speculation photos on Flickr

854 West End Avenue House by Emilio Guerra

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

The 854 West End Avenue House is one of an intact group of four residences designed by the architectural firm of Schneider & Herter and built by the firm of Schneider & Company as a speculative venture. 1 The rowhouse group is the sole surviving example of a type of site planning used on several comer plots along West End Avenue in the early 1890s where a group of houses facing the Avenue featured a prominent comer house and an additional house was built facing the side street behind the Avenue-facing houses. Treated as the centerpiece of the rehouse group, the comer house at No. 858 West End Avenue is representative of the many larger comer houses with side entrances and comer towers which once stood on West End Avenue.

The group of residences was built in 1892-93 during the first period of intense residential development for the comfortable professional class along the northern portion of West End Avenue where the suburban qualities of landscaped streets, the views of the Hudson River, and the amenities of nearby Riverside Park created a desirable residential area. The 858 West End Avenue House is distinguished by ornament characteristic of the mannerist aesthetic of the firm of Schneider & Herter, the juxtaposition of contrasting textures of rough, smooth-faced, and carved brownstone, and the emphasis on a lively roof line punctuated by a bell-shaped tower and chimneys. The quality and distinctiveness of the Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival style design of the 858 West End Avenue House reflects the desire for individuality in the appearance of houses within rowhouse groups and is representative of the eclectically-styled residential architecture of West End Avenue dating from the 1890s.

Development of the Upper West Side

Despite its long history beginning soon after the colonial Dutch settlement, the Upper West Side, known as Bloomingdale prior to its urbanization, remained largely undeveloped until the 1880s. In the early eighteenth century, Bloomingdale Road (later renamed the Boulevard and finally Broadway in 1898) was opened through rural Bloomingdale and provided the northern route out of the city which was then concentrated in the southern tip of Manhattan. The Upper West Side was included in the Randel Survey of 1811 (known as the Commissioners' Map) which established a uniform grid of avenues and cross streets in Manhattan as far north as 155th Street, although years elapsed before streets on the Upper West Side were actually laid out, some as late as the 1870s and 1880s, and the land was subdivided into building lots.

The city grew rapidly northward during the nineteenth century, but it was not until after Central Park (a designated New York City Scenic landmark) was laid out in 1857 that development began around the perimeter of the Park, setting off the first wave of real estate speculation on the Upper West Side.

Improved public transportation to the area contributed to the growth and sustained development of the Upper West Side. By 1880 the horse car line on Eighth Avenue had been replaced by street rail service up to 125th Street and the Elevated Railway on Ninth Avenue (renamed Columbus Avenue in 1890) had been completed. However, the biggest boost to the development of the West End (the area west of Broadway) was the creation, between 1876 and 1900, of Riverside Drive and Park (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark) located north of 72nd Street along the Hudson River. The presence of the park and drive, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, was an important factor in making this area desirable for high-quality residential development.

Development of the Wast End began slowly, due, to a large degree, to the hesitation of would-be residents, but by 1885 it had emerged as the area in the city experiencing the most intense real estate speculation. The expectation that the blocks along Riverside Drive and West End Avenue would be lined with mansions kept the value of these lots, as well as adjacent land, consistently higher and developers were willing to wait to realize profits from the potentially valuable sites. The real estate developers, including the West End Association, founded in 1884 by the prominent developer, W.E.D. Stokes, ultimately stimulated the demand for houses in the West End. Real estate brochures and the local press drew attention to the area, emphasizing the scenic quality of the setting, the nearness of parks, and the availability of public transportation.

West End Avenue (formerly Eleventh Avenue) was opened in 1880 from 72nd Street to 106th street and was paved with asphalt by 1893. West End Association members set twenty-year restrictive covenants governing West End Avenue which closed the avenue to commercial traffic and initially limited development to single-family houses, thus enhancing the desirability of the residential area. By 1890 the character of the avenue had emerged as completely residential and was promoted as a suburban-like setting with such amenities as grass plots and trees along the sidewalks. The absence of flats and apartment houses on the avenue provided the opportunity for various treatments of the comers with rowhouses and larger attached residences.

In the mid-1880s the most attractive areas for development along West End Avenue were located near the El stations and along the higher elevations of the hilly avenue. Construction of mid-size rowhouses, rather than the more grand type of mansions originally projected for West End Avenue, began in 1885 near 104th Street which was convenient to a Ninth Avenue El station and by 1895 the high plateau between West 99th and 104th Streets had been built up with three- and four-story rowhouses. The architectural tone of these private residences was set by the presence of costly mansions such as the W.F. Foster residence at 102th Street and Riverside Drive and the Bacon residence at 104th Street and Riverside Drive.

The Schneider & Company's Houses

The site at the northeast corner of West 102nd Street and West End Avenue appears to have been first sold for development purposes in 1881 and at that time an open-ended restrictive covenant was initiated which prevented the construction of a variety of commercial and industrial buildings. The property changed hands several times before Hannah O'Brien filed plans in 1890 to build five three-story limestone-fronted houses designed by Andrew Spence; within a year O'Brien lost control of the property and this project was abandoned.

Two New York architects, Ernest W. Schneider and Henry Herter, along with two partners — John Fish, a previous client, and Eugene Schultz— acquired the property and soon after filed plans for the construction of a group of four three-story residences with raised basements. Beside the comer house, facing West End Avenue, are two narrow houses, nearly identical in design. Situated across the rear of the three West End Avenue houses, facing West 102nd Street and enclosing the yard area, the fourth house has a freestanding side facade. The houses, built between May, 1892, and April, 1893, were appropriately finished on the interior with decorative mantels, hardwood trim, and horseshoe openings ornamented with fretwork dividing the music rooms from the parlors, as well as up-to-date plumbing and utility areas. The placement of the stairhall in the center of each house permitted large full-width front rooms on the upper floors.

