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Llyn Llech Owain Country Park is is a stunning 158-acre expanse of woods and lakeland near Cross Hands with nature trails, an adventure area and visitor centre. At the heart of this spectacular park is its dramatic lake which is surrounded by peat bog and there’s a lovely myth associated with Llyn Lech Owain. Legend has it that Owain Lawgoch ("Owain of the Red Hand" - who led an army of French mercenaries against the English in the Hundred Years' War), was entrusted to look after a well on the mountain named Mynydd Mawr. Each day, after extracting enough water for himself and his horse, Owain was always careful to replace the stone but on one occasion he forgot and a torrent of water poured down the side of the mountain. The resultant lake was hence named Llyn Lech Owain - the lake of Owain’s slab. Today, specially constructed paths allow for safe access over the bog and around the lake. The paths are well-surfaced and accessible to wheelchair-users. A forest track provides a longer walk or cycle ride around the country park and there’s a rough mountain bike trail for the more adventurous cyclist. Much of the park consists of coniferous woodland, planted by the Forestry Commission during the 1960s and there are also areas of dry heath and broad-leaved woodland.
Architect: Klas Anshelm
Built in: 1957
Client: The City of Lund
Prehistory
Lund Konsthall is the result of a donation from the Old Savings’ Bank (today’s Finn Savings’ Bank) to the City of Lund. In 1953 the City Council decided to accept the gift and invited six architects for a competition to design the new art gallery. In 1954 the jury unanimously decided that Klas Anshelm’s proposal should be realized.
Architecture
Klas Anshelm (1914–1980) was a well-known and busy architect in Lund. With its monolithic brick façade Lunds Konsthall became one of Sweden’s finest exhibition venues. Its dramatic and yet restrained form is well adapted to contemporary art, and also blends in with the medieval architecture of Lund.
Renovations
Lunds Konsthall has not fully retained its original architectural expression, but it has escaped thorough reconstruction. In 1997 the building was renovated with support from the Finn Savings’ Bank and in 2004 it underwent a lighter renovation, aiming at restoring as much as possible of the original architecture.
History
‘I have tried to achieve an environment, tried to achieve a spatial frame for objects, and also to facilitate the changing of light bulbs.’
Klas Anshelm, Architect
Source: Lunds Konsthall - History.
This is a model of the gallery from an exhibition about Klas Anshelm’s work, Collected Objects, at The Swedish Museum of Architecture .
The images from Lunds Konsthall was taken during the exhibition - The Opposite of Me Is I by the artist Miriam Bäckström.
More pictures from Lunds Konsthall here.
Architect: Klas Anshelm
Built in: 1957
Client: The City of Lund
Prehistory
Lund Konsthall is the result of a donation from the Old Savings’ Bank (today’s Finn Savings’ Bank) to the City of Lund. In 1953 the City Council decided to accept the gift and invited six architects for a competition to design the new art gallery. In 1954 the jury unanimously decided that Klas Anshelm’s proposal should be realized.
Architecture
Klas Anshelm (1914–1980) was a well-known and busy architect in Lund. With its monolithic brick façade Lunds Konsthall became one of Sweden’s finest exhibition venues. Its dramatic and yet restrained form is well adapted to contemporary art, and also blends in with the medieval architecture of Lund.
Renovations
Lunds Konsthall has not fully retained its original architectural expression, but it has escaped thorough reconstruction. In 1997 the building was renovated with support from the Finn Savings’ Bank and in 2004 it underwent a lighter renovation, aiming at restoring as much as possible of the original architecture.
History
‘I have tried to achieve an environment, tried to achieve a spatial frame for objects, and also to facilitate the changing of light bulbs.’
Klas Anshelm, Architect
Source: Lunds Konsthall - History.
The images from Lunds Konsthall was taken during the exhibition - The Opposite of Me Is I by the artist Miriam Bäckström.
The building replaced a meat inspection facility ... “there were exhibited dead rabbits and chickens, it was quite a stylish facility with overhead light and so. Here you display painted bunnies and chickens ...“explained Anshelm 1979 in an interview.
More pictures from Lunds Konsthall here.
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
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
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Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
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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.
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
Lovely and friendly little squirrel!
Beautiful flowers at Reford Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
Visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_red_squirrel
American red squirrels should not be confused with Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris); since the ranges of these species do not overlap, they are both commonly referred to as "red squirrels" in the areas where they are native. The specific epithet hudsonicus refers to Hudson Bay, Canada, where the species was first catalogued by Erxleben in 1771. A recent phylogeny suggests the squirrels as a family can be divided into five major lineages. Red squirrels (Tamiasciurus) fall within the clade that includes flying squirrels and other tree squirrels (e.g., Sciurus). There are 25 recognized subspecies of red squirrels.
Red squirrels can be easily identified from other North American tree squirrels by their smaller size, territorial behavior and reddish fur with a white venter (underbelly). Red squirrels are somewhat larger than chipmunks. The Douglas squirrel is morphologically similar to the American red squirrels, but has a rust-colored venter and is restricted to the southwestern coast of British Columbia and in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. These species' ranges do not overlap. (Wikipedia)
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LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS | REFORD GARDENS
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
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 point where the Gran Vía and the Alcala Street converge - two of the main avenues in Madrid - is one of the most photogenic corners of the city. The iconic Metropolis Building, with its dramatic illumination, and further beyond, the Grassy and Telefonica buildings are among the most recognizable in Madrid.
Situated in a high-valley habitat and renowned for its dramatic Teton Range scenery, the upscale Western town of Jackson, Wyoming is the gateway to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. The town is famous for its world-class skiing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, which features the longest continuous vertical rise of any ski area in the country. Nearby is the National Elk Refuge, the largest elk preserve in North America, and four massive arches made from thousands of naturally shed elk antlers are in the Jackson Town Square.
The Town Square Tavern in the photo above, operated for over a decade and closed in November 2017. The space has since reopened as the Roadhouse Brewing Co. Pub and Eatery. The town offers a cowboy chic vibe, blending rugged Western culture with luxury amenities.
[Note: Jackson is the town, while Jackson Hole is the entire 60-mile-long valley surrounded by mountains in which the town sits. Because the town is the main hub of the valley, people often use the names interchangeably, though they technically refer to different things.]
Chihuly Chandelier unveiled on Park Lane
30 Jan 2012
Chihuly Chandelier unveiled on Park Lane
On the 26 January 2012 Halcyon Gallery unveiled a specially-created, monumental Torchlight Chandelier in Park Lane as part of world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly’s international public art programme.
As London celebrates the incredible sporting achievements of the world’s finest athletes, this towering beacon heralds this historical year captivating and inspiring the public’s imagination over the coming months.
The 635 kilos Torchlight Chandelier is composed of 350 organically-shaped elements, ranging from elaborate ‘horns’ to ‘goosenecks’. The brilliantly-coloured and clear Chandelier forms a riot of sculptural forms. Standing six metres high, illuminated nightly, its dramatic presence will dominate the central London landscape, becoming a new icon for London.
The Chandelier is one of the few forms in glass that has scale, is three-dimensional, is vessel-related, is animated by light, is airborne and is capable of transforming the environment, which are all important qualities for Chihuly’s work.
Chihuly is an internationally-celebrated contemporary artist. In his hands, the complex fluidity of hot glass, as beautiful as it is dangerous, is transformed into astonishing sculptures, rich in colour, organic in form and exuberant in nature.
Ninety-seven exhibitions in seven countries have presented artworks by Dale Chihuly during the last decade, which have been enjoyed by more than 10 million visitors making Dale Chihuly one of the most popular living artists of our time.
The artist comments,
“Halcyon Gallery’s unique approach to showcase art outside of the traditional gallery space is extremely compelling as I want as many people as possible to engage, interact and enjoy my art. Public exhibitions are my favourite form of art because so many people get to see them.”
Architect: Klas Anshelm
Built in: 1957
Client: The City of Lund
Prehistory
Lund Konsthall is the result of a donation from the Old Savings’ Bank (today’s Finn Savings’ Bank) to the City of Lund. In 1953 the City Council decided to accept the gift and invited six architects for a competition to design the new art gallery. In 1954 the jury unanimously decided that Klas Anshelm’s proposal should be realized.
Architecture
Klas Anshelm (1914–1980) was a well-known and busy architect in Lund. With its monolithic brick façade Lunds Konsthall became one of Sweden’s finest exhibition venues. Its dramatic and yet restrained form is well adapted to contemporary art, and also blends in with the medieval architecture of Lund.
Renovations
Lunds Konsthall has not fully retained its original architectural expression, but it has escaped thorough reconstruction. In 1997 the building was renovated with support from the Finn Savings’ Bank and in 2004 it underwent a lighter renovation, aiming at restoring as much as possible of the original architecture.
History
‘I have tried to achieve an environment, tried to achieve a spatial frame for objects, and also to facilitate the changing of light bulbs.’
Klas Anshelm, Architect
Source: Lunds Konsthall - History.
