Kacy Cunningham Blog 5

While searching for a grocery store that actually had pumpkins left two days before Halloween, I stumbled across the bridge between the Prudential Tower and the hotel across the street.  I’d never noticed the bridge before because I’d never been up that way after dark. The openness of the truss structure allows the light to shine through and the bridge to glow. In this instance the structure acts like a frame for the light. While during the day the structure allows the light to enter instead of emanate, casting shadows on the floor.  If the structure had instead been something solid this affect would be lost. By choosing an open truss the designer not only held the bridge up, but framed the light entering during the day and exciting at night.

Blog #5

We have begun, and will continue, to discuss the relationship between light and structure. This next blog response asks you to find a place in which light affects structure and structure affects light. The concrete beams at the Exeter Library, for example, do much more than carry the load from above. They act, also, as a way to reflect a cool bluish light that is in contrast to warm yellow light of the study carrels.

As before, make (not take) an image of place. Post the image. It is intended that you go to the place - this is not an internet exercise!

Then, offer 100-150 words of text that explain your discoveries.

Assigned: 27 Oct 2011

Due: Before class, 08 Nov 2011

Angela Liccardo Blog 4

The Government Center T Stop shares a resemblance to an ancient Egyptian mastaba. It is simply a flat-roofed form with sloping, brick sides but just like the mastaba the main purpose is found below the revealing structure. The T stop is marked with one entrance and brings you underground and then takes you to the next location much like how the mastaba’s purpose is to transform the spirit to the next world.

Travis 's Blog 4

Living in a very vibrant part of the city, I am constantly surrounded by famous landmarks and structures that contribute to Boston’s famous cityscape. One of the buildings that I noticed very recently, however, is one that I pass multiple times a week, yet never really stopped to take in the detail, especially in its façade. Simmons’s Main College Building is a rather large but subtle structure that houses everything from administrative services to classrooms. Lined along the walk to Fenway, this building has a great presence formed by its large stone masonry and column work. Although these columns are not structural, they clearly resemble early Greek architecture. One example that can be used is the Temple to Athena. Similar to the temple, this building’s columns give a sense of framing and order among the main entrance and its full span along the street. You will also notice that both structure’s columns have dominant capitals and vertical ribbing. But because these columns are not dominantly structural elements, I also related the Simmons building to early Egyptian architecture found in the Mortuary Complex of Zoser, where the columns are an architectural element rather then a structural support system.

Paul Woodworth Blog 4

At various moments along the Boston Harborwalk, unused dock pilings can be seen penetrating the surface of the water. These pilings, located by Lewis Wharf in the North End, appear ghostly in a way, as if relics of a past civilization once part of everyday use. Structurally, the pilings bear a likeness to the Roman Forum's post and lintel structural system. The structures remain in in their respective landscapes (water/land) and stand resilient as lasting symbols of their cultures (sailing/ancient Rome).

Matt Rowell, Blog 4

Steph Greenlaw Blog Response 4

Every time I walk around the North end I am captivated by the grand archway at the Boston Harbor Hotel. It wasn't until I was thinking of buildings and structures for this response that I realized that it is very similar to the Arch of Augustus (the Etruscan Arch). The Etruscan arch is a major gateway into the city. The arch at the Harbor Hotel marks the entrance not to a city, but to what was the cities busiest and most important asset; the Boston harbor. The sheer size of both of them give an immediate sense of importance never mind the fact that both have been in place since their respective city’s beginning.

Tyler Lombardi Blog 4

We have looked at many different buildings throughout this course already, and you can find countless resemblances to ancient architecture around the city. For this assignment I wanted to look at something we have studied that was unique in that you can find too many replications or connections in Boston. Being so close to the Christian Science Center, the reflecting pool is a space I have encountered and experienced many times, however after recently studying Ise Jingu, I made a new connection to the reflection pool. The reflecting pool very closely resembles the body of water that is used in ritual ceremonies along the path to Naiku. Not only do both of these spaces look the same, but achieve the same state of being when experienced. Although the purposes of these two spaces may be different, the same essence of serenity and peacefulness is given.

Stephanie Goldsack Blog 4

Right at MIT there is a chapel that connects the use of the different elements in unison to create a feeling of peace. The MIT chapel uses a similar approach that the Pantheon used back in ancient Rome. During my senior year of high school, I took a 11 trip to Italy where I had the chance to explore Rome, including the Pantheon. Even though the space was not how it was originally intended to be accessed once inside it gave the same feeling. The chaos from out side the building slipped away as you move into the building that over powers you with the grand scale and the use of light in the space.

