World Architecture
World Architecture is a art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
121. Mount Rushmore
South Dakota
The broad granite southeast face of 5,725-foot (1,750-meter) Mount Rushmore, neat Rapid City, South Dakota, is carved with the massive portrait heads of four U.S. presidentsGeorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. For its sheer engineering ingenuity and ambitiousness of scaleWashingtons head is 60 feet (18 meters) highthe ensemble may be regarded as an architectural feat. In 1923 South Dakotas state historian Doane Robinson suggested carving giant statues in the Black Hills. Perhaps he was prompted by the knowledge that a colossal Confederate memorial had been commissioned a few years earlier for Stone Mountain, Georgia, but it is more likely that the idea was first conceived as a tourist attraction. Initially, Robinson wanted to have a cluster of tall granite outcroppings known as the Needles carved to form a procession of the Amerindian leaders and European explorers who shaped the Western frontier. Conservationists resisted the idea, and there was no public support. Nevertheless, in 1925 the financial backers of the proposed memorial approached the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who was known to specialize in large-scale sculpture and was then rather unhappily employed on Stone Mountain. Borglum suggested that the southeast face of Mount Rushmore would make an ideal site for a monument. He proposed to carve the heads of the four presidents beside a table inscribed with a history of the United States. Such a composition would have more than regional significance it would commemorate the foundation, preservation and continental expansion of the United States and be a shrine to democracy. And behind the figures a hall of records would preserve national documents and artifacts. President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the memorial in 1927, and Borglum began drilling. But although less than half the time was spent on actual carving, the work would take fourteen years to complete. Most of the delay was due to money shortages during the Great Depression. Borglum lobbied at every political level, playing on nationalistic feelings and stressing that public works created jobs and won votes. As a result of his persistence, nearly 85 percent of the monuments $1 million cost came from federal coffers. The Washington head, 500 feet (150 meters) up the mountain, was formally dedicated in 1930, when the name Shrine of Democracy was officially adopted Jefferson followed in 1936, Lincoln in 1937, and Roosevelt in 1939. Borglum died in March 1941 and his son Lincoln supervised the completion of the sculpture. Borglums plaster maquettes were based on life masks, images, and descriptions, but the differences between them and the finished heads demonstrate that the sculptor did not simply transpose from plaster to stone. Once the dimensions were scaled up to the finished size and marked out on the mountain, the team of carvers was faced with the problem of removing the unwanted granite. Despite Borglums first inclination against its use, dynamite was the only practical way to do that. Once an oval-shaped mass of rock was formed for each head, explosive experts blasted its surfaces to the approximate final measurements. Carvers suspended in bosuns chairs shaped the features. They used pneumatic drills to cut closely spaced holes that nearly defined the final surface, and the honeycombed granite was ultimately chiseled away to expose the smooth surfaces of the presidents faces. Viewed from a distance, stone miraculously became flesh as the architect Frank Lloyd Wright observed, The noble countenances emerge from Rushmore as though the spirit of the mountain heard a human plan and itself became a human countenance. A similar feat, already mentioned, deserves a little more detail. The north face of Stone Mountain, 16 miles (26 kilometers) east of Atlanta, Georgia, is carved with a 138-foot (42-meter) equestrian bas-relief of the Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson B. Davis. What began in 1915 as a commission for Borglum to produce a 70-foot (21-meter) statue of Lee developed into a proposal for the group portrait. Preliminary work started soon after World War I and carving began in June 1923. Irreconcilable differences with the client caused Borglum to quit in March 1925just as he received the Black Hills commissionwhen little more than Lees head had been finished. Augustus Lukeman replaced Borglum, dynamited most of the earlier work, and started again. Disputes over property ownership halted the project in 1928, and it was not revived until 1960, when an international competition led to the appointment of Walker Hancock as chief carver. He started work in 1964, making only slight modifications to the Lukeman design. The use of thermo-jet torches allowed for rapid, accurate removal of the stone and, in collaboration with Roy Faulkner, Hancock had the gigantic memorial finished by 1972. The grandiose neoclassical character and the gigantic size of Mount Rushmore and similar projects call for comment about our seemingly irresistible need to enshrine ideals that are anything but inhuman through overwhelming and inhuman scale. Consider, for example, the 150-foot (45-meter) Statue of Liberty or the Cristo Redentore above Rio de Janeiro. On the other hand, colossi have been built for reasons of vainglory: the Colossus of Rhodes collapsed after one generation the 120-foot (36-meter) statue of Nero (originally near the Roman Colosseum and providing its name) is long gone. One of the multitude of Egypts Ramessean statues is described by the poet Percy Shelley as a colossal wreck, two vast and trunkless legs of stone. Destroyed by nature or by conquerors, such works are at once monuments to our engineering ingenuity and our transience.
