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How Architecture Learned to Speculate
Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest
December 2009
For the first time, the speculative in architecture becomes a topic of critical research. It is investigated, not as idealistic but as strategic acting within endless modernity. This modernity implies that speculation, as strategic acting, is not only applied to economic, but also to political, and aesthetic values. The consequences? Values become mobile, valuations become a play with high and low, authors (architects) become winners or losers, and culture becomes fashion.
Including projects by Michael Najjar, Matthieu Laurette, NL Architects, PARA-Project, visiondivision, MVRDV, Aristide Antonas, David Schalliol, Kevin Bauman, FAT, David Trautrimas, JODI, Bernard Gigounon, Ralf Schreiber, Gitta Gschwendtner, Pascual Sisto, Darlene Charneco, Seyed Alavi, Helmut Smits, Ant Farm, 100101110101101.ORG, Caspar Stracke, and OMA.
ISBN: 978-3-00-029876-9
Number of pages: 246
Measurements: 19 x 12 x 1,1 cm
L. W. Johns. If vicissitudes, wanderings, and adventures make up an eventful career, then the subject of this sketch has just claims to such distinction. There has not been a single year of the twenty-two that he has been a citizen of America, in which he has not passed through wonderful occurrences.
Llewellyn W. Johns was born at Ponty Pridd, Glamorganshire, Wales, England, November 10, 1844. His father, William Johns, and his mother, Catherine Hopkins, were both natives of Wales, and his ancestors on the paternal side, for several generations back, had followed the profession of mining engineer, and it was but natural that Llewellyn should adopt the same calling. His father having a large family, he left the calling of engineer, and engaged in speculation, in which he amassed a fortune of £50,000. He had enormous contracts to supply food-stuffs to the mines. In the great strike of 1850. in the Rhonda Valley, involving forty thousand miners, he made a speech to six thousand people at the Cymmer bridge, in which he pledged himself to stand by
the miners, as he did not think the reduction for digging coal just. Owing to bad debts contracted in this strike, he was never able to rally.
Llewellyn was sent to school at Bath, England, to receive training as a mining engineer, in the Western Academy of that city, and after remaining there fifteen months was compelled to leave school on account of the straitened circumstances of his father. He worked at the government chain works, at Ponty Pridd, and then in the mines. His health failing, he was compelled to quit the mines, and prepared himself to become an excise officer, but failing to get the necessary nomination from his member of parliament, he was compelled to return to the mines. He worked as an ordinary miner, and at other times as a skilled engineer. As he saw nothing but hard work and poverty ahead of him, he determined to go to America. With this purpose in view he left home in his eighteenth year, went to Liverpool, and from there set sail February 26, and arrived in New York on Good Friday. He took lodgings at a boarding house on Greenwich Street, and had one dollar and a half in his pocket. The following morning found him penniless, and in a strange city, among a strange people. He walked along the streets until he came to Central Park and met a surveyor, who was laying out blocks in the city, whose name was T. H. Tomlinson. He applied to him for work, telling him that he was willing to do anything, and that he understood how to do the work of an engineer. The first day he worked without food, and so capable did he prove himself that in two days he was left in charge of the work. At the end of a week he was given permanent employment with a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per month. He continued in this position three months, and then went to Allentown, Pennsylvania, and worked on the Lehigh Valley Railroad building bridges, and subsequently to Wilkes-barre, Pennsylvania, where he worked in the coal mines during the winter. He next went to Chicago and worked for the Lake Shore Railroad building cars. He soon after went to Omaha, Nebraska, where he arrived penniless again. The Union Pacific Railroad was then being built through that country, and he engaged to work with the bridge force, and was at Cheyenne until fall, and then went to Ogden and Salt Lake City, and remained in each place some little time. A great deal of excitement prevailed over the gold fields in Montana, and he hired himself to drive a team to Helena, in that territory, a distance of three hundred miles. There were twenty -seven teams of eight oxen each in the wagon train. Arriving at his destination there was no work to be obtained and he was again penniless. He succeeded in obtaining work, however, with an Englishman, and continued with him during the winter.
In the spring of the following year he went to the Placer Mines, in the Lost Chance Gulch, and took an abandoned claim, and in a short time struck bed rock. In four months time he took out $15,000 in gold dust. At that time he formed a partnership with a saw-mill proprietor, for the purpose of building a flume, twelve miles long, and the firm put in bids for the work. Although the figures were enormously high, they secured the contract. The work was commenced at once with a large force of hands. After constructing six miles of the flume the firm failed, and were unable to proceed further, and he was again penniless. He then walked to Deer Lodge, where he met a friend who gave him three dollars, and from this point he took stage to Pioche, Nevada, and arrived there in the midst of winter, and worked in the mines throughout the season.
Amassing a few hundred dollars he went to Pennsylvania in 1868, and worked in the mines and built cars for the Honeybrook Coal Company. So rapidly did he rise in their favor that in a short while he was promoted to the position of mining and mechanical engineer, continuing until the fall of 1870, and then went to Lime Ridge, Pennsylvania, and worked six months with Major W. R. Thomas, a nephew of the great Samuel Thomas.
Major Thomas informed him of his intention to go South in the following spring for the purpose of building a furnace at Rising Fawn, Georgia. Six months after his departure Captain Johns followed, and stopped at Warrior, in Jefferson County, and dug coal for Mr. J. T. Pierce, also building a number or chutes and a houise for him. After completing this work he resumed his journey, and stopped at Birmingham in the fall of 1872. This place was at that time in the gloom, misery, and desolation of the cholera plague. Arriving at Rising Fawn he took the contract to build the inclines and chutes, and, as soon as this task was finished, he was made superintendent of the mines, and was occupied for some time in opening them. The coal proved to be worthless.
The panic of 1873 coming on, the Rising Fawn Iron Company failed, owing their employees a large sum of money, himself individually seventeen hundred dollars. It was at this time that Senator Brown, of Georgia, came on the scene, and bought up the stock of the company, and succeeded in getting control of the property. Captain Johns finally obtained what was due him, but many of the employes were not so fortunate. For six months it was a serious matter with him to get even the most frugal necessities of life.
In September, 1874, he married Jennie Scott, then a resident of Rising Fawn. She came from Durham, England, when eight years old.
In the spring of 1875 he went to St. Louis, and then left for California, but on the way, hearing of silver mines around Virginia City, Nevada, he directed his course to that city. He arrived there with twelve hundred dollars, but work was scarce, and quarters to stay in and something to eat was next to impossible to obtain. This was owing to the fact the place was overcrowded. At first he secured work as a carpenter at five dollars per day. Always progressive, he soon became timber boss for the Ophir Mines, of which Captain Curtis, a popular mining man, was superintendent. Fortune favored him, and he soon rose to be assistant engineer of the mines. He accumulated a small sum of money, about two thousand dollars, which he put up as a margin in a purchase of fifty thousand dollars mining stock. Mackey, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien were then in their glory. There were many small investors, who, being called on for money were unable to respond, and the whole troop of little fellows went down together, and the quartet above mentioned reaped a rich harvest.
Mrs. Johns returned to Rising Fawn in the fall of 1875, while Captain Johns held his position a year longer, and then joined his wife. Mr. James Thomas was then in charge of the furnaces at Oxmoor, and he engaged with him to go to Helena, Alabama, and assume control of the mines there. It was here that the Oxmoor furnaces obtained their supply of coke. Captain Johns took charge of these mines in 1877. Trouble soon arose between himself and Superintendent Hopkins, of the mines, and on the resignation of the latter he succeeded him. While at Helena he opened the following mines: the Black Shale, the Little Pittsburg, and the Helena. While here he also built one hundred coke ovens.
In the spring of 1879 Mr. H. F. DeBardeleben bought out these mines, and the company as then constituted was as follows: H. F. DeBardeleben, President; T. H. Aldrich, Superintendent ; J. W. Sloss, Secretary and Treasurer ; L. W. Johns, Mining Engineer. It was known as the Pratt Coal and Coke Company.
From the fall of 1879 dates the most important undertaking of Captain Johns' career. This company having bought the property at Pratt Mines, he was appointed to go there twice a week and superintend the opening of Slope No. 1. Captain William Gould had then driven the slope about one hundred feet. Upon examination this coal proved to be one of the finest in America. Captain Johns, finding that his duties were greatly enlarged, was compelled to move to Pratt Mines. The coal proving so superior he rebuilt the hundred coke ovens at Helena and ten additional ones at Pratt Mines.
In 1880 he commenced sinking Ellen Shaft, which was carried to a depth of two hundred and four feet perpendicular. Before completing this work he commenced sinking Slope No. 2, which was completed first. These two openings increased the output of coal two or three fold. From this time the destiny of Pratt Mines was assured. Next in order came the opening of two slopes and six drifts, and in the fall of 1885 the opening of the Laura Slope was begun, and has now been carried to a depth of more than a thousand feet. Long lateral drivings, known in mining parlance as headings, have been extended to the right and the left for a great distance. It is one of the most complete and best equipped mines in the South, and has no superior in the best mines of Pennsylvania. Competent judges say that it will afford profitable mining for fifty years to come. In September, 1886, the Enoch Slope was commenced, and is now being driven rapidly. It is near the above-mentioned mine, and is its equal in every respect.
Captain Johns has watched these stupendous works grow up around liim, and they stand as monuments to his skill as a mining engineer. Pratt Mines has, in tliis short time, grown from an insignificant village to be a thriving town of four thousand inhabitants, and the great mining center of the South. From an output of a few hundred tons daily it now has three thousand, and capacity for twice that quantity. This is as much as the whole Birmingham district was capable of putting out two years ago. He has been one of the most important factors in all this great change, and the future will more fully reveal his important relation to the iron and coal center of the South.
