Saturday, March 03, 2007

Sorry that this is so late Donnie....but here it is, some pictures from my architectural tour of Boston with my Fine Arts of Boston class :)















Symphony Hall, which is an example of classical design. The columns are ionic style with double volute capitals. Not that decorated though.















Horticultural Hall, across the street from Symphony Hall. Symphony Hall and this one are supposed to complement one another, so to do this they are complete opposite designs. Horticultural Hall is an example of Baroque style, which means that its decorations are hugely ornate and overdone. It has freehanging double volutes between the windows, false balcomines, and if you look over the windows you will see marble medallions with fruit and vegetable sculptures between them. Very whimsical.















New Section of the Christian Science Center. It's design is a blend of Gothic and Renaissance styles. The dome and Corinthian are reminiscent of classical Rennaissance architecture. The grand scale of the church is similar to the scale used in Gothic times, when churches were designed to make people feel the power and scope of god and religion and to make them feel that they were going to heaven.





















Old Section of the Christian Science Center. It's main influence is the classical Renaissance period; the use of dark, rough looking stone and its less ornate decoration than the new Church put it more in this category. The stained glass in it is made of lead.

















Pineapple on the top of the new Christian Science Church's dome. The pineapple is a symbol of friendship and welcoming.
















I.M. Pei was commissioned to build two new (mainly administrative) buildings for the church. He was told to make them complement the beauty of the church. The way he chose to do this was by designing his new buildings in the "Brutalist" style- the total opposite of the church- in order to make the churches beauty stand out more. To tie the two new buildings to each other, he used a "gutter" design. In the above picture, notice that there is a section sticking out of the top all the way across that looks like a hugely oversized rain gutter (like one you may have on your house).




















In this picture of the 2nd I.M. Pei building, the "gutter" design is used again, only vertically.













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This is the top of the Boston Public Library. If you look slightly above the arrow, you will see a molding that looks sort of like teeth. This is called dentil molding! (I'm probably the only one that finds that funny....oh well).















This is the atrium in the Boston Public Library. The perimeter consists of vaults and columns, and between the columns there are medallions. The atrium style is classical; it was used by the Greeks (especially in cities) because when a place is built in this design, much of the outside noise is muffled and unpleasant smells from the street are not as strong. The Greeks also slanted the roof around the perimeter so rainwater would fall into the pool in the middle...however, the BPL did not do that.
















Sorry that she's sideways....I didn't know how to fix it. Anyway, this is the statue that is in the middle of the BPL atrium. McKim, the architect who designed the library, liked doing the project so much that he wanted to give the library a gift. So, he went and had this greek wine imported. However, when he gave it to the library, they refused it because she is naked. The MFA ended up taking it, but then later on the library said they wanted it back. So, a second one was bought, and now both the library and the MFA possess this statue.
















This is the reading room at the BPL. It's architecture is a blend of Baroque and Roman classical influences; notice the use of arches for the windows and it's coffered, barrel vaulted ceilings. A barrel vault is when there is a row of arches placed together to make a room.















This is the hallway outside of the reading room. Here you can see a better view of the coffered ceilings. Coffered ceilings are ceilings that have had chunks taken out of them; this makes the ceiling look more decorated and makes it a lighter weight.
















World's coolest/creepiest wallpaper at the BPL.















This is the outside of Trinity Church, which is next to the Hancock Tower and across from the BPL. The two really big statues are resting on top of the churches columns; they are called pedimental sculptures I believe. By their feet are reliefs of the last supper and the evil and the pure; these reliefs are called a frieze. The last supper image is in between the pedimental sculptures.














This is a picture of one of the 4 pyramid pilings that hold up Trinity Church. Since the Back Bay was originally water that is now filled in, all of the buildings had to be built on top of wooden pilings. Currently, the original pilings are still there, and they still have to be kept wet or else they will get dry rot. In the past, someone would actually have to go down to the basement of Back Bay buildings and check to see how wet the pilings were, and if they were too dry they would have to re-wet them by hand. Now that is done electronically, but things like these pyramids still exist out of necessity.

Today my class went to the MFA. There is a special exhibit there called Fashion Show, which was really exciting. A bunch of the haute couture designers sent the museum their 2006-2007 designs that went down the runway, and visitors were able to get up close to the outfits. The clothes were really intricate and were more like textile art than actual clothes. I think Donnie might have liked seeing them- there were lots of unique fabrics and sewing techniques used to make them :)

Paul and I also went to Brazil on Thursday. We went to a supermarket that had mostly imported Brazilian food, and we ended up getting soda that tastes like watered down Red Bull and some banana jelly. We are planning to go back soon to get more fun food--maybe some quail eggs :)

**Cyndy**

1 comment:

Donnie said...

Thanks Cyndy, this is great.