The broad granite southeast face of 5,725-foot (1,750-meter) Mount Rushmore, neat Rapid City, South Dakota, is carved with the massive portrait heads of four U.S. presidentsGeorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. For its sheer engineering ingenuity and ambitiousness of scaleWashingtons head is 60 feet (18 meters) highthe ensemble may be regarded as an architectural feat. In 1923 South Dakotas state historian Doane Robinson suggested carving giant statues in the Black Hills. Perhaps he was prompted by the knowledge that a colossal Confederate memorial had been commissioned a few years earlier for Stone Mountain, Georgia, but it is more likely that the idea was first conceived as a tourist attraction. Initially, Robinson wanted to have a cluster of tall granite outcroppings known as the Needles carved to form a procession of the Amerindian leaders and European explorers who shaped the Western frontier. Conservationists resisted the idea, and there was no public support. Nevertheless, in 1925 the financial backers of the proposed memorial approached the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who was known to specialize in large-scale sculpture and was then rather unhappily employed on Stone Mountain. Borglum suggested that the southeast face of Mount Rushmore would make an ideal site for a monument. He proposed to carve the heads of the four presidents beside a table inscribed with a history of the United States. Such a composition would have more than regional significance it would commemorate the foundation, preservation and continental expansion of the United States and be a shrine to democracy. And behind the figures a hall of records would preserve national documents and artifacts. President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the memorial in 1927, and Borglum began drilling. But although less than half the time was spent on actual carving, the work would take fourteen years to complete. Most of the delay was due to money shortages during the Great Depression. Borglum lobbied at every political level, playing on nationalistic feelings and stressing that public works created jobs and won votes. As a result of his persistence, nearly 85 percent of the monuments $1 million cost came from federal coffers. The Washington head, 500 feet (150 meters) up the mountain, was formally dedicated in 1930, when the name Shrine of Democracy was officially adopted Jefferson followed in 1936, Lincoln in 1937, and Roosevelt in 1939. Borglum died in March 1941 and his son Lincoln supervised the completion of the sculpture. Borglums plaster maquettes were based on life masks, images, and descriptions, but the differences between them and the finished heads demonstrate that the sculptor did not simply transpose from plaster to stone. Once the dimensions were scaled up to the finished size and marked out on the mountain, the team of carvers was faced with the problem of removing the unwanted granite. Despite Borglums first inclination against its use, dynamite was the only practical way to do that. Once an oval-shaped mass of rock was formed for each head, explosive experts blasted its surfaces to the approximate final measurements. Carvers suspended in bosuns chairs shaped the features. They used pneumatic drills to cut closely spaced holes that nearly defined the final surface, and the honeycombed granite was ultimately chiseled away to expose the smooth surfaces of the presidents faces. Viewed from a distance, stone miraculously became flesh as the architect Frank Lloyd Wright observed, The noble countenances emerge from Rushmore as though the spirit of the mountain heard a human plan and itself became a human countenance. A similar feat, already mentioned, deserves a little more detail. The north face of Stone Mountain, 16 miles (26 kilometers) east of Atlanta, Georgia, is carved with a 138-foot (42-meter) equestrian bas-relief of the Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson B. Davis. What began in 1915 as a commission for Borglum to produce a 70-foot (21-meter) statue of Lee developed into a proposal for the group portrait. Preliminary work started soon after World War I and carving began in June 1923. Irreconcilable differences with the client caused Borglum to quit in March 1925just as he received the Black Hills commissionwhen little more than Lees head had been finished. Augustus Lukeman replaced Borglum, dynamited most of the earlier work, and started again. Disputes over property ownership halted the project in 1928, and it was not revived until 1960, when an international competition led to the appointment of Walker Hancock as chief carver. He started work in 1964, making only slight modifications to the Lukeman design. The use of thermo-jet torches allowed for rapid, accurate removal of the stone and, in collaboration with Roy Faulkner, Hancock had the gigantic memorial finished by 1972. The grandiose neoclassical character and the gigantic size of Mount Rushmore and similar projects call for comment about our seemingly irresistible need to enshrine ideals that are anything but inhuman through overwhelming and inhuman scale. Consider, for example, the 150-foot (45-meter) Statue of Liberty or the Cristo Redentore above Rio de Janeiro. On the other hand, colossi have been built for reasons of vainglory: the Colossus of Rhodes collapsed after one generation the 120-foot (36-meter) statue of Nero (originally near the Roman Colosseum and providing its name) is long gone. One of the multitude of Egypts Ramessean statues is described by the poet Percy Shelley as a colossal wreck, two vast and trunkless legs of stone. Destroyed by nature or by conquerors, such works are at once monuments to our engineering ingenuity and our transience.
122. Mycenae Greece
Imposing even as a ruin, Agamemnons city MycenaeHomer called it Mycenae, rich in goldstands on a foothill of Mount Euboea between Hagios Elias and Mount Zara near the modern village that still bears its name: Mik
123. Mystra Greece
The ruins of the medieval city of Mystra are 3 miles (5 kilometers) northwest of modern Sparta in the Peloponnese. In 1204 the Fourth Crusade, turned aside from its original purpose by Venetian bribes, sacked Constantinople and established Frankish dominion over Greek territories. Among the most important states they founded was the Principality of the Morea, or the Principality of Achaea, governed from 1210 by Geoffroi I de Villehardouin. In 1249 his second son, Guillaume II de Villehardouin, built a castle atop a steep cone-shaped foothill overlooking the fertile valley of Eurotas and strategically commanding the Taygetos Range to the west and the valley of Laconia to the east.
Over the next few centuries the city of Mystra grew on the slopes below. Its name probably comes from the shape of the hill, which resembled a Myzethra cheese. Mystra, with a population that once exceeded 42,000, has been dubbed the wonder of the Morea. Like Venice, but for different reasons, it occupies a site that is totally inappropriate for a city, and its construction was a significant architectural achievement.
In 1261 the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus regained Constantinople. The following year, Guillaume II de Villehardouin paid his ransomhe had been captured in 1259with a number of castles including Mystra, and Michael VIII installed a Byzantine despot. The Villehardouin line survived until 1301, when Philip of Savoy became Prince of Morea. Throughout most of the fourteenth century the principality was in the hands of the Angevin House of Naples, and then controlled by the Venetians. The Byzantines regained it through matrimonial and political alliances and in 1448 Constantine XI Paleologus, the last Byzantine emperor, was crowned at Mystra. For about 350 years after 1460 Turks and Venetians took and retook the city. In 1821 it was among the first places the Greeks liberated from their Turkish oppressors. Ironically, the demise of Mystra was brought about by the foundation of the modern town of Sparta in 1834. The first inhabitants came from the old city others built the modern village of Mystra.
Mystra has had a tumultuous history, and the different traditions of its occupiers account for its hybridized architecture. In the mid thirteenth century, the Byzantines persistent attempts to expel the Franks caused anxiety among the local populace. Many left the Eurotas plain to settle closer to the castle of Mystra. Houses were built on the lower slopes of the hill, and soon churches were constructed, clinging to the mountainside. This precipitous medieval city was surrounded by inner and outer circuit walls, commissioned in 1249 by Guillaume II de Villehardouin, and later repaired and augmented by the Byzantines and the Turks when they occupied the city. The walls were fortified by high rectangular towers, and of course dominated by the castle. They can hardly be described as concentric, because they snaked along contours and plummeted down steep slopes nevertheless, they contained and defended the city. On its northeast and west sides the craggy hill of Mystra climbs sheer from the narrow valley. The defensive walls divided Mystra into the lower and upper quarters: the urban classes lived in the former, while the aristocracy occupied the latter with its palaces, two- or three-story vaulted mansions, and various administrative buildings. Two heavily fortified gatesthe Monembassia and the Nauplialinked them.
The L-shaped Palace of the Despots, possibly begun by Guillaume II de Villehardouin and built in stages between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, occupies an incongruously flat terrace overlooking the Eurotas Valley to the east. The two wings housed many different functions: the private apartments, a palace chapel, an open colonnade, and a large well-lighted hall for assemblies and ceremonies. Just north of the palace stood the mid-fourteenth-century church of Hagia Sofia, a centrally planned funerary chapel for the despot Manouil Katakouzenos. The winding streets of Mystra, as they followed the contours of the hillside, are lined with churches, many built after the metropolitan bishop of Lacedaemoniathe medieval name for Spartatransferred his cathedra to Mystra. Chief among them is the mixed architectural type cathedral: the Metropolis of St. Demetrios (ca. 1309) is a three-aisled basilica at its lower level the fifteenth-century upper floor, consisting of a womens gallery, is a cross-in-square roofed with five cupolas. Many churchesthe thirteenth-century Church of St. Theodore, the Church of the Virgin Evangelistria, and the Peribleptos Monastery (both fourteenth century)were purely Byzantine in form. Apart from the fifteenth-century Pantanassa Convent, which is still in use, the buildings of Mystra have been reduced to ruins, some by fire, others by being used as quarries when modern Sparta was being built. A few fine frescoes survive many more have been destroyed.