The images from Lunds Konsthall was taken during the exhibition - The Opposite of Me Is I by the artist Miriam Bäckström.
The building replaced a meat inspection facility ... “there were exhibited dead rabbits and chickens, it was quite a stylish facility with overhead light and so. Here you display painted bunnies and chickens ...“explained Anshelm 1979 in an interview.
More pictures from Lunds Konsthall here.
This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.
[This is a series of 7 photos] The Robert G. Lassiter House, characterized by its dramatic columns, is one of the most beautiful of the many beautiful homes in Oxford, North Carolina. It’s a Neo-Classical Revival residence, built in 1908 by Robert Gilliam Lassiter and his wife Margaret Currin. This 2 1/2 story home still has the original green tile on the roof. Topping it is a small widow’s walk. The most noticeable feature is the 2-story portico with projecting pediment, supported by Ionic columns. Between the tall columns and the entrance are a row of smaller one-story Ionic columns providing the front porch area. These in turn support a deck and a balustrade, extending the front of the house. As one faces the house, a porte-cochère, complete with an old carriage, is on the left; on the right is a side entrance, again using Ionic columns to support a small deck. The side entrance has leaded glass sidelights and a segmented transom. The front entrance also has leaded glass sidelights but . in addition, has an impressive curved transom. According to the book Heritage and Homesteads, classical features and decorative elements are present throughout the house in the wainscoting, mantels and stairs. [On Explore May 15, 2011 at #266]
It's in the Oxford Historical District and is on the National Register of Historic Places #88000403 (added 1988).
Source of much information: Heritage and Homesteads of Granville County, North Carolina, published 1988 by The Granville County Historical Society, Inc.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
One of the many carvings adorning the wall arcading in the north aisle.
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!).
Beekman Tower Hotel, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Prominently sited at the top of Beekman Hill, the Panhellenic Tower (now the Beekman Tower Hotel) is one of the great Art Deco skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan. Erected in 1927-29 as a residence and clubhouse for women belonging to national Greek-letter college sororities, the Panhellenic Tower provided affordable housing for young college-educated women who were entering the work force in record numbers in the 1920s. Designed by the noted architect John Mead Howells, this striking modernistic building features a square-plan twenty-six story tower with chamfered corners and setbacks. The tower is renowned for its dramatic volumetric massing and bold vertical striping created by deeply recessed window-and-spandrel bays set between narrow piers which rise unbroken from a two-stoiy base to a parapet crown. Though sparsely decorated, the building incorporates handsome Gothic-inspired Art Deco ornament by the leading architectural sculptor Rene Chambellan.
Description
The Panhellenic Tower is located on a rectangular lot which extends 126 feet along Mitchell Place and eighty-one feet along First Avenue. The building occupies almost the entire lot except for a narrow service passage at the north end of the lot which extends eastward about twenty-five feet from First Avenue. The building is comprised of three distinct sections — the twenty-six-story hotel tower; the three-story wing, which originally contained a dining room and auditorium, now converted to apartments; and a ten-story apartment wing which was completed a year after the main building. Both the hotel and apartment annex have steel frames and are clad in brick. Generally orange-tan in color, the bricks vary in hue from buff to gray-brown and are laid in a Flemish-bond pattern. The Art Deco design of the building depends largely on the dramatic massing of the setback skyscraper tower and on the interplay of volumes and lights and darks created by the projected piers and recessed window bays. The ornament is concentrated at the base and top of the building and consists primarily of decorative brick pilaster strips and corbeling and the cast-stone Art Deco ornament. Most of the building's windows were replaced in the early 1990s except for the arched steel sash windows with leaded-glass lights at the second stoy of the tower and auditorium wing and twenty-sixth story of the tower.
The Tower
The twenty-six-story, seventy-five-foot-wide tower is basically square in plan at street level, but has an angled corner on First Avenue and Mitchell Place and an extension on the north side of the building adjoining the dining room-auditorium wing. The facades are articulated into seven bays. The five center bays set back at the third story to form light courts which are flanked by powerful angled corner bays. At the twentieth and twenty-second stories the corner bays set back to create balconies which are surrounded by brick parapets. At the twenty-fourth story the three center bays are set back and have balconies with brick parapets. The entire twenty-sixth story is set back and is surrounded by balconies which have been enclosed with glass and metal partitions on the east and west sides of the building.
Base: The base is two stories high, except on Mitchell Place where the center three bays rise to three stories emphasizing the main hotel entrance. The angled southern corner at the intersection of the two street facades is recessed and contains the entrance to a ground story restaurant. The northern corner which was also originally angled and recessed has been filled with a one-story extension which is unarticulated. On Mitchell Place the triple bay is articulated by wide pilaster strips which terminate above the third story in a cresting of stylized cast-stone fleurs-de-lis and foliate moldings. Wide pilaster strips also are used at the ground story to frame the corner bay and the end bays on Mitchell Place and First Avenue. Narrower strips capped by cast-stone finials articulate the second story. In 1990-91 marble, travertine, and Diyvit facing materials, which had been installed at the ground story, were removed and the masonry on the base was repaired and repointed.
Mitchell Place facade: On the ground story the brick pilasters articulating the three center bays are decorated with bricks with incised Greek lettering. A cornerstone at the base of the eastern pilaster is inscribed with the date "1928." The main hotel entrance at the center of the facade and the adjacent window bays have arched surrounds which retain their original shaped transom bars. The transoms contain backlit etched glass lunettes which are decorated with a stylized palmette pattern. The central entrance has deep brick-faced jambs. This doorway opens into a small vestibule with a travertine floor and travertine-faced walls; the ceiling is vaulted. There are light boxes at the base of the vault. At the rear of the vestibule are a pair of unframed glass doors with polished bronze trim. The bays flanking the entrance bay contain decorative multi-pane steel windows fabricated in the 1990s.
Extending in front of the center three bays is a large fixed awning with polished bronze supports which was installed in the 1990s. The upper portion of the awning appears to be constructed of metal which is covered with vinyl-coated canvas. There are several lighting fixtures on the underside of the awning. Flanking the awning are neo-Deco sconces, installed in the 1990s, which were inspired by, but do not match, the sconces that originally framed the central entrance bay.
Reading west to east, the second and sixth bay have blind rectangular window openings which contain Art Deco sculptural panels featuring stylized palm trees and scrolls. The western pierced sandstone panel is original. In the 1990s an opening which had been cut directly above the window was sealed and the area was refaced with matching brickwork. The eastern panel is cast stone and was fabricated in the 1990s to match the original panel, which had been lost when a louvered vent was installed in the bay. As part of the restoration of the bay, the wall and sill beneath the opening were also rebuilt.
The entrance at the eastern corner of the tower facade (seventh bay) has deep brick-faced jambs. The paving stone in the jamb area is travertine with a pink granite curb. The doorway contains a pair of historic glass doors with polished bronze trim (the doors were reglazed during the 1990s renovations but retain their original fittings). The fixed vinyl-coated canvas awning with polished bronze supports was installed in the 1990s.
The window at the western corner of the tower facade (first bay) originally contained a fixed twelve-light window. When the restaurant opened on First Avenue an illuminated window box with polished bronze trim was installed in the opening. In the 1990s, when the steel lintel over the window was repaired, the brick facing over the window was replaced in matching brick. (The window box was reinstalled.)
The narrow paired arched windows at the second story contain steel-sash windows which appear to retain their original leaded-glass lights or have replacement glass that replicates the original tracery pattern. In the 1990s the spandrel panels beneath the third, fourth, and fifth bays were rebuilt, removing the remaining traces of original stone sculptural ornament from the panels. The spandrels were refaced in matching brick and louvers were reinstalled beneath the third and fifth windows. There are also louvers beneath the windows in the first and second bays.
The large round-arched window openings in the center three bays of third story originally contained tripartite windows topped by tripartite lunettes. The openings currently have paired aluminum casement windows topped by single-paned semicircular transoms. The stone finials which originally terminated the narrow pilasters extending from the second-story windows to the third-story window bays have been removed. There are louvered air-conditioner grilles beneath the windows in the second and fourth bays (reading west to east). The metal flagpoles which project from the third story are historic but not original.
Comer entrance: The recessed corner entrance is set a step above sidewalk level. It retains its historic glass door and transom with polished bronze trim and hardware. Above the door is a sloping reveal and a hexagonal panel with banded trim. Projecting in front of the reveal is a small triangular canopy installed in the early 1990s. A sculptural relief representing stylized palm leaves extends from the top of the recessed panel to the bottom of the third story window. An opening for an air conditioner louver has been cut in the relief just below the third-story window.
First Avenue facade: The ground story of the First Avenue facade is framed by projecting bays. The southern corner bay contains an illuminated window box with polished bronze trim. (There is a large bronze-finished grille beneath the window.) The northern corner bay contains a historic glass door with polished bronze trim and hardware. The intervening bays which originally contained several storefronts now are occupied by the single storefront. This has a low wall topped by a picture window which extends the length of the storefront. The wall is faced with a green-black marble and is pierced by several vents. The picture window is divided into five sections by metal stops. The stops and window surround have a polished bronze finish; the window glass is decorated with white stenciling. The storefront is surmounted by a box cornice with a polished-bronze finished. A decorative brick course above the cornice is largely concealed by a fixed vinyl-coated canvas awning with signage for the restaurant.
