Fallingwater

Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The home was built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains

The structural design for Fallingwater was undertaken by Wright in association with staff engineers Mendel Glickman and William Wesley Peters, who had been responsible for the columns featured in Wright’s revolutionary design for the Johnson Wax Headquarters.  For the cantilevered floors, Wright and his team used upside down T-shaped beams integrated into a monolithic concrete slab which both formed the ceiling of the space below and provided resistance against compression.

Bear Run and the sound of its water permeate the house, especially during the spring when the snow is melting, and locally quarried stone walls and cantilevered terraces resembling the nearby rock formations are meant to be in harmony. The design incorporates broad expanses of windows and balconies which reach out into their surroundings. The staircase leading down from the living room to the stream (mentioned above) is accessed via movable horizontal glass panes. In conformance with Wright's views, the main entry door is away from the falls.




On the hillside above the main house stands a three-bay carport, servants' quarters, and a guest house. These attached outbuildings were built two years later using the same quality of materials and attention to detail as the main house. The guest quarters feature a spring-fed swimming pool which overflows to the river below. 

I have a few critical comments to make about this celebrated structure of American design.  While certainly "bold" and original, it fails remarkably in many ways.  I usually prefer to overlook imperfections, but in this case it is not possible.  The color scheme is hideous, I mean absolutely grotesque.  I had always thought of it has having a white stucco, not skin colored, "peach" or "light tan".  This color does not compliment the flora or the landscape in any way.  In fact, it is entirely objectionable.  The Japanese love white stucco and white buildings, therefore I do not understand why he would have opted for this choice though I have read that it was Wright's original intent to gild the concrete in dull gold leaf. ( Toker, Falling Water Rising): The interior has a veneered black walnut finish that is not complimentary at all to the burnt orange window frames.  Additionally, the windows were brush painted (in the renovation perhaps) and the strokes are visible.  How terribly wrong to brush paint steel now.  If Wright truly studied Japan, he may have better understood how to integrate organic materials and neutral colors together, particularly with wood. 


I suspect that the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy's bureaucratic management scheme is a contemporary problem.  How could they accept the visible membrane flashing on the terraces? (a result of the 2002 renovation).   With a renovation of this significance, it is unfortunate that the preservationists did not collude well with the aestheticians.  The grounds are entirely overgrown.  Living in harmony with nature does not necessarily mean allowing the trees to take over the site.  The tour was like being force fed by an overbearing nurse. I do not understand why they have to run the tours so aggressively.  At any one point in time, there are at least three groups of 10 people in the house.  The standard tour was $20, but I felt like I was in a cattle chute being herded around.  I understand that the demand is high for this "masterpiece" of the "greatest American architect of the 20th century", but let's be honest and say that it is not quality that draws people here, but novelty.   


That being said, Fallingwater is an interesting place, a veritable oasis in an architectural desert, and worth the trip.   


  

Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater

The Chesapeake Bay impact crater was formed by a bolide that impacted the eastern shore of North America about 35 million years ago, in the late Eocene epoch.

 It is one of the best-preserved "wet-target" or marine impact craters, and the largest known impact crater in the U.S. Continued slumping of sediments over the rubble of the crater have helped shape Chesapeake Bay.

What does this have to do with architecture?  Well, in the traditional sense, nothing really.  However, the bay and the Eastern shore are certainly among the grandest creations of a design process that I know of, even though the design is fractal and cataclysmic in origin.  In this light, landscape and geography could then be considered the architecture of nature.

Until 1983, no one suspected the existence of a large impact crater buried beneath the lower part of the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding peninsulas. The first hint was a 20 cm (8 in) thick layer of ejecta that turned up in a drilling core taken off Atlantic City, New Jersey, far to the north. The layer contained the fused glass beads called tektites and shocked quartz grains that are unmistakable signs of a bolide impact.

The continual slumping of the rubble within the crater has affected the flow of the rivers and shaped the Chesapeake Bay. The impact crater created a long-lasting topographic depression, which helped predetermine the course of local rivers and the eventual location of Chesapeake Bay. Most important for present-day inhabitants of the area, the impact disrupted aquifers. The present freshwater aquifers lie above a deep salty brine, making the entire lower Chesapeake Bay area susceptible to groundwater contamination.

http://www.impacttectonics.org/Chesapeake.html

I have always been geographically connected to this event, as I grew up on the Susquehanna River in town called Dauphin.  The course of the Susquehanna is in fact probably following a fracture line from this bolide "invader".  

