1.
Westin Hotels & Resorts
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Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of 2013, Westin operated over 192 hotels in multiple countries across the globe, in 1930, Severt W. Thurston and Frank Dupar of Seattle, Washington met unexpectedly during breakfast at a diner in Yakima, Washington. The competing hotel owners decided to form a management company to all their properties. The men invited Peter and Adolph Schmidt, who operated five hotels in the Puget Sound area, to join them, the chain consisted of 17 properties,16 in Washington and one in Boise, Idaho. Western expanded to Vancouver, British Columbia and Portland, Oregon in 1931, by the early 1950s, Western also had properties in Montana and Utah. Early management developed each property individually, after more than two decades of rapid growth, many of its properties were merged into a single corporate structure in 1958, focusing on bringing the hotels together under a common chain identity. Western Hotels managed a floating hotel aboard the ocean liner QSMV Dominion Monarch, the chain also managed the restaurant atop the Space Needle, which they continued to manage until 1982. The company was renamed Western International Hotels in 1963, to reflect its growth overseas and that same year, the company went public. On November 1,1965, Western International announced an agreement with Hotel Corporation of America. In 1970, Western International was acquired by UAL Corporation, at the end of its 50th anniversary on January 5,1981, the company changed its name again to Westin Hotels. In 1987, UAL Chairman Richard Ferris announced a plan to make UAL into Allegis, a conglomerate based around United Airlines, Hertz Rent a Car, Hilton Hotels. This strategy failed, however, and Westin was sold in 1988 to Aoki Corporation of Japan, in 1994 Aoki sold it to Starwood Capital, real estate investment firm and parent of Starwood Lodging, and Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. In 1998 Starwood assumed full ownership of the company, Westin claims to have been the first hotel chain to introduce guest credit cards, 24-hour room service, and personal voice mail in each room. Westin markets certain amenities available in its properties to the public under the brand name Heavenly, in 2005, Westin became the first hotel company to gain a national retail store presence when Nordstrom started carrying the Heavenly Bed line in more than 60 stores. Westin refreshed its partnership with United Airlines in 2008 and these amenities were stopped following the merger with Continental Airlines. Especially in the last decade, Westin has focused on expanding globally, since 2005, the number of hotels has grown from 120 locations in 24 countries to over 192 locations in 37 countries as of 2013. In 2016, Marriott International acquired Starwood, becoming the worlds largest hotel company, the Westin Palace Madrid - historic 1912 luxury hotel in Madrid The Westin San Jose - Formerly the Saint Claire and Hyatt Saint Claire. Westin Hamburg - opened in 2016 and located in Hamburgs iconic Elbphilharmonie concert hall The Westin Sydney Westin Alumni Association, www. westinalumni. org Westin Hotels & Resorts Westin Hotel Store
2.
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
3.
Seattle
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Seattle is a seaport city on the west coast of the United States and the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 684,451 residents as of 2015, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In July 2013, it was the major city in the United States. The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 100 miles south of the Canada–United States border, a major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, the settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named Seattle in 1852, after Chief Siahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Logging was Seattles first major industry, but by the late-19th century, growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed as a technology center beginning in the 1980s, in 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District, to the Central District, the jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock subgenre grunge, archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the people occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay, the first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest. In 1851, a party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party, members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28,1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon, after a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps. For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, david Swinson Doc Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Sealth of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name Seattle appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23,1853, in 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14,1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of managing the city
4.
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
5.