The articulation of the second story on First Avenue is identical with that on Mitchell Place. The windows also have replacement leaded-glass lights. Louvered grilles are placed beneath the windows in the third and fifth bays (reading south to north).
North facade and service alley: There is a six-feet-high wall on the north end of the alley which abuts the rear wall of the adjoining building on First Avenue. The wall is faced with tan brick laid in a Flemish-bond pattern and coped with stone slabs. An iron picket and chain-link fence and a metal gate extend between this wall and the north wall of the hotel. The north wall of the tower base extends east for four bays before breaking back into a two-story extension. Only the second story of the western portion of the north wall and side wall of the extension are visible from the street. At the second story the north wall has paired arched windows. These match the second-story windows on the other facades in size and shape but only the corner window is set off by decorative ribbing. There are air-conditoner louvers beneath the windows. On the two-story addition, the side wall has a rectangular window opening at the second story which contains a six-over-six double-hung vinyl-coated aluminum sash window.
Upper Stories Above the base, the tower's facades are identical in design and are articulated by single tiers of recessed windows and spandrels. The window bays in the recessed side courts are separated by projecting piers which rise unbroken to the twenty-fourth story parapet. Projecting piers also frame the center bays from the twenty-fourth to twenty-sixth stories terminating in stylized finials which alternate with open arches to form a decorative cresting at the skyline. Paired recesses on the upper portion of the piers and vertical recesses and projections on the side walls of the corner bays enhance the verticality of the design. At the twenty-fourth and twenty-sixth stories, the balcony parapets are treated as decorative brick balustrades. The tops of the piers which form part of the balustrade were originally capped by massive scrolled stone finials which have been removed.
At the twenty-sixth story the double-sized windows have segmental arch enframements and contain historic sash with a central arched pane and radiating outer panes. The six-over-six double-hung vinyl-coated aluminum sash windows used in the rest of the window openings in the tower are recent replacements which match the original windows in configuration and operation but not in material or detail. At least half of the windows have through-the-wall air conditioner grilles beneath them. There are a number of areas on the masonry which have been patched or repointed with light-hued mortar that does not match the brickwork, notably above the twentieth-story setback on the west and south facades and on the projecting southeast and northwest corner bays. Recently, the brick facings on the southwest corner of the tower extending from the top of the twenty-first-story window to the top of the twentieth-second-story parapet and on the west and south walls below the twenty-fourth story parapets have been replaced.
Auditorium Wing
The three-story auditorium wing is rectangular in plan and covers the entirety of its thirty-three-foot-wide, eighty-foot-deep site. The brick facade is divided into four bays by wide pilaster strips. The first story has large segmental-arched window openings. These contain replacement steel sash, with an unusual modern design, installed in the early 1990s. The windows have small fixed awnings installed in the 1990s. At the second story the paired arched windows and ribbed articulation is continued from the second story of the tower. The windows have double-hung steel sash which appear to retain their original leaded-glass lights or have replacement glass that replicates the original tracery pattern.. The round-arched window openings at the third story originally contained paired casement windows with a wide center mullion and narrow rails separating the top arched panes from the lower lights.
The present aluminum-framed paired casements with semi-circular transoms match the windows at the third story in the three center bays of the tower. There are louvered grilles beneath the first, third, and fourth window bays (reading west to east). The high parapet that runs along the roof of the auditorium wing is coped with a stone border featuring a stylized palmette molding over the pilasters and an openwork arches over the window bays. The stone finials which originally capped the center pilasters between the second and third-story windows have been removed. The brickwork between the third-story arches and the roof has been repointed with a light mortar that does not match the original mortar or bricks.
Apartment Annex
Rectangular in plan, the addition occupies almost the entirety of its eighteen-foot-wide, eighty-foot-deep lot. It is ten stories high and has a setback penthouse story. Its west wall is freestanding above the third story and is treated as a secondary facade.
Mitchell Place facade
On Mitchell Place the brick facade is divided into a narrow eastern bay and wider western bay. Brick courses separate the two-story base from the upper stories.
Base
At the ground story the eastern entrance bay and two windows in the western bay have arched surrounds. These arches retain their original shaped wood transom bars which are surmounted by lunettes with stuccoed infill.
The lunette over the doorway retains its original rough stucco infill and streamlined striated metal decoration. Matching railings (their round metal anchors are still visible in the brickwork) originally rested on the low brick parapets flanking the granite steps to the recessed entrance porch. This small vestibule retains its original granite pavers and brick-faced walls. A light fixture is suspended from the plastered vaulted ceiling. The paneled wood door with nine-light window is original. The entrance to the porch is flanked by small light fixtures that are not original and is fronted by a fixed canopy installed in the 1990s. The two window bays contain double-hung six-over-six vinyl-coated aluminum windows. (The original windows in these bays were paired steel multi-light casements topped by a transom.)
At the second story the eastern bay contains a pair of double-hung six-over-six windows while the wider western bay contains three windows. (The original windows were steel multi-light casements.) There is a large louvered grille beneath the paired windows in the west bay. Extending above the windows a corbeled brick drip molding consisting of a soldier course topped by horizontal and vertical header courses.
Upper Stories
A corbeled sill course beneath the third-stoiy windows emphasizes the separation between the base and upper stories. On the upper stories the bays are articulated by wide projecting piers; the windows and spandrels are recessed. On the third story, the window openings are of equal height; on the floors above the eastern window openings are slightly shorter than double-window openings in the western bays. All of the windows contain replacement double-hung six-over-six sash. There are large louvered grilles beneath the windows in the western bays.
Western Elevation
The western wall is articulated into a symmetrical seven-bay design. A narrow center bay articulates a stair tower which rises to eleven stories to reach the penthouse. This bay, which is the focus of the design, is slightly projected. Its narrow window openings contain steel casements which appear to be original. On the north and south sides of the facade, triple-window bays are flanked by single bays with small rectangular window openings. Both the large and small openings contain replacement double-hung six-over-six sash. There are louvered air conditioner grilles beneath the center window in both triple bays. The tenth story is surmounted by a brick parapet which steps up over the center bay. The parapet is coped with a cast-stone frieze featuring a palmette motif and arched openings.
In 1997, brickwork was taken down and replaced between the tenth-story windows and the top of the parapet at the southwest corner of the building and on the northern end of the west wall. Except for the stair tower, the penthouse is well set back from the roofline and does not appear to have designed facades.
- From the 1998 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Garden of the Gods is a breathtaking public park in Colorado Springs, Colorado, famous for its dramatic red sandstone rock formations that tower against the backdrop of Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains. Designated a National Natural Landmark, the park offers miles of scenic trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding, as well as opportunities for world-class rock climbing. Its unique geological formations, combined with panoramic mountain views and abundant wildlife, make Garden of the Gods a must-visit destination for nature lovers, adventurers, and travelers exploring the American West.
Barsana monastery, one of the main attractions in Maramures, Romania
When UNESCO designated parts of the Maramures Region in Northern Transylvania a WORLD HERITAGE site, it was aimed at protecting the stylized wooden architecture and its dramatic vernacular. Of particular appeal are the tall spires of orthodox churches that dot the area. One of these is the recently constructed Barsana Monastery complex - actually a convent with sixteen nuns. Created in post-Communist years on the site of a church abandoned in 1790, the complex has become a significant cultural and religious attraction. Its 56 meter-tall (180 feet) spired church is reputedly the tallest wooden structure in Europe.
To create the iconic curving forms of the cruise-ship terminal in Porto, Portugal, architect Luís Pedro Silva began working from the project’s territorial context rather than simply seeking a display of formal prowess. The powerful oval drum of its main volume, with its spiraling central atrium and exterior ramps, is charged with both centripetal and centrifugal force, gathering all the vectors of movement that come together in the terminal from sea and land, and spinning them back out again to their various destinations. Before receiving the commission, Silva, who has degrees in architecture and urban planning from Porto University, worked on a strategic plan for the entire port as a member of a team of economists, engineers, and other specialists. The building and its new dock bring together the group’s ideas for increasing the port’s efficiency, promoting a growing tourist industry, and improving connections to the area’s attractions.
Leixões, the port, occupies a small inlet on the Atlantic Ocean 6 miles north of the historic city center of Porto. It is protected by two breakwaters that reach more than 2,500 feet into the sea, each with a dock on its harbor side. The tightly confined waterway houses facilities for container ships, oil tankers, a fishing fleet, and a recreational marina. It’s a node of heavy industry that interrupts the rocky beaches of the coast, separating seaside promenades designed by Portugal’s two Pritzker Prize winners: Eduardo Souto de Moura to the south, in Matosinhos, and Álvaro Siza to the north, in Leça da Palmera, where his outdoor swimming pools and Tea House are nestled into the rocks.
