ARCH162

Eero Saarinen’s Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight Center was designed to visualize the “Spirit of Flight”. The need for more infrastructure to handle the rapidly expanding industry of commercial air travel was high after World War II. The reduction of prices and payment plans turned a usually high-class recreation into something within reach to the middle class. In response to the increase in aviary traffic decided to expand the Idlewild Airport (Present day JFK). The design which was deemed “Terminal City”, consisted of each airline constructing their own respective terminal. This was not decided through a design competition as many major urban planning projects are, however the airlines decided to go forward with this plan as it enabled them to create lasting brand names with permanent structures in their respective images. Saarinen collected an overwhelming amount of data on airplanes and it’s passengers. Timing how long it took for planes to take off and land, passengers commute...

Central Park was the first landscaped public park in the United States. Many wealthy landowners and merchants pushed that New York needed the beauty that the public grounds in Paris and London displayed. Eminent domain was used to authorize the City of New York to claim over 700 acres of land in the center of Manhattan. The lands comprised of swamps and rocky bluffs which were unattractive to land developers. However, to create the park over 1,600 poor people had to be displaced. These people included Irish pig farmers, and German gardeners who lived in shacks on the site. Seneca village, New York’s most stable African American community which consisted of three churches and a school needed to be relocated as well. In 1857, the central park commission held the country’s first landscape design competition and selected the “Greensward Plan” submitted by Frederick Law Olmsted. The design aimed to recreate a picturesque landscape of the English romantic tradition. Open natu...

     The Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia, PA was the second waterworks in the state and was designed by Frederick Graff in 1812. The project which consists of six seemingly separate structures, was continuously built between 1812-1872 and operated until 1909. In the late 18th century many outbreaks of yellow fever pushed the government to assemble a “Watering Committee”. A new water system was put into place in 1799 which consisted of two steam engines that pumped water through main pipes and into the city. The systems main problem was that if one engine stopped running the entire system would shut down. A new design which contained 3 million gallons of water held in a reservoir atop Faire Mount was constructed. There was initially one pump house which held two steam engines that pumped water into the reservoir. A new technology was discovered an In 1819 the 1,600 ft dam which is adjacent to the project was constructed. Acting as a spillway, the dam rout...

Original Model of Home Theo Van Doesburg is best known as the founder of De Stijl, which was an artistic movement focused on the use of strict geometry in the horizontal and vertical axes. Neo-plasticism was the term coined for the abstract art practised within the circle of artists and architects of the De Stijl Movement.  Van Doesburg eventually designed his own live in studio-house. The Design consisting of simple primary colors and orthogonal elements its pleasing to the eye. Doesburg was not an Architect at the time and was assisted by a  draftsman who drew the construction documents with no design input. Van Doesburg designed every aspect of the home, including the windows, frames, doors, staircases, colors of the floors and stained glass window. The concept of two cubes which interlock was used, one being the studio, and the other being the living spaces. The front of the home is part of the “Residential Cube” is made up of a combination of vert...

View from Street The Palais Stoclet designed by Josef Hoffmann in 1905 for the Belgian banker Adolphe Stoclet in Brussels is a total work of art. The project is part of the “Vienna Secession movement (which) bears witness to a profound conceptual and stylistic renewal of Art Nouveau.”(1) The total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) refers to everything, the furniture, the materials, every space, every garden, and every view from each space. It may not seem that way from the street, as you are greeted by a gray façade which is hidden behind tall hedges. It’s exterior gives a sense of inward focus as the windows are placed only where there is not much of a view, and seem to only exist for the purpose of allowing light to enter. The decorative copper elements including the four men, the homes tower, and other smaller decorative roofing elements have now patinaed and add a luxuriously artistic detail to the exterior. On the interior the amalgamation of geometry is everywhere, but allows...

Thomas Jefferson’s plan for an Academical Village, at the University of Virginia, was his concept of the utopian institution. Jefferson argued that large buildings became ugly and cumbersome, smaller more individual buildings were the most efficient for a small, growing university. Buildings on a large scale were prone to extensive damage in fires, and unhealthy in cases of illness. Smaller buildings could also be added over time, so the original expense to the university is much smaller. He believed that also, smaller buildings could begin to take on individual characteristics which reflect the subjects studied within them. Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, assisted by scientists Pierre-Samuel Du Pont de Nemours and the Marquis de Condorcet designed the replanning of Paris’ main hospital, Hotel Dieu. As friends of Jefferson’s it can be said that this design, comprising of 12  structures and a main Church, had an impact on his design for the Academia Village.The influence behind Jefferson’s A...

     The Crystal Palace was an iron and glass building, designed for the World’s fair in 1851. It held the Great Exhibition which consisted of over 14,000 exhibitioners, whom fell under four main categories - Machinery, Raw Materials, Manufacturers and Fine Arts. Many different countries were represented within its massive 990,000 sq/ft display space. Almost half of the exhibitions were non-British with France sending 1,500, and America nearly 1,000. Some of the American displays included artificial legs, dentures, chewing tobacco, Colt’s repeating pistol, and the McCormick’s Reaper harvester. British displays included hydraulic presses, steam engines, and cotton spinning machines. Original Structure and Grounds When the competition first went public the board received over 250 designs in the first three weeks, all of which were rejected. A design was then received which was low in cost, and efficient to construct given there was only eight months until ...

The Bibliotheca Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt was built to commemorate the historical library of Alexandria which burned down after its slow decline which began in the 3rd century AD. The Library of Alexandria is known the be the largest and most concentrated place of knowledge in all of ancient history. Construction of the Bibliotheca Alexandria  began in 1989 and was completed in 2001.The 11 story library can hold up to four million volumes of books, up to eight million if compact storage was to be used. Programmatically the project is very interesting as it consists of a planetarium, several museums, a school for informatio n science, and conservation facilities. This project is largely characterized by its massive circular tilted-off-axis form.  “The main concept of the project is a disc rising from the water, representing the past, tilting towards the future, with the ground level representing the present Main building of library complex. by a granite wall ca...