1.
Historic districts in the United States
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Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided into two categories, contributing and non-contributing. Districts greatly vary in size, some have hundreds of structures, the U. S. federal government designates historic districts through the United States Department of Interior under the auspices of the National Park Service. Federally designated historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, state-level historic districts may follow similar criteria or may require adherence to certain historic rehabilitation standards. Local historic district designation offers, by far, the most legal protection for historic properties because most land use decisions are made at the local level, local districts are generally administered by the county or municipal government. The first U. S. historic district was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931, Charleston city government designated an Old and Historic District by local ordinance and created a board of architectural review to oversee it. New Orleans followed in 1937, establishing the Vieux Carré Commission, other localities picked up on the concept, with the city of Philadelphia enacting its historic preservation ordinance in 1955. The Supreme Court case validated the protection of resources as an entirely permissible governmental goal. In 1966 the federal government created the National Register of Historic Places, conference of Mayors had stated Americans suffered from rootlessness. By the 1980s there were thousands of federally designated historic districts, Historic districts are generally two types of properties, contributing and non-contributing. In general, contributing properties are integral parts of the historic context, in addition to the two types of classification within historic districts, properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are classified into five broad categories. They are, building, structure, site, district and object, all but the eponymous district category are also applied to historic districts listed on the National Register. A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is governmental acknowledgment of a historic district, however, the Register is an honorary status with some federal financial incentives. The National Register of Historic Places defines a historic district per U. S. federal law, a district may also comprise individual elements separated geographically but linked by association or history. Districts established under U. S. federal guidelines generally begin the process of designation through a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the National Register is the official recognition by the U. S. government of cultural resources worthy of preservation. While designation through the National Register does offer a district or property some protections, if the federal government is not involved, then the listing on the National Register provides the site, property or district no protections. If, however, company A was under federal contract the Smith House would be protected, a federal designation is little more than recognition by the government that the resource is worthy of preservation. Usually, the National Register does not list religious structures, moved structures, reconstructed structures, however, if a property falls into one of those categories and are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria then an exception allowing their listing will be made. Historic district listings, like all National Register nominations, can be rejected on the basis of owner disapproval, in the case of historic districts, a majority of owners must object in order to nullify a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places
2.
Contributing property
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Government agencies, at the state, national, and local level in the United States, have differing definitions of what constitutes a contributing property but there are common characteristics. Local laws often regulate the changes that can be made to contributing structures within designated historic districts, the first local ordinances dealing with the alteration of buildings within historic districts was in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931. Properties within a district fall into one of two types of property, contributing and non-contributing. A contributing property, such as a 19th Century mansion, helps make a historic district historic, while a non-contributing property, such as a medical clinic. The contributing properties are key to a districts historic associations, historic architectural qualities. A property can change from contributing to non-contributing and vice versa if significant alterations take place, the ordinance declared that buildings in the district could not have changes made to their architectural features visible from the street. By the mid-1930s, other U. S. cities followed Charlestons lead, an amendment to the Louisiana Constitution led to the 1937 creation of the Vieux Carre Commission, which was charged with protecting and preserving the French Quarter in the city of New Orleans. The city then passed an ordinance that set standards regulating changes within the quarter. Other sources, such as the Columbia Law Review in 1963, the Columbia Law Review gave dates of 1925 for the New Orleans laws and 1924 for Charleston. The same publication claimed that two cities were the only cities with historic district zoning until Alexandria, Virginia adopted an ordinance in 1946. The National Park Service appears to refute this, in 1939, the city of San Antonio, Texas, enacted an ordinance that protected the area of La Villita, which was the citys original Mexican village marketplace. In 1941 the authority of local controls on buildings within historic districts was being challenged in court. In City of New Orleans vs Pergament Louisiana state appellate courts ruled that the design, beginning in the mid-1950s, controls that once applied to only historic districts were extended to individual landmark structures. The United States Congress adopted legislation that declared the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, by 1965,51 American communities had adopted preservation ordinances. By 1998, more than 2,300 U. S. towns, contributing properties are defined through historic district or historic preservation zoning laws, usually at the local level. Zoning ordinances pertaining to historic districts are designed to maintain a historic character by controlling demolition and alteration to existing properties. It can be any property, structure or object that adds to the integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, either local or federal. Definitions vary but, in general, they maintain the same characteristics, another key aspect of a contributing property is historic integrity
3.
Aerial photography
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Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated/direct-down position. Usually the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure, mounted cameras may be triggered remotely or automatically, hand-held photographs may be taken by a photographer. Aerial photography should not be confused with air-to-air photography, where one or more aircraft are used as chase planes that chase, Aerial photography was first practiced by the French photographer and balloonist Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar, in 1858 over Paris, France. However, the photographs he produced no longer exist and therefore the earliest surviving aerial photograph is titled Boston, as the Eagle, taken by James Wallace Black and Samuel Archer King on October 13,1860, it depicts Boston from a height of 630m. Kite aerial photography was pioneered by British meteorologist E. D. Archibald in 1882 and he used an explosive charge on a timer to take photographs from the air. Frenchman Arthur Batut began using kites for photography in 1888, Samuel Franklin Cody developed his advanced Man-lifter War Kite and succeeded in interesting the British War Office with its capabilities. The first use of a motion picture camera mounted to an aircraft took place on April 24,1909 over Rome in the 3,28 silent film short. The use of aerial photography rapidly matured during the war, as aircraft were equipped with cameras to record enemy movements. At the start of the conflict, the usefulness of aerial photography was not fully appreciated, germany adopted the first aerial camera, a Görz, in 1913. The French began the war with several squadrons of Blériot observation aircraft equipped with cameras for reconnaissance, the French Army developed procedures for getting prints into the hands of field commanders in record time. Frederick Charles Victor Laws started aerial photography experiments in 1912 with No.1 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps, in 1916 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy made vertical camera axis aerial photos above Italy for map-making. The camera was inserted into the floor of the aircraft and could be triggered by the pilot at intervals. In January 1918, General Allenby used five Australian pilots from No.1 Squadron AFC to photograph a 624 square miles area in Palestine as an aid to correcting and improving maps of the Turkish front and this was a pioneering use of aerial photography as an aid for cartography. Beginning 5 January, they flew with an escort to ward off enemy fighters. The first commercial aerial photography company in the UK was Aerofilms Ltd, founded by World War I veterans Francis Wills, the company soon expanded into a business with major contracts in Africa and Asia as well as in the UK. Operations began from the Stag Lane Aerodrome at Edgware, using the aircraft of the London Flying School, subsequently, the Aircraft Manufacturing Company, hired an Airco DH.9 along with pilot entrepreneur Alan Cobham. From 1921, Aerofilms carried out vertical photography for survey and mapping purposes, during the 1930s, the company pioneered the science of photogrammetry, with the Ordnance Survey amongst the companys clients. One Fairchild aerial survey aircraft in 1935 carried unit that combined two synchronized cameras, and each camera having five six inch lenses with a ten-inch lenses, each photo covered two hundred and twenty five square miles
4.
Courtyard
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A courtyard or court is an enclosed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Such spaces in inns and public buildings were often the meeting places for some purposes. Both of the court and yard derive from the same root. See yard and garden for the relation of this set of words, courtyards—private open spaces surrounded by walls or buildings—have been in use in residential architecture for almost as long as people have lived in constructed dwellings. The courtyard house makes its first appearance ca, Courtyards have historically been used for many purposes including cooking, sleeping, working, playing, gardening, and even places to keep animals. Before courtyards, open fires were burning in a central place within a home. Over time, these openings were enlarged and eventually led to the development of the centralized open courtyard we know today. Courtyard homes have been designed and built throughout the world many variations. Courtyard homes are prevalent in temperate climates, as an open central court can be an important aid to cooling house in warm weather. However, courtyard houses have been found in harsher climates as well for centuries, the comforts offered by a courtyard—air, light, privacy, security, and tranquility—are properties nearly universally desired in human housing. Ur,2000 BC — two-storey houses constructed around a square were built of fired brick. Kitchen, working, and public spaces were located on the ground floor, the central uncovered area in a Roman domus was referred to as an atrium. Today, we use the term courtyard to refer to such an area. Roman atrium houses were built side by side along the street and they were one-storey homes without windows that took in light from the entrance and from the central atrium. The hearth, which used to inhabit the centre of the home, was relocated, and these homes frequently incorporated a second open-air area, the garden, which would be surrounded by Greek-style colonnades, forming a peristyle. This created a colonnaded walkway around the perimeter of the courtyard, Courtyard houses in the Middle East reflect the nomadic influences of the region. Often the flat rooftops of these structures were used for sleeping in warm weather, in some Islamic cultures, private courtyards provided the only outdoor space for women to relax unobserved. The traditional Chinese courtyard house, e. g. siheyuan, is an arrangement of individual houses around a square
5.
President's Park
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Presidents Park, located in Washington, D. C. encompasses the White House, a visitor center, Lafayette Square, and The Ellipse. Presidents Park was the name of Lafayette Square. The current Presidents Park is administered by the National Park Service, contests were held to solicit designs for both the United States Capitol and the Presidents residence. James Hobans design was selected, and he supervised the construction, later on, the White House was expanded with the West Wing, which now houses the office of the president and staff. The White House grounds include the South Lawn, Rose Garden, Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Lafayette Square is a seven-acre public park located directly north of the White House on H Street, bounded by Jackson Place on the west, Madison Place on the east, and Pennsylvania Avenue. The square and the structures were designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1970. Planned as part of the grounds surrounding the Executive Mansion, this square was originally called Presidents Park. The park was separated from the White House grounds in 1804, in 1824, the park was officially renamed in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, the Frenchman who fought in the American Revolutionary War. Lafayette Square has been used as a racetrack, a graveyard, a zoo, a market, an encampment for soldiers during the War of 1812. Andrew Jackson Downing landscaped Lafayette Square in 1851 in the picturesque style, Presidents Park South is a 52 acres park located just south of the White House fence. Properly, the Ellipse is the name of the five-furlong circumference street within the park, the entire park is open to the public, and features various monuments. The Ellipse is also the location for a number of annual events, D. C. locals can often be heard to say they are on the Ellipse, which is understood to mean that the individual is on the field that is bounded by Ellipse Road. The Army Corps of Engineers began work on the Ellipse in 1867, the White House Visitor Center is located in the north end of the Herbert C. Hoover Building. Since September 11,2001, the center no longer serves as a starting point for those going on a reserved tour of the White House. The various exhibits provide a visitor experience for those who did not schedule a tour. The themes of the six permanent exhibits are First Families, Symbols & Images, White House Architecture, White House Interiors, Working White House, other exhibits change throughout the year. Washington, U. S. Department of the Interior, official website The White House White House Historical Association The Shape and History of The Ellipse in Washington, D. C. by Clark Kimberling
6.