In the first phase of the plan, finished in 2011, Silva and his team moved the cruise-ship dock from the inner harbor to a new pier at the end of the southern breakwater, for more direct access to the city and to accommodate ships up to 1,000 feet long. The terminal was completed in a second phase last year. In the near future, the pier and terminal will open to the general public, allowing the building, with its rooftop viewing deck, to truly function as a destination rather than just a curiosity when seen from Souto de Moura’s seaside promenade, where its dramatic forms stand out against the horizon.
Silva set the terminal in the elbow of the angled breakwater, and in plan it resembles a hinge or spring, with ramps and arms curving out in different directions toward the marina, the new pier, and the shore. Inside, these pedestrian paths come together in a spiraling oval ramp around the central atrium. The uncoiling arms diagram the different systems of movement through the building. From a cruise ship, for example, a breezeway carries passengers over the service areas of the dock to the terminal. Ramps and escalators bring them down to the ground level, where they pass through customs and baggage handling (or vice-versa), to connect to tour buses or smaller boats for trips to the city and the Douro wine region, or eventually to a tram line that is planned to run along the coast.
In the original program, the upper section of the terminal was meant to house a shopping concourse and a restaurant, but Portugal’s ongoing financial slump made investors hard to find. While Silva was developing the design, these floors were taken on by the University of Porto’s Marine Science and Technology Research Park. The architect rather awkwardly converted the commercial spaces into laboratories, with floor-to-ceiling glazed storefronts facing the atrium but with no exterior windows, and with offices on mezzanines accessed via spiral stairs. He installed a research aquarium in the basement, and converted the top-floor restaurant into a multi-use event credits space. Yet this unlikely partnership with the university does bring life to the building, as well as steady revenue, and allows the center’s scientists to be close to the sea.
Silva worked with local manufacturers to develop a hexagonal ceramic tile with a tilted face to clad the building, updating the Portuguese tradition of painted-tile facades. He rotated the tiles, placing them in varying relations to each other, like barnacles or shells, to create an uneven surface. “They give the building a human scale,” he says.
Glistening in the light, the curving walls of the building read like ribbons looping around themselves in an irregular tangle. Echoes of two Guggenheims are evident—Wright’s in New York and Gehry’s in Bilbao. Silva affirms, however, that Siza is his most important reference: “The way our bodies move in a space, and the way a space invites you forward.” Like Souto de Moura, whose early buildings were very Miesian, Silva may be using Wright and Gehry to mitigate the influence of Siza’s eccentric, rectilinear forms. Whatever the case, he develops the terminal’s looping ramps and drum with an elegant economy of means, and makes this formal repertoire his own.
Architect: Klas Anshelm
Built in: 1957
Client: The City of Lund
Prehistory
Lund Konsthall is the result of a donation from the Old Savings’ Bank (today’s Finn Savings’ Bank) to the City of Lund. In 1953 the City Council decided to accept the gift and invited six architects for a competition to design the new art gallery. In 1954 the jury unanimously decided that Klas Anshelm’s proposal should be realized.
Architecture
Klas Anshelm (1914–1980) was a well-known and busy architect in Lund. With its monolithic brick façade Lunds Konsthall became one of Sweden’s finest exhibition venues. Its dramatic and yet restrained form is well adapted to contemporary art, and also blends in with the medieval architecture of Lund.
Renovations
Lunds Konsthall has not fully retained its original architectural expression, but it has escaped thorough reconstruction. In 1997 the building was renovated with support from the Finn Savings’ Bank and in 2004 it underwent a lighter renovation, aiming at restoring as much as possible of the original architecture.
History
‘I have tried to achieve an environment, tried to achieve a spatial frame for objects, and also to facilitate the changing of light bulbs.’
Klas Anshelm, Architect
Source: Lunds Konsthall - History.
This is an architectural plan of the gallery from an exhibition about Klas Anshelm’s work, Collected Objects, at The Swedish Museum of Architecture .
The images from Lunds Konsthall was taken during the exhibition - The Opposite of Me Is I by the artist Miriam Bäckström.
More pictures from Lunds Konsthall here.
bird of paradise plant
rooftop garden, Transbay Transit terminal, San Francisco
Strelitzia reginae, commonly known as the crane flower or bird of paradise, is a species of flowering plant indigenous to South Africa. An evergreen perennial, it is widely cultivated for its dramatic flowers. In temperate areas it is a popular houseplant.
2019-12-12_06-42-02
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!).
Roosevelt Island, Manhattan, New York City
The Octagon, located at the northern end of Roosevelt Island, served as the administrative center and main entrance hall of the New York City Lunatic Asylum, one of the first institutions of its kind established in this country.
Designs for the Asylum were prepared in 1834-35 by the acted New York architect, Alexander Jackson Davis, and the building was opened in 1839. Davis' plans called for a much more elaborate scheme than was actually built by the City; the Octagon was to have been one of a pair within a great U-shaped complex, ordered around a central rectangular pavilion.
As built, the single Octagon, from which two long wings extended, became the focal point of the building. Much admired in the 19th century for its architectural excellence, the Octagon now stands alone, the imposing geometric clarity and simplicity of its design fully revealed.
The City of New York purchased Blackwell's Island, as Roosevelt Island was called, in the 19th century, in 1828 with a view to institutional development; it was believe that the pleasant island surroundings would be conducive to both physical and mental rehabilitation. The island Penitentiary was begun in 1829, and the Lunatic Asylum was constructed at the end of the following decade. An Almshouse, Workhouse, and numerous charity hospitals were also built on Blackwell's Island during the course of the century, The Lunatic Asylum was erected in response to the desperate need for proper accomodation of the insane.
Previously, these cases had been assigned to a few overcrowded and poorly maintained wards in Bellevue Hospital, In the middle years of the 19th century, the attitude towards the treatment and care of the insane underwent significant and progressive change. Recognition that they required medical assistance, not merely custodial restraint, led to the founding of such institutions as the New York City Lunatic Asylum.
That this change in. attitude was, however, only gradually accomplished is well demonstrated by the fact that, in the early years of the Lunatic Asylum, patients were supervised by inmates from the Penitentiary under the direction of a small medical staff. The physicians in charge deplored this situation, and a suitable staff of orderlies and nurses was finally hired in 1850. Physical activity and labor as well as entertainment were prescribed as therapeutic for mental disturbances.
Thus, the male patients of the lunatic Asylum who were willing and able, worked in vegetable gardens or built sea walls in order to reclaim land, while female patients aided in housekeeping chores and worked as seamstresses.
A library—for the most part the result of donations from publishing houses and private citizens-- •• was formed, and weekly dances were held. At the recommendation of a resident physician, even a billiard table was purchased.
The Asylum was, however, plagued with difficulties, primarily due to overcrowding and financial inadequacies. In the early years the diet of the patients was inadequate, and scurvy was a relatively common disease.
Typhus and cholera epidemics afflicted the patients and staff alike in the 1860s. When Charles Dickens visited the United States in 1842, he was taken on a tour of the Black-well's Island Lunatic Asylum where he much admired the architecture, calling the building "handsome" and the Octagon an especially "elegant" feature; but he further commented in his American Notes (1842): "... everything (at the Asylum) had a lounging, listless, madhouse air which was very painful."
Through the perseverance of the resident physicians and other concerned New Yorkers, conditions were gradually improved. Additional buildings were constructed to ease overcrowding and to separate violent patients from less serious cases.
The facilities in general were made more pleasant and comfortable. By 1875 a contributor to Harper's Weekly magazine was able to write that "very few sane persons inhabit more healthy and convenient chambers."
In 1894 it had been determined that municipal facilities could no longer adequately care for the great numbers of indigent insane. Ward's Island also in the Hast River was consequently ceded to the State of New York, and all New York City mental patients were transferred to hospitals there.
The Lunatic Asylum was renamed Metropolitan Hospital and became a general hospital with special emphasis on the treatment of tubercular patients. In the 1950s the buildings on the island were abandoned for new quarters in Manhattan. By the late 1960s the island redevelopment project of the New York State Urban Development Corporation, threatened the old Asylum with demolition.
Fortunately it was decided, on the basis of. recommendations made by the Landmarks Preservation Commission and a report prepared by the noted architectural historian, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, to preserve the central Octagon, Demolition of the two wings which projected at right 'angles to the south and west was completed in 1970, and temporary preservation the measures were taken for the Octagon under the direction of the New York architect, Giorgio Cavaglieri, who also restored two other buildings on the island, the Blackwell House and the Chapel of the Good Shepherd.
The Octagon has a complicated history of alteration and modification., which has carefully traced by Jane B. Davies, an authority on the work of A.J. Davis. The original 1834-35 design by Davis was in what he termed the "Tuscan Style".
The Octagon was to have had a low-pitched hip roof with wide eaves and a central skylight. Construction of the Asylum had barely begun, however, when the City Council ordered work halted because of disagreements over the design.
