1.
Rockefeller Center
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Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 high-rise commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st Streets in New York City. Commissioned by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It is famous for its annual Christmas tree lighting, Rockefeller Center was named after John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who leased the space from Columbia University in 1928 and developed it beginning in 1930. Rockefeller stated, It was clear there were only two courses open to me. One was to abandon the entire development, the other to go forward with it in the definite knowledge that I myself would have to build it and finance it alone. The initial cost of acquiring the space, razing some of the existing buildings and it was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times. Construction of the 14 buildings in the Art Deco style began on May 17,1930, principal builder and managing agent for the massive project was John R. Todd. The construction of the project employed over 40,000 people and it was the public relations pioneer Ivy Lee, the prominent adviser to the family, who first suggested the name Rockefeller Center for the complex, in 1931. Rockefeller, Jr. initially did not want the Rockefeller family name associated with the commercial project, what could have become a major controversy in the mid-1930s concerned the last of the four European buildings that remained unnamed. Ivy Lee and others attempts to rent the space to German commercial concerns. Rockefeller ruled this out after being advised of Hitlers Nazi march toward World War II and this subsequently became the primary location of the U. S. In 1985, Columbia University sold the land beneath Rockefeller Center to the Rockefeller Group for $400 million, in 1989, Mitsubishi Estate, a real estate company of the Mitsubishi Group, purchased the entire Rockefeller Center complex, and its owner, Rockefeller Group. In 1996, the complex was purchased by a consortium of owners that included Goldman Sachs, Gianni Agnelli, Stavros Niarchos, and David Rockefeller. Tishman Speyer, led by Jerry Speyer, a friend of David Rockefeller. The landmark buildings comprise over 8,000,000 square feet on 22 acres in Midtown, bounded by Fifth and Sixth avenues and these are co-owned by Tishman-Speyer, and open to the public. 1 Rockefeller Plaza – The original Time–Life Building, a tenant was General Dynamics. 10 Rockefeller Plaza – Originally the Holland House, then the Eastern Air Lines Building, currently home of Today Show studios. 30 Rockefeller Plaza – Originally the RCA Building, in 1988 it was renamed the GE Building, headquarters of NBC, the Rainbow Room restaurant is located on the 65th floor
2.
Garden
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A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials, the most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has traditionally been a more general one. Zoos, which wild animals in simulated natural habitats, were formerly called zoological gardens. Western gardens are almost universally based on plants, with garden often signifying a shortened form of botanical garden, some traditional types of eastern gardens, such as Zen gardens, use plants sparsely or not at all. Xeriscape gardens use local plants that do not require irrigation or extensive use of other resources while still providing the benefits of a garden environment. Gardens may exhibit structural enhancements, sometimes called follies, including features such as fountains, ponds, waterfalls or creeks, dry creek beds, statuary, arbors, trellises. Some gardens are for ornamental purposes only, while some also produce food crops, sometimes in separate areas. Food-producing gardens are distinguished from farms by their scale, more labor-intensive methods. Flower gardens combine plants of different heights, colors, textures, Gardening is the activity of growing and maintaining the garden. This work is done by an amateur or professional gardener, a gardener might also work in a non-garden setting, such as a park, a roadside embankment, or other public space. Landscape architecture is a professional activity with landscape architects tending to specialise in design for public. See Grad for more complete etymology, the words yard, court, and Latin hortus, are cognates—all referring to an enclosed space. The term garden in British English refers to an enclosed area of land. This would be referred to as a yard in American English, garden design is the creation of plans for the layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Gardens may be designed by garden owners themselves, or by professionals, professional garden designers tend to be trained in principles of design and horticulture, and have a knowledge and experience of using plants. Some professional garden designers are also landscape architects, a formal level of training that usually requires an advanced degree. Garden design can be divided into two groups, formal and naturalistic gardens. All of these considerations are subject to the limitations of the budget, most gardens consist of a mix of natural and constructed elements, although even very natural gardens are always an inherently artificial creation
3.
