industry experience, got together to create a car combining American levels of flexibility and performance with European quality and roadholding.

 

Like the contemporary Bentley, the Invicta was designed by men with a personal background of competition motoring and both were produced to an exemplary standard. Price was only a secondary consideration, a factor that contributed largely to both firms' failure to weather the Depression years of the early 1930s. Like Bentley, Invicta struggled against rising costs and falling sales, the final car leaving the factory, appropriately enough, on Friday the 13th of October 1933, though a handful of cars was assembled at the company' service depot in Flood Street, Chelsea between 1934 and 1936. In all, its is estimated that approximately 1,000-or-so Invictas of all types were made.

 

Apart from a handful of prototypes built at Macklin's home in Cobham, Surrey, all Invictas were powered by the tireless six-cylinder engines made by Henry Meadows. Invicta cars quickly established a reputation for outstanding durability, which was underlined by the award of the RAC's coveted Dewar Trophy in 1926 and 1929, largely for the marque's success in long-distance reliability trials, including a factory-backed around-the-world trip by lady drivers Violette Cordery (Macklin's sister-in-law) and Eleanor Simpson in chassis number 'LC134'.

 

Launched at the 1930 Motor Show at Olympia, the S-type featured an all new 'under-slung' chassis that achieved a much lower centre of gravity by positioning the rear axle above the frame rails instead of below as was normal practice at the time. Just about the only thing the S-type Invicta had in common with its contemporary stablemates was the 4½-litre Meadows engine, which was also used for the 'NLC' and 'A' models. Like most low-revving engines it delivered ample torque in the lower and middle speed ranges. Indeed, the Invicta can be throttled down to 6-8mph in top gear - despite its relatively high 3.6:1 final drive ratio - and will then accelerate rapidly and without complaint when the accelerator is depressed. Contemporary motoring press reports typically recorded acceleration figures of 10-70mph in 19 seconds, which speaks volumes for the Invicta's legendary flexibility.

 

The popular '100mph Invicta' tag notwithstanding, standard cars had a – still impressive – top speed of around 95mph with more to come in racing trim. However, it must be stressed that the S-type Invicta was primarily a very fast but comfortable high-speed touring car, and although it met with moderate success in racing in the hands of private owners in the early 1930s, its greatest appeal lies in an ability to cover a substantial mileage at high average speeds with no strain, either to driver or the machinery. Raymond Mays, writing of the two Invictas he owned in the early 1930s, says that they gave him some of the most exhilarating motoring he ever had, with their ability "to crest most main-road hills at nearly the century".

 

The Cordery/Simpson 3-Litre Invicta having driven around the world only two years previously, under RAC observation, with no failure apart from a broken half-shaft, which occurred while crossing Australia, it was not considered necessary to prove the S-type by subjecting it to similar examinations. Although there was a limited racing programme, the company's main effort focussed on proving the cars by entering the most challenging long-distance trials in the motoring calendar, achieving notable successes. The Austrian Alpine Trail was chosen as a suitable test and the S-type duly excelled in this arduous event, Donald Healey twice winning a Coupe des Glaciers for Invicta as well as the 1931 Monte Carlo Rally. Later, the S-type took the International Sports Car Record at Shelsley Walsh hill climb and, by way of variety, the Mountain Circuit lap record at Brooklands in 1931 and again in 1932, courtesy of Raymond Mays.

 

Invictas are about as indestructible in normal use as a car can be. Over 70 years after the last car left the Cobham factory, approximately 68 of the 75-or-so S-types built are known to survive and most are in excellent order, testifying to the fact that they have always been regarded as high quality motor cars. Indeed, in pre-war days there was a club dedicated exclusively to the model and members famously christened individual cars with names like 'Scythe', 'Scrapper' and 'Sea Lion'. 'S80' was named 'Sea Urchin'.

 

Chassis number 'S80' was originally bodied by Vanden Plas and first registered in the UK as 'GP 37'. Its first owner's identity is not known but by 1938 the Invicta belonged to one Alex J Black, who was followed in 1944 by Luis Juan Castagnino of Cornwall. Next owner Lord Charles Martin of London acquired 'S80' in 1946 and kept the car for two years. Its next owner, James Leslie McConchie of Durham, kept the Invicta for 30 years before parting with it in 1978. William Symons of Otterburn was the Invicta's next custodian, keeping the car until 1987 when it passed to Martin Kölnberger of Aachen, Germany and was reregistered there. 'S80' then had two further European owners: R Bernard of Villers-la-Ville, Belgium followed by Thomas Koerver of Düsseldorf, Germany. The current vendor - a resident of Potters Bar, UK and Aachen, Germany - acquired the Invicta in 2009. Currently registered as 'HVS 978' in the UK, the car comes with a UK V5C Registration Certificate and a German KZF-Brief.

 

From 1978, the Invicta was raced by Bill Symons with a Superleggera lightweight body (the car weighs around 1,300 kg with cycle wings) and won the Fox & Nicholl Trophy. From 1987, 'S80' participated in numerous races and rallies at venues throughout Europe including Le Mans, Targa Florio, Montlhéry, Coppa D'Italia, Nürburgring, Silverstone, etc.

 

At present the chassis carries the aforementioned Superleggera aluminium body together with the original Vanden Plas wings. The convertible hood and windscreen are located in the rear for use on rallies. The car's original one-off fixed-head coupé body with its large sunroof, built in 1931 by Vanden Plas, comes with the car, as do the original steps, the second spare wheel holder, and cycle wings dating from the 1970s.

 

In 2007, the Meadows engine (number '7482') was rebuilt by LMB in Wommelgem, Antwerp to fast road/racing specification (bills of € 50,000 available). It produces a maximum of around 180bhp, which is good enough for a top speed of circa 180 km/h (112 mph). Oil pressure is said to be perfect and there are no overheating problems. 'S80' is thus both powerful and fast, with a good-handling chassis, making it perfect for cruising, rallying or racing.

 

The 'Low Chassis' Invicta S-Type is now regarded as one of the most desirable pre-war sports cars, sought after by collectors for its exceptional driving abilities, style and sheer presence. A guaranteed entry at the most prestigious rallies, concours events and race meetings around the world, the 'Low Chassis' has an enviable reputation amongst connoisseurs and examples are to be found in some of the most important private collections.

 

Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais

 

Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais is a Roman Catholic parish church located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, on Place Saint-Gervais in the Marais district, east of City Hall (Hôtel de Ville). The current church was built between 1494 and 1657, on the site of two earlier churches; the facade, completed last, was the first example of the French baroque style in Paris. The organists of the church included Louis Couperin and his nephew François Couperin, two of the most celebrated composers and musicians of the Baroque period; the organ they used can still be seen today. The church contains remarkable examples of medieval carved choir stalls, stained glass from the 16th century, 17th century sculpture, and modern stained glass by Sylvie Gaudin and Claude Courageux. Saint-Gervais was a parish church until 1975, when it became the headquarters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem.

 

History

 

A church dedicated to Saints Gervasius and Protasius, two Christian martyrs from Milan, is recorded as existing on the site in the 7th century, making it one of the first parish churches on the right bank in Paris. It was attended mostly by boatmen and fishermen, because it was close to the river port at the Place de Grève. It was built on a slight hill, the Monceau Saint-Gervais, to be safe from the floods of the Seine. After the completion of the wall of Philippe-Auguste, built between 1190 and 1209, the neighborhood was protected against attack and the population began to grow. The church had come under the sponsorship of several of the important confreries or guilds of Paris, including the wine-merchants. With their financial help, a larger church was built on the site in the early 13th century. .[1]

 

Construction of the present church began in 1494, but was delayed by the Wars of religion and by a shortage of funds. It was begun in the Gothic style; the chapels of the apse were finished in 1530 and the transept in 1578.[2] While the interior of the church was largely Gothic, the facade was built in an original new style, the French Baroque, on a plan by architect Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626). The first stone of the facade was placed by the young King Louis XIII in 1616. Between 1600 and 1628, a second row of chapels was built on the north side including the golden chapel ornamented with painted woodwork.[3]

 

During the 17th and 18th century the church was attended by many members of the aristocratic families who lived in the Marais, including Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, and the Chancellor of Louis XIV, Michel Le Tellier, whose funeral monument is found in the church.

 

Beginning in 1653, the church employed and sheltered the Couperin family, one of the most famous dynasties of French musicians, for more than two centuries. On one side of the church, the home of the celebrated harpsichordists, organists, and composers still stands, with a plaque commemorating the Couperins' tenure. The organ used by Louis and François Couperin still exists today inside the church; it was built by the most famous organ builders of the time, François-Henri Clicquot, Louis-Alexandre Clicquot, and Robert Clicquot.

 

In the 18th century, the facade of the church was greatly admired, though it was nearly blocked from view by a row of houses. Voltaire wrote, "It is a masterpiece which is lacking nothing except a place from which to see it." The houses blocking the view were finally demolished in 1854, opening up the view of the facade. .[4]

 

During the French Revolution, the church was emptied of many of its treasures and turned into a Temple of Reason and Youth, before being returned to the Church in 1802.

 

On 29 March 1918, a German shell, fired by the long-range "Paris Gun", fell on the church, killing 91 people and wounding 68 others; the explosion collapsed the roof when a Good Friday service was in progress. This was the worst single incident involving a loss of civilian lives during the German bombardment of Paris in 1918.[5] Among those killed was Rose-Marie Ormond Andre-Michel, the niece and a favorite model of John Singer Sargent.[6]

 

In 1975 the church became the headquarters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem, founded in that same year by Père Pierre-Marie Delfieu with the authorisation of the then Archbishop of Paris, François Marty. The order is devoted to carrying on monastic life in an urban context; most of its members work part-time in civil occupations. The church is known for its distinctive and ecumenical liturgy; for example, adopting Lutheran hymn music and Orthodox troparia. The order has founded several other communities in France, at Mont St. Michel, Vezelay, and Magdala Sologne and elsewhere in Europe, in Florence, Brussels, Cologne, Warsaw, and Montreal.

 

Five new stained glass windows by Sylvie Gaudin were added to the southwest chevet of the church in 1993–95. Another series of six windows by Claude Courageux was added in the early 2000s in the upper level of the church, in the south nave, the transept and the choir, replacing those destroyed over the centuries.[7]

 

Facade

 

The facade of the church was begun in 1616, well after the nave of the church, with the cornerstone laid by Louis XIII. The design was by Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626), whose other major Paris work was the Luxembourg Palace. While the nave of the church was late or flamboyant gothic, the facade introduced an entirely new classical style, which opened the way for the French Baroque. The facade placed the three classical orders of architecture one atop the other. The ground floor featured three bays with pairs of columns with capitals of the simplest Doric order, with a classical pediment. Above this is a level of three bays with columns of the ionic order, and above that is a single bay with paired columns of the Corinthian order, holding up a curved pediment. In order to attach the new facade to the gothic portion of the church, de Brosse designed a traverse and two semicircular chapels on either side of the facade. The facade served as model for other churches in France and Europe, most notably the church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, the church of the Jesuits, not far away in the Marais, which was the first church in Paris built entirely in the new style. [8]

 

Since the Middle Ages, an elm tree has been planted in front of the church; it served as a meeting place, and a place where disputes were sometimes settled by judges. The trees were replanted regularly over the centuries. Carvings of the trees from earlier centuries are found on the walls of some of the neighboring buildings.

 

Nave

 

The nave of the church (1600–1620) is notable for its dramatic height and the simplicity and purity of its lines. While the lower level of the nave is late gothic, the upper level of the nave shows the influence of the Renaissance, with large semi-circular arches containing a series of large stained glass windows, filling the church with light. The upper windows are 21st-century, by Claude Courageux, illustrating the story of Adam and Eve, Noah's ark, and the patriarchs and their spouses. The ceiling of the nave, where the arches of the walls come together in an elaborate embroidery, symbolizes the vaults of heaven.

 

Choir stalls

 

The wooden choir stalls (16th–17th century), from the reigns of François I and Henri II, are richly carved with scenes of daily life, the different professions, and grotesque animals. Out of sight from those attending mass, they were designed as a place where the Canons of the church could relax during the service. Some of the figures were too intimate for more puritanical later centuries, and had to be censored, including a carved image of a man and woman bathing together.[8]

 

Chapel of the Virgin

 

The chapel of the Virgin, at the back of the church, has a dramatic late gothic vaulted ceiling, featuring a hanging crown of stone 2.5 meters in diameter, and abstract designs resembling flames. The room is often used for silent meditation by church visitors. The chapel has some of the oldest stained glass windows in the flamboyant gothic style, made by Jean Chastellain in 1517, illustrating the life of the Virgin Mary. [8] Another remarkable window by Chastellain, "The Judgement of Solomon", made in 1533 in the colorful Renaissance style, is found in a side chapel.

 

Painting and sculpture

 

The church contains a number of notable works of art.

 

- A painting by the Venetian artist Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Vital intercede for the souls in Pugatory, located in the Chapel of Saint Philomene. This was brought from Venice to Paris by Napoleon after his Italian campaign.

 

- The paintings The Beheading of John the Baptist and The Adoration of the Magi by Claude Vignon (1593–1670), located in the Chapel of the Virgin.

 

- A statue of Christ carved in oak by Antoine-Augustin Préault (1809-1879) in the Chapel of the Virgin.

 

- Statues from the funeral monument of Michel Tellier (1603–1685) the Chancellor of Louis XIV, by Pierre Mazeline (1632–1685) and Simon Hurtelle (1648–1724). The figures include the Chancellor, in prayer; a weeping 'genie' praying at his feet; and two draped figures representing Faith and Religion. Two other figures from the group, Justice and Prudence, are found in the Louvre.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Gervais-et-St-Protais

 

---------------------------------------

 

St Gervais et St Protais has 21 mid 16th century misericords and 21 early 17th century misericords.

 

More information can be found here:-

 

www.misericords.co.uk/stgervaisandstprotais.html

 

————————————

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church - Paris

 

A church dedicated to the twin martyrs Gervais and Protais

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church is located on the eastern side of the Hôtel-de-Ville.

 

It stands on a hillock known as Monceau Saint-Gervais and replaced the Chapelle Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais.

 

This chapel served the fishing village that developed on the small mound during the 5th century. This community was one of the few on the Rive Droite, which then was a vast marsh today known as Marais.

 

The chapel was dedicated to the twin Roman officers who were martyred under the reign of Nero (1st century AD).

 

Place Saint-Gervais, the church square was initially called Carrefour de l'Orme. It was named after the huge elm that marked its centre and was felled at the French Revolution.

 

It was enlarged and renamed during Haussmann's renovation of Paris of the mid 19th century.

 

The cemetery was decommissioned in 1765 to give way to Place Baudoyer, the square that serves the town hall of the 4th district.

 

Sarcophagi and burial artifacts dating back to the 1st century AD were discovered during construction works.

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church ,is a fine illustration of French architecture.

 

The Hôtel-de-Ville district developed in the 13th century and gave rise to a thriving community. The little Saint Gervais Saint Protais Chapel became obsolete, a larger church was much needed!

 

However, the construction of the new church dragged on from 1494 to 1660 due to the lack of funds.

 

Amazingly, this slow progress turned Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church into a perfect illustration of the evolution of French architecture.

 

Salomon de Brosse designed the French Baroque (Jesuit Style) facade with the three classical orders, the first of its style in Paris.

 

The 25m high Gothic Flamboyant nave and the 16th and 17th century stained glass windows are equally impressive.

 

Francois-Henri Clicquot built the organ in 1601. The wind-chests, reeds and two-thirds of its stops are original and turn the instrument into one of the oldest organs in Paris.

 

The composer François Couperin is among the prestigious organists who played in Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church, which is to this day a major centre of Sacred Music.

 

The church has two other, but smaller, organs which are located in the side chapels

 

www.travelfranceonline.com/saint-gervais-saint-protais-ch...

 

See also:-

 

www.spottinghistory.com/view/4397/st-gervais-et-st-protai...

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Gervais-et-St-Protais

I first visited Dunnottar Castle summer 2017, this magnificent castle sits high on a hill, last time I visited I captured my shots from the cliffs overlooking the site, though today I made the journey up the hill and entered the castle walls , wow what a magnificent experience, just perfect with loads of great photo opportunities to capture real Scottish history,after two hours wandering around and capturing as many shots that caught my eye , I made my way home, a magnificent experience indeed.

 

Dunnottar Castle (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Fhoithear, "fort on the shelving slope" is a ruined medieval fortress located upon a rocky headland on the north-east coast of Scotland, about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of Stonehaven.

 

The surviving buildings are largely of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the site is believed to have been fortified in the Early Middle Ages. Dunnottar has played a prominent role in the history of Scotland through to the 18th-century Jacobite risings because of its strategic location and defensive strength. Dunnottar is best known as the place where the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels, were hidden from Oliver Cromwell's invading army in the 17th century. The property of the Keiths from the 14th century, and the seat of the Earl Marischal, Dunnottar declined after the last Earl forfeited his titles by taking part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715.