Extensive restoration work has been undertaken over many years by the Committee for the Restoration of the Mystras Monuments and the Fifth Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities. Mystra was inscribed on UNESCOs World Heritage List in 1989.
124. Nazca Lines
Peru
The Pampa Colorado (Red Plain) is a 37-mile-long (60-kilometer) and 15-mile-wide (24-kilometer) plateau in the coastal desert of southern Peru near the town of Nazca. Across its broad face are carved staggeringly cyclopean patterns, an agglomeration of designs on the earths surface known as geoglyphs, which portray animals, birds, and other forms, mostly made by removing the dark reddish brown surface to expose a lighter-colored substratum in some places piled rocks define the enigmatic forms. The challenge presented to the modern imagination by this ancient engineering feat is threefold: its momentous scale and the accuracy of surveying techniques that could project straight lines for miles over irregular terrain are remarkable enough. Beyond them is the uncanny ability of a people whose entire spatial experience was planar, never far above the surface of the earth, to conceive of geometric patterns and representational images whose accuracy and intricacy could be fully appreciated only from high indeed, very high above. The Nazca Lines, as they are called, comprise literally thousands of zigzag, parallel, crossed, or radiating lines: some are 6 feet (1.8 meters) wide, others just a tenth of that. Some stretch for 6 miles (10 kilometers), maintaining their straightness regardless of the uneven topography. There are also simple or complex geometric shapes, including triangles and rectangles, nearly twenty varieties of fantastic birds, a monkey, a spider, a dog, a fish, a tree, and a hummingbird represented. As to their size: the monkey occupies the area of a football stadium one bird has a 350-foot (100-meter) wingspan and the spider, among the smallest geoglyphs, has a diameter of 150 feet (45 meters). Together, the lines and figures cover 45 square miles (115 square kilometers). Of course, they are best seen from above and were discovered only when aircraft first crossed the area in the 1930s. The origin of the lines remains uncertain, although because of their similarity to design motifs on other artifacts, they are attributed to the well-developed Nazca civilization, which flourished between 200 b.c. and a.d. 600. Based on the same evidence, some sources suggest that three successive cultures were responsible for the lines: the Paracas (900 200 b.c.), the Nazcas, and later settlers who migrated from Ayacucho around a.d. 630. Each culture was agrarian and it is likely that the lines may have been associated with rituals to guarantee a rich crop. On the other hand, the German anthropologist Dr. Maria Reiche, who studied the Nazca Lines for nearly fifty years, believed that they were a vast astronomical calendar, also associated with farming. Studies in the 1980s led others to the conclusion that, while part of elaborate rituals related to fertility, the lines had neither astronomical nor calendrical significance. A decade later a new theory emerged: they charted the origins and courses of aquifers rivers beneath the desert associated with irrigation farming in the region. In our modern culture of scientism we disengage the rational from the spiritual, and care must be taken to avoid too simple an interpretation of the actions of people whose universe was better integrated. All of the suggestions about the purpose of the Nazca Lines could be accurate.Even in their own time and place the Nazca Lines were not an isolated phenomenon. Many geoglyphs are to be found throughout South America. Areas with lines and figures very like Nazcas have been studied on the central Peruvian coast between the Fortaleza, Pativilca, and Rimac Valleys. Others have been found in the Viru Valley, on Perus north coast, and in the Zana Valley, more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) north of Nazca. More examples of ground figures and hill figures survive on the other side of the world. The 370-foot-long (110-meter) White Horse (ca. 500 b.c.) cut into the chalk hills at Uffington is among Britains most famous, second only to the pre-Christian Cerne Giant in Dorset, a 180-foot-tall (54-meter) human figure, carrying a 120-foot (36-meter) club there is also the Long Man of Wilmington, Sussex. As late as 1998 a 2.5-mile-tall (4-kilometer) figure of an aboriginal warrior was discovered carved on the desert floor near Marree in the South Australian outback. It was soon exposed as a hoax, created with the help of satellite tracking equipment and earthmoving machinery The very fact of the difficulty of making such a figure using modern technology emphasizes more the incredible achievement of the ancient creators of the Nazca Lines.
The Pampa Colorado (Red Plain) is a 37-mile-long (60-kilometer) and 15-mile-wide (24-kilometer) plateau in the coastal desert of southern Peru near the town of Nazca. Across its broad face are carved staggeringly cyclopean patterns, an agglomeration of designs on the earths surface known as geoglyphs, which portray animals, birds, and other forms, mostly made by removing the dark reddish brown surface to expose a lighter-colored substratum in some places piled rocks define the enigmatic forms. The challenge presented to the modern imagination by this ancient engineering feat is threefold: its momentous scale and the accuracy of surveying techniques that could project straight lines for miles over irregular terrain are remarkable enough. Beyond them is the uncanny ability of a people whose entire spatial experience was planar, never far above the surface of the earth, to conceive of geometric patterns and representational images whose accuracy and intricacy could be fully appreciated only from high indeed, very high above. The Nazca Lines, as they are called, comprise literally thousands of zigzag, parallel, crossed, or radiating lines: some are 6 feet (1.8 meters) wide, others just a tenth of that. Some stretch for 6 miles (10 kilometers), maintaining their straightness regardless of the uneven topography. There are also simple or complex geometric shapes, including triangles and rectangles, nearly twenty varieties of fantastic birds, a monkey, a spider, a dog, a fish, a tree, and a hummingbird represented. As to their size: the monkey occupies the area of a football stadium one bird has a 350-foot (100-meter) wingspan and the spider, among the smallest geoglyphs, has a diameter of 150 feet (45 meters). Together, the lines and figures cover 45 square miles (115 square kilometers). Of course, they are best seen from above and were discovered only when aircraft first crossed the area in the 1930s. The origin of the lines remains uncertain, although because of their similarity to design motifs on other artifacts, they are attributed to the well-developed Nazca civilization, which flourished between 200 b.c. and a.d. 600. Based on the same evidence, some sources suggest that three successive cultures were responsible for the lines: the Paracas (900 200 b.c.), the Nazcas, and later settlers who migrated from Ayacucho around a.d. 630. Each culture was agrarian and it is likely that the lines may have been associated with rituals to guarantee a rich crop. On the other hand, the German anthropologist Dr. Maria Reiche, who studied the Nazca Lines for nearly fifty years, believed that they were a vast astronomical calendar, also associated with farming. Studies in the 1980s led others to the conclusion that, while part of elaborate rituals related to fertility, the lines had neither astronomical nor calendrical significance. A decade later a new theory emerged: they charted the origins and courses of aquifers rivers beneath the desert associated with irrigation farming in the region. In our modern culture of scientism we disengage the rational from the spiritual, and care must be taken to avoid too simple an interpretation of the actions of people whose universe was better integrated. All of the suggestions about the purpose of the Nazca Lines could be accurate.Even in their own time and place the Nazca Lines were not an isolated phenomenon. Many geoglyphs are to be found throughout South America. Areas with lines and figures very like Nazcas have been studied on the central Peruvian coast between the Fortaleza, Pativilca, and Rimac Valleys. Others have been found in the Viru Valley, on Perus north coast, and in the Zana Valley, more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) north of Nazca. More examples of ground figures and hill figures survive on the other side of the world. The 370-foot-long (110-meter) White Horse (ca. 500 b.c.) cut into the chalk hills at Uffington is among Britains most famous, second only to the pre-Christian Cerne Giant in Dorset, a 180-foot-tall (54-meter) human figure, carrying a 120-foot (36-meter) club there is also the Long Man of Wilmington, Sussex. As late as 1998 a 2.5-mile-tall (4-kilometer) figure of an aboriginal warrior was discovered carved on the desert floor near Marree in the South Australian outback. It was soon exposed as a hoax, created with the help of satellite tracking equipment and earthmoving machinery The very fact of the difficulty of making such a figure using modern technology emphasizes more the incredible achievement of the ancient creators of the Nazca Lines.
