1.
Oculus
An oculus is a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture and it is known as an œil de boeuf from the French, or simply a bulls-eye. The oculus was used by the Romans, one of the finest examples being that in the dome of the Pantheon, open to the weather, it allows rain to enter and fall to the floor, where it is carried away through drains. Though the opening looks small, it actually has a diameter of 27 ft allowing it to light the building just as the sun lights the earth, the rain keeps the building cool during the hot summer months. Pliny in his Natural history call counters oculus, the oculus was widely used in the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. It was applied to buildings in Syria in the 5th and 6th centuries, in Constantinoples Myrelaion Church, there are two oculi above the stringcourse on both lateral facades. Early examples of the oculus in Renaissance architecture can be seen in Florence Cathedral, in the nave clerestorey, since the revival of dome construction beginning in the Italian Renaissance, open oculi have been replaced by light-transmitting cupolas and other round windows and skylights.
They can be seen in the pediments of Palladios Villa Rotonda, use of oculus windows became more popular in Baroque architecture. Widely used by Neo-Palladian architects including Colen Campbell, one can be seen in the dome of Thomas Jeffersons Rotunda at the University of Virginia
2.
Cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element, such as a beam or a plate, anchored at only one end to a support from which it is protruding. Cantilevers can be constructed with trusses or slabs, when subjected to a structural load, the cantilever carries the load to the support where it is forced against by a moment and shear stress. Cantilevers are widely found in construction, notably in cantilever bridges and balconies, in cantilever bridges the cantilevers are usually built as pairs, with each cantilever used to support one end of a central section. The Forth Bridge in Scotland is an example of a truss bridge. A cantilever in a timber framed building is called a jetty or forebay. In the southern United States a historic barn type is the barn of log construction. Temporary cantilevers are used in construction. The partially constructed structure creates a cantilever, but the structure does not act as a cantilever. This is very helpful when temporary supports, or falsework, cannot be used to support the structure while it is being built.
So some truss arch bridges are built each side as cantilevers until the spans reach each other and are jacked apart to stress them in compression before final joining. Nearly all cable-stayed bridges are built using cantilevers as this is one of their chief advantages, many box girder bridges are built segmentally, or in short pieces. This type of construction lends itself well to balanced cantilever construction where the bridge is built in both directions from a single support and these structures are highly based on torque and rotational equilibrium. In an architectural application, Frank Lloyd Wrights Fallingwater used cantilevers to project large balconies, the East Stand at Elland Road Stadium in Leeds was, when completed, the largest cantilever stand in the world holding 17,000 spectators. The roof built over the stands at Old Trafford Football Ground uses a cantilever so that no supports will block views of the field, the old, now demolished Miami Stadium had a similar roof over the spectator area.
The largest cantilever in Europe is located at St James Park in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, less obvious examples of cantilevers are free-standing radio towers without guy-wires, and chimneys, which resist being blown over by the wind through cantilever action at their base. Another use of the cantilever is in fixed-wing aircraft design, pioneered by Hugo Junkers in 1915, early aircraft wings typically bore their loads by using two wings in a biplane configuration braced with wires and struts. They were similar to bridges, having been developed by Octave Chanute. The wings were braced with crossed wires so they would stay parallel, the cables and struts generated considerable drag, and there was constant experimentation for ways to eliminate them
3.
United States Capitol
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, 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, 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 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
4.
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, within the U. S. state of New York. Since 1914, the Bronx has had the boundaries as Bronx County, a county of New York. The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a section in the west, closer to Manhattan. East and west street addresses are divided by Jerome Avenue—the continuation of Manhattans Fifth Avenue, the West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County in 1914, about a quarter of the Bronxs area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the boroughs north and center. These open spaces are situated primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north. The name Bronx originated with Jonas Bronck, who established the first settlement in the area as part of the New Netherland colony in 1639, the native Lenape were displaced after 1643 by settlers.