 

The castle was restored in the 20th century and is now open to the public.

 

The ruins of the castle are spread over 1.4 hectares (3.5 acres), surrounded by steep cliffs that drop to the North Sea, 50 metres (160 ft) below. A narrow strip of land joins the headland to the mainland, along which a steep path leads up to the gatehouse.

 

The various buildings within the castle include the 14th-century tower house as well as the 16th-century palace. Dunnottar Castle is a scheduled monument, and twelve structures on the site are listed buildings.

 

History

Early Middle Ages

A chapel at Dunnottar is said to have been founded by St Ninian in the 5th century, although it is not clear when the site was first fortified, but in any case the legend is late and highly implausible. Possibly the earliest written reference to the site is found in the Annals of Ulster which record two sieges of "Dún Foither" in 681 and 694.

 

The earlier event has been interpreted as an attack by Brude, the Pictish king of Fortriu, to extend his power over the north-east coast of Scotland. The Scottish Chronicle records that King Domnall II, the first ruler to be called rí Alban (King of Alba), was killed at Dunnottar during an attack by Vikings in 900. King Aethelstan of Wessex led a force into Scotland in 934, and raided as far north as Dunnottar according to the account of Symeon of Durham. W. D. Simpson speculated that a motte might lie under the present caste, but excavations in the 1980s failed to uncover substantive evidence of early medieval fortification.

 

The discovery of a group of Pictish stones at Dunnicaer, a nearby sea stack, has prompted speculation that "Dún Foither" was actually located on the adjacent headland of Bowduns, 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) to the north.

 

Later Middle Ages

During the reign of King William the Lion (ruled 1165–1214) Dunnottar was a center of local administration for The Mearns. The castle is named in the Roman de Fergus, an early 13th-century Arthurian romance, in which the hero Fergus must travel to Dunnottar to retrieve a magic shield.

 

In May 1276 a church on the site was consecrated by William Wishart, Bishop of St Andrews. The poet Blind Harry relates that William Wallace captured Dunnottar from the English in 1297, during the Wars of Scottish Independence. He is said to have imprisoned 4,000 defeated English soldiers in the church and burned them alive.

 

In 1336 Edward III of England ordered William Sinclair, 8th Baron of Roslin, to sail eight ships to the partially ruined Dunnottar for the purpose of rebuilding and fortifying the site as a forward resupply base for his northern campaign. Sinclair took with him 160 soldiers, horses, and a corps of masons and carpenters.

 

Edward himself visited in July, but the English efforts were undone before the end of the year when the Scottish Regent Sir Andrew Murray led a force that captured and again destroyed the defences of Dunnottar.

 

In the 14th century Dunnottar was granted to William de Moravia, 5th Earl of Sutherland (d.1370), and in 1346 a licence to crenellate was issued by David II. Around 1359 William Keith, Marischal of Scotland, married Margaret Fraser, niece of Robert the Bruce, and was granted the barony of Dunnottar at this time. Keith then gave the lands of Dunnottar to his daughter Christian and son-in-law William Lindsay of Byres, but in 1392 an excambion (exchange) was agreed whereby Keith regained Dunnottar and Lindsay took lands in Fife.

 

William Keith completed construction of the tower house at Dunnottar, but was excommunicated for building on the consecrated ground associated with the parish church. Keith had provided a new parish church closer to Stonehaven, but was forced to write to the Pope, Benedict XIII, who issued a bull in 1395 lifting the excommunication.William Keith's descendents were created Earls Marischal in the mid 15th century, and they held Dunottar until the 18th century.

 

16th century rebuilding

Through the 16th century the Keiths improved and expanded their principal seats: at Dunnottar and also at Keith Marischal in East Lothian. James IV visited Dunnottar in 1504, and in 1531 James V exempted the Earl's men from military service on the grounds that Dunnottar was one of the "principall strenthis of our realme".

 

Mary, Queen of Scots, visited in 1562 after the Battle of Corrichie, and returned in 1564.

 

James VI stayed for 10 days in 1580, as part of a progress through Fife and Angus, during which a meeting of the Privy Council was convened at Dunnottar.

 

During a rebellion of Catholic nobles in 1592, Dunnottar was captured by a Captain Carr on behalf of the Earl of Huntly, but was restored to Lord Marischal just a few weeks later.

 

In 1581 George Keith succeeded as 5th Earl Marischal, and began a large scale reconstruction that saw the medieval fortress converted into a more comfortable home. The founder of Marischal College in Aberdeen, the 5th Earl valued Dunnottar as much for its dramatic situation as for its security.

 

A "palace" comprising a series of ranges around a quadrangle was built on the north-eastern cliffs, creating luxurious living quarters with sea views. The 13th-century chapel was restored and incorporated into the quadrangle.

 

An impressive stone gatehouse was constructed, now known as Benholm's Lodging, featuring numerous gun ports facing the approach. Although impressive, these are likely to have been fashionable embellishments rather than genuine defensive features.

 

Civil wars

Further information: Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

In 1639 William Keith, 7th Earl Marischal, came out in support of the Covenanters, a Presbyterian movement who opposed the established Episcopal Church and the changes which Charles I was attempting to impose. With James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, he marched against the Catholic James Gordon, 2nd Viscount Aboyne, Earl of Huntly, and defeated an attempt by the Royalists to seize Stonehaven. However, when Montrose changed sides to the Royalists and marched north, Marischal remained in Dunnottar, even when given command of the area by Parliament, and even when Montrose burned Stonehaven.

 

Marischal then joined with the Engager faction, who had made a deal with the king, and led a troop of horse to the Battle of Preston (1648) in support of the royalists.

 

Following the execution of Charles I in 1649, the Engagers gave their allegiance to his son and heir: Charles II was proclaimed king, arriving in Scotland in June 1650. He visited Dunnottar in July 1650, but his presence in Scotland prompted Oliver Cromwell to lead a force into Scotland, defeating the Scots at Dunbar in September 1650.

 

The Honours of Scotland

Charles II was crowned at Scone Palace on 1 January 1651, at which the Honours of Scotland (the regalia of crown, sword and sceptre) were used. However, with Cromwell's troops in Lothian, the honours could not be returned to Edinburgh. The Earl Marischal, as Marischal of Scotland, had formal responsibility for the honours, and in June the Privy Council duly decided to place them at Dunnottar.

 

They were brought to the castle by Katherine Drummond, hidden in sacks of wool. Sir George Ogilvie (or Ogilvy) of Barras was appointed lieutenant-governor of the castle, and given responsibility for its defence.

 

In November 1651 Cromwell's troops called on Ogilvie to surrender, but he refused. During the subsequent blockade of the castle, the removal of the Honours of Scotland was planned by Elizabeth Douglas, wife of Sir George Ogilvie, and Christian Fletcher, wife of James Granger, minister of Kinneff Parish Church. The king's papers were first removed from the castle by Anne Lindsay, a kinswoman of Elizabeth Douglas, who walked through the besieging force with the papers sewn into her clothes.

 

Two stories exist regarding the removal of the honours themselves. Fletcher stated in 1664 that over the course of three visits to the castle in February and March 1652, she carried away the crown, sceptre, sword and sword-case hidden amongst sacks of goods. Another account, given in the 18th century by a tutor to the Earl Marischal, records that the honours were lowered from the castle onto the beach, where they were collected by Fletcher's servant and carried off in a creel (basket) of seaweed. Having smuggled the honours from the castle, Fletcher and her husband buried them under the floor of the Old Kirk at Kinneff.

 

Meanwhile, by May 1652 the commander of the blockade, Colonel Thomas Morgan, had taken delivery of the artillery necessary for the reduction of Dunnottar. Ogilvie surrendered on 24 May, on condition that the garrison could go free. Finding the honours gone, the Cromwellians imprisoned Ogilvie and his wife in the castle until the following year, when a false story was put about suggesting that the honours had been taken overseas.

 

Much of the castle property was removed, including twenty-one brass cannons,[28] and Marischal was required to sell further lands and possessions to pay fines imposed by Cromwell's government.

 

At the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, the honours were removed from Kinneff Church and returned to the king. Ogilvie quarrelled with Marischal's mother over who would take credit for saving the honours, though he was eventually rewarded with a baronetcy. Fletcher was awarded 2,000 merks by Parliament but the sum was never paid.

  

Whigs and Jacobites

Religious and political conflicts continued to be played out at Dunnottar through the 17th and early 18th centuries. In 1685, during the rebellion of the Earl of Argyll against the new king James VII, 167 Covenanters were seized and held in a cellar at Dunnottar. The prisoners included 122 men and 45 women associated with the Whigs, an anti-Royalist group within the Covenanter movement, and had refused to take an oath of allegiance to the new king.

 

The Whigs were imprisoned from 24 May until late July. A group of 25 escaped, although two of these were killed in a fall from the cliffs, and another 15 were recaptured. Five prisoners died in the vault, and 37 of the Whigs were released after taking the oath of allegiance.

 

The remaining prisoners were transported to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, as part of a colonisation scheme devised by George Scot of Pitlochie. Many, like Scot himself, died on the voyage.

 

The cellar, located beneath the "King's Bedroom" in the 16th-century castle buildings, has since become known as the "Whigs' Vault".

 

Both the Jacobites (supporters of the exiled Stuarts) and the Hanoverians (supporters of George I and his descendents) used Dunnottar Castle. In 1689 during Viscount Dundee's campaign in support of the deposed James VII, the castle was garrisoned for William and Mary with Lord Marischal appointed captain.

 

Seventeen suspected Jacobites from Aberdeen were seized and held in the fortress for around three weeks, including George Liddell, professor of mathematics at Marischal College.

 

In the Jacobite Rising of 1715 George Keith, 10th Earl Marischal, took an active role with the rebels, leading cavalry at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. After the subsequent abandonment of the rising Lord Marischal fled to the Continent, eventually becoming French ambassador for Frederick the Great of Prussia. Meanwhile, in 1716, his titles and estates including Dunnottar were declared forfeit to the crown.

 

Later history

The seized estates of the Earl Marischal were purchased in 1720 for £41,172, by the York Buildings Company who dismantled much of the castle.

 

In 1761 the Earl briefly returned to Scotland and bought back Dunnottar only to sell it five years later to Alexander Keith, an Edinburgh lawyer who served as Knight Marischal of Scotland.

 

Dunnottar was inherited in 1852 by Sir Patrick Keith-Murray of Ochtertyre, who in turn sold it in July 1873 to Major Alexander Innes of Cowie and Raemoir for about £80,000.

 

It was purchased by Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray, in 1925 after which his wife embarked on a programme of repairs.

 

Since that time the castle has remained in the family, and has been open to the public, attracting 52,500 visitors in 2009.

 

Dunnottar Castle, and the headland on which is stands, was designated as a scheduled monument in 1970.In 1972 twelve of the structures at Dunnottar were listed.

 

Three buildings are listed at category A as being of "national importance": the keep; the entrance gateway; and Benholm's Lodging.

 

The remaining listings are at category B as being of "regional importance".[39] The Hon. Charles Anthony Pearson, the younger son of the 3rd Viscount Cowdray, currently owns and runs Dunnottar Castle which is part of the 210-square-kilometre (52,000-acre) Dunecht Estates.

 

Portions of the 1990 film Hamlet, starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, were shot there.

  

Description

Dunnottar's strategic location allowed its owners to control the coastal terrace between the North Sea cliffs and the hills of the Mounth, 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) inland, which enabled access to and from the north-east of Scotland.

 

The site is accessed via a steep, 800-metre (2,600 ft) footpath (with modern staircases) from a car park on the coastal road, or via a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) cliff-top path from Stonehaven. Dunnottar's several buildings, put up between the 13th and 17th centuries, are arranged across a headland covering around 1.4 hectares (3.5 acres).

 

The dominant building, viewed from the land approach, is the 14th-century keep or tower house. The other principal buildings are the gatehouse; the chapel; and the 16th-century "palace" which incorporates the "Whigs' Vault".

 

Defences

The approach to the castle is overlooked by outworks on the "Fiddle Head", a promontory on the western side of the headland. The entrance is through the well-defended main gate, set in a curtain wall which entirely blocks a cleft in the rocky cliffs.

 

The gate has a portcullis and has been partly blocked up. Alongside the main gate is the 16th-century Benholm's Lodging, a five-storey building cut into the rock, which incorporated a prison with apartments above.

 

Three tiers of gun ports face outwards from the lower floors of Benholm's Lodging, while inside the main gate, a group of four gun ports face the entrance. The entrance passage then turns sharply to the left, running underground through two tunnels to emerge near the tower house.

 

Simpson contends that these defences are "without exception the strongest in Scotland", although later writers have doubted the effectiveness of the gun ports. Cruden notes that the alignment of the gun ports in Benholm's Lodging, facing across the approach rather than along, means that they are of limited efficiency.

 

The practicality of the gun ports facing the entrance has also been questioned, though an inventory of 1612 records that four brass cannons were placed here.

 

A second access to the castle leads up from a rocky cove, the aperture to a marine cave on the northern side of the Dunnottar cliffs into which a small boat could be brought. From here a steep path leads to the well-fortified postern gate on the cliff top, which in turn offers access to the castle via the Water Gate in the palace.

 

Artillery defences, taking the form of earthworks, surround the north-west corner of the castle, facing inland, and the south-east, facing seaward. A small sentry box or guard house stands by the eastern battery, overlooking the coast.

 

Tower house and surrounding buildings

The tower house of Dunnottar, viewed from the west

The late 14th-century tower house has a stone-vaulted basement, and originally had three further storeys and a garret above.

 

Measuring 12 by 11 metres (39 by 36 ft), the tower house stood 15 metres (49 ft) high to its gable. The principal rooms included a great hall and a private chamber for the lord, with bedrooms upstairs.

 

Beside the tower house is a storehouse, and a blacksmith's forge with a large chimney. A stable block is ranged along the southern edge of the headland. Nearby is Waterton's Lodging, also known as the Priest's House, built around 1574, possibly for the use of William Keith (died 1580), son of the 4th Earl Marischal.

 

This small self-contained house includes a hall and kitchen at ground level, with private chambers above, and has a projecting spiral stair on the north side. It is named for Thomas Forbes of Waterton, an attendant of the 7th Earl.

 

The palace

The palace, to the north-east of the headland, was built in the late 16th century and early to mid-17th century. It comprises three main wings set out around a quadrangle, and for the most part is probably the work of the 5th Earl Marischal who succeeded in 1581.

 

It provided extensive and comfortable accommodation to replace the rooms in the tower house. In its long, low design it has been compared to contemporary English buildings, in contrast to the Scottish tradition of taller towers still prevalent in the 16th century.

 

Seven identical lodgings are arranged along the west range, each opening onto the quadrangle and including windows and fireplace. Above the lodgings the west range comprised a 35-metre (115 ft) gallery. Now roofless, the gallery originally had an elaborate oak ceiling, and on display was a Roman tablet taken from the Antonine Wall.

 

At the north end of the gallery was a drawing room linked to the north range. The gallery could also be accessed from the Silver House to the south, which incorporated a broad stairway with a treasury above.

 

The basement of the north range incorporates kitchens and stores, with a dining room and great chamber above. At ground floor level is the Water Gate, between the north and west ranges, which gives access to the postern on the northern cliffs.

 

The east and north ranges are linked via a rectangular stair. The east range has a larder, brewhouse and bakery at ground level, with a suite of apartments for the Countess above. A north-east wing contains the Earl's apartments, and includes the "King's Bedroom" in which Charles II stayed. In this room is a carved stone inscribed with the arms of the 7th Earl and his wife, and the date 1654. Below these rooms is the Whigs' Vault, a cellar measuring 16 by 4.5 metres (52 by 15 ft). This cellar, in which the Covenanters were held in 1685, has a large eastern window, as well as a lower vault accessed via a trap-door in the floor.

 

Of the chambers in the palace, only the dining room and the Silver House remain roofed, having been restored in the 1920s. The central area contains a circular cistern or fish pond, 16 metres (52 ft) across and 7.6 metres (25 ft) deep, and a bowling green is located to the west.

 

At the south-east corner of the quadrangle is the chapel, consecrated in 1276 and largely rebuilt in the 16th century. Medieval walling and two 13th-century windows remain, and there is a graveyard to the south.

Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States

 

Summary

 

The Childs Restaurant Building on Surf Avenue in Coney Island was the first restaurant built for this well-known chain in Coney Island, at a time when the area was changing from its somewhat seedy aura of summer amusements to a wholesome, family resort that could be enjoyed year-round. The Childs Restaurant chain, begun in 1889, developed as small luncheonettes that catered to working people, where one could find decent meals for a reasonable price in a clean environment. As such, it was the perfect type of establishment for the “new Coney Island.”