125. Nemrud Dagi
Turkey
The hierotheseion (royal burial precinct) of King Antiochos I of Kommagene (reigned ca. 69 36 b.c.) stands on Nemrud Dagi, the highest point of his domain, near the modern village of Kahta in the southeastern Turkish province of Adiyaman. It has been characterized by UNESCO as one of the most ambitious constructions of Hellen[ist]ic times. The megalomaniac king reshaped the 7,000-foot-high (2,150-meter) mountain by leveling the rock and filling the artificial platform with huge statues of himself and the gods (whom he claimed as kin) he then ordered a 500-foot-diameter (150-meter), 163-foot-high (50-meter) tumulus (artificial peak) of fist-sized rocks to replace the natural summit. It is believed that his tomb, yet unopened, lies beneath the massive pile of rubble. Kommagene was a small buffer state between the Roman Empire and the kingdom of Persia. Located between the Amanos Mountains and the upper Euphrates, its capital Samosata commanded a strategic crossing of the great river. Mithradates father, Ptolemy, used that fact to seize control of the resource-rich area. It became an independent state in 162 b.c. After a brief subjection of the area to the Armenians, in 69 b.c. the Roman general Pompey installed Antiochos I on the throne. About 100 years later King Antiochos IV lost his wars with Rome and Vespasian absorbed Kommagene into the province of Syria. Antiochos I attempted to establish a new order. His first action was to build a hierotheseion to his father Mithradates Kallinikos I (died 63 b.c.) in the city of Arsameia (now Eski Kale). Its decorations and inscriptions made it clear that Antiochos intended to Hellenize the Kommagenian culture, uniting die Persian Parthian world with the Greco-Roman in effect, he set out to establish a new religion in which his own assumed divinity loomed large. Nowhere was that more evident than in his own hierotheseion on Nemrud Dagi. The great tumulus is flanked on the east, west, and north by terraces carved from the mountain it has been estimated that their creation involved the removal of 7 million cubic feet (200,000 cubic meters) of rock cut away by hand. On the east terrace stood an array of statues of the king and the gods, up to 33 feet (10 meters) high, carved from massive stone blocks mined in a remote quarry. The figures were set in order and identified by inscriptions written in Greek and Persian: Antiochos himself, the mother goddess Kommagene, the father god Zeus-Oromasdes (largest of the statues), Apollo-Mithras, and Herakles-Artagnes. Their faces were finely carved in the late Hellenistic style. At either end, the row of deities was guarded by the royal symbols: an eagle and a lion. At the eastern corner of the terrace stood a pyramidal altar of fire, and various elements around the platform carried carved relief portraits of the illustrious Persian and Macedonian ancestors whom Antiochos claimed as his own. Other relief decoration abounded. As far as the topography would allow, the west terrace, set some 33 feet (10 meters) lower than the east, was organized in the same way, to much the same purpose: the apotheosis of Antiochos. The syncretized Persian and Greek gods facing east and west on the respective terraces revealed Antiochoss attempted cultural synthesis. One inscription asserted that he had commissioned the site for posterity as a debt of thanks to the gods and to his deified ancestors for their manifest assistance he wanted to set for his people an example of the piety due towards the gods and towards ancestors. The north terrace, 269 feet (80 meters) long, was used for assemblies and rituals and also served as a processional way connecting the other terraces. Gigantic stone eagles flanked its entrance. The great tumulus was built on a rocky hill framed by the terraces. According to inscriptions, this was the place where Antiochos ordered that his remains should be buried. He died before his elaborate project was completed, and his son Mithradates neither finished the monumental work nor promoted the religious synthesis begun by his father. The site was abandoned, the last of its priests probably leaving soon after a.d. 72. Nemrud Dam was rediscovered in 1881 by one Karl Sester an 1882 1883 German exploratory expedition followed, as well as a Turkish investigation. The findings of both groups were published, but no more research was carried out until 1938, when Germans F. Karl D
The hierotheseion (royal burial precinct) of King Antiochos I of Kommagene (reigned ca. 69 36 b.c.) stands on Nemrud Dagi, the highest point of his domain, near the modern village of Kahta in the southeastern Turkish province of Adiyaman. It has been characterized by UNESCO as one of the most ambitious constructions of Hellen[ist]ic times. The megalomaniac king reshaped the 7,000-foot-high (2,150-meter) mountain by leveling the rock and filling the artificial platform with huge statues of himself and the gods (whom he claimed as kin) he then ordered a 500-foot-diameter (150-meter), 163-foot-high (50-meter) tumulus (artificial peak) of fist-sized rocks to replace the natural summit. It is believed that his tomb, yet unopened, lies beneath the massive pile of rubble. Kommagene was a small buffer state between the Roman Empire and the kingdom of Persia. Located between the Amanos Mountains and the upper Euphrates, its capital Samosata commanded a strategic crossing of the great river. Mithradates father, Ptolemy, used that fact to seize control of the resource-rich area. It became an independent state in 162 b.c. After a brief subjection of the area to the Armenians, in 69 b.c. the Roman general Pompey installed Antiochos I on the throne. About 100 years later King Antiochos IV lost his wars with Rome and Vespasian absorbed Kommagene into the province of Syria. Antiochos I attempted to establish a new order. His first action was to build a hierotheseion to his father Mithradates Kallinikos I (died 63 b.c.) in the city of Arsameia (now Eski Kale). Its decorations and inscriptions made it clear that Antiochos intended to Hellenize the Kommagenian culture, uniting die Persian Parthian world with the Greco-Roman in effect, he set out to establish a new religion in which his own assumed divinity loomed large. Nowhere was that more evident than in his own hierotheseion on Nemrud Dagi. The great tumulus is flanked on the east, west, and north by terraces carved from the mountain it has been estimated that their creation involved the removal of 7 million cubic feet (200,000 cubic meters) of rock cut away by hand. On the east terrace stood an array of statues of the king and the gods, up to 33 feet (10 meters) high, carved from massive stone blocks mined in a remote quarry. The figures