1.
Postmodern architecture
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The movement was given a doctrine by the architect and architectural theorist Robert Venturi in his 1966 book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. The style flourished from the 1980s through the 1990s, particularly in the work of Venturi, Philip Johnson, Charles Moore, in the late 1990s it divided into a multitude of new tendencies, including high-tech architecture, neo-classicism and deconstructivism. The architect and architectural historian Robert Venturi led the attack in 1966 in his book, Complexity, … I welcome the problems and exploit the uncertainties. … I like elements which are rather than pure, compromising rather than clean. … I am for messy vitality over obvious unity, … I prefer both-and to either-or, black and white, and sometimes gray, to black or white. … An architecture of complexity and contradiction must embody the difficult unity of inclusion rather than the easy unity of exclusion, Venturis second book, Learning from Las Vegas, co-authored with his wife, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, further developed his argument against modernism. He urged architects take into consideration and to celebrate the architecture in a place. He argued that ornamental and decorative elements accommodate existing needs for variety, Rossi insisted that cities be rebuilt in ways that preserved their historical fabric and local traditions. Similar ideas were and projects were put forward at the Venice Biennale in 1980, the call for a post-modern style was joined by Christian de Portzamparc in France and Ricardo Bofill in Spain, and in Japan by Arata Isozaki. Robert Venturi was both a prominent theorist of postmodernism and an architect who buildings illustrated his ideas, after studying at the American Academy in Rome, he worked in the offices of the modernists Eero Saarinen Louis Kahn until 1958, and then became a professor architecture at Yale University. One of his first buildings was the Guild House in Philadelphia and these two houses became symbols of the postmodern movement. He went on to design, in the 1960s and 1970s, Michael Graves designed two of the most prominent buildings in the postmodern style, the Portland Building and the Denver Public Library. The building has since added to the National Register of Historic Places. The most famous work of architect Charles Moore is the Piazza dItalia in New Orleans, drawing upon the Spanish Revival architecture of the city hall, Moore designed the Beverly Hills Civic Center in a mixture of Spanish Revival, Art Deco and Post-Modern styles. It includes courtyards, colonnades, promenades, and buildings, with open and semi-enclosed spaces, stairways and balconies. Philip Johnson began his career as a pure modernist, in 1935 he co-authored the famous catalog of the Museum of Modern Art exposition on the International Style, and studied with Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer at Harvard. His Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, inspired b a similar house by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became an icon of the modernist movement and he worked with Mies on another iconic modernist project, the Seagrams Building in New York City. However, his buildings in the 1970, such as IDS Center in Minneapolis and Pennzoil Place in Houston were massive, sober
2.
Nashville, Tennessee
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Nashville is the capital of the U. S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in the central part of the state. The city is a center for the music, healthcare, publishing, banking and transportation industries and it is known as a center of the country music industry, earning it the nickname Music City, U. S. A. Since 1963, Nashville has had a consolidated city-county government which includes six municipalities in a two-tier system. Nashville is governed by a mayor, vice-mayor, and 40-member Metropolitan Council, thirty-five of the members are elected from single-member districts, five are elected at-large. Reflecting the citys position in government, Nashville is home to the Tennessee Supreme Courts courthouse for Middle Tennessee. According to 2015 estimates from the U. S. Census Bureau, the balance population, which excludes semi-independent municipalities within Nashville, was 654,610. The 2015 population of the entire 13-county Nashville metropolitan area was 1,830,345, the 2015 population of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia combined statistical area, a larger trade area, was 1,951,644. The town of Nashville was founded by James Robertson, John Donelson, and it was named for Francis Nash, the American Revolutionary War hero. Nashville quickly grew because of its location, accessibility as a port on the Cumberland River, a tributary of the Ohio River. By 1800, the city had 345 residents, including 136 African American slaves and 14 free blacks, in 1806, Nashville was incorporated as a city and became the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. In 1843, the city was named the permanent capital of the state of Tennessee, by 1860, when the first rumblings of secession began to be heard across the South, antebellum Nashville was a prosperous city. The citys significance as a port made it a desirable prize as a means of controlling important river. In February 1862, Nashville became the first state capital to fall to Union troops, the state was occupied by Union troops for the duration of the war. Within a few years after the Civil War, the Nashville chapter of the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Confederate veteran John W. Morton, meanwhile, the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and developed a solid manufacturing base. The post–Civil War years of the late 19th century brought new prosperity to Nashville and these healthy economic times left the city with a legacy of grand classical-style buildings, which can still be seen around the downtown area. Circa 1950 the state approved a new city charter that provided for the election of city council members from single-member districts. This change was supported because at-large voting diluted the minority populations political power in the city and they could seldom gain a majority of the population to support a candidate of their choice
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Pitney Bowes