The narrow escapes alone of Captain Johns' career would constitute a small volume of most thrilling interest. Some of the most interesting are presented :
While engaged in sinking a slope for the Honeybrook Coal Company, in Pennsylvania, in 1868, and while about two hundred feet down in the slope, it caved in, enclosing the whole party. Three were badly hurt, and the whole party were mined out after being buried alive fourteen hours.
At Rising Fawn, in 1872, while driving a train of tram-cars out of the mines, he forgot to sprag the wheels of the car while passing a dangerous point. Perceiving his mistake, he jumped off the car for this purpose, and when he did so was caught between the train of cars and the wall of the slope, and was badly injured. It was four months before he recovered. Soon after regaining health he came near being involved in a far more serious accident. There was a long incline running from the mines to the Alabama Great Southern Railroad track. From the top to the bottom it was three-quarters of a mile long. He got on a tram-car and started down this, and when he had gone some distance the car got loose. Captain Johns jumped just in time to save himself, and stood and saw the car shattered into atoms.
At Helena he passed through a number of narrow escapes from death. One day while at the Black Shale Mines he boarded the tram-car, and the engineer, not being aware of his presence, let it go fast, and lost control of it. He jumped off and fell by the man-way, and the large wire rope trailing behind the car beat on his person, bruising him badly.
At Williams & Savage's old mine the incline of the slope was thirty degrees, and was eleven hundred feet long. He started down it with a negro on a car, and when at the half-way point the wire rope broke, and the car went onward at a maddening rate of speed. Death seemed the inevitable fate. The car turned over and threw the two off, bounded back on the track, and was crushed to splinters at the foot of the slope. On another occasion at this same slope, while himself and Captain Pete Thomas were half-way down, it caved in, completely cutting off, as it seemed, all means of egress. Less skillful miners would have perished most miserably. They went into a crossentry and dug out into the next room above, came into the main slope again, and made their way out.
In 1882, while endeavoring to pump water on Village Creek with a fire engine, he had another most novel experience. There were four others beside himself working the engine, and when they had gotten up ninety pounds of steam it still refused to work, and the steam was raised to a hundred pounds, when it exploded, scalding one man and badly hurting two others. The engine passed immediately over his and Andy Kridler's heads. The latter was then his chief mechanic.
July 17, 1885, he, perhaps, had the most narrow escape of all. In company with Mr. J. G. Moore and Mr. William Faul, he went into the Rock Slope at the Ellen Shaft, where natural gas very frequently collected in large quantities. Perhaps there is no more forcible agent in nature than natural gas, and certainly none more dangerous. He had previously given instructions to have the gas blown out with compressed air, but they were not compiled with. He, ignorant of this, went into the slope with his companions, when suddenly himself and Mr. Moore were completely enveloped in flame, the gas exploding on coming in contact with their mining lamps. He fell to the earth face downward, and as he did so Moore exclaimed, " Oh, God, I am burned to death." He sprang to his feet and ran out, at the same time calling to Moore to hurry out before the second explosion occurred. They were both terribly burned, and the wonder is, that they had not sucked in the flame, and thus met a most painful death. Mr. Faul had not reached the explosion and thus escaped. Another trying ordeal was passed through by himself, Mr. J. G. Moore, and Thomas Turner, the two being his assistants at Ellen Shaft. There was no air passing through the mines, and he knew that the air-way was stopped up somewhere, and with them went in search of the trouble. At the bottom of Ellen Shaft there are lateral headings to right and left. Some distance to the right the air-course runs down one hundred and forty-seven feet. At the same point the Rock Slope runs slantingly down to the right at an angle of thirty degrees, and is three hundred and twenty feet long. The compressed air goes down this into the mines and returns through the course already mentioned. The foul air collects here badly, and soon creates an explosion. There were at that time eighty miners at work entirely ignorant of their impending fate, unless something was done to avert it. Their lives were in the hands of these three men, and all depended on their being able to find where the air- course was stopped. At last they found it, near the mouth of the air-shaft, the entry having caved at this point. In order to clear the debris away they had to hang over this shaft and work at it like Trojans. As they effected an opening, the air shot through the mines with great velocity. A terrible explosion was thus prevented.
While Captain Johns was timber boss at the Ophir Mines, near Virginia City, Nevada, he had with a force of hands timbered a mine about two hundred and fifty feet when the timber gave out. The men had gone on one hundred and seventy feet further cleaning away the rubbish. He heard a cracking overhead and called to the men to look out. They barely had time to escape before the whole of the latter caved in, which it took three weeks to clear away. The temperature of these mines was a hundred and fifty degrees, being hot enough to boil an egg. There were cooling stations in the mines to which the men were compelled to resort every twenty minutes. Had they been confined by this falling mass their deaths would have been equivalent to the torments of the damned.
Thus ends a series of thrilling experiences the like of which not one in ten thousand is called upon to pass through.
Captain Johns is a worthy and enterprising citizen, and his achievements are such that any one might feel a high degree of pride in being their master. No one has contributed more largely than he to the development of the Birmingham district, and has a better knowledge of its vast resources or more confidence in its great destiny.
To his indomitable energy and perseverance is due the comfortable fortune of which he is the possessor. He is the father of four sprightly children, and enjoys with them and Mrs. Johns the many blessings of life by which he is surrounded, and being yet in the vigor of manhood it is hoped that there are many years of happiness and usefulness allotted him.
- from Jefferson County and Birmingham Alabama: History and Biographical, edited by John Witherspoon Dubose and published in 1887 by Teeple & Smith / Caldwell Printing Works, Birmingham, Alabama
How Architecture Learned to Speculate
Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest
December 2009
For the first time, the speculative in architecture becomes a topic of critical research. It is investigated, not as idealistic but as strategic acting within endless modernity. This modernity implies that speculation, as strategic acting, is not only applied to economic, but also to political, and aesthetic values. The consequences? Values become mobile, valuations become a play with high and low, authors (architects) become winners or losers, and culture becomes fashion.
Including projects by Michael Najjar, Matthieu Laurette, NL Architects, PARA-Project, visiondivision, MVRDV, Aristide Antonas, David Schalliol, Kevin Bauman, FAT, David Trautrimas, JODI, Bernard Gigounon, Ralf Schreiber, Gitta Gschwendtner, Pascual Sisto, Darlene Charneco, Seyed Alavi, Helmut Smits, Ant Farm, 100101110101101.ORG, Caspar Stracke, and OMA.
ISBN: 978-3-00-029876-9
Number of pages: 246
Measurements: 19 x 12 x 1,1 cm
Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The Eldorado, extending along the entire blockfront of Central Park West between 90th and 91st Streets, is the northernmost of the four twin-towered apartment houses that give Central Park West its distinctive skyline silhouette. The Eldorado was designed in 1929 by the architectural firm of Margon & Holder with the renowned early 20th-century New York City architect Emery Roth as consultant. These architects created one of the finest and most dramatically massed Art Deco style residential buildings in New York City.
The Eldorado is one of the most distinguished 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 nineteen were either totally vacant or contained old shanties and frame houses. Other blocks were partially vacant.
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.
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 at 65th Street, the Langham at 73rd Street, the Kenilworth at 75th Street, and the St. Urban at 89th Street, as well as such institutional structures as the Ethical Culture Society School and Meeting House at 63rd and 64th Streets, Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church at 65th Street, the Second Church of Christ, Scientist at 68th Street, the Congregation Shearith Israel Synagogue at 70th Street, the Universalist Church of the Divine Paternity at 76th Street, and the Progress Club at 88th Street.
The presence of these fine apartment 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.
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 give Central Park West its characteristic skyline.
The distinctive form of the Century at 62nd-63rd Streets, the Majestic at 71st-72nd Streets, the San Remo at 74th-75th Streets and the Eldorado at 90th-91st Streets has come to symbolize the high quality of residential design on New York's Upper West Side.
The Eldorado Apartments is not the first building of that name at this location. The present building replaces the Eldorado flats which consisted of two eight-story structures designed in 1901 by Neville & Bagge, "which for more than a generation have been among the best of the fine houses on Central Park West."
In addition to the old Eldorado, the new apartment building replaced five row houses on West 90th Street and three tenements and a row house on West 91st Street. This site was assembled in 1929 and sold to realtor Frederick Brown who retained ownership for several weeks before transferring the property to the Elkay Building Corporation, Louis Kloak, president. The architects commissioned to design the new Eldorado were the firm of Margon & Holder.
Irving Margon and Adolph M. Holder are architects about whom little is known. One of the few buildings known to have been designed by Margon is an Art Deco apartment house at 2805 Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
Although Margon & Holder were the chief architects for the new building, they do not appear to have had the experience to design such a large structure. Emery Roth, one of the most talented residential architects in New York during the early decades of this century was hired as a consultant.
Among Roth's finest apartment buildings are three important Upper West Side structures designed just prior to the Eldorado—the Oliver Cromwell at 12 West 72nd Street, the San Remo at 145 Central Park West, and the Beresford at 211 Central Park West. It was undoubtedly Roth's experience with designing these large-scale residential buildings that prompted the builders of the Eldorado to hire him as a consultant. It is believed that Roth was responsible for the massing and plan of the building and that Margon & Holder designed the facade.
The form of the Eldorado, with its massive base and twin towers set at the Central Park West corners, closely resembles the massing of the San Remo on which Roth was working at the time he received the Eldorado commission. In addition, the apartment layouts of the two buildings are similar. The twin towered form of the San Remo and Eldorado resulted from 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 times 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 San Remo and Eldorado were the first two buildings on Central Park West to be affected by this new law.