Constitution Avenue
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Constitution Avenue is a major east-west street in the northwest and northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D. C. in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and its section was greatly lengthened and widened between 1925 and 1933. It received its current name on February 26,1931, Constitution Avenues western half defines the northern border of the National Mall and extends from the United States Capitol to the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. Its eastern half runs through the neighborhoods of Capitol Hill and Kingman Park before it terminates at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, a large number of federal departmental headquarters, memorials, and museums line Constitution Avenues western segment. In Pierre Charles LEnfants original plan for the city in 1791, B Street NW began at 6th Street NW and its eastern segment, which was unimpeded by any water obstacles, ran straight to the Eastern Branch river. Along its entire length, B Street was 60 feet wide, LEnfant proposed turning Tiber Creek into a canal. His plan included cutting a new canal south across the side of the United States Capitol grounds. The Washington Canal Company was incorporated in 1802, and after several false starts substantial work began in 1810, the Washington City Canal began operation in 1815. The canal suffered from problems and economic competition almost immediately. Traffic on the canal was adversely affected by forces, which the builders had not accounted for. At low tide, portions of the canal were almost dry, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built Washington Branch into the city in 1835, competition from railroads left the canal economically unviable. Although the Washington City Canal remained in use after the coming of the railroad, by 1855 it had filled with silt and it remained in this condition throughout the 1860s. In 1871, Congress abolished the elected mayor and bicameral legislature of the District of Columbia, territorial government only lasted until 1874, but during this period the D. C. Board of Public Works enclosed the canal and turned it into a sewer, B Street NW from 15th Street to Virginia Avenue NW was constructed on top of it. Work began in October 1871 and was complete in December 1873 and this reclaimed land — which today includes West Potomac Park, East Potomac Park, the Tidal Basin — was largely complete by 1890, and designated Potomac Park by Congress in 1897. B Street NW extended through the newly created West Potomac Park between Virginia Avenue NW and 23rd Street NW, however, since this area was considered parkland, the street narrowed to just 40-foot in width. But Congress appropriated no money for the design or construction due to the onset of World War I, but after President Warren G. Congress approved funding for design work on June 12,1922, and authorized construction of the Arlington Memorial Bridge on February 24,1925. The 1925 legislation specified that B Street NW be treated as an approach to Arlington Memorial Bridge
7.
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
8.
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
9.
Louis Ayres
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His style is characterized as Medievalist, often emphasizing elements of Romanesque Revival and Italian Renaissance, and Byzantine Revival architecture. He is best known for designing the United States Memorial Chapel at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial and he was born in 1874 in Bergen Point, New Jersey, to Mr. and Mrs. Chester D. Ayres. He graduated from Trinity School, a school located in New York City]. He attended Rutgers University, graduating in 1896 with a degree in electrical engineering, after graduation, he spent three years with the firm of McKim, Mead, and White, but left to join the firm of York and Sawyer. He became a partner in the firm in 1910, by 1921, he was one of the most prominent architects in the nation. From 1921 to 1925, he served on the prestigious U. S, Commission of Fine Arts, the federal advisory panel which had statutory approval over all major building projects in Washington, D. C. His four-year term expired in 1925, and he did not seek reappointment, the same year, he was one of the three judges on a panel which awarded the commission for the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, to Harold Van Buren Magonigle. In 1935, Ayres was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, one of Ayres most prominent commissions came in 1925, when he was asked to design a chapel for an American military cemetery in Europe. The ABMC was deeply influenced by Charles Moore, the chair of the Commission of Fine Arts and whose agency had final approval over the design of the cemeteries and memorials. The ABMCs plans changed and changed again over the several years. Ayres was commissioned to design the chapel at Meuse-Argonne, the largest and most important of the three sites, Ayres submitted two simple, classical designs and one French Romanesque design. The chapel was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1937, the 20th anniversary of the American entry into World War I, Ayres continued to serve the architectural profession in many important ways in the 1920s. He was one of three judges on a panel which in 1925 awarded the design for the proposed Theodore Roosevelt memorial to be built in West Potomac Park in Washington, in 1926, Rutgers University presented him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. He also was a member of the Prix de Rome scholarship, in 1927, Ayres won a major commission to design the U. S. Department of Commerce building, an award which became one of his most important architectural designs. He also played a role on a board which helped plan the Federal Triangle government office building complex. The U. S. federal government had struggled with the need to build a number of large office buildings since the mid-1910s. In January 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of office buildings be built near the White House. However, disagreements among the three planning bodies overseeing the project proved so fundamental that a year-long delay ensued, to end the disagreement, a Board of Architectural Consultants was created on May 19,1927, to advise the groups on the development of the project
10.
Neoclassicism
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The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, laterally competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th, European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c.1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Baroque and Rococo styles. Each neo-classicism selects some models among the range of classics that are available to it. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity, the Rococo art of ancient Palmyra came as a revelation, through engravings in Woods The Ruins of Palmyra. While the movement is described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism. The case of the main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres, demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology, the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. With the advent of the Grand Tour, a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe, Neoclassicism in each art implies a particular canon of a classical model. In English, the term Neoclassicism is used primarily of the arts, the similar movement in English literature. This, which had been dominant for decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar, in music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and Neoclassicism is used of 20th-century developments. Ingress coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, much Neoclassical painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann. The work of artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style. Unlike Carstens unrealized schemes, the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable and his main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the success of Jacques-Louis Davids Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal government, David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. David rapidly became the leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of government patronage in art
11.
Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site
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Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the city of Washington, D. C. Established on September 30,1965, the site is bounded by Constitution Avenue, 15th Street NW, F Street NW. Pennsylvania Avenue, the heart of the site, is recognized by many as Americas Main Street. A march or event held on the avenue is infused with a deal of political meaning. After seizure of the land by European settlers, David Burns obtained the first title to the area which would become Pennsylvania Avenue NW in 1774, article One, Section 8, of the United States Constitution established a District. Become the seat of the government of the United States, the Residence Act of 1790, established this district and gave to the President of the United States the authority to fix the location of the site somewhere along the Potomac River. President George Washington chose the current site of the city in 1791, Washington chose Pierre Charles LEnfant to plan the new city. Although unnamed at the time, Pennsylvania Avenue was designed in the LEnfant plan as a thoroughfare for bringing existing roads into the heart of the new city. It was also designed to link the presidents palace with the Capitol building planned for Jenkins Hill, the origin of the name Pennsylvania Avenue is somewhat obscure. The name was first applied to the avenue in a letter from surveyor, the actual clearing of Pennsylvania Avenue did not begin until spring 1796. The damp earned the street the nickname of the Great Serbonian Bog, in the fall of 1800, Pennsylvania Avenue was cleared of underbrush, and a 6-foot-wide raised footpath covered in stone chips was built. A stone bridge over Tiber Creek at 2nd Street was also built during this time, on March 3,1803, President Thomas Jefferson ordered that Pennsylvania Avenue be widened and the road completed. Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the newly hired to supervise the avenues reconstruction. The wooden blocks required such extensive repair, however, that between 1876 and 1877 they were replaced with rock from 1st to 6th Streets NW, the avenue was repaved in 1890 and again in 1907. The historic site saw limited growth prior to the 1850s, although a number of firsts also occurred in the area, two of the citys first three street lamps were established in the area near Capitol Hill in December 1801. Center Market, the citys first food market, was built the year on a lot on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets. It became the hub of the early commercial district. Over time, the district moved north, but its southern boundary continued to be marked by Pennsylvania Avenue
12.
Headquarters
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Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility for managing all business activities, in the UK, the term head office is most commonly used for the HQs of large corporations. The term is also used regarding military organizations, a headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation that takes full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, and ensures corporate governance. Many companies have an office at a different address to their corporate office. A headquarters normally includes the leader of business unit and his or her staff as well as all functions to manage the business unit, the head of the business unit is responsible for overall result of the business unit. Military headquarters take many forms depending on the size and nature of the unit or formation they command, typically, they are split into the forward, main and rear components, both within NATO nations, and those following the organization and doctrine of the former Soviet Union. The forward or tactical HQs is a group of staff. The main HQs is less mobile and is involved in both the planning and execution of operations, there are a number of staff assembled here from various staff branches to advise the commander, and to control the various aspects of planning and the conduct of discrete operations. A main HQ for a large formation will have a chief of staff who coordinates the staff effort, the rear or logistic HQs is some distance from the battle or front line in conventional operations. The headquarters of the Catholic Church is Vatican City, the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church is in Danilov Monastery, Moscow. The World Council of Churches, including Orthodox Churches, has its headquarters in Geneva, the headquarters of Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is located in Istanbul, Turkey. The headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Anglican Communion Office is in London. In Japanese budō martial arts such as karate, judo, aikido, kendo, there is usually a headquarters for each organization or region. The Japanese word honbu is generally used for that, also outside Japan, sometimes they refer to this headquarters as honbu dojo in which dojo is a facility provided for practicing discipline, the training ground. Sometimes honbu is written as hombu, the way it is pronounced, but according to the Hepburn transcription, weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army Janes, London,516 pp. Wanner, Herbert Global and regional corporate headquarters in, Kählin, Christian, H. Switzerland Business & Investment Handbook, Orell Füssli and Wiley, Wanner, Herbert, LeClef, Xavier, & Shimizu, Hiroshi Global Headquarters on the Move, From Administrators to Facilitators Prims Second Semester 2004, Arthur D. Little
13.
