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King Frederick William II ordered the construction of the gate after the Batavian Revolution where the Prussians were able to regain the power of the country. The designer was Carl Gotthard Langhans and a t the time he was one of the first German architects to step away from Baroque and begin NeoClassicism. Langhans intent was to use the gate to represent victory.  He got his inspiration from Propylaea in Athens' Acropolis. The word Propylaea means the entryway of a specific place. In Greece it marked the separation of the city to a temple or spiritual place. In Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate marked the entrance to the Unter den Linden and Ebertstrasse , which started off as a simple road but as the monarchy grew in power, the street were completely lined with lime trees and used for only royals to walk under. The Brandenburg Gate was one of eighteen that surrounded the Berlin Custom Walls, unfortunately it's the last one standing. This completely sandstone gate i...

PANTHEON    In the early 1760's several Noblemen and persons of Fashion had stated, that a place of public entertainment was wanted for the Winter Season similar to that of Ranelagh for the Summer. The Pantheon designed by James Wyatt opened in 1772. He was to become one of the most prominent British architects of his generation, but at that time he was unknown and aged just twenty-two. The Pantheon, was a place of public entertainment on the south side of Oxford Street in London England. The main rotunda had a central dome which was said to be reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome. The main part of the site consisted of two rectangles of land, the smaller of these was towards Oxford Street. The masquerades and concerts which took place there were at first extremely successful, but in the 1780's the popularity of the Pantheon declined.  The Pantheon has gone through many changes within its time period. After the destruction of the King's Theatre in the Haymarket i...

Front Facade  The Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve was designed by Henri Labrouste, who was a French architect born in 1801. He believed that we did not need an over ornamented building but instead a building that shows what it is, creating its own essence. He is most famously known for his two libraries, Saint-Genevieve and the reading room in Bibliotheque Nationale.  He was also one of the first architects that saw the importance of using iron frame construction. Steel Arches Which is very present in the Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve. The Library is very monumental in dimensions, 85 x 21 meters, filling up an entire French block. He started by combining three main volumes. One to store the ancient books, stacked on top was a volume for the reading room, and last a volume for the stair that was placed in the back to not interfere with the main spaces. One of the most important elements for a library is light. Labrouste was able to accommodate for all the functi...