1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
High-rise building
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A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building. In some areas it may be referred to as an MDU, in the United States, such a structure is referred to as an apartment building or office building, while a group of such buildings is called an apartment complex or office complex. High-rise buildings became possible with the invention of the elevator and cheaper, the materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. Most North American style skyscrapers have a frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed of concrete. There is no difference between a tower block and a skyscraper, although a building with fifty or more stories is generally considered a skyscraper. They also pose challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. Studies are often required to ensure that pedestrian wind comfort and wind danger concerns are addressed, in order to allow less wind exposure, to transmit more daylight to the ground and to appear more slender, many high-rises have a design with setbacks. In contrast with low-rise and single-family houses, apartment blocks accommodate more inhabitants per unit of area of land, various bodies have defined high-rise, Emporis Standards defines a high-rise as A multi-story structure between 35–100 meters tall, or a building of unknown height from 12–39 floors. According to the code of Hyderabad, India, a high-rise building is one with four floors or more. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a high-rise as a building having many storeys, most building engineers, inspectors, architects and similar professionals define a high-rise as a building that is at least 75 feet tall. The lower floors were occupied by either shops or wealthy families. Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-story buildings even existed in provincial towns, in Arab Egypt, the initial capital city of Fustat housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven stories tall that could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants. The skyline of many important medieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers, the residential Towers of Bologna numbered between 80 and 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m. In Florence, a law of 1251 decreed that all buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m. Even medium-sized towns such as San Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m in height, the oldest still standing tulou dates back from the 14th century. Tower blocks were built in the Yemeni city of Shibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all out of mud bricks, but about five hundred of them are tower houses
3.
The Washington Post
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The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper. It is the most widely circulated newspaper published in Washington, D. C. and was founded on December 6,1877 and its current slogan is Democracy Dies in Darkness. Located in the city of the United States, the newspaper has a particular emphasis on national politics. Daily editions are printed for the District of Columbia, Maryland, the newspaper is published as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in color and in black and white. The newspaper has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes and this includes six separate Pulitzers awarded in 2008, the second-highest number ever awarded to a single newspaper in one year, second only to The New York Times seven awards in 2002. Post journalists have also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards, in years since, its investigations have led to increased review of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In 2013, its owners, the Graham family, sold the newspaper to billionaire entrepreneur. The newspaper is owned by Nash Holdings LLC, a holding company Bezos created for the acquisition, the Washington Post is generally regarded as one of the leading daily American newspapers, along with The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The Post has distinguished itself through its reporting on the workings of the White House, Congress. It is one of the two daily broadsheets published in Washington D. C. the other being its smaller rival The Washington Times, unlike The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post does not print an edition for distribution away from the East Coast. In 2009, the newspaper ceased publication of its National Weekly Edition, the majority of its newsprint readership is in District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Sunday Style section differs slightly from the weekday Style section, it is in a tabloid format, and it houses the reader-written humor contest The Style Invitational. Additional weekly sections appear on weekdays, Health & Science on Tuesday, Food on Wednesday, Local Living on Thursday, the latter two are in a tabloid format. In November 2009, it announced the closure of its U. S. regional bureaus—Chicago, Los Angeles and New York—as part of a focus on. political stories. The newspaper has bureaus in Maryland and Virginia. While its circulation has been slipping, it has one of the highest market-penetration rates of any metropolitan news daily, for many decades, the Post had its main office at 1150 15th Street NW. This real estate remained with Graham Holdings when the newspaper was sold to Jeff Bezos Nash Holdings in 2013, Graham Holdings sold 1150 15th Street for US$159 million in November 2013. The Washington Post continued to lease space at 1150 L Street NW, in May 2014, The Washington Post leased the west tower of One Franklin Square, a high-rise building at 1301 K Street NW in Washington, D. C
4.
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
5.