The few drawings that Roth produced for the Eldorado have classical details, creating a design that resembles the style of the San Remo. They do not exhibit the Art Deco forms of the building as constructed. Art Deco style ornament appeared on apartment buildings as early as 1928 on Raymond Hood's 3 East 84th Street and on Horace Ginsberg and Marvin Fine's Park Plaza in the Bronx.
Margon & Holder were probably aware of the Art Deco forms in use on those apartment houses and they adapted these forms for their Central Park West building. Among the finest Art Deco motifs on the Eldorado is the tripartite Central Park West entrance. The three entrance portals take on the faceted crystalline form that Rosemarie Bletter has traced to German Expressionist architecture.
Above these bronze entrance surrounds are bronze panels with the clashing angular geometric forms and soft curving foliate forms that give the finest Art Deco ornamentation its special tension. The best known Art Deco features of the Eldorado are the futuristic rocket-like pinnacles which crown each tower.
Other notable Art Deco motifs include an angular frieze that runs above the third floor, stylized brick spandrel panels below many of the windows, and angular balconies with zigzag panels.
Unfortunately, construction of the Eldorado coincided with the stock market crash of 1929. The crash led to the collapse of the real estate market; cooperatives failed, rental apartments remained vacant, and foreclosure actions were brought against many buildings.
Financial and labor troubles delayed the completion of the Eldorado, but on November 26, 1930, it was announced that the building was to be completed.
Although the Eldorado was finished, it experienced rental problems and the owners finally defaulted on loan payments.
On November 5, 1931, the building was auctioned. In more recent years, the Eldorado has attracted many people of note, particularly people associated with the arts. Among the Eldorado's residents have been Milton Avery, Martin Balsam, Richard Dreyfuss, Faye Dunaway, Carrie Fisher, Tuesday Weld, Pinchas Zuckerman, Richard Estes, Sybil Burton, Phil Donahue, Mario Thomas, Edie Adams, Ernie Kovaks, Groucho Marx, Roddy McDowell, and Marilyn Monroe.
Description
The Eldorado is a symmetrical building set on a three-story yellow cast stone base and faced with tan brick trimmed with light brown brick and yellow terra-cotta above. The building extends along the entire Central Park West frontage between West 90th Street and West 91st Street, 200 feet along West 90th Street, and 194 feet along West 91st Street. In the center of the ground floor of the Central Park West frontage is the main entrance consisting of three faceted portals with bronze frames. Above each entrance are a pair of highly ornamental plaques embossed with Art Deco style geometric and floral forms. In the spandrels between the faceted entry arches and the plaques are panels with birds. Separating each pair of panels, as well as the windows above, are stepped piers with geometric incising. Above these piers are projecting skeletal cast stone motifs. A frieze of Art Deco chevrons and arches crowns the cast stone base of the building.
On the ground floor, to each side of the entrance are windows and metal doors with Art Deco grilles and handrails, all of which belong to professional apartments.
On Central Park West, the windows of the main bulk of the building are massed in a symmetrical pattern of 2-3-2-3-2-6-2-3-2-3-2 All of the windows were originally metal-paned casements with thin metal mullions. Each original window is divided into two movable casements of eight panes, each with a single transom of six panes. The small window panes add a sense of texture to the facade and prevent the window openings from becoming voids in the design.
The first and third window groups from either end project slightly, while the other groups are separated by projecting piers. The second and fifth groups from either end are framed with light brown brick that gives a vertical thrust to the facade. This vertical thrust is strengthened by the use of raised brick bands below the windows and by the addition of tan brick piers between the windows of the second group from each corner.
The patterned brickwork, also appears in the central two bays at the thirteenth and fourteenth floors . Projecting from the two central thirteenth floor windows are three-sided stone balconies each supported by a single corbeled bracket and ornamented with a vertical chevron panel.
The five central window groups step back above the fourteenth and sixteenth floors to form balconies, while the three end groups on either side rise up two additional floors before setting back at the sixteenth floor and again at the seventeenth floor. All of the balconies have Art Deco railings. Patterned brickwork and pairs of terra-cotta balconies also appear on the fifteenth and sixteenth floors of the end sections and on the sixteenth floor of the central section.
The brown brick bays are ornamented at their summits by terra-cotta panels adorned with chevron, diaper, and other geometric patterns.
The towers rise free of the base for twelve stories. Each tower is six bays wide on Central Park West and faced with tan brick highlighted by brown brick panels at the four central windows. Terra-cotta balconies appear at the twenty-sixth floor and terra-cotta panels at the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors.
The side elevations have similar detailing. There are corner penthouses at the twenty-ninth floor, as each tower steps back to the crowning pinnacle with its fin-like projections. It is these stepped pinnacles that give the Eldorado its distinctive silhouette and make the building immediately identifiable from as far away as Fifth Avenue.
On the side streets the Eldorado is seventeen stories tall with the three-story cast stone base continuing for the first seven bays before it drops down to a one-story base. Only near the Central Park West corners are there window bays articulated with the vertical brown brick bays used on the front elevation.
The side facades have penthouses with railings, the balconies and terra-cotta ornament described on the front, as well as professional office doors and secondary residential entrances with Art Deco carvings To the rear of the building are cast stone arches with Art Deco metal gates .
Alterations to the original design are limited to the replacement of some of the original multi-paned windows with plate glass windows. The most serious alteration has occurred on the eighteenth floor of the south tower where brickwork has been removed for the enlargement of several windows.
The Eldorado's futuristic crowning pinnacles, visible from up and down Central Park West and from as far east as Fifth Avenue, are true architectural landmarks. The Eldorado is the northernmost of the four twin-towered buildings that identify Central Park West as one of New York City's great residential boulevards and the building stands as one of the most important Art Deco apartment buildings in the city.
- From the 1985 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
On the day of a key European parliamentary vote on food speculation, campaigners from Campact, Friends of the Earth Europe, SOS-Faim and the World Development Movement lay out 925 pots and pans outside the European parliament. 925 represents the number of people hungry in the world today. Campaigners also present a petition with 100k signatories to key Euro MPs.
Chunnaic mi an shunter Ruston seo aig latha-fosgailte bliadhnail Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Siorrachd Dhun Phris.
I saw this little shunter at the Garden of Cosmic Speculation near Dumfries at its annual open day, 02/05/10.
How Architecture Learned to Speculate
Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest
December 2009
For the first time, the speculative in architecture becomes a topic of critical research. It is investigated, not as idealistic but as strategic acting within endless modernity. This modernity implies that speculation, as strategic acting, is not only applied to economic, but also to political, and aesthetic values. The consequences? Values become mobile, valuations become a play with high and low, authors (architects) become winners or losers, and culture becomes fashion.
Including projects by Michael Najjar, Matthieu Laurette, NL Architects, PARA-Project, visiondivision, MVRDV, Aristide Antonas, David Schalliol, Kevin Bauman, FAT, David Trautrimas, JODI, Bernard Gigounon, Ralf Schreiber, Gitta Gschwendtner, Pascual Sisto, Darlene Charneco, Seyed Alavi, Helmut Smits, Ant Farm, 100101110101101.ORG, Caspar Stracke, and OMA.
ISBN: 978-3-00-029876-9
Number of pages: 246
Measurements: 19 x 12 x 1,1 cm
With no surname, it is known to few, if any, the lineage of Andared. Due to his being a recluse, there is even speculation on the accuracy of his first name. Some of the more misinformed and imaginative Lenfels have even suggested that the man is not a man at all, but an Elf, possessing terrible and dark magic. So far no evidence has been procured to suggest this, but when someone is fixed on an idea, it takes a good bit more than logic to convince them otherwise. Others have suggested that "it" is not real at all. But nonetheless, the consistent string of bandits being found (dead or alive), caught in a trap of a decidedly man-made variety, are evidence that there is someone out there, though who it may be, and their origin, is entirely unknown.
Whoever it is, the Lenfel that do believe there is someone out there have taken to calling him "The Warden of the Forest". His victims mainly consist of bandits, but a few of the more barbaric, and less sane Garhim are also assumed to have met their demise at "it's" hands. The general area in which these victims are found has led to the probably accurate belief that "it" makes it's camp somewhere at the southernmost tip of the Dragonscale Mountains, but mysterious sightings have been reported as far as the western end of Wandering Woods.
Judging by the wounds which are found on the less fortunate victims, he seems to forsake the traditional Lenfel armament of sword and bow, in favor of javelins, or perhaps a spear.
All other knowledge on the "Warden of the Forest" is speculation at best. If any information on him is found, please visit 5 Long Street, Strongborough.
P.S. Although his victims have only consisted of foreigners thus far, his true allegiance is uncertain, and it is strongly advised that you do not seek him. That is all.
For great Lenfald!