United States Department of Commerce
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The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for business and government decision-making and this organizations main purpose is to create jobs, promote economic growth, encourage sustainable development and improve standards of living for all Americans. The Department of Commerce headquarters is the Herbert C. Hoover Building in Washington, the department was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14,1903. It was subsequently renamed the Department of Commerce on March 4,1913, as the bureaus, in 1940, the Weather Bureau was transferred from the Agriculture Department, and the Civil Aeronautics Authority was merged into the department. In 1949, the Public Roads Administration was added to the department due to the dissolution of the Federal Works Agency, in 1958, the independent Federal Aviation Agency was created and the Civil Aeronautics Authority was abolished. In 1966, the Bureau of Public Roads was transferred to the newly created Department of Transportation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was created on October 3,1970.6 billion. The budget authorization is broken down as follows, Proposals to reorganize the Department go back many decades, the Economic Development Administration would be completely eliminated. The Obama administration projects that the reorganization would save $3 billion, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would be transferred from the Department of Commerce into the Department of the Interior. Later that year, shortly before the 2012 presidential election, Obama invoked the idea of a secretary of business in reference to the plan. The reorganization was part of a proposal which would grant the President the authority to propose mergers of federal agencies. This ability had existed from the Great Depression until the Reagan presidency, the Obama administration plan faced criticism for some of its elements. However, environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council feared that the reorganization could distract the agency from its mission of protecting the nations oceans, the plan was reiterated in the Obama administrations FY2016 budget proposal that was released in February 2015
14.
City block
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A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets, City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, and form the basic unit of a citys urban fabric. City blocks may be subdivided into any number of land lots usually in private ownership, though in some cases. City blocks are usually built-up to varying degrees and thus form the physical containers or streetwalls of public space, most cities are composed of a greater or lesser variety of sizes and shapes of urban block. This arrangement is intended to provide social interaction among people. Since the spacing of streets in grid plans varies so widely among cities, or even within cities, it is difficult to generalize about the size of a city block. However, as points, the standard square blocks of Portland, Houston, and Sacramento are 264 by 264 feet,330 by 330 feet. Oblong blocks range considerably in width and length, the standard block in Manhattan is about 264 by 900 feet, and in some U. S. cities standard blocks are as wide as 660 feet. The blocks in Edmonton, Canada are 330 by 560 feet, the blocks in central Melbourne, Australia, are 330 by 660 feet, formed by splitting the square blocks in an original grid with a narrow street down the middle. Many world cities have grown by accretion over time rather than being planned from the outset, for this reason, a regular pattern of even, square or rectangular city blocks is not so common among European cities, for example. An exception is represented by those cities that were founded as Roman military settlements, one notable example is Turin, Italy. Following the example of Philadelphia, New York City adopted the Commissioners Plan of 1811 for an extensive grid plan. In much of the United States and Canada, the addressing systems follow a block and lot number system, the concept of city block can be generalized as a superblock or sub-block. Superblocks were popular during the early and mid-20th century, arising from modernist ideas in architecture, planning in this era was based upon the distance and speed scales for the automobile and discounted the pedestrian and cyclist modes, as obsolete transportation vehicles. Superblocks are often found in suburbs or planned cities, or are the result of urban renewal of the mid-20th century, in a residential area of a suburb, the interior of the superblock is typically served by dead-ended or looped streets. In this way, superblocks cut up the city into isolated units, expanded automobile dominance, superblocks can also be found in central city areas, where they are more often associated with institutional, educational, recreational and corporate rather than residential uses. The traditional urban block diffused automobile traffic onto several narrower roads at slower speeds and this more finely connected network of narrower roads better allowed the pedestrian and cyclist realms to flourish. The superblock, at the only suitable for automobiles
15.
Pennsylvania Avenue
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Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D. C. that connects the White House and the United States Capitol. Called Americas Main Street, it is the location of official parades and processions, moreover, Pennsylvania Avenue is an important commuter route and is part of the National Highway System. The avenue runs for a total of 5.8 miles inside Washington and it continues within the city for 3.5 miles, from the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds through the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and over the Anacostia River on the John Philip Sousa Bridge. At this point, as a highway, it becomes Southern Maryland Boulevard. At one point in the century, Pennsylvania Avenue was designated DC4. Northwest of the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue runs for 1.4 miles to its end at M Street NW in Georgetown, from 1862 to 1962, streetcars ran the length of the avenue from Georgetown to the Anacostia River. Although Pennsylvania Avenue extends six miles within Washington, D. C. the expanse between the White House and the Capitol constitutes the heart of the nation. Washington called this stretch most magnificent & most convenient, and it has served the country well, laid out by Pierre Charles LEnfant, Pennsylvania Avenue was one of the earliest streets constructed in the Federal City. The first reference to the street as Pennsylvania Avenue comes in a 1791 letter from Thomas Jefferson, one theory is that the street was named for Pennsylvania as consolation for moving the capital from Philadelphia. Both Jefferson and George Washington considered the avenue an important feature of the new capital, after inspecting LEnfants plan, President Washington referred to the thoroughfare as a Grand Avenue. Jefferson concurred, and while the avenue was little more than a wide dirt road ridiculed as The Great Serbonian Bog. At one time Pennsylvania Avenue provided an unobstructed view between the White House and the Capitol, the construction of an expansion to the Treasury Building blocked this view, and supposedly President Andrew Jackson did this on purpose. In November 2012, as part of preparations for the inauguration of Barack Obama. On September 30,1965, portions of the avenue and surrounding area were designated the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site, the National Park Service administers this area which includes the United States Navy Memorial, Old Post Office Tower, and Pershing Park. Congress created the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation on October 27,1972 to rehabilitate the street between the Capitol and the White House, an area seen as blighted. In 2010, the District of Columbia designated Pennsylvania Avenue from the terminus of John Philip Sousa Bridge to the Maryland state line to be a D. C. The city spent $430 million to beautify the street and improve the roadway, ever since an impromptu procession formed around Jeffersons second inauguration, every United States president except Ronald Reagan has paraded down the Avenue after taking the oath of office. From William Henry Harrison to Gerald Ford, the funeral corteges of seven of the eight presidents who died in office, franklin Roosevelt was the only president who died in office whose cortege did not follow this route
16.
Federal Triangle
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The Federal Triangle is a triangular area in Washington, D. C. formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and E Street NW. Federal Triangle is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, seven of the buildings in Federal Triangle were built by the U. S. The Federal Triangle Washington Metro station serves Federal Triangle and the surrounding area, the name Federal Triangle appears to have been a journalistic invention. This name was in use by 1928, even by government officials, the Associated Press first used the term Federal Triangle in 1935. The New York Times first used the term in 1936, although the papers capitalization of both words did not become standardized until 1939, definitions of the area also varied at first. Early news reports believed the eastern apex of Federal Triangle extended as far east, but almost all reports referred to Pennsylvania Avenue NW and 15th Street NW as the Triangles northern and western boundaries. The Senate Park Commission was formed by the United States Congress in 1900 to reconcile competing visions for the development of Washington, D. C. and especially the National Mall, Congressional and local support for the redevelopment of Lafayette Square waned significantly. In the mid-1910s, Congress appropriated and the government spent $7 million to land on Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 14th and 15th Streets NW and several blocks south. But no demolition or construction was conducted, and the government merely collected rent from the tenants in the area, in 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of federal office buildings be built near the White House. Federal Triangle had its genesis in 1926, an attempt to provide $50 million to fund, among other things, a national archives building and develop federal offices along Pennsylvania Avenue NW was proposed in 1925. S. However, appropriations were to be annually, leaving control of the project firmly in Congressional hands. Congress appropriated $50 million for construction of projects in 1927. A second appropriation bill provided $25 million for buying up all additional privately held land in Federal Triangle.9 million, a new Internal Revenue Bureau building, with total cost of land and construction to be $7.95 million. A new Department of Commerce building, with total cost of construction to be $10 million, Treasury officials said the Archives building was their top priority, followed by the Internal Revenue building, two Department of Agriculture projects, and the Commerce building last. At that time, no provision was made to construct a new building for the Department of Justice, preliminary plans for the Commerce building were presented to the Commission on Fine Arts and Public Building Commission in mid-June. On July 7, the Treasury Department and Commission of Fine Arts announced sites and sizes for the three previously announced structures. The Department of Commerce building would contain 1 million square feet of office space, the Internal Revenue building would contain 650,000 square feet of office space and take up two whole city blocks between 10th and 12th Streets NW and B and C Streets NW. The National Archives would contain 2.3 million square feet of office space, the government owned three of the four plots needed for the Internal Revenue site, but none of the land beneath the proposed Archives building
17.
National Mall
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The National Mall is a national park in downtown Washington, D. C. the capital of the United States. The National Park Service administers the National Mall, which is part of its National Mall, a smaller designation, sometimes referred to as the Mall proper, excludes both the Capitol grounds and the Washington Monument grounds, applying only to an area between them. The National Mall contains a number of museums and memorials and receives approximately 24 million visitors each year, in his 1791 plan for the future city of Washington, D. C. The National Mall occupies the site of this grand avenue. The Washington Monument stands near the site of its namesakes equestrian statue. Mathew Careys 1802 map is reported to be the first to name the area west of the United States Capitol as the Mall, during the early 1850s, architect and horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing designed a landscape plan for the Mall. Over the next century, federal agencies developed several naturalistic parks within the Mall in accordance with Downings plan. Two such areas were Henry Park and Seaton Park, in addition, railroad tracks crossed the Mall on 6th Street, west of the Capitol. Near the tracks, a market and a railroad station rose on the north side of the Mall. Greenhouses belonging to the U. S. Botanic Garden appeared near the east end of the Mall, the plan differed from LEnfants by replacing the 400 feet wide grand avenue with a 300 feet wide vista containing a long and broad expanse of grass. Four rows of American elm trees planted fifty feet apart between two paths or streets would line each side of the vista. Buildings housing cultural and educational institutions constructed in the Beaux-Arts style would line each outer path or street, on the opposite side of the path or street from the elms. In subsequent years, the vision of the McMillan plan was followed with the planting of American elms. In accordance with a plan that it completed in 1976, the NPS converted the two innermost boulevards into gravel walking paths, the two outermost boulevards remain paved and open to vehicular traffic. Although the Navy intended the buildings to provide quarters for the United States military during World War I. Much of the area then became Constitution Gardens, which was dedicated in 1976. From the 1970s to 1994, a model of a triceratops named Uncle Beazley stood on the Mall in front of the National Museum of Natural History. The life-size statue, which is now located at the National Zoological Park in Northwest Washington, in 2003, the 108th United States Congress enacted the Commemorative Works Clarification and Revision Act
18.