Storey
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A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people. The plurals are storeys and stories respectively, the terms floor, level, or deck can also be used in this sense, except that one may use ground floor and ground level for the floor closer to what is considered the ground or street level. The words storey and floor also generally exclude levels of the building that have no roof, houses commonly have only one or two floors. Buildings are often classified as low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise according to how many levels they contain, the tallest skyscraper in the world, Burj Khalifa, has 163 floors. As of 2013, the tallest planned skyscraper, Sky City, is planned to have 202 floors, the height of each storey is based on the ceiling height of the rooms plus the thickness of the floors between each pane. Generally this is around 10 feet total, however, it varies widely from just under this figure to well over it, storeys within a building need not be all the same height — often the lobby is more spacious, for example. Additionally, higher levels may be smaller in volume than the ones beneath them, in English, the principal floor or main floor of a house is the floor that contains the chief apartments, it is usually the ground floor, or the floor above. In Italy the main floor of a home is usually above the ground level, the attic or loft is a storey just below the buildings roof, its ceiling is often pitched and/or at a different height than that of other floors. A penthouse is an apartment on the topmost storey of a building. A basement is a storey below the main or ground floor, split-level homes have floors that offset from each other by less than the height of a full storey. A mezzanine, in particular, is typically a floor halfway between the floor and the next higher floor. Homes with a split-level entry have the main floor raised half a storey height above the street entrance level. In Macys Herald Square, there is a one and a floor between the first and second, this can be considered a split level floor. There are also car parks, also known as parking garages. Floor numbering is the scheme used for a buildings floors. There are two major schemes in use across the world, in one system, used in the majority of European countries, the ground floor is the floor literally on the ground and often has no number or is assigned the number 0. Therefore, the floor up is assigned the number 1 and is the first floor. The other system, used primarily in the United States and Canada, counts the bottom floor as the first floor, the existence of two incompatible conventions is a common source of confusion in international communication, sometimes even between communities who speak the same language
6.
1099 14th Street
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1099 14th Street NW, also known as Franklin Court, is a high-rise Postmodern office building located in Washington, D. C. in the United States. Its tower, when built, was the highest in the city, after the American Civil War, 14th Street NW became a fashionable residential district. By the 1930s, numerous shops and trendy nightclubs ringed Franklin Square. In the 1950s, 14th Street NW between H Street NW and Thomas Circle was an entertainment district. A large number of nightclubs lined the street, and some of the top entertainers in the nation performed in them, beginning in the 1960s, adult bookstores and peep shows began appearing along the street. The 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. riots caused many businesses to flee the area, by the 1970s, encouraged by city zoning laws, 14th Street had become a red-light district 10 blocks long. Prostitution and the drug trade was common along the street. Known as the Strip, this district was nationally known. Among the more notable establishments along the Strip were Adam & Eve, Bennys Home of the Porno Stars, The Butterfly, Californian Steak House, Casino Royal, The Cocoon, This Is It. and the Pink Pussy. Between 1978 and 1985, real estate developers began buying up. The associations activities led to the arrest of many adult club owners, in 1986, developers began tearing down many of the small, dilapidated structures along the Strip and started erecting tall, modern office buildings. In the spring of 1987, the city began the largest crackdown on prostitution on the Strip since 1980. Crime fell rapidly, the late 1980s saw a number of high-rise office buildings finished on 14th Street NW between I Street NW and Thomas Circle. These included 1400 I Street NW and 1313 K Street NW, but according to a map printed by Washington Post, no new building was planned to replace the five-story, dilapidated commercial building on the east side of 14th Street between K and L Streets NW. By April 1989, the buildings were being demolished. There were four pieces of property which constituted the site of 1099 14th Street NW. The four parcels owned by Howard Flax and Ronald Cohen, Cohen was the principal owner of Ronald Cohen Investments. Flax was an associate with the firm, Cohen and Flax had intended to develop the four sites themselves. But a rapid rise in prices along 14th Street led them to sell the property
7.
Hines Interests Limited Partnership
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Hines Interests Limited Partnership is a privately owned real estate firm involved in real estate investment, development and property management worldwide. With offices in 110 cities in 18 countries, and controlled assets valued at approximately $25.2 billion, Hines is headquartered in the Williams Tower in uptown Houston, Texas. CityCenterDC is one of Hines’ most recent major projects in Washington, the site is being developed in three phases, with Phase I having delivered in early 2014. The final phase will include a 500,000 square foot office building, with 40,000 square feet of retail space
8.
K Street (Washington, D.C.)
