Category Archives: Architecture

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration (New Jersey, U.S.A)

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration

Aside from the Statue of Liberty National Monument on Liberty Island, the Statue Cruises round trip ferry transportation tickets we bought at Battery Park also included Ellis Island National Immigration Museum on Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay.

Ellis Island

After our tour of Liberty Island and its iconic Statue of Liberty, we all returned to the pier and queued up to board another Statue Cruise ferry for the short 10-min. (2.1 mile) trip to nearby, much smaller Ellis Island. Since 1808, the island has been owned and administered by the federal government of the United States  and, since 1965, operated by the National Park Service.

Check out “Statue of Liberty National Monument“

Then and now. Crowds such as these were a common sight

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the island:

  • From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island was the United State’s largest and most active immigration station.
  • The original Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson (initially called Crown Fort, it was renamed after Col. James Gibson of the 4th Regiment of Riflemen, killed in the Siege of Fort Erieduring the War of 1812) and, later, a naval magazine.
  • The gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the U.S. processed by the S. Bureau of Immigration, it was the United States’ busiest immigrant inspection station for over 60 years (1892 – 1954).
  • Opened January 1, 1892, the island was, between 1892 and 1934, greatly expanded with land reclamation with the help of excess earth from the construction of New York City’s subway (and other projects). Today, the island has a land area of 11.1 hectares (27.5 acres), most of which is part of New Jersey.   It was long considered part of New York, but a 1998 United States Supreme Court decision found that most of the island is in  New Jersey. A contiguous area of 1.3 hectares (3.3 acres) is part of New York.
  • During and immediately following World War II, was designated as a permanent holding facility and was used to hold German merchant mariners and “enemy aliens” (Axis nationals detained for fear of spying, sabotage, and other fifth column activity). In December 1941, Ellis Island held 279 Japanese, 248 Germans, and 81 Italians removed from the East Coast.  A total of 7,000 Germans, Italians and Japanese would be ultimately detained at Ellis Island. It was also a processing center for returning sick or wounded U.S. soldiers, and a Coast Guard training base.
  • Its U.S. Marine Hospital Number 43, more widely known as the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, was the nation’s largest marine hospital. This extensive medical service at the immigrant station was operated here, from early 1902 to 1930, by United States Public Health Service to support the activities of the United States Bureau of Immigration.
  • Over 100 million Americans, about one-third to 40% of the population of the United States, are descendants of those immigrants who arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country.
  • Many reasons these immigrants came to the United States included escaping political and economic oppression, as well as persecution, destitution, and violence.
  • Ellis Island has been a source of inspiration or used as a subject in popular culture. Its imagery or representation has been employed in literature (including novels, short stories and poetry), in song, musical composition, dance, theatre, including vaudeville, burlesque, musical comedy, revue, legitimate theatre, motion pictures (silent and sound), newsreels, and in radio and television.

The Grand Hall

The first station, a three-story-tall wooden structure built of Georgia Pine, opened with fanfare on January 1, 1892 but, on June 15, 1897, a fire of unknown origin, possibly caused by faulty wiring, reduced it to ashes. No one was killed but most of the immigration records, dating back to 1855, of about 1.5 million immigrants that had been processed at the first building during its five years of use were destroyed.

The station’s new Main Building, one of the most symbolically important structures in American history, now houses the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.  It was designed by Architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Alciphron Boring (who both received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the building’s design) and the building was built at a cost of US$1.5 million.

Opened on December 17, 1900, the immigration station closed on November 12, 1954 and the buildings fell into disrepair and were abandoned. Attempts at redeveloping the site were unsuccessful until, on October 15, 1965, Ellis Island was proclaimed a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument and, exactly one year later, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The design for the significant restoration and adaptive use of the Beaux-Arts Main Building to its 1918 – 1924 appearance was undertaken by the Boston-based architectural firm Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc, together with the New York architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle. Built with a construction budget of US$150 million (raised by a campaign organized by the political fundraiser Wyatt A. Stewart), the building reopened on September 10, 1990.

Statue of Annie Moore, a 15 year old, rosy-cheeked Irish girl who was one of the 148 steerage passengers landed from the Guion steamship Nevada.  She is now distinguished by being the first registered in the book of the new landing bureau

On May 20, 2015, coinciding with the opening of the new Peopling of America galleries, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum was officially renamed the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.

Face of an immigrant

This French Renaissance Revival-style museum, built of red brick with limestone trim, tells the moving tales of the immigrants who entered America through the golden door of Ellis Island.

The Baggage Room

The newly completed Peopling of America Center was architectural designed by Highland Associates, with construction executed by Phelps Construction Group.

As part of the National Park Service’s Centennial Initiative, the entire south side of the island, called by some the “sad side” of the island, is closed to the general public.

Some of the 28 unrestored buildings

It is the object of restoration efforts spearheaded by Save Ellis Island to restore the 28 buildings (including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital) that have not yet been rehabilitated.  The New Ferry Building, built in the Art Deco style to replace an earlier one, was renovated in 2008 but remains only partially accessible to the general public.

Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital

In 2008, the museum’s library was officially named the Bob Hope Memorial Library in honor of the late comedian Bob Hope, one the station’s most famous immigrants. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor is awarded annually at ceremonies on the island.