were set in order and identified by inscriptions written in Greek and Persian: Antiochos himself, the mother goddess Kommagene, the father god Zeus-Oromasdes (largest of the statues), Apollo-Mithras, and Herakles-Artagnes. Their faces were finely carved in the late Hellenistic style. At either end, the row of deities was guarded by the royal symbols: an eagle and a lion. At the eastern corner of the terrace stood a pyramidal altar of fire, and various elements around the platform carried carved relief portraits of the illustrious Persian and Macedonian ancestors whom Antiochos claimed as his own. Other relief decoration abounded. As far as the topography would allow, the west terrace, set some 33 feet (10 meters) lower than the east, was organized in the same way, to much the same purpose: the apotheosis of Antiochos. The syncretized Persian and Greek gods facing east and west on the respective terraces revealed Antiochoss attempted cultural synthesis. One inscription asserted that he had commissioned the site for posterity as a debt of thanks to the gods and to his deified ancestors for their manifest assistance he wanted to set for his people an example of the piety due towards the gods and towards ancestors. The north terrace, 269 feet (80 meters) long, was used for assemblies and rituals and also served as a processional way connecting the other terraces. Gigantic stone eagles flanked its entrance. The great tumulus was built on a rocky hill framed by the terraces. According to inscriptions, this was the place where Antiochos ordered that his remains should be buried. He died before his elaborate project was completed, and his son Mithradates neither finished the monumental work nor promoted the religious synthesis begun by his father. The site was abandoned, the last of its priests probably leaving soon after a.d. 72. Nemrud Dam was rediscovered in 1881 by one Karl Sester an 1882 1883 German exploratory expedition followed, as well as a Turkish investigation. The findings of both groups were published, but no more research was carried out until 1938, when Germans F. Karl D
126. Newgrange
County Meath, Ireland
Newgrange is one of the most notable archeological monuments in Europe. Named in Gaelic Uaimh na Greine (Cave of the Sun), the great passage tomb stands on a low hillock beside the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland, about 9 miles (14 kilometers) from the sea. Newgrange was built around 3150 b.c., making it as old as some of the neolithic temples on Malta and much older than the pyramids of Egypt. It is a dramatic testimony to the ancient Celts scientific and architectural sophistication. Its designers employed great mathematical skills to create such an uncannily accurate astronomical instrument of gargantuan scale. It forms the center of Br
Newgrange is one of the most notable archeological monuments in Europe. Named in Gaelic Uaimh na Greine (Cave of the Sun), the great passage tomb stands on a low hillock beside the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland, about 9 miles (14 kilometers) from the sea. Newgrange was built around 3150 b.c., making it as old as some of the neolithic temples on Malta and much older than the pyramids of Egypt. It is a dramatic testimony to the ancient Celts scientific and architectural sophistication. Its designers employed great mathematical skills to create such an uncannily accurate astronomical instrument of gargantuan scale. It forms the center of Br
127. Offas Dike
English-Welsh border
Built by Offa, King of Mercia (a.d. 757 796), the impressive earthwork known as Offas Dike formed a boundary, albeit discontinuous, between England and Wales. One of the most remarkable structures in Britain, it runs 177 miles (280 kilometers) 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) longer than Hadrians Wall from the Dee Estuary in the north to the River Wye in the south. It is now generally agreed that the dike was not so much a fortification as a substantial line of demarcation. No earlier Anglo-Saxon king had unified southern England as Offa did, and with unity came power and wealth. He also formed ties with rulers across the channel and was accepted as an equal by Charlemagne, king of the Franks, with whom he entered a commercial treaty in 796. Even Pope Adrian I treated him with great respect. Some have suggested that the dike was built to give Mercia, command of the approaches to the English lowlands, but parts of it rise as much as 1,300 feet (400 meters) above sea level. The boundary it marked was hardly precise during Offas reign there were English communities to the west of it and Welsh communities to the east. Be that as it may, the dikes very presence made a strong statement about separation. There is an apocryphal story that it was [once] customary for the English to cut off the ears of every Welshman who was found to the east of the dike, and for the Welsh to hang every Englishman whom they found to the west of it. The dike consists of an earth bank in places 20 feet (6 meters) high with a 12-foot-deep (3.6-meter) ditch on the western side sometimes their combined width was 60 feet (18 meters). Natural features seemed to be used wherever practicable, but for the most part an earth embankment was built a total of 80 miles (130 kilometers). Elsewhere it was discontinuous, giving rise to the speculation that, having been initiated late in Offas reign, it was never finished. On the other hand, perhaps in those locations, the local topography served the same purpose. Welsh historian John Davies writes that Offas Dike was perhaps the most striking man-made boundary in the whole of Western Europe. Thousands of workers must have toiled to build it, evidence of Offas resources and the integrity of his kingdom. In places the straightness of its line for kilometers is evidence of the technical skills of its builders. No written records about the project survive. After 1066 the Norman invaders saw the value of the dike for defense, and many castles and abbeys of early date stand in its shadow on the eastern side. Offas Dike is a reminder of persistent Welsh-English antipathy. Although there is everywhere in Britain a challenge to the myth of a united kingdom, lately evidenced by the Scottish and Welsh elections of 1999, the signs of cultural disintegration are nowhere stronger than in Wales. That is expressed even in language differences. As someone has commented: for the source, we must look to the mid eighth century, when a long ditch was constructed, flanking a high earthen rampart that divided [the Celts from the Saxons] and which even today marks the boundary between those who consider themselves Welsh [and] those who consider themselves English.