The first house to be sold in the rowhouse group was No. 856 West End Avenue. In 1895 the remaining houses were divided among the investors and Schneider & Herter acquired title to No. 858 West End Avenue. The house was sold in 1897 but title reverted to Schneider & Herter in 1898; they soon resold the house. No. 854 West End Avenue had been sold in 1895 and the West 102nd Street House was sold in 1896.

The Schneider & Company development venture is the sole surviving example of a site development pattern that emerged on West End Avenue in which large comer parcels were purchased for the construction of rowhouse groups. By decreasing the depth of the avenue-facing houses, an additional house could be built on the plot facing the side street; the plan worked to the advantage of the developer who sought a maximum return on the expensive West End Avenue lots. Slightly larger and more prestigious comer houses, with highly visible design features such as comer towers, were characteristic of this site development plan. This scheme was particularly favored in the early 1890s when the area between 99th and 104th streets was developed. Rowhouse groups facing West End Avenue, with a side street-facing house (or houses) across the rear of these lots, were built at the southeast comers of West End Avenue and 99th, 100th, 102nd, and 103rd Streets; all of the groups except the Schneider & Company group have been demolished.

The rowhouse group at the southeast comer of 103rd Street and West End Avenue, designed by M.V.B. Ferdon in 1891, included five houses facing West End Avenue and one facing 103rd Street; only the house facing West 103rd Street remains standing. Another group of houses designed by M.V.B. Ferdon and built by Increase Grenell in 1892 at the northwest comer of West End Avenue and 104th Street (demolished) included a comer house very similar to the Schneider & Company house, featuring the entrance near the center of the 104th Street facade.

Picturesque Architecture on West End Avenue

Curing the intense period of rowhouse development on the Upper West Side, from 1885 to 1900, residential design was dominated by a reaction to the conformity and homogeneity of older Italianate style brownstone rowhouses found elsewhere in the city. The first wave of development along West End Avenue in the period between 1885 and 1895 produced a number of individually-designed houses and speculatively-built, yet distinctive, rowhouse groups which, along with houses in the West End as a whole, represent the culmination of single-family house construction in Manhattan. Many of the most prominent architects working in New York City designed these residences, often for speculative developers who invested in the area. The residences designed for West End Avenue were characteristic of the picturesque eclecticism of late-nineteenth-century architecture, drawing from a wide variety of stylistic sources and expressing the desire of architects and clients for originality, variety, and novelty in residential architecture.

There was a movement away from smooth brownstone as a facing material and a new emphasis on the sculptural and textural qualities of surfaces, as well as on the mixture of colors and materials.

Unusual, picturesque house design on West End Avenue had been initiated by the construction of two groups of houses with a "Dutch" flavor in 1885-86, designed by Frederick B. White and McKim, Mead & White. Clarence True and other architects continued to design residences for West End Avenue in unusual and picturesque revival styles which were executed with a high-degree of artistic experimentation. Strong rhythmic patterns, asymmetrical massing, and a lively streetscape were created by the profusion of bowfronts, bay and oriel windows, gables, turrets, chimneys, dormers, cornices, stoops, and ornamentation associated with the popular Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles as well as more exotic revival styles. These later rowhouses on West End Avenue, and throughout the Upper West Side, unlike their Italianate brownstone predecessors from earlier in the nineteenth century, were purposely designed to be distinguished from one another, while together forming visually coherent ensembles.

The houses designed by Schneider & Herter are representative of this picturesque design movement, and although based on the common hybrid of the Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles they are enlivened by unusual carved ornament. The treatment of each of the four houses individually within the easily recognizable group provided the architects with the opportunity to create variations on a theme. The high degree of modulation in the plane of the facades, through the use of recessed entrances as well as projecting bay windows and balconies (which afforded views of the river and park) adds depth and grandeur to the rowhouse designs. Schneider & Herter explored the range of surface effects achievable from smooth-faced and rough-cut brownstone, and incorporated both geometric and figural carving of the material.

The repetition of several ornamental elements unites the houses, including paired stringcourses, gridded panels of rough-faced stone, chamfered window surrounds in the smooth-faced facades, sheet-metal panels at the roofline, and elements of the carved stone program. The two smaller West End Avenue houses are identical except for the shape and detailing of the window openings. No. 858 West End Avenue has recessed balconies at the parlor and second stories that relate the comer house to the West End Avenue houses, while the longer West 102nd Street frontage is visually linked to the house at 254 West 102nd Street through the repetition of unusual columns flanking the entrances and the carved panels at the roofline. The round comer tower with a bell-shaped roof serves as the centerpiece of the group.

The design of picturesque rowhouses in New York was influenced by trends in the design of architectural ornament in the later nineteenth century, a time when ornament was treated by many architects as an opportunity for creative experimentation. European theorists such as Owen Jones, James K. Collings, and Christopher Dresser encouraged an abstract interpretation of vegetation executed with an emphasis on geometricized form and their publications influenced designers in the United States. At the same time, technological change also influenced the design of ornament. The availability of steam-powered tools encouraged the use of bold, machine-cut ornament while the growing use of terra cotta prompted the design of intricate ornament that could be easily reproduced.

The popularity of several revival styles, and the inventive blending of these styles, encouraged the architect/designer to adopt an individualized aesthetic in the design of architectural ornament. This trend can be seen in the abstracted naturalistic ornament developed by such recognized American innovators as Frank Fumess and Louis H. Sullivan, as well as in the pioneering work of architects like Henry Hobson Richardson, who developed a highly personal style drawing on Romanesque sources. Many architects working in New York City also developed identifiable personal styles, such as clarence True with his interpretation of the "Elizabethan Renaissance Revival" style.