The author and son Jandy at the Grand Hall

The museum’s self-guided exhibits tell the entire story of American immigration, including before and after the Ellis Island era, and chronicles Ellis Island’s role in immigration history.  It includes artifacts, photographs, prints, videos, interactive displays, oral histories and temporary exhibits:

  • The World Migration Globe features a radiant sphere which illustrates migration patterns around the world throughout human history.
  • Journeys: The Peopling of America – 1550s – 1890, located in the historic Railroad Ticket Office, is an exhibit, designed by ESI Design and fabricated by Hadley Exhibits, Inc., dedicated to exploring the earliest arrivals pre-dating the Ellis Island Era (1550-1890).  It bookends the Ellis Island era by chronicling immigration to America before the processing station opened in 1892 and after it closed in 1954, right up to the present. Here, visitors can move through the various galleries displaying each stage of the immigrant journey.
  • The Journey: New Eras of Immigration Exhibit, focusing on immigration from 1954 to present times, uses dynamic media and interactive elements to display the post-war immigration movement and changing demographic trends over the decades.
  • The American Family Immigration History Center is an exciting interactive area where you can access the passenger records of the ships that landed almost 65 million immigrants, crew members and other travelers at the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1820 to 1957.
  • The American Immigrant Wall of Honor, outside of the main building, is the only place in the United States where an individual can honor his or her family heritage at a National Monument.  This permanent exhibit of individual or family names celebrating the immigrant experience contains a partial list of immigrants processed on the island. Inclusion on the list is made possible by a donation to support the facility..  It overlooks the Statue of Liberty behind a beautiful view of the New York skyline.
  • The American Flag of Faces, at the museum’s main entrance hall, is an interactive, animated display populated with images uploaded by individuals and families, which creates  a montage of the American flag.

A lady park ranger delivering a 5-min. talk before showing of “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” at Theater 2

There are also three theaters used for film and live performances. At Theater 2 (with a maximum limit of 140 people per showing), we watched the 30-min.,  award-winning film documentary “Island of Hope, Island of Tears,”  directed by Charles Guggenheim, which reveals how and why millions of immigrants journeyed across the world to Ellis Island, hoping for a better life for themselves and their descendants.

L-R: Grace, Kyle and Cheska

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration: Ellis Island, New York City 10004, New York, U.S.A.  Tel: +1 646 356 2150.  Open daily (except December 25), 8:30 AM – 7 PM.

Old Philadelphia City Hall (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Posted on by — Leave a reply

The two-storey Old Philadelphia City Hall, located within the Independence Hall complex of Independence National Historical Park, next to Independence Hall, in Center City, was built with red bricks in the Georgian and  Federal style from 1790 to 1791 by master carpenter David Evans, Jr.

Old Philadelphia City Hall

During the 1790s, Philadelphia was the nation’s temporary capital and, although originally intended as Philadelphia’s City Hall (its second), the building was lent to the federal judiciary, serving as the home of the U.S. Supreme Court from the completion of its construction, from August 1791 until February 1800, when the national capital was moved to Washington, D.C.  The City Council met on the second floor while court convened below.

Here, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first decisions. Three chief justices,  John Rutledge (Rutledge Court),  John Jay (Jay Court), and Oliver Ellsworth (Ellsworth Court), officiated the Supreme Court from this location. The portraits of the latter two (Rutledge did not attend any session in Philadelphia), as well as those of   associate justices William Cushing, Bushrod Washington (nephew of George Washington) and Samuel Chase, can be seen in the Second Bank portrait gallery.

The ground floor area where the Supreme Court met

Also in the Second Bank is a very large painting of Philadelphia’s first City Hall (the one that used to stand on 2nd Street). Naturalization ceremonies for new citizens also took place in this courtroom and the building was the volunteer headquarters in the battle against the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793.

Afterward, the building continued to serve as Philadelphia’s City Hall until 1901 when the new city hall at Penn Square was completed. A contributing property to Independence National Historical Park, the building is owned by the City of Philadelphia which leases it to the National Park Service. The building was added to National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

Old Philadelphia City Hall: 501 Chestnut Street at 5th Street, Philadelphia 19106, Pennsylvania. Open daily, 9 AM – 5 PM.  Admission is free but entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis. Capacity is nine visitors at a time.  Coordinates: 39°56′52″N 75°8′53″W.

St. Augustine Catholic Church (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Posted on by — Leave a reply

St. Augustine Catholic Church

The historic and pretty ornate St. Augustine Catholic  Church (also called Olde St. Augustine’s), built to replace the Old St. Augustine Church (the first Order of Hermits of St. Augustine church founded in the United States) which was completed in 1801 and burned down in the anti-Catholic Philadelphia Nativist Riots on May 8, 1844  (all that remained was the back wall of the altar), was designed by architect  Napoleon LeBrun who also designed Philadelphia landmarks as the Academy of Music (eventual home of the Philadelphia Orchestra) and the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The church’s Palladian-style facade

The present church, whose cornerstone was laid on May 27, 1847, was completed in December 1848 and consecrated by Bishop Francis Kenrick and Archbishop John Hughes who presided over High Mass on November 5, 1848.

The main entrance

In 1922, the altar area underwent significant restoration and change, the vestibule of the church was changed significantly and stairs were put in when 4th Street was excavated to pass under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The nave of the church is original. The color in the brick facade of the church indicates where the original church brick ends and where the 1922 brick begins. On June 15, 1976, the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The magnificent interior

On December 1992, a severe storm severely damaged the church’s steeple whose debris fell onto the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, closing for three days. The damaged steeple had to be disassembled and removed. A 50-ft. chasm opened in the church roof caused the priceless painting and murals inside to suffer water damage. On October 18, 1995, a new steeple was erected.

Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) meets the scared Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) inside the church in The Sixth Sense

The interior and exterior of St. Augustine’s Church was featured in the 1999 M. Night Shyamalan spooky thriller The Sixth Sense (where Bruce Willis, as Dr. Malcolm Crowe, and Haley Joel Osment, as Cole Sear, meet for the first time) and the 2007 action movie Shooter  (in which the church’s bell tower figures in an assassination plot).

The Shooter

This church is the parish of choice of many Filipino-American Catholics (who increased the congregation’s numbers in the 1990s) from Philadelphia, the city’s suburbs and the tri-state area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware). In fact, on January 11, 1992, an exact replica of Santo Niño de Cebú was installed and dedicated here and Filipinos have held a special mass and festivals (also called Sinulog) for the Santo Niño, making it the National Shrine for devotion to Santo Nino in North America.

This Palladian-style (an Italian-Renaissance variant) church, with its non-cruciform plan, has a flat, decorated roof, semicircular arched window, an enormous cleaving balcony and two sets of stained glass windows, each dedicated to a saint. The impressive, ornate foyer, though lower than the church (you need to take another set of stairs to go up into the church), is treated like a part of the interior.

The main arched altar, framed by an archway supported by brown Corinthian columns flanked by flying angels, consists of white marble with shafts of Mexican onyx bordering the tabernacle. Behind the altar is a Crucifixion tableau, painted by Hans Hansen in 1926, crowned by the words “The Lord Seeth.” Above it sits a domed skylight.  The wrap-around, 3-sided gallery essentially divides the space vertically in half.

The main altar

The beautiful ceiling frescoes, depicting scenes from “St. Augustine in Glory,” as well as murals on either side of the altar were painted by Philip Costaggini (who painted part of the frieze on the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.) in 1884 and are the oldest in any church in America.

Statue of St. Nicholas Tolentine at the ornate foyer

Statue of St. Thomas of Villanova

St. Augustine Catholic Church: 243 North Lawrence St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106, United States.  Tel: +1 215-627-1838. Fax: 215-627-3911. E-mail: staugustineparish09@gmail.com.  Website: www.st-augustinechurch.com. Mass schedules: Mondays – Fridays: 12:05 PM (10 AM during legal holidays), Saturdays (Vigil – 5:15 PM) and Sundays (9 AM, 11 AM and 7 PM). Novena prayers to Santo Nino are held after the 11 AM Sunday Mass. Open Mondays to Fridays, 9 AM to 5 PM; weekends, 9 AM to the conclusion of the evening masses.

30th Street Station (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Posted on by — Leave a reply

30th Street Station

The 52,000 m² (562,000 ft²) 30th Street Station, the main railroad station in Philadelphia and one of the seven stations in Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority‘s (SEPTA) Center City fare zone, sits across from the former United States Post Office-Main Branch. A major stop on Amtrak‘s (National Railroad Passenger Corporation) Northeast and Keystone Corridors, it is Amtrak’s 3rd-busiest station and the busiest of the 24 stations served in Pennsylvania. On an average day in 2013, about 11,300 people boarded or left trains in Philadelphia, nearly twice as many as in the rest of the Pennsylvania stations combined. This was to be our entry point to Philadelphia (from New York City) and exit point from Philadelphia to Baltimore (Maryland).

The main concourse

Originally known as the Pennsylvania Station–30th Street (in accord with the naming style of other Pennsylvania Stations), the enormous, steel-framed structure was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White (the successor to D.H. Burnham & Company). Construction began in 1927 and the station opened in 1933, starting with two platform tracks.

The author and son Jandy at the waiting area

From 1988-1991, the building was restored and renovated, at a cost of US$75 million,  by Dan Peter Kopple & Associates, with updated retail amenities added including several shops, a large food court, car rental facilities, Saxby’s Coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts, both in the South Arcade and South Concourse, and others.

Dunkin’ Donut outlet

Above the passenger areas, 280,000 sq. ft. of office space was modernized to house approximately 1,100 Amtrak employees.  The former mail handling facility was converted into an underground parking garage. The 30th Street Station is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Train Schedule Display Board

The building’s architecturally interesting exterior, an adaptation and transformation of Neo-Classical elements into a more modern, streamlined Art Deco architectural style, has a pair of soaring, columned porte-cocheres on the west and east façade, its best known features.

Waiting Area

The cavernous, 290 by 135 ft. main passenger concourse, notable for its stylistic and functional elements, has ornate Art Deco décor, with a vast waiting room faced with travertine and a soaring  coffered ceiling, painted gold, red and cream, with beautiful chandeliers.

Ticket offices

Works of art are located throughout the building. Prominently displayed within the waiting area is the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial, sculpted in 1950 by Walker Hancock. Honoring 1,307 Pennsylvania Railroad employees (listed in alphabetical order on the four sides of the base of that sculpture) killed in World War II (out of the more than 54,000 who served), it consists of a bronze statue of the archangel Michael lifting the body of a dead soldier out of the flames of war.

Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial

The Spirit of Transportation, a bas relief sculpture of Karl Bitter, was executed in 1895 and originally placed in the waiting room of Broad Street Station, Philadelphia. On January, 1955, it was moved to current site in the North Waiting Room. The Spirit of Transportation is represented in triumphal procession of progress. It features a central female figure sitting in a horse-drawn carriage, while children cradle models of a steamship, steam locomotive and dirigible, a prophetic vision of a mode of transportation to come.

Spirit of Transportation bas-relief sculpture

The station was featured in the 1981 film Blow Out, the 1983 film Trading Places, the 1985 film Witness, the 2000 film Unbreakable, the 2010 video game Heavy Rain, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episode 7, and the 2015 film The Visit. It is within walking distance of various attractions in West Philadelphia, notably the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and the University City Science Center, all in University City. 

