Buildings: Sculpture Influence
St. Louis Arch, Pan Am Terminal, Dulles Airport, MIT Church, TWA terminal
Eero Saarinen’s amazing buildings with sculptural influence behind them is what gained the architect fame and recognition. Some of these amazing sculptural masterpieces he is responsible for include the St. Louis Gateway Arch, in Missouri, the MIT Chapel, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the TWA Terminal, in New York City.
The one work of architecture that gave Eero most of his fame is the St. Louis Gateway Arch, in Missouri. The Gateway Arch is marked as a National Historic Landmark, and it is also the largest arch in the world. Standing at 630 feet tall, the steel arch is also the largest monument in the western hemisphere. Designed by Eero in 1947, construction was not started until 1963. In 1948 Saarinen took first place with his design in the competition for the design of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis. Eero used his sculptural and artistic mind to make a design which resembled an inverted, weighted catenary arch, distorted to increase aesthetics. It preserved the mathematical rigor and form simplicity
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This round windowless, cylinder shaped building at only 15 meters in diameter looks simple on the outside, but on the inside, it is a work of art. The brick is supported by a series of small arches on the outside, and a shallow moat around it that slips into the interior. The interior has a high level of detain which is further expressed by the filtered natural light. Opposed to the smooth even outside wall, the inside is rippled with vertical curves which gives it a different special dynamic. The interior of the chapel absorbs light through the skylight and surrounding moat creating a changing atmospheric and spiritual effect. Saarinen’s specific attention to the way light will play a major role in the design creates a special religious architectural
Following the American Civil War, the use of railroads for trade was booming. The Detroit, Michigan and Windsor Ontario border, separated by the Detroit River, was a center for railroads at the time with the Michigan Central and Great Western railroads operating on their respective sides of the border. In the early 20th century, the railroads used ferries to transport shipments across the river. As production and population grew, so did the shipments of goods, specifically grain. An increasing delay in the supply and demand of agricultural products was hurting the economy for both farmers and consumers. In 1909, a tunnel was constructed to transport trains under the Detroit River but the need for a bridge with mass transportation abilities was still needed. This led to the construction of the Ambassador Bridge in 1929, funded by financier Joseph Bower and engineered and constructed by the heralded Pittsburgh McClintic-Marshall Company. No one could have ever foreseen the societal and economical impact the decision to engineer a bridge would have.
Ziggy Marley once said, “God is like the sun. When the sun shines, it shines for everyone. God is for everyone.” In the same way, Abbot Suger built the Basilica of St. Denis so that sunlight would flood throughout the building and symbolize the power of God inviting visitors into the cathedral. The Basilica of St. Denis was an artistic response to the rise of the Catholic Church’s power for it was modeled to be a physical representation of heaven, which the church heavily preached upon. (Thesis) As the basilica represented the shift from Romanesque architecture to Gothic, Abbot Suger introduced new techniques that transformed cathedrals to look more spacious and “heavenly”. (Map Statement #1-Art History) By allowing sunlight to come through the large windows, Abbot Suger instilled the Neo-Platonic idea that the sun was the physical representation of God. (Map Statement #2 –Philosophy) Also, at that time, the church was rising in power, so the new structural style of the basilica brought more converts and eventually more power to the church. (Map Statement #3 –Social Institutions) [Insert Literature Map Statement] The Basilica of St. Denis was built so that worshippers would be in awe of the “heaven-like” setting, which would cause more people to declare their faith to God and to the church.
These twin bronze pulpits, covered with reliefs showing the passion of Christ, are works of tremendous spiritual depth and complexity. Even though some parts were left unfinished, they had to be completed by lesser artists. Bibliography:.. 1. What is the difference between a. 1998 Microsoft Encarta. Copyright 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.
Leniaud, Jean-Michel and Francoise Perrot. The Sainte Chapelle. Paris: Centre des monuments nationaux, 2007. Print .
The Jefferson Memorial is a testimonial to the past, present, and future of the United States. Its architecture, like most neo-Classical buildings, gives a sense of permanence. This permanence has a history far older than many would suspect. Centuries ago and thousands of miles away a building was erected that would later become the model for which many other buildings, including the Jefferson Memorial, are based upon. This building is the Roman Pantheon. Though the Jefferson Memorial borrows the basic form and elements from the Pantheon, the Memorial has distinctive differences from its predecessor.
