Memorial Hall
When walking through Boston's renowned Harvard Yard, one may scope out the mixture of architecture throughout its landscape. From the traditional Memorial Hall influenced by Romanesque churches, to the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard Yard is like a salad bowl of architecture. Perhaps because I am a lover of Victorian style structures, or maybe because of its interior's beauty and richness, Memorial Hall intrigued my interest most of all.
Memorial Hall, which was originally a civil war monument, is now a theater and student union for Harvard University. The 19th century architects Robert Ware and Henry Van Brunt designed this building to resemble the Victorian Gothic Romanesque churches of the time. Memorial Hall contains a theater, dinning hall, and a crossing (the civil war memorial).
The use of brick color on Memorial Hall is an important aspect of its exterior, as it creates a striped pattern and border along the outside walls. Furthermore, the slate on the roof displays a pattern to view as well. Upon examining this building one can't h...
The Korean War Veterans Memorial Research Paper: The Korean War Veterans Memorial is an ominous depiction of an American squad on patrol alongside a 164 foot mural wall, to show that freedom is not free. The memorial is dedicated to those who served in the Korean War but more importantly those of them who were killed in action, are still missing in action, or were held as prisoners of war. The memorial was created by Frank Gaylord and Louis Nelson. The objective of the memorial is to remind the public of the dedication to the United States of the men and women who served in the Korean War. The memorial was designed to show the trials and tribulations that many of the military personnel faced during the war.
Hitchcock, Henry Russell. Early Victorian Architecture in Britain Volumes I and II. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954.
The "Mixed Metaphors in Chicago. " Architectural Review August, 1933. v. 74 pp. 47-49.
Located within the silent forest of special collections is Hejduk’s drawing, “Study for Wall House.” The temperature of the room is slightly over 72 degrees Fahrenheit, the perfect environment for precious architectural artifacts. “Hi There!” a voice surprises from behind, I turn swiftly as the graceful librarian slowly approaches with Hejduk’s drawing and model. At that moment, an array of luminescent light enlightens her essence and the essence of the artifacts. “Looking for these?” she asks. I nod my head as her aged hands firmly hold the framed drawing of Hejduk’s wall house. The ever-changing wrinkle pattern of her skin mimics the aging qualities of the drawing. As she gently rests the object on the hardtop table, you can hear the tear in the fragile fabric of the canvas. As the librarian returns to her office, I am left alone with this breathtaking object.
As the birds are singing their sweet melody, the terrain of Arlington National Cemetery is filled with sadness. Although the brilliant rays of sun are shinning through the thick colossal treetops, there is a chill in the air. While watching the mourners, the feeling of their sorrows is all too real.
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.
It is the new decade after the end of world war two and modernism is a well-established practice. Its pioneers and spearheads are prevalent figures looming over the new architects and designers who are trying to make their mark in the shadows of such historically influential people. With new technologies and materials emerging from the world wars the next era of modernism had started to evolved, bringing with it philosophies and ideas which seemed far removed from those of the pioneers of modernism “What emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s was an expanding synthesis of questions utterly removed from the confident statements of the pioneers.”(Spade 1971,10) Two significant buildings were designed in the 50's, both of them for educational institutes and to house students of architecture, there were both designed in completely different styles and methods. The first is Ludwig Mies van der Rohes' Crown Hall, finished in 1956 and designed as a part of a campus master plan for the Illinois Institute of technology in Chicago. Mies' design for Crown Hall is one of his most realised expressio...
The granite central arch of the Boston Public Library bears an inscription: FREE.TO.ALL. These words capture the spirit of the library, the first large municipally funded library in the United States. The Boylston Street building was built to meet the growing demand for a public library, with the previously existing library on Mason Street having outgrown its purpose. Built in 1895, the building is an outstanding example of Renaissance Beaux Art style, and was intended as a “palace for the people,” a philosophy which was reflected in both its design and its cost. As Peter Arms Wick writes, it is “One of Boston’s proudest monuments, perhaps the most admired, discussed and influential public buildings in American architectural
The artist has created an extremely effective background, symbolizing the present and past. The bright stones forming the wall contrast with the Jewish gravestones, which were desecrated and used to pave roads during the Holocaust. Moreover, the background alludes to light and dark highlighting the
Prince Hall is recognized as the Father of Black Masonry in the United States. Historically, he made it possible for Negroes to be recognized and enjoy all privileges of free and accepted masonry.
But these contrived differences give rise to esthetic difficulties too. Because inherent differences—those that come from genuinely differing uses—are lacking among the buildings and their settings, the contrivances repre...
Temko, Allan. (1993). No Way to Build a Ballpark: and Other Irreverent Essays on Architecture. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
Frank Lloyd Wright has been called “one of the greatest American architect as well as an Art dealer that produced a numerous buildings, including houses, resorts, gardens, office buildings, churches, banks and museums. Wright was the first architect that pursues a philosophy of truly organic architecture that responds to the symphonies and harmonies in human habitats to their natural world. He was the apprentice of “father of Modernism” Louis Sullivan, and he was also one of the most influential architects on 20th century in America, Wright is idealist with the use of elemental theme and nature materials (stone, wood, and water), the use of sky and prairie, as well as the use of geometrical lines in his buildings planning. He also defined a building as ‘being appropriate to place’ if it is in harmony with its natural environment, with the landscape (Larkin and Brooks, 1993).
The dictionary.com definition of a museum is "a building or place where works of art, scientific specimens, or other objects of permanent value are kept and displayed." What better place to find an object of permanent value than a cemetery. I searched through four museums and could not find anything that peaked my interest into my study of humanities until at last it hit me, a cemetery I had passed countless times as a child that I had never truly thought of at all. At the corner of Cypresswood and I-45 I began to sift into a cemetery that I had no true interest in, or so I thought. The cemetery was home to about sixteen burial plots but one particularly interested me. The headstone read Friedrich August Wunsche, Geb July 20, 1837, Gest May 3, 1897. I decided on this tombstone because of its architecture and time period of the person it commemorated, it is the sole surviving piece for this man to be remembered by. A shrine of sorts to his life, this man lived in the union, probably fought for the confederacy and then died when the United States was once again united. I truly chose this particular headstone because it was different than the rest, most were designed into a more secular way, hearts engraved into them or just simple block headstones with initials carved into them. The cemetery ranged from very ornate with multiple parts and different scripts to the simplest headstones as previously described. The headstone was in a shape of an obelisk similar to that of Egyptians we have studied. An odd occurrence it seemed as the rest of the head stones seemed of the standard variety. I think that this headstone was quite well made as it has survived over one-hundred years with only minor flaws in the architecture. When you really t...
Several finishes were used for the external wall. Decorative masonry tiles were used for the lower external wall finish. For the upper p...