2005-2007
Colored pencil, modeling paste on wood panel
Collection:
Crocker Art Museum
Hereafter is a transcription of the handwritten text above:
"The confessional panel of Myself was an attempt to eradicate puerile speculation, to simply state the who of me in terms of the what of me, my skin, my song. An acknowledgement of personal Isness. The facts of the maker, the failure, he who produced and produces the skin, the song, the myth. He who is disposable and deposed by history. The face and format encapsulated within the parentheses of linear time. The who of me. He who dies. My body, this solidity which is subject to all natural controls, carries within itself the inventor of all that is defined human—god, war, art, law, alphabets, religions, history, time, science, aesthetics, mathematics, Art—all identifying characteristics of specie umano. No laws control him, not gravity, not death, nothing linear what-so-ever. His being requires no boundaries for definition, no parameters of moral rectitude. He is chaos, an infinity of possibilities. He creates himself and the reality of contradiction in which he lives. The body which encloses him, that which conforms to natural laws, exists in a constant state of compromise and approximation, a bridge between the actual and the real, that which can be seen enclosing a sphere that cannot be seen or touched or entered. This duality must invent dimension upon dimension, layer upon layer of illusion to support a balance which cannot be supported solely by one entity. It must enter into alliances with other entities to confer a shared agreement on that which is real and that which is not. A compliance of conformity, an illusion of necessity. It is within this zone of safety called community that actuality performs its catalogue of repetition, ever watchful, ever fearful of contradiction. The inventor within is a constant threat to the community without, his body a purgatory of suspension. This I believe. Every body is a duality struggling to free Itself from itself. (As I have confessed my bipolarity and homosexuality, do I now profess my shizophrenia?) This to me is the myth of Marsyas. The liberation of the skin, the song, the inner anarchist from the entrapping body of linearity, community, dogma, and death. I see no horror in the myth of Marsyas, only the exhilaration of Art. Invention of inventions, transparency of the species, epiphany of epiphanies, destroyer of illusion, invention and inventor of truth. It has become ever more fascinating to me how the most primitive of human characteristics are the most actual, actualized to the point of immutability. Resistance to an evolving humanity is fierce and uncompromising. Tribal and religious prejudice and dogma cripple the flight of the inventor...and so it has always been. The insistence for projecting out that which is internal into an existence of actuality is the struggle of reality. To make actual that which is real. To externalize that which is internal. To fuse the duality. This process of destruction and creation is our identity. This humanity. This is our Isness. This is our evolution. The body of the artist, that mortal inconsequence struggles to create and shed his skin in a process worthy of the ordeal of Marsyas. The process of destroying answers and creating questions is his fulfillment, his pain and his ecstasy. An artist deserves neither praise nor pity. Both are insults to his process of becoming. To evolve as iconoclast without the arrogance of nihility is the song of Marsyas. To challenge the gods. To contest the incontestable. To embrace failure with the joy of inevitability. This is the consequence of mortality. This is the artist’s song and his fate. The death of the body and the liberation of its song, the history and the myth—"
Public Citizen President Robert Weissman joins Sens. Bernie Sanders, Richard Blumenthal and Ben Nelson in calling for an end to a Wall Street-imposed tax on oil. They called on Congress to pass the End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act.
There has been much speculation about which routes will receive New Routemasters. However for routes 6 and 98, which are operated by Metroline from their Willesden Garage, that speculation ended with the announcement that these routes would be converted to hybrid operation using more conventional buses.
A batch of 33 Wright Gemini 3-bodied Volvo B5Ls, identical to those already operated by Metroline on route 7, is now starting to arrive; and the first two (VWH 2091/2093) entered service on 15th June. 2091 is seen passing the John Lewis store in Oxford Street whilst working route 6 on Friday 19th June.
Lack of space at Willesden Garage might have been a factor here. However it is very well located, as three busy routes into Central London (6, 52 and 98) all start from the Garage and Metroline would surely be loath to give it up.
An example of the disastrous building speculation that has upset, between 1952 and the seventies, the face of the city of Naples. Enormous constructions without some beauty and architectural character impend on small buildings liberty in the Vomero, almost all occupying in disorder the spaces been free.
Francis B. Knowles built this home in 1882 for speculation. It is believed that the Knowles family wintered here for a few years before his death. It was originally surrounded by orange trees and a white picket fence.
Charles H. Morse bought the house in 1904, doubled its size, and renovated it with a Craftsman style. This architectural style emphasized functionalism, ease of maintenance and comfort, and the use of native building materials.
In 1945, Hugh McKean and Jeanette Genius, Morse's granddaughter, married and moved into the home.
- reocities.com/Yosemite/rapids/8428/hikeplans/winter_park/...
And:
The home on 231 Interlachen Avenue was built in 1882 by Francis B. Knowles as a winter resort to attract visitors to the area. It later served as the permanent winter residence of Charles Hosmer Morse, who purchased it in 1904 and named it "Osceola Lodge" after the Seminole Indian chief. Morse also remodeled his home and doubled its size. "Osceola Lodge" is an excellent example of the Craftsman style of architecture, with its simple, well-proportioned, and functional designs. Morse furnished the house with custom-made Mission Oak furniture, indicative of the arts and crafts movement, as well as with Indian artifacts, thereby creating a rustic atmosphere.
Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The Eldorado, extending along the entire blockfront of Central Park West between 90th and 91st Streets, is the northernmost of the four twin-towered apartment houses that give Central Park West its distinctive skyline silhouette. The Eldorado was designed in 1929 by the architectural firm of Margon & Holder with the renowned early 20th-century New York City architect Emery Roth as consultant. These architects created one of the finest and most dramatically massed Art Deco style residential buildings in New York City.
The Eldorado is one of the most distinguished 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 nineteen were either totally vacant or contained old shanties and frame houses. Other blocks were partially vacant.
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.
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 at 65th Street, the Langham at 73rd Street, the Kenilworth at 75th Street, and the St. Urban at 89th Street, as well as such institutional structures as the Ethical Culture Society School and Meeting House at 63rd and 64th Streets, Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church at 65th Street, the Second Church of Christ, Scientist at 68th Street, the Congregation Shearith Israel Synagogue at 70th Street, the Universalist Church of the Divine Paternity at 76th Street, and the Progress Club at 88th Street.
The presence of these fine apartment 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.
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 give Central Park West its characteristic skyline.
The distinctive form of the Century at 62nd-63rd Streets, the Majestic at 71st-72nd Streets, the San Remo at 74th-75th Streets and the Eldorado at 90th-91st Streets has come to symbolize the high quality of residential design on New York's Upper West Side.
The Eldorado Apartments is not the first building of that name at this location. The present building replaces the Eldorado flats which consisted of two eight-story structures designed in 1901 by Neville & Bagge, "which for more than a generation have been among the best of the fine houses on Central Park West."
In addition to the old Eldorado, the new apartment building replaced five row houses on West 90th Street and three tenements and a row house on West 91st Street. This site was assembled in 1929 and sold to realtor Frederick Brown who retained ownership for several weeks before transferring the property to the Elkay Building Corporation, Louis Kloak, president. The architects commissioned to design the new Eldorado were the firm of Margon & Holder.
Irving Margon and Adolph M. Holder are architects about whom little is known. One of the few buildings known to have been designed by Margon is an Art Deco apartment house at 2805 Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
Although Margon & Holder were the chief architects for the new building, they do not appear to have had the experience to design such a large structure. Emery Roth, one of the most talented residential architects in New York during the early decades of this century was hired as a consultant.
Among Roth's finest apartment buildings are three important Upper West Side structures designed just prior to the Eldorado—the Oliver Cromwell at 12 West 72nd Street, the San Remo at 145 Central Park West, and the Beresford at 211 Central Park West. It was undoubtedly Roth's experience with designing these large-scale residential buildings that prompted the builders of the Eldorado to hire him as a consultant. It is believed that Roth was responsible for the massing and plan of the building and that Margon & Holder designed the facade.
The form of the Eldorado, with its massive base and twin towers set at the Central Park West corners, closely resembles the massing of the San Remo on which Roth was working at the time he received the Eldorado commission. In addition, the apartment layouts of the two buildings are similar. The twin towered form of the San Remo and Eldorado resulted from 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 times 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 San Remo and Eldorado were the first two buildings on Central Park West to be affected by this new law.
The few drawings that Roth produced for the Eldorado have classical details, creating a design that resembles the style of the San Remo. They do not exhibit the Art Deco forms of the building as constructed. Art Deco style ornament appeared on apartment buildings as early as 1928 on Raymond Hood's 3 East 84th Street and on Horace Ginsberg and Marvin Fine's Park Plaza in the Bronx.
Margon & Holder were probably aware of the Art Deco forms in use on those apartment houses and they adapted these forms for their Central Park West building. Among the finest Art Deco motifs on the Eldorado is the tripartite Central Park West entrance. The three entrance portals take on the faceted crystalline form that Rosemarie Bletter has traced to German Expressionist architecture.
Above these bronze entrance surrounds are bronze panels with the clashing angular geometric forms and soft curving foliate forms that give the finest Art Deco ornamentation its special tension. The best known Art Deco features of the Eldorado are the futuristic rocket-like pinnacles which crown each tower.
Other notable Art Deco motifs include an angular frieze that runs above the third floor, stylized brick spandrel panels below many of the windows, and angular balconies with zigzag panels.
Unfortunately, construction of the Eldorado coincided with the stock market crash of 1929. The crash led to the collapse of the real estate market; cooperatives failed, rental apartments remained vacant, and foreclosure actions were brought against many buildings.
Financial and labor troubles delayed the completion of the Eldorado, but on November 26, 1930, it was announced that the building was to be completed.
Although the Eldorado was finished, it experienced rental problems and the owners finally defaulted on loan payments.
On November 5, 1931, the building was auctioned. In more recent years, the Eldorado has attracted many people of note, particularly people associated with the arts. Among the Eldorado's residents have been Milton Avery, Martin Balsam, Richard Dreyfuss, Faye Dunaway, Carrie Fisher, Tuesday Weld, Pinchas Zuckerman, Richard Estes, Sybil Burton, Phil Donahue, Mario Thomas, Edie Adams, Ernie Kovaks, Groucho Marx, Roddy McDowell, and Marilyn Monroe.
Description
The Eldorado is a symmetrical building set on a three-story yellow cast stone base and faced with tan brick trimmed with light brown brick and yellow terra-cotta above. The building extends along the entire Central Park West frontage between West 90th Street and West 91st Street, 200 feet along West 90th Street, and 194 feet along West 91st Street. In the center of the ground floor of the Central Park West frontage is the main entrance consisting of three faceted portals with bronze frames. Above each entrance are a pair of highly ornamental plaques embossed with Art Deco style geometric and floral forms. In the spandrels between the faceted entry arches and the plaques are panels with birds. Separating each pair of panels, as well as the windows above, are stepped piers with geometric incising. Above these piers are projecting skeletal cast stone motifs. A frieze of Art Deco chevrons and arches crowns the cast stone base of the building.