Assateague Island

Assateague Island is a 37-mile (60 km) long barrier island located off the eastern coast of Maryland and Virginia.  It is best known for its herds of feral horses, pristine beaches, and the Assateague Lighthouse.


The island also contains numerous marshes, bays and coves, including Toms Cove. 

The feral horse population of Assateague Island is alternately known as the Assateague horse in Maryland and the Chincoteague Pony in Virginia. 

The traditional definition of a horse or a pony is based on whether the animal in question falls over or under 14.2 hands(58 inches, 147 cm). The equines on the island tend to be under 14.2, but have a horse phenotype. 


The southern beach is restricted access at 5 miles to protect endangered species, so it is not possible to walk from the north to the south end on the beach.

Looking south beyond boundary at lone horse

More photos here  Nice waves and swimming, though powerful undercurrents.

Cape Henlopen

Cape Henlopen State Park is a 5,193 acre (21 km²) Delaware state park on Cape Henlopen in Sussex County, Delaware. William Penn made the beaches of Cape Henlopen one of the first public lands in 1682 with the declaration that Cape Henlopen would be for "the usage of the citizens of Lewes and Sussex County." Cape Henlopen State Park has a 24-hour and year-round fishing pier as well as campgrounds. The remainder of the park is only open from sunrise to sunset, and includes a bathhouse on the Atlantic Ocean, an area for surf-fishing, a disc golf course, and bicycle lanes, walking paths, and a World War II-era watchtower which is open to the public. The beach at Herring Point is also a popular surfing spot.

Off the coast on the bay side are two lighthouses, called the Harbor of Refuge Light and the Delaware Breakwater East End Light.

Click for more photos

Trojský zámek

Troja Palace is a Baroque palace located in Troja, Prague's north-west borough (Czech Republic). It was built for the Counts of Sternberg from 1679 to 1691. The palace is owned by the city of Prague and hosts the 19th century Czech art collections of the City Gallery.

The palace's design has been influenced by French and Italian architecture and is mostly the work of French architect Jean Baptiste Mathey. The latter also built the palais Buquoy in Prague, currently the French embassy. Prior to Mathey, Domenico Orsi worked on the castle.Silvestro Carlone was the Master Builder.  The stairs between the palace and the gardens are the work of two sculptors from Dresden: Johann Georg and Paul Heermann. They sculpted statues representing the fight of Gods and giants.

 The terrace is decorated with a rare collection of vases made by Bombelli, also active in Slavkov u Brna, at Slavkov-Austerlitz castle (close to Brno).

That tree is ancient.  Like a dream.  Pure lucid fantasy.

Walhalla

The Walhalla temple is a hall of fame that honors laudable and distinguished Germans, famous personalities in German history — politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue.  The hall is housed in a neo-classical building above the Danube River, east of Regensburg, in Bavaria, Germany.

The Walhalla temple is named for Valhalla of Norse mythology. It was conceived in 1807 by Crown Prince Ludwig, who built it upon ascending the throne of Bavaria as King Ludwig I. Construction took place between 1830 and 1842, under the supervision of architect Leo von Klenze.

The temple displays some 65 plaques and 130 busts of persons, covering 2,000 years of history — the earliest person honored is Arminius, victor at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 AD).

I arrived to Walhalla via a short schifffahrt from Regensburg.  Lovely float down the Danube to an idyllic location.  

Regensburger Dom

 The Regensburg Cathedral (German: Kathedrale St. Peter or Regensburger Dom), dedicated to St Peter, is the most important church and landmark of the city Regensburg, Germany. It is the seat of the Catholic diocese of Regensburg. The church is the prime example of Gothic architecture in southern Germany.

A first bishop's church was built around 700, at the site of the present-day cathedral parish church Niedermünster (St. Erhard's tomb). Around 739, St. Boniface chose the area of the Porta Praetoria (North Gate of the old Roman fort) for the bishop's seat, and the site of the cathedral has remained there since. The Cathedral was rebuilt in Carolingian times and expanded in the early 11th century , with an approximately 15-meter-wide transept, two towers and an atrium.

In 1156-1172 the edifice burnt twice, and was also rebuilt starting from 1273 in High Gothic style. The three choirs of the new cathedral were ready for use in 1320, while the old cathedral was demolished at the same time. In 1385-1415 the elaborate main entrance to the west was completed, with the most of the new edifice being finished around 1520; the cloister was constructed in 1514-1538.