Kyle, Grace, Cheska and Jandy waiting for our train to Baltimore at the train platform

30th Street Station: 2955 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola (New York City, U.S.A.)

Posted on by — Leave a reply

The very first mass we attended in the US, on the eve of the Feast of St. John the Baptist, was held at the beautiful Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It was officiated by the very friendly and welcoming Fr. Dennis J. Yesalonia, S.J.

Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola

This Roman Catholic parish church, under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York, is administered by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The church is part of a Jesuit complex on the block that includes Wallace Hall, the parish hall (beneath the church), the rectory (at the midblock location on Park Ave.), the grade school of St. Ignatius’s School (on the north midblock location of 84th St., behind the church) and the high school of Loyola School (also 980 Park Ave.) at the northwest corner of Park Ave. and 83rd St. The Regis High School (55 East 84th St.), another Jesuit high school, occupies the midblock location on the north side of 84th St..

Established in 1851 as St. Lawrence O’Toole‘s (a twelfth-century bishop of Dublin) Church, a wooden church was erected in 1852 but was replaced, in 1853, by a modest brick structure. In 1886, it was entrusted to the care of the Society of Jesus  the Jesuits’ first major apostolate in the Yorkville area of New York.  In 1898, it was granted permission by Rome to change the patron saint of the parish to St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The church’s foundation was built from 1884 to 1886 and the present German Baroque-style church, designed by Arch. J. William Schickel of Schickel & Ditmars, was built from 1895 to 1900. On December 11, 1898, it was dedicated by the Most Reverend Michael Corrigan, third Archbishop of New York. On March 4, 1969, the church was declared as a New York City Landmark and, on July 24, 1980, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The beautiful church interior

Notable people whose funerals were held here include:

This 90 ft. high and 87 ft. wide architectural gem has a Classical Park Avenue exterior that is not static, with the central division raised in slight relief beyond the side divisions.  Its façade has 2 unbroken vertical orders, a Palladian arched window and a tri-part horizontal division which suggest the central nave and side aisles beyond. Directly beneath the pediment are inscribed the words “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” (“To the Greater Glory of God”, the motto of the Society of Jesus,  and the Great Seal of the Society (composed of a cross, three nails, and the letters I H S, the first three letters of Jesus’ name in Greek which later became a Latin acronym denoting Jesus the Savior of Humankind).

The altar

The varying intervals between the symmetrically positioned pilasters create a subtly undulating dynamism that introduces a note of syncopated rhythm reminiscent of the exterior of Il Gesù, the Jesuits’ mother church in Rome. Two copper-capped tower bases, on either side of the central pediment, are hints of the abandoned grander scheme of a pair of towers designed to reach 210 ft. above the ground. The church’s intricate marble work, executed by the firm of James G. Batterson, Jr., and John Eisele of New York, includes American (pink Tennessee), European (yellow Siena, veined Pavonazzo and white Carrara) and African (red-veined Numidian and pink Algerian) marble. The soaring ceiling was beautifully crafted and the intricate stained glass windows tells the story of Jesus life, death and resurrection.

The high ceiling

The marble mosaic Stations of the Cross panels were designed by Professor Paoletti for Salviati & Company of Venice.  The great 12-panel bronze doors, located at the sanctuary end of the side aisles, were designed by the Rev. Patrick O’Gorman, S.J. (pastor from 1924 to 1929) and were crafted by the Long Island Bronze Company. The Carrara marble Jesuit statues (including St. Francis Xavier and St. John Francis Regis) were carved by the Joseph Sibbel Studio of New York.  The church organ, built by N.P. Mander of London, was dedicated in 1993 and is New York City’s largest mechanical action (tracker) pipe organ.

The semicircular wrought-iron baptistery screen of gilt flaming swords, in the Chapel of John the Baptist, was wrought by Mr. John Williams to the designs of William Schickel. The Carrara marble baptistery font, set above the marble pavement, was designed “by Heaton, Butler & Bayne of London, with slight modifications made by Mr. John Buck of the Ecclesiastical Department of the Gorham Company of New York (also responsible for the cutting and installing the mosaic’s tesserae – the pieces comprising the mosaic).

The baptistery’s altar and the surrounding curved walls, designed and executed under the direction of Mr. Caryl Coleman of the Ecclesiastical Department of the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (who also executed the baptistery’s semi-dome), were made with Pavonazzo marble inlaid with mosaics (composed of that company’s justly famous opalescent Favrile glass, as delicate as the Venetian glass mosaics above are bold).

Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola: 980 Park Ave. cor. East 84th St., New York City, New York 10028.  Tel: +212-288-3588. Website: www.stignatiusloyola.org. Mass Schedule: Mondays-Fridays, 8:30 AM, 12:10 PM and 5:30 PM; Saturdays, 8:30 AM an 5:30 PM; Sundays, 8 AM, 9:30 AM, 11 AM (Solemn Mass) and 7:30 PM.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York City, U.S.A.)

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is the permanent home, of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year.

Museum Lobby

Overlooking Central Park, the site’s proximity to the park afforded relief from the noise, congestion and concrete of the city and nature also provided the museum with inspiration.  In 2013, nearly 1.2 million people visited the museum, and it hosted the most popular exhibition in New York City.

Atrium

Established in 1939 by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation  (established in 1937, it fosters the appreciation of modern art) as the Museum of Non-Objective Painting.  The museum adopted its current name in 1952, after the death of its founder.