In 1837 work was resumed, but Davis' great U-shaped plan was reduced to a single octagon joined to a single east-west wing. The upper portion of the Octagon was altered to include a crenelated cupola and the architectural detail was changed to the Greek Revival style. Davis had intended that the Octagon should house a kitchen and dining hall, day rooms, a laundry, and baths. It now became the administrative center and main entrance as well as the living quarters for the Resident Physician.
This phase of construction was completed in 1839, under the supervision of two master-builders, as Davis was apparently no longer associated with the project. In 1847-48 a north-south wing was built repeating the style of the earlier east-west wing. Architect Joseph M. Dunn was commissioned in 1879 to alter the Asylum.
He raised the wings one story in height and, to retain the visual prominence of the Octagon, added a dome-like convex mansard roof with neo-Grec detail. To further enhance the Octagon, a new main entrance was constructed with a double staircase.
The Octagon, executed in the gray "granite" (actually gray gneiss) quarried on the island in' the 19th century, is a smooth-walled, crisply faceted structure, relying for its dramatic effect on the clarity of its geometry and the boldness of its silhouette. The fenestration is especially notable as the earliest surviving example of the "Davisean window" ; paired windows appear at each floor, separated by heavy mullions and by simple stone transverse members, creating a very modern feeling of continuous verticality.
The main entrance of the Octagon, at first floor level, is approached by a double staircase of stone which was originally covered by a wooden porch, and has heavy wing walls adorned by recessed
the third floor by a simple projecting metal cornice with boldly scaled dentils and a paneled frieze beneath. At the center of the roof is the simple octagonal cupola surmounted by its dome-like octagonal roof.
This tall, convex mansard roof is crowned by a heavy cornice and pierced by two tiers of dormer windows. The rectangular windows are enframed by neo-Grec pilasters and pediments, and smaller dormers with oval windows appear above.
The plan of the Octagon is composed of a central rotunda surrounded by four rooms, separated by corridors which radiate outward. The rotunda contains a spiral staircase constructed of cast iron with wood Ionic columns encircling the high central stairwell -an especially beautiful space, described by Henry-Russell Hitchcock as one of the grandest interiors in the City.
Although the silhouette and proportions of the Octagon have been altered by the addition of Dunn's mansard dome, the major credit for the design of the structure may be assigned to Alexander Jackson Davis (1803-1892), a native New Yorker and highly successful architect, who worked throughout the United States.
In the early years of his career Davis was in partnership with the prominent architect Ithiel Town (1784-1844) with whom he designed the New York Customs House (now Federal Hall National Memorial), a designated New York City Landmark. During the period of his association with Town, Davis designed the Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum, as well as the State Capitols of Indiana, North Carolina, Illinois, and Ohio, the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, and the Patent Office in Washington D.C.
His commissions were, however, not limited solely to public buildings; he was also responsible for numerous commercial buildings, churches and domestic structures, and was the author of two books, Views of the Public Buildings in the City of New York (c, 1830) and Rural Residences 1837). While Davis was a highly competent practitioner of the Greek Revival style --in his early twenties he made an intensive study of Greek detail — he was also well versed in many other styles, as his original "Tuscan" design for the Lunatic Asylum demonstrates.
The architectural historian, Talbot Hamlin, has praised Davis' "consistent feeling for logical planning." The original symmetrical plan made by Davis for the New York City Lunatic Asylum took into account efficient supervision of patients, ease of circulation and ample provision for good lighting and ventilation in the wards.
Davis' plan was a variant of the influential "panoptic plan," which was centralized with radiating wings, developed in Great Britain by Jeremy Bentham (1742 -1832), a philosopher and jurist interested in prison reform. While only a portion of Davis' original proposal for the Lunatic Asylum was actually built, the plan still functioned very effectively. Davis' New York, City Asylum project was also significant in that it served as the prototype for his North Carolina Hospital for the Insane at Raleigh.
Dr. R.L. Parsons, Resident Physician of the Lunatic Asylum during the 1860s, remarked in his annual report of 1865 that the Octagon "has a symmetry, a beauty and a grandeur even, that are to be admired." These qualities arc still in evidence, not only to the visitor to Roosevelt Island, but also from Manhattan where the picturesque silhouette of the Octagon is a prominent feature of the island's skyline.
- From the 1976 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
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.
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
Detail of the beautiful mid-14th century canopy of the Percy Tomb on the north side of the high altar. The tomb itself has disappeared and the exact identity of its occupant remains unclear, though Lady Eleanor (d.1328) is considered a likely candidate.
beverleyminster.org.uk/visit-us-2/percy-canopy/
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!).
Via Sant'Anna in Palermo is a historic street in the Kalsa quarter, known for its Baroque architecture, religious heritage, and proximity to the Galleria d’Arte Moderna.
Located in the heart of Palermo’s old town, Via Sant'Anna runs through the ancient Contrada della Misericordia, a district once shaped by the now-vanished Kemonia River. The street is most famous for the Church of Sant’Anna la Misericordia, a Baroque masterpiece built between 1606 and 1632 by architects Mariano Smiriglio and Giovanni Biagio Amico. This church, with its dramatic façade and rich interior, anchors the street’s spiritual and architectural identity.
Key Highlights of Via Sant'Anna
- Church of Sant’Anna la Misericordia: Originally built on the site of a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Pity, the church was expanded with support from noble families and consecrated in 1639. It features a striking Baroque façade and houses artworks linked to Palermo’s devotional traditions.
- Galleria d’Arte Moderna (GAM): Housed in the former convent adjacent to the church, this museum showcases Italian art from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including works by Francesco Lojacono, Ettore De Maria Bergler, and Giuseppe Sciuti. The adaptive reuse of the convent reflects Palermo’s commitment to preserving and reinterpreting its heritage.
- Urban Fabric: Via Sant’Anna is lined with historic buildings, artisan shops, and quiet courtyards. Its atmosphere blends monastic serenity with artistic vibrancy, making it a favorite for cultural walks and photography.
Symbolic and Curatorial Potential
For someone like you, Michael, this street offers rich curatorial possibilities. It could be interpreted as a threshold between devotion and modernity, where sacred architecture meets contemporary art. The transformation of the convent into a museum invites reflection on how Palermo’s spiritual spaces evolve into civic and cultural venues.
Via Sant’Anna also resonates with themes of memory, resilience, and urban layering. The site’s history—from a granary and chapel to a Baroque church and modern gallery—mirrors the city’s adaptive spirit. It could be mapped into a thematic exhibition exploring transformation of sacred spaces, urban palimpsests, or the dialogue between ritual and representation.
🇬🇧 English
Lao Shan (Laoshan) is a sacred mountain on China’s eastern coast, near Qingdao, famous for its dramatic granite peaks, clear springs, and strong Taoist heritage.
It is considered one of the birthplaces of Taoism, with temples dating back over 2,000 years. Laoshan is renowned for its pure mountain water, believed to have exceptional quality, and for its rare combination of mountain landscapes and direct sea views, which is unusual in China.
The mountain has long inspired poets, philosophers, and martial artists, symbolizing harmony between nature, spirit, and the Dao.
🇨🇳 中文（简体）
崂山（Lao Shan） 位于中国山东省青岛市东部，是中国著名的道教名山之一。
崂山以奇峰怪石、清泉瀑布和临海山景而闻名，是中国少有的“海上第一名山”。这里被认为是道教的重要发源地之一，至今仍保留着大量古老的道观。
崂山的山泉水极为著名，被认为清澈甘甜，富含灵气，长期被用于茶叶和传统养生文化中。
🇭🇷 Hrvatski
Lao Shan (Laoshan) je sveta planina na istočnoj obali Kine, u blizini Qingdaoa, poznata po strmim granitnim vrhovima, čistim izvorima i snažnoj daoističkoj tradiciji.
Smatra se jednim od najvažnijih povijesnih središta taoizma, s hramovima starima više od dvije tisuće godina. Posebnost Lao Shana je rijetka kombinacija planine i mora, gdje se s vrhova pruža pogled izravno na Žuto more.
Planina simbolizira sklad prirode, duhovnosti i dugovječnosti te ima važno mjesto u kineskoj filozofiji i kulturi.
Pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic marine mammals. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae, Otariidae, and Phocidae. There are 33 extant species of pinnipeds, and more than 50 extinct species have been described from fossils.
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
"King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals is located in Dhahran, between the headquarters of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (SAUDI ARAMCO) and the Dhahran Air Base. It is situated on top of the geologic dome, or anticline, where the first petroleum was discovered in Dammam Well No. 7, located about half a kilometer from the campus."
"The Academic Complex of the Jebel, with its dramatic water tower, dominates the surrounding countryside. Fortune Magazine called it "A jewel of a university on Arabian sands", and few can view it at any hour without being deeply impressed. Silhouetted at dawn against the pink sunrise over the Arabian sky, at sunset against the western desert's gold, and at night washed with pale blue-white light against the midnight blue of the sub-tropic sky, it has amply fulfilled its objective of making a technical institution one of almost poetic beauty."
for more info. about KFUPM
Architect: Klas Anshelm
Built in: 1957
Client: The City of Lund
Prehistory
Lund Konsthall is the result of a donation from the Old Savings’ Bank (today’s Finn Savings’ Bank) to the City of Lund. In 1953 the City Council decided to accept the gift and invited six architects for a competition to design the new art gallery. In 1954 the jury unanimously decided that Klas Anshelm’s proposal should be realized.
