1.
Center City, Philadelphia
–
Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia, in the U. S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the former City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation,1854 which extended the city borders to be coterminous with Philadelphia County. Greater Center City has grown into the second-most populated downtown area in the United States, after Midtown Manhattan in New York City, with an estimated 183,240 residents in 2015. Center City is bounded by South Street to the south, the Delaware River to the east, the Schuylkill River to the west and this means that Center City occupies the boundaries of the city before it was made coterminous with Philadelphia County in 1854. The Center City District, which has special powers of taxation, uses a complicated, irregularly shaped boundary that includes much but not all of this area, the Philadelphia Police Department patrols three districts located within Center City. The three patrol districts serving Center City are the 6th, 9th, and 17th districts, in March 1987, One Liberty Place broke the gentlemens agreement not to exceed the height of the statue of William Penn atop City Hall. Since the completion of One Liberty Place, no Philadelphia major-league sports team had won a championship for the next two decades, a phenomenon known as the Curse of Billy Penn. In an effort to reverse the curse, a 3-foot statue of Penn was affixed to the top of the Comcast Center upon its completion as the new tallest building in 2007. The Comcast Center, which was completed in 2007, is now the tallest building in Pennsylvania,30 feet taller than One Liberty Place, Two buildings now under construction —1441 Chestnut and the Comcast Technology Center — are also slated to be taller than City Hall. The latter would be the eighth-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the first publicly accessible vantage point higher than City Hall opened at One Liberty Observation Deck on the 57th floor of One Liberty Place in 2015. While Philadelphias population declined, Center Citys rose 10% between 1990 and 2000, in 2007, the city designated the area bound by 11th Street, Broad Street, Chestnut Street and Pine Street as the Gayborhood. Chinatown Fitler Square French Quarter Logan Square Market East Old City Rittenhouse Square Society Hill Washington Square West Sunoco has its headquarters in the BNY Mellon Center, cigna has its corporate headquarters in Two Liberty Place. Aramark is headquartered in Center City, Comcast is headquartered in the Comcast Center. The law firm Cozen OConnor has its headquarters in Center City, kogan Page has its United States offices in Center City. Lincoln National Corporation moved its headquarters from Indiana to Philadelphia in 1999, in Philadelphia Lincoln was headquartered in the West Tower of Centre Square in Center City. In 2007 the company moved 400 employees, including its top executives, the Philadelphia Fire Department operates 5 Fire Stations in the Center City area, Ladder 5, Medic 35, Battalion 1 -711 S. Broad St. Snorkel 2, Medic 44B, Battalion 4, Field Comm. Unit 1 -101 N. 4th St. Engine 11, Medic 21 -601 South St. Pipeline 20, Ladder 23, Medic 1 -133 N. 10th St. Squirt 43, Ladder 9, Medic 7 -2108 Market St
2.
Philadelphia
–
In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
3.
Pennsylvania
–
Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
4.
Broad Street (Philadelphia)
–
Broad Street is a major arterial street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Broad Street runs north–south, in between 13th Street and 15th Street, containing what would otherwise be known as 14th Street in the Philadelphia grid plan and it is interrupted by Philadelphia City Hall, which stands where Broad and Market Street would intersect in the center of the city. The streets of Penn Square, Juniper Street, John F. Kennedy Boulevard, the subway starts in the Fern Rock neighborhood and extends through Center City to Pattison Avenue in South Philadelphia. Broad Street has gone through various changes since its beginnings in Colonial America, thomas Holme introduced the first geographical plan of the city to William Penn in 1687. Composing of a square, Holme designed the street to be roughly 100 feet across and 13 miles long. Penn intended that the square would eventually be home to Philadelphias City Hall. During the American Revolution, the street was settled by troops moving in. As the citys population grew, Broad was extended north to Vine and south to Dickinson, eventually reaching the Delaware Waterfront, where todays Philadelphia Naval Shipyard stands. It remains Philadelphias longest straightaway and one of the longest urban boulevards in the United States, during the early stages of the 19th century, Broad Street was home to many wealthy residents, especially around the Rittenhouse square area. Homes were designed in Victorian and Gothic styles, South Broad became center for the fine arts with the establishment of the Academy of Music in 1857. A Masonic Temple, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, banks and offices grew in number around center city as well as high rise structures. The corner of Spring Garden housed Baldwin Locomotive Works founded by Matthias Baldwin in 1825, baldwins company was one of the biggest steam locomotive producers before the transition to diesel powered trains. Broad Streets biggest addition came with the construction of City Hall intersecting Broad, with the progression of the Industrial Revolution Philadelphia became a center for trade and commerce. Transportation growth gained prominence with the construction of the Broad Street Station in 1881, social life dominated the street during the second half of the 19th century. Elaborate hotels such as the Divine Lorraine and the Majestic were centers for night life, standing over 10 stories tall the Lorraine was one of the tallest residential structures in Philadelphia. Private clubs such as the Columbia and Mercantile were popular during the Gilded Age, at the turn of 20th century Broad Street transformed from a bustling boulevard to a cultural magnet for music and the arts. January 1,1901 introduced the very first Mummers Day parade which has become a staple of Philadelphia culture, Jazz and gospel gained popularity at the grassroots level due primarily to the Great Migration of the early 1900s. One such place for Jazz and Blues music was the Uptown Theater, by the 1950s Broad Street residential areas had been replaced with skyscrapers as well as the newly developed Penn Center
5.