The MIT chapel creates a similar feel as you move into the space into the area that is rather dark but illuminated from an above opening. While the space is not as grand-scaled the light still over powers the space and the observer. I know when I visited both of the places it gives a tranquil feeling as you observe the space and notice how the light interacts with it.

NickDyer- Blog4

A short walk from North Station, there is a building right on the corner of Causeway St, Merrimac St, and Staniford St. This building wraps around the corner of the street giving it an almost "J" shape in plan. This building houses, A Beat Away Entertainment, Accelerated Physical Therapy, and a museum. Right at the intersection, there is a moment in which the curvature of the buildings facade is broken by a large block that extrudes itself out towards the street, giving itself an "authority" as the front of the building. This form translates back to the Pantheon because the circular plan of it is also interrupted by a similar shape extrusion. 

This building had another similarity back to Roman Architecture. The block that extrudes itself off of the building is less of a translation to the Pantheon and more of a reflection of the Arch of Trajan. What i mean is that the Pantheons block front was an entrance into the structure, but in this case, the giant arch actually pushes all the way through the building making a passageway to a courtyard behind the building. So this Arch is more of a passage, like the Arch of Trajan, than an entrance, like the Pantheon. Also, there is one massive Arch in the center and two secondary arches to either side of the main one. This also translates back to the arches in the Arch of Trajan

Chris McEwen Blog Response 4

The Boston Marriot at Long Wharf reminds me of any typical Ziggurat that we saw in lecture. After the initial big step that rises from the ground there are a series of steps that continue up. They get smaller as they ascend into a state of dominance or importance. Another point of the Ziggurat was to protect the priests from floods and rising waters, and the Marriot is conveniently located on the waterfront of Boston. Even though they do differ from each other, ascension is a clear motive of these buildings and it’s displayed in a way that most of us can easily understand.

Teresa Le- Blog 4

While on a trip to Utrecht I came across the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Building on the intersection of Huntington and Mass Ave. I noticed that not only did it have Ionic columns but angled ionic columns. Upon seeing this I remembered in class the Greece lecture we had which included the Temple of Athena Nike, at Acropolis. The main element that we learned about the temple was that it had these angled capitals in order to make the temple more aesthetically pleasing from all sides. And in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society Building it looks as if the capitals are also angled for no structural purposes, but more for its looks.

Elizan McLean: Blog Response 4

As I was walking to my grandmother's house in Roxbury one day I passed by the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science and couldn't help but think of the facade of the Mogao Caves. There are obvious differences between the two, especially on the inside, but whenever I look at the school I picture each window as a different cave that is being cut out of the face of a mountain similar to Mogao and Yungang.

Robert Hale: Blog 4

The Bunker Hill monument located in Charlestown shares a resemblance to the Menhir that are spread across Europe. The Bunker Hill monument commemorates the first major battle between the U.S. and British during the Revolutionary War. Like the Menhir at Carnac the Bunker Hill monument acts as a focal point in the surrounding area and a monument to part of history. Although the scale is much larger than the Menhir the effect and purpose of it are the same. The approach to the Bunker Hill monument is what I can imagine similar to approaching a Menhir that seems randomly placed in an open field. It is visible from a distance away, and curiosity draws you closer. As you approach you feel a sense of meaning and importance of the site. In that way the monuments of about 4,000 BCE relate to those of common time.

Adam Parsons: Blog Entry 4

The Boston architectural translation that I highlighted was the Arbor Archway within the Christopher Columbus Park in the North End. For me this sort of trellis is less a literal translation of the multiple Torii within the Ise Shrine, but rather it encapsulates the idea of signifying entry to an important space, marking a gateway. Both work towards framing a perspective of the significant space beyond while creating a threshold that is clearly entered upon passing through the planes formed by the 'gateways.' The architectural concept of approach is dealt similarly here in Boston as it was in Imperial Japan 1500 years ago.