Built by Offa, King of Mercia (a.d. 757 796), the impressive earthwork known as Offas Dike formed a boundary, albeit discontinuous, between England and Wales. One of the most remarkable structures in Britain, it runs 177 miles (280 kilometers) 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) longer than Hadrians Wall from the Dee Estuary in the north to the River Wye in the south. It is now generally agreed that the dike was not so much a fortification as a substantial line of demarcation. No earlier Anglo-Saxon king had unified southern England as Offa did, and with unity came power and wealth. He also formed ties with rulers across the channel and was accepted as an equal by Charlemagne, king of the Franks, with whom he entered a commercial treaty in 796. Even Pope Adrian I treated him with great respect. Some have suggested that the dike was built to give Mercia, command of the approaches to the English lowlands, but parts of it rise as much as 1,300 feet (400 meters) above sea level. The boundary it marked was hardly precise during Offas reign there were English communities to the west of it and Welsh communities to the east. Be that as it may, the dikes very presence made a strong statement about separation. There is an apocryphal story that it was [once] customary for the English to cut off the ears of every Welshman who was found to the east of the dike, and for the Welsh to hang every Englishman whom they found to the west of it. The dike consists of an earth bank in places 20 feet (6 meters) high with a 12-foot-deep (3.6-meter) ditch on the western side sometimes their combined width was 60 feet (18 meters). Natural features seemed to be used wherever practicable, but for the most part an earth embankment was built a total of 80 miles (130 kilometers). Elsewhere it was discontinuous, giving rise to the speculation that, having been initiated late in Offas reign, it was never finished. On the other hand, perhaps in those locations, the local topography served the same purpose. Welsh historian John Davies writes that Offas Dike was perhaps the most striking man-made boundary in the whole of Western Europe. Thousands of workers must have toiled to build it, evidence of Offas resources and the integrity of his kingdom. In places the straightness of its line for kilometers is evidence of the technical skills of its builders. No written records about the project survive. After 1066 the Norman invaders saw the value of the dike for defense, and many castles and abbeys of early date stand in its shadow on the eastern side. Offas Dike is a reminder of persistent Welsh-English antipathy. Although there is everywhere in Britain a challenge to the myth of a united kingdom, lately evidenced by the Scottish and Welsh elections of 1999, the signs of cultural disintegration are nowhere stronger than in Wales. That is expressed even in language differences. As someone has commented: for the source, we must look to the mid eighth century, when a long ditch was constructed, flanking a high earthen rampart that divided [the Celts from the Saxons] and which even today marks the boundary between those who consider themselves Welsh [and] those who consider themselves English.
128. Orders of architecture
To the ancient Greeks, the word cosmos conveyed the idea of the garnished universe, the world set in order. They believed that creation was the act of a great Demiurge who brought structure and form out of preexistent chaos, an ordering that permeated the physical universe. It was therefore perceptible in nature as a ubiquitous mathematical proportional system, a harmony in everything that could be seen or heard. To be in accord with that harmony, their own creations music, sculpture, architecture needed to correspond to cosmic order. Their great architectural achievement was to seek for that truth and express it in the development of three systems of building, each with its distinctive proportions, detail, and form, according to the culture that generated it. Those systems are known as the Doric, Ionic, and little used by the Greeks Corinthian orders of architecture. Each comprises a column with a base (in the case of the latter two), shaft, and capital, and a supported entablature, consisting of architrave, frieze, and cornice. Each was governed by an evolving system of proportions, linked to the module, the base diameter of the column each thus imposed architectural order.
The Doric order developed in the regions speaking a Dorian dialect, that is, mainland Greece and the colonies in southern Italy, Sicily, and further west. It is clearly derived from an earlier timber architecture, and when the transition was made from wood to stone in order to produce more appropriate, durable buildings for the gods, the form and details, having gained a kind of sanctity, were translated to the new material, right down to the fixing pegs. The sixth-century Temple of Hera (the so-called basilica) at Paestum, Italy, is a well-preserved example of the archaic form, with its squat proportions, coarse moldings, and heavy entablature. The classical quest for cosmic harmony led to refinements of form and detail until the Dorian Greeks achieved what appears to have been a satisfactory conclusion in the proportional balance and visual nuances of the Parthenon, Athens (447 432 b.c.).
The baseless column of the Doric order, rising directly from the temple platform (stylobate) made necessary by the uneven terrain had a tapering shaft with twenty shallow flutes separated by sharp arrises. The capital consisted of the convex echinus molding crowned with a flat rectangular slab (abacus). The plain architrave of stone blocks, with a molding at the top decorated with raised panels (regulae) and round projections (guttae), spanned from column to column. Above it was the frieze, consisting of double-grooved slabs (triglyphs) alternating with plain panels (metopes). The metopes and the relief sculptures that usually decorated them were painted in bright colors. The order was crowned by an overhanging molded cornice decorated with flower or figure sculptures.
The Greeks continued to use the Doric order until about the second century b.c. But it presented several difficulties. First, with no base to protect it, the column was subjected to wear and accidental damage. Second, it was extremely difficult to make: not only did the columns taper but they were also carved with a slight swelling (entasis) about halfway up to make them look straight. Coupled with the need to maintain sharp arrises between the flutes, that demanded very skillful masons work. Third, the placement of the triglyph was problematic. Because it was impossible to locate one over the center of each column and at the midpoint of the spaces between the columns, the appearance was regarded as unwieldy.
The Ionic order, which was fully developed by the sixth century b.c., was created by Greeks who established colonies along the southwestern coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey). The most remarkable Ionic building in the region was the huge Artemiseion at Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, commenced some time around 400 b.c. By then, the Ionic order had been long established on the Greek mainland, and the Erechtheion (421 406 b.c.) and the Temple of Athena Nike (427 424 b.c.), both on the Athenian Acropolis, are fine examples. It is of more slender proportion than the Doric. The molded base of the column rested on a stylobate, and the shaft, with twenty-four deep flutes (separated by narrow flat surfaces rather than sharp arrises), carried a capital usually carved from a single block with symmetrical spiral scrolls (volutes) flanking an echinus molding ornamented with an egg-and-dart pattern and supporting an abacus.The earliest Ionic capitals had rosettes in place of volutes, and the origins of the spiral pattern are obscure. Suggested sources have been rams horns, bulls horns, the foliage pattern of palm trees, and even the helical form of some seashells. Whatever the case, unlike the Doric, the capital was best viewed from front or back, and that presented a difficulty for designers, especially where the row of columns turned the corner of a building. Then, the outer volute on the corner column was turned outward at 45 degrees to make it right from two sides a compromise, not a best solution.
The Ionic entablature had an architrave comprising three bands, each projecting beyond the one beneath the highest was narrower than the other two. Above was a continuous frieze, usually encrusted with sculpture, and at the top sat a cornice enriched with dentil moldings, a corona, and a cyma molding.