Schneider & Herter developed a somewhat idiosyncratic and mannerist aesthetic characterized by a lack of reverence for the traditional placement of ornament, an unexpected combining of architectural styles, and asymmetry in the composition of facades and their detailing; these characteristics appear in the firm's early designs for tenements, rowhouses and synagogues. In the ornamental programs of several buildings, including the 858 West End Avenue House, Schneider & Herter combined incised, machine-cut ornament— recalling the earlier Neo-Grec style of incised ornament — with both abstracted naturalistic designs and romantic figurative carving. An uncommon approach to the composition and placement of ornament appears in the design of the entrance where the architects combined pilasters with the projecting balcony above to suggest an entrance portico.

Two flattened engaged baluster forms, with incised horizontal bands and necks at the bottom, are topped by capitals with carved shell forms above inscribed circles; animal masks extend from the upper portion of plain blocks above the capitals that support the projecting balcony. Framing the door to the east is a variation on this form, a cylindrical baluster with a capital, different from the flanking ones, of stalky acanthus leaves above which an elongated console bracket supports the balcony. A more subtle example of Schneider & Herter's unusual ornamental treatment appears in the placement of carved stones in the upper courses of the rusticated basement to cap undefined piers.

Schneider & Herter

Ernest W. Schneider and Henry Herter began an architectural partnership in New York City around 1887; within a very short time they had a thriving business designing tenements, flats, and industrial buildings, primarily on the Lower East Side. Schneider & Herter worked repeatedly for a group of German-Jewish clients with ethnic backgrounds similar to theirs, the most prominent of whom were the real estate developers Jonas Weil and Bernard Mayer for whom the architects designed a number of multiple dwellings. This association led to the firm's commission for the Park East Synagogue, 163 East 67th Street (1889-90, a designated New York City Landmark), which Weil financed and led as president of the congregation. Schneider & Herter also designed Congregation Kol Israel Arshi at 20-22 Forsyth Street (1892, now owned by the Hellenic Orthodox Community).

The firm of Schneider & Herter had acted as architect-developers prior to its venture on the Upper West Side as Schneider & Co., designing and building a pair of French flats at 731-735 East 5th Street in 1890-91 and a French flat at 233-35 Delancey Street in 1891-92; the firm began a warehouse project at 141 West Broadway in 1893. Schneider & Herter later erected a five-story apartment building at 79-81 Perry Street in 1895 (in addition to designing several other buildings now within the Greenwich Village Historic District) and a pair of flats buildings at 309 and 317 West 93rd Street in 1901-02 (within the Riverside-West End Historic District).

The West End Avenue-102nd Street project was a departure from Schneider & Herter's usual work designing multiple dwellings, and was among the firm's first projects on the Upper West Side. Many of the firm's more than 100 multiple dwellings in Manhattan no longer stand, but those remaining exhibit the firm's individualistic approach to the use of ornament and facade compositions often featuring round-arched windows characteristic of the Romanesque Revival style.

- From the 1990 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Halfway, Oregon - USA - Half.com by Curt Deatherage

3 6

In August 1887 a post office called Halfway was opened on the Alexander Stalker ranch in northeast Oregon.

Much speculation has been made in regard to origin of the name, with the following suggestions made: halfway between Pine and Carson, halfway between Baker and Cornucopia, halfway between Baker and Brownlee and halfway between Brownlee and Cornucopia.

A cursory look at a map of the region shows those possibilities to be unlikely. The most compelling explanation is the ranch, hence the post office, was originally located at a point midway between Pine and Cornucopia.

As with many early post offices, the post office was located in private residences and was subject to the movements of the local population before its current location was established.

In 1999, Internet commerce and dot-com startup company half.com approached local city officials in Halfway about a proposed publicity campaign.

In what Time magazine describes as one of the top ten publicity stunts of all time, half.com, in exchange for $100,000 cash and computers for their school, bought the town's identity for the year 2000.

On Jan. 19, 2000, in a live telecast on NBC's Today television program, Halfway officially became half.com, America's first dot-com city.

The marketing scheme was a resounding success for the company, which was purchased by Internet auction site eBay later that year for a reported $350 million. Recently one of the two "Welcome to half.com" signs that formerly greeted visitors was sold on an eBay auction for $1,000.

Josh Kopelman, founder of half.com and the man who successfully convinced the town's 350 or so residents to change its name, won the auction over 45 other bidders.

IMG_0651 by Bob

In 2011 the Norfolk Southern brought back their steam program, under the name 21st Century Steam, leading to speculation among some about a possible restoration of 611. On February 22nd 2013, the Virginia Museum of Transportation announced that they were forming a committee to conduct a feasibility study with the goal of returning the 611 to active service. The committee is known as "Fire Up 611."[4]

On 23 May 2015, #611 sits on the turntable at the North Carolina Transportation Museum, between back-and-forth runs around the facility.

Norfolk and Western class Y6a #2156, class J #611, and class A #1218 on display at the "Big Three" celebration at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, VA, on May 31, 2015.

On June 28th, 2013, the "Fire Up 611" committee announced that 611 would be restored to operating condition in time for Norfolk Southern's 2014 steam excursion season, if $5 million was raised by October 31st, 2013 .[5] If the money was raised, 611 would be restored at the North Carolina Transportation Museum roundhouse in Spencer, NC. The sum of $5 million was sought, comprising: $1 million for locomotive restoration, $2 million for a dedicated maintenance shop in Roanoke, and the balance for an endowment and other items. Restoration requirements included repairs of the engine truck, the preparation of a tool car and an auxiliary water tender, application of new safety appliances such as in-cab signals and an event recorder, installation of new flues, boiler work, hydro and fire testing, test runs and inspection and repairs of the tender, running gears and air brakes. However, the hoped for amount was not reached, and the locomotive was to remain at the Virginia Museum of Transportation until the $3.5 million goal was reached.