 

This building was constructed in 1917 in West Brighton near the terminus of the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railway line and close by many of the most famous amusements of the area. Childs Restaurant filled the need for a respectable but not expensive restaurant for the many working-class New Yorkers who flocked to the beach for a relaxing day in the sun. As the area prospered, a second and larger Childs was built at 21st Street facing the new Boardwalk. This first restaurant continued to operate in this location until 1943 when the property was leased to the Blue Bird Casino and restaurant. During the following years the building continued to house restaurants, clubs and other activities related to Coney Island’s amusements.

 

It was the site of David Rosen’s Wonderland Circus Sideshow and, since 2007, has been the location of Coney Island U.S.A. and the Coney Island Museum, which documents the history of this famous New York City neighborhood. Originally designed by John C. Westervelt who worked for the Childs chain for many years, the building displays elements of the Spanish Revival style, seen in its overhanging red tile roof, round-arched openings and white facade. Its wide arches facing two streets served as grand welcoming gestures to crowds passing by, while the style suggests a warm Mediterranean resort and hint at the fun to be had in Coney Island. This building is a rare survivor from a many years of Coney Island history, beginning when an assortment of amusements and the sea air attracted thousands of pleasure-seekers escaping from the nearby hot city through the present day.

  

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

Coney Island

 

Although the western end of Coney Island had achieved some popularity as a rustic seaside resort early in the 19th century, it also gained an unsavory reputation for its gambling, pickpockets and prostitution. The real growth of Coney Island as a resort came about in the 1870s when five new railroads were constructed to connect the island with the rest of Brooklyn. These were built by businessmen and entrepreneurs who developed large hotels and wanted to provide easy access from Brooklyn and Manhattan to attract a higher-end clientele than those who frequented the western side. Austin Corbin built the luxurious Manhattan Beach Hotel in 1877 on the far eastern end, served by the New York and Manhattan Beach Railway with direct connections to lower Manhattan. Just to the west of this was the huge Brighton Beach Hotel opened in 1878. Its clientele were generally from Brooklyn’s middle-class business community and their families traveled to Coney Island via the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railroad from Prospect Park.

 

Between Brighton Beach and the less savory environs of the far western point lay West Brighton, an area that became the island’s entertainment section and was served by the Prospect Park & Coney Island Railroad, commonly known as the Culver Line. Carrying numerous day- trippers away from their teeming tenements, this train terminated at a large depot near 17th Street across from Culver Plaza, a spacious open area filled with colorful flowers. West Brighton became the site of numerous bathing pavilions, restaurants, saloons, variety shows, small stores, games and unusual attractions such as the “Elephant Colossus” (built 1879, destroyed by fire in 1896) and the Iron Tower (imported from the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876). West Brighton was “Coney’s true entertainment district, attracting the lion’s share of the island’s visitors.”

 

During the 1890s West Brighton was the site of many innovations that increased the fame and popularity of Coney Island, including mechanical amusements such as carousels and roller coasters, hot dogs, and mixed gender public bathing. The Ferris Wheel, modeled after the original designed for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, was brought to Coney Island in 1894. In 1895, Paul Boyton opened Sea Lion Park, the first outdoor amusement park in the world, which included live sea lions and a number of new mechanical rides. A series of disastrous fires in the 1890s destroyed many of the area’s flimsy wooden structures and opened large sections for redevelopment. With the goal of creating a “new” Coney Island that would attract more families and limit alcohol consumption, George C. Tilyou opened Steeplechase Park in 1897, including in his park a mechanical race track and a small version of the original Ferris Wheel. It was so successful that similar parks, such as Luna Park (1903) and Dreamland (1904) soon followed, offering more rides, entertainments, and a fantasy world of exotic architecture, bright lights, and unusual sights. The Bowery (named after the street of the same name in Manhattan) continued to serve as the island’s midway, with numerous small stands for rides, shooting galleries, arcades, and saloons, as well as palmists, dance halls, and photo galleries. By 1900, Sunday crowds reached more than 500,000 and lines for the various amusements often lasted well into the night.

 

More than any other area on the island, West Brighton...appealed to a working- class crowd, bringing together established groups and recent immigrants who in everyday life were often segregated into separate neighborhoods and work

 

places.

 

During the early years of the 20th century, Luna Park and Dreamland were destroyed by fire. The area’s racetracks were closed and the grand hotels to the east ceased to attract their previous crowds. In another effort to renew the neighborhood, the Coney Island Board of Trade was

  

formed by 1916, with membership consisting of successful local businessmen who had a sense of responsibility to improve the district for the sake of their own and other businesses. The summer season of 1916 opened with a pledge from this group to create an area that was “sanitary, safe, and sane.” Their goal was to impose “fair dealing,” with “no faking” to make sure that visitors had a good time and would want to come back again. They worked to encourage excursions to bring more people to Coney Island. Their publicity brochure stated that “Coney is better, bigger, cleaner and more wholesome than world’s fairs.”

 

These efforts had several practical effects. Sanitation was improved by providing more garbage cans with more frequent pick-up. There was greater cooperation with local police, and Surf Avenue was rebuilt with a smooth asphalt surface. The city subway system was extended to the area in 1920, allowing New Yorkers from all parts of New York to reach the beach for only five cents. After this, approximately one million visitors came to Coney Island each summer day. It soon became obvious that something had to be done to alleviate the resulting congestion and to allow for better fire-fighting access to battle the huge conflagrations that periodically decimated the area. A broad pedestrian boardwalk was constructed along the beach, with the first section opening in 1923, stretching four miles from Brighton Beach to Sea Gate. Additionally some of the area’s streets were widened destroying many smaller buildings in the process. These improvements changed the character of Coney Island and the resort attracted more families and was used during more times of the year.

 

Restaurants on Coney Island

 

Although clams were plentiful on the shoreline and many people in the 19th century came to Coney Island for picnics and clambakes, before long a number of restaurants also developed to feed the huge crowds that assembled there. Charles Feltman began selling hot dogs from his hot food wagon in 1871 as an easy-to-eat meal. As his business expanded, he leased a tiny plot of land along the shoreline and sold thousands of hot dogs to hungry visitors. In 1874 he bought a lot at West 10th Street and Surf Avenue, eventually expanding it to include several huge beer gardens serving beer, hot dogs and ice cream with German bands and Tyrolean singers entertaining his customers. Stauch’s Restaurant, located on the Bowery, was another local institution that appealed to an upper class clientele with its dining room and dance hall. Nathan’s started its hotdog stand in 1916 at the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues. Although it took a while for this business to gain popularity, Nathan’s sold its one hundred millionth hot dog in 1955 and the store is still located at the same intersection.

 

The Child’s restaurant chain was expanding rapidly at this time and the idea of opening a branch at this busy and popular area made sense for the business.

 

Childs Restaurant

 

The restaurant as a unique place to take a meal began to gain popularity in this country after the Civil War. Although travelers had always been able to obtain food at inns and taverns, and later at hotel dining rooms, those living at home generally ate at home. Eating somewhere else was a new idea, related to a modern urban and industrial lifestyle. By the 1830s, members of the Del-Monico family established several Manhattan locales to supply New York's elite with replicas of "Parisian" cuisine. At the same time, soup kitchens and one-cent coffee stands began to provide food for the destitute, while immigrants started cafes and beer gardens to recreate a taste of the old country for their fellow emigres. After the Civil War, other restaurants including saloons, coffee shops and oyster bars began to cater to the working class, with low-priced fare that was available during extended hours, not just at set mealtimes. Lunch-counters became common after the invention of the soda drink, when stores with these popular features began to add light food such as sandwiches to the sodas and desserts already served there.

  

The Childs Restaurant chain, begun in 1889, came out of this lunch-counter tradition. Samuel and William Childs, two brothers originally from New Jersey, learned the restaurant business by working for A.W. Dennett, owner of several restaurants in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. With $1,600 and some second-hand furniture, the brothers opened their first store on Cortlandt Street in Manhattan. It was so successful that they were able to open a second one several months later. They borrowed Dennett's idea of placing a chef in the window, preparing flapjacks, as a way to advertise their business. They also started to furnish their restaurants with white-tiled walls and floors, white marble table-tops, and waitresses dressed in starched white uniforms, to convey a sense of cleanliness. The hard surfaces tended to discourage patrons from lingering on the premises, allowing for quicker turnover and more business. After ten years they had ten profitable restaurants and by 1925, the company (which was incorporated in 1902) operated107 restaurants in 33 cities in the United States and Canada.

 

Many of the early Childs Restaurants were set in narrow storefronts designed in an “austerely-elegant” style, with white tile, mirrors, bentwood furniture and exposed ceiling fans, to complement and also to symbolize the simplicity and purity of the food. Most of the stores from these early years were designed by John C. Westervelt who worked as the company architect for many years. In the 1920s however, new designs began to be used, each suited more specifically to the location of the individual store. One of these was the William Van Alen design for a Childs restaurant on Fifth Avenue which, in a bow to the more refined character of that section of town, did not display the usual signage and white decor, but had dark, mission style interiors, with “dramatic use of large sheets of curved glass for corner windows.” Another was the elegant Spanish Revival style building on the Boardwalk in Coney Island designed by Dennison & Hirons and built in 1923 (a designated New York City Landmark).

 

The Childs chain was responsible for several restaurant innovations, including a self-serve cafeteria. In 1898, at 130 Broadway, they piled a lunch counter high with sandwiches and pastry and trays on which to place them. Cafeteria service proved to be very popular and was emulated at numerous other restaurants around the country. In 1927, due to health concerns by William Childs, the Childs restaurants served only vegetarian food and were known as the Childs Unique Dairy Lunch. After a severe drop in business attributed to the meatless policy, it was reversed the following year.

 

In 1925, the Childs Company branched out from the restaurant business and became a primary investor in a new midtown hotel, the Savoy Plaza, on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets. A large Childs Restaurant in the Spanish Renaissance style was located within this hotel. Samuel Childs served as president of the company before he died in 1925. William Childs served as a director of the new hotel corporation, as well as president and later chairman of the Childs Company until he was removed from governance of the company by irate stockholders in 1928.

 

The company and the restaurants continued to evolve over the years. After Prohibition was lifted in 1933, liquor and wine were served in some Childs outlets. In 1939, the company received the contract to provide food service at the New York World's Fair, where it sold over 16 million hot dogs. Although the organization suffered financial problems at different periods, it continued to operate for many years. In 1950, the Childs Company bought Louis Sherry, the ice cream makers, and was, in turn, purchased by Lucky Stores shortly afterwards. At that time, the company owned restaurants in 14 American cities and three in Canada. In 1961, the chain was acquired by the Reise Brothers and in 1966 they opened the 90th Childs Restaurant on 52nd Street and Third Avenue in New York.

  

John C. Westervelt (1873-1934)

 

John Corley Westervelt was born in Ithaca, New York and educated at Cornell University, where he also served as a trustee for many years. He practiced architecture in New York City for 40 years, and was a member of the Architectural League of New York and the American Institute of Architects. Westervelt served as house architect for the Childs restaurant firm for more than 30 years, designing most of their restaurants in various cities. One of his more well- known designs was for the Childs Restaurant at the Savoy Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, which he rendered in the Spanish Renaissance style (demolished). Two other buildings designed by Westervelt can be seen in the Ladies Mile Historic District: 4 East 20th Street (1900-01), a neo- Grec style, cast-iron fronted department store and 184 Fifth Avenue (facade design, 1911), a commercial style store and loft building faced with white terra cotta.

 

Child’s Restaurant, Coney Island

 

Childs Restaurant became known as a place one could buy a reasonable meal for a fair price. Having already established its reputation in other parts of New York the company opened this small restaurant at the corner of Surf Avenue and 12th Street in 1917, in the heart of the West Brighton entertainment area. The block of Surf Avenue where it was constructed was near the Columbia Hotel and Kosters Music Hall and also held a series of small, one and two-story structures for games and other amusements on Surf Avenue and what was then Thompson’s Walk (later West 12th Street). Coney Island’s popularity was increasing, and since Childs Restaurants were already well-known to New Yorkers its location on this busy spot made good business sense.

 

This Childs restaurant was a two-story structure with two designed facades, each displaying broad arched openings along the street, a tiled roof and an overhanging, bracketed cornice. The Spanish Revival style facade was created of white-painted concrete with decorative triangular panels of terra-cotta mosaics inset in the arch spandrels. The concrete helped make it fireproof and its dramatic style helped it fit into the resort atmosphere of Coney Island. The large arched openings may have been inspired by several nearby buildings that also faced the street with similar windows, possibly as a way of encouraging anyone strolling by to enter the establishment. Although the Spanish (or the variant Mediterranean) Revival style was more often found on buildings in warmer climates, such as in Florida or the Caribbean, the designer of this structure was hoping to suggest this same kind of vacation-oriented environment for a building in the heart of New York’s most popular resort area.

 

The narrow side street where the restaurant was located was a private street called Thompson’s Walk. As part of the area’s general improvement plan in 1923, the city widened it from 30 to 60 feet, paved it and opened it as West 12th Street. This necessitated the movement of the Child’s building to the west, achieved by cutting the front piers so that it could be raised onto rails and slid farther from the widened street. The facade was then restored to its original appearance.

 

This building served the Child’s restaurant chain for many years. When the Boardwalk was opened in 1923, the company opened a second, much larger restaurant at 21st Street (a designated New York City Landmark). Childs closed this store in the area’s busy amusement section by 1943. From 1944 the building housed the Bluebird Casino and later other restaurants and clubs, as well as David Rosen’s Wonderland Circus Sideshow. Since 2007, it has been owned by Coney Island USA and serves as the home of the Coney Island Museum which documents the history of this famous section of New York.

 

Description

 

The Childs Restaurant Building is located on the corner of Surf Avenue and 12th Street and has two designed facades that display the same motifs. The Surf Avenue facade is three bays wide while that on 12th Street has six bays. Constructed of brick covered with painted concrete, the building is two stories tall and is capped by a shallow pent roof that overhangs the facade and is topped by red Spanish tiles. The roof is supported on paired metal brackets with flat concrete panels between them. There are colorful, non-historic fabric signs attached to the wall space between each window that are suggestive of the kinds of banners that used to advertise Coney Island attractions during its heyday.

 

The Surf Avenue facade has three large, round-arched openings with non-historic metal-and- glass infill. The entrance is located within the center arch. The arches have remnants of painted concrete moldings along the edges of their openings. Large metal housing for roll-down metal gates is located over the windows and below the transoms. Triangular multi-colored mosaic panels are set in the arch spandrels. A concrete molding marks the top of the first story and a series of small, non-historic light fixtures extend horizontally from above it.

 

The second story has three rectangular window openings marked by painted concrete window sills. The original metal window frame is in place however, the glass has been replaced by two large panes. There are two rectangular vent openings in the cornice between the paired brackets that show up in the early tax photo.

 

The 12th Street facade is longer, with six bays displayed along its length. This side boasts similar motifs to those on Surf Avenue. There are six large, round-arched openings on the ground story. Only the first one nearest the corner has the full transom arch revealed since the others are covered by plywood and fabric signs. There is a service entrance with non-historic door located in the southernmost bay. Historic, concrete-covered piers flank the doorway and it is topped by a series of wires attached to the building. Non-historic roll-down metal gates are located above each archway. The concrete cornice carries around the building above the ground story. The second story has six rectangular windows with new glass and historic sash, except for the two southernmost windows in which the entire sash has been replaced.

 

A plastered and painted extension with mechanical housing extends above the roof at the southernmost corner of the building.

 

- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

The Hoopoe is a bizarre creation with crazy black and white banding across its wings and tail, an eccentric black-tipped crest, long, down-curved bill and an orange coloured body. Its dramatic plumage is best seen when the bird flies with floppy, rounded, fingered wings, flicking like a big moth. Breeds in parks, orchards, copses and gardens mostly on continental Europe, this is a scarce migrant to Irish shores. This species is migratory wintering in Africa. This is my second Hoopoe this week, I only seen one for the whole of last year.

 

Taken at the "Holy Ground" Knockadoon head, Co. Cork

www.dongardner.com/plan_details.aspx?pid=179

 

Flanked by columns, the barrel vaulted entrance of this three bedroom home is echoed in its dramatic arched windows and gables.

 

In this house plan, interior columns add elegance while visually dividing foyer from dining room and great room from kitchen. The great room is made even larger by its cathedral ceiling and bank of windows, including an arched clerestory window.

 

A box bay window adds space to the formal dining room, while the kitchen features an angled center island with breakfast counter for the busy family.

 

The floor plan's master suite, secluded on the first floor, boasts his and her walk-in closets and garden tub with skylight. Two bedrooms upstairs share another skylit bath.

 

*Photographed home may have been modified from the original construction documents.

