 
"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire."
~ Ferdinand Foch
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Uploaded on Nov 16, 2009
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United States Air Force Memorial
Arlington, VA
The United States Air Force Memorial honors the service of the personnel of the United States Air Force and its predecessors. The Memorial is located in Arlington, Virginia, on the grounds of Fort Myer near The Pentagon, at the intersection of Columbia Pike and South Joyce Street. It was the last project of American architect James Ingo Freed (known for the design of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) with the firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners for the United States Air Force Memorial Foundation.
At the entrance from the west stands four eight-foot tall bronze statues of the Memorial’s Honor Guard, sculpted by Zenos Frudakis. The eight-foot-tall, four figure sculpture are reflective of all “Airmen,” those men and women presently serving, those that have served and those that will serve.
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Uploaded on Nov 15, 2009
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Jefferson Memorial
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Washington, DC
Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 – 4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806).
As a political philosopher, Jefferson was a man of the Enlightenment and knew many intellectual leaders in Britain and France. He idealized the independent yeoman farmer as exemplar of republican virtues, distrusted cities and financiers, and favored states' rights and a strictly limited federal government. Jefferson supported the separation of church and state and was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1779, 1786). He was the eponym of Jeffersonian democracy and the co-founder and leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics for a quarter-century and was the precursor of the modern-day Democratic Party. Jefferson served as the wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781), first United States Secretary of State (1789–1793) and second Vice President (1797–1801).
A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia. When President John F. Kennedy welcomed forty-nine Nobel Prize winners to the White House in 1962 he said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent and of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House—with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
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Uploaded on Nov 15, 2009
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National Building Museum
National Building Museum
401 F Street
Washington, DC
The historic home of the National Building Museum stands today as one of the great American buildings of the nineteenth century and one of Washington, DC’s most spectacular works of public architecture. Built between 1882 and 1887, the project began following a Senate Appropriations Committee approval of $250,000 to purchase a suitable site and construct a fireproof building for the US Pension Bureau’s headquarters. US Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs was appointed as both the architect and engineer for the building. The building was Meig's last and most important architectural work and the one of which he was most proud.
The building was designed for two distinct functions: to house the Pension Bureau and to provide a suitably grand space for Washington’s social and political functions. The design was inspired by two Roman palaces. The exterior is modeled closely on the brick, monumentally-scaled Palazzo Farnese, completed to Michelangelo’s specifications in 1589. The building's interior, with its open arcaded galleries surrounding a central hall, is reminiscent of the early-sixteenth-century Palazzo della Cancelleria. For the colossal Corinthian columns that divide the Great Hall, Meigs took his inspiration from the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome built by Michelangelo in the mid-sixteenth century.
Brick was the primary building material for the Pension Building; a choice largely driven by the affordability of brick and the directive that the building be fireproof. Despite the use of such a functional, ordinary material Meigs employed expert bricklayers and used pressed red brick to achieve the building's regular, smooth face. The decorative elements of the building were also accomplished in an "economic" fashion with ornamental terra cotta and painted plaster on brick surfaces rather than expensive building materials such as carved stone or fine marble. Decorative terra cotta details include the frieze along the building’s exterior, relief spandrels and decorative keystones over the doorways, and the detailed bases of the Corinthian columns.
The interior of the building is dominated not by offices and storage facilities, but by a grand central space, the Great Hall. Measuring 116 x 316 feet, the Great Hall features a central fountain and is divided into three courts by two screens of four colossal Corinthian columns—among the tallest classical columns in the world.
From the design of the roof to the ingenious ventilation system that created a continuous flow of fresh air throughout the building, the Pension Building is a marvel of engineering. An ingenious system of windows, vents, and open archways allows the Great Hall to function as a reservoir for light and air.
The Pension Building continued to serve as office space for a variety of government tenants through the 1960s. The government began to consider demolishing the building as it was badly in need of repair, but they came under pressure from preservationists and commissioned architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith to explore other possibilities for its use. In her 1967 report, “The Pension Building: A Building in Search of a Client,” Smith introduced the idea that the building be converted to a museum of the building arts. In 1969, the Pension Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Congress passed a resolution in 1978 calling for the preservation of the building as a national treasure, and a 1980 Act of Congress mandated the creation of the National Building Museum as a private, non profit educational institution.
The glorious building that you visit today is the result of years of careful renovation and restoration. In 1997, the historic building was officially renamed the National Building Museum.
Check out my photoblog: kimberlyfaye's photos.
All rights reserved
Uploaded on Nov 15, 2009
2 comments
National Building Museum
National Building Museum
401 F Street
Washington, DC
The historic home of the National Building Museum stands today as one of the great American buildings of the nineteenth century and one of Washington, DC’s most spectacular works of public architecture. Built between 1882 and 1887, the project began following a Senate Appropriations Committee approval of $250,000 to purchase a suitable site and construct a fireproof building for the US Pension Bureau’s headquarters. US Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs was appointed as both the architect and engineer for the building. The building was Meig's last and most important architectural work and the one of which he was most proud.
The building was designed for two distinct functions: to house the Pension Bureau and to provide a suitably grand space for Washington’s social and political functions. The design was inspired by two Roman palaces. The exterior is modeled closely on the brick, monumentally-scaled Palazzo Farnese, completed to Michelangelo’s specifications in 1589. The building's interior, with its open arcaded galleries surrounding a central hall, is reminiscent of the early-sixteenth-century Palazzo della Cancelleria. For the colossal Corinthian columns that divide the Great Hall, Meigs took his inspiration from the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome built by Michelangelo in the mid-sixteenth century.
Brick was the primary building material for the Pension Building; a choice largely driven by the affordability of brick and the directive that the building be fireproof. Despite the use of such a functional, ordinary material Meigs employed expert bricklayers and used pressed red brick to achieve the building's regular, smooth face. The decorative elements of the building were also accomplished in an "economic" fashion with ornamental terra cotta and painted plaster on brick surfaces rather than expensive building materials such as carved stone or fine marble. Decorative terra cotta details include the frieze along the building’s exterior, relief spandrels and decorative keystones over the doorways, and the detailed bases of the Corinthian columns.
The interior of the building is dominated not by offices and storage facilities, but by a grand central space, the Great Hall. Measuring 116 x 316 feet, the Great Hall features a central fountain and is divided into three courts by two screens of four colossal Corinthian columns—among the tallest classical columns in the world.
From the design of the roof to the ingenious ventilation system that created a continuous flow of fresh air throughout the building, the Pension Building is a marvel of engineering. An ingenious system of windows, vents, and open archways allows the Great Hall to function as a reservoir for light and air.
The Pension Building continued to serve as office space for a variety of government tenants through the 1960s. The government began to consider demolishing the building as it was badly in need of repair, but they came under pressure from preservationists and commissioned architect Chloethiel Woodard Smith to explore other possibilities for its use. In her 1967 report, “The Pension Building: A Building in Search of a Client,” Smith introduced the idea that the building be converted to a museum of the building arts. In 1969, the Pension Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Congress passed a resolution in 1978 calling for the preservation of the building as a national treasure, and a 1980 Act of Congress mandated the creation of the National Building Museum as a private, non profit educational institution.
The glorious building that you visit today is the result of years of careful renovation and restoration. In 1997, the historic building was officially renamed the National Building Museum.
Check out my photoblog: kimberlyfaye's photos.
All rights reserved
Uploaded on Nov 15, 2009
3 comments
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