John A. Wilson Building
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The John A. Wilson District Building, popularly known simply as the Wilson Building, houses the municipal offices and chambers of the Mayor and District Council of the District of Columbia. Originally called the District Building, it was renamed in 1994 to commemorate former Council Chair John A. Wilson, completed in 1908, during the administration of 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, the building is a contributing structure to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. The original site of the John A. Wilson Building was a power station that had been destroyed by a fire in 1897. Previously, the D. C. government had been housed in the old District of Columbia City Hall, a competition held for the design of the new District Building called for classic design in the manner of the English Renaissance. The Philadelphia firm of Cope and Stewardson won the contract and construction started in 1904, the building was dedicated on July 4,1908 by Henry MacFarland, President of the Board of Commissioners. While the building has served as the municipal offices of the Districts local government. In 1977, a total of twelve gunmen took about 150 people hostage at three sites around Washington. During the crisis, later known as the 1977 Hanafi Siege, then-councilman Marion Barry was hit by a stray bullet during the commotion, which left two others dead, including DC Protective Services Police Officer Wesley Cantrell. The press room at the Wilson Building is named in memory of Maurice Williams, in 1995, two-thirds of the Wilson Building was leased to the Federal government for a period 20 years due to the Districts inability to pay for needed repairs. However, after the United States Congress approved funds for a major renovation, the offices of the mayor and council were temporarily relocated to One Judiciary Square while those repairs took place. The fully renovated Wilson Building reopened in September 2001, the base of the building is made of grey granite from Maine while the upper four stories are constructed of white marble from New York. The main entrance to the features an eagle with outstretched wings surrounded by two sculptures representing Justice and Law. The fifth story features alternating male and female sculptures of figures that represent, sculpture, painting, architecture, music, commerce, engineering, agriculture. It had been removed in 1979 during the first year of Mayor Marion Barrys administration, Council chamber, committee rooms, and legislative staff offices are also located in the building. In October 2006, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities opened the City Hall Arts Collection, art pieces from a diverse group of D. C. -area artists are on public display throughout the building. The portrait of John A. Wilson on display at the entrance is by renowned portrait painter Simmie Knox
19.
District of Columbia
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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
20.
General Services Administration
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The General Services Administration is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA employs about 12,000 federal workers and has an operating budget of roughly $26.3 billion. GSA oversees $66 billion of procurement annually and it contributes to the management of about $500 billion in U. S. federal property, divided chiefly among 8,300 owned and leased buildings and a 210,000 vehicle motor pool. GSAs business lines include the Federal Acquisition Service, the Public Buildings Service, the GSA is member of the Procurement G6, an informal group leading the use of framework agreements and e-procurement instruments in public procurement. In 1947 President Harry Truman asked former President Herbert Hoover to lead what became known as the Hoover Commission to make recommendations to reorganize the operations of the federal government, one of the recommendations of the commission was the establishment of an Office of the General Services. This proposed office would combine the responsibilities of the following organizations, General Jess Larson, Administrator of the War Assets Administration, was named GSAs first Administrator. The first job awaiting Administrator Larson and the newly formed GSA was a renovation of the White House. The structure had fallen into such a state of disrepair by 1949 that one inspector of the time said the structure was standing “purely from habit. Everything, except the four walls without a roof, was stripped down. GSA completed the renovation in 1952, GSA headquarters, located at Eighteenth and F Streets, NW, was U. S. General Services Administration Building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 as Interior Department Offices, in 1960, GSA created the Federal Telecommunications System, a government-wide intercity telephone system. In 1970, the Nixon administration created the Consumer Product Information Coordinating Center, the Federal Buildings Fund was initiated in 1974, which allowed the GSA to issue rent bills to federal agencies. In 1972, the GSA established the Automated Data and Telecommunications Service, in 1973, the GSA created the Office of Federal Management Policy. GSA’s Office of Acquisition Policy centralized procurement policy in 1978, in 1984, GSA introduced the federal government to the use of charge cards, known as the GMA SmartPay system. The National Archives and Records Administration was spun off into an independent agency in 1985, the same year, the GSA began to provide governmentwide policy oversight and guidance for federal real property management as a result of an Executive Order signed by President Ronald Reagan. In 2003, the Federal Protective Service was moved to the Department of Homeland Security, in 2005, GSA reorganized to merge the Federal Supply Service and Federal Technology Service business lines into the Federal Acquisition Service. On April 3,2009, President Barack Obama nominated Martha N. Johnson to serve as the GSA Administrator, after a 9-month delay, the United States Senate confirmed her nomination on February 4,2010. In July 1991, GSA contractors began the excavation of what is now the Ted Weiss Federal Building in New York City, when initial excavation disturbed burials, destroying skeletons and artifacts, GSA sent archaeologists to excavate—but hid their findings from the public
21.
Herbert Hoover
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Herbert Clark Hoover was an American politician who served as the 31st President of the United States from 1929 to 1933 during the Great Depression. He was defeated in a landslide in 1932 by Democrat Franklin D, a lifelong Quaker, he became a successful mining engineer around the globe and retired in 1912. In the First World War he built a reputation as a humanitarian by leading relief efforts in Belgium during the war. He headed the U. S. Food Administration during World War I and his reputation as a Progressive businessman fighting for efficiency and elimination of waste was built as the Secretary of Commerce 1921-28. Hoover was a leader in the Efficiency Movement, which held that every institution public and they all could be improved by experts who could identify the problems and solve them. He also believed in the importance of volunteerism and of the role of individuals in society, in the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no elected-office experience. Although Hoover never raised the issue, some of his supporters did in mobilizing anti-Catholic sentiment against his opponent Al Smith. He reluctantly approved the Smoot–Hawley Tariff of 1930, which sent foreign trade spiralling down and he believed it was essential to balance the budget despite falling tax revenue, so he raised the tax rates. The economy kept falling, and the unemployment rate rose to 25%, with industry, mining. This downward spiral, plus his support for policies that had lost favor, set the stage for Hoovers overwhelming defeat in 1932 by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. Most historians agree that Hoovers defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by the downward economic spiral, Hoover became a conservative spokesman for opposition to the domestic and foreign policies of the New Deal. He opposed entry into the Second World War and was not given any role to play, in 1946, President Harry S. Truman liked Hoover and appointed him to survey war-torn Germany which produced a number of reports that changed U. S. occupation policy. In 1947, Truman appointed Hoover to head the Hoover Commission, by the time of his death, he had rehabilitated his image. Nevertheless, Hoover is often ranked by historians as one of the worst U. S. presidents. Herbert Hoover was born on August 10,1874, in West Branch, Iowa, he would become the only President so far born in that state and the first born west of the Mississippi River. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, of German, German-Swiss, Jesse Hoover and his father Eli had moved to Iowa from Ohio twenty years previously. Hoovers mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn, was born in Norwich, Ontario, Canada, both of his parents were Quakers. At about age two he contracted the croup and he was so ill that he was momentarily thought to have died, until he was resuscitated by his uncle, John Minthorn
22.
President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
23.
Washington Metro
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The Washington Metro, known colloquially as Metro and branded Metrorail, is the heavy rail rapid transit system serving the Washington, D. C. metropolitan area in the United States. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name, besides the District, Metro serves several jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia. In Maryland, Metro provides service to Montgomery and Prince Georges counties, in Virginia, to Arlington and Fairfax counties and the independent city of Alexandria. Combined with its ridership in the independent Virginia cities of Falls Church and Fairfax, the system is currently being expanded into Loudoun County, Virginia. It operates mostly as a subway in the District itself, while most of the tracks are at surface level or elevated. Opened in 1976, the network now includes six lines,91 stations, Metro is the second-busiest rapid transit system in the United States in number of passenger trips, after the New York City Subway. There were 215.3 million trips on Metro in fiscal year 2015, in June 2008, Metro set a monthly ridership record with 19,729,641 trips, or 798,456 per weekday. Fares vary based on the distance traveled, the time of day, Riders enter and exit the system using a proximity card called SmarTrip. Metro also has the distinction of having the longest, single-tier escalator in the Western Hemisphere in the Wheaton station, during the 1960s plans were laid for a massive freeway system in Washington. But the plan met fierce opposition, and was altered to include a Capital Beltway system plus rail line radials, the Beltway received full funding, funding for the ambitious Inner Loop Freeway system was partially reallocated toward construction of the Metro system. In 1960 the federal government created the National Capital Transportation Agency to develop a rail system. In 1966, a bill creating WMATA was passed by the government, the District of Columbia, Virginia. WMATA approved plans for a 98-mile regional system in 1968, the first portion of the system opened March 27,1976, with 4.6 miles available on the Red Line with five stations from Rhode Island Avenue to Farragut North, all in the District of Columbia. Underground stations were built with arches of concrete, highlighted by soft. The name Metro was suggested by Massimo Vignelli, who designed the subway maps for the New York City Subway, the 103-mile, 83-station system was completed with the opening of the Green Line segment to Branch Avenue on January 13,2001. This did not mean the end of the growth of the system, the first in-fill station, NoMa – Gallaudet University on the Red Line between Union Station and Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood, opened November 20,2004. Construction began in March 2009 for an extension to Dulles Airport to be built in two phases, the first phase, five stations connecting East Falls Church to Tysons Corner and Wiehle Avenue in Reston, opened on July 26,2014. Metro construction required billions of dollars, originally provided by Congress under the authority of the National Capital Transportation Act of 1969
24.