The Snæfellsnes Peninsula is a region in western Iceland known for its dramatic landscapes. At its western tip, Snæfellsjökull National Park is dominated by Snæfellsjökull Volcano, which is topped by a glacier. Nearby, a trail leads through lava fields to black-pebble beach

Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The ground floor interior of the Chrysler Building which the Commission designates an Interior Landmark, has been called one of the great Art Deco spaces in New York City. Built in 1928-30 according to the designs of architect William Van Alen, it provides an elegant and dramatic entrance to one of New York's great skyscrapers which had been dedicated by Walter P. Chrysler to "world commerce and industry." A variety of design features create this effect and enhance its progressive image.

 

HISTORY OF CONSTRUCTION

 

The Chrysler Building had its beginnings in an office building project for William H. Reynolds, a real-estate developer and promoter and former New York State senator. Reynolds had acquired a long-term lease in 1921 on a parcel of property at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street owned by the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In 1927 architect William Van Alen was hired to design an . office tower to be called the Reynolds Building for the site. Publicized as embodying new principles in skyscraper design, the projected building was to be 67 stories high rising 808 feet, and it was "to be surmounted by a glass dome, which when lighted from within, will give the effect of a great jewelled sphere."

 

In October, 1928, however, the office building project and the lease on the site were taken over by Walter P. Chrysler, head of the Chrysler Corporation, who was seeking to expand his interests into the real estate field.

 

Walter Percy Chrysler , one of America's foremost automobile manufacturers, was a self-made man who worked his way up through the mechanical and manufacturing aspects of the railroad business before joining the Buick Motor Company as works manager in 1912. Because of his success in introducing new processes and efficiencies into the automobile plant, he rose quickly through the administrative ranks of General Motors before personality conflicts with William C. Durant, head of General Motors, forced Chrysler to leave.

 

In 1921 he reorganized Willys-Overland Company, and then took over as chairman of the reorganization and management committee of the Maxwell Motor Company, eventually assuming the presidency. This enabled Chrysler to introduce in 1924 the car bearing his name which presented such innovations as four-wheel hydraulic breaks and a high compression motor.

 

Over 50 million dollars worth of cars were sold the first year, and in 1925, the Maxwell Motor Company became the Chrysler Corporation. Dodge Brothers was acquired in 1928 giving the Chrysler Corporation additional manufacturing facilities, a famous line of cars, and putting it in a position to challenge the leadership of Ford and General Motors.

 

By 1935, when Chrysler retired from the presidency of the Chrysler Corporation to become chairman of the board, the company was second in the automobile industry in volume of production.

 

It was while Chrysler was aggressively expanding his corporation in 1928 that he took over the office building project from Reynolds. In his autobiography, Chrysler said that he had the building constructed so that his sons would have something to be responsible for. 6 He could not have been unav^ure, however, that the building would become a personal symbol and further the image of the Chrysler Corporation— even though no corporate funds were used in its financing or construction, lb that end Chrysler worked with architect William Van Alen to make the building, including the ground floor interior, a powerful and striking design.

 

Work began on the Chrysler Building on October 15, 1928, when Chrysler acquired the lease with clearance of the site. Construction proceeded rapidly; foundations to a depth of 69 feet were completed early in 1929, and the steel framework was completed by the end of September of that year. The design of the building, however, was altered from that for Reynolds. Chrysler, in his autobiography, credits himself for suggesting that it be taller than the 1000-foot Eiffel Tower.

 

The design of the crowning dome was also changed, and the addition of a spire, which the architect called a "vertex," made the Chrysler at 1046 feet the tallest building in the world at the time. Kenneth Murchison fancifully depicts Chrysler urging Van Alen to win the race to construct the world's tallest building.

 

Van Alen himself had personal reasons for achieving this goal, as a former partner, H. Craig Severance, was constructing the Bank of Manhattan, 40 Wall Street, at the same time with the aim of making it the world's tallest skyscraper. Thinking that the Chrysler Building would be only 925 feet high, Severance added a 50-foot flagpole to his building making it 927 feet.

 

Meanwhile, Van Alen designed the 185-foot spire which would make the Chrysler Building the tallest. The spire was fabricated, then delivered to the building in five sections, and assembled secretly at the 65th floor. In November, 1929, it was finally raised into position by a 20-ton derrick through a fire tower in the center of the building, then riveted into place, the whole operation taking about 90 minutes. This engineering feat captured the popular imagination as well as that of professionals, and it helped to further the progressive image of the Chrysler Building. However, the Chrysler lost its height distinction two years later with the construction of the Empire State Building.

 

The first tenants moved into the Chrysler Building in April, 1930, even though construction was not completed. Formal opening ceremonies were held on May 27, 1930, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the 42nd Street Property Owners and Merchants Association. A bronze tablet was placed in the lobby of the building "in recognition of Mr. Chrysler's contribution to civic advancement." H It may still be seen in the 42nd Street entrance lobby. The building was considered finished in August, 1930, but curiously, the completion date in the records of the Manhattan Buildings Department is February 19, 1932.

 

The Chrysler Building and Art Deco

 

Walter P. Chrysler wanted a progressive image and a personal symbol. Van Alen strove to create such an image using the tenets of modernism as he interpreted them. In so doing he designed a building which has come to be regarded as one of the outstanding examples of Art Deco architecture. The ground floor interior is one of the great Art Deco spaces in the country.

 

The term Art Deco, which is also referred to by several different names such as the Style Moderne and Modernistic, is adopted from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Deooratifs et Industriels Modemes— an important European influence on the American Art Deco style— held in Paris in 1925.

 

In the period fallowing the first World War, architects in Europe and the United States had begun to simplify traditional design forms and to use new industrial materials in innovative ways in order to characterize the modem age. The Art Deco style seemed to lend itself particularly well to skyscraper design because the skyscraper, more than any other building type, epitomized progress, innovation, and a new modem age. Although the Art Deco style was short-lived, it coincided with a great building boon at the end of the 1920s in New York. The many skyscrapers which were erected in the Art Deco style gave New York and its skyline a characteristic and romantic image, popularized in theater and films, which persisted until the next great building boom of the early 1960s. The Art Deco ground floor interiors of these skyscrapers were equally effective, giving an air of drama to the act of entering a building.

 

In the Chrysler Building and its ground floor interior, Van Alen used a variety of materials, techniques, and design forms which are characteristic of Art Deco.

 

Three entrances provide access to the ground floor interior of the building—one each from 42nd and 43rd Streets and Lexington Avenue. The three entrance lobbies lead into the triangular main concourse with two massive octagonal piers. The shape of the concourse and the placement of the piers help to channel traffic efficiently to the four elevator halls. In his autobiography, Walter P. Chrysler claimed that he asked the architect to redesign the lobby so that "when people come into a big building they...sense a change, get a mental lift that will put them in a frame of mind to transact their business.'^* The triangular concourse was the result.

 

Rich materials, a characteristic feature of the Art Deco style, enhance the spatial effects and enrich the experience of entry. The walls of the entrance lobbies and main concourse as well as the octagonal piers are faced with a type of red Moroccan marble known as Rouge Flarrme.

 

The marble is distinguished by variegated markings in tones of buff. Complementing the marble on the walls is the yellow Sienna travertine floor set in diagonal patterns—another subtle directional device to guide the user of the building. Shop windows opening onto the entrance lobbies and main concourse as well as directory boards are elegantly framed in "Nirosta" steel, a kind of rust-resistant, chromium nickel steel, manufactured for the first time in the United States specifically for the Chrysler Building according to a German formula from Krupp.

 

Handsome crenellations of "Nirosta" steel—in characteristic Art Deco forms—surmount these enframements. The entrance doors, as well as the service doors, are also of "Nirosta" steel. Set between the service doors opposite the Lexington Avenue entrance is an information booth of red marble with "Nirosta" steel back rising from it.

 

One of the most striking and dramatic features of this interior is the lighting system. Vertically-placed panels of polished Mexican onyx are placed in a stepped pattern above the elevator halls and the three street entrances. Vertical reflector troughs of "Nirosta" steel set with lamps are placed in front of the onyx panels. As the light is reflected off these panels it is given an amber glow.

 

Set in front of the lights marking the entrances are vertically-placed letters forming the names of the streets outside. The octagonal piers in the main concourse also provide a light source. V-shaped recesses lined with onyx contain the same type of vertical reflector troughs and lamps as those over the entrances and elevator halls.

 

On the ceiling scanning the main concourse and the Lexington Avenue entrance lobby is a large mural by artist Edward Trumbull. The use of such murals was a favorite device of Art Deco designers. In addition to heightening the dramatic effect and enriching the experience of interior spaces, they also were a means of achieving the Art Deco ideal of the unity of design.

-

Edward Trumbull was one of the foremost American moralists of his generation. As a student at the Art Student's League in New York he studied with Robert Raid; in London from 1906 to 1912, he was a student of Frank Brangwyn. Returning to the United States, he was commissioned to do nine panels for the Heinz Administration Building in Pittsburgh.

 

Among the important ccnmissions of his career, in addition to the Chrysler Building, were murals for: the Pennsylvania State Building at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, the Graybar Building, the Oyster Bar and Restaurant at Grand Central Station, the waiting rooms in Union Station in Washington, D.C., the dining rocms in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Building, the cafeteria of the Kress Store at 444 Fifth Avenue, and a branch office of the Union Dime Savings Bank at Madison Avenue and 39th Street.

 

For Inland Steel, he painted "The Story of Steel" which was presented to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In 1932 Trumbull was appointed Color Director for the art program of Rockefeller Center to supervise more than 40 murals and 50 sculptural pieces.

 

The mural in the Chrysler Building depicts "the vision, human energy and engineering ability which made possible the structure." The composition is divided into several parts, each with its own theme. A triangular panel placed over the information booth displays a large muscular Atlas figure. Radiating out from this are three bands which follow the triangular form of the main concourse. The first, showing a series of abstract patterns and lines, was supposed to symbolize primitive, natural forces.

 

The second, depicting construction workers and techniques, has a specific analogy to the construction of the Chrysler Building. The third shews the development of modem transportation with an emphasis on airplanes. Extending outward over the Lexington Avenue entrance lobby is a large panel with a rendering of the b building as seen from the exterior. The warm tones of the mural harmonize well with the rich colors of the marble and onyx below.

 

The four elevator halls are lined with the same red marble as the entrance halls and main concourse. The doors of the twenty-eight passenger elevators are a strikingly handsome Art Deco design, displaying an abstract lotus pattern executed in metal and inlaid wood veneers. The elevator cabs are of four design types.

 

All are abstract patterns, again executed in a variety of inlaid wood veneers. The woods include Japanese ash, English gray hardwood, Oriental walnut, dye ebonized wood, stainwood, Cuban plum pudding, myrtle burl, and curly maple. Ceiling fans in the elevator cabs are of metal, also executed in striking abstract designs. The use of such rich materials to create a luxurious and dramatic effect is characteristic of Art Deco.

 

The curved staircases at the north and south ends of the main concourse lead to the mezzanine at the second floor and to the basement. The use of highly polished black marble on the curved walls heightens the dramatic effect of these staircases. The railings, which follow the curve of the stairs, are of "Nirosta" steel, and the inner railings have zigzag motifs characteristic of Art Deco design set between the balusters.

 

At ground floor level, the railings terminate in massive red marble newel posts. The steps are of gray and black terrazzo. Handsome molded glass light fixtures hang from the ceilings above the staircases. These ceilings are finished with aluminum, leaf.

 

All features of the ground floor interior combine together to create one of the great Art Deco spaces in the city and country. The elements of the design and the rich materials are not only characteristic of the Art Deco style but are also same of the finest examples of their type. All appropriately enhance the progressive image of One of New York's finest office buildings.

 

The Chrysler Building and the Image of Progress

 

When completed the Chrysler Building was praised as "an expression of the:intense activity and vibrant life of our day" and as "teeming] with the spirit of modernism,...the epitome of modem business life,.. .standjing] for progress in architecture and in modem building methods." Walter P. Chrysler had sought to create the most desirable office building of the day:

 

The Chrysler Building is dedicated to world commerce and industry. It was created with a desire to meet the demand of business executives of today who, with their intense activities, must have the most favorable office surroundings and conditions.

 

The need for abundant light and air resulted in a building of fine proportions and great height. The importance of accessibility and transit facilities dictated the location. The desire for the utmost in conveniences determined the inclusion of unusual facilities of every necessity contributing to the contentment and satisfaction of the business man in his office home.

 

As an environment in which work may be accomplished efficiently and in comfort, it is believed the finished structure establishes a new ideal—one which will stand as a measure of comparison for office buildings of the future.

 

The Chrysler Building is therefore dedicated as a sound contribution to business progress.

 

The building had a number of innovative and desirable features. The soundproofed office partitions were of steel made in interchangeable sections so that the arrangement of any office suite could be changed quickly and conveniently. Under-floor duct systems carried wiring for telephone and electric outlets.

 

The elevators were not only beautiful in design but also,, specifically at Chrysler's instruction, capable of speeds of 1000 feet per minute although city codes in effect in 1930 only allowed 700 feet per minute. The building also had three of the longest continuous elevator shafts in the world. To enhance public access to the building, an underground arcade led to the IRT subway system. The connection was strongly opposed by the IRT, but Chrysler prevailed and the passageway was built at his expense.

 

In the dome was the private Cloud Club, which still exists, and, in the very topmost floor, a public observatory. On display was Walter P. Chrysler's box of handmade tools, the emblem of his enterprise and personal success. The observatory has been closed for many years.

 

Conclusion

 

Critics such as Lewis Mumford who favored the International Style denigrated the Chrysler Building for its "inane romanticism, .. .meaningless voluptuousness,.. ./and] void symbolism^ " but it was these qualities which captured the popular imagination and helped make it one of the most famous buildings in New York. We can appreciate the comments of the editor of Architectural Forum who wrote:

 

It stands by itself, something apart and alone. It is simply the realization, the fulfillment in metal and masonry, of a one-man dream, a dream of such ambition and such magnitude as to defy the comprehension and the criticism of ordinary men or by ordinary standards.

 

The Chrysler Building with its ground floor interior remains one of New York's finest office buildings—the elements of its design capturing the eye and imagination of the viewer.

 

The total design of the ground floor interior helped toe carry out Walter P. Chrysler's aim of dedicating the building to world commerce and industry. With its dramatic effects, elegant materials, and striking ornamental details, the ground floor interior of the Chrysler Building is an outstanding example of the Art Deco style— among the finest in the city and the country.

 

- From the 1978 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Midtown Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The William J. Syms Operating Theater, built 1890-1892, was the most advanced operating theater in the world when it opened and one of the first equipped for aseptic surgery. The result of a collaboration of the architect William Wheeler Smith and the prominent American surgeon Charles McBurney, the building represented the attempt in the 19th century to reconcile architecture with technological advances.

 

The appearance of the building, subtle and simple in detail but striking in its massing, especially in the form of its semi-conical roof, is expressive of the unusual functional demands of the building, an effort to harmonize the design with the other Roosevelt Hospital buildings, and the well-developed personal style of the architect for medical buildings.

 

Syms was the fourth of several major pavilions built as part of the pavilion plan 'of Roosevelt Hospital begun in 18 69, and as such is both part of one of the earliest pavilion plan hospitals in America, and a rare early survivor of a once highly influential approach to hospital design. Syms was the center of medical education in New York City in its early years, and it was the site of numerous advances in surgical practice at a time when modern surgery was taking shape.

 

Roosevelt Hospital

 

The Syms Operating Theater was one of a series of pavilions built according to the original pavilion plan of Roosevelt Hospital. The pavilion plan was an important early step, proposed by the French Academy of Sciences in 1788 but not executed until much later, in applying scientific knowledge to the design of hospitals. At first it called for small parallel two-story buildings, called pavilions, set in a symmetrical plan oriented for access to light and air.

 

Disease and infections were believed to be carried in vapors, odors, dirt, and other "miasms" which were dispelled by light and goo d ventilation. Later, improved lighting and mechanical ventilation systems led to the acceptance of larger pavilion buildings. Syms' location, siting, massing, and exterior detail as well as its institutional history all relate to the original plan for Roosevelt Hospital and to the architecture of its early buildings.

 

Roosevelt Hospital was established by the bequest of James Henry Roosevelt who left about $1,000,000 to build a hospital "for the reception and relief of sick and diseased persons."2 Roosevelt Hospital occupies the full block bounded by 58th and 59th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. Although the land was part of the 1811 Commissioners Plan of Streets, 59th Street was only opened in 1851, and in 1866 when Roosevelt Hospital bought its site the area was still mostly scattered houses and small farms. The trustees of the hospital adopted the pavilion plan in 1866. This was among the earliest in the United States and, as far as is known, the first in New York City.

