Author: Rudolph grahan pierre (Page 2 of 2)

This short writing is about the 20th century civic infrastructure in New York city . The first paragraph is focus on the relation between grand central terminal and the New York public library. The second paragraph is about the impact on people and the city after pen station was demolished.

At First, civic infrastructure is the way of animating and programming existing place and also the way of maintaining them. Grand Central terminal also referred to as Grand Central station is pretty much the end of the northern part of the city and also have a connection with New York city subways. It’s located at 42nd St and Park avenue and was designed by Reed and Stem firm. The style which is the Beaux-Arts incorporates beautiful art work all around the terminal. For example the main concourse have this oval barrel vaulted ceiling which contains an beautiful green painting background with some cool zodiac signs.The design and the way it’s setting up there can also be interpreted like the stars in the sky. Like Grand Central the New York library presents the same feature as an people place of triumphant glory. It also carries the same Beaux-Art style. The entrance is quite majestic with it’s unique stone vault above and it’s daunting white interior marble. The light in the Celling really show the decoration, the gallery and stairs. As you going thru the building the painting in the ceiling creates a filling of drama that kinda connects you to the high life of the pass. I also notice that in every floor there’s an alleyway that divided the space in two. Both building really embrace the concept of civic infrastructure where they provide places and attraction for people to visit or enjoy with amazing art, food court, transportation or education.

Penn station is quite different from those building but I would have another opinion if it was the old one. Modernity can be very good but not in that case. Penn station is the main intercity railroad station in New york city it’s located between seventh and Eighth Avenues. During my Visit I notice people weren’t to fond of the place, instead of tourists taking picture I saw people running to go where ever they wanted to go, They didn’t even notice the place. Compare to the old design Penn station had a claustrophobic feeling with those low celling, thin light and poor acoustic. In the 1900’s people really loved the station because it gave them the impression of entitlement or the feeling of arriving to a special place. They didn’t like the fact that the station was about to be destroyed. So they signed petition and protested but nothing works.

This short writing is about the classic skyline in the 1900’s New York. It focus on the relation between the Empire state building and the Chrysler building.

since the dawn of time people were alway competitive. sometimes the competition has been shown to be useful to certain level and brings out all that is the best. To me those building really embrace the competition between them to achieve greatness. The Chrysler building was designed by William Van Alen in the 1900’s, it’s a great example of art  deco architecture. It’s located at the intersection of 42nd and Lexington Avenue. It Held the title of tallest building for only 11 months before the Empire state beat it flat in heights. It is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel framework. It also look like a big wedding cake with a beautiful arch front door, and the top design sort of illuminated when the sunlight reflect on it. Not to far from the Chrysler, the Empire state building present almost the same features, it was designed by Shreve, lamb & Harmon and completed in 1931 right after the Chrysler building. It is also an art deco design of pre World War II architecture. The multiple setbacks reduce the level dimensions as the height increases making the top part much more smaller then the bottom. those setbacks also allow the sunlight to reach the street. they used limestone and steel to built this masterpiece. Despite what people said about the building and all I got to say that I didn’t feel amazed by it.

Lower Manhattan which was the point start of New York City’s Architecture evolution has a lot of beautiful landmarks. some of them can be boring and others are super tall rarity that is transforming the city’s shape a little.

For example the museum of the American Indians it is located at the southern tip of manhattan, adjacent to both bowling green and battery parks. It was designed by Cass Gilbert, who later designed the Woolworth building which you can see from the front step of the museum. The building was built in the 1800’s it is a example of what a masterpiece of Beaux-Arts represents and also it embrace the city beautiful movement. Facing the city and the park, those sumptuous sculptures, and decoration by acclaimed artist of the time was so significant to the idea of making the building a unique triumph.

The streets in lower Manhattan are narrow, and also gave sense of confusion, adventure fill with dead-end and so forth, but also can be amazing knowing where it leads. A great example is broad st. In the 1700’s it was named broad canal because it was the landing area for the first ferry between manhattan and brooklyn. Later it became the center of financial activity, and all the smaller building existing at that time were replaced with grand banks and stock exchange buildings. As you walk along broad street toward Nassau St you can feel it curved a little, and also be dazed by the surrounding of Neo-roman and geek revival façade of the buildings with beautiful tuscan, doric, ionic columns. once arrived at the corner of Wall St , and broad St, your left is heading to an amazing Gothic revival Church (Trinity church) which delivered a sense of adventure as if you are walking toward the pass.

In other word lower Manhattan is the central area for business, culture, and government buildings some of them is amazing with old and modern architecture and other’s can be bold in there design blocking the view of appealing buildings around them.

Washington square a place where a lot of grand townhouses seats gracefully on the north side of the square. This writing is about downtown Manhattan in the 19th centuries. My visit started in Washington Square park and after we walk a little to Greenwich village and end it in Soho.

It started with a quite educated story on why the arch in the park was here for and what it represents. The arch which is a marble Roman triumphal arch was built in the 1800’s, it celebrates the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration as president of the United States. To me it looks like a gate that you can enter or get out a different part of New york city. Each part has it’s own beauty the one going up in 5th avenue is surrounding with tall building and always busy, rather with a lot of traffic or people. the other part is more peaceful with less traffic and people are drawn to live there, also the buildings are quite different it’s mostly Greek revival townhouses. Those four-story townhouses were built by rich merchant in the 1800’s. The style was geek revival which include dentils under the roof, sidelights and a transom surrounding the front door, plain window headers, shouldered architrave trim, and iron detailing. also the streets surrounding by those townhouses are very cozy and it really give you a sense of simplicity and elegance.