Federal Triangle station
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Federal Triangle is an island platformed Washington Metro station in Downtown Washington, D. C. The station was opened on July 1,1977, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, providing service for the Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines, the stations entrance is beneath the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building. On January 13,1982, an eastbound Metro train on the Orange Line derailed just east of the resulting in three fatalities, the first fatalities in the systems history. The station opened on July 1,1977 and its opening coincided with the completion of 11. Orange Line service to the station began upon the opening on November 20,1978. Silver Line service at Federal Triangle began on July 26,2014, Federal Triangle utilizes the simple island platform layout. There are two tracks, track D1 is used for trains bound for New Carrollton and Largo Town Center, as with all stations on the Metro, there are platform edge lights to warn passengers of incoming trains. In 2008, WMATA installed red-colored LED lights at Federal Triangle, there is a coffered barrel-vault ceiling at Federal Triangle, as is typical of other Washington Metro stations built at that time. There is only one entrance to the level, located slightly south of the center of the platform. Escalators from this mezzanine level lead to the plaza of the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, a flat square on the ceiling of the station denotes a possible second entrance to the station, this has yet to be used. Similar walls can be found at such as Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter. Several federal government buildings in and near the Federal Triangle Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, Herbert C. Hoover Building National Aquarium in Washington, white House Visitor Center Environmental Protection Agency J
25.
White House Visitors Office
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The themes of the six permanent exhibits are First Families, Symbols and Images, White House Architecture, White House Interiors, Working White House, and Ceremonies and Celebrations. Other exhibits change throughout the year and it houses a small bookstore operated by the White House Historical Association. The office is located in the East Wing of the White House and its role has been unique in that, up to 2001, the White House was the only home of a head of state that was regularly open to the public at no cost. Since January 2009, the Director of the White House Visitors Office has been Ellie Schafer, historically, the White House has offered tours to the general public. During the Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations, the public could see the ground floor hallways. The White House was closed during U. S. participation in World War II, upon reopening in November 1946, the Truman administration decided to open all the aforementioned areas to all tour visitors, no Senator needed. But as would always be the case, the working areas of the White House, such as the Oval Office, were not included on tours. A schedule was established, tours took place between 10,00 and noon, Tuesday through Saturday, with desiring visitors lining up outside the East Gate. About a half million people a year visited, until the operation was shut down in November 1948 for a renovation of the entire structure. Tours were restarted in April 1952, in charge of them at that time was the Chief Usher of the White House. Tours were suspended following the November 22,1963, assassination of John F. Kennedy, the system was put in place for good beginning in May 1977. White House tours were often in high demand, by 1981, a Director of the White House Visitor Center was in charge of the operation. During the early 1980s, as many as 6,000 visitors were accommodated each day, special pleas for tours coming from Washington officials had to be dealt with frequently. In 1981, there was a dispute between First Lady Nancy Reagan and New York U. S, representative Thomas Downey over his free tickets privileges having been suspended. White House Visitors Office personnel are constantly caught between trying to satisfy demands and expectations for tours and events, and preserving the dignity of the presidential office and setting. Carol McCain, Director of the White House Visitors Office from 1981 to 1987, added participatory activities, later, director Ellie Schafer and First Lady Michelle Obama changed the Egg Roll procedure to have a lottery system for gaining access and to allow more people to participate. In April 1995 the current White House Visitor Center facility was opened in the Herbert C. Hoover Building, the daily tour ticket distribution place was moved there, with exhibits meant to spend the time until ones tour slot had come about. The yearly run rate for visitors was now at 1.25 million, by 1997, ticket scalping was a persistent problem, with scalpers getting from $5 to $50 a throw
26.
Relief
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Relief is a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise, to create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. What is actually performed when a relief is cut in from a surface of stone or wood is a lowering of the field. The technique involves considerable chiselling away of the background, which is a time-consuming exercise. In other materials such as metal, clay, plaster stucco, ceramics or papier-mâché the form can be just added to or raised up from the background, and monumental bronze reliefs are made by casting. There are different degrees of relief depending on the degree of projection of the form from the field. There is also sunk relief, which was restricted to Ancient Egypt. However the distinction between high relief and low relief is the clearest and most important, and these two are generally the only used to discuss most work. Hyphens may or may not be used in all these terms, works in the technique are described as in relief, and, especially in monumental sculpture, the work itself is a relief. Reliefs are common throughout the world on the walls of buildings and a variety of settings. Relief is more suitable for depicting complicated subjects with figures and very active poses, such as battles. Most ancient architectural reliefs were painted, which helped to define forms in low relief. Rock reliefs are carved into solid rock in the open air. This type is found in cultures, in particular those of the Ancient Near East and Buddhist countries. A stele is a standing stone, many of these carry reliefs. The distinction between high and low relief is somewhat subjective, and the two are often combined in a single work. In particular, most later high reliefs contain sections in low relief, a low relief or bas-relief is a projecting image with a shallow overall depth, for example used on coins, on which all images are in low relief. Other versions distort depth much less and it is a technique which requires less work, and is therefore cheaper to produce, as less of the background needs to be removed in a carving, or less modelling is required
27.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
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The USPTO is unique among federal agencies because it operates solely on fees collected by its users, and not on taxpayer dollars. The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia, after a 2005 move from the Crystal City area of neighboring Arlington, the head of the USPTO is Michelle K. Lee. She took up her new role on January 13,2014, on March 13, she formally took office as Director after being nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U. S. Senate. She formerly served as the Director of the USPTOs Silicon Valley satellite office, the USPTO cooperates with the European Patent Office and the Japan Patent Office as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices. The USPTO mission is to maintain a permanent, interdisciplinary historical record of all U. S. patent applications in order to fulfill objectives outlined in the United States Constitution. The legal basis for the United States patent system is Article 1, Section 8, an additional building in Arlington, Virginia, was opened in 2009. The USPTO was expected by 2014 to open its first ever satellite offices in Detroit, Dallas, Denver, the first satellite office opened in Detroit on July 13,2012. In 2013, due to the sequestration, the satellite office for Silicon Valley. However, renovation and infrastructure updates continued after the sequestration, and the Silicon Valley location is due to open in San Jose City Hall in mid-2015. As of September 30,2009, the end of the U. S. governments fiscal year, of those,6,242 were patent examiners and 388 were trademark examining attorneys, the rest are support staff. They are generally newly graduated scientists and engineers, recruited from universities around the nation. They hold degrees in scientific disciplines, but who do not necessarily hold law degrees. Unlike patent examiners, trademark examiners must be licensed attorneys, all examiners work under a strict, count-based production system. For every application, counts are earned by composing, filing, and mailing a first office action on the merits, the Patent Operations of the office is divided into nine different technology centers that deal with various arts. Prior to 2012, decisions of patent examiners may be appealed to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, the United States Supreme Court may ultimately decide on a patent case. Similarly, decisions of trademark examiners may be appealed to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, with subsequent appeals directed to the Federal Circuit, under the America Invents Act, the BPAI was converted to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or PTAB. In recent years, the USPTO has seen increasing delays between when a patent application is filed and when it issues, to address its workload challenges, the USPTO has undertaken an aggressive program of hiring and recruitment. The USPTO hired 1,193 new patent examiners in Fiscal Year 2006,1,215 new examiners in fiscal 2007, in 2006, USPTO instituted a new training program for patent examiners called the Patent Training Academy
28.
William Howard Taft
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William Howard Taft served as the 27th President of the United States and as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States, the only person to have held both offices. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, Taft was born in Cincinnati in 1857. His father, Alphonso Taft, was a U. S. Attorney General, William Taft attended Yale and was a member of Skull and Bones secret society like his father, and after becoming a lawyer was appointed a judge while still in his twenties. He continued a rapid rise, being named Solicitor General and as a judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in 1901, President William McKinley appointed Taft civilian governor of the Philippines. In 1904, Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and he became Roosevelts hand-picked successor, despite his personal ambition to become chief justice, Taft declined repeated offers of appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, believing his political work to be more important. With Roosevelts help, Taft had little opposition for the Republican nomination for president in 1908, in the White House, he focused on East Asia more than European affairs, and repeatedly intervened to prop up or remove Latin American governments. Taft sought reductions to trade tariffs, then a source of governmental income. Controversies over conservation and over antitrust cases filed by the Taft administration served to separate the two men. Roosevelt challenged Taft for renomination in 1912, Taft used his control of the party machinery to gain a bare majority of delegates, and Roosevelt bolted the party. The split left Taft with little chance of re-election, he took only Utah, after leaving office, Taft returned to Yale as a professor, continuing his political activity and working against war through the League to Enforce Peace. In 1921, President Harding appointed Taft as chief justice, an office he had long sought, Chief Justice Taft was a conservative on business issues, but under him, there were advances in individual rights. In poor health, he resigned in February 1930, after his death the next month, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the first president and first Supreme Court justice to be interred there. Taft is generally listed near the middle in historians rankings of U. S. presidents, William Howard Taft was born September 15,1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alphonso Taft and Louise Torrey. The Taft family was not wealthy, living in a modest home in the suburb of Mount Auburn, Alphonso served as a judge, ambassador and in the cabinet, as War Secretary and Attorney General under Ulysses S. Grant. William Taft was not seen as brilliant as a child, but was a worker, Tafts demanding parents pushed him and his four brothers toward success. He attended Woodward High School in Cincinnati, at Yale College, which he entered in 1874, the heavyset, jovial Taft was popular. One classmate described him succeeding through hard work rather than being the smartest, in 1878, Taft graduated, second in his class out of 121. He attended Cincinnati Law School, and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1880, while in law school, he worked on The Cincinnati Commercial newspaper, edited by Murat Halstead
29.
United States Department of Commerce and Labor
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The United States Department of Commerce and Labor was a short-lived Cabinet department of the United States government, which was concerned with controlling the excesses of big business. It was created on February 14,1903, during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, investigations were the province of its Bureau of Corporations. The department was renamed the Department of Commerce on March 4,1913, the Bureau of Corporations was spun off as an independent agency in 1915, the Federal Trade Commission The United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor was the head of the department. The secretary was a member of the Presidents Cabinet, corresponding with the division of the department in 1913, the Secretarys position was divided into separate positions of Commerce and Labor. In 2011, in response to federal budget-cutting efforts, Senator Richard Burr, sponsored Senate Bill 1116, to date no action on this proposal has been taken beyond referral to committee. Parties Republican Labor and Commerce, Department of
30.