The Arch is the tallest man made monument in the United States, the only monument taller than the Arch is the Eiffel Tower. The Arch was built out of stainless steel and concrete, there are 142 sections or what looks like panels from the ground of the stainless steel pieces. One could not pick up the Gateway Arch if they tried as it weighs 43,000 tons! The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is actually 91 acres which includes roughly 60 acres of Arch grounds and the remaining acres include the Old Courthouse and some of the surrounding streets. This area corresponds with the original site of the French colonial town of St. Louis which is considered the oldest European city in the Midwest. It was decided to create the park here due to St. Louis’s major role in Westward Expansion, as I have mentioned before. Some of the key events that involved St. Louis in what would eventually become the expansion of the United States to what we all know it as today are as follows. St. Louis is the place where the Santa Fe and the Organ Trails originated, and the place were Lewis and Clark started their exploration, and where formal possession of the Louisiana Purchase was taken. These are just some of the fun facts I learned about the Arch on my
After walking inside and trying to first experience, the church, and all its beauty and ornateness, I began examining the floor plan and elevations of the cathedral. Grace Cathedral was build in a gothic style, which it represents in its architecture inside and out. There were three huge rose windows. One at the very top of the main entrance and one on either end of the transept. There wer...
With the Pantheon being built over 1700 years ago, it’s amazing that architects are still using features and techniques from this work of architecture in modern creations. The use of this type of classical architecture will continue to be used in works for public space due to its remarkable exterior appearance and it’s long lasting structural durability. When both Jesse hall and the Pantheon are compared it is possible to see their similarities from the types of domes that top each, their external facades, and their interior plan. While they share many similarities, the differences that Bell and Binder used in their creation make this work of architecture unique to many other public spaces.
The American Society of Civil Engineers named the Empire State Building one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern
...understandable of making use of perfect architectural form as geometry, in terms of believe and as well as architecture. His design was straight to the point , making use of geometrical shape and it’s magnificent meaning which itself emphasises a perfect form and perfect centre point at its middle, which itself is a powerful remark on the focus point of the building (crucifixion spot at Tempietto and the pulpit at the Basilica) this achievement is more effective rather than using of coloured and expensive material ,gold ,sculpture ,painting ,large windows and light or other architectural elements which Baraque architecture used to bring about the attraction and highlight it’s point in the building.(the Alter of Grace at Church of Vierzehnheiligen)
Gehry’s additional design of the exterior has created an unconventional model form of house. The asymmetrical form characterizes the entire external side of the house. According to Goldstein, Gehry tried to slant the house roofline, create a false perspective and cause an absurd viewer’ perception or expectation (1979, 9). The complexity of the form might also produce a relationship with the house’s elements such as door, wall, and roof. For example, those elements, which linearly constructed, were hardly noticed since the distraction of geometric form around the exterior part of the house. It’s even barely hard to find the entrance of the house as a result of the salient angles of exterior.
The building has two elaborate gables, a three-storied brick tower that has a conical roof, a semi-circular arched entrance made from limestone with two free-standing Roman Doric Columns and a limestone belt course to define the second-floor line (“History and Architecture”). It also has many different types of windows including; arched upper windows, bullseye gymnasium windows, stained glass windows, and transom windows (“History and Architecture”). It also features a steeply pitched huge Hipped roof, decorative stepped gable façade in stone and terracotta that rise into a baroque pediment above the cornice, above the middle gable there are sculptured panels, and alternating bands of horizontal stone (“History and Architecture”). The building also has some copper work with its small hooded-copper domed dormers with dwarf spires and copper covered cupolas with dwarf spires (“History and Architecture”). Some other stonework on the façade includes stone lion and shields with lyres, terracotta figures, stone columns with Doric caps, and faces of the alternating stone voussoirs are projected from the building (“History and
During the day the Barcelona Pavilion is completely naturally lit. It captures the light with its’ clear walls surrounding the façade. The overhang from the long roof blocks direct sunlight to soften its intensity. He “was replacing the visual dependence of architecture on effects of light and shadow by playing with reflections” (Kostof p.703). The reflective pools are also a way to play with light.
When I was a child I used to be frightened of entering such a place for it seemed so imposing and somewhat dangerous, especially when music was being played. One day, in order to keep a promise I had made, I saw myself forced to enter. It took me quite a while to get the courage to pass through the old oak door, but the moment I stepped in, I realized just how enchanting and breathtaking this building could be. Its fantastic architecture and exquisite frescoes reflect perfectly the unity between this earth and the unseen kingdom of angels in such a manner that one cannot say where one ends and the other begins. The way in which the church was built is also the vivid testimony of a medieval period. Although it is a place that can sometimes be cold and ask for respect it is where prayers are answered and magic is done. An overwhelming feeling of inner harmony takes over you once you enter and God seems much closer. Darkness and light are welded perfectly together creating Redemption’s house. The tower allows you to see the entire town from the smallest river to the biggest building site, offering you its mightiness.
His most famous is the Church of the Light at Ibaraki in which light creates a spiritual calm and sense of impressions. Visitors approach through a narrow pathway between two concrete masses, making a 180 degree turn to enter the sanctuary itself. The sanctuary is dramatically lit by slits in the dense concrete walls. In the apse, the wall is perforated in the shape of a cross, admitting a brilliant stream of light into the chapel that moves across the opposite dark sanctuary with the motion of the sun.