This cultural mix has made the Bronx a wellspring of both Latin music and hip hop. The Bronx, particularly the South Bronx, saw a decline in population, livable housing, and the quality of life in the late 1960s. Since the communities have shown significant redevelopment starting in the late 1980s before picking up pace from the 1990s until today, the Bronx was called Rananchqua by the native Siwanoy band of Lenape, while other Native Americans knew the Bronx as Keskeskeck. It was divided by the Aquahung River, the origin of Jonas Bronck is contested. Some sources claim he was a Swedish born emigrant from Komstad, Norra Ljunga parish in Småland, who arrived in New Netherland during the spring of 1639. Bronck became the first recorded European settler in the now known as the Bronx and built a farm named Emmanus close to what today is the corner of Willis Avenue. He leased land from the Dutch West India Company on the neck of the mainland north of the Dutch settlement in Harlem. He eventually accumulated 500 acres between the Harlem River and the Aquahung, which known as Broncks River or the Bronx.
Dutch and English settlers referred to the area as Broncks Land, the American poet William Bronk was a descendant of Pieter Bronck, either Jonas Broncks son or his younger brother. More recent research indicates that Pieter was probably Jonas nephew or cousin, the Bronx is referred to with the definite article as The Bronx, both legally and colloquially. The region was named after the Bronx River and first appeared in the Annexed District of The Bronx created in 1874 out of part of Westchester County
5.
Constantino Brumidi
Constantino Brumidi was a Greek-Italian-American historical painter, best known and honored for his fresco work in the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Brumidi was born in Rome, his father a Greek from Filiatra in the province of Messinia, Greece and he showed his talent for fresco painting at an early age and painted in several Roman palaces, among them being that of Prince Torlonia. Under Gregory XVI he worked for three years in the Vatican, taking up his residence in New York City, the artist painted a number of portraits. He executed frescoes at Taylors Chapel, Maryland, in 1854 Brumidi went to Mexico, where he painted an allegorical representation of the Holy Trinity in the Mexico City cathedral. On his way back to New York he stopped at Washington D. C. impressed with the opportunity for decoration presented by its vast interior wall spaces, he offered his services for that purpose to Quartermaster General Montgomery C. This offer was accepted, and about the same time Meigs was commissioned as a captain of cavalry and his first art work in the Capitol Building was in the meeting room of the House Committee on Agriculture.
At first he received eight dollars a day, which Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War of the United States and his work attracting much favourable attention, he was given further commissions, and gradually settled into the position of a Government painter. Brumidis Liberty and Union paintings are mounted near the ceiling of the White House entrance hall and Paul in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he pictured St. Peter and St. Paul. Brumidi was a capable, if conventional painter, and his black and white modeling in the work at Washington and he decorated the entrance hall of Saleaudo, located at Frederick and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. A Brumidi fresco appears behind the altar in St. Ignatius Church in Baltimore, another, of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga receiving communion from Saint Charles Borromeo, hangs over the high altar of St Aloysius Church in Washington, D. C. Brumidi died in Washington, D. C. and was interred at Glenwood Cemetery, when he was buried, his grave was unmarked.
The location of Brumidis grave was lost for 72 years and it was rediscovered, and on February 19,1952, a marker was finally placed above it. Forgotten for many years, Brumidis role was rescued from obscurity by Myrtle Cheney Murdock and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Charles, ed. article name needed. Constantino Brumidi, artist of the Capitol, constantino Brumidi, Il Michelangelo Del Capitol - Dossena, Tiziano Thomas, LIdea Magazine N.24, Vol. II,2005, New York
6.
Pantheon, Rome
The Pantheon is a former Roman temple, now a church, in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus. The present building was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD and he retained Agrippas original inscription, which has confused its date of construction as the original Pantheon burnt down so it is not certain when the present one was built. The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns under a pediment, a rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheons dome is still the worlds largest unreinforced concrete dome, the height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same,43.3 metres. Mary and the Martyrs but informally known as Santa Maria Rotonda, the square in front of the Pantheon is called Piazza della Rotonda.