Market Street (Philadelphia)
–
Market Street, originally known as High Street, is a major east–west street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is signed as Pennsylvania Route 3 between the 38th Street and 15th Street, the High Street was the familiar name of the principal street in nearly every English town at the time Philadelphia was founded. But if Philadelphia was indebted to England for the name of High Street, nearly every American town is, in turn, indebted to Philadelphia for its Market Street. Long before the city was out or settled, Philadelphias founder. The citys first market stalls were situated in the center of the thoroughfare starting at Front Street, the stalls soon became covered and were not taken down as planned. Later, additional covered sheds appeared west of Center Square as the city expanded westward, the street began to be called Market Street around 1800. The roads new name was official by an ordinance of 1858, ironically. Market Street has been called the most historic highway in the United States because of the historic sites along its eastern section. Many of Benjamin Franklins activities were centered along Market Street and his house was located near the intersection of Fourth Street, and he may have performed his famous kite-flying experiment near Third and Market Streets. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in a house once located at the Seventh Street intersection. The mansion of Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution, was located near Sixth and this house, known as the Presidents House, was used by George Washington and John Adams as their residence during their terms as President. Around 1795 Theophilus Cazenove lived at Market Street, several important finance and publishing firsts also occurred along Market Street between Second and Fourth Streets during the 18th century. Market Street is still one of the locations of business. Market Street runs from Millbourne to Front Street in Center City, at Front Street, a bridge over Interstate 95 brings traffic from Penns Landing, on the western bank of the Delaware River, onto westbound Market Street. Market Street runs one way, eastbound, between 20th Street and 15th Street, with traffic diverted onto JFK Boulevard. Market Street is interrupted between 15th Street and Juniper Street by Philadelphia City Hall, and technical does not intersect with Broad Street as a result, a pedestrian-only path continues Market Street across the City Hall block. Between 12th Street and roughly 20th Street, Market Street is heavily commercial, the street continues westward, crossing over the Schuylkill River via the Market Street Bridge, into and through University City and West Philadelphia. SEPTAs Market-Frankford Line runs along Market Street, as a subway east of 44th Street and as a line above Market Street
6.