On November 22nd, 2013, Norfolk Southern announced that they were donating $1.5 million of the proceeds from an auction of a Mark Rothko painting to the Fire Up 611! campaign.[6] In February of 2014, several key appointments were made by the Fire Up 611 committee to the locomotive's mechanical team, and the following month, a formal agreement was made with the North Carolina Transportation Museum for restoration. On April 1st, 2014, it was announced that after raising $2.3 million, the locomotive would move to North Carolina on May 24th, 2014. 611 arrived in Spencer on May 25th and took part in the Streamliners at Spencer event the following weekend. Restoration work on the 611 began on June 2nd, 2014. Restoration was done with the help of volunteers, including several from the Age of Steam Roundhouse. Due to the generally good condition of the locomotive, restoration was complete within a year.

On March 31st, 2015, 611 was fired up for the first time in over 20 years for a test fire, and on May 9th, it ran under its own power as part of the first round of post-restoration testing and it was also the day when N&W 2-8-8-2 Y6a 2156 left the St. Louis Museum of Transportation[7] for Roanoke to welcome back the 611.[8] On May 21, 2015, 611 made a brief test run from Spencer to Greensboro, N.C., pulling the "Powhatan Arrow" passenger cars. On May 30, 2015, 611 pulled its first excursion from Spencer, North Carolina to Roanoke, Virginia.[9]

The locomotive is scheduled to run several excursions during the summer of 2015.[10]

The first set of these excursions (3 trips) operated by the Virginia Museum of Transportation, Fire Up 611, and in coordination with Norfolk Southern, was hosted on the former Southern Railway B-Line (East/West) from Manassas, Virginia B0.0 to Riverton Junction B50.9 (Front Royal, Virginia) on June 6th and 7th, 2015. This included a climb up the Linden grade, a grade over 1% for more than 3 miles in either direction.

The second set of excursion (2 trips) are scheduled for June 13th and 14th, 2015 from Lynchburg, Virginia to Petersburg, Virginia. This is a 260 mile round-trip on the former Norfolk & Western main line historically served by the Class J locomotive.

The third set of excursions and last announced for 2015 are scheduled for July 3rd through 5th. This event includes 3 morning trips from Roanoke, Virginia to Lynchburg, Virginia over the historic Norfolk and Western Blue Ridge grade. Also offered are 3 afternoon trips from Roanoke, Virginia to Radford, Virginia which will traverse both the Montgomery tunnel and the Christiansburg grade. Both follow former Norfolk and Western mainlines that were historically served by the Class J locomotives

Century Apartments by Emilio Guerra

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

The Century Apartments, extending along the entire blockfront of Central Park West between West 62nd Street to West 63rd Street, anchors the southern end of one of New York City's finest residential boulevards, tfith twin towers rising 300 feet from the street, this building is one of a small group of related structures that help give Central Park West its distinctive silhouette. Designed in 1930 by Irwin S. Chanin of the Chanin Construction Company, the Century Apartments is among the most sophisticated residential Art Deco buildings in New York and is a major work by one of America's pioneering Art Deco designers.

Built in 1931, the Century was among the last buildings erected as part of the early 20th-century redevelopment of Central Park West. Central Park West, a continuation of Eighth Avenue, runs along the western edge of Central Park. Development along this prime avenue occurred very slowly, lagging substantially behind the general development of the Upper West Side. When Frederick Law Olmsted laid out Central Park he saw that the presence of the park would raise the value of land immediately adjacent to it. Olmsted expected these areas to develop as prime residential streets. Land speculation did indeed occur on Central Park West. However, the west side of the park never attracted the extremely wealthy people who could afford the inflated prices of land bordering on the park. Thus, while the side streets of the Upper West Side were built up with rows of speculative houses, Central Park West remained largely undeveloped.

A survey of Central Park West published in February 1893 shows that of the three blocks between 60th and 96th Streets (the American Museum of Natural History, located between 77th and 81st Streets is counted as one block) nineteen were either totally vacant or contained old shanties and frame houses. Other blocks were partially vacant. South of 71st Street every blockfront was empty except for the southernmost frontages which contained the Durland Riding Academy and the Van Norman Institute. 1

The earliest residential improvement on Central Park West, and one of its great architectural monuments was the Dakota, a designated New York City Landmark, at 72nd Street. Built in 1880-84, this eight-story building established Central Park West's character as a street of multiple dwellings. In 1890, by which time the Dakota had been joined by two apartment hotels, the St. Remo on 75th Street and the Beresford on 81st Street, as well as several flat houses, real estate broker F. R. Houghton noted that:

Central Park West seems to have only one future— it is destined to become an avenue of grand apartment houses and hotels. Everything tends that way. It is too public a thoroughfare to become a private residential avenue 3

However, it wasn't until several years later that Central Park West experienced the construction boom that Houghton had predicted.

The first concentrated building boom on Central Park West occurred at the turn of the century when a significant number of elegant residential and institutional buildings were erected south of 96th Street. These include some of the finest apartment houses in New York, such as the Prasada (1904) at 65th Street, the Langham (1905) at 73rd Street, the Kenilworth (1908) at 75th Street, and the St. Urban (1904) at 89th Street, as well as such institutional structures as the Ethical Culture Society School and Meeting House (1902, 1909) at 63rd and 64th Streets, Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church (1903) at 65th Street, the Second Church of Christ, Scientist (1898) at 68th Street, the Congregation Shearith Israel Synagogue (1895) at 70th Street, the Universalist Church of the Divine Paternity (1898) at 76th Street, and the Progress Club (now the Walden School, 1902) at 88th Street.