The Pantheon is a property, ruled by Italys Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism through the Polo Museale del Lazio. The Pantheons large circular domed cella, with a temple portico front, is unique in Roman architecture. Nevertheless, it became a standard exemplar when classical styles were revived, Pantheon is derived from the Ancient Greek Pantheion meaning of, relating to, or common to all the gods. His uncertainty strongly suggests that Pantheon was merely a nickname, not the name of the building. In fact, the concept of a dedicated to all the gods is questionable. The only definite pantheon recorded earlier than Agrippas was at Antioch in Syria and it seems highly significant that Dio does not quote the simplest explanation for the name—that the Pantheon was dedicated to all the gods. Godfrey and Hemsoll maintain that the word Pantheon need not denote a group of gods, or, even all the gods. Certainly the word pantheus or pantheos, could be applicable to individual deities…, bearing in mind that the Greek word θεῖος need not mean of a god but could mean superhuman, or even excellent.
It seems likely that the Pantheon and the Basilica of Neptune were Agrippas sacra privata and this less solemn designation would help explain how the building could have so easily lost its original name and purpose in such a relatively short period of time. However, archaeological excavations have shown that the Pantheon of Agrippa had been destroyed except for the façade. Lise Hetland argues that the present construction began in 114, under Trajan and her argument is particularly interesting in light of Heilmeyers argument that, based on stylistic evidence, Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajans architect, was the obvious architect. The form of Agrippas Pantheon is debated and this description was widely accepted until the late 20th century. The only passages referring to the decoration of the Agrippan Pantheon written by an eyewitness are in Plinys Natural History, from him we know that the capitals, too, of the pillars, which were placed by M
7.
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a called Ingermanland.
A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter.
However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
8.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union.
Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, equal rights and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents.
Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
9.
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, or simply St. Peters Basilica, is an Italian Renaissance church in Vatican City, the papal enclave within the city of Rome. While it is neither the church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. It has been described as holding a position in the Christian world. Catholic tradition holds that the Basilica is the site of Saint Peter, one of Christs Apostles. Saint Peters tomb is supposedly directly below the altar of the Basilica. For this reason, many Popes have been interred at St. Peters since the Early Christian period, construction of the present basilica, which would replace Old St. Peters Basilica from the 4th century AD, began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626. St. Peters is famous as a place of pilgrimage and for its liturgical functions. The Pope presides at a number of liturgies throughout the year, drawing audiences of 15,000 to over 80,000 people, either within the Basilica or the adjoining St.
Peters Square. St. Peters has many associations, with the Early Christian Church, the Papacy. As a work of architecture, it is regarded as the greatest building of its age, St. Peters is one of the four churches in the world that hold the rank of Major Basilica, all four of which are in Rome. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not a cathedral because it is not the seat of a bishop, St. Peters is a church built in the Renaissance style located in the Vatican City west of the River Tiber and near the Janiculum Hill and Hadrians Mausoleum. Its central dome dominates the skyline of Rome, the basilica is approached via St. Peters Square, a forecourt in two sections, both surrounded by tall colonnades. The first space is oval and the second trapezoid, the basilica is cruciform in shape, with an elongated nave in the Latin cross form but the early designs were for a centrally planned structure and this is still in evidence in the architecture. The central space is dominated both externally and internally by one of the largest domes in the world, the entrance is through a narthex, or entrance hall, which stretches across the building.
One of the bronze doors leading from the narthex is the Holy Door. The interior is of vast dimensions when compared with other churches and this in its turn overwhelms us. The nave which leads to the dome is in three bays, with piers supporting a barrel-vault, the highest of any church. The nave is framed by wide aisles which have a number of chapels off them, there are chapels surrounding the dome
10.
Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession. Bulfinch split his career between his native Boston and Washington, D. C. where he served as Commissioner of Public Building and built the intermediate United States Capitol rotunda, Bulfinch was born in Boston to Thomas Bulfinch, a prominent physician, and his wife, Susan Apthorp. He was educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard University, from which he graduated with an AB in 1781, Thomas Jefferson became something of a mentor to him in Europe, as he would be to Robert Mills. Upon his return to the United States in 1787, he became a promoter of the ship Columbia Redivivas voyage around the world under command of Captain Robert Gray and it was the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe. In 1788 he married Hannah Apthorp, his first cousin and their sons include Thomas Bulfinch, author of Bulfinchs Mythology, and Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch, Unitarian clergyman and author.
Bulfinchs first building was the Hollis Street Church and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791. He built several churches in Boston, of which New North is the last standing, serving from 1791 to 1795 on Bostons board of selectmen, he resigned due to business pressures but returned in 1799. From 1799 to 1817, he was the chairman of Bostons board of selectmen continuously, and served as a paid Police Superintendent, improving the streets, drains. Under his direction, both the infrastructure and civic center of Boston were transformed into a classical style. Bulfinch was responsible for the design of the Boston Common, the remodeling and enlargement of Faneuil Hall, there was no payment for his services as selectman, and he received only $1,400 for designing and overseeing the construction of the State House. In the summer of 1817, Bulfinchs roles as selectman, designer, in this position he was paid a salary of $2,500 per year plus expenses. In 1829 Bulfinch completed the construction of the Capitol,36 years after its cornerstone was laid, during his interval in Washington, Bulfinch drew plans for the State House in Augusta, Maine, a Unitarian Church and prison in Washington, D. C.
In 1827, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary member and he returned to Boston in 1830, where he died on April 15,1844, aged 80, and was buried in Kings Chapel Burial Ground in Boston. His tomb was moved to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. In 1943, a United States Liberty ship named the SS Charles Bulfinch was launched, the ship was scrapped in 1971. Bulfinch was known for attaching tunnels to the homes he erected within New England, the tunnel would run 2 to 5 feet within these homes and the chimneys and fireplaces would be built above their terminus. This would alleviate the problem of poor flashing in between the homes and the tunnel and the flue created a draw system bringing fresh air into the tunnel. This advance might have first been realized by General Jonathan Waldo when he restructured the old fort in Salem
11.
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States. Pierce was a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to the unity of the nation. Historians and other scholars generally rank Pierce as among the worst of US Presidents, born in New Hampshire, Pierce served in the U. S. House of Representatives and the Senate until he resigned from the latter in 1842. His private law practice in his state was a success. Pierce took part in the Mexican–American War as a general in the Army. In the 1852 presidential election and his running mate William R. King easily defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham. While Pierce was popular and outgoing, his life was a grim affair, with his wife Jane suffering from illness. All of their children died young, their last son being killed in a train accident while the family was traveling shortly before Pierces inauguration. Pierce was a Young America expansionist who signed the Gadsden Purchase of land from Mexico and his popularity in the Northern states declined sharply after he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise, while many whites in the South continued to support him.
Passage of the act led to violent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the American West, Pierces administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto, calling for the annexation of Cuba, a document which was roundly criticized. Although Pierce fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats in the 1856 presidential election, he was abandoned by his party and his reputation in the North suffered further during the Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Abraham Lincoln. Pierce, who had been a heavy drinker for much of his life, Franklin Pierce was born on November 23,1804, in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was a descendant of Thomas Pierce, who had moved to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from Norwich, England. Pierces father Benjamin, a Revolutionary War lieutenant, moved from Chelmsford, Massachusetts to Hillsborough after the war, Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife, Anna Kendrick.
Benjamin was by a prominent Democratic-Republican state legislator, Pierces father, who sought to ensure that his sons were educated, placed Pierce in a school at Hillsborough Center in childhood and sent him to the town school at Hancock at the age of 12. The boy was not fond of schooling, growing homesick at Hancock, he walked 12 miles back to his home one Sunday. His father fed him dinner and drove him part of the back to school before kicking him out of the carriage. Pierce cited this moment as the turning-point in my life, that year he transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college