 

Although no early plan of the hospital survives, the original intention was to build a series of four parallel pavilions. In the first building campaign , the prominent New York architect, Carl Pfeiffer, designed all the major buildings, three pavilions along 59th Street. They were built in the High Victorian Gothic Style with red brick walls and light colored "Ohio Stone" trim, and had lively roof lines. The one-story Surgical Pavilion next to the future site of the Syms Operating Theater was the smallest and most simply detailed of the group. The pavilion plan was largely adhered to in several expansions of the hospital, including a group of buildings designed by W. Wheeler Smith in the 1880s and 1890s, until about 1940.

 

Surgery, Medical Education, and Operating Theaters

 

In the 19th century, surgery developed from a remedy of last resort to a common medical procedure, in part due to the introduction of anesthesia in 1847 and to the development of two theories of modern surgery, antiseptic surgery developed by Joseph Lister in 1867, followed by aseptic surgery about 1890. The operating theater was developed in the early 19th century on the model of anatomical theaters which had been the center of medical training since the Renaissance.

 

In the 1870s, many new operating theaters, including the first one at Roosevelt Hospital, were built for the rapidly growing population of student surgeons. Usually incorporated in larger hospital buildings but occasionally occupying their own pavilions, these were well-ventilated wood rooms, often decorated, amply lit by large windows and gas lamps, which accommodated up to 3 00 observers. The best-known operating theater of this generation was at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, built between 1877 and 1885.

 

These were superseded by a new generation of operating theaters about 189 0 for aseptic surgery, among the very first of which were the McLane Operating Room^ , designed in 18 9 0 by W. Wheeler Smith at Roosevelt Hospital for gynecological surgery, and the Syms Operating Theater. These had improved heat and ventilation from mechanical forced air systems, improved lighting from electric lights, and, with the understanding that absolute cleanliness was essential, smooth, impervious materials for all surfaces.

 

Aseptic operating rooms were bright, clean, hard, undecorated spaces, they were the "high tech" spaces of their day. They utilized the latest technology to produce places suitable for the latest medical practices in a rapidly changing period.

 

History of Syms Operating Theater

 

The Syms Operating Theater was built with $3 50,000 left by William J. Syms , $250,000 to build the theater and the remainder to be invested as an endowment for its work. Syms expressed in his will the desire to erect an operating theater which would be "an enduring monument to himself" and of "great service to suffering humanity."8

 

Syms was a partner in the New York firm of Blunt and Syms, for more than 2 5 years the largest gunmaker and dealer in New York. Syms was also a founder of the Metropolitan Gas Company and the Forty-second and Grand Street Railroad Company, and he was President of the Franklin Telegraph Company and Vice-president of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company. At his death, the Times said that he was' "one of the largest land and house owners" in New York.

 

Syms stipulated that the surgeon, Dr. Charles McBurney would have complete charge of the building's design and operation. McBurney was a prominent New York surgeon and professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

 

In the year before William Syms died, McBurney achieved international recognition for his identification of the diagnostic point on the abdomen for appendicitis, still called "McBurney's Point." In his years at Syms, he described "McBurney's Incision," a method for removing the appendix, and made numerous other well publicized advances in the practice of surgery. Under McBurney, Syms became a world renowned center for surgeons. McBurney had been called when President McKinley was shot because of his long experience in treating such cases at Roosevelt Hospital.

 

Indeed, McBurney took an active role in the design of the Syms Operating Theater. He made a tour of the most modern operating facilities in Europe and America including "all the large hospitals in England, France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland" and worked closely with the architect, W. Wheeler Smith, in the design of Syms. It appears that McBurney wrote a detailed program for the building and closely critiqued Smith's plans, finally accepting a fourth effort.13

 

Application for a building permit was made on October 15, 1890 and the building was completed on October 17, 1890. It opened on November 3, 1892 and at that time was considered the most advanced operating theater in the world.

 

In addition to "McBurney's Incision," described above, which was developed largely at Syms, a number of other notable surgical advances were made here. These included the popularization of the use of rubber gloves, the invention of the "Roosevelt clamp," the first use by Thomas Bennett of the nitrous oxide-ether sequence and his subsequent development of the Bennett inhaler, and the development of the Connell Airway Anesthetometer by Dr. Karl Connell."

 

Design and Construction

 

The design of the Syms Operating Theater followed the very latest standards for a scientifically correct surgical operating theater. Syms was planned to serve several complex objectives and its simple exterior form belies the substantial complexity of the interior. Named for its dramatic focal point, the surgical amphitheater, the building also contained numerous additional rooms with varied requirements for light, air, and location. These included visitors' rooms, recovery rooms, living quarters for nurses and assistant surgeons, a decorated private chief surgeon's room, laboratory rooms, rooms for photography and

 

microscopes, two small operating rooms, surgeons' rooms, an ether room, various preparation rooms for bandages, instrument sterilization and storage, and separate circulation systems for visitors, the surgical staff, patients, and residents of the building. Visitors entered the building from the street; patients and medical staff entered via the connecting corridor to the surgical ward next door.

 

The Syms Operating Theater, a "fireproof" building,17 was built of loadbearing brick walls above a stone foundation with rolled-iron floor and roof beams and brick floor arches, and a slate roof. In addition, iron was used extensively for lintels and to create special spaces and features, notably the wheel-ramp leading from the amphitheater to the recovery room, and the amphitheater itself. The amphitheater, whose design was an innovative solution to the problem of lighting such spaces, had a semi-conical iron roof structure supporting tiers of skylights that provided diffused light without glare to the arena.

 

Exterior materials include Haverstraw brick with Trenton molded brick and terra-cotta details, granite window trim, copper downspouts, slate roofing, and "Hayes Skylights." Inside, "No device has been omitted to repel the invasion of dirt and dust...," to dispel dampness, or to admit light.

 

These devices included mosaic tile floors with curved corners, light colored impermeable wall surfaces of marble and painted hard plaster, cement floors in the amphitheater, floor traps, and a basement floor of cement mixed with felt to absorb moisture.

 

The building had a sophisticated heating and ventilating system operated from an engine room and a fan room in the basement. Important features of the system visible from the outside are the air intake tower which projects above the west wing of the building abutting the recovery rooms, brick chimneys in a symmetrical arrangement on either side of the amphitheater roof, and the massive exhaust chimney at the rear of the amphitheater roof.

 

In designing the exterior of the Syms Operating Theater the architect endeavored to make the building harmonize with its High Victorian Gothic style neighbors at Roosevelt Hospital in its setback from the street, the massing of its volumes, the contrasting use of red brick with light stone trim, and picturesque roof form. In particular, it related to the old Surgical Pavilion next door in the height of its one-story wings and in the rhythm and placement of its stone lintels.

 

While the round entrance arch and the main exhaust chimney recall the Romanesque, the overall design reflects the personal approach of the architect for hospital buildings. The principal features were decorative detail largely confined to variations of color and texture in flat walls, recessed windows which minimized

 

interior reveals, curved corners, and modest cornices. In 1892 when it opened, the restrained use of decorative detail was unusual for a prominent medical building. Most contemporary New York hospital buildings were more stylish and more lavishly ornamented, built generally for private paying patients or institutions with religious affiliations. Their designs may have been more fully in the hands of institutional benefactors or architects rather than doctors, and their outward appearances had more to do with aesthetic or conventional symbolic associations than with the practical function of a hospital. For example, Presbyterian Hospital, built in the Romanesque Revival Style at the same time as Syms, was designed by J.C. Cady and was a picturesque composition of Richardsonian elements that conveyed both an ecclesiastical and a club-like character to the building, and St. Luke's Hospital, designed by Ernest Flagg the year Syms opened employed a Beaux-Arts composition and French Baroque ornament in a sophisticated way that conveyed the power, permanence, and reliability of the institution.

 

In contrast to these, at Syms the exterior appearance was considered important but secondary to the primary scientific function of the building.20 Making a virtue of a restricted budget for its exterior, the design appears neither frugal nor lacking expressiveness, but serious and straightforward, evoking the high place of medical science in determining its form, and the priority of science over symbolism in the medical care to be provided within.

 

As a work of architecture, Syms must be seen in the context of hospital buildings and operating spaces not just in New York City but internationally. In this context it is a remarkable building representative of an alliance of medical science and architecture that produced some of the most advanced buildings of the 19th century.2-1

 

William Wheeler Smith22

 

William Wheeler Smith , designer of the Syms Operating Theater, practiced architecture in New York from 18 65 to 1908. During an unusually long career, he designed a number of notable buildings including the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church at 48th Street and Fifth Avenue; the James White Building , a cast-iron commercial structure, now a designated New York City landmark, at 361 Broadway; the W. & J. Sloane Store , a large commercial structure now included in the Ladies Mile Historic District; and the Syms Operating Theater. Smith was successful and well regarded in his day but most of his major buildings have been demolished and little else survives to give us a full picture of his life and career.

 

Born in New York City, "Mr. Smith was described by his friends and associates as an 'old school architect' who had inherited the fondness and ability for his profession from his father, a well-known builder of this city.112 3 He apprenticed with one of the leading architects of the day, James Renwick, and studied at the University of London. He practiced on his own from about 1865 until his death in 1S08.

 

Along with his architectural practice Smith invested in real estate. He left an estate worth more than $3,000,000, almost all of which was to build "a country sanitarium for poor convalescents who must be sent away from St. Luke's [Hospital] before they have fully regained their strength."

 

Smith's philanthropic interest in hospitals was long standing. Over a period of many years he designed several buildings for Roosevelt Hospital including the Syms Operating Theater, without pay.

 

Smith's career seems to fall into two periods, an early period of general practice and a later period of specialization in hospital architecture and real estate development. The hospital and medical buildings, including the Sloane Maternity Hospital , the College of Physicians and Surgeons , and the Vanderbilt Clinic , all on the block across 59th Street from Roosevelt Hospital , and the McLane Operating Room , the Accident Building , the Syms Operating Theater, and Private Patients Pavilion of Roosevelt Hospital all resembled one another. A late project of Smith's was the Kingston Avenue Hospital in Brooklyn. A perspective rendering shows a pavilion plan hospital organized much like McKim, Mead, and White's Columbia College Campus and in the same general style.

 

Later History

 

Syms was refurbished in 1934 but remained an operating theater only until 1941 when the new Private Patients pavilion was opened with new surgical rooms. For some time, Roosevelt's role as a teaching hospital had been diminished, styles of teaching surgery had changed, and the theatrical presentation to large crowds was considered obsolete.

 

In 1942 the blood bank and mortuary of the Hospital were moved into Syms. In 1948, Syms was used as a temporary emergency room. In 1953 the rear portion of the building was removed to make way for the new Tower Building, the upper tier of skylights was covered in copper sheets, the semi-opaque glass on the ground floor was replaced by clear glass, the amphitheater was gutted, and the building was occupied by the Department of Pathology.

 

Since that time, air-conditioning equipment has been placed in the front lawn, ducts have been run through several windows, parts ' of the areaway have been obstructed by pipes, trees have been allowed to grow in the front lawn, and the old amphitheater and other spaces have been remodeled to suit changing office and laboratory space needs of the Hospital.

 

Description

 

The Syms Operating Theater is a nearly rectangular structure at the southwest corner of West 59th Street and Ninth Avenue. The building is set back on its two street fronts behind narrow planted strips which are bordered along the sidewalk by an iron fence on a granite base with granite capped brick posts.

 

In its massing the building consists of a central block with an elongated semi-conical roof, one-story wings on either side, a narrow three-story L-shaped wing adjacent to the central block on the south and west sides, and a square air intake tower adjacent to the west side of this wing above the one-story wing.

 

The walls of the building are brick with curved corners. Brick is of two types, each laid in the same plane in Flemish bond and differentiated by their finish: smooth and evenly colored around windows and corners, rough and varicolored between windows. The smooth brick framing was in a form suggesting quoins creating two-story bays at the basement and first story levels. Windows have granite sills and lintels and occasional granite mullions in wider windows, sometimes with egg and dart moldings or block modillions of terra cotta.

 

The roof, whose distinctive form signals the amphitheater below, is crowned by a decorative iron finial in the form of a caduceus surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, and is clad in two tiers of skylights across the front, slate shingles on the sides, and tin flashing.

 

The roof is pierced by a large unadorned chimney in either flank, above the back wall of the amphitheater, and a massive exhaust chimney behind the amphitheater with a Romanesque corbelled cornice. The building is entered through a large rounded arch of glazed brick which is reached by a short flight of stairs. Above this arch is a granite panel with raised letters saying "The Wm. J. Syms Operating Theater of the Roosevelt Hospital, 1891."

 

Alterations

 

Today the exterior of the building is as built except for the loss of the entire south facade , the loss of the southernmost bays of the east and west facades, the addition of copper sheeting over the principal skylights, the presence of modern HVAC equipment, and the overgrowth of the lawn.

 

Although the alterations to the building are extensive and mostly irreversible, the visual character of this highly distinctive building is still largely intact. Its subtly decorated flat brick walls with rounded corners, its strong entranceway and name panel, its massing as visible from most angles, and especially the distinctive shape of its roof are all present.

 

- From the 1989 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA

 

Himalayan flower imported by Elsie Reford in the early 1930s that has since become the floral emblem of the Gardens.

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

All Saints in Pavement, York is distinguished by its dramatic octagonal tower, a major landmark of the city and masterpiece of late medieval architecture. The church itself is of mainly 14th/15th century date, though lost its chancel in the following centuries. The west window contains reset late 14th century panels depicting the Passion.

 

This church is generally open and welcoming to visitors.

The Sleeping Giant as seen from the Back side on the Sibley Peninsula. A reversal some say is the Female Version.

 

The Sleeping Giant is a formation of mesas and sills on Sibley Peninsula which resembles a giant lying on its back when viewed from the west to north-northwest section of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. As one moves southward along the shoreline toward Squaw Bay the Sleeping Giant starts to separate into its various sections. Most distinctly in the view from the cliffs at Squaw Bay the Giant appears to have an Adam's Apple. The formation is part of Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. Its dramatic steep cliffs are among the highest in Ontario (250 m). The southernmost point is known as Thunder Cape, depicted by many early Canadian artists such as William Armstrong.

 

One Ojibway legend identifies the giant as Nanabijou, who was turned to stone when the secret location of a rich silver mine now known as Silver Islet was disclosed to white men.[3]

The 35th Desktop created for “The E82 Project”

 

A variation of "SeaRise" depicting the mural as seen through the prism of its dramatic lighting scheme featuring deep blue rim lighting and a single amber spotlight highlighting the mural's focal point.

 

Symbolizing the dynamic and interconnected relationship between the ocean, sky, and our mother star, The Living Seas Entry Mural, designed by Tim Delaney, was a modern masterpiece of multi-dimensional design. With its colorful currents and dramatic seascape refracting the sunlight, the mural not only emphases the pavilion’s theme but also accurately depicts the ratio of a planet that should have been named Sea not Earth as its surface is mostly covered by water.

 

Designer’s Note:

Just as with Energy’s Mural, I was dealing with the same problem of a very wide subject matter on a comparatively narrow screen. This time it was determined to have the focal point occupy more than 50% of the desktop image. In order to accomplish this I wanted to (vertically) extend the mural well beyond the confines of the original pavilion entry. Also, I had to concede that the mural could not be exhibited fully and approximately 30% of its length would have to be cropped.

 

Several test later, and to spite its uniquely multi-layered presentation, the desktop background was completely lacking in depth. Fast-forward a few months, and I finally hit upon a solution of multiple “backlit” Art Deco-influenced layers that would both increase depth and would maintain focus on Tim’s original masterpiece.

 

Point of Interest:

The waveforms below the mural are exact replicas of wavy railings that originally encircled the pavilion’s marquee.

 

For More Information

Please visit “E82 – The Epcot Legacy”

www.epcotlegacy.com

REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS

 

COUCHER DE SOLEIL - Sainte-Flavie

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS. (Sainte-Flavie)

 

Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.

 

Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!

 

''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)

 

" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)

 

Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.

  

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

 

Visit : www.refordgardens.com/

 

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

The redness in the sky to the west was now alarming, although I knew the reason, it felt like something supernatural.

 

Palgrave was just a few miles from Hepworth, and one I hoped to find open, and at just after four in the afternoon, but nearly dar, it was.

 

It was really very gloomy inside the church, even with the lights on, shots were difficult to take. I was on a mission to snap all I could as soon as possible before the light failed altogether.

 

Church features a splendid Norman font, modern glass, and the remains of a spiral staircase leading to a room over the south porch, the floor of which has long since vanished. The stairs now a broom cupboard.

 

Wonderful painted roof, I thought maybe done in the last century, but might be much, much older than that.

 

-----------------------------------------

 

2015: I've visited Palgrave church several times since this account first appeared, most recently to take the photographs here. However, I hope I will be forgiven for retaining the original text from 2003, if only for its freshness, and perhaps also for what may be viewed at this distance as its charm.