Architecture
Klas Anshelm (1914–1980) was a well-known and busy architect in Lund. With its monolithic brick façade Lunds Konsthall became one of Sweden’s finest exhibition venues. Its dramatic and yet restrained form is well adapted to contemporary art, and also blends in with the medieval architecture of Lund.
Renovations
Lunds Konsthall has not fully retained its original architectural expression, but it has escaped thorough reconstruction. In 1997 the building was renovated with support from the Finn Savings’ Bank and in 2004 it underwent a lighter renovation, aiming at restoring as much as possible of the original architecture.
History
‘I have tried to achieve an environment, tried to achieve a spatial frame for objects, and also to facilitate the changing of light bulbs.’
Klas Anshelm, Architect
Source: Lunds Konsthall - History.
The images from Lunds Konsthall was taken during the exhibition - The Opposite of Me Is I by the artist Miriam Bäckström.
The building replaced a meat inspection facility ... “there were exhibited dead rabbits and chickens, it was quite a stylish facility with overhead light and so. Here you display painted bunnies and chickens ...“explained Anshelm 1979 in an interview.
More pictures from Lunds Konsthall here.
To create the iconic curving forms of the cruise-ship terminal in Porto, Portugal, architect Luís Pedro Silva began working from the project’s territorial context rather than simply seeking a display of formal prowess. The powerful oval drum of its main volume, with its spiraling central atrium and exterior ramps, is charged with both centripetal and centrifugal force, gathering all the vectors of movement that come together in the terminal from sea and land, and spinning them back out again to their various destinations. Before receiving the commission, Silva, who has degrees in architecture and urban planning from Porto University, worked on a strategic plan for the entire port as a member of a team of economists, engineers, and other specialists. The building and its new dock bring together the group’s ideas for increasing the port’s efficiency, promoting a growing tourist industry, and improving connections to the area’s attractions.
Leixões, the port, occupies a small inlet on the Atlantic Ocean 6 miles north of the historic city center of Porto. It is protected by two breakwaters that reach more than 2,500 feet into the sea, each with a dock on its harbor side. The tightly confined waterway houses facilities for container ships, oil tankers, a fishing fleet, and a recreational marina. It’s a node of heavy industry that interrupts the rocky beaches of the coast, separating seaside promenades designed by Portugal’s two Pritzker Prize winners: Eduardo Souto de Moura to the south, in Matosinhos, and Álvaro Siza to the north, in Leça da Palmera, where his outdoor swimming pools and Tea House are nestled into the rocks.
In the first phase of the plan, finished in 2011, Silva and his team moved the cruise-ship dock from the inner harbor to a new pier at the end of the southern breakwater, for more direct access to the city and to accommodate ships up to 1,000 feet long. The terminal was completed in a second phase last year. In the near future, the pier and terminal will open to the general public, allowing the building, with its rooftop viewing deck, to truly function as a destination rather than just a curiosity when seen from Souto de Moura’s seaside promenade, where its dramatic forms stand out against the horizon.
Silva set the terminal in the elbow of the angled breakwater, and in plan it resembles a hinge or spring, with ramps and arms curving out in different directions toward the marina, the new pier, and the shore. Inside, these pedestrian paths come together in a spiraling oval ramp around the central atrium. The uncoiling arms diagram the different systems of movement through the building. From a cruise ship, for example, a breezeway carries passengers over the service areas of the dock to the terminal. Ramps and escalators bring them down to the ground level, where they pass through customs and baggage handling (or vice-versa), to connect to tour buses or smaller boats for trips to the city and the Douro wine region, or eventually to a tram line that is planned to run along the coast.
In the original program, the upper section of the terminal was meant to house a shopping concourse and a restaurant, but Portugal’s ongoing financial slump made investors hard to find. While Silva was developing the design, these floors were taken on by the University of Porto’s Marine Science and Technology Research Park. The architect rather awkwardly converted the commercial spaces into laboratories, with floor-to-ceiling glazed storefronts facing the atrium but with no exterior windows, and with offices on mezzanines accessed via spiral stairs. He installed a research aquarium in the basement, and converted the top-floor restaurant into a multi-use event credits space. Yet this unlikely partnership with the university does bring life to the building, as well as steady revenue, and allows the center’s scientists to be close to the sea.
Silva worked with local manufacturers to develop a hexagonal ceramic tile with a tilted face to clad the building, updating the Portuguese tradition of painted-tile facades. He rotated the tiles, placing them in varying relations to each other, like barnacles or shells, to create an uneven surface. “They give the building a human scale,” he says.
Glistening in the light, the curving walls of the building read like ribbons looping around themselves in an irregular tangle. Echoes of two Guggenheims are evident—Wright’s in New York and Gehry’s in Bilbao. Silva affirms, however, that Siza is his most important reference: “The way our bodies move in a space, and the way a space invites you forward.” Like Souto de Moura, whose early buildings were very Miesian, Silva may be using Wright and Gehry to mitigate the influence of Siza’s eccentric, rectilinear forms. Whatever the case, he develops the terminal’s looping ramps and drum with an elegant economy of means, and makes this formal repertoire his own.
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
Llyn Llech Owain Country Park is is a stunning 158-acre expanse of woods and lakeland near Cross Hands with nature trails, an adventure area and visitor centre. At the heart of this spectacular park is its dramatic lake which is surrounded by peat bog and there’s a lovely myth associated with Llyn Lech Owain. Legend has it that Owain Lawgoch ("Owain of the Red Hand" - who led an army of French mercenaries against the English in the Hundred Years' War), was entrusted to look after a well on the mountain named Mynydd Mawr. Each day, after extracting enough water for himself and his horse, Owain was always careful to replace the stone but on one occasion he forgot and a torrent of water poured down the side of the mountain. The resultant lake was hence named Llyn Lech Owain - the lake of Owain’s slab. Today, specially constructed paths allow for safe access over the bog and around the lake. The paths are well-surfaced and accessible to wheelchair-users. A forest track provides a longer walk or cycle ride around the country park and there’s a rough mountain bike trail for the more adventurous cyclist. Much of the park consists of coniferous woodland, planted by the Forestry Commission during the 1960s and there are also areas of dry heath and broad-leaved woodland.
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 before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada line, where it turns south towards the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado forms a large delta, emptying into the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.
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 furnish water for irrigation and municipal supplies of almost 40 million people both inside and outside the watershed. The Colorado's steep drop through its gorges is also utilized for the generation of significant 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 dewatered the lower course of the river such that it no longer reaches the sea except in years of heavy runoff.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
english
Emilia Pardo Bazán (16 September 1851 – 12 May 1921) (also known as Emilia, countess de Pardo Bazán) was a Spanish author and scholar from Galicia.
Life
Pardo Bazán was born in A Coruña, a city in the region of Galicia, Spain, and the culture of that area was incorporated into some of her most popular novels, including Los pazos de Ulloa ("The Manors of Ulloa") and its sequel, La madre naturaleza ("Mother Nature"). She was also known for bringing naturalism to Spanish literature, for her detailed descriptions of reality, and for her role in feminist literature of her era. Further, she was acknowledged for her creative stories such as Temprano y con Sol, which explicitly describes an ironic misfortune.
She married at eighteen to D. José Quiroga, a Galician country gentleman, and interested herself in politics, and is believed to have taken an active part in the underground campaign against Amadeo of Spain and, later, against the republic. In 1876 she came into notice as the successful competitor for a literary prize offered by the municipality of Oviedo, the subject of her essay being the Benedictine monk Benito Jerónimo Feijoo. This was followed by a series of articles inserted in La Ciencia cristiana, a magazine of the purest orthodoxy, edited by Juan M. Orti y Lara.
Her first novel, Pascual Lopez (1879), is a simple exercise in fantasy of no remarkable promise, though it contains good descriptive passages of romance. It was followed by a more striking story, Un viaje de novios (1881), in which a discreet attempt was made to introduce into Spain the methods of French realism. The book caused a sensation among the literary cliques, and this sensation was increased by the appearance of another naturalistic tale, La tribuna (1885), wherein the influence of Emile Zola is unmistakable. Meanwhile, the writer's reply to her critics was issued under the title of La cuestion palpitante (1883), a clever piece of rhetoric, but of no special value as regards criticism or dialectics.