The presence of these fine apatment buildings and institutions on Central Park West reflects the coming of age of the Upper West Side. The Upper West Side had developed in the final decades of the 19th century as an enclave of upper middle-class life. Affluent middle-class families were attracted to the area by the quality of its housing, the presence of Riverside Park and Central Park, and by the accessibility of the neighborhood. As the Upper West Side became more and more desirable, developers began to build on the more expensive sites bordering the parks, and Central Park West began to be transformed into an elegant avenue of tall buildings that contrasted dramatically in scale to low rise residential Fifth Avenue. 4

In 1909 the new Central Park West apartment houses and institutions were joined by one of New York City's most sumptuous buildings, the New Theatre designed by Carrere & Hastings. This elegant limestone structure extended along the entire blockfront between 62nd Street and 63rd Street and was erected to house a subsidized theater company that would be artistically and physically separate from the commercial theaters centered around Times Square. This was not a successful artistic venture and the effort to establish a classical theater company at the New Theatre failed. In 1911 the theater was renamed the Century and it became a commercial house, albeit one located far from the commercial theater center. In 1920 the Shubert Organization gained control of the theater, and they managed it until its sale to the Chanin Construction Company in 1930.

During World War I construction on Central Park West slowed, but between 1920 and 1931 the area was transformed as the vacant sites were filled and many of the early apartment hotels and flats were replaced by new apartment houses. This final phase of Central Park West's development culminated in 1929-31 with the construction of the four twin-towered buildings that gave Central Park West its characteristic skyline. The distinctive form of the Century at 62nd and 63rd Streets, the Majestic (1930) at 71st-72nd Streets, the San Remo (1929) at 74th-75th Streets, and the Eldorado (1929) at 90th-91st Streets has come to symbolize the high quality of residential design of New York's Upper West Side.

Two of these great twin-towered buildings, the Majestic and Century, are Art Deco style structures designed and constructed by Irwin S. Chanin, one of New York City's leading builders and a pioneer in the design of Art Deco buildings in America. Irwin Salmon Chanin was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Soon after his birth the family returned to its native Ukraine, remaining there until 1907 when they moved back to Bensonhurst. Chanin graduated from Cooper Union in 1915 having studied engineering and architecture. His earliest employment was as an engineer working on subway construction in New York and Philadelphia. In 1919, after a brief stint in the army, Chanin began his building activities by constructing two houses in Bensonhurst. The success of this modest venture led to the construction of other one- and two-family houses in Bensonhurst as well as the formation of the Chanin Construction Company. In 1924 Chanin entered the real estate field in Manhattan with the erection of the Fur Center Building.

Also in that year Chanin began the construction of the first of a series of Broadway theaters. These theaters— all designed by architect Herbert Krapp—the 46th Street, Biltmore, Mansfield (now Brooks Atkinson), Royale, Majestic, and Masque (now Golden) have excellent sightlines and acoustics and only a single balcony; they remain among the finest Broadway houses. Chanin also built three large movie houses—the Loew's Coney Island (1925), Reilly & Hall, architects; the Roxy (1927), Walter Ahlschlager, architect; and the Beacon (1927-28), Walter Ahlschlager, architect. In 1925 Chanin spent four weeks in Paris visiting the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes. This decorative arts exhibition had a profound influence on American architecture as American architects began to adapt the ornamental forms they had seen in Paris to their buildings. The first architects In the United States to use what have come to be known as Art Deco forms on major architectural works were Chanin and Ely

Jacques Kahn, both of whom had visited the Paris exhibition.^ Art Deco motifs first appear in Chanin's work at the Lincoln Hotel (now the Milford Plaza Hotel) built in 1927 as part of a complex of buildings that included the Royale, Majestic, and Masque Theatres.

The Lincoln was a traditionally styled structure designed by Schwartz & Gross. For the lobby and dining room, however, Chanin designed Art Deco wall panels and furnishings. The Lincoln Hotel interiors were followed by the Chanin Building of 1927-29 located at the southwest corner of East 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. At the time the Chanin Building was designed, Chanin was not a registered architect. Chanin hired Sloan & Robertson, a rather conservative architectural firm responsible for the nearby Graybar Building, to examine the plans prepared by the Chanin Construction Company* Sloan & Robertson were only responsible for the exterior form of the building. Chanin personally supervised the decoration of the building. The building is filled with French-inspired Art Deco motifs, many executed under Chanin's direction by French-trained sculptor Rene Chambellan.

In 1930 Chanin became a registered architect and he was responsible for the design of the two Central Park West apartment buildings, but both projects had their genesis in plans for other building types. In April 1929, the Chanin Construction Company purchased the old Hotel Majestic on Central Park West between 71st Street and 72nd Street, intending to replace the old structure with a 45-story hotel.^ As designed, this was a dramatically-massed Art Deco structure, but the building situation in New York following the stock market crash precluded the construction of such an ambitious and risky project. In June 1930 it was announced that a 29-story twin-towered apartment house would rise on the site. According to Chanin, the design of this building was somewhat experimental—he wished to see if Art Deco forms would be accepted for a residential building.

Chanin's official involvement with the Century site began on May 28, 1929, when it was announced that the Chanin Construction Company would purchase the entire city block bounded by Broadway, Central Park West, West 62nd Street, and West 63rd Street. The site included the Century Theatre on Central Park West, Daly's Theatre on 63rd Street, and an apartment house and two garages on Broadway. Chanin announced that he would build a 65-story skyscraper on the site, that would, according to the New York Times, "be revolutionary in design and use."8 The Century Theatre was the property of the Shubert Organization, and in order to acquire the Central Park West site, Chanin was forced to sell them his interest in the Royale, Masque, and Majestic Theatres. The Shubert Organization had purchased a half interest in these theaters in 1928 and, according to Chanin, had had an interest in acquiring full control.

In August 1929 Chanin announced specific plans for the newly acquired Century Theatre site. He proposed to build an office and hotel that would be "an innovation in international relations."^ The building, to be known as the Palais de France, was to house the French consulate and tourist board, and the offices of French commercial firms. Chanin was to design the new building which would be in a "modern French [style] adapted to the exigencies of American skyscraper construction.In other words, this was to be an Art Deco style building using forms similar to those already in evidence at the Chanin Building. The building was to have three stories of permanent exhibition space for the display of French manufactured goods and for an international display of automobiles, airplanes, and yachts. There would also be shops on the ground floor. The next 27 stories were to be a hotel, while the top 30 stories were to be the French offices.