United States Department of Labor
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The department is headed by the U. S. Secretary of Labor. In carrying out this mission, the Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws and these mandates and the regulations that implement them cover many workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers. The U. S. Congress first established a Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1884 with the Bureau of Labor Act, to information about labor. This bureau was under the Department of the Interior, the Bureau started collecting economic data in 1884, and published their first report in 1886. Later, the Bureau of Labor became an independent Department of Labor and it became a bureau again within the Department of Commerce and Labor, which was established February 15,1903. President William Howard Taft signed the March 4,1913, bill establishing the Department of Labor as a Cabinet-level Department, William B. Wilson was appointed as the first Secretary of Labor on March 5,1913 by President Wilson. Secretary Wilson chaired the first meeting of the International Labour Organization in October 1919, the Federal Employees Compensation Act, signed Sept.7,1916, provided benefits to workers who are injured or contract illnesses in the workplace. Frances Perkins, the first female member, was appointed to be Secretary of Labor by President Roosevelt on March 4,1933. Perkins served for 12 years, making her the longest serving Secretary of Labor, during the John F. Kennedy Administration, planning was undertaken to consolidate most of the departments offices, then scattered around more than 20 locations. Construction on the New Labor Building began in the mid‑1960s and finished in 1975 and it was named in honor of Perkins in 1980. President Lyndon Johnson asked Congress to consider the idea of reuniting Commerce and he argued that the two departments had similar goals and that they would have more efficient channels of communication in a single department. However, Congress never acted on it, in the 1970s, following the civil rights movement, the Labor Department under Secretary George P. Shultz made a concerted effort to promote racial diversity in unions. In 1978, the Department of Labor created the Philip Arnow Award, Department officials said the program was modern and fair and that it was part of ongoing contract negotiations with the local. In August 2010, the Partnership for Public Service ranked the Department of Labor 23rd out of 31 large agencies in its annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government list. In December 2010, then-Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was named the Chair of the U. S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, in July 2011, the Department was rocked by the resignation of Ray Jefferson, Assistant Secretary for VETS, in a contracting scandal. On March 4,2013, the Department began commemorating its centennial, tom Perez was appointed as Secretary of Labor on July 23,2013. According to remarks by Perez at his swearing-in ceremony, Boiled down to its essence, did not earn a satisfactory overall grade. Title 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations Equal Employment Opportunity Commission National Labor Relations Board Occupational Information Network Ticket to Work Lombardi, labors Voice in the Cabinet, A History of the Department of Labor from Its Origins to 1921
31.
Public Buildings Act
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Congress had provided funding for no federal buildings between 1913 and 1926. The U. S. federal government had struggled with the need to build a number of large office buildings since the mid-1910s. In January 1924, the Public Buildings Commission recommended that a new series of office buildings be built near the White House. President Calvin Coolidge asked the United States Congress for legislation and funds in his message of December 9,1924, the House passed a $150 million construction bill in February 1925, but the bill died in the Senate a month later. The legislation was reintroduced on January 8,1926, the House passed the measure on February 15. The measure proved highly contentious in the Senate, the bill went into a House-Senate conference committee, so that the differences between the two bills could be reconciled. The conference committee report recommended inclusion of the Bruce amendment, the Senate accepted the conference committees bill on May 17,1926, and the House did so on May 19. President Coolidge signed the bill into law on May 25,1926, the legislation contained three major provisions, An appropriation of $15 million to carry out building construction authorized in 1913, but never funded. An appropriation of $50 million to be used to construct federal office buildings in Washington, an appropriation of $100 million to be used to construct federal office buildings and post offices throughout the country. The legislation required Congressional approval of any expenditure in the nations capital and it also restricted the executive branch from spending more than $10 million annually in the District of Columbia, and more than $5 million annually in any single state. Buildings constructed outside the District of Columbia under the Act include, The Frank M. Johnson, federal Building and United States Courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama The E. The Act was challenged in part in United States v
32.
Architect
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An architect is someone who plans, designs, and reviews the construction of buildings. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, practical, technical, and academic requirements for becoming an architect vary by jurisdiction. The terms architect and architecture are used in the disciplines of landscape architecture, naval architecture. In most jurisdictions, the professional and commercial uses of the terms architect, throughout ancient and medieval history, most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans—such as stone masons and carpenters, rising to the role of master builder. Until modern times, there was no distinction between architect and engineer. In Europe, the architect and engineer were primarily geographical variations that referred to the same person. It is suggested that various developments in technology and mathematics allowed the development of the gentleman architect. Paper was not used in Europe for drawing until the 15th century, pencils were used more often for drawing by 1600. The availability of both allowed pre-construction drawings to be made by professionals, until the 18th-century, buildings continued to be designed and set out by craftsmen with the exception of high-status projects. In most developed countries, only qualified people with appropriate license, certification, or registration with a relevant body, such licensure usually requires an accredited university degree, successful completion of exams, and a training period. To practice architecture implies the ability to independently of supervision. In many places, independent, non-licensed individuals may perform design services outside the professional restrictions, such design houses, in the architectural profession, technical and environmental knowledge, design and construction management, and an understanding of business are as important as design. However, design is the force throughout the project and beyond. An architect accepts a commission from a client, the commission might involve preparing feasibility reports, building audits, the design of a building or of several buildings, structures, and the spaces among them. The architect participates in developing the requirements the client wants in the building, throughout the project, the architect co-ordinates a design team. Structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers and other specialists, are hired by the client or the architect, the architect hired by a client is responsible for creating a design concept that meets the requirements of that client and provides a facility suitable to the required use. In that, the architect must meet with and question the client to ascertain all the requirements, often the full brief is not entirely clear at the beginning, entailing a degree of risk in the design undertaking. The architect may make proposals to the client which may rework the terms of the brief
33.
United States Capitol
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The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building or Capitol Hill, is the home of the United States Congress, and the seat of the legislative branch of the U. S. federal government. It sits atop Capitol Hill at the end of the National Mall in Washington. Though not at the center of the Federal District, the Capitol forms the origin point for the Districts street-numbering system. The original building was completed in 1800 and was subsequently expanded, like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors. In 2014, scaffolding was erected around the dome for a project scheduled to be completed by early 2017. All exterior scaffolding was removed by the end of summer 2016, prior to establishing the nations capital in Washington, D. C. the United States Congress and its predecessors had met in Philadelphia, New York City, and a number of other locations. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress brought together delegates from the colonies in Philadelphia, followed by the Second Continental Congress, Congress requested that John Dickinson, the Governor of Pennsylvania, call up the militia to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters. In what became known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia. As a result, Congress was forced to flee to Princeton, New Jersey, on June 21,1783, and met in Annapolis, Maryland, the United States Congress was established upon ratification of the United States Constitution and formally began on March 4,1789. New York City remained home to Congress until July 1790, when the Residence Act was passed to pave the way for a permanent capital. As part of the legislation, Philadelphia was chosen as a capital for ten years, until the nations capital in Washington. Pierre Charles LEnfant was given the task of creating the city plan for the new capital city, in reviewing LEnfants plan, Thomas Jefferson insisted the legislative building be called the Capitol rather than Congress House. The word Capitol comes from Latin and is associated with the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Capitoline Hill, the connection between the two is not, however, crystal clear. In spring 1792, United States Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson proposed a competition to solicit designs for the Capitol and the Presidents House. The prize for the competition was $500 and a lot in the Federal City, the most promising of the submissions was by Stephen Hallet, a trained French architect. However, Hallets designs were overly fancy, with too much French influence, a late entry by amateur architect William Thornton was submitted on January 31,1793, to much praise for its Grandeur, Simplicity, and Beauty by Washington, along with praise from Thomas Jefferson. Thornton was inspired by the east front of the Louvre, as well as the Paris Pantheon for the portion of the design
34.
White House
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The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D. C. It has been the residence of every U. S. president since John Adams in 1800, the term White House is often used to refer to actions of the president and his advisers, as in The White House announced that. The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style, construction took place between 1792 and 1800 using Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior, reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semi-circular South portico in 1824, because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, in the main mansion, the third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as an area for social events. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space, by 1948, the houses load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the rooms were completely dismantled. Once this work was completed, the rooms were rebuilt. The Executive Residence is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, the property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the Presidents Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of Americas Favorite Architecture, in May 1790, New York began construction of Government House for his official residence, but he never occupied it. The national capital moved to Philadelphia in December 1790, the July 1790 Residence Act named Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the temporary national capital for a 10-year period while the Federal City was under construction. The City of Philadelphia rented Robert Morriss city house at 190 High Street for Washingtons presidential residence, the first president occupied the Market Street mansion from November 1790 to March 1797, and altered it in ways that may have influenced the design of the White House. As part of an effort to have Philadelphia named the permanent national capital, Pennsylvania built a much grander presidential mansion several blocks away. President John Adams also occupied the Market Street mansion from March 1797 to May 1800, on Saturday, November 1,1800, he became the first president to occupy the White House. The Presidents House in Philadelphia became a hotel and was demolished in 1832, the Presidents House was a major feature of Pierre Charles LEnfants plan for the newly established federal city, Washington, D. C
35.
United States Secretary of the Treasury
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This position in the Federal Government of the United States is analogous to the Minister of Finance in many other countries. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the Presidents Cabinet, nominees for The Secretary of the Treasury undergo a confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Finance before being confirmed by the United States Senate. The Secretary of the Treasury is a member of the U. S. National Security Council. The Secretary along with the Treasurer must sign Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender, the Secretary also manages the United States Emergency Economic Stabilization fund. Most of the Departments law enforcement agencies such as the U. S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, secret Service were reassigned to other Departments in 2003 in conjunction with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The Secretary of the Treasury salary is $205,700 annually,2 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury M. Peter McPherson served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from August 17,1988, to September 15,1988. 4 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Kenneth W. Dam served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from December 31,2002,5 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert M. Kimmitt served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from June 30,2006, to July 9,2006. 7 Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury from January 25,2013, as of April 2017, there are eleven living former Secretaries of the Treasury, the oldest being George P. Shultz. The most recent Secretary of the Treasury to die was Lloyd M. Bentsen, United States Department of the Treasury
36.
