Thursday, April 19, 2012

Bank of America Tower NYC

One of the newest tall skyscrapers rising above the New York Skyline is the Bank of America Tower. It was designed by Cook+Fox Architects, LLP in the deconstructionism style which has gained much momentum over the past ten years as it has been popularized bu architects like Frank Gehry and can be seen in other brand new buildings around New York City such as the WTC 9/11 Memorial, Cooper Union's 41 Cooper Square Morphosis, and 8 Spruce Street.
The tower was completed in 2009 and it took 5 years to build the 58 floor, 1200 ft tower (including antenna). When it was completed, it surpassed the Chrysler Building as the second tallest tower in New York City, but this title was dropped down to 3rd place when the Freedom tower surpassed the Empire state building as the tallest building in New York earlier this year.
The tower is also been called one of the most ambitious Eco friendly skyscrapers built. Major Eco-friendly features include a wind turbine on top of one of the antennae and other efficient generators which generate 70% electricity for the building, urinals that don't use water and save over 3 million gallons of water per year, the building materials were either recycled or came from within 500 miles of New York, and low emission insulating glass

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Richardsonian Romanesque collection I


Richardsonian Romanesque was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson (which is where it gets its name from). Richardsonian Romanesque is known for its rough hewn brown, red, and grey stone walls, rough pasterns, stone arches, and stone colonnades, which make the style look both organic, and fortress like. The style was popular in the Victorian era between 1875 and around 1900. Many fine examples can be found in the Northeast and Midwest in Fine neighborhoods alongside other gilded Victorian styles, including Neoclassical, Second Empire, Italianate, and Queen Anne Buildings.