On the ground floor, to each side of the entrance are windows and metal doors with Art Deco grilles and handrails, all of which belong to professional apartments.
On Central Park West, the windows of the main bulk of the building are massed in a symmetrical pattern of 2-3-2-3-2-6-2-3-2-3-2 All of the windows were originally metal-paned casements with thin metal mullions. Each original window is divided into two movable casements of eight panes, each with a single transom of six panes. The small window panes add a sense of texture to the facade and prevent the window openings from becoming voids in the design.
The first and third window groups from either end project slightly, while the other groups are separated by projecting piers. The second and fifth groups from either end are framed with light brown brick that gives a vertical thrust to the facade. This vertical thrust is strengthened by the use of raised brick bands below the windows and by the addition of tan brick piers between the windows of the second group from each corner.
The patterned brickwork, also appears in the central two bays at the thirteenth and fourteenth floors . Projecting from the two central thirteenth floor windows are three-sided stone balconies each supported by a single corbeled bracket and ornamented with a vertical chevron panel.
The five central window groups step back above the fourteenth and sixteenth floors to form balconies, while the three end groups on either side rise up two additional floors before setting back at the sixteenth floor and again at the seventeenth floor. All of the balconies have Art Deco railings. Patterned brickwork and pairs of terra-cotta balconies also appear on the fifteenth and sixteenth floors of the end sections and on the sixteenth floor of the central section.
The brown brick bays are ornamented at their summits by terra-cotta panels adorned with chevron, diaper, and other geometric patterns.
The towers rise free of the base for twelve stories. Each tower is six bays wide on Central Park West and faced with tan brick highlighted by brown brick panels at the four central windows. Terra-cotta balconies appear at the twenty-sixth floor and terra-cotta panels at the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth floors.
The side elevations have similar detailing. There are corner penthouses at the twenty-ninth floor, as each tower steps back to the crowning pinnacle with its fin-like projections. It is these stepped pinnacles that give the Eldorado its distinctive silhouette and make the building immediately identifiable from as far away as Fifth Avenue.
On the side streets the Eldorado is seventeen stories tall with the three-story cast stone base continuing for the first seven bays before it drops down to a one-story base. Only near the Central Park West corners are there window bays articulated with the vertical brown brick bays used on the front elevation.
The side facades have penthouses with railings, the balconies and terra-cotta ornament described on the front, as well as professional office doors and secondary residential entrances with Art Deco carvings To the rear of the building are cast stone arches with Art Deco metal gates .
Alterations to the original design are limited to the replacement of some of the original multi-paned windows with plate glass windows. The most serious alteration has occurred on the eighteenth floor of the south tower where brickwork has been removed for the enlargement of several windows.
The Eldorado's futuristic crowning pinnacles, visible from up and down Central Park West and from as far east as Fifth Avenue, are true architectural landmarks. The Eldorado is the northernmost of the four twin-towered buildings that identify Central Park West as one of New York City's great residential boulevards and the building stands as one of the most important Art Deco apartment buildings in the city.
- From the 1985 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
Italy Face Speculation. What can I say, it's not a porn film but some pretty bad cold spaghetti served for breakfast. In Shang Hai.
Public Citizen President Robert Weissman joins Sens. Bernie Sanders, Richard Blumenthal and Ben Nelson in calling for an end to a Wall Street-imposed tax on oil. They called on Congress to pass the End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act.
The Province’s new housing plan will speed up delivery of new homes, increase the supply of middle-income housing, fight speculation and help those who need it the most. Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/28486
The Bara Gumbad, or "big dome," is a large domed structure grouped together with the Friday mosque of Sikander Lodi and a mehman khana (guesthouse), located in New Delhi's Lodi Gardens. The buildings were constructed at different times during the Lodi era and occupy a common raised platform. Formerly an outlying area of Delhi, the Lodi Gardens are a British-planned landscaped garden which includes a number of monuments (primarily tombs) from the Sayyid and the Lodi dynasties. Originally called Willingdon Park, the gardens were located in the former village of Khairpur, now on the edge of Lutyen's Delhi, the colonial capital built by the British in the early 20th century. The gardens, which cover approx. 70 acres, have come to be surrounded by institutional buildings and some of contemporary Delhi's most expensive real estate.
Although they were built under the same dynasty, each of the three structures was undertaken separately. The Bara Gumbad, completed in 1490, is considered to have the first full dome constructed in Delhi. Its original purpose is contested; although it appears to be a freestanding tomb, it contains no tombstone. This causes the speculation that the building might have been intended as a gateway for the Friday mosque; however, their respective placements, stylistic differences, and construction dates do not support this theory. The Friday mosque, completed in 1494, is the first example of the new mosque type that developed during the Lodi era. Characterized by a relatively simple five bay prayer hall building adjacent to a simple open courtyard, this type was an important precedent for mosque architecture in the Lodi and Mughal eras.
The complex can be accessed from various points along the roads bordering the Lodi Gardens, with the access from the Lodi road towards the south most prominent. The buildings are situated at a distance of about 300 meters from Muhammad Shah's tomb towards the south and about 380 meters from Sikander Lodi's tomb towards the north. Another prominent structure, the Shish Gumbad, is located facing the Bara Gumbad at a distance of about seventy-five meters towards the north. The area surrounding the buildings is landscaped with manicured grass lawns. Few trees are planted in the immediate vicinity, leaving the view of the structures unobscured. The path winding through the Lodi Gardens approaches the buildings axially from the north, although the building plinth is accessible all from all sides.
The buildings are sited on a three-meter-high platform, measuring approximately 30 meters (east-west) by 25 meters (north-south). The Friday mosque is located along the western edge of the platform; the guesthouse is sited opposite it, occupying the eastern edge, while the Bara Gumbad is located along the southern edge. Stone masonry walls, about six meters high, connect the three structures along the southern edge. The northern edge is provided with staircases for accessing the platform. A centrally located straight flight comprising of eight steps, about ten meters wide, connects the ground to a generous mid landing. Another 'C' shaped flight of eight steps wraps around the landing, creating an amphitheatre-like space and reaching the top of the platform. The current arrangement of steps appears to be more recent, and the remains of walls adjoining the southern face of the guesthouse and the mosque indicate that the northern edge might have originally been walled. In the center of the raised court, with its southern edge along the staircase, are the remains of a square shaped platform, 8 meters wide, which appears to be a grave.
Friday mosque:
The Friday mosque is a single aisled, rectangular building, approx. 30 meters (north-south) by 8 meters (east-west). The mosque is organized in five unequal bays, which correspond to the five arched doorways on the eastern (entry) elevation. The width of the arched doorways decreases from the center towards the sides. The arches span across grey granite piers. The central arch is framed within a projecting rectangular portal, measuring about 8 meters in height by 6 meters wide. The piers of the rectangular frame are cased in dressed granite and have three shallow arched niches in red sandstone, occurring vertically above the springing point of the arch, on either side. The doorway itself is described by four receding planes of ogee arches, the outermost one being in line with the external face of the rectangular portal. The doorways immediately to the side of the central portal are about 5 meters wide, while those at the two ends are approx. 1.5 meters wide with two receding planes of ogee arches, adding to the prominence of the central doorway. The apex of each innermost arch is constant, measuring approx. 5 meters from the top of the platform. Each arch is finished in plaster and embellished with intricate carved Arabic inscriptions. The spandrels are also heavily carved with geometric motifs, and their the corners are adorned with round inscribed plaster medallions. Red sandstone eaves (chajjas) on stone brackets top the arches, interrupted only by the central projecting portal that extends above them. There is a blank plastered frieze above the eaves, followed by the projecting horizontal bands of the cornice that is topped by a blind masonry parapet adorned with petal shaped crenellations with inscribed plaster medallions.
The interior of the prayer hall reflects the five bay division of the eastern elevation. It is a rectangular space, measuring about 27 meters (north-south) by about 7 meters (east-west). Additional arches spanning between the piers on the eastern elevation and the engaged piers of the western wall emphasize the demarcation of the interior space into bays. These internal ogee arches reach a height of about five meters. They are finished in plaster and profusely decorated with carvings of Arabic inscriptions. The piers are unornamented, dressed gray granite.
The qibla (western) wall of the prayer hall is a blind wall divided into five unequal bays expressed as recessed ogee arched niches, reflecting the arched openings on the eastern wall. The two bays adjacent to the central bay have three equal niches carved out from the portion below the springing line of the main arch. These niches are separated by granite piers, which have smaller arched niches in the top third of their elevation. The three niches are made of two layers of ogee arches framed by the piers. The external layer is in gray-yellow granite, while the interior arch is made of red sandstone. The central niche is mildly distinguishable from the others because its arched portion is curved and the imposts are engraved, while those of the adjacent arches are plain. The innermost rectangular portion of the central niche is blank, while that of the adjoining niches has the carving of a vase and flora inscribed in it. The tympanum of the main outer arch is finished in plaster and has an additional niche directly above the central niche which is embellished heavily with plaster carvings of Arabic inscriptions. A band of similar inscriptions runs along the interior perimeter of the arch and around the upper niche in a closed loop. The voussoirs of the outer arch are plastered and embellished with another layer of carvings. The central bay of the western wall also has three niches, each made of four recessed planes of alternating rectangular and arched profiles. The central mihrab niche is taller and wider. It is also shallower and the innermost plane is blank, while the other two niches are deeper set with relief work. A stone minbar with three steps has been provided abutting the northern pier of the central niche.
