New York 1939-1940 - Trylon and Perisphere As the 1939 New York World's Fair was divided into many different thematic zones, its planners wanted a central symbol for this event. The original idea was to have a theme center, with twin 250 feet towers and a semicircular hall to display dioramas. Wallace K. Harrison, a prominent New York architect of the Harrison Fouilhoux firm, was selected to design the theme center in November 1936. Harrison wanted a design that would represent a new architecture concept. In his own words, "we found ourselves constantly referring to the domes and campaniles of Venice, perhaps because the flat country and water of the Fair grounds are very like that of the site of Venice and in addition the sky color of New York is practically the same." (Newhouse,82) The idea of a large dome was a starting point for all further designs, and many different ideas were initially developed. There were plans to use a sphere that was suspended by steel cables, giving it a light, airy feel as well as a large balloon, anchored by steel cables and accessible by elevator. A spherical design was not a new idea, however. An earlier example of such a design was proposed by Etienne-Louis Boullée in his project for Newton's Cenotaph in 1783, featuring a huge sphere at the center. In the end a design that featured a sphere 200 feet in diameter raised on pillars was selected. Despite its huge dimensions, with a 200-foot diameter, it was hard to grasp the exact scale of the sphere. Harrison and his design team finally came up with the idea of using a tall spike to frame the sphere, but there was still the problem of placing the two in relation with each other. They found inspiration from drawings by a Soviet constructivist architect named Jacob Tchernikhov, which represented two large spheres connected to a tall spike by way of a ramp. The final design had emerged. It included the Perisphere, a 200 foot spherical exhibit building, the Trylon, a 700 foot tall three sided obelisk, and the Helicline , a 950 foot circular ramp which connected the two and allowed visitors to exit. However the final dimensions of the building was reduced from the original values to a 180 foot sphere and a 610 foot spike due to budget limitations, which threw off the carefully calculated proportions. The Perisphere was elevated from the ground by five steel pillars, and rested over a large reflecting pool.
Many of Frank Gehry’s early works reflect a refined manipulation of shapes and structures, whereby many of his buildings present distorted shapes or apparent structures. From the Guggenheim museum to the Walt Disney concert hall, Frank Gehry’s architecture is close to none. He cleverly plays with shapes and geometries. In this essay, I shall start with a brief analysis of Gehry’s house and the influences in the design of the house. I shall then analyze the extent to which Frank Lloyd Wright has inspired and influenced Gehry in the design of his house through a comparison with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Jacob’s house.
During this time period of American history, the country could not have been more contrasting than from 1920 through 1940. The twenties were a period of fun, partying, and economic security hence the term “roaring twenties”. While the nineteen thirties were known as the time of the “Great Depression.” From 1920 to 1940 our country saw five presidents, the first flight around the world, the completion of the worlds largest dam, a depression, prohibition, women given the right to vote, and new musical expressions.
Introduction The Pantheon in Rome and the Parthenon in Athens are 2 very influential structures and architectural breakthrough milestones in the history of humanity. They have inspired designers and architects of all generations since their erection and continue to draw visitors to admire and study their majestic nature. There are varying similarities seen in the forms of the buildings along with their original purposes. One similarity is the context for why both structures were built. They were both created as places of worship for the gods.
Pantheon and Hagia Sophia Pantheon and Hagia Sophia are two extremely outstanding architectural pieces of their times. They have been built according to the traditions of those particular times. The materials used to built these buildings and the purpose for which they were used are all very important aspects and have been briefly covered in this report. Pantheon The statesman Agrippa built pantheon in 27 B.C. Then it was completely rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian. The Pantheon is remarkable for its size, its construction, and its design. The dome was the largest built until modern times. The present structure was probably originally built as a temple for all the pagan gods. We do hear of it as being a law-court and a reception area for Emperor Hadrian meeting his quests too. Some say that the rotunda of the building was once a Roman bath. Due to all this mystery, the Pantheon is often referred to as the Sphinx of Rome. The visitor will probably not appreciate the construction as much as the Flavian amphitheatre, but it is still a great masterpiece of engineering and well worth a visit. Most Roman and Greek temples at the time of the Pantheon's construction were large, colonnaded, rectangular enclosures with sanctuaries situated in their centers. The Pantheon was different. It consisted of a large circular drum topped with a hemispherical dome. It is a masterpiece of both engineering and art a lasting memory of Ancient Rome’s might. Roman architecture is architecture of wall and enclosed tactile space. Individual column with entablature is no longer the basic architectural unity. Spatially, it shows a development from closed, simple space units and regular articulation to more complex spatial relations, more fluid interpenetrati...
The Step Pyramid was designed by Imhotep, the Chancellor of King Zoser, and was originally planned as a stone mastaba 7.0 meters high based on a square ground-plan (Aldred 45-46). However, this design underwent six alterations, and in its final form the Step Pyramid rose in six unequal steps to a height of 62.