Andrew Mellon
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Andrew William Mellon was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pennsylvania, he established a vast business empire before transitioning into politics. He served as United States Secretary of the Treasury from March 9,1921 to February 12,1932, presiding over the years of the 1920s. Leaving office after the onset of the Great Depression, he served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. A conservative Republican, Mellon lowered taxes and government spending in the aftermath of World War I, Mellon was born in Pennsylvania on March 24,1855. His name is listed on the 1860 Census as William A. Mellon and his father was Thomas Mellon, a banker and judge who was a Scots-Irish immigrant from County Tyrone, Ireland, his mother was Sarah Jane Negley Mellon. He had three brothers, Thomas A. James R. and Samuel, and he also had a younger brother named Richard B. He was educated at the Western University of Pennsylvania and left before graduating, in 1872 his father set him up in a lumber and coal business, which he soon turned into a profitable enterprise. He joined his fathers banking firm, T, Mellon & Sons, in 1880 and two years later had ownership of the bank transferred to him. In 1889, Mellon helped organize the Union Trust Company and Union Savings Bank of Pittsburgh and he also branched into industrial activities, oil, steel, shipbuilding, and construction. Areas where Mellons backing created giant enterprises included aluminum, industrial abrasives, Mellon financed Charles Martin Hall, whose refinery grew into the Aluminum Company of America. He became the partner of Edward Goodrich Acheson in manufacturing silicon carbide and he created an entire industry through his help to Heinrich Koppers, inventor of coke ovens which transformed industrial waste into usable products such as coal-gas, coal-tar, and sulfur. He also became an investor in the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. Mellon was one of the wealthiest people in the United States, while he served as Secretary of the U. S. Treasury Department his wealth peaked at around $300–$400 million in 1929–1930. Mellon was a member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, along with his closest friends Henry Clay Frick and Philander Knox, Mellon served as a director of the Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce. Mellon also was one-third owner with Frick and one Charles W. Mauck in the Old Overholt whiskey distillery in West Overton, at the time, Old Overholt was one of the largest and most respected whiskey producers in the country. In 1907, as prohibition became more popular across the country, Frick and Mellon removed their names from the distilling license and it is believed that Mellons connections in the Treasury Department are what allowed the company to secure a medicinal permit during Prohibition. This permit allowed Overholt to sell existing whiskey stocks to druggists for medicinal use, when Frick died in December 1919, he left his share to Mellon
37.
Edward H. Bennett
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Edward Herbert Bennett was an architect and city planner best known for his co-authorship of the 1909 Plan of Chicago. Bennett was born in Bristol, England in 1874, and later moved to San Francisco with his family, the training and friendships he made at the École shaped his entire career. After graduating, he spent a time in New York City with prominent architect George B. Post, who sent him to Chicago to assist architect Daniel H. Burnham in preparing a plan for the academy at West Point. Burnham found Bennetts work highly satisfactory and in 1903 invited him to move to Chicago to collaborate on the plan for San Francisco, and afterwards. The completed San Francisco plan was not implemented in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, while Burnham raised money and visibility for the Chicago Plan, Bennett created the actual layouts and drawings which are so well known today. Bennett also trained with Chicagos then leading country house architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, Bennett made Chicago his personal and professional headquarters for the rest of his career. He served on the Chicago Plan Commission in various capacities into the 1930s and developed a private practice. In the plan for Chicago, Burnham and Bennett created a document giving substance to the City Beautiful philosophy. From this prototype Bennett developed comparable plans for numerous American cities, including Minneapolis, Detroit, Bennett married Catherine Jones from the prominent Lake Forest Jones family. They had one son, E. H. Bennett Jr. who was also an architect, in 1916 Bennett designed and built their estate, Bagatelle, on the northeast corner of the original Jones estate. The house still stands at the corner of Deerpath and Green Bay Roads in Lake Forest, Bagatelle is an interpretation of the Château de Bagatelle in Pariss Bois de Boulogne. Its classical garden with central fountain echos the design of Grant Park and he also owned Deerpath Farm, a dairy farm and country retreat on 160 acres just west of Lake Forest. For many years, Bennetts office was located in the penthouse of the Sante Fe building at 80 E. Jackson in Chicago and his son E. H. Bennett Jr. later occupied this same office through the late-1960s. Bennetts firm was a pioneer in the creation of zoning ordinances and he usually served on a consultant basis, frequently for quasi-public or commercial interests such as the Commercial Club of Chicago. Bennetts ideas about the marriage of technical and aesthetic ideals are important examples of urban utility and beauty in a democratic society, Bennett was concerned with both the regional organization of a citys services and the individual citizens enjoyment of his city. He realized the importance of planning, the placement of government and civic structures, zoning. After World War I, the nature of planning work changed, fully three-quarters of the Bennett firms work done in the 1920s was for official city planning agencies rather than for independent business or civic groups
38.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
39.
Architectural firm
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Architects have existed since early in recorded history. The earliest recorded architects include Imhotep and Senemut, no writings exist to describe how these architects performed their work. However, as nobles it is reasonable to assume they had staffs of assistants and retainers to help refine and it was only in the 19th century that architecture began to be practiced as a full-time profession. In the United States, Charles Bulfinch is the first person believed to have worked as a professional architect. Henry Hobson Richardson may have one of the first to have an established office and McKim, Mead. The oldest active architecture firms in the United States are SmithGroup of Detroit, MI and Luckett and Farley of Louisville, KY, in the United Kingdom, Brierley Groom is the oldest continuing practice being founded in 1750 at York, England. They may be the oldest active architectural practice in the world, in the United States architects are licensed by the individual U. S. states, in Canada by the individual provinces, and in Australia by the individual Australian states. Licensure is usually achieved by a combination of education, internship. Although architects are licensed individually, state laws allow them to join together in firms, some states require the firm to obtain a registration to provide architectural services. Others merely require that the work of the firm be performed under the direct supervision of an architect licensed in the state. A few US states allow corporations to provide architectural services provided that an employee of the firm serves as architect of record for any project. In the United Kingdom and other countries, a firm must have a business registration. The firm needs at least one registered professional within the team to offer a full architectural service, a professional indemnity insurance is also compulsory. Sometimes the title of principal is limited to owners who hold a certain percentage of ownership interest in a firm, some firms may also use the title principal-in-charge, which denotes an architect who oversees the firms services in connection with a specific project. In the United Kingdom and other countries, the principal of a firm is responsible for the practice. It is generally a qualified architect, architectural technologist, engineer or an architectural designer, small firms with fewer than 5 people usually have no formal organizational structure, depending on the personal relationships of the principals and employees to organize the work. Medium-sized firms with 5 to 50 employees are often organized departmentally in departments such as design, production, business development, large firms of over 50 people may be organized departmentally, regionally, or in studios specializing in project types. Advances in information technology have made it possible for firms to open offices or establish alliances with other firms in different parts of the world
40.
Arthur Brown Jr.
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Arthur Brown Jr. was a prominent American architect, based in San Francisco and designer of many of its landmarks. Brown went to Paris and graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in 1901, attending the atelier of Victor Laloux, Brown also designed the citys War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building, the former in collaboration with G. Albert Lansburgh. Brown was meticulously trained in the rigorous Beaux-Arts tradition, and in the City Hall project his attention extended to the smallest details of fixtures, floor patterning. In addition to their well-known monumental works, Bakewell and Brown designed several homes in the Arts and Crafts style championed by Maybeck. Early among them were two redwood framed double houses for Stanford University in 1908, and the fraternity house they designed de novo. They later designed additions to Ernest Coxheads 1893 Beta Theta Pi house they had lived in as undergraduates, the firm went on to design a series of familiar San Francisco landmarks, and many buildings at Stanford University, before Brown dissolved the partnership in 1927. For contractual reasons many buildings at Stanford through the 1930s continued to be credited to both, Bakewell and Brown also designed the Byzantine-inspired Temple Emmanuel at Lake St. and Arguello Blvd. in San Francisco, and the Pasadena City Hall. Most of Browns later San Francisco works employed a stripped-down classicism, the poured-concrete Art Moderne Coit Tower, that crowns Telegraph Hill is an important Modernist landmark in the Bay Area. Coit Tower was the site of some of the first public works murals executed under the Public Works Administration, the primitive nature of Coit Tower would lend itself better to that sort of thing than other public buildings, was Arthur Browns first reaction to the project. Diego Rivera included Brown among the designers and craftsmen in his mural of The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City. In Washington, D. C. Brown designed the Interstate Commerce Commission Building, its near-twin the Customs Department building, all three form part of the Federal Triangle, the largest construction project undertaken by the US Federal government prior to The Pentagon. Preliminary designs were begun in 1927, with construction in the Depression years between 1932 and 1934, the new buildings were to be designed to reflect the dignity and power of the nation. Browns last works were primarily at UC Berkeley, where Brown served as campus planner and his principal buildings there include Sproul Hall, the Bancroft Library, and the Cyclotron Building, commissioned by Ernest Lawrence and J. Robert Oppenheimer. Brown was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects in 1930, among the draftsmen in his office was Clarence W. W. Mayhew. In 1943, Brown was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, online guide to the Arthur Brown Jr. Papers, The Bancroft Library Diego Riveras mural at the SFAI Coit tower Arthur Brown Papers
41.