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K Street is a major thoroughfare in the United States capital of Washington, D. C. known as a center for numerous think tanks, lobbyists, and advocacy groups. C. Since the late 1980s, however, many of the largest lobbying firms have moved out, as of 2012, in Washingtons street grid there are two unconnected streets designated as K Street. The term K Street almost always refers to the northern K Street. The northern K Street, which carries a segment of U. S. Route 29, begins in the citys Northwest quadrant as K St. NW, just west of the abutment of the old Aqueduct Bridge on the Georgetown waterfront. The street travels east underneath the Whitehurst Freeway, crosses Rock Creek on the K Street Bridge, after its intersection with North Capitol Street, the streets designation changes to K Street NE as it enters the Northeast quadrant. The street ends at Florida Avenue in the Near Northeast neighborhood, the Georgetown section of the street was known as Water Street prior to the Georgetown street renaming of 1895. West of 33rd Street NW, the United States Postal Service still recognizes both K Street and Water Street in addresses, the westernmost end of K Street occupies the former right of way of the Georgetown Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. When that line was abandoned, K Street was extended west to the Washington Canoe Club, the rest of the Georgetown right of way is now occupied by the Capital Crescent Trail, which begins at the terminus of K Street. The southern K Street runs between the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, crossing the Southwest and Southeast quadrants, K Street provides a major east-west thoroughfare for traffic through Washington, primarily from Mount Vernon Square to the Whitehurst Freeway. The street continues through Georgetown under the Whitehurst Freeway, however most westbound traffic exits to the freeway, a portion of the street travels in a tunnel underneath Washington Circle, allowing through traffic to avoid the circle. Portions of the street are divided into both local lanes and express lanes in both directions, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has been studying the conversion of K Street into part of a proposed busway. The route would begin at Georgetown University cross downtown Washington on K Street, switch to Massachusetts Avenue at Mount Vernon Square, currently, the DC Circulator provides service along most of the proposed route, although it must share right of way with other vehicles. A streetcar line spanning from 26th St. NW to the H Street lines terminus at Union Station is planned as the phase of DCs streetcar expansion. K Street is the common and often negative metonym for Washingtons lobbying industry, lobbying in the United States K Street Busway project leaflet The Road to Riches Is Called K Street
9.
Franklin Square (Washington, D.C.)
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Franklin Square is a square in downtown Washington, D. C. Named after Benjamin Franklin, it is bounded by K Street NW to the north, 13th Street NW on the east, I Street NW on the south and it is served by the McPherson Square station of the Washington Metro, which is located just southwest of the park. The park is terraced, and slopes uphill from I Street to K Street. There are many trees, a significant quantity of grass, many benches. There is also a statue of Commodore John Barry on the west side of the park, preservation League, Franklin Square was originally the site of several natural springs. The 1791 L’Enfant Plan did not single out the now occupied by Franklin Park for any special use and it wasnt until 1832 that the government purchased the square. There is no proof that the park was named for Benjamin Franklin. The park remained largely unimproved until the 1870s, landscaping, benches, and paths were added at that time, and in the 1800s. The parks last major renovation came in 1935, when the Public Works Administration gave the city $75,000 to improve Franklin Square, the fountain, a flagstone plaza, a geometric system of concrete pathways, and new trees were planted. Although a major refurbishment of the paths, fountain, and plaza occurred in 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial, the 4.79 acres that comprise Franklin Square are managed by the National Park Service. By 2012, the square was in significant need of repair, the pathways were broken, workers in nearby buildings had worn paths through the grass to cut across the square more efficiently, and large numbers of homeless individuals camped there. In March 2013, the D. C. government issued a request for proposals to redesign Franklin Square so that it could accommodate multiple recreational activities, the RFP requested that any redesign include flexible seating, food kiosks, public restrooms, and an enhanced landscape design. The city set aside $300,000 for the design work, across 13th Street on the east side of the square is the historic Franklin School, which was a model of advanced design in its day and the scene of Alexander Graham Bells first wireless message. On June 3,1880, Bell sent a message over a beam of light to a window in a building at 1325 L Street, until recently the school served as a homeless shelter. The remaining residents were evicted on September 26,2008, clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross maintained a residence adjacent to the park at 1326 I Street, where she held the first official meeting of the relief organization in May 1881. One Franklin Square, directly north of the square, is a new building. Nobel Laureate Charles Townes has said that he conceived the theory behind the principle while sitting on a bench in the square. The square figures prominently in Dan Browns 2009 thriller The Lost Symbol, in 1993 served as the filming location for several scenes from James Camerons film True Lies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
10.