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Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American provider of global eCommerce solutions, shipping and mailing products, location intelligence, customer engagement and customer information management solutions. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, the company has approximately 16,100 employees worldwide and it was one of 86 existing firms that had been members of the S&P500 since its creation in 1957. Other major U. S. centers of operation include Danbury, Connecticut, Shelton, Connecticut, Troy, New York, and Lanham, Maryland. In 1902, Arthur Pitney patented his first double-locking hand-cranked postage-stamping machine, in 1908, English emigrant and founder of the Universal Stamping Machine Company Walter Bowes began providing stamp-canceling machines to the United States Postal Service. Bowes moved his operations to Stamford in 1917, a rapid increase in mail volume in 1919 made the Post Office more receptive to metered mail, and Pitney subsequently traveled to meet Bowes. The United States Post Office approved their postage meter on August 25,1920, between 1922 and 1923, the government collected $4,359,070 in postage from the first commercial installations of 400 meters. Pitney Bowes also began to sell their products internationally, in 1938, Walter H. Wheeler, Jr. was named President and Chairman of the Board and would lead the company over the next three decades. During the 1950s, The National Urban League recognized Pitney Bowes for its leadership in providing job opportunities to African Americans, during World War II, Pitney-Bowes received an Army-Navy ‘E’ Award denoting excellence in production of crucially needed instruments of war. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1950, subsequently, Pitney Bowes was named to the S&P500 when this benchmark index was created in 1957 and joined the Fortune 500 in 1962. In 1968 Pitney Bowes acquired the Monarch Marking System Company, which would produce the first barcode equipment for retail trade use, to better provide financing options for their existing and prospective customers, the Pitney Bowes Credit Corporation was formed in 1976. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the expanded, offering copy machines and facsimile machines. During this period, Pitney Bowes acquired Dictaphone and kept the machine manufacturer as a wholly owned. Since 2000, Pitney Bowes invested $2.5 billion in 83 acquisitions, primarily in software and services businesses including MapInfo, Group 1 Software, PSI Group, the Software Portfolio has been largely grouped into an operating division called Pitney Bowes Software. In August 2013, the announced that it sold its world headquarters building in Stamford, CT but it would remain in the same city. The relocation is expected to be complete by the summer of 2014, PBMS has since been renamed Novitex Enterprise Solutions. The Intellectual Property Owners Association has consistently ranked Pitney Bowes in the top 200 companies receiving U. S. patents, six of these patents are held by retired Executive Chairman Michael J. Critelli. Murray D. Martin, a former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, is named on two, since 2000, Pitney Bowes has invested $2.5 billion in 83 acquisitions, primarily in software and services businesses. 2010, Portrait Software plc, Henley-on-Thames, England, provides customer-centric solutions that combine advanced customer analytics with inbound and outbound campaign management,2007, MapInfo, Troy, NY, provides location intelligence solutions
6.
Cerberus Capital Management
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Cerberus Capital Management, L. P. is an American private equity firm, specializing in distressed investing. The firm is based in New York City, and run by Steve Feinberg, who co-founded Cerberus in 1992 with William L. Richter, who currently serves as a senior managing director. The firm has affiliate and/or advisory offices in the United States, Europe and Asia Cerberus has more than US$40 billion under management in funds, the company is a U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission Registered Investment Advisor. Investors include government and private sector pension and retirement funds, charitable foundations, university endowments, insurance companies, family savings, Cerberus is named after the mythological three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades. Feinberg has stated to his employees that while the Cerberus name seemed like an idea at the time. Over time, Cerberus has grown to include 11 offices in 9 countries, the firm is active in private equity investment, lending, specialty finance, real estate investment, and securities trading. The firm’s current investment portfolio includes more than 40 companies around the world with a hold time of more than five years. Cerberus maintains the Cerberus Operations & Advisory Company LLC of senior operating executives to support the firm’s due diligence, Cerberus utilizes an operations team of over 100 staff, approximately half of whom are currently employed by portfolio companies, to help source, analyze and monitor portfolio investments. On July 1,2016, Cerberus Capital Management acquired ABC Group, on June 23,2016, GE announced a sale of its consumer finance business, GE Money Bank, to an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management. On May 27,2016, Cerberus Capital Management sold its 57% state in Blue Bird Corporation, on December 17,2015, Cerberus Capital Management announced a $605 million strategic partnership with Avon Products, Inc. According to terms of the agreement, Cerberus will be buying 80% of Avon North America, in addition, the investment will result in a nearly 17% stake in Avon Products, Inc. On March 6,2014, Cerberus announced a Definitive Merger Agreement with already owned Albertsons, September 16,2013, Cerberus closed Accurate Metal Solutions. Over 400 employees at 2 locations, Anaheim, CA and Oxnard, CA, on December 18,2012, the company began divesting its assets in Freedom Group. As of September 24,2013, they had not sold any of the Freedom Group, on May 31,2012, Cerberus Capital Management completed the sale of textile company Guilford Mills to Lear Corporation. On March 8,2012, an affiliate of Cerberus closed its acquisition of a controlling interest in AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive, AT&T received approximately $750 million in cash, a $200 million note and a 47-percent equity interest in YP Holdings LLC. David Krantz, former CEO and president of AT&T Interactive, was named CEO of YP, on January 18,2012, RG Steel, LLC announced that affiliates of Cerberus committed new capital to the company. On October 27,2011 Cerberus and Chatham Lodging Trust closed their purchase of Innkeepers USA Trust for $1.02 billion, Innkeepers operates hotels, including the Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, and other brands. On October 4,2011, Cerberus and Garanti Securities announced the formation of a joint initiative to pursue investments in Turkey with a commitment of $400 million
7.