Starwood
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Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is an American hotel and leisure company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. One of the worlds largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties under its 11 owned brands. As of 1 December 2014, Starwood Hotels and Resorts owned, managed, or franchised over 1,200 properties employing over 180,400 people, of whom approximately 26% were employed in the United States. On November 16,2015, Marriott International announced it would purchase Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide for $13.6 billion, the merger was finalized on September 23,2016 after gaining the final approval from the American authorities. After the acquisition by Marriott was approved, the Starwood Preferred Guest program announced it would provide reciprocal benefits with Marriotts guest reward program, the two programs will be merged under a single brand in the future. The Westin Hotels and Resorts brand is Starwoods largest upscale hotels and it was bought by Starwood in 1994 and is also the oldest brand within Starwood, dating back to 1930 and still continuing with it. Sheraton is Starwoods flagship brand, providing hotel and resort accommodation. It began operating in 1937 and was sold to Starwood in 1998 by ITT, also under the Sheraton brand are 7 Vacation Ownership properties. The flagship of the division was The St Regis in New York City, the majority of the CIGA hotels were folded into the ITT Sheraton Luxury Collection. Both ITT Sheraton and later Starwood kept CIGAs original logo for The Luxury Collection brand logo until 2010, after Starwood bought Sheraton, they established a separate brand identity for The Luxury Collection and expanded it. Many hotels in The Luxury Collection are smaller establishments in converted palaces or other significant buildings, launched in 1995 under the Sheraton Groups brand, this brand is a set of mid-range hotels that replaced the Sheraton Inn sub-brand of Sheraton. W Hotels is Starwoods luxury boutique hotel brand, generally marketed towards a younger crowd, for example, the lobbies of all the hotels are known as the Living Room. W Hotels attempt to include the letter W wherever possible - the swimming pool is known as Wet, the concierge is known as Whatever Whenever, the bag in every room is known as Wash. St. Regis is Starwoods main luxury brand, launched in 1999, in the 1930s, head bartender Fernand Petiot, introduced the Bloody Mary cocktail. It has a total of 137 properties operating or in the worldwide, with its first property being Le Méridien Etoile in Paris. Certain locations offer guests complimentary access to art galleries and museums through collaborations, Le Méridien has a partnership with the Italian coffee roasting company Illy, serving and promoting Illy-branded coffee and products throughout its hotels around the world. Aloft, was launched in 2005 as Aloft, a Vision of W Hotels, in a relationship with W similar to Four Points by Sheraton and its brand parent, Aloft is a mid-scale, urban-style business/boutique hotel brand. Announced in 2006, and originally known as Element by Westin, the designs include energy and water efficient features
6.
John Graham & Company
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The firm was responsible for many Seattle landmarks and a number of significant structures nationwide, including the Space Needle, the Chase Tower of Rochester, New York, and the Westin Seattle. The firm was merged into the DLR Group on May 19,1986, John Graham was born in Liverpool, England in 1873. He apprenticed as an architect in England as a young man, first visiting Seattle, Washington, in 1896, he immigrated to the United States in 1900, starting a one-man architectural practice in Seattle. He started off modestly, designing mainly industrial-related buildings and private residences and his first notable project was designing the reconstruction of the Trinity Parish Church at Eight Avenue and James Street in 1902 after it had been damaged by fire. After a brief partnership with Alfred Bodley in 1904, Graham founded the firm of Graham & Myers with David J. Myers in 1906 and he would work with Myers until 1910. As architect for the Ford Motor Company, he designed more than 30 of Fords assembly plants between 1912 and 1940, throughout the 1920s and 30s, he would design hundreds of commercial and public buildings in the Seattle area including the Frederick & Nelson store in 1916. He also helped found the Seattle Yacht Club and he retired from architecture in 1945 and died on March 20,1955, while on tour in Hong Kong. John Graham Jr. graduated from Yale University, established a satellite office of his fathers firm in New York City in 1937. Renaming the firm to John Graham & Company, the firm expanded a relatively modest regional practice to an office with national presence and it was ultimately responsible for over a thousand commissions. Their primary focus was commercial projects, many were straightforward mid-century modernist office towers, such as San Franciscos 196744 Montgomery tower. The firm would go on to design seventy malls nationwide, the authorship of Grahams single most prominent work, the Space Needle, is disputed. Clearly the revolving restaurant, the Eye of the Needle, was Grahams conception, hed already devised La Ronde for the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu in 1961, and was awarded a patent for the idea in 1964
7.
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
8.
