Tag Archives: architecture

Grand Central Terminal

Posted on by
Reply

The Grand Central Terminal is a train station in New York City in the Midtown Manhattan area. It is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms (there are 44 of them on two levels). The Grand Central Terminal serves commuters traveling to and from New York metro area including to some locations in New York State and Connecticut.

I’ve taken trains to go to New York City many times, but the Amtrak train connecting the Northeast Corridor actually goes to Penn Station in Manhattan instead of the Grand Central Terminal. My experience visiting the Grand Central Terminal was several years back when visiting my brother who lived in the Upper East Side of Manhattan but worked in the northern suburb outside New York City. We wanted to meet up after he got out from work, so the most convenient place was at the Grand Central Terminal where he got off from the commuter train and we could continue on from there. Visiting the Grand Central Terminal building itself is quite an experience. The architecture was quite nice, and there are store and restaurants inside, including a gourmet food store and the newly open Apple Store.

The photo below was taken inside the Main Concourse of the Grand Central Terminal while I was waiting for my brother.

Grand Central Terminal

Rockefeller Center

Posted on by
Reply

The Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings in Midtown Manhattan part of New York City, located between 48th and 51st Streets and between Fifth and Sixth Avenue. The buildings are among the best examples of the Art Deco and International architecture styles in New York City. They were built in the 1930s around the time of the Great Depression, so at the time it was a source of employment for a lot of people in New York. Today these buildings are home to offices and the center building, the GE Building (30 Rockefeller) is the headquarters of NBC, one on the main television broadcasting companies in the United States. It’s a major tourist destination in New York City with the NBC’s Today Show broadcasted every morning from there, and occasionally the anchors would go out and interview crowds of visitors watching as the show being shot live. During the Christmas time, there is a nice Christmas display outside the the RCA Building, and there is also an ice skating rink open to the public. And nearby within there is also the famous Radio City Music Hall, a performance hall that at the time it was open in 1932 was billed as the largest and most opulent theater in the world. Since then it has hosted many big events like the Grammy Awards and the Tony Awards.

I’ve visited the Rockefeller Center like many tourists coming to the New York City. The buildings were definitely impressive; you really get the sense that you’re in New York City among the skyscrapers when you stand in front of the GE Building and look up to see the 70-story building standing tall in front of you. The Rockefeller Plaza Christmas Tree and the ice skating rink area are also interesting to visit, though you might have to wait in line for a while during the holiday season to even just see the Christmas Tree. During a visit one afternoon, as I sat near the ice skating rink resting and people watching, I saw people’s attention drawn to the center of the ice skating rink. It turned out that there was a television show shooting at the ice skating rink. I think it was a scene from a TV show called Monk.

The photo below was taken at night on the Fifth Avenue part of the complex. It is a large sculpture depicting Atlas carry the world on his shoulders. At night, it was lighted quite nicely, and you can see the tall GE Building in the background.

Atlas

Gateway Arch

Posted on by
Reply

The Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, is another very recognizable landmark in the United States. The Gateway Arch was built as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park, which was established to commemorate Thomas Jefferson’s role in the Louisiana Purchase, which cleared the way for Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the western part of what is now the United States. The Gateway Arch was designed by architect Eero Saarinen, who was also known for his design work on the Main Terminal at the Washington-Dulles International Airport, not far from where I live in Washington, DC, area.

I visited the Gateway Arch briefly during my coast-to-coast road trip with my brother tracing the historic Route 66 through St. Louis. We only visited the grounds of the Gateway Arch since we were under tight schedule for our trip. One activity that you could do if you visit the Gateway Arch with some time to spare is to take the elevator up inside the Arch. You can also visit the Museum of Westward Expansion to learn more about the history of land exploration in the Old West.

The photo below was taken from the grounds near the base of the Arch. Because of the size of the Arch, I had to take the photo in an angle to capture the whole Arch within the frame.

Gateway Arch

The Breakers

Posted on by
Reply

I started the last day of my New England road trip with a visit to The Breakers, a mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, owned by the Vanderbilt family.

In the late 19th century, the Newport, RI, area became a summer destination for the wealthy Americans. There are several of those mansions that today became museums that you can visit. But one that is definite a ‘must visit’ is The Breakers, a 70-room mansion built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II (who was among the wealthiest persons in the United States at the time). He spared no expense in building this mansion. The home was constructed between 1893 and 1895 at a cost of more than $12 million (approximately $316 million in today’s dollars adjusted for inflation).

During the visit there, as part of the admission you get a headset/handheld player for a self-guided audio tour of the home. So you can spend as much or as little time on any part of the home. You’re not allowed to take photos inside the home, but you’re allowed to do so at the balcony outside and at the grounds around the home.

Here are some of my thoughts from my visit to this huge mansion. The home was definitely impressive and opulent, though it’s not my style preference (I like the modern style of interior design, more minimalist and clean style rather than the ornate). It’s mindboggling to think that this was only a vacation home for the Vanderbilt family, not their primary residence. The sad part of the story was that Mr. Vanderbilt could only enjoy the home that he built for four years, as he died due to a stroke in 1899. And it seemed that none of the Vanderbilt children except their youngest one, Countess Gladys Széchenyi, liked the property (she ended up inheriting it from her mother). Today it is preserved and opened up as a museum that provides a view to the life of the American rich and famous from the 19th century.

The photo below was taken at the balcony of the home’s second floor. Personally I thought the balcony was my favorite space in this home as it felt like a getaway from the heavily decorated rooms inside the home, and the ocean view facing the east was awesome and peaceful.

Balcony at The Breakers

Fallingwater

Posted on by
Reply

In the next few days, I’ll be posting blog entries highlighting some photo sets in my flickr collection taken in autumn.

Given that it’s fall time now, I thought it’s appropriate to start with a set of photos taken in the fall several years ago at a place called Fallingwater. Fallingwater is a famous architecture masterpiece in Mill Run, PA. It’s a home on top of a waterfall designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. This place is among my favorite places to visit — not only because it’s very scenic around there, but also because the home has many interesting features that highlight Mr. Wright’s forward thinking in the world or architecture. This particular photo set was taken during a visit in late October 2006. It was a little after the peak foliage time for the year, and I went during the weekday to avoid the weekend crowd typically encountered during the high season. The result is a set of photos of the home without too many visitors in it, so the house itself really shines as the subject. Since I posted the photos on flickr, somehow the photos in this set were among the most popular photos in the photostream. The photo below has the distinction to be the most viewed photo to date in my flickr collection.

Fallingwater, Mill Run, PA