The naturalistic scenes of El Cisne de Villamorta (1885) are more numerous, more pronounced, than in any of its predecessors, though the author shrinks from the logical application of her theories by supplying a romantic and inappropriate ending. Probably the best of Emilia Pardo Bazán's work is embodied in Los pazos de Ulloa (1886), the painfully exact history of a decadent aristocratic family, as notable for its portraits of types like Nucha and Julián as for its creation of characters like those of the political bravos, Barbacana and Trampeta. Yet perhaps its most abiding merit lies in its pictures of country life, its poetic realization of Galician scenery set down in an elaborate, highly-colored style, which, if not always academically correct, is invariably effective. A sequel, with the significant title of La madre naturaleza (1887), marks a further advance in the path of naturalism, and henceforth Pardo Bazán was universally recognized as one of the chiefs of the new naturalistic movement in Spain. The title was confirmed by the publication of Insolación and Morriña in 1889. In this year her reputation as a novelist reached its highest point. Her later stories, La cristiana (1890), Cuentos de amor (1894), Arco Iris (1895), Misterio (1903) and La quimera (1905), though not wanting in charm, awakened less interest. In 1905 she published a play entitled Verdad, known for its boldness rather than for its dramatic qualities. She received her title of Countess in 1907 and in 1910 was appointed a member of the Council of Public Instruction. Her last novel Dulce Dueño was published in 1911. In 1921 she was appointed to the Senate but never took formally her seat.[citation needed]
She was also a journalist, essayist and critic. She died in Madrid.
Português
Emilia Pardo Bazán, condessa de Pardo Bazán, (Corunha, 16 de setembro de 1851 — Madrid, 12 de maio de 1921) foi uma escritora e nobre espanhola.
Biografia
Conjugou realismo e naturalismo na sua literatura. Mulher de grande peso intelectual, tocou muitos géneros literários desde a novela até ao ensaio, passando pelos livros de viagens.
Foi das primeiras espanholas a mostrar-se activa no campo dos direitos da mulher. O seu cosmopolitismo assentou sobre uma intensa vinculação à sua cidade natal.
Situated over a thousand metres above sea level 30km northwest of Antalya, the ancient site of Termessos is one of Turkey’s prime attractions. Indeed, its dramatic setting and well-preserved ruins, tumbling from the summit of the mountain and enclosed within the boundaries of a national park – the Güllük Dağ Milli Parkı – merit a journey.
Despite its close proximity to Lycia, Termessos was actually a Pisidian city, inhabited by the same warlike tribe of people who settled in the Anatolian Lakeland, around Isparta and Eğirdir, during the first millennium BC. The city’s position, commanding the road from the Mediterranean to the Aegean, gave Termessians the opportunity to extract customs dues from traders; a wall across the valley is believed to be the site of their customs post. Later, in 70 BC, Termessos signed a treaty with Rome, under which their independence was preserved – a fact the Termessians proudly expressed by never including the face or name of a Roman emperor on their coinage. The city must have been abandoned quite early, probably after earthquake damage in 243 AD, and has only been surveyed, never excavated.
Source/Read more: www.roughguides.com/destinations/europe/turkey/mediterran...
Djupalonssandur is a beautiful pebbled beach, with a series of rocks of mysterious form emerging from the ocean.
It is one of the few areas that lead down to the sea along this coast with its high dramatic cliffs. Watch out for the famous ghosts roaming the place!
The rests of a shipwreck can be seen on the beach. On the beach there are also big stones which people tried to lift and test their strength in the days of the fishing stations: Fully Strong 154 kg, Half-Strong 100 kg, Weakling 54 kg and Bungler 23 kg. Weakling marked the frontier of wimphood, any man who couldn't lift it was deemed unsuitable for a life as a fisherman. (west.is)
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 (wiki)
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 Djúpalónssandur Beach. In Stykkishólmur fishing village, the 19th-century wood-frame Norwegian House is a regional museum with a craft shop.
Day Two.
Stayed the night at a motel in Monterey, which is a nice town. Had a quick look at the place last night/evening.
"Monterey is a city on California’s rugged central coast. Its Cannery Row, one-time centre of the sardine-packing industry, was immortalized by novelist John Steinbeck. Today, it's a popular strip of gift shops, seafood restaurants and bars in converted factories" Wiki.
Heading south now on Route One again to our next motel in San Luis Obispo about 150 miles away.
First stop (not far from Monterey) is Carmel - "Carmel-by-the-Sea is a small beach city on California's Monterey Peninsula. It's known for the museums and library of the historic Carmel Mission, and the fairytale cottages and galleries of its village-like center, a famous place known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history" Wiki.
Back on the road and Route One we headed down and into the bit of coast called Big Sur.
"Big Sur is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of the U.S. state of California between Carmel Highlands and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur has been called the "longest and most scenic stretch of undeveloped coastline in the contiguous United States"
It certainly lived up to the description! Amazing place to ride through/along!
Stopped at so many various vista points for pictures and posing etc!
We stopped for lunch at a place called Ragged Point -
"The tiny hamlet of Ragged Point where travellers are welcomed with a hotel, gourmet restaurant, a gas station, wedding facilities, hiking trails and outdoor cafe with an espresso bar. Towering high above the Pacific on a promontory with 400 foot sheer cliffs"
Unfortunately there was quite a bit of sea fret (low cloud) in the area, so our views were limited here..
Lunch was good too.. Met and chatted with another Harley biker on his way to San Diego.
Back on the road and continued down to San Luis Obispo to find our motel..
Once we had landed and sorted ourselves out, we went for a walk down into the town. One of the places we wanted to see was the (in)famous Bubblegum Alley. - "Bubblegum Alley is a tourist attraction in downtown San Luis Obispo, California, known for its accumulation of used bubble gum on the walls of an alley. It is a 15-foot (4.6 m) high and 70-foot (21 m) long alley lined with chewed gum left by passers-by. It covers a stretch of 20 meters in the 700 block of Higuera Street in downtown San Luis Obispo" Wiki.
We bought some food from a takeaway near our motel and ate that back in our room watching telly! Great day seeing so much beautiful coastline on the famous Route One!
Highlight: The area immediately northeast of Halong Bay is known as Bai Tu
Long Bay and is the focus of our special itinerary. Hundreds of islets
rising from the clear waters, long sandy beaches beckon, grottoes and
lagoons entice the visitor an area relatively underdeveloped and
unpolluted by
the tourist trade.
Halong Bay (2 days 1 night) 120USD/PP
Bai Tu Long bay Vong Vieng floating village Trong cave Ha Long bay
Sung Sot cave
DAY ONE (lunch, dinner )
08.30 approx
Our guide will meet you at your hotel. Mini bus or private car pick up.
Enjoy the peaceful scenery as we travel through the countryside, farmlands
and Red River delta. You will have a chance to take photos and short break.
The
time from Hanoi to Halong bay is approximately 3 ½ hours.
12 noon approx
Arriving Halong Bay. Welcome aboard The Paloma. Meet the captain, crew and
join us for a welcome cocktail as we tell you about life onboard.
Check into your cabin. Time to refresh and unwind.
Set sail as lunch is prepared by our chef.
Join us for a relaxing lunch in the restaurant or on the outdoor dining
area. Enjoy the stunning views of the Bay, its dramatic limestone islands as
we sail
through the calm waters.
Afternoon
While we make our way to Bai Tu Long Bay, relax on the sundeck and watch the
world go by or take an afternoon nap in your cabin. Early afternoon arrive
at Vong Vieng floating fishing village. Drop anchor.
Our guide will give you some information and interesting facts about this
fascinating village and its local community.
Disembark and travel on the sampans rowed by the local people. They will be
your guides through their fishing village where you can meet the locals,
visit
the school and pearl farms. See at first-hand what life is like living on
the water. We are proud of our working partnership with, and support of this
community. Back on board The Paloma we head towards Halong Bay. We drop
anchor in the calm waters surrounded by islets
Opportunity to go swimming in the clear warm waters or go kayaking. Kayaking
is suitable for all levels and ages. Our expert will run through the safety
procedures and after a basic paddling lesson our experienced guide will lead
you to explore the Bay, its lagoons and beaches.
For those who prefer a relaxing afternoon, make the most of sunbathing on
deck or pamper yourself with a massage and sauna in our luxurious spa.
Early evening
Back on board, enjoy the sunset with evening cocktails and fresh fruit.
Take an opportunity to refresh and then join friends for a pre-dinner drink
in the bar.
Dinner is served in the restaurant or outdoor dining area, which is a
gastronomic delight.After dinner, unwind in the bar where there is a
selection of books,
magazines and board games or relax in the spa; watch a movie on our plasma
TV; join some of our team to go cuttle fishing at night or take a late night
swim
under the stars. Accommodation and overnight on junk.
Architect: Klas Anshelm
Built in: 1957
Client: The City of Lund
Prehistory
Lund Konsthall is the result of a donation from the Old Savings’ Bank (today’s Finn Savings’ Bank) to the City of Lund. In 1953 the City Council decided to accept the gift and invited six architects for a competition to design the new art gallery. In 1954 the jury unanimously decided that Klas Anshelm’s proposal should be realized.
Architecture
Klas Anshelm (1914–1980) was a well-known and busy architect in Lund. With its monolithic brick façade Lunds Konsthall became one of Sweden’s finest exhibition venues. Its dramatic and yet restrained form is well adapted to contemporary art, and also blends in with the medieval architecture of Lund.
