1.
Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium
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The Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium is a 750-seat historic Neoclassical auditorium located at 1301 Constitution Avenue NW in Washington, D. C. The auditorium, which connects the two wings of the United States Environmental Protection Agency building, is owned by the U. S. government, san Francisco-based American architect Arthur Brown, Jr. designed the auditorium as well as the two buildings adjacent to it. The architectural style of the building is Neoclassical, as are all the buildings in the Federal Triangle development, the portico of the Auditorium provides the motif for the both buildings which are on either side of it. Six Doric columns form the auditoriums portico, over the portico is a pediment titled Columbia, by Edgar Walter. The sculpture on the pediment depicts Columbia seated on a chair, an eagle on her right, a nude youth on her left. Behind the portico, a second pediment sits over an archway leads to the colonnade. This sculpture, by Edmond Romulus Amateis, depicts George Washington at the Battle of Trenton, the interior is in the Beaux Arts style. The interior lighting was designed by Brown, and consists of brass and aluminum chandeliers overhead and aluminum, the ceiling was originally painted blue. Colonnades link the auditorium to the buildings to the east and west, the galleries have received much praise. One critic noted, The open galleries linking the auditorium to its neighbors constitute one of the greatest passages in American architecture, the entire structure has been called one of the most magnificent auditoriums in the country. The building was constructed as part of the Federal Triangle development, although plans to redevelop the slum Murder Bay had existed for decades, Congress did not fund the purchase of land or construction of buildings in the area until 1926. In July 1926, the government proposed building a Department of Labor Building between 13th and 14th Streets NW on the side of B Street NW. In March 1927, the government proposed adding a second building to the east for Independent Offices, in April 1930, President Herbert Hoover proposed building a $2 million Departmental Auditorium to connect the Labor and ICC buildings. President Hoover laid the cornerstones for the Labor/ICC building on December 15,1932, freemasons trained in masonry assisted the President in laying the cornerstones. Hoover personally oversaw the dedication of the cornerstone at the Labor end of the building and his words were broadcast over loudspeaker to the workers at the ICC end of the structure, who placed the ICC cornerstone simultaneously at the Presidents instruction. William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, attended the laying of the cornerstone for the Labor building, the Labor/ICC building and Departmental Auditorium were dedicated on February 25,1935. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins dedicated the $4.5 million Labor building at a ceremony attended by AFL President Green, the ICC portion of the structure cost $4.45 million. The dedications occurred in the Auditorium, and constituted the first event ever held there, several important events in American and world history have occurred in the Mellon Auditorium
2.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
3.
National Historic Landmark
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A National Historic Landmark is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Of over 85,000 places listed on the countrys National Register of Historic Places, a National Historic Landmark District may include contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not also be separately listed, prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. The first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17,1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the data gathered under this legislation. Because listings often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9,1960,92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, more than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States, there are NHLs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Three states account for nearly 25 percent of the nations NHLs, three cities within these states all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states, Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, there are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia. Some NHLs are in U. S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U. S. commonwealths and territories,5 in U. S. -associated states such as Micronesia, over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. About half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately owned, the National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks. A friends group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect, if not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs, american Water Landmark List of U. S
4.
Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.)