2003: I arrived at Diss railway station in that gentle sunshine for which we’ll remember the Spring of 2003. Diss is in Norfolk; I had just crossed the border on my train journey from Ipswich, but I was bound for Diss's southern suburb, the Suffolk village of Palgrave. I cycled off from the station. I headed under the railway line, and over the infant Waveney. At this point, I entered Suffolk again, but there were no county signs in either direction. To be honest, it didn’t feel that different, apart from the way that the road surface improved, the schools came off special measures, the police force became efficient, and so on.

 

The countryside opened out into golden oilseed rape fields under a wide sky. It was good to be home. Soon, I was coming into Palgrave village, which seemed very pleasant indeed.

 

In medieval times, Palgrave was actually two parishes; the westerly one, Palgrave St John, has been subsumed into this one, and that church has completely disappeared. However, this pretty church is walled neatly into its graveyard at the heart of the village, which spreads neatly around it. As this was my first church of the day, I hoped it would be open; it always puts a crimp in a trip if the first one is a lock-out. I was not disappointed; St Peter is a friendly parish that knows that part of its Christian mission is to welcome strangers and pilgrims.

 

I stepped through the elaborate arch of the late 15th Century south doorway. An angel and a dragon contended in the spandrels, and there were characterful heads carved in the entrance arch. Inside, a very nice lady was busy with the flowers, and took time out to show me around. All the while, I was conscious that above my head the lovely painted roof of Palgrave. Marian monograms and symbols punctuate the whitewash; once, many small Suffolk churches must have been like this. Perhaps someone can explain to me why this one hasn’t faded like many of the others; I don’t think it has been redone.

 

The other famous treasure here is the font. It is unlike anything else in Suffolk. Clearly Norman, but much more elaborate than most, its most outstanding features are the faces in each corner. Again, this is a more intimate experience of the faces we normally see as corbels; but Palgrave has these too, stunning medieval characters along the lines of the arcades.

 

While we are on the subject of treasure, there were two modern features that were obviously loved by the locals. Firstly, Surinder Warboys has her studio nearby at Mellis, and here is one of her windows in the south aisle. The light flooded through it. The lady told me that everybody liked it, but that it was very hard to do a flower arrangement in front of it! I thought that they had done very well. Secondly, up in the chancel is the benefice millennium banner – people from all the parishes came together and produced this amazing patchwork cross. On the back, there are panels depicting the mission of the Church. Apparently, it is shared around the benefice churches for display for a few weeks at a time.

 

In the place where many churches now display the coat of arms, Palgrave has part of a suit of armour. I have seen an explanation in several books that it was from the parish armoury, which was once stored in the upper room of the porch, as at Mendlesham. This upper room has now gone, and the armoury has, as in most churches, been dispersed. However, I could find no evidence for this story, and it seems to be based on one of Arthur Mee’s fancies. I don't think it is even real armour; rather, it is similar to the mock plate armour behind the Bacon memorial at nearby Redgrave. It seems likely to me that this is also part of an old set of armour associated with a memorial of some kind, which the Victorians swept away. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know.

 

Back outside again, I took time out to photograph the famous grave of carter John Catchpole, with its relief of a wagon and horses – you can see it in the left-hand column. It seems a modern fashion to decorate headstones with symbols associated with the deceased; nice to know it was happening in the mid-18th century.

I turned, and looked back at the neat tower, the splendid porch with its dramatic niches. You can see that there was once an upper room, but it has now gone.

 

And it was time for me to be gone, too. Waving cheerily, I headed off in the direction of Thrandeston, all the road back to Ipswich open in front of me in the sunshine.

   

Simon Knott, August 2003, updated July 2015

 

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/palgrave.htm

Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah is known for its dramatic desert landscape carved by the Colorado River. Island in the Sky is a huge, flat-topped mesa with panoramic overlooks. Other notable areas include the towering rock pinnacles known as the Needles, the remote canyons of the Maze and the Native American rock paintings in Horseshoe Canyon. Whitewater rapids flow through Cataract Canyon.

This Passion Vine (Passiflora vitifolia) grows along fences, over shrubs and garages here in South Florida. The leaves are glossy green and grape-leaf like. But what will simply knock your socks off are its dramatic, outrageous flowers! Surely they come from another planet! But no, they come from South America.

 

Legend and romance surround the passion flower... legend because of historical associations with Christianity. And romance because of its suggestion of romantic passion. Early explorers and missionaries to the Southern hemisphere named these dramatic vines Passiflora or Passion Flower to help in their conversion of native Americans to Christianity. They used the beautiful intricate flower parts to tell the story of the death of Jesus, making the story more memorable to listeners. The family name, Passifloraceae, means "Flower of the Passion" or "Flower of the Cross."

 

The color symbolized the blood shed on the cross; the 10 petals and sepals represented the 10 apostles present of the crucifixion; the 5 stamens, the 5 wounds, the 3 styles, the 3 nails ( or, in some versions, Christ and the 2 thieves crucified with him); the vine tendrils, the ropes and scourges; the 3 secondary leaf bracts, the holy trinity. The flower is usually open 3 days representing the 3 years of Christ's ministry on Earth. Source: Florida's Fabulous Flowers, Their Stories by Winston Williams.

 

See my sets Tantalizing Flowers and Blossoms and Passionate Passion Vines for more images of this amazing exotic, erotic flower.

Biscayne Park FL

www.susanfordcollins.com

 

The mine beneath the sea

 

In its dramatic clifftop setting Levant was, for 110 years, ‘the queen of Cornwall’s submarine mines’. Today, the surviving buildings and ruins offer a window on another world where men and women toiled to extract the riches of the earth from beneath the crashing waves.

 

Detail of the carved inner west doors, installed as part of Hawksmoor's restoration in the early 18th century.

 

There is a danger of running out of superlatives when trying to describe Beverley Minster. It is not only the second finest non-cathedral church in the country but is architecturally a far finer building than most of our cathedrals themselves! It will come as a surprise to many visitors to find this grand edifice simply functions today as a parish church and has never been more than collegiate, a status it lost at the Reformaton. What had added to its mystique and wealth was its status as a place of pilgrimage housing the tomb of St John of Beverley, which drew visitors and revenue until the Reformation brought an end to such fortunes and the shrine was destroyed (though the saint's bones were later rediscovered and reinterred in the nave). That this great church itself survived this period almost intact is little short of a miracle in itself.

 

There has been a church here since the 8th century but little remains of the earlier buildings aside from the Saxon chair near the altar and the Norman font in the nave. The present Minster's construction spans the entirety of the development of Gothic architecture but forms a surprisingly harmonious whole nevertheless, starting with Early English in the 13h century choir and transepts (both pairs) with their lancet windows in a building phase that stopped at the first bays of the nave. Construction was then continued with the nave in the 14th century but only the traceried windows betray the emergent Decorated style, the design otherwise closely followed the work of the previous century which gives the Minster's interior such a pleasingly unified appearance (the only discernable break in construction within can be seen where the black purbeck-marble ceased to be used for certain elements beyond the eastern bay of the nave). Finally the building was completed more or less by 1420 with the soaring west front with its dramatic twin-towers in Perpendicular style (the east window must have been enlarged at this point too to match the new work at the west end).

 

The fabric happily survived the Reformation intact aside from the octagonal chapter-house formerly adjoining the north choir aisle which was dismantled to raise money by the sale of its materials while the church's fate was in the balance (a similar fate was contemplated for the rest of the church by its new owners until the town bought it for retention as a parish church for £100). The great swathes of medieval glass alas were mostly lost, though seemingly as much to neglect and storm-damage in the following century than the usual iconoclasm. All that survived of the Minster's original glazing was collected to form the patchwork display now filling the great east window, a colourful kaleidoscope of fragments of figures and scenes. Of the other furnishings the choir stalls are the major ensemble and some of the finest medieval canopied stalls extant with a full set of charming misericords (though most of these alas are not normally on show).

 

There are suprisingly few monuments of note for such an enormous cathedral-like church, but the one major exception makes up for this, the delightful canopied Percy tomb erected in 1340 to the north of the high altar. The tomb itself is surprisingly plain without any likeness remaining of the deceased, but the richly carved Decorated canopy above is alive with gorgeous detail and figurative embellishments. There are further carvings to enjoy adorning the arcading that runs around the outer perimeter of the interior, especially the north nave aisle which has the most rewarding carved figures of musicians, monsters and people suffering various ailments, many were largely restored in the 19th century but still preserve the medieval spirit of irreverent fun.

 

To summarise Beverley Minster would be difficult other than simply adding that if one enjoys marvelling at Gothic architecture at its best then it really shouldn't be missed and one should prioritise it over the majority of our cathedrals. It is a real gem and a delight to behold, and is happily normally open and welcoming to visitors (who must all be astonished to find this magnificent edifice is no more than a simple parish church in status!). I thoroughly enjoyed this, my second visit here (despite the best efforts of the poor weather!).

beverleyminster.org.uk/visit-us-2/a-brief-history/

Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah is known for its dramatic desert landscape carved by the Colorado River. Island in the Sky is a huge, flat-topped mesa with panoramic overlooks. Other notable areas include the towering rock pinnacles known as the Needles, the remote canyons of the Maze and the Native American rock paintings in Horseshoe Canyon. Whitewater rapids flow through Cataract Canyon.

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS | REFORD GARDENS

 

Visit: www.refordgardens.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Le tamia rayé ou tamia strié (Tamias striatus), appelé aussi suisse en Amérique du Nord

  

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipmunk

 

Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia.

 

Chipmunks have an omnivorous diet primarily consisting of seeds, nuts and other fruits, and buds. They also commonly eat grass, shoots, and many other forms of plant matter, as well as fungi, insects and other arthropods, small frogs, worms, and bird eggs. Around humans, chipmunks can eat cultivated grains and vegetables, and other plants from farms and gardens, so they are sometimes considered pests. Chipmunks mostly forage on the ground, but they climb trees to obtain nuts such as hazelnuts and acorns. At the beginning of autumn, many species of chipmunk begin to stockpile nonperishable foods for winter. They mostly cache their foods in a larder in their burrows and remain in their nests until spring, unlike some other species which make many small caches of food. Cheek pouches allow chipmunks to carry food items to their burrows for either storage or consumption.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Wikipedia:

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.

 

Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.

  

Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.

 

She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.

 

In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.

 

During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.

 

In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.

 

Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.

 

To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.

 

Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.

 

In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)

 

Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford

  

LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS

 

Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.

 

Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.

 

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada

 

© Copyright

This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.

Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais

 

Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais is a Roman Catholic parish church located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, on Place Saint-Gervais in the Marais district, east of City Hall (Hôtel de Ville). The current church was built between 1494 and 1657, on the site of two earlier churches; the facade, completed last, was the first example of the French baroque style in Paris. The organists of the church included Louis Couperin and his nephew François Couperin, two of the most celebrated composers and musicians of the Baroque period; the organ they used can still be seen today. The church contains remarkable examples of medieval carved choir stalls, stained glass from the 16th century, 17th century sculpture, and modern stained glass by Sylvie Gaudin and Claude Courageux. Saint-Gervais was a parish church until 1975, when it became the headquarters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem.

 

History

 

A church dedicated to Saints Gervasius and Protasius, two Christian martyrs from Milan, is recorded as existing on the site in the 7th century, making it one of the first parish churches on the right bank in Paris. It was attended mostly by boatmen and fishermen, because it was close to the river port at the Place de Grève. It was built on a slight hill, the Monceau Saint-Gervais, to be safe from the floods of the Seine. After the completion of the wall of Philippe-Auguste, built between 1190 and 1209, the neighborhood was protected against attack and the population began to grow. The church had come under the sponsorship of several of the important confreries or guilds of Paris, including the wine-merchants. With their financial help, a larger church was built on the site in the early 13th century. .[1]

 

Construction of the present church began in 1494, but was delayed by the Wars of religion and by a shortage of funds. It was begun in the Gothic style; the chapels of the apse were finished in 1530 and the transept in 1578.[2] While the interior of the church was largely Gothic, the facade was built in an original new style, the French Baroque, on a plan by architect Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626). The first stone of the facade was placed by the young King Louis XIII in 1616. Between 1600 and 1628, a second row of chapels was built on the north side including the golden chapel ornamented with painted woodwork.[3]

 

During the 17th and 18th century the church was attended by many members of the aristocratic families who lived in the Marais, including Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, and the Chancellor of Louis XIV, Michel Le Tellier, whose funeral monument is found in the church.

 

Beginning in 1653, the church employed and sheltered the Couperin family, one of the most famous dynasties of French musicians, for more than two centuries. On one side of the church, the home of the celebrated harpsichordists, organists, and composers still stands, with a plaque commemorating the Couperins' tenure. The organ used by Louis and François Couperin still exists today inside the church; it was built by the most famous organ builders of the time, François-Henri Clicquot, Louis-Alexandre Clicquot, and Robert Clicquot.

 

In the 18th century, the facade of the church was greatly admired, though it was nearly blocked from view by a row of houses. Voltaire wrote, "It is a masterpiece which is lacking nothing except a place from which to see it." The houses blocking the view were finally demolished in 1854, opening up the view of the facade. .[4]

 

During the French Revolution, the church was emptied of many of its treasures and turned into a Temple of Reason and Youth, before being returned to the Church in 1802.

 

On 29 March 1918, a German shell, fired by the long-range "Paris Gun", fell on the church, killing 91 people and wounding 68 others; the explosion collapsed the roof when a Good Friday service was in progress. This was the worst single incident involving a loss of civilian lives during the German bombardment of Paris in 1918.[5] Among those killed was Rose-Marie Ormond Andre-Michel, the niece and a favorite model of John Singer Sargent.[6]

 

In 1975 the church became the headquarters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem, founded in that same year by Père Pierre-Marie Delfieu with the authorisation of the then Archbishop of Paris, François Marty. The order is devoted to carrying on monastic life in an urban context; most of its members work part-time in civil occupations. The church is known for its distinctive and ecumenical liturgy; for example, adopting Lutheran hymn music and Orthodox troparia. The order has founded several other communities in France, at Mont St. Michel, Vezelay, and Magdala Sologne and elsewhere in Europe, in Florence, Brussels, Cologne, Warsaw, and Montreal.

 

Five new stained glass windows by Sylvie Gaudin were added to the southwest chevet of the church in 1993–95. Another series of six windows by Claude Courageux was added in the early 2000s in the upper level of the church, in the south nave, the transept and the choir, replacing those destroyed over the centuries.[7]

 

Facade

 

The facade of the church was begun in 1616, well after the nave of the church, with the cornerstone laid by Louis XIII. The design was by Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626), whose other major Paris work was the Luxembourg Palace. While the nave of the church was late or flamboyant gothic, the facade introduced an entirely new classical style, which opened the way for the French Baroque. The facade placed the three classical orders of architecture one atop the other. The ground floor featured three bays with pairs of columns with capitals of the simplest Doric order, with a classical pediment. Above this is a level of three bays with columns of the ionic order, and above that is a single bay with paired columns of the Corinthian order, holding up a curved pediment. In order to attach the new facade to the gothic portion of the church, de Brosse designed a traverse and two semicircular chapels on either side of the facade. The facade served as model for other churches in France and Europe, most notably the church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, the church of the Jesuits, not far away in the Marais, which was the first church in Paris built entirely in the new style. [8]

 

Since the Middle Ages, an elm tree has been planted in front of the church; it served as a meeting place, and a place where disputes were sometimes settled by judges. The trees were replanted regularly over the centuries. Carvings of the trees from earlier centuries are found on the walls of some of the neighboring buildings.

 

Nave

 

The nave of the church (1600–1620) is notable for its dramatic height and the simplicity and purity of its lines. While the lower level of the nave is late gothic, the upper level of the nave shows the influence of the Renaissance, with large semi-circular arches containing a series of large stained glass windows, filling the church with light. The upper windows are 21st-century, by Claude Courageux, illustrating the story of Adam and Eve, Noah's ark, and the patriarchs and their spouses. The ceiling of the nave, where the arches of the walls come together in an elaborate embroidery, symbolizes the vaults of heaven.

 

Choir stalls

 

The wooden choir stalls (16th–17th century), from the reigns of François I and Henri II, are richly carved with scenes of daily life, the different professions, and grotesque animals. Out of sight from those attending mass, they were designed as a place where the Canons of the church could relax during the service. Some of the figures were too intimate for more puritanical later centuries, and had to be censored, including a carved image of a man and woman bathing together.[8]

 

Chapel of the Virgin

 

The chapel of the Virgin, at the back of the church, has a dramatic late gothic vaulted ceiling, featuring a hanging crown of stone 2.5 meters in diameter, and abstract designs resembling flames. The room is often used for silent meditation by church visitors. The chapel has some of the oldest stained glass windows in the flamboyant gothic style, made by Jean Chastellain in 1517, illustrating the life of the Virgin Mary. [8] Another remarkable window by Chastellain, "The Judgement of Solomon", made in 1533 in the colorful Renaissance style, is found in a side chapel.

 

Painting and sculpture

 

The church contains a number of notable works of art.