The conception of a Palais de France for New York reflects Chanin's interest in France and French culture. He wished to provide a building where French and American art and commerce could be united. While Chanin was impressed with European, and particularly French, modern design, he felt that America had successfully adapted these forms to create its own design idiom:

While Europe is the motherland in the development of the so-called modernistic tendencies in design, it is my own opinion that America is rationalizing these ideas and is making them fit into the scheme of things more successfully than Europe. I did not see abroad'any modernistic interiors or furniture that approaches either in beauty or usefulness that which is becoming fairly common in New York.H

The Palais de France was to unite a modern American structure with the finest modern French products.

Chanin and banker S.W. Straus traveled to France to arrange the sale of the Century site to the French. Negotiations seemed to be progressing, but no money was forthcoming from French banks, and in October 1930, Chanin announced that the Palais de France scheme had been dropped and that he would build a twin-towered apartment house similar in concept to the Majestic, then under construction. This building was to contain small apartments of from two to seven rooms "to meet the demand for this type of housing accommodation along Central Park West."12 According to Irwin Chanin the Century's apartments are smaller than those of earlier buildings because of the difficulty in renting large apartments during the Depression. The earlier Majestic had large apartments, some of which were difficult to rent and so the Century was planned with smaller, but still carefully laid out units.^ The Century, designed a year after the Majestic, is considered by Chanin to be a finer work.

He particularly noted that the crown of Century is a more complex creation and that the building has finer bay windows and balconies, and special glass.

The Century was the last of the four great Central Park West twin-towered apartment buildings. It is these buildings which prompted the New York Times to write that the west side "skyline bids fair to be ere long as beautifully fantastic as it is where the river mingles in the bay."^-^ The tower forms of the Century, Majestic, San Remo, and Eldorado came about as a result of the multiple dwelling law passed by the New York State Legislature in 1929. This law mandated an increase in yard and court area, but allowed residential buildings to rise higher than before, legalizing setbacks and towers in this building type for the first time. The bill limited the height of street walls to time the width of the street, but, on plots of over 25,000 square feet, allowed towers that could rise up to three times the width of the street.

The Century is a sophisticated essay in "modern American" or Art Deco design. The facade exhibits a complex balance of horizontal an^ vertical elements that creates a dynamic design tension. The nineteen-story superstructure forms a street wall that hugs the lot line on all three main elevations and lines up with the older pre-1929 buildings on Central Park West, while the towers rise up to proclaim the advent of a new zoning scheme and a modern style of architecture. The bands of tan and light brown brick, the long corner windows, and the cantilevered balconies lend a strong horizontal force to the design, but these are balanced by the vertical thrust of the projecting bowed window bays with their vertical brick ornament, by the rust-colored brick spandrel panels, and by the recessed window bays of the towers. The geometric masses that crown the towers also display this complex balance of horizontal and vertical forms.

On a smaller scale, the pattern of window mullions echoes the balance of horizontal and vertical elements found elsewhere. This is particularly true at the corner solaria with their strong horizontal mullions and rhythm of narrow and wider vertical mullions. These solaria are an important feature of the Century's design, and they, along with the other windows of the building, were equipped with a special imported English glass that allowed ultra-violat rays Into the apartments. Much of the Century's interest lies in the manipulation of such structural features as the brickwork, windows, bays, and balconies. Ornament, placed sparingly on the exterior, is used to highlight major focal points of the building such as the entrances, setbacks, and crowns. It is the crowns, visible from Central Park and as far east as Fifth Avenue, that are, appropriately, given the most dramatic ornamental form. The buttressed crowns with their corner fins and arched rear projections are one of New York City's major architectural adornments.

When it opened, the Century contained 417 suites and 1,688 rooms. Among its special features were sunken drawing rooms with fireplaces, creak-proof floors of walnut and selected hardwoods, free standing showers, duplex suites, and lobbies adjacent to the three entrances that displayed the finest in contemporary American design. In addition, there was a private landscaped garden located within the U-shaped plan of the building. The garden walls are faced with the same brick used for the street facades, reflecting Chanin*s effort to have the eighty-foot wide garden take on the form of a street, so that when residents looked out of their garden windows they did not have the feeling of living in a dark court.

The quality of the Century's design and its location near Hidtown offices and the theater district have attracted many prominent tenants including members of the Chanin family, Ethel Merman, Lee Shubert, Nanette Fabray, Jack Dempsey, Joey Heatherton, Mark Connolly, Theodore Sorensan, Carol Lawrence, Robert Goulet, Bill Cullin, and Leo Lindy (of cheesecake fame).

Description

The Century Apartments faces onto Central Park West between 62nd and 63rd Streets and extends back 250 feet on both side streets. The massing of this 30-story building is divided into a massive nineteen-story base that runs along the lot line on all three elevations and a pair of tall towers set at the Central Park West corners. The structure rests on a low rose-colored granite watertable, above which is a one- and two-story ochre-colored stone base. In the center of the Central Park West facade, the one-story stone base is pierced by the main entrance. The lobby is entered through a pair of glass doors protected by stylized geometric Art Deco style grilles of "white metal." The doors are set within a modest white metal enframement. The entrance ensemble is surrounded by the same rose-colored granite used on the watertable. This surround is framed by quoin-like forms ending in raised vertical moldings. To either side of the entrance are window groups and doors leading to professional apartments.

There are stores at either corner. The storefronts are not original, but they are set within the original openings. The commercial space at the 62nd Street corner was originally planned to house a bank, but due to the Depression the two-story space remained vacant. After World War II the space was divided and an apartment was created .on the second floor.