Modest Mouse
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Modest Mouse is an American rock band formed in 1992 in Issaquah, Washington, and currently based in Portland, Oregon. The founding members are lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, since the bands 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, the groups lineup has centered on Brock and Green. Judy performed on every Modest Mouse album until his departure in 2012, guitarist Johnny Marr joined the band in 2006, shortly following percussionist Joe Plummer and multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, to work on the album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Guitarist Jim Fairchild joined the band in 2009, the bands sixth album, Strangers to Ourselves, was released on March 17,2015. It was during his years that Brock, who at the time was employed at the local family video store just outside Seattle. Brock and Judy later discovered drummer Jeremiah Green, who resided near Seattle, at a heavy metal show. In 1994, at Calvin Johnsons Dub Narcotic Studios, Modest Mouse recorded its first EP, Blue Cadet-3, which was released by K Records. This was followed by a single, Broke, recorded by Steve Wold under Sub Pop records at Moon Studios in Olympia, Washington. During this time, Modest Mouse also recorded what would have been its first album, Sad Sappy Sucker and it was not until 2001 that it was officially released. Before making their way into the pop world in 2004. After moving to Up Records at Moon Studios, Modest Mouse released two albums and other recordings including the 1996 LP This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About. Steve Wold also recorded and produced this album along with the next offering, the 1997 album, The Lonesome Crowded West served as the bands breakthrough. The Lonesome Crowded West gained the band a following, and is now popularly considered to be one of the defining albums of mid-1990s indie rock. During this time, Nick Kraft became involved with the task of refining the bands sound, prior to its release, the band had recorded the EP The Fruit That Ate Itself. In 2000, Modest Mouse released The Moon & Antarctica, its first album on Epic Records, later, the album would subsequently receive further acclaim. The band licensed Gravity Rides Everything for a Nissan Quest minivan, regarding the commercial, Brock stated, People who dont have to make their living playing music can bitch about my principles while they spend their parents money or wash dishes for some asshole. In 2001, Modest Mouse released the EP Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks, in 2002, the band joined Cake, De La Soul, the Flaming Lips, the Hackensaw Boys and Kinky on the Unlimited Sunshine Tour. In March 2003, Green left the band after suffering a breakdown, official reports stated he was leaving to work with his side project
9.
The Lonesome Crowded West
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The Lonesome Crowded West is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Modest Mouse. The album was released on Up Records on November 18,1997, the two towers pictured on the albums cover are The Westin Seattle. The Lonesome Crowded West has been cited as the breakthrough album. The album was reissued on CD and vinyl by Isaac Brocks Glacial Pace record label in 2014, spin ranked the album at number 59 in their list of the 100 greatest albums of 1985–2005, and Entertainment Weekly included the album in their list The Indie Rock 25. Club has described The Lonesome Crowded West as the breakthrough recording. In June 2012, Pitchfork. tv released a documentary on the album. The documentary included footage taken during live performances and original recording/mix sessions. All tracks written by Modest Mouse, the double-vinyl edition released on Up Records includes an extra track, Baby Blue Sedan, and a slightly re-ordered track listing. Rather than having a cover to house both records, or putting both records in a single cover, the double-vinyl release was shipped in two different covers. The 2014 vinyl reissue on Glacial Pace contains the track listing. Modest Mouse Isaac Brock – guitars, vocals Jeremiah Green – drums Eric Judy – bass Additional personnel DJ K. O, Brock Cover design by Pat Castaldo
10.
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
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The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design. Its stated mission is to study and report on all aspects of the planning, design, the Council was founded at Lehigh University in 1969 by Lynn S. Beedle, where its office remained until October 2003 when it moved to the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. The CTBUH ranks the height of buildings using three different methods, Height to architectural top, This is the criterion under which the CTBUH ranks the height of buildings. Heights are measured from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance to the top of the building, inclusive of spires but excluding items such as flagpoles and antennae. Highest occupied floor, Height to the level of the highest floor that is occupied by residents. Height to tip, Height to the highest point of the building, including antennae, flagpoles, a category measuring to the top of the roof was removed from the ranking criteria in November 2009. This became the CTBUH official definition of a building’s completion, the CTBUH maintains an extensive database of the tallest buildings in the world, organized by various categories. Buildings under construction are included, although not ranked until completion. The CTBUH also produces an annual list of the ten tallest buildings completed in that particular year. Second on the 2008 list was the 363-metre Almas Tower in Dubai, third was the Minsheng Bank Building in Wuhan which stands at 331 metres, whilst fourth was The Address Downtown Burj Dubai. All in all, six of the ten tallest buildings completed in 2008 are located in Asia, the CTBUH also hosts annual conferences and a World Congress every three to five years. The most recent World Congress was held in Shanghai between 19 and 21 September 2012, the next World Congress will be held in Shanghai between 16 and 19 September 2014. The CTBUH also bestows Tall Building Awards each year, with four awards to the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Among these four regional awards, one is given the Best Tall Building Award Overall, there are also two lifetime achievement awards. Starting in 2010, these awards are presented at a symposium, in 2012 the CTBUH added two new awards for Innovation and Performance. In addition to the newsletter and daily updated global news archive. The Journal includes peer-reviewed technical papers, in-depth project case studies, book reviews, interviews with prominent persons in the building industry. The CTBUH also publishes guidebooks, reference manuals, and monographs related to the building industry