The Corinthian was the most ornate order of architecture. It was also the latest, reaching its mature form around the middle of the fourth century b.c. Apart from its distinctive and elaborate capital a sort of inverted bell, covered with carvings of acanthus leaves it is otherwise very similar to the Ionic order, although the proportions are more slender.The oldest known example is in the cella of the Temple of the Epicurean Apollo at Bassae (ea. 420 b.c.). Among the chief examples are the circular structure known as the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates (334 b.c.), the earliest surviving building with external Corinthian, columns, and the octagonal Horologion of Andronicos (also known as the Tower of the Winds), with two Corinthian porches (before 50 b.c.). Both are in Athens. Also in that city was the massive Temple of the Olympian Zeus, started about 530 b.c. and completed by Hadrian in the second century a.d. It was perhaps the most notable of all Corinthian temples it was certainly the largest. The Corinthian order was seldom used by the Greeks, although it solved the problems that had been presented by the Doric and Ionic orders. However, it was enthusiastically developed in the Roman world.
The Romans copied Greek art and architecture, captivated by the forms rather than the cosmology that generated them. They employed the Corinthian order more than any other, cosmetically modifying it by changing the column base, adding complicated carved embellishments to the cornice, and producing all manner of fanciful variations to the capital, with showy leafage and sometimes grotesque human and animal figures. The so-called Composite order, attributed to the Romans by sixteenth-century writers, was simply a distortion of the Greek precedents, combining Ionic volutes with Corinthian acanthus motifs. The Romans also used the Ionic order but seem to have been too impatient to achieve the refinements of the Doric, inventing their own version. The Roman Doric, used infrequently, was also influenced by a slender column (with a base) developed by the Etruscans. The Tuscan order, known only from the account of the first-century architectural writer Vitruvius, closely resembled the Roman Doric.
The classical orders were eclipsed by the rise of Christianity, although they persisted in vestigial forms. An interest in Vitruvius was awakened in fifteenth-century Italy, and architects, captivated by all things Roman, made archeological studies of ancient ruins and employed the orders, often in an intuitive, uninformed way. Leone Battista Alberti and other more derivative architectural writers, including Serlio, Scamozzi, Vignola, and Palladio, urged the systematic application of the Roman not the Greek orders, with pedantic rules of proportion. Later, beyond Italy, the Frenchmen Philibert Delorme and Claude Perrault and the Englishman William Chambers wrote theoretical treatises about the architectural orders. Subsequently, during the artistic period known as the Greek Revival, strict conformity to the proportions of the original Greek models was practiced. Modern architecture had no place for the orders, but with the rise of postmodern architecture in the second half of the twentieth century, they appeared again, often so abstracted and deformed as to be barely recognizable. The American architect Charles Moore even invented one to flank his lively Piazza dItalia in New Orleans (1977 1978) he named it the Neon order.
129. Oresund Link
Scandinavia
The ambitious project to construct a fixed rail and road link across the 65-mile (105-kilometer) Oresund Strait was agreed to by the Danish and Swedish governments in March 1991. The resulting 10-mile (16-kilometer) combination of submarine tunnel, artificial island, and bridge, carrying a double-track electrified railroad and four lanes of freeway between Kastrup, Denmark, and Lernacken, Sweden, was officially opened on 1 July 2000. Responding to complex social, cultural, economic, ecological, geological, and technological constraints, the transoceanic international highway is a major achievement of design and logistical skill, demonstrating that high technology and environmental sustainability are compatible. Each country was responsible for extending its transport system to connect with the link. A/S Oresund built the Danish land works, while Svensk-Danska Brof
The ambitious project to construct a fixed rail and road link across the 65-mile (105-kilometer) Oresund Strait was agreed to by the Danish and Swedish governments in March 1991. The resulting 10-mile (16-kilometer) combination of submarine tunnel, artificial island, and bridge, carrying a double-track electrified railroad and four lanes of freeway between Kastrup, Denmark, and Lernacken, Sweden, was officially opened on 1 July 2000. Responding to complex social, cultural, economic, ecological, geological, and technological constraints, the transoceanic international highway is a major achievement of design and logistical skill, demonstrating that high technology and environmental sustainability are compatible. Each country was responsible for extending its transport system to connect with the link. A/S Oresund built the Danish land works, while Svensk-Danska Brof
130. Paddington Station
London England
Paddington Station, London, terminal of the Great Western Railway linking Englands capital with the Atlantic port of Bristol, was designed by engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 1859) with the assistance of architect Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820 1877). Built between 1850 and 1854, it was one of the first stations to utilize the iron-arched roof and the ridge-and-furrow roof glazing also employed in Joseph Paxtons Crystal Palace of 1851. It led to further exploitation of the iron arch in stations such as St. Pancras (1863 1865) and to extensive use of the roofing system. Railroad terminals were a significant nineteenth-century architectural development that added a new building type to the townscape. There were two quite specific types of space required a head building that housed the pedestrian entrance, ticket sales area, baggage storage, and refreshment and waiting rooms, and an adjacent shed with platforms at which trains and travelers arrived and departed. The building type presented architects with a dilemma since there was no existing morphological or stylistic precedent. Therefore, the designers of the earliest railroad stations merely adopted or adapted conventional building forms, materials, and styles. As the popularity of train travel increased, so did the need for wider station sheds to accommodate more tracks and platforms because of the limitations of traditional construction technology, structural advances and new materials such as iron and glass offered potential solutions. The relatively new profession of engineers, unrestrained by historicism, took up the challenge and designed sheds that exposed contemporary materials and advances and (most importantly) met their clients demands. Sometimes they collaborated with an architect, as Brunel did by inviting Wyatt to design Paddingtons decorative details. But despite innovation and audacity, the architectural form and esthetic of the railroad sheds was not well received, and they were obscured by a masonry head building that looked back to any of a number of past styles. Brunel, son of French-born engineer Marc Brunel (1769 1849), served his apprenticeship supervising the construction of his fathers Thames Tunnel project (1825 1843). Although work there was in abeyance, he won a commission for the acclaimed Clifton Suspension Bridge near Bristol (1829). In 1833 the promoters of the Great Western Railway appointed him engineer of the bold project to connect London by rail with the west of England. Brunel chose and surveyed the route and prepared plans. Despite outspoken opposition from landowners and rival transport providers, he argued the railroads merits in lengthy public hearings and before a parliamentary committee. He was highly praised for his persistence and performance when the bill for the Great Western Railroad was finally approved in August 1835. During the lines construction, Brunel supervised the laying of tracks and the building of bridges, viaducts, and