Hemispherical domes cover the three central bays, while the terminal bays are covered by low flat vaulted ceilings. The square plan of the three central bays transitions into an octagonal drum through the application of corbelled pendentives at the corners. The corbelling occurs in four layers, which increases in width from the bottom up. The layers are further embellished with curved niches set into rectangular frames, which also increase in number, the lowest corbel having one and the last corbel having five such niches. The last layers of the pendentives form alternate edges of the octagonal drum; the remaining edges being formed by the extension of the walls and are also provided with similar curved niches. The octagonal drum transitions into a hexadecagon, followed by a thirty-two-sided polygon by the provisions of small struts. Each face of the hexadecagon is provided with shallow niches, while the thirty-two-sided polygon is described by a projecting band of red sandstone, followed by a band of inscriptions finally topped by the hemispherical dome. The dome is finished in plain plaster. The voussoirs of the arches, the pendentives and the tympanum are all covered by intricate stucco Arabic inscriptions. The central dome is relatively higher that the other two domes.
The northern and southern walls of the mosque are punctured by ogee arch doorways below the springline of the main arch. Each opening leads to a projecting balcony, comprising of red sandstone posts supporting a tiered roof. The balconies protrude out from the faade and are supported on red sandstone brackets, whose profiles and carvings are characteristic of Hindu architecture. An elaborately carved arched niche is provided above each opening on the interior wall. It is set into a rectangular frame embossed with Arabic text.
The plasterwork on the external northern and southern walls of the mosque has fallen off, exposing the stone masonry, while that on the western wall has survived. The central bay of the western wall projects out and is marked by two solid towers at the corners. These towers are divided vertically into four layers; the first two layers from the bottom are orthogonal, while the third layer has alternating curved and angular fluting; the top layer, extending over the parapet of the mosque, has a circular section. The corners of the mosque are marked by similar tapering towers, which are divided into four layers. Each layer is circular in plan except the third layer, which is described by alternating curved and angular fluting. All the towers have the remains of finials at their apex. The central projecting wall has four red sandstone brackets in its upper third portion, which may have supported a projecting balcony similar to those on the north and south elevations.
The plasterwork on the walls of the plinth is now gone, exposing the rubble masonry construction below. The western face of the plinth is punctured by five ogee arch openings set into rectangular frames, one in the center and two each on the sides. These openings provide access to the basement within the plinth.
The roof has three domes corresponding to the three central bays of the prayer hall and the three central arches on the eastern elevation. The extrados of the domes are finished in plaster. The octagonal drums supporting the domes protrude out over the roof level, above which the circular bases of the domes are decorated with blind crestings having floral motifs. The central dome is marginally larger than the adjacent domes and all three have the remains of lotus finials at their apex.
Bara Gumbad:
Square in plan, the Bara Gumbad measures approx. 20 meters per side. Set on a plinth 3 meters high, it joins the common plinth on the north and projects beyond it to the south. Its plinth is decorated on the east, south, and west with ogee arch openings set into rectangular frames. These provide access to a basement.The walls of the Bara Gumbad are approx. 12 meters tall, above which a hemispherical dome on a hexadecagonal drum extends another 14 meters from the roof level, for a total building height of 29 meters above ground level.
Each of its elevations is nearly identical and divided into 2 horizontal sections. A projecting portal composed of an ogee arch set in a rectangular frame (approx. 8 meters wide), is centered in each elevation and rises approximately 75 cm above the parapet line of the building. The 1.5 meter wide frame is made of dressed gray granite. Each vertical pier of the frame has six shallow red sandstone niches arranged atop one another at varying heights; nine niches continue in a line along the horizontal portion of the frame. The portal is described by two receding planes of grey granite ogee arches; the spandrels are cased with black granite with a thin projecting edge of red sandstone. Two round plaster medallions adorn the spandrels. The lower layer of the portal has a central doorway, spanned by two red sandstone brackets that form a trabeated arch supporting a black granite lintel. These brackets are supported on grey granite posts. An intricately carved red sandstone frame adorns the brackets and the lintel; it starts at the springing point of the arch and frames the lintel of the doorway. The entire composition is set in a rectangular yellow sandstone frame. An ogee arch window has been provided above the trabeated entrance. The portal is crowned by the arched crenellations of the blind parapet. Solid turrets mark the projecting corners of the portal.
The remainder of the elevation, that flanking the central portal on either side and recessed behind it, is divided vertically into two equivalent parts by projecting horizontal bands of stone. Each part is described by two equal arched panels set into rectangular frames. Both the panels of the upper part on either side of the portal are blind and filled with granite masonry. The lower panels located adjacent to the portal are windows, while the lower panels at the edges are filled in. The parapet, like the portal, is decorated with arched crenellations, and the roof has solid turrets at each corner.
A single hemispherical dome surmounted on a sixteen-sided drum crowns the building. Each face of the drum is described by an ogee arched niche set in a rectangular frame. The voussoirs of the arches are gray granite, while the spandrels are clad with red sandstone. The top edge of the drum is decorated with a band of arched crenellations, similar to those on the roof parapets, running above a projecting band of stone that surrounds the drum. Below this projection is band of leaves carved in relief. The extrados of the dome are finished in smooth plaster. The lotus base, possibly for a vanished calyx finial, is still extant.
The structure can be entered either from the raised courtyard via the north elevation or from a double flight of steps located on the western elevation. Inside, the square building measures about seven meters per side. An 80 cm high, 45 cm wide solid seat runs continuously along the interior perimeter of the building. Light streams in from all four walls, which are punctured by the openings of the doorway at the ground level and the ogee arch window above. The interior surfaces of the Gumbad are unornamented and finished in dressed granite. The square plan of the room transitions into an octagon via squinches, which then support the thirty-two-sided drum and the dome. The apex of the dome has two bands of floral inscriptions; otherwise, the dome is finished in plaster. The absence of historical inscriptions has contributed to the confusion over the original purpose of the Bara Gumbad.
Mehman Khana:
The third structure in the group is rectangular in plan, measuring about 27 meters (north-south) by 7 seven meters (east-west). Located along the eastern edge of the common plinth, it faces the mosque and is connected to the Bara Gumbad by a masonry wall along its northern face. The structure is believed to have either been a mehman khana, (guesthouse) or a majlis khana (assembly hall).
The building is accessed from the common plinth through its western wall, which is divided into five bays, mirroring the eastern elevation of the mosque opposite it. The three central bays are considerably larger and have ogee arch doorways, giving access to the interior, while windows puncture the smaller end bays. The arches are set in rectangular frames, which are recessed from the face of the elevation. Each opening is composed of two recessed planes of arches. The spandrels are clad in red sandstone, contrasting with the gray granite of the elevation, and are decorated with round plaster medallions with lotus motifs. The window openings have an additional tie beam or lintel at the springline. The tympanum of the window towards the south has been filled with stone, while that of the window towards the north has been left open. A continuous chajja, supported on equidistant stone brackets, projects from the western wall above the rectangular frame. The cornice is unornamented and is topped by the projecting horizontal band of the parapet, which reaches a height of approximately five meters from the top of the raised plinth. The roof of the structure is flat. The exterior of the building lacks decoration and is finished in dressed granite.
The interior is divided into seven chambers occurring from north to south; the central chamber is the largest, measuring about 5 meters (north-south) long. It is abutted by relatively narrow chambers (approx. 2.5 meters long). The outside chambers which flank the 2.5 meter wide chambers on either side are approximately the size of the central chamber, and correspond to the arched openings in the western wall. The chambers are separated from each other by gray granite walls, punctured by simple ogee arched doorways set in rectangular frames. Square in plan, the outer rooms are separated from the adjacent chambers by stone walls with rectangular door openings with blind ogee arches and rectangular frames. Each doorway has shallow rectangular recesses on either side, as well as a small arched window set into a rectangular recess and a stone jali screen set above the doorway within the tympanum of the main arch. The eastern wall of the building has blind ogee arches, occurring as two successive planes, reflecting the arched openings of the western elevation.
The roof of the central chamber is flat and supported on arches located on four sides; flat stone brackets appear at the corners. The two adjacent rooms are covered by shallow domes supported on squinches. The interior domes are finished in plaster with carved concave fluting. The exterior of the domes has been filled to blend with the flat roof of the central room.
Certain stylistic continuities are recognizable in the three buildings; each was constructed with (local) gray granite and lime mortar. However, the degree and type of embellishment, both interior and exterior, on the mosque differs substantially from that found on the other two, relatively unadorned, buildings.
Apart from the grouping of the three structures and their stylistic similarities, the buildings do not appear to have been planned as a complex. The Friday mosque is the first example of the panchmukhi building type, where "panch" (five) and "mukhi " (facade) characterize a five-bay prayer hall. This approach was influential in both the Lodi and the Mughal periods. The Bara Gumbad is significant for having the first complete hemispherical dome in Delhi.
The differences in the surface ornament of the buildings suggest that the buildings were constructed at different times, with the Bara Gumbad and the guesthouse being similar in style and decoration, without the multilayered arches of the Friday mosque. The function of the Bara Gumbad is still unknown; its geometry and form aligns with the predominant tomb architecture of the period (like the neighboring Shish Gumbad). However, there is no grave or cenotaph in the building, and rather than being blank, its qibla wall (like its other walls) is punctured by an entrance. While the continuous stone bench in the interior is also found in gateway architecture, (as in the Alai Darwaza at the Quwat-ul-Islam Mosque in Mehrauli), the size of the Bara Gumbad vis-a-vis the Friday mosque does not support this conjecture. Some scholars surmise that the structure might have been a gateway to the larger complex of tombs within the Lodi Gardens.
Lodi Dynasty
-----------------
The Lodi dynasty in India arose around 1451 after the Sayyid dynasty. The Lodhi Empire was established by the Ghizlai tribe of the Afghans. They formed the last phase of the Delhi Sultanate. There were three main rulers in the history of Lodi dynasty. All three of them have been discussed in detail in the following lines. So read on about the Lodi dynasty history.