The space is a perfect sphere symbolizing the vault of heavens, the height of the dome is the same as its diameter which is 142 feet creating perfect balance and unique impression on people standing in the middle of it. The reason why it was designed to be round was so to place all gods at the same level of importance. Once standing in the middle of the Pantheon surrounding you is seven gods linked to the worship of planets, which to Romans were the moon, the sun, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury.
Filippo Brunelleschi, who was know as something of a genius, and had worked in gold, painting, metal, sculpture, and other mediums, responded to the call for designs with a unique dome that would be a dome inside of a dome. The design was radical and beautiful, and was chosen by the town fathers.
Pompeii's large theatre underwent a structural change from the Hellenistic style to a more Greco-Roman style. The traditional Hellenistic theatres had the scene section moved forward into the orchestra area, reducing it to a semicircle. The front portion of the scene converted into a 'proskeniontogeion' (high raised stage). The stage was 8-12 feet, 45-140 feet in width, and 6.5-14 feet in depth. The back wall of the stage had 1-3 doors that opened onto the stage but later the number of doors increased to 1-7, depending on the theatre. The stage was supported in front by open
Irving Washington was born in 1783 in New York into a large family where he was the youngest of eleven children. He started his career from a law office feeling that it was a job not to his heart content. Being light-hearted and sardonic in his nature he attempted to write for the journal of his brother Peter called “The Morning Chronicle”. Later Irving and Peter thought of creating a high-quality literary mockery.
In the 1850’s the innovative generation was building exciting new urban cities, America became known as the nation of innovators. America’s latest invention was the creation of the vertical city. America was creating skyscrapers, elevators and came to have the greatest icon to symbolize the new vertical America. In 1855 the City of New York got the greatest gift ever, The Statue of Liberty. Built by the people of Paris, it had been given to America as the French wished to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It had been dropped off on New York Harbor in 214 crates, and broken into 350 pieces. The Statute had one problem; the money it would cost for New York to put the pieces together. With 6 other states in the US trying to steal it away, the City had to find a solution quick.
Building the Parthenon was a greater feat than they ever would have known. Work on the Parthenon began in 477 BC. A much smaller shrine already stood on this site, one to which we can attribute various pieces of surviving decorative material--lions and snakes, a cornice incised with flying birds, and a blue-bearded trinity that may conceivably represent Cecrops, Erechtheus, and Poseidon. If such an edifice in fact existed, it was torn down to make way for a huge limestone platform, roughly 252 by 103 feet in size, that was built as a base for the new temple. The slope of the Acropolis was such that while on the north side the foundations rested directly on bedrocks, the southeast corner needed to be built up with no less than twenty-two courses, in order to correct a vertical drop of thirty-five feet. This was only the beginning of the temple. The actual base of the new temple was smaller than the platform, as can be still be clearly seen. The temple itself was Doric, with a peristyle of six columns at each end and sixteen along the sides. Except for the lowest course of the base, the structure was to be built entirely of Pentelic marble.
Geodesic Dome: The geodesic dome was invented by R. Buckminster Fuller. Around the world, geodesic domes are used, for example, Florida’s infamous Disney World, holds a theme park, namely Epcot. It has an attraction, the Spaceship Earth, and is a geodesic dome. A geodesic dome is essentially a sphere that is hollow, its outside made of triangles. The dome is revolutionary in many ways. For one, it goes against the traditional building style, using triangles rather than rectangles. One of the ways Fuller described the differences in strength between a rectangle and a triangle would be to apply pressure to both structures. The rectangle would fold upon itself, but the triangle withstands the pressure and is much more inflexible compared to the latter. “In fact the triangle is twice as strong. Fuller discovered that if a spherical structure was created from triangles, it would have unparalleled strength due to the fact that all the pressure is being transferred from one triangle to another and then passing it to the ground.” The sphere uses the "doing more with less"”principle that Fuller spent his life pursuing in that it encloses the largest volume of interior space with the least amount of surface area. “Fuller reintroduced the idea that when the sphere's diameter is doubled it will quadruple its square footage and produce eight times the volume.” The spherical structure of a dome is one of the most efficient interior atmospheres for human living quarters because air and
As the Roman population grew larger, the buildings they used for meetings and markets had to expand as well. This presented a problem with columns. Since the building needed to be so large to accommodate the large crowds, it called for more columns to hold it up. This made the Romans turn to engineers, and thus the arch was created. The use of arches enabled the weight of the structure was evenly s...
The building was to to produced for the German Reich and was part of the international exhibition in 1929. Interestingly, before construction “neither mies nor his client had any idea what would actually be displayed in the pavilion, or what, if any, message it was supposed to convey”. Many modern architects had concerns as this meant that function was not dictating form, this was interesting to me as we see Mies somewhat bend his own rules of ornamentation. The is constructed using an 8 column grid. The grid is used to determine positiong of the the wall seperations and travertine pavers. The walls force a change of direction for the viewer which results in a new experience of space as the rooms themselves are not fully enclosed like traditional rooms had
The Colosseum contained over four stories. The first three contained over 80 entrance arches and contained a complex drainage system. These entrance arches made evacuation extremely fast in case of an em...