The cupola at the transept crossing and other sectors were renovated in Baroque style in the 17th century. In 1828-1841 the cathedral underwent a neo/Gothic restoration commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria. The Baroque frescoes were relocated and the cupola demolished, being replaced by a quadripartite rib vault. The towers and their spires were built in 1859-1869. Three years later the cathedral was finally finished, with the completion of the transept gable and the spire (at the crossing), after some 600 years of construction

Reichsparteitagsgelände

Interior Congress Hall

The Reich Party Congress Grounds form a site in the southeast of Nuremberg with a size of eleven square kilometres where the Nazi party rallies were held from 1933 until 1938.

Congress Hall

The Congress Hall (Kongresshalle) is the biggest preserved national socialist monumental building and is landmarked. 

It was planned by the Nuremberg architects Ludwig and Franz Ruff. It was planned as a congress centre for the NSDAP with a self-supporting roof and should have provided 50,000 seats. It was located on the shore of and in the pond Dutzendteich and marked the entrance of the rally grounds. The building reached a height of 39 m (129 ft) (a height of 70 m was planned) and a diameter of 250 m (843 ft). The building is mostly built out of clinker with a facade of granite panels. Especially the outer facade is (amongst others) oriented at the Colosseum in Rome. The foundation stone was laid in 1935, but the building remained unfinished and without a roof. The building with an outline of an "U" ends with two head-buildings (aerial photo). Since 2000, the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände (Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds), with the permanent exhibition Faszination und Gewalt (Fascination and Terror), has been located in the northern wing.   In the southern building, the Serenadenhof, the Nürnberger Symphoniker have their domicile.

Zeppelin Field

The Zeppelin Field (in German: Zeppelinfeld) is located east of the Great Road. 

It consists of a large grandstand (Zeppelinhaupttribüne) with a width of 360 meters (400 yards) and a smaller stand. It was one of Albert Speer's first works for the Nazi party and was based upon the Pergamon Altar. The grandstand is famous as the building that had the swastika blown from atop it in 1945, after Germany's fall in World War II.  Also featured prominently in Triumph of the Will.  

Quite the spectacles at one time, these buildings may soon fall further into ruin as there are extraordinary costs, social and economic, involved their preservation and upkeep.  

Visiting Nürnberg was an exhausting and intense experience.  My first impression was that the city had a distinctly dark and shadowy aura (compared with Prague).  Ghosts, perhaps.

Sächsische Schweiz

Rathen

Saxon Switzerland (German: Sächsische Schweiz) is a mountainous climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.

Saxon Switzerland alone has some 1,000 climbing peaks, as well as several hollows. The area is popular with Dresden locals and international climbers.

During the Dark Ages, the region was settled by Slavs and was part of the Kingdom of Bohemia during the Middle Ages. About 1000 years ago Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland was the borderland of three Slavic tribes. The Nisane tribe (east of the Elbe from Dresden to Pirna), the Milzane tribe (from today's Upper Lusatia) and in the south the Dacine tribe shaped the political and economic landscape at that time.

It was not until the 15th century that the area now called Saxon Switzerland came under Saxon hegemony when it became part of the Margraviate of Meissen with boundaries roughly corresponding to those of today.

Pirna

Der Malerweg ist der Hauptwanderweg des Elbsandsteingebirges.  Er verläuft vom Liebethaler Grund bei Pirna, über Lohmen, den Uttewalder Grund, Stadt Wehlen, 

Liebethal

Stadt Wehlen

Hohnstein

die Bastei, den Kurort Rathen, Hohnstein (Sächsische Schweiz), den Brand, Altendorf, weiter über die Schrammsteine und Affensteine, den Lichtenhainer Wasserfall, 

Schrammsteine

die Neumannmühle bis zur Räumichtmühle, wo er den östlichsten Punkt erreicht. Von dort verläuft er weiter westführend über Zeughaus und den Großen Winterberg nach Schmilka. 

Großen Winterberg

In Schmilka wird die Elbe überquert und es geht weiter über Schöna, Krippen, Papst- und Gohrischstein nach Königstein, die Festung Königstein, Weißig (Sächsische Schweiz) bis Pirna. Der Malerweg ist insgesamt 112 km lang, davon entfallen 68 km auf den rechtselbischen Teil bis Schmilka und 44 km auf den linkselbischen Teil.

Wolfsberg

More Malerweg Photos.