 

- A painting by the Venetian artist Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734), Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Vital intercede for the souls in Pugatory, located in the Chapel of Saint Philomene. This was brought from Venice to Paris by Napoleon after his Italian campaign.

 

- The paintings The Beheading of John the Baptist and The Adoration of the Magi by Claude Vignon (1593–1670), located in the Chapel of the Virgin.

 

- A statue of Christ carved in oak by Antoine-Augustin Préault (1809-1879) in the Chapel of the Virgin.

 

- Statues from the funeral monument of Michel Tellier (1603–1685) the Chancellor of Louis XIV, by Pierre Mazeline (1632–1685) and Simon Hurtelle (1648–1724). The figures include the Chancellor, in prayer; a weeping 'genie' praying at his feet; and two draped figures representing Faith and Religion. Two other figures from the group, Justice and Prudence, are found in the Louvre.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Gervais-et-St-Protais

 

---------------------------------------

 

St Gervais et St Protais has 21 mid 16th century misericords and 21 early 17th century misericords.

 

More information can be found here:-

 

www.misericords.co.uk/stgervaisandstprotais.html

 

————————————

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church - Paris

 

A church dedicated to the twin martyrs Gervais and Protais

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church is located on the eastern side of the Hôtel-de-Ville.

 

It stands on a hillock known as Monceau Saint-Gervais and replaced the Chapelle Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais.

 

This chapel served the fishing village that developed on the small mound during the 5th century. This community was one of the few on the Rive Droite, which then was a vast marsh today known as Marais.

 

The chapel was dedicated to the twin Roman officers who were martyred under the reign of Nero (1st century AD).

 

Place Saint-Gervais, the church square was initially called Carrefour de l'Orme. It was named after the huge elm that marked its centre and was felled at the French Revolution.

 

It was enlarged and renamed during Haussmann's renovation of Paris of the mid 19th century.

 

The cemetery was decommissioned in 1765 to give way to Place Baudoyer, the square that serves the town hall of the 4th district.

 

Sarcophagi and burial artifacts dating back to the 1st century AD were discovered during construction works.

 

Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church ,is a fine illustration of French architecture.

 

The Hôtel-de-Ville district developed in the 13th century and gave rise to a thriving community. The little Saint Gervais Saint Protais Chapel became obsolete, a larger church was much needed!

 

However, the construction of the new church dragged on from 1494 to 1660 due to the lack of funds.

 

Amazingly, this slow progress turned Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church into a perfect illustration of the evolution of French architecture.

 

Salomon de Brosse designed the French Baroque (Jesuit Style) facade with the three classical orders, the first of its style in Paris.

 

The 25m high Gothic Flamboyant nave and the 16th and 17th century stained glass windows are equally impressive.

 

Francois-Henri Clicquot built the organ in 1601. The wind-chests, reeds and two-thirds of its stops are original and turn the instrument into one of the oldest organs in Paris.

 

The composer François Couperin is among the prestigious organists who played in Saint Gervais Saint Protais Church, which is to this day a major centre of Sacred Music.

 

The church has two other, but smaller, organs which are located in the side chapels

 

www.travelfranceonline.com/saint-gervais-saint-protais-ch...

 

See also:-

 

www.spottinghistory.com/view/4397/st-gervais-et-st-protai...

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St-Gervais-et-St-Protais

Midtown Manhattan

 

The ground floor interior of the Chrysler Building which the Commission designates an Interior Landmark, has been called one of the great Art Deco spaces in New York City. Built in 1928-30 according to the designs of architect William Van Alen, it provides an elegant and dramatic entrance to one of New York's great skyscrapers which had been dedicated by Walter P. Chrysler to "world commerce and industry." A variety of design features create this effect and enhance its progressive image.

 

HISTORY OF CONSTRUCTION

 

The Chrysler Building had its beginnings in an office building project for William H. Reynolds, a real-estate developer and promoter and former New York State senator. Reynolds had acquired a long-term lease in 1921 on a parcel of property at Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street owned by the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In 1927 architect William Van Alen was hired to design an . office tower to be called the Reynolds Building for the site. Publicized as embodying new principles in skyscraper design, the projected building was to be 67 stories high rising 808 feet, and it was "to be surmounted by a glass dome, which when lighted from within, will give the effect of a great jewelled sphere."

 

In October, 1928, however, the office building project and the lease on the site were taken over by Walter P. Chrysler, head of the Chrysler Corporation, who was seeking to expand his interests into the real estate field.

 

Walter Percy Chrysler (1875-1940), one of America's foremost automobile manufacturers, was a self-made man who worked his way up through the mechanical and manufacturing aspects of the railroad business before joining the Buick Motor Company as works manager in 1912. Because of his success in introducing new processes and efficiencies into the automobile plant, he rose quickly through the administrative ranks of General Motors (which had absorbed Buick) before personality conflicts with William C. Durant, head of General Motors, forced Chrysler to leave.

 

In 1921 he reorganized Willys-Overland Company, and then took over as chairman of the reorganization and management committee of the Maxwell Motor Company, eventually assuming the presidency. This enabled Chrysler to introduce in 1924 the car bearing his name which presented such innovations as four-wheel hydraulic breaks and a high compression motor.

 

Over 50 million dollars worth of cars were sold the first year, and in 1925, the Maxwell Motor Company became the Chrysler Corporation. Dodge Brothers was acquired in 1928 giving the Chrysler Corporation additional manufacturing facilities, a famous line of cars, and putting it in a position to challenge the leadership of Ford and General Motors.

 

By 1935, when Chrysler retired from the presidency of the Chrysler Corporation to become chairman of the board, the company was second in the automobile industry in volume of production.

 

It was while Chrysler was aggressively expanding his corporation in 1928 that he took over the office building project from Reynolds. In his autobiography, Chrysler said that he had the building constructed so that his sons would have something to be responsible for. 6 He could not have been unav^ure, however, that the building would become a personal symbol and further the image of the Chrysler Corporation— even though no corporate funds were used in its financing or construction, lb that end Chrysler worked with architect William Van Alen to make the building, including the ground floor interior, a powerful and striking design.

 

Work began on the Chrysler Building on October 15, 1928, when Chrysler acquired the lease with clearance of the site. Construction proceeded rapidly; foundations to a depth of 69 feet were completed early in 1929, and the steel framework was completed by the end of September of that year. The design of the building, however, was altered from that for Reynolds. Chrysler, in his autobiography, credits himself for suggesting that it be taller than the 1000-foot Eiffel Tower.

 

The design of the crowning dome was also changed, and the addition of a spire, which the architect called a "vertex," made the Chrysler at 1046 feet the tallest building in the world at the time. Kenneth Murchison fancifully depicts Chrysler urging Van Alen to win the race to construct the world's tallest building.

 

Van Alen himself had personal reasons for achieving this goal, as a former partner, H. Craig Severance, was constructing the Bank of Manhattan, 40 Wall Street, at the same time with the aim of making it the world's tallest skyscraper. Thinking that the Chrysler Building would be only 925 feet high, Severance added a 50-foot flagpole to his building making it 927 feet.

 

Meanwhile, Van Alen designed the 185-foot spire which would make the Chrysler Building the tallest. The spire was fabricated, then delivered to the building in five sections, and assembled secretly at the 65th floor. In November, 1929, it was finally raised into position by a 20-ton derrick through a fire tower in the center of the building, then riveted into place, the whole operation taking about 90 minutes. This engineering feat captured the popular imagination as well as that of professionals, and it helped to further the progressive image of the Chrysler Building. However, the Chrysler lost its height distinction two years later with the construction of the Empire State Building.

 

The first tenants moved into the Chrysler Building in April, 1930, even though construction was not completed. Formal opening ceremonies were held on May 27, 1930, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the 42nd Street Property Owners and Merchants Association. A bronze tablet was placed in the lobby of the building "in recognition of Mr. Chrysler's contribution to civic advancement." H It may still be seen in the 42nd Street entrance lobby. The building was considered finished in August, 1930, but curiously, the completion date in the records of the Manhattan Buildings Department is February 19, 1932.

 

The Chrysler Building and Art Deco

 

Walter P. Chrysler wanted a progressive image and a personal symbol. Van Alen strove to create such an image using the tenets of modernism as he interpreted them. In so doing he designed a building which has come to be regarded as one of the outstanding examples of Art Deco architecture. The ground floor interior is one of the great Art Deco spaces in the country.

 

The term Art Deco, which is also referred to by several different names such as the Style Moderne and Modernistic, is adopted from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Deooratifs et Industriels Modemes— an important European influence on the American Art Deco style— held in Paris in 1925.

 

In the period fallowing the first World War, architects in Europe and the United States had begun to simplify traditional design forms and to use new industrial materials in innovative ways in order to characterize the modem age. The Art Deco style seemed to lend itself particularly well to skyscraper design because the skyscraper, more than any other building type, epitomized progress, innovation, and a new modem age. Although the Art Deco style was short-lived, it coincided with a great building boon at the end of the 1920s in New York. The many skyscrapers which were erected in the Art Deco style gave New York and its skyline a characteristic and romantic image, popularized in theater and films, which persisted until the next great building boom of the early 1960s. The Art Deco ground floor interiors of these skyscrapers were equally effective, giving an air of drama to the act of entering a building.

 

In the Chrysler Building and its ground floor interior, Van Alen used a variety of materials, techniques, and design forms which are characteristic of Art Deco.

 

Three entrances provide access to the ground floor interior of the building—one each from 42nd and 43rd Streets and Lexington Avenue. The three entrance lobbies lead into the triangular main concourse with two massive octagonal piers. The shape of the concourse and the placement of the piers help to channel traffic efficiently to the four elevator halls. In his autobiography, Walter P. Chrysler claimed that he asked the architect to redesign the lobby so that "when people come into a big building they...sense a change, get a mental lift that will put them in a frame of mind to transact their business.'^* The triangular concourse was the result.

 

Rich materials, a characteristic feature of the Art Deco style, enhance the spatial effects and enrich the experience of entry. The walls of the entrance lobbies and main concourse as well as the octagonal piers are faced with a type of red Moroccan marble known as Rouge Flarrme.

 

The marble is distinguished by variegated markings in tones of buff. Complementing the marble on the walls is the yellow Sienna travertine floor set in diagonal patterns—another subtle directional device to guide the user of the building. Shop windows opening onto the entrance lobbies and main concourse as well as directory boards are elegantly framed in "Nirosta" steel, a kind of rust-resistant, chromium nickel steel, manufactured for the first time in the United States specifically for the Chrysler Building according to a German formula from Krupp.

 

Handsome crenellations of "Nirosta" steel—in characteristic Art Deco forms—surmount these enframements. The entrance doors, as well as the service doors, are also of "Nirosta" steel. Set between the service doors opposite the Lexington Avenue entrance is an information booth of red marble with "Nirosta" steel back rising from it.

 

One of the most striking and dramatic features of this interior is the lighting system. Vertically-placed panels of polished Mexican onyx are placed in a stepped pattern above the elevator halls and the three street entrances. Vertical reflector troughs of "Nirosta" steel set with lamps are placed in front of the onyx panels. As the light is reflected off these panels it is given an amber glow.

 

Set in front of the lights marking the entrances are vertically-placed letters forming the names of the streets outside. The octagonal piers in the main concourse also provide a light source. V-shaped recesses lined with onyx contain the same type of vertical reflector troughs and lamps as those over the entrances and elevator halls.

 

On the ceiling scanning the main concourse and the Lexington Avenue entrance lobby is a large mural by artist Edward Trumbull. The use of such murals was a favorite device of Art Deco designers. In addition to heightening the dramatic effect and enriching the experience of interior spaces, they also were a means of achieving the Art Deco ideal of the unity of design.

-

Edward Trumbull (1884-1968) was one of the foremost American moralists of his generation. As a student at the Art Student's League in New York he studied with Robert Raid; in London from 1906 to 1912, he was a student of Frank Brangwyn. Returning to the United States, he was commissioned to do nine panels for the Heinz Administration Building in Pittsburgh.

 

Among the important ccnmissions of his career, in addition to the Chrysler Building, were murals for: the Pennsylvania State Building at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, the Graybar Building, the Oyster Bar and Restaurant at Grand Central Station, the waiting rooms in Union Station in Washington, D.C., the dining rocms in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Building, the cafeteria of the Kress Store at 444 Fifth Avenue, and a branch office of the Union Dime Savings Bank at Madison Avenue and 39th Street.

 

For Inland Steel, he painted "The Story of Steel" which was presented to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In 1932 Trumbull was appointed Color Director for the art program of Rockefeller Center to supervise more than 40 murals and 50 sculptural pieces.

 

The mural in the Chrysler Building depicts "the vision, human energy and engineering ability which made possible the structure." The composition is divided into several parts, each with its own theme. A triangular panel placed over the information booth displays a large muscular Atlas figure. Radiating out from this are three bands which follow the triangular form of the main concourse. The first, showing a series of abstract patterns and lines, was supposed to symbolize primitive, natural forces.

 

The second, depicting construction workers and techniques, has a specific analogy to the construction of the Chrysler Building. The third shews the development of modem transportation with an emphasis on airplanes. Extending outward over the Lexington Avenue entrance lobby is a large panel with a rendering of the b building as seen from the exterior. The warm tones of the mural harmonize well with the rich colors of the marble and onyx below.

 

The four elevator halls are lined with the same red marble as the entrance halls and main concourse. The doors of the twenty-eight passenger elevators are a strikingly handsome Art Deco design, displaying an abstract lotus pattern executed in metal and inlaid wood veneers. The elevator cabs are of four design types.

 

All are abstract patterns, again executed in a variety of inlaid wood veneers. The woods include Japanese ash, English gray hardwood, Oriental walnut, dye ebonized wood, stainwood, Cuban plum pudding, myrtle burl, and curly maple. Ceiling fans in the elevator cabs are of metal, also executed in striking abstract designs. The use of such rich materials to create a luxurious and dramatic effect is characteristic of Art Deco.

 

The curved staircases at the north and south ends of the main concourse lead to the mezzanine at the second floor and to the basement. The use of highly polished black marble on the curved walls heightens the dramatic effect of these staircases. The railings, which follow the curve of the stairs, are of "Nirosta" steel, and the inner railings have zigzag motifs characteristic of Art Deco design set between the balusters.

 

At ground floor level, the railings terminate in massive red marble newel posts. The steps are of gray and black terrazzo. Handsome molded glass light fixtures hang from the ceilings above the staircases. These ceilings are finished with aluminum, leaf.

 

All features of the ground floor interior combine together to create one of the great Art Deco spaces in the city and country. The elements of the design and the rich materials are not only characteristic of the Art Deco style but are also same of the finest examples of their type. All appropriately enhance the progressive image of One of New York's finest office buildings.

 

The Chrysler Building and the Image of Progress

 

When completed the Chrysler Building was praised as "an expression of the:intense activity and vibrant life of our day" and as "teeming] with the spirit of modernism,...the epitome of modem business life,.. .standjing] for progress in architecture and in modem building methods." Walter P. Chrysler had sought to create the most desirable office building of the day:

 

The Chrysler Building is dedicated to world commerce and industry. It was created with a desire to meet the demand of business executives of today who, with their intense activities, must have the most favorable office surroundings and conditions.

 

The need for abundant light and air resulted in a building of fine proportions and great height. The importance of accessibility and transit facilities dictated the location. The desire for the utmost in conveniences determined the inclusion of unusual facilities of every necessity contributing to the contentment and satisfaction of the business man in his office home.

 

As an environment in which work may be accomplished efficiently and in comfort, it is believed the finished structure establishes a new ideal—one which will stand as a measure of comparison for office buildings of the future.

 

The Chrysler Building is therefore dedicated as a sound contribution to business progress.

 

The building had a number of innovative and desirable features. The soundproofed office partitions were of steel made in interchangeable sections so that the arrangement of any office suite could be changed quickly and conveniently. Under-floor duct systems carried wiring for telephone and electric outlets.

 

The elevators were not only beautiful in design but also,, specifically at Chrysler's instruction, capable of speeds of 1000 feet per minute although city codes in effect in 1930 only allowed 700 feet per minute. The building also had three of the longest continuous elevator shafts in the world. To enhance public access to the building, an underground arcade led to the IRT subway system. The connection was strongly opposed by the IRT, but Chrysler prevailed and the passageway was built at his expense.

 

In the dome was the private Cloud Club, which still exists, and, in the very topmost floor, a public observatory. On display was Walter P. Chrysler's box of handmade tools, the emblem of his enterprise and personal success. The observatory has been closed for many years.

 

Conclusion

 

Critics such as Lewis Mumford who favored the International Style denigrated the Chrysler Building for its "inane romanticism, .. .meaningless voluptuousness,.. ./and] void symbolism^ " but it was these qualities which captured the popular imagination and helped make it one of the most famous buildings in New York. We can appreciate the comments of the editor of Architectural Forum who wrote:

 

It stands by itself, something apart and alone. It is simply the realization, the fulfillment in metal and masonry, of a one-man dream, a dream of such ambition and such magnitude as to defy the comprehension and the criticism of ordinary men or by ordinary standards.