The skylight

In 1959, the museum moved, from rented space, to its current Modernist, distinctively cylindrical building, a landmark work of 20th-century architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright who experimented with his organic style in an urban setting.

It took him 15 years, 700 sketches, and six sets of working drawings to create the museum. The museum underwent extensive expansion and renovations in 1992 (when an adjoining tower was built) and from 2005 to 2008.

Three sculptures by Edgar Degas

Three sculptures by Constantin Brancusi

The building was conceived, by Rebay, as a “temple of the spirit” that would facilitate a new way of looking at the modern pieces in the collection.

The Studio (1928,oil and black crayon on canvas, Pablo Picasso)

Accordionist (1911, oil on canvas, Pablo Picasso)

Woman With Yellow Hair (1931, oil on canvas, Pablo Picasso)

The only museum designed by Wright and his last major work (he died six months before its opening on October 21, 1959), the appearance of the building, viewed from the street, is in sharp contrast to the typically rectangular Manhattan buildings that surround it (a fact relished by Wright).

Bend in the Road Through the Forest (Paul Cezanne)

Still Life Plate of Peaches (Paul Cezanne)

Still Life Flask, Glass and Jug (Paul Cezanne)

It looks like a white ribbon curled into a cylindrical stack, wider at the top than the bottom, and displaying nearly all curved surfaces.

Circumcision (oil on canvas, 1946, Jackson Pollock)

Plate from Poor Richard suite (1971, Philip Guston)

Internally, Wright’s plan for the viewing gallery was for the museum guests to ride to the top of the building by elevator, to descend, at a leisurely pace, along the gentle slope of the unique, continuous helical ramp gallery, extending up from ground level in a long, continuous spiral (recalling a nautilus shell) along the outer edges of the building and ending just under the ceiling skylight at the top.

The Antipope (December 1941–March 1942, Max Ernst)

Polyphonic (1945 Oil on canvas, Perle Fine)

The atrium of the building was to be viewed as the last work of art. The open rotunda afforded viewers the unique possibility of simultaneously seeing several bays of work on different levels and even to interact with guests on other levels.

Black Lines (Vassily Kandinsky)

Striped (1934, oil with sand on canvas, Vassily Kandinsky)

Wright’s spiral design, embracing nature, with continuous spaces flowing freely one into another, also expresses his take on Modernist architecture’s rigid geometry.

Dining Room on the Garden (1934-35, oil on canvas, Pierre Bonnard)

Invention (Composition No. 3) – 1933,oil on canvas, Rudolf Bauer

To reduce the cost, the building’s surface was made out of concrete, inferior to the stone finish, with a red-colored exterior, that Wright had wanted and which was never realized.

Men in the City (1919, oil on canvas, Fernand Leger)

The Smokers (1911-12, oil on canvas, Fernand Leger)

Also largely for financial reasons, Wright’s original plan for an adjoining tower, artists’ studios and apartments also went unrealized until the renovation and expansion.

Eiffel Tower (1911, oil on canvas, Robert Delaunay)

Portrait of Countess Albazzi, (1880, Pastel on primed canvas, Edouard Manet)

Wright’s carefully articulated lighting effects for the main gallery skylight had been compromised when it was covered during the original construction but, in 1992, was restored to its original design.

In the Vanilla Grove, Man and Horse (Paul Gaugin)

The Kiss (1927, Max Ernst)

The “Monitor Building” (as Wright called it), the small rotunda next to the large rotunda, was intended to house apartments for Rebay and Guggenheim but, instead, became offices and storage space. In 1965, the second floor of the Monitor building was renovated to display the museum’s growing permanent collection.

Nude Model in the Studio (1912-13, oil on burlap, Fernand Leger)

With the 1990–92 restoration of the museum, it was turned over entirely to exhibition space and christened the Thannhauser Building, in honor of art dealer Justin K. Thannhauser, one of the most important bequests to the museum. Much of the interior of the building was restored during the 1992 renovation.

Orphism (Robert Delauney)

Also in 1992, a new, adjoining rectangular 10-storey limestone tower, taller than the original spiral and designed by the architectural firm of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, expanded the exhibition space with the addition of four additional exhibition galleries with flat walls.

Knight Errant (1916, oil on canvas, Oskar Kokoschka)

Yellow Bar (Rolph Scarlett)

Between September 2005 and July 2008, the museum underwent a significant exterior restoration to repair cracks and modernize systems and exterior details. It was completed on September 22, 2008.  On October 6, 2008, the museum was registered as a National Historic Landmark.

Improvisation 28 (second version) – Vassily Kandinsky

In 2001, the museum opened the 8,200 sq. ft. (760 m2) Sackler Center for Arts Education (a gift of the Mortimer D. Sackler family), a facility located on the lower level of the museum, below the large rotunda.

Woman with Parakeet (1871, oil on canvas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir)

Listening (1920, oil on canvas, Heinrich Campendonk)

It provides classes and lectures about the visual and performing arts and opportunities to interact with the museum’s collections and special exhibitions through its labs, exhibition spaces, conference rooms and 266-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater.

Paris Through the Window (1913, oil on canvas, Marc Chagall)

The Flying Carriage (1913, oil on canvas, Marc Chagall)

The Soldier Drinks (1911-12, oil on canvas, Marc Chagall)

Beginning with Solomon R. Guggenheim‘s original collection works of the old masters since the 1890s, the museum’s collection (shared with the museum’s sister museums in Bilbao, Spain, and elsewhere) has grown organically, over eight decades. It is founded upon several important private collections. Here’s a chronology of the museum’s acquisitions:

Personage (1925, oil on canvas, Juan Miro)

  • In 1948, the collection was greatly expanded through the purchase of art dealer Karl Nierendorf’s estate of some 730 objects, notably German expressionist.