Roof
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A roof is part of a building envelope. It is the covering on the uppermost part of a building or shelter which provides protection from animals and weather, notably rain or snow, the word also denotes the framing or structure which supports that covering. In most countries a roof protects primarily against rain, a verandah may be roofed with material that protects against sunlight but admits the other elements. The roof of a garden conservatory protects plants from cold, wind, and rain, a roof may also provide additional living space, for example a roof garden. Old English hrof roof, ceiling, top, summit, heaven, sky, also figuratively, highest point of something, there are no apparent connections outside the Germanic family. English alone has retained the word in a sense, for which the other languages use forms corresponding to OE. In many parts of the ceramic tiles have been the predominant roofing material for centuries. Other roofing materials include asphalt, coal tar pitch, EPDM rubber, Hypalon, polyurethane foam, PVC, slate, Teflon fabric, TPO, and wood shakes and shingles. The construction of a roof is determined by its method of support and how the space is bridged. The pitch is the angle at which the roof rises from its lowest to highest point, most US domestic architecture, except in very dry regions, has roofs that are sloped, or pitched. Although modern construction such as drainpipes may remove the need for pitch, roofs are pitched for reasons of tradition. So the pitch is dependent upon stylistic factors, and partially to do with practicalities. Some types of roofing, for example thatch, require a steep pitch in order to be waterproof, other types of roofing, for example pantiles, are unstable on a steeply pitched roof but provide excellent weather protection at a relatively low angle. In regions where there is rain, an almost flat roof with a slight run-off provides adequate protection against an occasional downpour. Drainpipes also remove the need for a sloping roof, a person that specializes in roof construction is called a roofer. The shape of roofs differs greatly from region to region, the main factors which influence the shape of roofs are the climate and the materials available for roof structure and the outer covering. The basic shapes of roofs are flat, mono-pitched, gabled, hipped, butterfly, there are many variations on these types. Roofs constructed of sections that are sloped are referred to as pitched roofs
4.
Urban agriculture
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City farms are agricultural plots in urban areas, which involve people working with animals and plants to produce food. City farms are usually community-run gardens which aim to improve community relationships and offer an awareness of agriculture, City farms are important sources of food security for many communities around the globe. City farms vary in size from small plots in private yards to larger farms that occupy a number of acres, in 1996, a United Nations report estimated there are over 800 million people worldview who grow food and raise livestock in cities. Today, it is estimated more than three million people visit city farms each year and around half a million people work on them as volunteers. Although some city farms have paid employees, most rely heavily on volunteer labour, other city farms operate as partnerships with local authorities. City farms allow urban dwellers to produce food from animals and plants, at the intersection of production and awareness, city farms are often the focus for educational, environmental and conservation outreach and activities. During the 1960s a number of community gardens were established in the United Kingdom, the first city farm was set up in 1972 in Kentish Town, London. It combined farm animals with gardening space, an inspired by childrens farms in the Netherlands. Other city farms followed across London and there are now over sixty city farms in the United Kingdom, in Australia, several city farms exist in various capital cities. In Melbourne in 1979 the Collingwood Childrens Farm was established on the Abbotsford Precinct Heritage Farmlands, in London, the city farms now have a show at an agricultural college called Capel Manor every September. There are also around a thousand community gardens and seventy-five school farms in the UK, together with city farms they are represented by The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens. The Access to Farms scheme is a project to enable access to working farms. Allotments also provide space for individuals and groups within urban areas. City farm also refers to City Farm, a three quarter acre bio-intensive farm on the Southside of Providence, Rhode Island and this is one element of the Southside Community Land Trust. At the City Farm, crops are both for donation to local charities and for selling at local farmers markets. The City Farm is also a site where childrens groups from the Greater Providence area come for education on local farming. Alternative urban futures, planning for development in cities throughout the world. ISBN 0-7425-2366-7 Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens European Federation of City Farms
5.
Green roof
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A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a barrier and drainage. Container gardens on roofs, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater. They effectively utilize the natural functions of plants to filter water, the term green roof may also be used to indicate roofs that use some form of green technology, such as a cool roof, a roof with solar thermal collectors or photovoltaic panels. See the PDF at for more information, Green roofs not only retain rainwater, but also moderate the temperature of the water and act as natural filters for any of the water that happens to run off. Many green roofs are installed to comply with regulations and government fees. In areas with combined systems, heavy storms can overload the wastewater system and cause it to flood. Green roofs decrease the amount of runoff and slow the rate of runoff from the roof. It has been found that they can retain up to 75% of rainwater, gradually releasing it back into the atmosphere via condensation and transpiration, combating the urban heat island effect is another reason for creating a green roof. Traditional building materials soak up the radiation and re-emit it as heat. On Chicagos City Hall, by contrast, which features a roof, roof temperatures on a hot day are typically 1. 4–4.4 °C cooler than they are on traditionally roofed buildings nearby. Green roofs are becoming common in Chicago, as well as in Atlanta, Portland, and other United States cities, Green roofs are a type of low impact development. In the case of Chicago, the city has passed codes offering incentives to builders who put green roofs on their buildings. Following this and other studies, it has now estimated that if all the roofs in a major city were greened. Green roofs also provide habitats for plants, insects, and animals that otherwise have limited space in cities. Even in high-rise urban settings as tall as 19 stories, it has found that green roofs can attract beneficial insects, birds. Rooftop greenery complements wild areas by providing stepping stones for songbirds, migratory birds, an additional environmental benefit of greens roofs is the ability to sequester carbon. Carbon is the component of plant matter and is naturally absorbed by plant tissue
6.