Buhlul Khan Lodi
Buhlul Khan Lodi (1451-1489) was the founder of the Lodi dynasty in India and the first Afghan ruler of Delhi. He was an Afghan noble who was a very brave soldier. Buhlul Khan seized the throne without much resistance from the then ruler, Alam Shah. His territory was spread across Jaunpur, Gwalior and northern Uttar Pradesh. During his reign in 1486, he appointed his eldest son Barbak Shah as the Viceroy of Jaunpur. Though he was an able ruler, he really couldn't decide as to which son of his should succeed him as the heir to the throne.
Sikandar Lodi
After the death of Buhlul Khan, his second son succeeded him as the king. He was given the title of Sultan Sikander Shah. He was a dedicated ruler and made all efforts to expand his territories and strengthen his empire. His empire extended from Punjab to Bihar and he also signed a treaty with the ruler of Bengal, Alauddin Hussain Shah. He was the one who founded a new town where the modern day Agra stands. He was known to be a kind and generous ruler who cared for his subjects.
Ibrahim Lodhi
Ibrahim Lodhi was the son of Sikander who succeeded him after his death. Due to the demands of the nobles, his younger brother Jalal Khan was given a small share of the kingdom and was crowned the ruler of Jaunpur. However, Ibrahim's men assassinated him soon and the kingdom came back to Ibrahim Lodhi. Ibrahim was known to be a very stern ruler and was not liked much by his subjects. In order to take revenge of the insults done by Ibrahim, the governor of Lahore Daulat Khan Lodhi asked the ruler of Kabul, Babur to invade his kingdom. Ibrahim Lodhi was thus killed in a battle with Babur who was the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India. With the death of Ibrahim Lodhi, the Lodhi dynasty also came to an end.
Went up for Halloween. Speculation has it that they spent so much money having it put up that they can't afford to have it taken down.
Water facing, kind of reminds me of Admiral Boom's place in Mary Poppins.
The Flickr Lounge - Is That Real?
After months of speculation and spy shots the crew at Maranello have finally revealed their new mid-engined V8 powered creation to replace the F430. The all-new 458 Italia won't be shown in public until September's Frankfurt Motor Show the details were released early this morning. A new direct-injected 4.5-liter V8 ups the power ante it 570 hp and 398 lb-ft of torque. Eighty percent of that torque is now available at an impressively low 3,250 rpm, thanks probably in part to the 12.5:1 compression ratio.
Like last years California convertible, the 458 gets a 7-speed dual clutch gearbox to send power to the rear axle. A lot of work on reducing the internal friction of the powerplant in addition to reduced aerodynamic drag also helps improve the 458s mileage to a combined 17.1 mpg (US) on the EU test cycle. No mention is made so far of incorporating any type of KERS hybrid system which has been rumored. That may come at a later date.
Like its predecessor the the structure is fabricated out of aluminum giving the 458 a dry weight of just 3,042 pounds. This is after a Ferrari so talk of fuel consumption really does seem pointless. The real question is how quick is it? Based on specs at least, this new coupe does not disappoint. Acceleration to 100 km/h (62 mph) takes just 3.4 seconds and this is the first production Ferrari V8 to top the 200 mph barrier, now getting to 202 mph.
"Hannah Courtoy (1784 - 26 January 1849), born Hannah Peters, was a London society woman who inherited a fortune from the merchant John Courtoy in 1815. Her distinctive Egyptian-style mausoleum in London's Brompton Cemetery has been the subject of considerable curiosity and speculation ever since a report by Reuters in 1998 repeated claims that it contained a working time machine.
"Hannah Courtoy was born Hannah Peters in 1784. She never married but had three daughters, Mary Ann (1801), Elizabeth (1804-1876), and Susannah (1807-1895). In 1830, Susannah married Septimus Holmes Godson, a barrister of Gray's Inn.
"In 1815, Courtoy inherited a fortune from the elderly merchant John Courtoy (born Nicholas Jacquinet in France, 1709) through a Will that was disputed in court.
"Courtoy's distinctive Egyptian-style mausoleum of 1854[9] in Brompton Cemetery, where her unmarried daughters Elizabeth and Mary Ann are also interred, has been the subject of considerable curiosity ever since a report by Reuters in 1998[10] reported on rumours that it might be or contain a working time machine, a speculation that has been fuelled by various articles written by the musician Stephen Coates of the band The Real Tuesday Weld."
Source: Wikipedia
More on the story of Hannah Courtoy's mausoleum
Independent article on the time machine theory
"Brompton Cemetery is a London cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is managed by The Royal Parks, and is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Established by Act of Parliament and erected in 1839, it opened in 1840 and was originally known as the West of London and Westminster Cemetery.
"Consecrated by Charles James Blomfield, the Bishop of London in June 1840, it is one of Britain's oldest and most distinguished garden cemeteries. Some 35,000 monuments, from simple headstones to substantial mausolea, mark the resting place of more than 205,000 burials. The site includes large plots for family mausolea, and common graves where coffins are piled deep into the earth, as well as a small columbarium. There is also a secluded Garden of Remembrance at the northern end, for cremated remains. It is also an urban haven for nature.
"By the early years of the 19th century, inner city burial grounds, mostly churchyards, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead. In 1837 a decision was made to lay out a new burial ground in Brompton, London. The moving spirit behind the project was the engineer, Stephen Geary, and it was necessary to form a company in order to get parliamentary permission to raise capital for the purpose. Securing the land – some 40 acres – from local landowner, Lord Kensington and the Equitable Gas Light Company, as well as raising the money proved an extended challenge. The cemetery became one of seven large, new cemeteries founded by private companies in the mid-19th century (sometimes called the 'Magnificent Seven') forming a ring around the edge of London."
Source: Wikipedia
Bien sûr, à Santorin, on peut faire les belles photos traditionnelles des moulins et des clochers blancs et bleus. Je les ai faites. Mais ce qui frappe, c'est la construction débridée. On ne paraît protéger que la vue de loin, de la mer. Sur le chemin de Fira à Ia, les belles perspectives sont cassées par des constructions nouvelles particulièrement mal placées. A qui profite le crime ? J'aurais dû y aller il y a trente ans...
The Province’s new housing plan will speed up delivery of new homes, increase the supply of middle-income housing, fight speculation and help those who need it the most. Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/28486
Hmmm....seems we have a speculation thread going on...
Well, I took this shot because it reminded me of a friends shot of keyholes on a door that does not lock...
flickr.com/photos/safejourneyinspiration/3259572923/
I will leave y'all to your pondering...it makes for interesting "Coffee news"
Public Citizen President Robert Weissman joins Sens. Bernie Sanders, Richard Blumenthal and Ben Nelson in calling for an end to a Wall Street-imposed tax on oil. They called on Congress to pass the End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act.
Inspired by the global speculation of the 2012 phenomenon, REVELATION puts light on the Egyptian’s belief in the renewal of mankind during the catastrophic event. The belief in the new way of life influenced the collection’s vision to challenge and push the boundaries of menswear. Egyptian gods are personified by fashionably reincarnating them into modern day “street gods”. It resurrects the divinity and opulence of ancient Egypt through OTT (Over The Top) sensibility and striking DIY aesthetic in street art and fashion. The street gods are envisioned to be transported right into Japan, 2012, living and breathing the air in the streets of Harajuku where the very aspect of OTT flair is celebrated and desired. Exploring specially into the experimental spirit of the Japanese street style, the pieces were made in a mélange of opposing elements, unconventional silhouettes, clashing hues and materials which bears the iconic essence of the ancient Egypt. This collection aims to retain achaotic equilibrium while simultaneously fabricating a booming visual orgasm: A revelation exhilaration.
July 2,2007.
Caspian Terns have new, High Tide Roost Site
After a rather poor Spring and early Summer Collecting Re Sight leg Bands from Caspian Terns My speculation about a general movement of Caspian Terns from their former High Tide roost at Tsawwassen Terminal. Across to the newly constructed sea dam wall that surrounds an area to be filled to form the new Parking Lot/Container Berth at Wesrtshore Terminals. Tonight with the tide Aprox. 14.5 Feet and rising there were only 4 to 5 terns at the Compensation Lagoon Taswwassen Ferry Terminal.. Tonight's Total after several disturbances was 271 On the Gravel bream or sea dam. The following bands were Read
L/L Yellow Over Orange with Yellow at the foot. Red over Metal with Dark Blue at the foot. This info may be suspect as the Bands were faded see Pic.
L/L Yellow Over Red with Orange at the foot R/L Yellow Over Lt. Grn with Metal at the foot.
L/L Red over Red with Dark Green at the foot R/L Yellow Over Lt. Grn with metal at the foot.
L/L Orange over Orange with Yellow at the Foot R/L Lt. Grn over Metal with Lt. Grn at the foot.
L/L ONLY White over Orange with Lt. Grn at the foot. The RIGHT LEG was just a STUMP This could be as result of banding ??? See photo to come
An Alpha numerical Yellow Band with Black Codes was Obs see Photo to come First Code was an A over 1 Next Code ? followed by 1 at the foot.
the ? code was possibly 4 or 6 maybe 8 ???
The Problem with this fantastic location is that it is about 600 feet into the security zone. So after about 40 Minutes of Observation a security guard arrived to ask me to leave.
After making numerous trips to the OLD areas used by the Terns during High Tides and Low. They seem to be dispersed from there old territories. After about 5 to 6 Years of collecting information it would be nice to continue?
Richard Swanston
Delta, B.C. Canada
IMG_3498_2_1
News reporters are still trying to find valid evidence proving that Farrah Abraham plastic surgery did in fact happen, because at this time it all remains to be speculation.
surgeryplasticbeforeafter.com/farrah-abraham-plastic-surg...