Mountains at Saint Remy (1889, oil on canvas, Vincent Van Gogh)

Landscape with Snow (1888, oil on canvas, Vincent Van Gogh)

Before the Mirror (1876, oil on canvas, Edouard Manet)

Arc of Petals (Alexander Calder)

Adam and Eve (Constantin Brancusi)

Little French Girl (Constantin Brancusi)

On Brooklyn Bridge (1917, oil on canvas, Albert Gleizes)

Woman with Animals (1914, oil on canvas, Albert Gleizes)

  • In 1992, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation donated 200 of Mapplethorpe’s best photographs to the foundation, an acquisition that initiated the foundation’s photography exhibition program.  Spanning his entire output, it includes early collages, Polaroids, portraits of celebrities, self-portraits, male and female nudes, flowers and statues, mixed-media constructions and included his well-known 1998 Self-Portrait.

  • In 2001, a large collection of the Bohen Foundation was gifted to the foundation. It consists of commissioned works of art (Pierre Huyghe, Sophie Calle, etc.), with an emphasis on film, video, photography and new media.

The building has been widely praised and inspired many other architects. However, the design polarized architecture critics who believed that the building would overshadow the museum’s artworks.

Alchemy (Jackson Pollock)

Some artists have also protested the display of their work in such a space. The continuous spiral ramp gallery, tilted with non-vertical curved walls, presented challenges to the museum’s ability to present art at all as it is awkward and difficult to properly hang paintings in the shallow, windowless concave exhibition niches that surround the central spiral.

The Neighborhood of Jas de Bouffan (Paul Cezanne)

Bibemus (Paul Cezanne)

Canvasses must be mounted raised from the wall’s surface. Paintings hung slanted back would appear “as on the artist’s easel.” There was also limited space within the niches for sculpture.

The Break of Day (1937, oil on canvas, Paul Delvaux)

Landscape Near Antwerp (1906, oil on canvas, Georges Braque)

The slope of the floor and the curvature of the walls also combined to produce vexing optical illusions. Three-dimensional sculpture or any vertical object appears tilted in a “drunken lurch.”

The Sun in Its Jewel Case (Yves Tanguy)

To compensate for the space’s weird geometry, special plinths were constructed at a particular angle, so that pieces were not at a true vertical would appear to be so.

The Red Bird (1944, oil on canvas, Adolph Gottlieb)

Fruit Dish on a Checkered Table Cloth (Juan Gris)

However, this trick proved impossible for an Alexander Calder mobile whose wire inevitably hung at a true plumb vertical, “suggesting hallucination” in the disorienting context of the tilted floor.

The Fourteenth of July (Pablo Picasso)

Bird on a Tree (Pablo Picasso)

Three Bathers (Pablo Picasso)

Some of the most popular and important art exhibitions held here include:

  • The first season “Works and Process,” a series of performances at the Guggenheim begun in 1984, consisted ofPhilip Glass with Christopher Keene on Akhnaten and Steve Reich and Michael Tilson Thomas on The Desert Music.
  • “Africa: The Art of a Continent” (1996)
  • “China: 5,000 Years” (1998)
  • “Brazil: Body & Soul” (2001)
  • “The Aztec Empire” (2004)
  • The Art of the Motorcycle– an unusual exhibition of commercial art installations of motorcycles.
  • The 2009 retrospective of Frank Lloyd Wright – the museum’s most popular exhibit (since it began keeping such attendance records in 1992), it showcased the architect on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the building.

Dancers in Green and Yellow (1903, pastel and charcoal on tracing paper mounted to paperboard, Edgar Degas)

In The International, a shootout occurs in the museum. A life-size replica of the museum was built for this scene. 

Tableau No. 2, Composition No. VII (1913, Oil on Canvas, Piet Mondrian)

Composition 8 (Piet Mondrian)

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue corner East 89th Street, Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, NY 10128, USA. Tel: +1 212-423-3500. E-mail: visitorinfo@guggenheim.org. Open 10 AM – 5:45 PM. Admission: US$25 for adults, US$18 for students and seniors (65 years + with valid ID), children below 12 years old is free.

Grand Central Terminal (New York City, U.S.A.)

Posted on by — 1 Comment ↓

The historic and beautiful Grand Central Terminal, a world-famous landmark in Midtown Manhattan and one of the most majestic buildings of the twentieth century, was designed by the architectural firms of Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore and opened to the public on February 2, 1913.  On December 8, 1976, it was declared as a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

Grand Central Terminal

This massive, granite, Beaux-Arts-style  building has both monumental spaces and meticulously crafted detail, especially on its facade. At the top of the building is “The Glory of Commerce,” a cluster of sculptures designed by French sculptor Jules-Felix Coutan, carved by the John Donnelly Company and assembled by William Bradley of Long Island City, Queens.  Depicting  Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury (representing Wisdom, Speed, and Strength, according to Roman mythology), it was, during its unveiling in 1914, the largest sculpture grouping in the world. The exterior clock, just beneath Mercury, is the largest piece of Tiffany glass in the world, measuring 4 m. (13 ft.) in diameter.  The eagles, perched on the corner of the building, actually adorned the previous Grand Central Station, which opened in 1869.