Claes Oldenburg
–
Claes Oldenburg is an American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects, many of his works were made in collaboration with his wife, Coosje van Bruggen. Van Bruggen died in 2009 after 32 years of marriage, Oldenburg lives and works in New York. Claes Oldenburg was born on January 28,1929 in Stockholm and his father was then a Swedish diplomat stationed in New York and in 1936 was appointed Consul General of Sweden to Chicago where Oldenburg grew up, attending the Latin School of Chicago. He studied literature and art history at Yale University from 1946 to 1950, while further developing his craft, he worked as a reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He also opened his own studio and, in 1953, became a citizen of the United States. In 1956, he moved to New York, working part-time in the library of the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration. Oldenburgs first recorded sales of artworks were at the 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago and he moved back to New York City in 1956. Oldenburg began toying with the idea of sculpture in 1957. Oldenburgs first show that included works, in May 1959, was at the Judson Gallery. During this time, artist Robert Beauchamp described Oldenburg as brilliant, in the 1960s Oldenburg became associated with the Pop Art movement and created many so-called happenings, which were performance art related productions of that time. The name he gave to his own productions was Ray Gun Theater and his first wife Patty Mucha, who sewed many of his early soft sculptures, was a constant performer in his happenings. This brash, often humorous, approach to art was at odds with the prevailing sensibility that, by its nature. But Oldenburgs spirited art found first a niche then a great popularity that endures to this day, Oldenburg moved to Los Angeles in 1963 because it was the most opposite thing to New York could think of. That same year, he conceived AUT OBO DYS, performed in the lot of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in December 1963. In 1965 he turned his attention to drawings and projects for imaginary outdoor monuments, in 1969, Oldenberg contributed a drawing to the Moon Museum. Many of Oldenburgs large-scale sculptures of mundane objects elicited ridicule before being accepted, for example, the 1969 Lipstick on Caterpillar Tracks, was removed from its original place in Beinecke Plaza at Yale University, and circulated on a loan basis to other campuses. With its bright color, contemporary form and material and its subject, it attacked the sterility
7.
Alexander Calder
–
Calder’s monumental stationary sculptures are called stabiles. He also produced wire figures, which are like drawings made in space, Alexander Sandy Calder was born in 1898 in Lawnton, Pennsylvania. His actual birthday, however, remains a source of much confusion, according to Calders mother, Nanette, Calder was born on August 22, yet his birth certificate at Philadelphia City Hall, based on a hand-written ledger, stated July 22. When Calders family learned about the certificate, they reasserted with certainty that city officials had made a mistake. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder, was a sculptor who created many public installations. Calders mother was a portrait artist, who had studied at the Académie Julian. She moved to Philadelphia, where she met Stirling Calder while studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Calders parents married on February 22,1895, his sister, Mrs. Margaret Calder Hayes, was instrumental in the development of the UC Berkeley Art Museum. In 1902, Calder posed nude for his father’s sculpture The Man Cub and that same year he also completed his earliest sculpture, a clay elephant. Three years later, Stirling Calder contracted tuberculosis, and Calders parents moved to a ranch in Oracle, Arizona, the children were reunited with their parents in late March 1906 and stayed at the ranch in Arizona until fall of the same year. After Arizona, the Calder family moved to Pasadena, California, the windowed cellar of the family home became Calders first studio and he received his first set of tools. He used scraps of copper wire that he found in the street to make jewelry for his sisters dolls, on January 1,1907, Nanette Calder took her son to the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, where he observed a four-horse-chariot race. This style of event later became the finale of Calders miniature circus performances, in the fall of 1909, the Calder family moved back to Philadelphia, where Calder briefly attended Germantown Academy, then moved to Croton-on-Hudson, New York. That Christmas, he sculpted a dog and an out of sheet brass as gifts for his parents. The sculptures are three-dimensional and the duck is kinetic because it rocks when gently tapped, in Croton, during his early high school years, Calder was befriended by his fathers painter friend Everett Shinn with whom he built a gravity powered system of mechanical trains. Calder described it, We ran the train on wooden rails held by spikes and we even lit up some cars with candle lights. After Croton, the Calders moved to Spuyten Duyvil to be closer to New York City, while living in Spuyten Duyvil, Calder attended high school in nearby Yonkers. During Calders high school years, the family moved back and forth between New York and California, in each new location, Calders parents reserved cellar space as a studio for their son. Toward the end of period, Calder stayed with friends in California while his parents moved back to New York
8.