Blog 4: Tyler Moriarty

When I was looking at local buildings in the area i came across the Landmark Center Tower. And I noticed that it was similar to the Mahabodhi Temple that we learned about during the Hindu Lecture. They both have the same monumental verticality, that slow becomes smaller and smaller till it reaches the  very top were there is an important part on the top which is the pedestal. For the Mahabodhi Temple it is a Shikhara. While on top of the Landmark Center Tower is the United States flag. There are also 2 supporting vertical elements of on both structures

Nick Strout- Blog 4

At the intersection of Tremont Street and Malcolm X Boulevard there are multiple buildings of interest. When walking towards this intersection, the elementary school directly across from Roxbury Community College stood out to me the most. The powerful arches that create the entranceway instantly reminded me of the huge barrel vaults in the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine. The arches of the Elementary school are obviously at a much, much smaller scale but are also repeated throughout the façade of the building and create a colonnade around the perimeter. This idea is seen directly in other Roman buildings like the Roman Basilica and the Coliseum.

Cameron Savela - Blog 4

This building in the Boston Commons reminded me of some of the buildings we learned about in the Greece lectures, one being the Propylaea building that had square corner columns and round inner columns. It also resembled the Temple of Athena Nike where the columns capitals turn to make the corner these ones just stay on a 45-degree. Also the columns on this building have entasis, which shows the Greece columns. This part of the building is at the top of the ten-story building (ninth and tenth floors) which shows its hierarchy like the acropolis.

James Fulton -- Blog Response #4

The Forsyth Institute building presents an interesting parallel with Roman temples and the process of aging and renovation made readily apparent by most examples of ancient architecture. The building maintains certain Roman proportions, albeit bastardized in places, such as a seeming adherence to the 2:1 length to width ratio of a Roman temple that manifests itself as a 2:1 width to length (with the street-fronting side as the width) in the Forsyth institute. And, like the Maison Carrée, the columns that line the building are seemingly set within the walls -- revealing only a part of the whole to our view.

While the parallels in design and presentation on the exterior are interesting to a degree, where the building truly becomes a paragon of the ideas of architectural and cultural translation is in the adjoining modern addition to the building. The building is attached with absolutely no forgiveness to a monolithic concrete building with little-to-no decoration and only the most basic attempt to blend in through the use of a repeated vertical window divider that acts as a continuation of the columns found in the original building. While the addition shows a certain carrying-on from the ideas of old, the design calls back visually to the Mogao caves and other similar rock-cut spaces. This calling back to the old of one place in order to move away from the old of another displays the cyclical nature of architectural evolution and the progression of the arts through history in general.

Alycia Schramm: Blog Response 4

One of my favorite places to relax in Boston is by the reflecting pool at the Christian Science Center. It has a colonnade that runs alongside the reflecting pool and ends at the foot of the "Mother Church," which has a beautiful domed top. This plaza seems to relate to the Hopital des Invalides in France by drawing on similar features, such as the repetition of its colonnade and how that procession guides one to the basilica/church at the head of the plaza.

Dan Zarkadas - Blog 4

I picked out one of the MCPHS buildings for my comparison because although there were a lot of comparisons between Greek and Greek revival architecture they were mostly based on the aesthetics and copying the old architecture. This building modernizes everything but uses columns to frame and draw attention to the entrance on an otherwise ordinary building, which is very similar to what many purely frontal Greek and Etruscan temples did. For the comparison I used the Etruscan Temple at Veii. Its shows how the sides were plain and unfinished and I thought it was a good comparison.

In the middle of the Northeastern campus, there is a small area that resembles the basic form of a stupa. There is a stone piece in the center, and around this there is a circular walkway. This suggested circulation around the stone piece is similar to that of the parikrama of a stupa. When looking at the the two plan views to the right of the photo, you can see that both are extremely similar.

Erin Hartmann-Blog 4

In the South End, there is an ATM kiosk with a similar shape and sense of movement as an Indian stupa. A stupa has the torana (stone gateway) that one walks through to access the stupa. In the South End, an open art installation (that acts as the torana) lies on the sidewalk. As you walk through it you are lead to the kiosk. Movement around the stupa is important as a symbol of the Buddhist path to enlightenment, and the interior is inaccessible. The interior of the kiosk is also inaccessible, and movement around it is necessary to reach the ATM.

JT Breda: Blog 4

As I walked around the city looking for a building that resembled one we learned about in history I notice the large gazebo that was part of the Rowe’s Wharf building. I thought that this structure resembled the circular temples of the Roman Empire. I decide to compare the Temple of Vesta to this oversized gazebo. Both structure are probably similar scales and of similar geometries and form. Both are used as places of celebration and ceremony. When I was viewing the gazebo there was actually a couple having wedding pictures taken in and in front of it. The Temple was obviously used to pray to a god or gods.