The cavernous interior

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this terminal:

  • The terminal is one of the world’s most visited tourist attractions, with 21.9 million visitors in 2013.
  • So much granite was used that the building emits relatively high levels of radiation. At an average dose of 525 mrem/year, a level higher than permitted in a nuclear power facility.
  • Grand Central Terminal’s 20 hectare (49-acre) basements are among the largest in New York City.
  • The exact location of M42, a “secret” sub-basement under the terminal that contains the AC to DC convertersused to supply DC traction current to the tracks, is a closely guarded secret and does not appear on maps.
  • It covers 19 hectares (48 acres) and has 44 platforms, more than any other railroad station in the world.
  • The Main Concourse was featured in dozens of films, among them Alfred Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest” to the animated DreamWorks film” Madagascar” as well as scenes from the Avengers, Superman and the X-men.

The cavernous, 84 m. (275 ft.) long, 37 m. (120 ft.) wide and 38 m. (125 ft.) high Main Concourse, the center of Grand Central, is usually filled with bustling crowds and is often used as a meeting place. Since the introduction of ticket vending machines, the ticket booths here now stand unused or have been repurposed.

Bay Balcony

Its interior has 35 restaurants, such as the famous  Oyster Bar & Restaurant (the only business that remained from the very day that Grand Central opened in 1913), Shake Shack and various fast food outlets (Starbucks, etc.) surrounding the Dining Concourse on the level below the Main Concourse, as well as delis, bakeries (Magnolia Bakery, etc.), pharmacy (Rite Aid),  full-service watch repair shop (Central Watch), fourth floor tennis club (Vanderbilt Tennis Club, opened in the 1960s and now owned by onald Trump), newsstands, a gourmet and fresh food market, an annex of the New York Transit Museum, and 65 retail stores (Apple Store, Vineyard Vines, M.A.C. Cosmetics, etc.).

Some of the restaurants and retail stores within the terminal

Right outside the Oyster Bar is the Whispering Gallery.  One of the most popular spots in the Terminal, people often crowd this relatively plain-looking space, their faces pressed into the corner as the gallery perfectly transmits sound from corner to corner so much so that you can have a conversation, at the barest whisper, with a friend, hearing each other as though you were standing face to face.  The precise arch of the ceiling and the tiled surface caused this architectural anomaly.

The main information booth, in the center of the concourse, has the Main Concourse Information Booth Clock, a 4-faced brass clock, on top. Perhaps the most recognizable icon of Grand Central, it was designed by Henry Edward Bedford and cast in Waterbury, Connecticut. Each of the four clock faces is made from opalescent glass (now often called opal glass or milk glass), though urban legend has it that the faces are made of opal and that Sotheby’s and Christie’s have estimated their value to be between $10 million and $20 million.

Information board

The original blackboard (with arrival and departure information) by Track 36, dubbed a Solari board (after its Italian manufacturer), was replaced, in the main concourse, by an electromechanical display over the ticket windows that displayed times and track numbers of arriving and departing trains.

This New York institution, an indicator of just how busy Grand Central was, once contained rows of flip panels that displayed train information as its many displays would flap simultaneously to reflect changes in train schedules. Today, high-resolution mosaic LCD modules replaced the flap-board destination sign.

The elaborately decorated astronomical ceiling

The starry, stunning and elaborately decorated astronomical ceiling of  the Main Concourse, depicting the constellations of the Zodiac (astronomically inaccurate in a complicated way as other constellations are reversed left-to-right), was conceived in 1912 by Architect Whitney Warren with his friend, French portrait artist Paul César Helleu, and executed by James Monroe Hewlett and Charles Basing of Hewlett-Basing Studio, with corps of astronomers and painting assistants working on it. In the late 1930s, the original ceiling was replaced to correct falling plaster. A 12-year restoration effort, completed in autumn 1996, removed tar and nicotine from tobacco smoke from the ceiling and restored to its original design.

Next to the Main Concourse sits Vanderbilt Hall, named for the family of Cornelius Vanerbilt that built and owned the station.  Serving as the entrance area from 42nd Street at Pershing Square, it was formerly the main waiting room for the terminal.  Today, it is used for the annual Christmas Market and special exhibitions, and is rented for private events.

Jandy with the Main Concourse Information Booth Clock behind him

Grand Central Terminal: 89 East 42nd St. at Park Ave., New York City, New York 10017. Open aily, 5:30 AM – 2 AM. Website: www.grandcentralterminal.com. The Grand Central Market is open Mondays – Fridays, 7 AM -9PM; Saturdays, 10AM – 7PM; and Sundays, 11AM – 6PM..

How To Get There: The closest subway station is at the terminal itself (Grand Central Station) and is serviced by 4, 5, 6, and 7 trains as well as the S shuttle train from Times Square –42nd Street.

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar (Imus City, Cavite)

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar

The seventh and last church we visited during our visita iglesia was the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar (Catedral de Nuestra Señora del Pilar) in Imus City.  Started by  Augustinian Recollect Fr. Nicolás Becerra (parish priest from 1821 to 1840) in 1825 using forced labor, the cathedral, belfry and the convent took more half a century to finish. On April 29, 1962, when the Diocese of Imus was erected, the convent became the bishop’s residence.

 Check out “VIsita Iglesia 2017“

NHI Plaque

On November 13, 2006, the cathedral was designated as a Marked Structure (of Historical Significance) by the then National Historical Institute of the Philippines (now the National Historical Commission of the Philippines).

The cathedral’s Baroque facade

This 18th century church, located at the boundary of Bayan Luma and Bucandala, has three naves.  The cathedral is 61 m. (200 ft.) long, 40 m. (130 ft.) wide, 30 m. (100 ft.) high and has 27 m. (90 ft.) wide nave.

