Today technology allows us to construct structures that we would never have been able to make in the past. Some of the creations are impressive based on what they accomplish but others are masterpieces in themselves. Man’s capability to build such tall buildings, as the skyscrapers we are familiar with covering our cities today, is a major expression of the advancements we have made as a culture. The power necessary to build such tall structures inspired competition between architects to see who could build the tallest one. One skyscraper that has inspired many and served as a model, for high rise buildings that were created after, is the Chrysler Building. The Chrysler Building serves as an identifying mark to anyone that views the New York City skyline. The history surrounding the Chrysler Building is almost as intricate as the artwork and engineering of the building itself. Today it elicits a reaction from anyone who passes by just as it did when it was first created.
The term skyscrapers has become the term used for tall, multi-storied buildings that have a height of at least 152 meters or 500 feet. The term was originally used to refer to a tall mast on a sailing vessel. Skyscrapers were first introduced in the 19th century. Prior to the 19th century a high rise building was thought of as unrealistic because it was irrational to have people walk up multiple flights of stairs. There was also the problem of providing the top floors with water pressure. Early on they only had the technology to provide water up to 50 feet or 15 meters. These problems were soon rectified by the invention of the elevator and also with the development of a water pumps that were made of steel and reinforced w...
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James F. O'Gorman, Dennis E. McGrath. ABC of Architecture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Document. October 2013.
A review of the chronology of key events, as published by the HIH Royal Commission, will show that the leadership of HIH Insurance has made a series of acquisitions both local and international. As discussed in Wikipedia online (2014), through 1997 and 1998, HIH Winterthur acquired a large number of companies both in Australia and globally, including Colonial Ltd General Insurance's operations in Australia and New Zealand, Solart in Argentina and Great States Insurance Co in the United States. HIH acquired the large Australian insurance company FAI Insurance, whose chief executive Rodney Adler became a director of HIH in 1999.
In the capital of financial services, two insurance buildings dominate Boston’s skyline. The Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center are structures that display the uneven change and the urban development that has occurred in this city over the course 19th century. Located in back bay these edifices work with the directionalities of their adjacent streets and the cultural history of the structures that surround them. Boston’s foundation was composed in a manner that designated and organized space. This creates the tension and contrast present in that between the two structures. The iconography that these structures have over the city is important. It represents a sense of the past as well as the purpose that the built environment has with a changing society. Even though these structures dominate so much of the skyline, they interact differently with the public. There is a physical boundary that separates the functionalities and interaction in which society can actively have with them. This essay will focus on the structural purpose in regard to the form following function of these skyscrapers and how they each demonstrate a design aspect that characterizes Boston through a visual perspective.
Dell Upton is a historian and renowned professor of architecture and Urbanism at the University of California. He has published several books on architecture; one of them is “Architecture in the United States”, published in 1998. In this book, Upton analyzes the architecture of the United States in different aspects, such as nature, money and art, thus depicting the great variety in architectural forms, and how throughout the decades, different interests have lead communities to different ways of building, different purposes and materials, thus reflecting their way of thinking and their relationship with the environment. By exploring so many different architectural styles, Upton reveals the great diversity and richness that has always, and continues to characterize American architecture.
We, as humans, face the most difficult challenges: conformity. We inadvertently aim to be what we see depicted in the environment around us. In many instances, we do so under extreme circumstances without regard to the consequences. Around the globe, different beauty practices of enduring violence and pain, mutilation and self-mutilation can be found in almost every culture. In the Chinese culture, binding one's feet are done in order to achieve a certain length. Foot binding has disappeared from modern-day China, but it was once accepted and a promoted practice among many Chinese women. The origin of such culture, beauty practice is somewhat a mystery; there are many theories as to why women began to bind their feet. The reasons why women began binding their feet are not the only field of importance, why it became popular for women to bind their feet, how and why it became accepted in the Chinese culture and the consequences due to these practices are considered as well. Foot binding was known as a cultural practice that represented femininity and eroticism through physical and mental violence. In this cultural practice, it is believed that foot binding speaks multiple languages; seduction, eroticism, virtue, discipline and sacrifice. Both mother and daughter mutilated their feet in hopes of fulfilling
Foot binding – a widespread custom in China that lasted for more than a 1,000 years – involved incredibly tight cloth bindings being applied to the feet of young girls to stifle growth. Women with small feet were deemed beautiful and could marry better if they had “lotus feet”, as they were often referred to. (Steinfeld)
Stars are born and reborn from an explosion of a previous star. The particles and helium are brought together the same way the last star was born. Throughout the life of a star, it manages to avoid collapsing. The gravitational pull from the core of the star has to equal the gravitational pull of the gasses, which form a type of orbit. When this equality is broken, the star can go into several different stages. Some stars that are at least thirty times larger than our sun can form black holes and other kinds of stars.
Footbinding is an issue that the Chinese do not like to talk about: The men don't because it suggests that men have the power to dominate over women and tell them what to do. Women don't like to talk about it because it is unsettling to think that their ancestors crippled their own daughters just to fit a social standard.
Smoking has become a big epidemic in the United States. As a tobacco free person, I want to be able to breathe clean air anywhere I go. As we know, smoking can harm every organ in the body (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). I believe that smoking should be banned in public places such as drinking establishments, hospitals, buses, train stations, and restaurants. Not only does smoking affect the individual smoker, it also causes a number of health problems, increases death rate, and it affects not only the lives, but the health of other people around them. On the contrary, smoking should be banned in public areas for these reasons.
	Another fine example of neorealism is The Bicycle Thief (1948), written by Cesare Zavattini and directed by Vittorio De Sica. The narrative of this film unfolds in post-W.W.II times. The film is a portrait of the post-war Italian disadvantaged class (the majority) in their search for self-respect. It is a time of struggle for the Italian people, amplified by a shortage of employment and lack of social services. In the first scenes of the film, these conditions are evident as Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorami) meets his spouse Maria (Lianalla Carell) on his way back home. We see the "men" arguing at the employment "office" as the "women" argue about the shortage of water. Although the director's pessimism drives the plot, it is ultimately the clash with human optimism which gives this film affective power.
Every culture left a mark of its quality on New York’s buildings that change over time: some are old, some are new, some are tall, and some are small. They might have a lot in common, but not one building is like the other. Diversity is what makes New York.
(Image taken from Tranchtenberg, Marvin, Isabelle Hyman. Architecture: From Prehistory to Postmodernity. Second Edition. Prentice Hall, Inc. New Jersey: 2002.)
Levy, Howard S. Chinese Footbinding: The History of a Curious Erotic Custom. 1923, Neville Spearman Ltd., London.
“One must suffer in order to be beautiful,” is an idea that has been imposed on women throughout history, resulting in their decision to undergo extremely painful procedures that, at that time lead to them fulfilling their societies ideal form of beauty. Foot binding is one of the many ancient forms of beauty practices that involved an infliction of an excruciating amount of pain upon individuals. Foot binding was practiced in the Chinese culture for around one thousand years. It is a term that refers to an artificial route in stunting the normal growth in women’s feet also, rendering them into an unnatural shape. The effects of this inhumane practice were not worth the beauty
Ever since the beginning of time there have been stars. Not only stars in the sky, but moons, planets, and even galaxies! Astronomy is defined as the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. In other words it is the study of space, planets, and stars. Throughout the ages, many people have used astronomy to help them learn about the universe, our own planet, and even make predictions about life itself. Understanding astronomy means understanding where it originated, the different groups/cultures that used it, and modern purposes of the science of the stars.