Renovations
Lunds Konsthall has not fully retained its original architectural expression, but it has escaped thorough reconstruction. In 1997 the building was renovated with support from the Finn Savings’ Bank and in 2004 it underwent a lighter renovation, aiming at restoring as much as possible of the original architecture.
History
‘I have tried to achieve an environment, tried to achieve a spatial frame for objects, and also to facilitate the changing of light bulbs.’
Klas Anshelm, Architect
Source: Lunds Konsthall - History.
The images from Lunds Konsthall was taken during the exhibition - The Opposite of Me Is I by the artist Miriam Bäckström.
The building replaced a meat inspection facility ... “there were exhibited dead rabbits and chickens, it was quite a stylish facility with overhead light and so. Here you display painted bunnies and chickens ...“explained Anshelm 1979 in an interview.
More pictures from Lunds Konsthall here.
Flowers for the Bard...
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April 1616) is rightly regarded and honoured as the greatest writer of the English language, and as the world's preeminent dramatist. He wrote approximately 38 plays and 154 sonnets, as well as a variety of other poems. Already popular in his own lifetime, Shakespeare became more famous after his death and his work was adulated by many prominent cultural figures through the centuries.He is often considered to be England's national poet and is sometimes referred to as the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard")or the "Swan of Avon".
Holy Trinity Church,
We visited Stratford upon Avon this weekend: this being the season of Shakespeare’s birthday on 23rd April. His grave in the chancel, which is an enormous tourist attraction. The bard was buried there in 1616 an honour bestowed upon him and his family as a “lay rector” of Holy Trinity church on the banks of the Avon. Just above the site on the north wall is a demi-figure bust of William Shakespeare by Gerard Johnson, erected within seven years of his death by his wife and friends. Pevsner states that the monument succeeded in making bard look like a self satisfied school master.This is similar to many other monuments dedicated to scholars and academics from this period, we have a few such memorials here in Oxford. The bust is probably (along with the well known engraved folio portrait) is likely to be the best likeness we have of England’s beloved son. Beneath this wall monument is the actual tomb (this weekend festooned with garlands and flowers from all corners of the earth)…upon it is written the famous curse “Bleste be the man that spares these stones, and curst be he that moves my bones.” Nearby is the old font in which he probably was baptized and the register of births and deaths. Although for most people visiting Shakespeare’s church the grave and the monuments and mementoes are the most important points; it should be said that this chancel is really only second to The Beauchamp chapel at nearby Warwick St Mary, for its dramatic space and magnificence.
Camels provide transportation to tourists at the ruins of the ancient Nabataean city of Petra in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Aside from your own feet, this is one of the few ways of getting around this vast area.
Petra is one of the New Seven Wonders of the ancient world and known for its dramatic tombs and temple facades. The city's inhabitants, Nabataean Arabs, carved gigantic structures into the soft sandstone more than two thousand years ago. This once bustling city was the capital of the Nabataeans who controlled the trading routes that passed through Petra to Jerusalem and Gaza in the west, Basra and Damascus in the north, Aqaba in the south, and across the desert to the Arabian Gulf.
Swimming Pool, and its dramatic backdrop, at the Arac Hotel Al Ula, Northwest Saudi Arabia. February 2013.
Ricoh FF9 compact with Agfa Vista 200 film.
The famous underground car park at The University of Melbourne.
This car park has National Trust classification at State level, achieving this because of its "innovative structural solution to the common problem of carparking, because of its imaginative integration into an existing, historic garden, because of its dramatic internal form and because of its successful integration of neoclassical sculpture into its main entry."
It was conceptualised by the planning and landscape firm Loader & Bayly in 1970, and employed engineering innovation in the form of distinctive "mushroom-shaped" columns to both support the roof and facilitate drainage for the lawn and trees grown above it.
Towering over the car park entrance closest to the Baillieu Library are a pair of sculptures by James Gilbert called Atlantes, which formerly adorned the doorway of The Colonial Bank of Australasia at the corner of Elizabeth and Collins Streets. The bank building was demolished in 1932, and the sculptures were donated to The University of Melbourne, who eventually repositioned them at the car park entrance in 1972 (www.walkingmelbourne.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=852).
To date, the atmospheric space has gained most attention for its use in the film Mad Max (1979), where it functioned as the underground garage at the Main Force Patrol quarters (www.madmaxmovies.com/making/madmax/MelbourneUni/index.html).
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
Architect: Klas Anshelm
Built in: 1957
Client: The City of Lund
Prehistory
Lund Konsthall is the result of a donation from the Old Savings’ Bank (today’s Finn Savings’ Bank) to the City of Lund. In 1953 the City Council decided to accept the gift and invited six architects for a competition to design the new art gallery. In 1954 the jury unanimously decided that Klas Anshelm’s proposal should be realized.
Architecture
Klas Anshelm (1914–1980) was a well-known and busy architect in Lund. With its monolithic brick façade Lunds Konsthall became one of Sweden’s finest exhibition venues. Its dramatic and yet restrained form is well adapted to contemporary art, and also blends in with the medieval architecture of Lund.
Renovations
Lunds Konsthall has not fully retained its original architectural expression, but it has escaped thorough reconstruction. In 1997 the building was renovated with support from the Finn Savings’ Bank and in 2004 it underwent a lighter renovation, aiming at restoring as much as possible of the original architecture.
History
‘I have tried to achieve an environment, tried to achieve a spatial frame for objects, and also to facilitate the changing of light bulbs.’
Klas Anshelm, Architect
Source: Lunds Konsthall - History.
The images from Lunds Konsthall was taken during the exhibition - The Opposite of Me Is I by the artist Miriam Bäckström.
The building replaced a meat inspection facility ... “there were exhibited dead rabbits and chickens, it was quite a stylish facility with overhead light and so. Here you display painted bunnies and chickens ...“explained Anshelm 1979 in an interview.
More pictures from Lunds Konsthall here.
An evening view of old Hong Kong International Airport at Kai Tak which closed on the evening of the 5th July 1998 after 75 years of service to HK. Kai Tak was definitely a pilot's airport with its dramatic 47 degree turn on the final approach over the rooftops of Kowloon City.
From: Janina
🇬🇧 English
Lao Shan (Laoshan) is a sacred mountain on China’s eastern coast, near Qingdao, famous for its dramatic granite peaks, clear springs, and strong Taoist heritage.
It is considered one of the birthplaces of Taoism, with temples dating back over 2,000 years. Laoshan is renowned for its pure mountain water, believed to have exceptional quality, and for its rare combination of mountain landscapes and direct sea views, which is unusual in China.
The mountain has long inspired poets, philosophers, and martial artists, symbolizing harmony between nature, spirit, and the Dao.
🇨🇳 中文（简体）
崂山（Lao Shan） 位于中国山东省青岛市东部，是中国著名的道教名山之一。
崂山以奇峰怪石、清泉瀑布和临海山景而闻名，是中国少有的“海上第一名山”。这里被认为是道教的重要发源地之一，至今仍保留着大量古老的道观。
崂山的山泉水极为著名，被认为清澈甘甜，富含灵气，长期被用于茶叶和传统养生文化中。
🇭🇷 Hrvatski
Lao Shan (Laoshan) je sveta planina na istočnoj obali Kine, u blizini Qingdaoa, poznata po strmim granitnim vrhovima, čistim izvorima i snažnoj daoističkoj tradiciji.
Smatra se jednim od najvažnijih povijesnih središta taoizma, s hramovima starima više od dvije tisuće godina. Posebnost Lao Shana je rijetka kombinacija planine i mora, gdje se s vrhova pruža pogled izravno na Žuto more.
Planina simbolizira sklad prirode, duhovnosti i dugovječnosti te ima važno mjesto u kineskoj filozofiji i kulturi.
Studebaker unveiled its dramatic new Avanti in 1963. Designed by famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy, it set 29 speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Seen at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.
Bathsheba is the main fishing village in the parish of Saint Joseph with some 5,000 inhabitants on the east coastline of Barbados. The town has a number of quaint churches; Saint Joseph Anglican Church was built on Horse Hill in the town as early as 1640 but was rebuilt in 1839 following a hurricane in 1831. Little Saint Joseph chapel was built nearby in 1837 but was restored and dedicated to Saint Aiden in 1904 following a landslide. It has a number of attractions including the Flower Forest and Cotton Tower which is renowned for its dramatic scenery and views of Scotland District. The ecologically rich Joe's River Tropical Rainforest is located on the outskirts of the town with some 85 acres (340,000 m2) of woodland and rainforest with giant ficus, citrifolia, fid woods, white woods, cabbage palm trees and mahogany trees. Bathsheba beach is known as the Soup Bowl where local and international surfing competitions take place annually. Another notable feature of Bathsheba beach is the large boulder that sits slightly offshore, known by some as Bathsheba Rock.
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.
"Saginaw". "Fisalborg" & the Tugs "Point Valour" & "Glenada"
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]