The 3-storey bell tower

Its imposing, two-level tuft stone and brick Baroque facade, with its dark and subdued colors, was patterned after the fifth Manila Cathedral by Fr. Juan de Uguccioni, which existed from 1760 to 1852.  It has a segmental arch main entrance flanked by rectangular and semicircular arch windows and superpositioned flat columns in pairs. The pediment, with its statued niche, flows down into scrolls. Latin inscriptions accentuate the arches.

The cathedral interior

The three-storey square bell tower, on the church’s right, is topped by a dome. Inside are tall stained glass windows and a unique rendition of the Stations of the Cross using wooden carvings showing the hands of Christ.

The altar retablo

The church hosts the longest Holy Week procession in Cavite (with at least 70 floats) and is the country’s 5th longest overall, the other four being the Church of St. Augustine (Baliuag) and Diocesan Shrine of St. Isidore the Farmer (Pulilan), both located in the province of Bulacan, with at least 110 floats each, The Church of Our Lady of the Abandoned in Marikina  (Metro Manila), with 82 floats, and the Church of Our Lady of Aranzazu in San Mateo, Rizal, with 76 floats.

Check out “Diocesan Shrine of St. Isidore the Farmer“

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar: Gen. Castaneda St., Brgy. IV-A,  Imus City, Cavite. Tel: (046) 471-4839. Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar: October 12.

How to Get There: Imus City is located 44.7 kms. (a 1.5-hr. drive) from Manila and 24 kms. (a 45-min. drive) from Trece Martires City.

Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Dasmarinas City, Cavite)

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

From Trece Martires City, Jandy and I drove on to Dasmarinas City were we made a stopover at its Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.  There was a mass ongoing during our visit.

The church was the site of a bloody battle where Spanish troops defeated Filipino troops led by Capt. Placido Campos and Francisco Barzaga on February 25, 1897.  On December 17, 1944, during the Japanese occupation in World War II, many of the town’s residents were imprisoned here and 17 were executed and buried in a common grave.

 Check out “VIsita Iglesia 2017“

NHI Plaque

During the Spanish era, the convent was once the seat of the civil government.  In 1986, it was designated as a Marked Historical Structure by the National Historical Institute (now the National Historical Commission of the Philippines).

The church’s Neo-Classical facade

The present church has a three-storey Neo-Classical facade with a portico covering the semicircular arched main entrance door of the church. The upper levels, flanked by flat pilasters, have semicircular arched windows, of various sizes, and a projecting statued niche.  The triangular pediment has a small circular window.  The church is 55 m. (180 ft.) long, 24 m.(80 ft.) wide and has a 16 m. (52 ft.) wide nave.

One of the 4-storey bell towers

The façade is flanked on both sides by four-storey (the first two square and the upper two octagonal) bell towers with two old bells. The small bell has the inscription “Perez Dasmariñas año 1867 approx. 14 libras.”

The church interior

Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception: P. Campos Avenue. Tel: (046) 416 1295  and (046) 416-0797.  Feast of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception: December 8.

How to Get There: Dasmariñas City is located 50.1 kms.(a 1.5-hour drive) from Manila and 11.6 kms. (a 30-min. drive) from Trece Martires City.

Church of St. Gregory the Great (Indang, Cavite)

Posted on by — Leave a reply

Church of St. Gregory the Great

From the Bonifacio Trial Museum in Maragondon, it was 23.8 km. (40-min.) drive to Indang where we made a stopover at its Church of St. Gregory the Great.  A huge part of this stone church, started during the term of Fr. Luis Morales (1672 to 1676), was finished on 1710. In 1869, its roof was replaced with galvanized iron (one of the first churches in Cavite to use such).

 Check out “VIsita Iglesia 2017“

During the Philippine revolution, the church was burned but it was restored under the auspices of Msgr. Mauro de Leon in 1953 and Fr. Cornelio Matanguihan in 1987.

AUTHOR’S NOTES:

Its 3-level Baroque façade has a semicircular arched main entrance with portico, above which is a semicircular arched window with balustrade.  Both are flanked by semicircular arched statued niches, single superpositioned Tuscan columns and massive piers topped by urn-like finials. The triangular pediment has a semicircular arched statued niche at the tympanum.

The church’s Baroque-style facade

The 3-storey, octagonal bell tower, on the church’s left, has semicircular arched window openings with balustrades and is topped by a pointed roof.

The 3-storey bell tower

Inside are elegantly carved doors, impressive carvings on the choir loft balcony and elegant and impressive rose-colored trompe l’oil paintings (done during the 18th century) on its ceiling. The walls and pillars of the church also have several commemorative gravestones.

The church’s interior

The retablo has three levels of niches for images of saints, with the central niche reserved for the image of St. Gregory the Great, the town’s patron.

The main altar and retablo

At the right side of the altar is a painting of St. Michael and the Archangels. The church pulpit has the Jesuit monogram surmounted by the image of the Christ child, a sign of its being a parish under the Jesuits before the suppression of 1768.

Pulpit

The adjacent old convent has wide windows and wrought iron work along the sides.

Left side retablo

Right side retablo

Church of St. Gregory the Great: Brgy. Tres, Indang 4122, Cavite. Tel: (046) 415-0211. Feast of St. Gregory the Great: Second Sunday of May.

How to Get There: Indang is located 66 kms. from Manila, 12 kms. from Trece Martires City and 8.9 kms. from Mendez.