Hydroponics
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Hydroponics is a subset of hydroculture, the method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. Terrestrial plants may be grown with only their roots exposed to the solution, or the roots may be supported by an inert medium. The nutrients in hydroponics can be from fish waste, duck manure, the earliest published work on growing terrestrial plants without soil was the 1627 book Sylva Sylvarum by Francis Bacon, printed a year after his death. Water culture became a research technique after that. In 1699, John Woodward published his water culture experiments with spearmint and he found that plants in less-pure water sources grew better than plants in distilled water. Growth of terrestrial plants without soil in mineral nutrient solutions was called solution culture and it quickly became a standard research and teaching technique and is still widely used. Solution culture is now considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium, in 1929, William Frederick Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley began publicly promoting that solution culture be used for agricultural crop production. He first termed it aquaculture but later found that aquaculture was already applied to culture of aquatic organisms, Gericke created a sensation by growing tomato vines twenty-five feet high in his back yard in mineral nutrient solutions rather than soil. He introduced the term hydroponics, water culture, in 1937, proposed to him by W. A. Setchell, a phycologist with an extensive education in the classics. Hydroponics is derived from neologism υδρωπονικά, constructed in analogy to γεωπονικά, geoponica, reports of Gerickes work and his claims that hydroponics would revolutionize plant agriculture prompted a huge number of requests for further information. In 1940, Gericke published the book, Complete Guide to Soil less Gardening, two other plant nutritionists at the University of California were asked to research Gerickes claims. Dennis R. Hoagland and Daniel I, Arnon wrote a classic 1938 agricultural bulletin, The Water Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil. Hoagland and Arnon claimed that hydroponic crop yields were no better than crop yields with good-quality soils, crop yields were ultimately limited by factors other than mineral nutrients, especially light. In soil, a grower needs to be experienced to know exactly how much water to feed the plant. Too much and the plant will be unable to access oxygen, too little and the plant will lose the ability to transport nutrients and these two researchers developed several formulas for mineral nutrient solutions, known as Hoagland solution. Modified Hoagland solutions are still in use, one of the earliest successes of hydroponics occurred on Wake Island, a rocky atoll in the Pacific Ocean used as a refuelling stop for Pan American Airlines. Hydroponics was used there in the 1930s to grow vegetables for the passengers, hydroponics was a necessity on Wake Island because there was no soil, and it was prohibitively expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables. In the 1960s, Allen Cooper of England developed the Nutrient film technique, the Land Pavilion at Walt Disney Worlds EPCOT Center opened in 1982 and prominently features a variety of hydroponic techniques
7.
Aeroponics
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Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium. The word aeroponic is derived from the Greek meanings of aero-, aeroponic culture differs from both conventional hydroponics, aquaponics, and in-vitro growing. It is sometimes considered a type of hydroponics, since water is used in aeroponics to transmit nutrients, the leaves and crown, often called the canopy, extend above. The roots of the plant are separated by the plant support structure, ideally, the environment is kept free from pests and disease so that the plants may grow healthier and more quickly than plants grown in a medium. However, since most aeroponic environments are not perfectly closed off to the outside, pests, controlled environments advance plant development, health, growth, flowering and fruiting for any given plant species and cultivars. High-pressure aeroponics is defined as delivering nutrients to the roots via 20–50 micrometre mist heads using a diaphragm pump. Air cultures optimize access to air for successful plant growth, materials and devices which hold and support the aeroponic grown plants must be devoid of disease or pathogens. A distinction of a true culture and apparatus is that it provides plant support features that are minimal. Minimal contact between a plant and support structure allows for 100% of the plant to be entirely in air, long-term aeroponic cultivation requires the root systems to be free of constraints surrounding the stem and root systems. Physical contact is minimized so that it does not hinder natural growth and root expansion or access to water, air exchange. Oxygen in the rhizosphere is necessary for plant growth. As aeroponics is conducted in air combined with micro-droplets of water, almost any plant can grow to maturity in air with a supply of oxygen, water. Clean air supplies oxygen which is an excellent purifier for plants, for natural growth to occur, the plant must have unrestricted access to air. Plants must be allowed to grow in a manner for successful physiological development. The more confining the plant support becomes, the incidence of increasing disease pressure of the plant. Some researchers have used aeroponics to study the effects of root zone gas composition on plant performance. Soffer and Burger studied the effects of dissolved oxygen concentrations on the formation of roots in what they termed “aero-hydroponics. ”They utilized a 3-tier hydro and aero system. The ends of the roots were submerged in the nutrient reservoir, while the middle of the root section received nutrient mist, even at the lowest concentration, the misted section rooted successfully
8.
