Posts Tagged ‘architecture’
What am I Lego-loving?
December 10, 2015Where am I reading?
October 4, 2015
I love this idea. I am trying to think of a way to incorporate an easy chair and a fridge into the staircase. Then I would be all set (almost).
These are from the bookshelf blog.
What event am I noting today?
September 30, 2015
The Hell Gate Bridge over the East River in New York was opened on September 30, 1916.
The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or The East River Arch Bridge) is a 1,017-foot (310 m)steel through arch railroad bridge in New York City. The bridge crosses the Hell Gate, a strait of the East River, between Astoria in Queens and Randalls and Wards Islands in Manhattan.
The bridge is the largest of three bridges that form the Hell Gate complex. An inverted bowstring truss bridge with four 300-foot (91.4 m) spans crosses the Little Hell Gate (now filled in); and a 350-foot (106.7 m) fixed truss bridge crosses the Bronx Kill (now narrowed by fill). Together with approaches, the bridges are more than 17,000 feet (3.2 mi; 5.2 km) long.
This bridge was the inspiration for the design of Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, which is about 60 percent larger.
The bridge was conceived in the early 1900s to link New York and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) with New England and the New Haven Railroad (NH).
Construction was overseen by Gustav Lindenthal, whose original design left a gap of 15 feet (4.6 m) between the steel arch and the masonry towers. Fearing that the public assumed that the towers were structurally integral to the bridge, Lindenthal added aesthetic girders between the upper chord of the arch and the towers to make the structure appear more robust. The original plans for the piers on the long approach ramps called for a steel lattice structure. The design was changed to smooth concrete to soothe concerns that asylum inmates on Wards and Randall’s islands would climb the piers to escape.
The engineering was so precise that when the last section of the main span was lifted into place, the final adjustment needed to join everything together was just 1⁄2 inch (13 mm). Construction of the Hell Gate Bridge began on March 1, 1912 and ended on September 30, 1916. It was the world’s longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931, and was surpassed again by the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932.
During World War II, it was among the dozen or so targets of economic value of significant enough importance to attract the attention of Nazi German sabotage planners. The Nazis’ Operation Pastorius landed German agents on US soil in 1942 in hopes of wrecking the bridge and other key targets. (Operation Pastorius failed due to detection of some landing activity by US shore patrols and subsequent defections among some of the German landing team’s members to the Allied side.)
In the 1990s, the bridge was repainted for the first time since it opened. It was painted a deep red called “Hell Gate Red”. Due to a flaw in the paint, however, the red color began to fade before the work was completed, leading to the bridge’s currently faded, splotchy appearance.
The bridge would be the last New York City bridge to collapse if humans disappeared, taking at least a millennium to do so, according to the February 2005 issue of Discover magazine. Most other bridges would fall in about 300 years.
Lionel has a wonderful model of this bridge (which I covet).
The article was copied from Wikipedia because I thought the whole thing was interesting.
What am I sappy cat blogging?
September 11, 2015It turns out that Frank Lloyd Wright did not limit his designs to buildings for people. The Feline Historical Museum in Alliance, Ohio has a cat house designed by Wright for one of his clients. Included in the exhibit are FLW’s blueprints for the project.
Who knew there was a Feline Historical Museum?
There is more to the story at Hauspanther.
What am I building?
August 5, 2015We drove by Stan Hewett Hall a couple of weeks ago and saw this amazing reconstruction of the 2200 linear foot long dry stone wall surrounding the property.
Stan Hewett Hall and Gardens is the former home of industrialist, Frank Seiberling, who founded Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. Finished in 1915, the estate, now a museum and garden, is celebrating its 100th year.
The stone wall reconstruction is just one of the restoration projects going on at the mansion.
Where am I living?
July 23, 2015
Tree house architect, Takashi Kobayashi, created this marvelous tree house for Risonare resort in Atami, Japan.
The rambling structure is built around a 300 year-old camphor tree. It was . . .
Completed in March of 2014, Kusukusu (it borrows its name from kusu-no-ki, Japanese for camphor tree) is a marvelous feat of architecture, engineering and technology. Working with Hiroshi Nakamura of NAP Architects, the team came in and 3D-scanned hundreds of points on the tree. Based on that 3D data they then created a steel trellis that threaded through the tree, interlocking perfectly and acting as an architecturally weight-bearing yet visually stunning support system. What’s amazing is that the treehouse in its entirety, never touches the tree. It’s completely self-standing so as to not harm the tree.
READ MORE at Spoon and Tomago by clicking here.
What am I celebrating on tattoo Tuesday?
July 14, 2015
La Fête nationale de la belle France – le quatorze juillet!
Americans have The 4th of July; the French have Bastille Day. On July 14, 1789, an outraged group of Parisians stormed the Bastille, a fortress and prison in France where prisoners of influence were held, in hopes of capturing ammunition.
Shortly thereafter, King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette took refuge in Versailles as the violent peasants pillaged and burned châteaux, and destroyed records of feudal dues—this reaction is known as the grande peur (great fear).
For the peasant class, the Bastille stood as a symbol of the hypocrisy and corruption of the aristocratic government – controlled mostly by nobility and clergy. This important event marked the entry of the popular class into the French Revolution.
The French recognize Bastille Day as the end of the monarchy and beginning of the modern republic. The lasting significance of the event was in its recognition that power could be held by ordinary citizens, not in the king or in God.
Where am I living?
May 30, 2015
If you have a hankering to live off the grid in a self-contained pod, “the compact Ecocapsule fits all the home necessities within an egg-shaped space measuring 4.5 meters (14.6 feet) in length, 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) in width, and 2.5 meters in height (8.2 feet).”
The Ecocapsule is described as a portable, low-energy, green dwelling that will comfortable house two adults.
While portable, you have to transport the 1500 kilogram pod to your location. They are said to fit in a shipping container.
They do have the ability to generate power from the wind turbine and solar cells, and can collect and filter rainwater.
The pods are currently in the design phase, although delivery of actual capsules is anticipated in 2016.
I don’t know about long-term living, but they look like they are a huge step up from tent camping.
Why am I Australia-Dreaming?
May 29, 2015I love this very cool video of the Sydney Opera House – think of all the things you could project onto that beautiful surface.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 