In its massing and ornamentation the Century Apartments displays a sophisticated balance between horizontal and vertical elements. Vertically, the main mass of the symmetrical apartment house can be divided,into five pavilions, each separated by shallow bow windows. The three central sections are faced with a tan brick that was chosen because of its resemblance to the color of limestone. The facade is enlivened with wide bands of light brown brick set between all of the windows with the exception of those beside the vertical bowed bays at either end. The central pavilion, above the entrance, is articulated by two windows on each of the floors between two and fifteen (exterior floor numbers may not always correspond with the interior numbering system). As with all of the windows of the building the sash consists of metal casements. Each window is divided into several movable and stationary panes by thin metal mullions.

The balance between the vertical and horizontal mullions echoes the overall balance of the building. In the central section each window consists of two movable casements. Long rectangular panes flank the casements while four stationary panes are set above and four jalousie windows are set below. There are concrete sill bands below each window.

Flanking the central section and separated from it by pairs of bowed window bays are pavilions that consist of pairs of small single casement windows and a double casement. The bowed bays rise vertically from the second floor. Bands of tan and light brown brick are located between the bays of each pair. The bowed window of each apartment is set below the level of the other windows indicating the presence of sunken drawing (living)rooms. Each of the bow windows Is divided into five parts with three narrow casements flanked by stationary panes. There are fixed transoms above and jalousies below. The bays are enlivened by the use of rust-colored brick spandrels ornamented with vertical bands of projecting bricks laid at an angle.

The rows of angled bricks continue the vertical Lines of the window mullions. Each window in the bay has a concrete sill and a brick lintel.

The corner sections of the building are faced entirely in tan brick and are articulated by large glass solaria. The end pavilions are separated from the central portion of the building by single bowed bays identical in form to those already described. These bays rise to the seventeenth floor, two stories higher than the central bays. Each solaria consists of eight windows on Central Park West and three on the side street. With the exception of the end panes on Central Park West all of these are movable casements. These large window groups have strongly articulated horizontal metal mullions and a rhythm narrow and wider mullions.

The sixteenth through nineteenth floors form a transitional zone between the main mass of the building and the towers above. Each of these floors contains cantilevered concrete balconies guarded by metal railings ornamented with Art Deco style chevron patterns.

The twin towers soar upwards to the ornamental crowns that identify the building from afar. The towers are faced with tan brick with light brown bands at the corners. The windows, with their metal mullions, are of the type discussed above. On Central Park West, beginning above the twentieth floor, the four central windows of each tower are ornamented by bold goemetric brick patterns. At the thirtieth floor each tower sets back to form the unique top that gives the Century its distinctive, recognizable silhouette. Like the massing and ornamentation of the facades and^the arrangement -a£»ithe windows _ these crowns exhibit a complex interaction of horizontal and vertical elements. Each consists of a main geometric mass (housing a water tower) that is supported by buttresses. The vertical thrust of the buttresses is countered by concrete "fins that straddle each corner of the towers.

At the northwest corner of the north tower and the corresponding southwest corner of the south tower arched projections with incised channels rise almost to the roofline (that to the south has been poorly rebuilt). These add to the dynamic silhouette of each tower.

The side street elevations of the Century step down in accordance with zoning rules. There are four major levels on each side street elevation, each of which is topped by projecting concrete balconies. The tan brick facades are interrupted in three locations by pairs of ornamental rust-colored brick window spandrels. On the ground floor are a succession of doors leading to professional offices and secondary residential entrances similar in design to that of the front elevation. At the rear, on each street, are geometric Art Deco gates leading to the service entrances. Geometric water tower pavilions, similar in form to the tower crowns, are located above the roofline of each side street facade.

The main mass of the Century is laid out on a U-shaped plan with a central garden that is visible from the public park and drive of the Lincoln Plaza Apartments off Broadway. The inner elevations of the Century are faced with the same tan brick used elsewhere and are articulated with a similar fenestration pattern. The use of the same face brick on the private inner court that was used for the public facades was unusual and evinces a desire on Mr. Chanin's part to design and build a building of the highest residential quality. The court created by the U-shaped plan was laid out as a garden for the enjoyment of the tenants. This garden, with its four brick pylons, survives.

There have been only two serious alterations to the Century since its completion. These are the alteration to the arched fin of the south tower, previously noted, and the removal of the original windows and brickwork from the twentieth and twenty-first floors of the Central Park West elevation of the south tower. Other alterations have occurred to the windows of the north tower penthouse and to several other apartment windows.

The Century Apartments stands today as a testament to the vision of architect and builder Irwin S. Chanin. In its characteristic twin-towered form, it remains one of the landmarks of Central Park West and is one of the major Art Deco style apartment buildings in America.

- From the 1985 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Blazes? In South Italy is a racket affair for illegal building speculation by Chiara Marra

Ischia under fire the first photo that I take during the beginning of the blaze

The emergency of blazes and bushfires are damaging South Italy. This is only a cause of hot weather and high temperatures? Autorithies don’t think so, and the trail of criminal intents is followed.

In Peschici on south east in Apulia, a deep crisis of blazes is explosed in the end of July where a lots of tourist of hotels and camping are escaped losing everything helped only by some fishermen during the laterness of benefit associations’ arrive . This news was the great exploit of this year for reintroduce this problem in italian journalism reports...But what does it means that criminal intents are interested in this situation?

Last week I was in Ischia, an Italian island near by Naples, here, where the racket organisation of Camorra is deeply present. Fire has start to shine in the night of Sunday on a rocky hill with few houses. Here fire was extinguished only at 12 p.m of Saturday because the difficult clime situation ( a strong wind and a sunny day) and the presence of other 137 important fires all around Campania has delay the action of benefit associations.