The Lost Symbol
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The Lost Symbol is a 2009 novel written by American writer Dan Brown. It is a set in Washington, D. C. after the events of The Da Vinci Code. Released on September 15,2009, it is the third Brown novel to involve the character of Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon, following 2000s Angels & Demons and it had a first printing of 6.5 million, the largest in Doubleday history. On its first day the book sold one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the U. S. the UK and Canada, making it the fastest selling adult novel in history. It was number one on the New York Times Best Seller list for fiction for the first six weeks of its release. As of January 2013, there were 30 million copies in print worldwide, Solomon has also asked him to bring a small, sealed package which he had entrusted to Langdon years earlier. Malakh then contacts Langdon, charging him with finding both the Masons Pyramid, which Masons believe is hidden somewhere in Washington, D. C. and the Lost Word, lest Solomon be murdered. Langdon is then met by Trent Anderson, head of the Capitol police, and Inoue Sato, Sato claims that Malakh poses a threat to the national security of the U. S. and that his capture is more important than Peters rescue, although she refuses to elaborate. Langdon explains that he was unaware of its contents, but Sato, refusing to believe it, attempts to take Langdon into custody. Before she can arrest him, however, she and Anderson are assaulted by Warren Bellamy, the Architect of the Capitol and a Freemason and he later explains to Langdon that he too has been in contact with Malakh and wants Langdons assistance in rescuing Peter. Malakh is revealed to be a Freemason with tattoos covering almost his entire body and he infiltrated the organization in order to obtain an ancient source of power, which he believes Langdon can unlock for him in return for Peter Solomons life. Peter flew to Turkey but decided to have Zachary extradited in a time instead of getting him released immediately in order to teach him a lesson. Zachary was apparently murdered by his cellmate who got his hands on Zacharys fortune, Dareios, however, soon grew tired of his life. Both are later apprehended by Satos team, Malakh places Langdon into an airtight sensory deprivation tank, where he interrogates Langdon by slowly filling the tank with liquid. He is able to convince Langdon to decipher the code at the pyramids base and he uses the threat of not calling an ambulance for Katherine as further coercion for Peters cooperation. Sato leads a team of agents to the mansion after Langdon, after a near-death experience, Langdon is revealed to have survived due to the water in the tank actually being breathable oxygenated liquid and the tank being a device for meditation. Malakh forces the Word—the unpronounceable circumpunct—out of Peter and tattoos it on his head on the last portion of unmarked skin on his body. Malakh then orders Peter to sacrifice him, as he believes that it is his destiny to become a demonic spirit and lead the forces of evil
11.
Emporis
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Emporis GmbH is a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The company collects and publishes data and photographs of buildings worldwide, Emporis offers a variety of information on its public database, Emporis. com, located at www. emporis. com. Emporis is frequently cited by media sources as an authority on building data. Emporis previously focused exclusively on high-rise buildings and skyscrapers, which it defines as buildings between 35 and 100 metres tall and at least 100 metres tall, respectively, today, the database has expanded to include low-rise buildings and other structures. Michael Wutzke started a website about skyscrapers in Frankfurt in 1996, in 2000 he started skyscrapers. com which was folded into Emporis in 2003. In 2004, Stephan R. Boehm assumed the role of Chairman, Wutzke was Chief Technology Officer and managing director until 2010, when he left the company. In 2007 venture capital firm Neuhaus Partners and KfW Bankengruppe invested several million Euro in the company, effective January 1,2009, the company moved its headquarters from Darmstadt to Frankfurt. In 2011, the company moved from Frankfurt to Hamburg, in 2000 a group of Emporis senior editors began presenting the Emporis Skyscraper Award. Eligible buildings are selected from a list of all buildings in the world at least 100 meters tall which were completed that year
Media related to One Franklin Square at Wikimedia Commons