Blog Posts by Subject: Architecture

Billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud plans to build the world's tallest building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It will be a mile tall skyscraper, “taller than four Empire State Buildings stacked upon each other.” From “Billionaire Plans To Start Mile-High Building Club” (Forbes.com, 02.25.08)

Currently in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Burj Dubai tower is being constructed. Though still in construction, it has just beat the record for the world’s tallest man-made structure, reaching more than 160 stories high (2,064 feet).

It appears that in 1956 American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed a mile high (5,280 feet) skyscraper 

Recently the well known dance club Webster Hall (building, not the club) was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Built in 1886 by architect Charles Rentz, Webster Hall became one of the country’s first modern nightclubs. According the Webster Hall website “It was where the original bohemians, like Emma Goldman, Marcel DuChamp and Margaret Sangor, created unique costume balls to benefit nascent social and political causes.” From the Gothamist article “Hailing Webster Hall”

It is especially important for this building because all around it older buildings are being torn down to be replaced by 20- or 30-story 

Architectural Record has a recurring section called "Building Types Study". The February 2008 issue’s section is dedicated to library design and one of the three libraries discussed is NYPL’s Mulberry Street Branch. The Record commends the architectural firm Roger Marvel Architects for allowing diffused light to penetrate “into both subterranean levels via the central stair”, which it calls “an important psychological feat.”

If you’ve been wandering through New York in the vicinity of Madison Avenue in the 50s and 60s, or along 57th Street, you can see a veritable flood of recent storefront facade redecoration. Take a look at the various styles, but don’t be surprised if the choices reflect designs from the 1920s and 1930s. A tendency toward French-inspired aesthetics is also apparent. Although it was Napoleon who famously derided the English as being “a nation of shopkeepers,” the French have always known how to link commerce and chic.

Look in the library catalog under the subject heading “storefronts.” You’ll find an intriging array of SASB and SIBL titles 

(This is just one of many stereoscopic views of the Old Stone Mill that you can see in the NYPL Digital Gallery.)

No, this is no Nancy Drew series title. This is something that I learned about when while in Newport, Rhode Island, earlier this fall.

There’s a hand-built stone structure in this lovely town that, centuries after its construction, continues to inspire debates concerning its origin. Did the Norse, the Spanish, the Masons, or others build it? Is it the ruin of a mill, a church, an observatory? Whatever its history, it has come be known as the Old Stone Mill, and it stands in a park near the Redwood Library and Athenaeum. This venerable institution, 

The Tottenville Historical Society will discuss the findings of the Tottenville Historic Resource Survey, a study of 250+ of the oldest homes and buildings in the community, including the process of dating them using deeds, maps, and, in many cases, by identification of their distinctive architectural details.

The program will begin with a brief slide presentation showing several unique local homes and buildings, followed by a discussion and a question and answer period.

An announcement of the forthcoming book, Tottenville: the Town the Oyster Built. A Staten Island Community, Its People, Industry and Architecture, will be made.

This program will be at the 

This is a photo of the Map Division at the New York Public Library. One of the many beautiful spaces at the Library.  Not only is it a great source for map research, it is also an inspiration for any design enthusiast. Gold leaf ceiling, anyone?

And although New York Public is my daily source of inspiration, I found a wonderful online exhibition of great libraries all over the world from Curious Expeditions. One of my favorites is the Joanina Library University of Coimbra, Portugal. I’m a sucker for a library ladder.

It would be impossible to write about design from New York Public Library and not mention the Library building itself.  When I first came to work at the Library, I would marvel at its grandeur, the overwhelming scale of the staircases, the height of the ceilings, the copious amounts of marble. But now, after working in this building everyday for five years, it is the details that amaze me–a hidden staircase, a lion mask on a chandelier, the carved acanthus leaves crowning a wooden column.  The architects of this grand Beaux-Arts building designed everything from the overall space to the chairs, benches and even the trash