Brasfield & Gorrie
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Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC is a privately held construction management, general contractor, and design-build service provider. Founded in 1921 by Thomas C, Brasfield Company, Brasfield & Gorrie is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2011, the company reported revenues close to $2 billion, Brasfield Company by its namesake in 1921, the company focused on small commercial and remodeling projects. The company continued in this market until it was acquired in 1964 by Miller Gorrie, as the companys success grew, Gorrie moved its focus to larger commercial, industrial, and institutional projects. The company has expanded into the government market and continues to be a nationwide leader in constructing healthcare facilities. In 1985, Brasfield & Gorrie opened offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Orlando, Florida, creating two new regions of operation. Company executives include founder, M. Miller Gorrie as Chairman, Jim Gorrie as CEO, Rob Taylor as President, Chris Kramer as Chief Information Officer, the expansion was completed in time for the 2010 Crimson Tide football season. The Greenbrier - renovation and construction of the Spa and Sporting Club Tiger Stadium - Completed the south endzone expansion at Louisiana State University, the expansion brought capacity to 102,321, making it the third largest in the Southeastern Conference. S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals located in Shreveport, Louisiana Hugo L. S. border station that is LEED Silver located in Donna, Texas Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC homepage Company portfolio
8.
Skyscraper
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A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building having multiple floors. When the term was used in the 1880s it described a building of 10 to 20 floors. Mostly designed for office, commercial and residential uses, a skyscraper can also be called a high-rise, for buildings above a height of 300 m, the term supertall can be used, while skyscrapers reaching beyond 600 m are classified as megatall. One common feature of skyscrapers is having a steel framework that supports curtain walls and these curtain walls either bear on the framework below or are suspended from the framework above, rather than resting on load-bearing walls of conventional construction. Some early skyscrapers have a frame that enables the construction of load-bearing walls taller than of those made of reinforced concrete. Modern skyscrapers walls are not load-bearing, and most skyscrapers are characterized by surface areas of windows made possible by steel frames. However, skyscrapers can have curtain walls that mimic conventional walls with a surface area of windows. Modern skyscrapers often have a structure, and are designed to act like a hollow cylinder to resist wind, seismic. To appear more slender, allow less wind exposure, and transmit more daylight to the ground, many skyscrapers have a design with setbacks, a relatively big building may be considered a skyscraper if it protrudes well above its built environment and changes the overall skyline. The maximum height of structures has progressed historically with building methods and technologies, the Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world. High-rise buildings are considered shorter than skyscrapers, the first steel-frame skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois in 1885. Even the scholars making the argument find it to be purely academic and this definition was based on the steel skeleton—as opposed to constructions of load-bearing masonry, which passed their practical limit in 1891 with Chicagos Monadnock Building. What is the characteristic of the tall office building. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and it must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line. Some structural engineers define a highrise as any vertical construction for which wind is a significant load factor than earthquake or weight. Note that this criterion fits not only high-rises but some other tall structures, the word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. A loose convention of some in the United States and Europe draws the limit of a skyscraper at 150 m or 490 ft. The tallest building in ancient times was the 146 m Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient Egypt and it was not surpassed in height for thousands of years, the 14th century AD Lincoln Cathedral being conjectured by many to have exceeded it
9.
Tennessee
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Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States, Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, Tennessees capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 654,610. Memphis is the states largest city, with a population of 655,770, the state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1,1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, occupied by Union forces from 1862, it was the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war. Tennessee furnished more soldiers for the Confederate Army than any other state besides Virginia and this sharply reduced competition in politics in the state until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-20th century. This city was established to house the Manhattan Projects uranium enrichment facilities, helping to build the worlds first atomic bomb, Tennessees major industries include agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Poultry, soybeans, and cattle are the primary agricultural products, and major manufacturing exports include chemicals, transportation equipment. In the early 18th century, British traders encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi in present-day Monroe County, the town was located on a river of the same name, and appears on maps as early as 1725. The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain, some accounts suggest it is a Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi word. It has been said to mean meeting place, winding river, according to ethnographer James Mooney, the name can not be analyzed and its meaning is lost. The modern spelling, Tennessee, is attributed to James Glen, the governor of South Carolina, the spelling was popularized by the publication of Henry Timberlakes Draught of the Cherokee Country in 1765. In 1788, North Carolina created Tennessee County, the county to be established in what is now Middle Tennessee. When a constitutional convention met in 1796 to organize a new out of the Southwest Territory. Other sources differ on the origin of the nickname, according to the Columbia Encyclopedia. Tennessee ties Missouri as the state bordering the most other states, the state is trisected by the Tennessee River. The highest point in the state is Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet, Clingmans Dome, which lies on Tennessees eastern border, is the highest point on the Appalachian Trail, and is the third highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River