Container garden
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Container gardening or pot gardening is the practice of growing plants, including edible plants, exclusively in containers instead of planting them in the ground. A container is the term used in gardening for a small, enclosed. It may take the form of a pot, box, tub, pot, basket, tin, pots, traditionally made of terracotta but now more commonly plastic, and window boxes have been the most commonly seen. Small pots are commonly called flowerpots, in some cases, this method of growing is used for ornamental purposes. This method is useful in areas where the soil or climate is unsuitable for the plant or crop in question. Using a container is generally necessary for houseplants. Limited growing space, or growing space that is paved over, containers range from simple plastic pots, teacups to complex automatic-watering irrigation systems. This flexibility in design is another reason container gardening is popular with growers and they can be found on porches, front steps, and in urban locations, on rooftops. Sub-irrigated planters are a type of container that may be used in container gardens, potting material must be loose and allow drainage to offer proper aeration for roots to breathe, preventing root rot. Re-potting is the action of placing a potted plant into a larger or smaller pot. A pot that fits a plants root system better is normally used, plants are usually re-potted according to the size of their root system. Most plants need to be re-potted every few years, because they become pot-bound or root-bound, plants roots can sense its surroundings, including the size of the pot it is in, and increasing the pot size allows plant size to increase proportionally. Many types of plants are suitable for the container, including flowers, herbs, cacti, vegetables. University of Illinois Container Gardening Guide Container Vegetable Gardening
9.
Santiago de Cuba
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Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some 870 km south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana. Historically Santiago de Cuba has long been the second most important city on the island after Havana and it is on a bay connected to the Caribbean Sea and is an important sea port. In 2004 the city of Santiago de Cuba had a population of about 509,143 people, Santiago de Cuba was the fifth village founded by Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar on July 25,1515. In 1516 the settlement was destroyed by fire, and was immediately rebuilt and this was the starting point of the expeditions led by Juan de Grijalba and Hernán Cortés to the coasts of Mexico in 1518, and in 1538 by Hernando de Sotos expedition to Florida. The first cathedral was built in the city in 1528, from 1522 until 1589 Santiago was the capital of the Spanish colony of Cuba. The city was plundered by French forces in 1553, and by British forces under Christopher Myngs in 1662, the city experienced an influx of French and British immigrants in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many coming from Haiti after the Haitian slave revolt of 1791. This added to the citys cultural mix, already rich with Spanish. It was also the location where Spanish troops faced their main defeat at San Juan Hill on July 1,1898, after capturing the surrounding hills, General William Rufus Shafter laid siege to the city. Spain later surrendered to the United States after Admiral William T. Sampson destroyed the Spanish Atlantic fleet just outside Santiagos harbor on July 3,1898, Cuban poet, writer, and national hero, José Martí, is buried in Cementerio Santa Efigenia. Pope Francis visited Cuba in 2015, Santiago was also the home of the revolutionary hero, Frank País. On July 26,1953, the Cuban Revolution began with an armed attack on the Moncada Barracks by a small contingent of rebels led by Fidel Castro. Shortly after this incident, País began talking with students and young working people informally. This developed into highly organized cells coordinating a large scale urban resistance that became instrumental in the success of the Cuban Revolution, País group prepared carefully, accruing weapons, collecting money, collecting medical supplies. They published a newsletter that reported news that criticized the government. In the summer of 1955, País organization merged with Castros July 26 Movement, País became the leader of the new organization in Oriente province, though two years later he was betrayed to the police and was shot after his capture. On January 1,1959, Fidel Castro proclaimed the victory of the Cuban Revolution from a balcony on Santiago de Cubas city hall, Santiago de Cuba was the hometown of poet José María Heredia. It is the birthplace of the world-famous Bacardi Brand, which was started by Facundo Bacardi Masso in 1862 and it now houses a museum that displays the extensive art collection of the Bacardí family. Santiago de Cuba is well known for its cultural life, some of Cubas most famous musicians, including Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer and Eliades Ochoa and trova composer Ñico Saquito were born in the city or in one of the villages surrounding it
10.
Plant
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Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