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Massachusetts Avenue is a major diagonal transverse road in Washington, D. C. and the Massachusetts Avenue Historic District is a historic district that includes part of it. Appearing in Peter Charles LEnfants original plan, Massachusetts Avenue crosses three of Washingtons four quadrants and it intersects every major north–south street and passes numerous Washington landmarks. It is a landmark itself, long considered the boundary of the downtown as well as home of Washingtons Embassy Row. Massachusetts Avenue is tied with Pennsylvania Avenue as the widest road in the District, the two roads run in parallel through much of the city, Massachusetts about seven blocks north of Pennsylvania. Massachusetts Avenue was long Washingtons premier residential street, as Pennsylvania was once its most sought-after business address, both streets were named after states with prominent roles in the American Revolution. The historic district is an 81-acre area that includes 150 contributing buildings and 3 contributing structures and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. It includes multiple properties that are listed on the National Register. The main section of Massachusetts Avenue begins at 19th Street Southeast, just to the west of the former District of Columbia General Hospital site, at elevation with respect to the hospital, Massachusetts Avenue commands a view of the Anacostia River. It proceeds in a northwesterly direction crosstown, at Lincoln Park the road enters Northeast D. C. and the neighborhood of Capitol Hill. In the tradition of the acronym SoHo, realtors sometimes give this area the moniker NoMa and it intersects with Interstate 395 at H Street NW, and passes over Mount Vernon Square in front of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Massachusetts Avenue passes through the ring of Dupont Circle and curves north at Sheridan Circle. After crossing Rock Creek over the Charles C, the Washington National Cathedral, located at the intersection of Mass and Wisconsin Avenues, is usually considered the end of Embassy Row. At Ward Circle, Massachusetts delineates the American University Park neighborhood from Spring Valley and it crosses the Washington-Montgomery County, Maryland border at Westmoreland Circle. In Maryland, the road signed as State Highway 396. Another section of Massachusetts Avenue, discontinuous from the one described above and that section extends from 30th Street SE near District of Columbia Route 295, to Southern Avenue SE at the border between D. C. and Prince Georges County. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, the Brookings Institution, the Peterson Institute, St. Nicholas Cathedral, numerous embassies and residences are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation makes its home on Massachusetts Avenue. The track of the avenue was not paved until the administration of Alexander Robey Shepherd in the early 1870s and it was extended beyond Boundary Road in the 1880s, and beyond Rock Creek up to the District line after 1900. Residential development along Massachusetts Avenue accelerated in the 1870s, mostly around the circles located west of 9th Street NW and these brick and brownstone structures reflected the Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Château styles in vogue at the time
5.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
6.
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
7.
Beaux-Arts architecture
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Beaux-Arts architecture expresses the academic neoclassical architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The style of instruction that produced Beaux-Arts architecture continued without interruption until 1968. The Beaux-Arts style heavily influenced the architecture of the United States in the period from 1880 to 1920, in contrast, many European architects of the period 1860–1914 outside France gravitated away from Beaux-Arts and towards their own national academic centers. American architects of the Beaux-Arts generation often returned to Greek models, for the first time, repertories of photographs supplemented meticulous scale drawings and on-site renderings of details. Beaux-Arts training emphasized the production of quick conceptual sketches, highly finished perspective presentation drawings, close attention to the program, site considerations tended toward social and urbane contexts. In the façade shown to the right, Diana grasps the cornice she sits on in an action typical of Beaux-Arts integration of sculpture with architecture. A sense of appropriate idiom at the craftsman level supported the teams of the first truly modern architectural offices. The prestige of the École gave the style Beaux-Arts a second wind in combining the new manner with the traditional training and they were followed by an entire generation. Henry Hobson Richardson absorbed Beaux-Arts lessons in massing and spatial planning and his Beaux-Arts training taught him to transcend slavish copying and recreate in the essential fully digested and idiomatic manner of his models. Richardson evolved a personal style freed of historicism that was influential in early Modernism. The White City of the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago was a triumph of the movement, the Beaux-Arts curriculum was subsequently begun at Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. From 1916, the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City schooled architects, painters, bosworth, Carnegie Mellon University, designed by Henry Hornbostel, and the University of Texas, designed by Paul Philippe Cret. Beaux-Arts architecture also brought a civic face to the railroad, two of the best American examples of the Beaux-Arts tradition stand within a few blocks of each other, Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library. Another prominent U. S. example of the style is the largest academic dormitory in the world, in the late 1800s, during the years when Beaux-Arts architecture was at a peak in France, Americans were one of the largest groups of foreigners in Paris. Many of them were architects and students of architecture who brought this back to America. Beaux-Arts was very prominent in public buildings in Canada in the early 20th century, notably all three prairie provinces legislative buildings are in this style. Buenos Aires is a center of Beaux-Arts architecture which continued to be built as late as the 1950s, national Theatre, Melbourne General Post Office building, Forrest Place, Perth Argus Building. Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York, A Photographic Guide United States, sixteenth Street Architecture – profiles of Beaux-Arts architecture in Washington D. C
8.