July 2,2007.
Caspian Terns have new, High Tide Roost Site
After a rather poor Spring and early Summer Collecting Re Sight leg Bands from Caspian Terns My speculation about a general movement of Caspian Terns from their former High Tide roost at Tsawwassen Terminal. Across to the newly constructed sea dam wall that surrounds an area to be filled to form the new Parking Lot/Container Berth at Wesrtshore Terminals. Tonight with the tide Aprox. 14.5 Feet and rising there were only 4 to 5 terns at the Compensation Lagoon Taswwassen Ferry Terminal.. Tonight's Total after several disturbances was 271 On the Gravel bream or sea dam. The following bands were Read
L/L Yellow Over Orange with Yellow at the foot. Red over Metal with Dark Blue at the foot. This info may be suspect as the Bands were faded see Pic.
L/L Yellow Over Red with Orange at the foot R/L Yellow Over Lt. Grn with Metal at the foot.
L/L Red over Red with Dark Green at the foot R/L Yellow Over Lt. Grn with metal at the foot.
L/L Orange over Orange with Yellow at the Foot R/L Lt. Grn over Metal with Lt. Grn at the foot.
L/L ONLY White over Orange with Lt. Grn at the foot. The RIGHT LEG was just a STUMP This could be as result of banding ??? See photo to come
An Alpha numerical Yellow Band with Black Codes was Obs see Photo to come First Code was an A over 1 Next Code ? followed by 1 at the foot.
the ? code was possibly 4 or 6 maybe 8 ???
The Problem with this fantastic location is that it is about 600 feet into the security zone. So after about 40 Minutes of Observation a security guard arrived to ask me to leave.
After making numerous trips to the OLD areas used by the Terns during High Tides and Low. They seem to be dispersed from there old territories. After about 5 to 6 Years of collecting information it would be nice to continue?
Richard Swanston
Delta, B.C. Canada
IMG_3497_1
The Province’s new housing plan will speed up delivery of new homes, increase the supply of middle-income housing, fight speculation and help those who need it the most. Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/28486
OK, open call for speculation as to why this sign has been put up here (or hard facts, if you possess any). This door in New York's meatpacking district has been sticker covered for quite a while. I could understand a "no stickers" sign, perhaps, but am puzzled by the no photographs one. (besides - it's a door on a public sidewalk. You can't tell ME not to take photographs here. yeah. blah, blah, blah).
The Province’s new housing plan will speed up delivery of new homes, increase the supply of middle-income housing, fight speculation and help those who need it the most. Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/28486
Public Citizen President Robert Weissman joins Sens. Bernie Sanders, Richard Blumenthal and Ben Nelson in calling for an end to a Wall Street-imposed tax on oil. They called on Congress to pass the End Excessive Oil Speculation Now Act.
Artificial intelligence offers plenty of room for speculation about the future. What is certain is that this technology has already changed our everyday life in far-reaching ways and will continue to do so. We have already been supported by algorithms in a wide range of areas such as autonomous driving, security technology, marketing or social media for a long time. Artificial intelligence is even used to create works of art. But how many of our tasks do we want to outsource to machines? No other development in our time poses such a clear question about how we want to employ our technological means in a societal context.
Credit: tom mesic
Artificial intelligence offers plenty of room for speculation about the future. What is certain is that this technology has already changed our everyday life in far-reaching ways and will continue to do so. We have already been supported by algorithms in a wide range of areas such as autonomous driving, security technology, marketing or social media for a long time. Artificial intelligence is even used to create works of art. But how many of our tasks do we want to outsource to machines? No other development in our time poses such a clear question about how we want to employ our technological means in a societal context.
Credit: tom mesic
Artificial intelligence offers plenty of room for speculation about the future. What is certain is that this technology has already changed our everyday life in far-reaching ways and will continue to do so. We have already been supported by algorithms in a wide range of areas such as autonomous driving, security technology, marketing or social media for a long time. Artificial intelligence is even used to create works of art. But how many of our tasks do we want to outsource to machines? No other development in our time poses such a clear question about how we want to employ our technological means in a societal context.
Credit: tom mesic
The Province’s new housing plan will speed up delivery of new homes, increase the supply of middle-income housing, fight speculation and help those who need it the most. Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/28486
Sir Christopher Hatton (1540 – 20 November 1591) was an English politician, the lord chancellor of England and, according to speculation, the lover of Queen Elizabeth I.
His father was William Hatton (d. 1546) of Holdenby, Northamptonshire and his mother was Alice Saunders. He was educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford. Known as a handsome and accomplished man, especially distinguished for his elegant dancing, he soon attracted the notice of Queen Elizabeth and became one of her gentlemen pensioners in 1564, and the captain of her bodyguard in 1572. He received valuable estates and offices from the Queen, and this prompted rumours that he was her lover, a charge which was definitely made by Mary, Queen of Scots in 1584. Hatton had been made vice-chamberlain of the royal household and a member of the Privy Council in 1578, and had been a member of parliament since 1571, first representing the borough of Higham Ferrers and afterwards the county of Northamptonshire. In 1578 he was knighted, and became the Queen's spokesman in the House of Commons. He was an active agent in the prosecutions of John Stubbs and William Parry, disputing John Jovey's suggestion to execute the "seditious pair." He was also one of those appointed to arrange a marriage between Elizabeth and Francois, Duke of Alençon, in 1581.
As a lawyer, he was a member of the court which tried Anthony Babington in 1586; and was one of the commissioners who found Mary, Queen of Scots guilty of treason. He urged Elizabeth not to marry the French prince; but, according to one account, repeatedly assured Mary that he would fetch her to London if the English queen died. Whether true or not, Hatton's loyalty was unquestioned; and he brought about a memorable incident seen in the House of Commons in December 1584, when four hundred kneeling members repeated after him a prayer for Elizabeth's safety.
Having been the constant recipient of substantial marks of the queen's favour, he vigorously denounced Mary Stuart in parliament, and advised William Davison to forward the warrant for her execution to Fotheringhay. In the same year (1587) Hatton was made Lord Chancellor; he was the last MP to hold this position (barring the strange case of Charles Yorke) until Jack Straw, some four hundred and twenty years later. Although he had no great knowledge of the law, he appears to have acted with sound sense and good judgment in his new position. He is said to have been a Roman Catholic in all but name, yet he treated religious questions in a moderate and tolerant way. He died in London, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.
Although mention has been made of a secret marriage, Hatton appears to have remained single, and his large and valuable estates descended to his nephew, Sir William Newport, who took the name of Hatton. Sir Christopher was a Knight of the Garter and chancellor of the University of Oxford. Elizabeth frequently gave her friend generous gifts. She called him her "mouton", and forced the bishop of Ely to give him the freehold of Ely Place, Holborn, which became his residence, his name being perpetuated in the neighbouring Hatton Garden. Hatton is reported to have been a very mean man, but he patronized men of letters, and among his friends was Edmund Spenser. He wrote the fourth act of a tragedy, Tancred and Gismund, and his death occasioned several panegyrics in both prose and verse.
When Hatton's nephew, Sir William Hatton, died without sons in 1597, his estates passed to a kinsman, another Sir Christopher Hatton (d. 1619), whose son and successor, Christopher, was created Baron Hatton of Kirby.
down the road....
photo by Diane Kramer
thanks to “the swamper” on flickr...it is now noted this is most likely a northern water snake.
(correction in snake. not a rattler).
Eruption goes on, there were speculations among scientist this morning that it was going to stop after a less intense eruptions this morning, but in midday it almost got as intense as yesterday.
I heard a new name for this eruption and I like it. It is Mila or Mila fires, that name comes from the company that is webcasting live from the eruption.
Edit.
If you want to see high quality photos of this eruption, then I recommend this site:
gudmann.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Volcanic-Eruption-...
Here is a live webcam of the eruption:
July 2,2007.
Caspian Terns have new, High Tide Roost Site
After a rather poor Spring and early Summer Collecting Re Sight leg Bands from Caspian Terns My speculation about a general movement of Caspian Terns from their former High Tide roost at Tsawwassen Terminal. Across to the newly constructed sea dam wall that surrounds an area to be filled to form the new Parking Lot/Container Berth at Wesrtshore Terminals. Tonight with the tide Aprox. 14.5 Feet and rising there were only 4 to 5 terns at the Compensation Lagoon Taswwassen Ferry Terminal.. Tonight's Total after several disturbances was 271 On the Gravel bream or sea dam. The following bands were Read
L/L Yellow Over Orange with Yellow at the foot. Red over Metal with Dark Blue at the foot. This info may be suspect as the Bands were faded see Pic.
L/L Yellow Over Red with Orange at the foot R/L Yellow Over Lt. Grn with Metal at the foot.
L/L Red over Red with Dark Green at the foot R/L Yellow Over Lt. Grn with metal at the foot.
L/L Orange over Orange with Yellow at the Foot R/L Lt. Grn over Metal with Lt. Grn at the foot.
L/L ONLY White over Orange with Lt. Grn at the foot. The RIGHT LEG was just a STUMP This could be as result of banding ??? See photo to come
An Alpha numerical Yellow Band with Black Codes was Obs see Photo to come First Code was an A over 1 Next Code ? followed by 1 at the foot.
the ? code was possibly 4 or 6 maybe 8 ???
The Problem with this fantastic location is that it is about 600 feet into the security zone. So after about 40 Minutes of Observation a security guard arrived to ask me to leave.
After making numerous trips to the OLD areas used by the Terns during High Tides and Low. They seem to be dispersed from there old territories. After about 5 to 6 Years of collecting information it would be nice to continue?
Richard Swanston
Delta, B.C. Canada
IMG_3505_1