Interstate Commerce Commission
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The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Congress expanded ICC authority to other modes of commerce beginning in 1906. The agency was abolished in 1995, and its functions were transferred to the Surface Transportation Board. The Commissions five members were appointed by the President with the consent of the United States Senate and this was the first independent agency. The ICC was established by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, the creation of the commission was the result of widespread and longstanding anti-railroad agitation. A central issue was rate discrimination between similarly situated customers and communities, various sections of the Interstate Commerce Act banned personal discrimination and required shipping rates to be just and reasonable. President Cleveland appointed Thomas M. Cooley as the first chairman of the ICC, Cooley had been Dean of the University of Michigan Law School and Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. The Commission had a troubled start because the law that created it failed to give it adequate enforcement powers, the Commission is, or can be made, of great use to the railroads. It satisfies the popular clamor for a government supervision of the railroads, - William H. H. Miller, US Attorney General, circa 1889. Following passage of the 1887 act, the ICC proceeded to set maximum shipping rates for railroads, however, in the late 1890s several railroads challenged the agencys ratemaking authority in litigation, and the courts severely limited the ICCs powers. Congress expanded the powers through subsequent legislation. The 1893 Railroad Safety Appliance Act gave the ICC jurisdiction over railroad safety, removing this authority from the states, and this was followed with amendments in 1903 and 1910. The Hepburn Act of 1906 authorized the ICC to set railroad rates. A long-standing controversy was how to interpret language in the Act that banned long haul-short haul fare discrimination, the Valuation Act of 1913 required the ICC to organize a Bureau of Valuation that would assess the value of railroad property. This information would be used to set rates, in 1934, Congress transferred the telecommunications authority to the new Federal Communications Commission. In 1935, Congress passed the Motor Carrier Act, which extended ICC authority to regulate interstate bus lines and trucking as common carriers. Between 1920 and 1923, William Z. Ripley, a professor of economy at Harvard University. His plan became known as the Ripley Plan, in 1929 the ICC published Ripleys Plan under the title Complete Plan of Consolidation
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United States Environmental Protection Agency
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The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 2,1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House, the agency is led by its Administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by Congress. The current administrator is Scott Pruitt, the EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given cabinet rank. The EPA has its headquarters in Washington, D. C. regional offices for each of the ten regions. The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education and it has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. It delegates some permitting, monitoring, and enforcement responsibility to U. S. states, EPA enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures. The agency also works with industries and all levels of government in a variety of voluntary pollution prevention programs. In 2016, the agency had 15,376 full-time employees, more than half of EPAs employees are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists, other employees include legal, public affairs, financial, and information technologists. Beginning in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, Congress reacted to increasing concern about the impact that human activity could have on the environment. Senator James E. Murray introduced a bill, the Resources and Conservation Act of 1959, the 1962 publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson alerted the public about the detrimental effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides. In the years following, similar bills were introduced and hearings were held to discuss the state of the environment, in the colloquium, some members of Congress expressed a continuing concern over federal agency actions affecting the environment. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 was modeled on RCA, President Nixon signed NEPA into law on January 1,1970. The law created the Council on Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President, NEPA required that a detailed statement of environmental impacts be prepared for all major federal actions significantly affecting the environment. The detailed statement would ultimately be referred to as an impact statement. On July 9,1970, Nixon proposed a reorganization that consolidated many environmental responsibilities of the federal government under one agency. After conducting hearings during that summer, the House and Senate approved the proposal, the agency’s first administrator, William Ruckelshaus, took the oath of office on December 4,1970. In May 2013, Congress renamed the EPA headquarters as the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, the EPA is led by an Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As of 2017 Scott Pruitt is the 14th administrator, each EPA regional office is responsible within its states for implementing the Agencys programs, except those programs that have been specifically delegated to states
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William Adams Delano
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William Adams Delano, an American architect, was a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich in the firm of Delano & Aldrich. William Delano was born in New York City, a member of the prominent Delano family of Massachusetts and he was the cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was the nephew of John Crosby Brown, who headed the Brown Brothers & Company banking/trading group, and his father Eugene Delano and he also studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, receiving a diploma in 1903. He met his longstanding partner Chester Holmes Aldrich when they worked together at the office of Carrère and they formed their partnership after Delanos return from Europe in 1903 and almost immediately won commissions from the Rockefeller family, among others. Separately and in tandem they designed a number of buildings at Yale, Delano taught at Columbia University from 1903 to 1910. Delano alone won the commission for the second-largest residence in the United States, Oheka, overlooking Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York for financier Otto Kahn. Built from 1914 to 1919 in French chateau style, with gardens by Olmsted Brothers, in 1922, Delano designed the interiors of the Grand Central Art Galleries, an artists cooperative established that year by John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark, and others. Eight years later Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich were asked by the organization to design the U. S, the purchase of the land, design, and construction was paid for by the Galleries and personally supervised by Clark. The pavilion, owned and operated by the Galleries, opened on May 4,1930 and it was sold to the Museum of Modern Art in 1954 and later to the Guggenheim Museum. In 1948, Delano was commissioned to design the Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial, Delano also designed terminals at La Guardia and Miami airports. In Washington, D. C. he designed the Post Office building in the Federal Triangle complex and he was the architect for the 1927 renovation to the White House, one of the key contributors to its near-collapse in 1948-9, and consulted on the controversial Truman Balcony. In addition to his work, Delano served on the board of design for the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, and, in Washington, on the National Capital Planning Commission. Commission of Fine Arts from 1924 to 1928, including as chairman in 1928. Delanos many awards and honors include election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he was also named an officer by the French Legion of Honor and was an academician of the National Academy of Design. In 1953, the American Institute of Architects awarded William Adams Delano its Gold Medal, Delano continued to practice almost until his death in 1960, aged 85, in New York City. Aldrich had left the partnership in 1935 to become the resident director of the American Academy at Rome, the Delano and Aldrich archive is held by the Drawings and Archives Department in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. Surviving buildings, Hathaway, Tannersville, New York,1907, high Lawn, a wedding gift for William B. Osgood Field and his wife, Lila Sloane Field,1908, one of the Berkshire Cottages, barbey Building,15 West 38th Street,1909
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United States Post Office Department
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The Post Office Department was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, in the form of a Cabinet department officially from 1872 to 1971. It was headed by the Postmaster General, the Postal Service Act signed by President George Washington on February 20,1792, established the Department. Postmaster General John McLean, in office from 1823 to 1829, was the first to call it the Post Office Department rather than just the Post Office. The organization received a boost in prestige when President Andrew Jackson invited his Postmaster General, William T. Barry, the Post Office Act of 1872 elevated the Post Office Department to Cabinet status. The Postal Reorganization Act was signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12,1970 and it replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service on July 1,1971. The regulatory role of the services was then transferred to the Postal Regulatory Commission. Postage stamps and postal history of the United States
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William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building
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The William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building is located in the Federal Triangle in Washington, D. C. across 12th Street from the Old Post Office. The building, which now houses the headquarters of the U. S, the Clinton Building was constructed in the early 1930s as part of the redevelopment of the Federal Triangle area. At that time one of the citys most blighted neighborhoods, this area was known as Murder Bay and was a center of crime, construction on the Clinton Building was completed in 1934. The Clinton Building was a feature of the redevelopment. The neoclassical building was designed by architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich, the central section of the tri-unit building consists of two huge, back to back, semicircular units with side wings. The semicircle formed by the curve on its eastern façade was to be mirrored by a similarly curved façade built across 12th Street on the site of the Old Post Office Building. The second half of the plaza was never finished as designed. The exterior is decorated with bas relief panels, by Adolph Alexander Weinman, the Clinton Building has been refurbished with the architectural details of the hallways preserved in the style of the 1920s and 1930s. A seven-story marble spiral staircase is a prominent element of the buildings interior, a chandelier hangs in the center of the staircase and has exposed bulbs to illuminate each floor. It terminates in a chrome and brass globe. In December 2012, both houses of Congress unanimously voted to rename the Rios Building as the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, after Bill Clinton, the General Services Administration administratively renamed the building for Clinton on May 13,2013. The structure was dedicated at a ceremony on July 17,2013, at which Clinton spoke. The Rios family approved of renaming a building, a reflecting pool at the new ATF headquarters on New York Avenue NW was named for Rios. 25 murals were chosen and six have been criticized by visitors and employees as to stereotyping American Indians, the General Services Administration addressed the controversy, The U. S. At the same time, engrained cultural attitudes of the 1930s are inevitably present, including stereotypes about women, Native Americans, African Americans, controversy over WPA murals was prevalent during their installation and afterward. Nudity and revolutionary sentiments implicit in some murals led to a public debate. In 1993, the building was renovated, in 1998, the limestone facade was renovated. In 2007, the courtyard was renovated
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Cornerstone
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The rite of laying a cornerstone is an important cultural component of eastern architecture and metaphorically in sacred architecture generally. Some cornerstones include time capsules from, or engravings commemorating, the time a building was built. Often, the ceremony involved the placing of offerings of grain, wine and these were symbolic of the produce and the people of the land and the means of their subsistence. This in turn derived from the practice in more ancient times of making an animal or human sacrifice that was laid in the foundations. The object of the sacrifice is to give strength and stability to the building and it is believed that the man will die within the year. Not long ago there were still shadow-traders whose business it was to provide architects with the necessary for securing their walls. In these cases the measure of the shadow is looked on as equivalent to the shadow itself, and to bury it is to bury the life or soul of the man, who, deprived of it, must die. Ancient Japan legends talk about Hitobashira, in which maidens were buried alive at the base or near some constructions as a prayer to ensure the buildings against disasters or enemy attacks and this person is usually asked to place their hand on the stone or otherwise signify its laying. Often still, and certainly until the 1970s, most ceremonies involved the use of a manufactured and engraved trowel that had a formal use in laying mortar under the stone. Similarly, a hammer was often used to ceremonially tap the stone into place. Freemasons sometimes perform the public cornerstone laying ceremony for notable buildings and this ceremony was described by The Cork Examiner of 13 January 1865 as follows. After this, Bishop Gregg spread cement over the stone with a specially made for the occasion by John Hawkesworth, a silversmith. He then gave the stone three knocks with a mallet and declared the stone to be duly and truly laid, the Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Munster poured offerings of corn, oil and wine over the stone after Bishop Gregg had declared it to be duly and truly laid. The Provincial Grand Chaplain of the Masonic Order in Munster then read out the prayer, May the Great Architect of the universe enable us as successfully to carry out. The choir and congregation sang the Hundredth Psalm. In Freemasonry, which grew from the practice of stonemasons, the initiate is placed in the north-east corner of the Lodge as a foundation stone. This is intended to signify the unity of the North associated with darkness, a cornerstone will sometimes be referred to as a foundation-stone, and is symbolic of Christ, whom the Apostle Paul referred to as the head of the corner and is the Chief Cornerstone of the Church. Many of the ancient churches will place relics of the saints, especially martyrs
Media related to Herbert C. Hoover Building at Wikimedia Commons