Apartment
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An apartment or a flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building, correctly, on a single level without a stair. In Scotland it is called a block of flats or, if its a traditional building, a tenement. Apartments may be owned by an owner/occupier, by leasehold tenure or rented by tenants, the term apartment is favoured in North America. In the UK, the apartment is more usual in professional real estate and architectural circles where otherwise the term flat is commonly. Technically multi-storey apartments are referred to as duplex indicating the number of floors within the property, usage generally follows the British in Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong and most Commonwealth nations. In Malaysian English, flat often denotes a housing block of lesser quality meant for lower-income groups, while apartment is more generic, in Australian English, the term flat is traditionally used, but the term unit is frequently used. More recently, the apartment is being used. Tenement law refers to the basis of permanent property such as land or rents. It may be combined as in Messuage or Tenement to encompass all the land, buildings. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but large older houses are divided into apartments. The word apartment denotes a unit or section in a building. In some locations, particularly the United States, the word connotes a rental unit owned by the building owner, in the England and Wales, some flat owners own shares in the company that owns the freehold of the building as well as holding the flat under a lease. This is commonly known as a share of freehold flat, the freehold company has the right to collect annual ground rents from each of the flat owners in the building. The freeholder can also develop or sell the building, subject to the usual planning and this does not happen in Scotland, where long leasehold of residential property was formerly unusual, and is now not possible. In some countries the word unit is a general term referring to both apartments and rental business suites. The word unit is used only in the context of a specific building. This building has three units or Im going to rent a unit in this building, but not Im going to rent a unit somewhere, in Australia, a unit refers to flats, apartments or even semi-detached houses. An industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is called a loft
9.
Embassy Row
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By extension, the name may be used to encompass nearby streets which also host diplomatic buildings. The segment between Scott Circle and Sheridan Circle gained the nickname Millionaires Row, the Great Depression caused many to sell their homes. The expansive old estates proved well-suited for use as embassies, and also as lodges of social clubs, giving Embassy Row its present name, the greatest number of embassies and chanceries moved to Embassy Row and the neighboring Kalorama neighborhood in the 1940s and early 1950s. More recently, several prominent think tanks have clustered in that area, many of Embassy Rows diplomatic buildings open to the public once a year in May, an initiative nicknamed Passport DC. This event was started in 2007 by the embassies of states of the European Union. Within this program, the EU embassies still open on a separate day, a separate program, the Embassy Series, started in 1994 and coordinates concerts organized in the embassy buildings. Embassy Row is protected as the Massachusetts Avenue Historic District, created in 1974 following controversy about the demolition of townhouses on 1722-28 Massachusetts Ave NW. Many of its buildings are listed in the DC Inventory of Historic Sites. The Western boundary used here is identical to that of the Historic District, however, some describe Embassy Row as extending as far west as Wisconsin Avenue NW. This section of Massachusetts Avenue was the one known as the Millionaires Row of Washington, D. C. in the late 19th, mcGuire House, now Embassy of Chile 1740 Massachusetts Ave NW, Paul H. S. Peyton Russell House, now Embassy of Kenya 2251 R St NW, a special case is the statue of Winston Churchill, which has one foot on the grounds of the British Embassy and the other on federal land to symbolize the UK-US alliance. In the early days of Washington, D. C. most diplomats, thorntons choice of location, at a time when Dupont Circle was still almost entirely undeveloped, may be considered the origin of Embassy Row as a diplomatic neighborhood. In the first three decades of the 20th Century, several European legations gathered farther North-East, on a section of 16th Street near Meridian Hill Park. This area was developed by local resident Mary Foote Henderson to attract embassies. However, the neighborhood was hit by the Great Depression, former embassy buildings in the Meridian Hill area include those of France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Egypt, Italy, and Brazil. The embassies of Cuba, Lithuania, and Poland are still located in the Meridian Hill neighborhood, a bit further up 16th Street, the Embassy Building No. 10, built in the late 1920s, never served as an embassy despite being designed as one. A number of embassies are scattered south of Massachusetts Avenue and closer to the National Mall, notably those of Canada, Mexico, Spain, Saudi Arabia
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