During my visit I also have a sense of what gothic architecture represents especially in New York. Basically it’s a style borne in Europe during the middle age and kinda completed it’s evolution by Renaissance architecture. As beautiful and very detailed those church on 5th Avenue are, I kept asking my self why all the amazing architecture were from the other side of the globe. Some features of the gothic style include the use of rib vault, flying buttress, stained glass, rose window, pointed arch and also some islamic architecture. I also learned a little of SoHo’s history. SoHo is the location of many artists loft, art galleries and trendy upscale boutique, but wasn’t the same in the 18 and 19 Centuries it was more an industrial place and some part of it was empty. Compare to Washington Square townhouses cast iron is the main part of Soho’s buildings they are also townhouses but built much more higher.

This short writing is about my recent visit to central park located in Manhattan . The first paragraph is focus on the design of the park and why they decide to built it. The second paragraph introduce some attractions and landscapes of the park.

In the 18th and 19th century, when the first leaders started to create New york city’s grid , a mass of people moved in, and the city nearly quadrupled in population. As the city expanded people (mostly the wealthy) were drawn to the few building existing in upper Manhattan to escape to noisy and chaotic vibe in lower Manhattan. At that time, the wealthy were already enjoying high life but they publicly asked to built a huge park in the city. It was only beneficial for them because a construction of a park in the upper Manhattan was going to increase property values and building owners can make a lot of money out of it. So the leaders organized a design competition to come with a plan for the park, and Calvert Vaux (architect, landscape designer) and Frederick law Olmsted won the competition with a plan titled “Greensward plan”.

Central park have many different attractions and the landscape are pretty amazing from what I saw during my visit. For example The “sheep Meadow” is located near the southwestern section of the park. It’s a huge area covered with grass opened to the public, It was originally design as a parade ground, now they used it for big scale events and people gathered to do many different activities. Also there’s the”Central park Mall” the Central park mall is a long, open area where people can walk peacefully surrounding by nature. It was also design so that a carriage could pick people up then drove them around overlooking” Bethesda menace” and the lake.

In other word it was an unforgettable experience visiting the heart and soul of Manhattan. Creating such a place where people could connect with nature and to themselves it’s pretty amazing compare to a life among concrete 24/7. This Urban oasis is full of thing you can do rather if you are interested in taking a stroll or go kicking etc. The park has so much to offer, but only if you know where to look.

This short whiting is focused on the condition of living in New York City and the development of buildings over the course of time. The first paragraph introduce the situation of mass immigrants coming to the city of of New York. The second paragraph introduce the law against building poorly made which occur in the 19th and 20th century.

Over the course of time, hundred of thousand of immigrants moved to New York City, most of them didn’t have any money or peers already living in to stay with. So they moved into poverty stricken neighborhoods and into neglected buildings know as tenements. The tenements were small in size and most of them didn’t have any windows. Some families even work in there apartments, like sewing clothes or rolling cigars, the atmosphere was suffocating for most of them. Personal hygiene became an issue because of the lack of running water; garbage that piled up in the buildings and on the streets. It was difficult for them to even take a bath properly and dry their clothing. This triggered the spread of disease such as cholera, tuberculosis, typhoid etc.

The leaders in the 19th century began to comprehend the degree of terrible living condition of the working-class poor and the immigrants in New york city. At that time the tenement buildings were usually made of brick and built side by side on narrow streets. Most of them had multiple apartments with one window or two at best, sometimes none. So they gather in formed a tenement house act in 1867 to get ride of bad buildings construction with no ventilation and no windows. The tenement law demanded for all new buildings to have outward-facing windows, indoor bathroom, proper ventilation, and fire safeguard. The law also required for all new tenement to use dumbbell design which by the way wasn’t even that great. Over time they come up with new design to solve the problem in hand.

This short writing explains the urban development of New York and Brooklyn during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Before New york was created the existing leaders at that time weren’t so fond of creating a place for people to come in, instead they created the street-grid, regulated the port and immigration, provided water and sewers, authorized transportation lines, and build parks etc. After a period of time a mass of people started to move to the city, It was pretty unexpected for the 19th century leaders.No one thought the the city offered a picture of rational planing but because of the population growth they had to come up with a solution to the problem in hand. The housing conditions weren’t so great for people to live in, so their first achievement was to create a tenement house law (1901) that required the installation of toilet and fire escapes in existing old buildings.Over time they had new construction laws for the well function of new buildings. They said all buildings need to have dumbwaiters, hot water, cooking facilities, hot water and no room without windows. In 1916 They started to control the density and regulate land use by reshaping structures.

Not to far from New York  Brooklyn was like a small village in 1794 the air was healthy because of trees and plantation. At that time brooklyn only had one story houses placed along the shore without plan. The streets were bad, heavy, and unpaved. The Smallest amount of rain makes Brooklyn muddy. Because Brooklyn was close to the east river of manhattan and a lot of merchant, Rowboats, sailboats, and ferries used that river a lot, a mass of  people began to buy land along the waterfront. The Us navy opened a shipyard on Wallabout Bay in 1814 and steam-ferry appeared allowing wealthy businessmen to go across the river. over time a lot of Irish immigrants started to move in. Between 1840 and 1845, the population of Brooklyn doubled. The Brooklyn bridge was built and opened in 1883. The bridge brought a lot of people into Brooklyn: immigrants seeking cheap rent from Manhattan.