tunnels, including the 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) Box Tunnel, which took about two and a half years to complete. The 151-mile (241.6-kilometer) railroad was finished in mid-1841 with one terminus at Temple Meads in Bristol and the other at Paddington, then a new suburb west of London. Brunel designed the Gothic-inspired Temple Meads Station (1839 1840) with its striking unsupported timber-arch roof spanning 72 feet (21 meters). The first Paddington Station was a temporary structure fitted between the arches of a road bridge. The permanent and grander replacement commenced in 1850 and was finished four years later.Paddington Station was built in a cutting and without a main facade. The Great Western Hotel (later Great Western Royal Hotel) of 1851 1853 by the architect Philip Hardwick (1820 1890) was next to the shed and served as its head building. Its Italian Renaissance detail, twin Jacobean towers, and mansard roof contrasted sharply with Brunels airy, cathedral-like structure. The entire train shed was 700 feet long, 238 feet wide, and 33 feet high (214 by 70 by 10 meters), covered by a triple-arched roof. The central arch, spanning 102 feet (31 meters), was flanked by one of 70 feet (21 meters) and another of 68 feet (20 meters). Two 50-foot-wide (15-meter) transepts integrated the space. In 1916, a fourth shed, spanning 109 feet (30 meters), was added on the northeast side. Originally, in the absence of a southern concourse, a retractable drawbridge provided access to the inner platforms. The roof, ironclad and partly glazed, was carried on slender wrought-iron arches a cast-iron column bolted to a brick foundation supported every third rib. Wyatt provided the neo-Renaissance-cum-Moorish embellishments to the columns and the sinuous wrought-iron ornamentation in the glazed end-arches. The effect of the spacious train shed interior has been described as dramatic and its ambiance as that of a greenhouse.Paddington Station is now a heritage-listed building under redevelopment by architects Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners as the central London terminal for the express train to Heathrow Airport. A concourse extension, named the Lawn Area because it incorporates the site of the station masters former garden, has been covered by a glass roof. Glass and aluminum have been used extensively to enhance the character of Brunels building. The second stage of the project includes replacement of the 1916 train shed with a new concourse opening to the adjacent Regents Canal a prominent transfer structure is also proposed with more buildings, including a 42-story tower block.
Paddington Station, London, terminal of the Great Western Railway linking Englands capital with the Atlantic port of Bristol, was designed by engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806 1859) with the assistance of architect Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820 1877). Built between 1850 and 1854, it was one of the first stations to utilize the iron-arched roof and the ridge-and-furrow roof glazing also employed in Joseph Paxtons Crystal Palace of 1851. It led to further exploitation of the iron arch in stations such as St. Pancras (1863 1865) and to extensive use of the roofing system. Railroad terminals were a significant nineteenth-century architectural development that added a new building type to the townscape. There were two quite specific types of space required a head building that housed the pedestrian entrance, ticket sales area, baggage storage, and refreshment and waiting rooms, and an adjacent shed with platforms at which trains and travelers arrived and departed. The building type presented architects with a dilemma since there was no existing morphological or stylistic precedent. Therefore, the designers of the earliest railroad stations merely adopted or adapted conventional building forms, materials, and styles. As the popularity of train travel increased, so did the need for wider station sheds to accommodate more tracks and platforms because of the limitations of traditional construction technology, structural advances and new materials such as iron and glass offered potential solutions. The relatively new profession of engineers, unrestrained by historicism, took up the challenge and designed sheds that exposed contemporary materials and advances and (most importantly) met their clients demands. Sometimes they collaborated with an architect, as Brunel did by inviting Wyatt to design Paddingtons decorative details. But despite innovation and audacity, the architectural form and esthetic of the railroad sheds was not well received, and they were obscured by a masonry head building that looked back to any of a number of past styles. Brunel, son of French-born engineer Marc Brunel (1769 1849), served his apprenticeship supervising the construction of his fathers Thames Tunnel project (1825 1843). Although work there was in abeyance, he won a commission for the acclaimed Clifton Suspension Bridge near Bristol (1829). In 1833 the promoters of the Great Western Railway appointed him engineer of the bold project to connect London by rail with the west of England. Brunel chose and surveyed the route and prepared plans. Despite outspoken opposition from landowners and rival transport providers, he argued the railroads merits in lengthy public hearings and before a parliamentary committee. He was highly praised for his persistence and performance when the bill for the Great Western Railroad was finally approved in August 1835. During the lines construction, Brunel supervised the laying of tracks and the building of bridges, viaducts, and tunnels, including the 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) Box Tunnel, which took about two and a half years to complete. The 151-mile (241.6-kilometer) railroad was finished in mid-1841 with one terminus at Temple Meads in Bristol and the other at Paddington, then a new suburb west of London. Brunel designed the Gothic-inspired Temple Meads Station (1839 1840) with its striking unsupported timber-arch roof spanning 72 feet (21 meters). The first Paddington Station was a temporary structure fitted between the arches of a road bridge. The permanent and grander replacement commenced in 1850 and was finished four years later.Paddington Station was built in a cutting and without a main facade. The Great Western Hotel (later Great Western Royal Hotel) of 1851 1853 by the architect Philip Hardwick (1820 1890) was next to the shed and served as its head building. Its Italian Renaissance detail, twin Jacobean towers, and mansard roof contrasted sharply with Brunels airy, cathedral-like structure. The entire train shed was 700 feet long, 238 feet wide, and 33 feet high (214 by 70 by 10 meters), covered by a triple-arched roof. The central arch, spanning 102 feet (31 meters), was flanked by one of 70 feet (21 meters) and another of 68 feet (20 meters). Two 50-foot-wide (15-meter) transepts integrated the space. In 1916, a fourth shed, spanning 109 feet (30 meters), was added on the northeast side. Originally, in the absence of a southern concourse, a retractable drawbridge provided access to the inner platforms. The roof, ironclad and partly glazed, was carried on slender wrought-iron arches a cast-iron column bolted to a brick foundation supported every third rib. Wyatt provided the neo-Renaissance-cum-Moorish embellishments to the columns and the sinuous wrought-iron ornamentation in the glazed end-arches. The effect of the spacious train shed interior has been described as dramatic and its ambiance as that of a greenhouse.Paddington Station is now a heritage-listed building under redevelopment by architects Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners as the central London terminal for the express train to Heathrow Airport. A concourse extension, named the Lawn Area because it incorporates the site of the station masters former garden, has been covered by a glass roof. Glass and aluminum have been used extensively to enhance the character of Brunels building. The second stage of the project includes replacement of the 1916 train shed with a new concourse opening to the adjacent Regents Canal a prominent transfer structure is also proposed with more buildings, including a 42-story tower block.