In Italy laws establish that on a burned ground is prohibited to do anything, but, in this duty time, Camorra and racket organizations promote their illegal building speculation. After, when a “eco moster” a great unauthorized built is done, is possibile to legalize it with a money remission.For eliminating this hard situation, the State invite regions and town damaged by this problem to create some land registries where to signal zones hit by this emergency.Today this acts of pyromaniacs are punished with 7 years of prison but is hard to find guilties.

Lady Luck at Conservative Party conference in Birmingham by Global Justice Now

08/10/2012. Campaigners from the World Development Movement protest outside Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, calling on George Osborne to support regulation to stop bankers betting on food prices. Food speculation has been blamed for exacerbating recent spikes in food prices.

Jemison Center, Northport, Alabama by Nicolas Henderson

1

The history of the Jemison Center, often strangely called "Old Bryce," seems to be mired in half-truths and speculation on the internet. The earliest information found dates back to when the land was a plantation, called Crab Orchard back in the 1820s, due to the many crab apple trees located on the property. It was owned by William Jemison, who then passed it down to his son, Robert Jemison Jr., a successful politician and businessman. The 4,000 acre tract in Northport was later known as Cherokee Place, where Robert would live until his new home was completed in Tuscaloosa in 1862. Jemison was a major advocate for the establishment of a hospital for the insane in Alabama, and is considered a major influence to select the area as the site for the first asylum in the state - the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane (Bryce Hospital).

By the 1920s the asylum had become severely overcrowded, and satellite institutions were created nearby to relieve the pressure, such as the Alabama Home for Mental Defectives (later known as Partlow State School). In 1939, the site of the Cherokee Plantation was purchased and transformed into the State Farm Colony for Negroes (the old Bryce Hospital grounds only housed white patients during the Jim Crow era). The former plantation house on the hill was razed and in its place the state of Alabama constructed the Jemison Institute, a three-story brick institution with detached heating plant for $161,000.

History seems to fade from there; it's assumed the Jemison Center operated as a state work farm, where able-bodied African American patients would work the fields to produce food for the hospital, as well as performing other kinds of labor (weaving, mending, etc). Desegregation orders from the government and changes in labor laws seemed to put an end to the Jemison Center; all farming operations at Bryce ceased in 1977. A mid-19th century structure was also erected on the property, called the S.D. Allen Intermediate Care Facility; it was used as a nursing home until it closed in 2003.

Info taken from - opacity.us/site245_jemison_center.htm

Jemison Center, Northport, Alabama by Nicolas Henderson

The history of the Jemison Center, often strangely called "Old Bryce," seems to be mired in half-truths and speculation on the internet. The earliest information found dates back to when the land was a plantation, called Crab Orchard back in the 1820s, due to the many crab apple trees located on the property. It was owned by William Jemison, who then passed it down to his son, Robert Jemison Jr., a successful politician and businessman. The 4,000 acre tract in Northport was later known as Cherokee Place, where Robert would live until his new home was completed in Tuscaloosa in 1862. Jemison was a major advocate for the establishment of a hospital for the insane in Alabama, and is considered a major influence to select the area as the site for the first asylum in the state - the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane (Bryce Hospital).

By the 1920s the asylum had become severely overcrowded, and satellite institutions were created nearby to relieve the pressure, such as the Alabama Home for Mental Defectives (later known as Partlow State School). In 1939, the site of the Cherokee Plantation was purchased and transformed into the State Farm Colony for Negroes (the old Bryce Hospital grounds only housed white patients during the Jim Crow era). The former plantation house on the hill was razed and in its place the state of Alabama constructed the Jemison Institute, a three-story brick institution with detached heating plant for $161,000.

History seems to fade from there; it's assumed the Jemison Center operated as a state work farm, where able-bodied African American patients would work the fields to produce food for the hospital, as well as performing other kinds of labor (weaving, mending, etc). Desegregation orders from the government and changes in labor laws seemed to put an end to the Jemison Center; all farming operations at Bryce ceased in 1977. A mid-19th century structure was also erected on the property, called the S.D. Allen Intermediate Care Facility; it was used as a nursing home until it closed in 2003.

Info taken from - opacity.us/site245_jemison_center.htm

Jemison Center, Northport, Alabama by Nicolas Henderson

The history of the Jemison Center, often strangely called "Old Bryce," seems to be mired in half-truths and speculation on the internet. The earliest information found dates back to when the land was a plantation, called Crab Orchard back in the 1820s, due to the many crab apple trees located on the property. It was owned by William Jemison, who then passed it down to his son, Robert Jemison Jr., a successful politician and businessman. The 4,000 acre tract in Northport was later known as Cherokee Place, where Robert would live until his new home was completed in Tuscaloosa in 1862. Jemison was a major advocate for the establishment of a hospital for the insane in Alabama, and is considered a major influence to select the area as the site for the first asylum in the state - the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane (Bryce Hospital).

By the 1920s the asylum had become severely overcrowded, and satellite institutions were created nearby to relieve the pressure, such as the Alabama Home for Mental Defectives (later known as Partlow State School). In 1939, the site of the Cherokee Plantation was purchased and transformed into the State Farm Colony for Negroes (the old Bryce Hospital grounds only housed white patients during the Jim Crow era). The former plantation house on the hill was razed and in its place the state of Alabama constructed the Jemison Institute, a three-story brick institution with detached heating plant for $161,000.

History seems to fade from there; it's assumed the Jemison Center operated as a state work farm, where able-bodied African American patients would work the fields to produce food for the hospital, as well as performing other kinds of labor (weaving, mending, etc). Desegregation orders from the government and changes in labor laws seemed to put an end to the Jemison Center; all farming operations at Bryce ceased in 1977. A mid-19th century structure was also erected on the property, called the S.D. Allen Intermediate Care Facility; it was used as a nursing home until it closed in 2003.

Info taken from - opacity.us/site245_jemison_center.htm

611 21st Century Steam Power by Bob