 

The Chrysler Building with its ground floor interior remains one of New York's finest office buildings—the elements of its design capturing the eye and imagination of the viewer.

 

The total design of the ground floor interior helped toe carry out Walter P. Chrysler's aim of dedicating the building to world commerce and industry. With its dramatic effects, elegant materials, and striking ornamental details, the ground floor interior of the Chrysler Building is an outstanding example of the Art Deco style— among the finest in the city and the country.

 

- From the 1978 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

This alluring depiction of a woman playing a guitar was painted during Vouet’s years in Rome and reveals his interest in the work of Caravaggio with its dramatic lighting and psychological engagement with the beholder. Women playing guitars have a long history in European painting. Seventeenth-century French engravings of modes and manners often show them, as here, lost in reverie. One, dated 1630, has the caption "Love Conquers All but Music Does Not Conquer Love." In 1627 Simon Vouet, already famous, returned to Paris to become painter to the king and the dominant force in French painting.

 

Source: The MET

 

www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/747607

 

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The William J. Syms Operating Theater, built 1890-1892, was the most advanced operating theater in the world when it opened and one of the first equipped for aseptic surgery. The result of a collaboration of the architect William Wheeler Smith and the prominent American surgeon Charles McBurney, the building represented the attempt in the 19th century to reconcile architecture with technological advances.

 

The appearance of the building, subtle and simple in detail but striking in its massing, especially in the form of its semi-conical roof, is expressive of the unusual functional demands of the building, an effort to harmonize the design with the other Roosevelt Hospital buildings, and the well-developed personal style of the architect for medical buildings.

 

Syms was the fourth of several major pavilions (see below) built as part of the pavilion plan 'of Roosevelt Hospital begun in 18 69, and as such is both part of one of the earliest pavilion plan hospitals in America, and a rare early survivor of a once highly influential approach to hospital design. Syms was the center of medical education in New York City in its early years, and it was the site of numerous advances in surgical practice at a time when modern surgery was taking shape.

 

Roosevelt Hospital

 

The Syms Operating Theater was one of a series of pavilions built according to the original pavilion plan of Roosevelt Hospital. The pavilion plan was an important early step, proposed by the French Academy of Sciences in 1788 but not executed until much later, in applying scientific knowledge to the design of hospitals. At first it called for small parallel two-story buildings, called pavilions, set in a symmetrical plan oriented for access to light and air.

 

Disease and infections were believed to be carried in vapors, odors, dirt, and other "miasms" which were dispelled by light and goo d ventilation. Later, improved lighting and mechanical ventilation systems led to the acceptance of larger pavilion buildings. Syms' location, siting, massing, and exterior detail as well as its institutional history all relate to the original plan for Roosevelt Hospital and to the architecture of its early buildings.

 

Roosevelt Hospital was established by the bequest of James Henry Roosevelt (1800-1863) who left about $1,000,000 to build a hospital "for the reception and relief of sick and diseased persons."2 Roosevelt Hospital occupies the full block bounded by 58th and 59th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. Although the land was part of the 1811 Commissioners Plan of Streets, 59th Street was only opened in 1851, and in 1866 when Roosevelt Hospital bought its site the area was still mostly scattered houses and small farms. The trustees of the hospital adopted the pavilion plan in 1866. This was among the earliest in the United States and, as far as is known, the first in New York City.

 

Although no early plan of the hospital survives, the original intention was to build a series of four parallel pavilions. In the first building campaign (1869-72), the prominent New York architect, Carl Pfeiffer, designed all the major buildings, three pavilions along 59th Street. They were built in the High Victorian Gothic Style with red brick walls and light colored "Ohio Stone" trim, and had lively roof lines. The one-story Surgical Pavilion next to the future site of the Syms Operating Theater was the smallest and most simply detailed of the group. The pavilion plan was largely adhered to in several expansions of the hospital, including a group of buildings designed by W. Wheeler Smith in the 1880s and 1890s, until about 1940.

 

Surgery, Medical Education, and Operating Theaters

 

In the 19th century, surgery developed from a remedy of last resort to a common medical procedure, in part due to the introduction of anesthesia in 1847 and to the development of two theories of modern surgery, antiseptic surgery developed by Joseph Lister in 1867, followed by aseptic surgery about 1890. The operating theater was developed in the early 19th century on the model of anatomical theaters which had been the center of medical training since the Renaissance.

 

In the 1870s, many new operating theaters, including the first one at Roosevelt Hospital, were built for the rapidly growing population of student surgeons. Usually incorporated in larger hospital buildings but occasionally occupying their own pavilions, these were well-ventilated wood rooms, often decorated, amply lit by large windows and gas lamps, which accommodated up to 3 00 observers. The best-known operating theater of this generation was at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, built between 1877 and 1885.

 

These were superseded by a new generation of operating theaters about 189 0 for aseptic surgery, among the very first of which were the McLane Operating Room^ (now demolished), designed in 18 9 0 by W. Wheeler Smith at Roosevelt Hospital for gynecological surgery, and the Syms Operating Theater. These had improved heat and ventilation from mechanical forced air systems, improved lighting from electric lights, and, with the understanding that absolute cleanliness was essential, smooth, impervious materials for all surfaces.

 

Aseptic operating rooms were bright, clean, hard, undecorated spaces, they were the "high tech" spaces of their day. They utilized the latest technology to produce places suitable for the latest medical practices in a rapidly changing period.

 

History of Syms Operating Theater

 

The Syms Operating Theater was built with $3 50,000 left by William J. Syms (1818-89), $250,000 to build the theater and the remainder to be invested as an endowment for its work. Syms expressed in his will the desire to erect an operating theater which would be "an enduring monument to himself" and of "great service to suffering humanity."8

 

Syms was a partner in the New York firm of Blunt and Syms, for more than 2 5 years the largest gunmaker and dealer in New York. Syms was also a founder of the Metropolitan Gas Company and the Forty-second and Grand Street Railroad Company, and he was President of the Franklin Telegraph Company and Vice-president of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company. At his death, the Times said that he was' "one of the largest land and house owners" in New York.

 

Syms stipulated that the surgeon, Dr. Charles McBurney (1845-1913) would have complete charge of the building's design and operation. McBurney was a prominent New York surgeon and professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

 

In the year before William Syms died, McBurney achieved international recognition for his identification of the diagnostic point on the abdomen for appendicitis, still called "McBurney's Point." In his years at Syms, he described "McBurney's Incision," a method for removing the appendix, and made numerous other well publicized advances in the practice of surgery. Under McBurney, Syms became a world renowned center for surgeons. McBurney had been called when President McKinley was shot because of his long experience in treating such cases at Roosevelt Hospital.

 

Indeed, McBurney took an active role in the design of the Syms Operating Theater. He made a tour of the most modern operating facilities in Europe and America including "all the large hospitals in England, France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland" and worked closely with the architect, W. Wheeler Smith, in the design of Syms. It appears that McBurney wrote a detailed program for the building and closely critiqued Smith's plans, finally accepting a fourth effort.13

 

Application for a building permit was made on October 15, 1890 and the building was completed on October 17, 1890. It opened on November 3, 1892 and at that time was considered the most advanced operating theater in the world.

 

In addition to "McBurney's Incision," described above, which was developed largely at Syms, a number of other notable surgical advances were made here. These included the popularization of the use of rubber gloves, the invention of the "Roosevelt clamp," the first use by Thomas Bennett of the nitrous oxide-ether sequence and his subsequent development of the Bennett inhaler, and the development of the Connell Airway Anesthetometer by Dr. Karl Connell."

 

Design and Construction

 

The design of the Syms Operating Theater followed the very latest standards for a scientifically correct surgical operating theater. Syms was planned to serve several complex objectives and its simple exterior form belies the substantial complexity of the interior. Named for its dramatic focal point, the surgical amphitheater, the building also contained numerous additional rooms with varied requirements for light, air, and location. These included visitors' rooms, recovery rooms, living quarters for nurses and assistant surgeons, a decorated private chief surgeon's room, laboratory rooms, rooms for photography and

 

microscopes, two small operating rooms, surgeons' rooms, an ether room, various preparation rooms for bandages, instrument sterilization and storage, and separate circulation systems for visitors, the surgical staff, patients, and residents of the building. Visitors entered the building from the street; patients and medical staff entered via the connecting corridor to the surgical ward next door.

 

The Syms Operating Theater, a "fireproof" building,17 was built of loadbearing brick walls above a stone foundation with rolled-iron floor and roof beams and brick floor arches, and a slate roof. In addition, iron was used extensively for lintels and to create special spaces and features, notably the wheel-ramp leading from the amphitheater to the recovery room, and the amphitheater itself. The amphitheater, whose design was an innovative solution to the problem of lighting such spaces, had a semi-conical iron roof structure supporting tiers of skylights that provided diffused light without glare to the arena.

 

Exterior materials include Haverstraw brick with Trenton molded brick and terra-cotta details, granite window trim, copper downspouts, slate roofing, and "Hayes Skylights." Inside, "No device has been omitted to repel the invasion of dirt and dust...," to dispel dampness, or to admit light.

 

These devices included mosaic tile floors with curved corners, light colored impermeable wall surfaces of marble and painted hard plaster, cement floors in the amphitheater, floor traps, and a basement floor of cement mixed with felt to absorb moisture.

 

The building had a sophisticated heating and ventilating system operated from an engine room and a fan room in the basement. Important features of the system visible from the outside are the air intake tower which projects above the west wing of the building abutting the recovery rooms, brick chimneys in a symmetrical arrangement on either side of the amphitheater roof, and the massive exhaust chimney at the rear of the amphitheater roof.

 

In designing the exterior of the Syms Operating Theater the architect endeavored to make the building harmonize with its High Victorian Gothic style neighbors at Roosevelt Hospital in its setback from the street, the massing of its volumes, the contrasting use of red brick with light stone trim, and picturesque roof form. In particular, it related to the old Surgical Pavilion next door in the height of its one-story wings and in the rhythm and placement of its stone lintels.

 

While the round entrance arch and the main exhaust chimney recall the Romanesque, the overall design reflects the personal approach of the architect for hospital buildings. The principal features were decorative detail largely confined to variations of color and texture in flat walls, recessed windows which minimized

 

interior reveals, curved corners, and modest cornices. In 1892 when it opened, the restrained use of decorative detail was unusual for a prominent medical building. Most contemporary New York hospital buildings were more stylish and more lavishly ornamented, built generally for private paying patients or institutions with religious affiliations. Their designs may have been more fully in the hands of institutional benefactors or architects rather than doctors, and their outward appearances had more to do with aesthetic or conventional symbolic associations than with the practical function of a hospital. For example, Presbyterian Hospital, built in the Romanesque Revival Style at the same time as Syms, was designed by J.C. Cady and was a picturesque composition of Richardsonian elements that conveyed both an ecclesiastical and a club-like character to the building, and St. Luke's Hospital, designed by Ernest Flagg the year Syms opened employed a Beaux-Arts composition and French Baroque ornament in a sophisticated way that conveyed the power, permanence, and reliability of the institution.

 

In contrast to these, at Syms the exterior appearance was considered important but secondary to the primary scientific function of the building.20 Making a virtue of a restricted budget for its exterior, the design appears neither frugal nor lacking expressiveness, but serious and straightforward, evoking the high place of medical science in determining its form, and the priority of science over symbolism in the medical care to be provided within.

 

As a work of architecture, Syms must be seen in the context of hospital buildings and operating spaces not just in New York City but internationally. In this context it is a remarkable building representative of an alliance of medical science and architecture that produced some of the most advanced buildings of the 19th century.2-1

 

William Wheeler Smith22

 

William Wheeler Smith (1838-1908), designer of the Syms Operating Theater, practiced architecture in New York from 18 65 to 1908. During an unusually long career, he designed a number of notable buildings including the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church (1872, demolished ca. 1933) at 48th Street and Fifth Avenue; the James White Building (1881), a cast-iron commercial structure, now a designated New York City landmark, at 361 Broadway; the W. & J. Sloane Store (1882), a large commercial structure now included in the Ladies Mile Historic District; and the Syms Operating Theater. Smith was successful and well regarded in his day but most of his major buildings have been demolished and little else survives to give us a full picture of his life and career.

 

Born in New York City, "Mr. Smith was described by his friends and associates as an 'old school architect' who had inherited the fondness and ability for his profession from his father, a well-known builder of this city.112 3 He apprenticed with one of the leading architects of the day, James Renwick, and studied at the University of London. He practiced on his own from about 1865 until his death in 1S08.

 

Along with his architectural practice Smith invested in real estate. He left an estate worth more than $3,000,000, almost all of which was to build "a country sanitarium for poor convalescents who must be sent away from St. Luke's [Hospital] before they have fully regained their strength."

 

Smith's philanthropic interest in hospitals was long standing. Over a period of many years he designed several buildings for Roosevelt Hospital including the Syms Operating Theater, without pay.

 

Smith's career seems to fall into two periods, an early period of general practice and a later period of specialization in hospital architecture and real estate development. The hospital and medical buildings, including the Sloane Maternity Hospital (1886), the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1888), and the Vanderbilt Clinic (1889) , all on the block across 59th Street from Roosevelt Hospital (and all demolished), and the McLane Operating Room (1890), the Accident Building (1898) (both demolished), the Syms Operating Theater, and Private Patients Pavilion (1896) of Roosevelt Hospital all resembled one another. A late project of Smith's was the Kingston Avenue Hospital in Brooklyn. A perspective rendering shows a pavilion plan hospital organized much like McKim, Mead, and White's Columbia College Campus and in the same general style.

 

Later History

 

Syms was refurbished in 1934 but remained an operating theater only until 1941 when the new Private Patients pavilion was opened with new surgical rooms. For some time, Roosevelt's role as a teaching hospital had been diminished, styles of teaching surgery had changed, and the theatrical presentation to large crowds was considered obsolete.

 

In 1942 the blood bank and mortuary of the Hospital were moved into Syms. In 1948, Syms was used as a temporary emergency room. In 1953 the rear portion of the building (17 feet 6 inches deep) was removed to make way for the new Tower Building, the upper tier of skylights was covered in copper sheets, the semi-opaque glass on the ground floor was replaced by clear glass, the amphitheater was gutted, and the building was occupied by the Department of Pathology.

 

Since that time, air-conditioning equipment has been placed in the front lawn, ducts have been run through several windows, parts ' of the areaway have been obstructed by pipes, trees have been allowed to grow in the front lawn, and the old amphitheater and other spaces have been remodeled to suit changing office and laboratory space needs of the Hospital.

 

Description

 

The Syms Operating Theater is a nearly rectangular structure at the southwest corner of West 59th Street and Ninth Avenue. The building is set back on its two street fronts behind narrow planted strips which are bordered along the sidewalk by an iron fence on a granite base with granite capped brick posts.

 

In its massing the building consists of a central block with an elongated semi-conical roof, one-story wings on either side, a narrow three-story L-shaped wing adjacent to the central block on the south and west sides, and a square air intake tower adjacent to the west side of this wing above the one-story wing.

 

The walls of the building are brick with curved corners. Brick is of two types, each laid in the same plane in Flemish bond and differentiated by their finish: smooth and evenly colored around windows and corners, rough and varicolored between windows. The smooth brick framing was in a form suggesting quoins creating two-story bays at the basement and first story levels. Windows have granite sills and lintels and occasional granite mullions in wider windows, sometimes with egg and dart moldings or block modillions of terra cotta.

 

The roof, whose distinctive form signals the amphitheater below, is crowned by a decorative iron finial in the form of a caduceus surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, and is clad in two tiers of skylights across the front, slate shingles on the sides, and tin flashing.

 

The roof is pierced by a large unadorned chimney in either flank, above the back wall of the amphitheater, and a massive exhaust chimney behind the amphitheater with a Romanesque corbelled cornice. The building is entered through a large rounded arch of glazed brick which is reached by a short flight of stairs. Above this arch is a granite panel with raised letters saying "The Wm. J. Syms Operating Theater of the Roosevelt Hospital, 1891."

 

Alterations

 

Today the exterior of the building is as built except for the loss of the entire south facade (the new facade abuts the adjacent Tower Building), the loss of the southernmost bays of the east and west facades, the addition of copper sheeting over the principal skylights, the presence of modern HVAC equipment, and the overgrowth of the lawn.

 

Although the alterations to the building are extensive (more so on the interior, which is not the subject of this designation, than on the exterior) and mostly irreversible, the visual character of this highly distinctive building is still largely intact. Its subtly decorated flat brick walls with rounded corners, its strong entranceway and name panel, its massing as visible from most angles, and especially the distinctive shape of its roof are all present.

 

- From the 1989 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report