MetLife
–
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, the firm was founded on March 24,1868. The company went public in 2000, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia’s Pacific region, Europe, and the Middle East. MetLife serves 90 of the largest Fortune 500 companies, in January 2016, the company announced that it would spin off U. S. Retail business, including life insurance and annuities for the retail market. They will maintain the MetLife name on MetLife Stadium, on March 6,2017, the separated U. S. Retail business launched Brighthouse Financial – an independent company focused on life insurance, as of 2010, the company was organized into five segments, Insurance Products, Retirement Products, the US Business, and International. The Insurance Products division was the largest unit, accounting for 53% of 2009 revenue, by 2015, a division referred to as Americas had emerged. As of 2011, MetLifes chief executive officer was Steve Kandarian, Kandarian also served as the companys chairman of the board and president as of 2015. Hired in 2013, John Hele served as chief officer for the company as of 2015. In 2015, MetLife hired Hugh Dineen to fill the new role of chief marketing officer within the US Business Unit, safeguard Health Enterprises, Inc. and Tower Square Securities, Inc. MetLife Bank was sold to GE Capital in 2013, and MetLife exited the banking business, the predecessor company to MetLife began in 1863 when a group of New York City businessmen raised $100,000 to found the National Union Life and Limb Insurance Company. The company insured Civil War sailors and soldiers against disabilities due to wounds, accidents. On March 24,1868, it known as Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. A severe business depression that began with the Panic of 1873 forced the company to contract, by 1880, sales had exceeded a quarter million of such policies, resulting in nearly $1 million in revenue from premiums. In 1909, MetLife had become the nation’s largest life insurer in the United States, in 1907, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company tower was commissioned to serve as MetLife’s 23rd Street headquarters in Lower Manhattan. Completed two years later, the building was the worlds tallest until 1913 and remained the headquarters until 2005. For many years, an illustration of the building featured prominently in MetLife’s advertising, by 1930, MetLife insured every fifth man, woman, and child in the United States and Canada
9.
Atrium (architecture)
–
In architecture, an atrium is a large open air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building. Atria were a feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are several stories high and having a glazed roof or large windows. Atria are a design feature because they give their buildings a feeling of space. The atrium has become a key feature of buildings in recent years. Atria are popular with building users, building designers and building developers, users like atria because they create a dynamic and stimulating interior that provides shelter from the external environment while maintaining a visual link with that environment. Designers enjoy the opportunity to new types of spaces in buildings. Fire control is an important aspect of contemporary atrium design due to criticism that poorly designed atria could allow fire to spread to a buildings upper stories more quickly. The Latin word atrium referred to the central court from which enclosed rooms led off. The impluvium was a shallow pool sunken into the floor to catch rainwater from the roof, some surviving examples are beautifully decorated. The opening in the ceiling above the pool called for some means of support for the roof, as the centrepiece of the house, the atrium was the most lavishly-furnished room. Also, it contained the chapel to the ancestral spirits. The term was used for a variety of spaces in public and religious buildings, mostly forms of arcaded courtyards. Byzantine churches were often entered through such a space, the 19th century brought the industrial revolution with great advances in iron and glass manufacturing techniques. Courtyards could then have horizontal glazing overhead, eliminating some of the elements from the space. One of the public spaces at Federation Square, in Melbourne, Australia, is called The Atrium and is a street-like space, five storeys high with glazed walls. The structure and glazing pattern follow the system of fractals used to arrange the panels on the rest of the facades at Federation Square, as of 2016, the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, has the worlds tallest atrium at 590 feet. The Luxor Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada, has the largest atrium in the world at 29 million cubic feet, cavaedium Courtyard Quadrangle Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture, Its Elements History and Meaning
10.
Plaza
–
A plaza /ˈplɑːzə/ is an open urban public space, such as a city square. The plaza might be enough to serve as a military parade ground. At times of crisis or fiesta, it was the space where a large crowd might gather, like the Italian piazza, the plaza remains a center of community life that is only equaled by the market-place. A plaza de toros is a bullring, in modern usage, a plaza can be any gathering place on a street or between buildings, a street intersection with a statue, etc. Todays metropolitan landscapes often incorporate the plaza as an element, or as an outcome of zoning regulations, building budgetary constraints. Sociologist William H. Plaza is a Spanish word, cognate to Italian piazza, Portuguese praça, Galician praza, Catalan plaça, Romanian piața, German Platz, the origin of all these words is, via Latin platea, from Greek πλατεῖα plateia, meaning broad. The first purpose-built shopping center in the United States, opened in Kansas City, Missouri in 1922, knowingly took the name of Country Club Plaza and adopted Spanish architectural details. More recently plaza has been used to describe a complex, similar to a shopping mall. Examples, Pantip Plaza, Bintang Plaza, Kuching Plaza, Plaza Las Américas, Plaza de las Estrellas, Central Plaza, Schiphol Plaza, Plazas del Centro Comercial Santafé, The Plaza, and Cityplaza. Central Plaza, in Hong Kong, was for four years the tallest building in Asia, at 78 storeys,374 m
