The Most Beautiful Sights in the USA - Essay Example

 1. The Grand Central Terminal The Grand Central Terminal at the 42nd Street, Park Avenue in New York City is one of the largest train stations in the world. It has the largest number of platforms. By the idea of William J. Wilgus it was completed after ten year in 1910. The architects of the Grand Central were the firms of Reed and Stem and warren and Wetmore. The credit of the statue on the front and the ceiling’s huge painting goes to the famous French artist Paul César Helleu. The building of the Grand Central is an entrance of the word to the New York City. It is a complex beautifully detailed building. It is an example of the Imperial Roman architecture, accommodating and serving thousands of passengers every day. The Grand Central is divided mainly in to two levels, the lower serving the passengers within the city and the upper for the outside the city platforms. The building also serves as a shopping mall and a rest house. The main hall of the terminal is the center of attention, in the middle of the hall is a huge clock. The ceiling of the Grand Central is the great view, by the times changing have been made to the ceiling however but still it is delightful to watch thousand of stars in the Grand central. Some of them are replaced by ceiling lights. Grand central is Beaux art architecture. A classical decorative style of architecture design to let the passengers wait for their trains at a place where they don’t feel like wasting their time in hot or rain. One of the old building still standing in the new, high, modern buildings of New York is a proof that Grand Central is worth keeping after even more than a hundred year. There was a time when this terminal was not one of the favorite terminals of the passengers, despite so many trains running on it. After this the Grand Central which was a brilliant idea and beautiful roman building that was liked by everyone. It not only provided shelter to the passengers but also increased the business by serving better. Films and adds are still shoot here, artists used it for their installation because it is not only grand by name but by look. It made the train rotation so must efficient and time saving, it provided maintenance to the entire system which was thought to be mismanaged. Plan and composition is the beauty of the roman architecture. Although the large widows were not mush roman but the sculpture, view and details sure is roman architecture’s prominent feature. People have lived there lives daily visiting the Grand Central but they do not get bored of the magnificent building. Space is very important to make architecture successful, the way Grand Central is treated is the best it should have been. It is full of platforms yet not confusing everything is so straight forward and time saving. The main hall is the best part of Grand Central as it is not by name but by space Grand it can accommodate a large amount of passengers and its round ceiling, large walls, broad staircases and long airy windows make it easy for such a large amount of people to stay at one place and not feel suffocated and uncomfortable. Although the structure is complex but the complexity was the requirement the site as it had so much to deal with. Every day hundreds of train pass through the Grand Central there circulation and rotation is not an easy task to manage and the building is dealing it well. Ventilation and lighting at the Grand Central is magical and dramatic just like any other imperial roman architecture. People have so must stories belonging to the place it is thus not only a building serving a necessity in the city but also a monument that is as glorious as the roman history. 2. Trinity Church Trinity Church is at 79 Broadway in lower Manhattan, New York. It is one of the oldest and the most active church in the town. It had a history dating back to 1696. It was built three times until 1848. The last and standing architecture of the Trinity church was finished in 1848. It remained the tallest building of the town for some time too. The Trinity Church is Gothic Revival architecture, it have all the features of a typical Gothic architecture. A dark, dense, mysterious building standing at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway looks as holy as a church should look like. It is a rectangular building just like any other church building. The widows at the church are pointed and have decorative tracery; they are projected out of the building. Such windows are known as oriel windows and are a prominent feature of the Gothic Revival architecture. Windows are shaped like Quatrefoils, which means they are divided into four parts like a four leaved flower. There are glasses windows all around the church and the glass used are leaded glass. Pinnacles are another feature of the Gothic architecture, and the Trinity Church is rich in it. Pointed formations that look like mountain peaks are the first thing one would notice at the first glance on the church. The largest is the central pinnacle at the church which is the high up of the building. The exterior of the church is very linear in design and there are many vertical lines being used that enhance the sense of Gothic architectural feature pointing everything upwards. The face of the church is made in sandstone and it is beautified by the Gothic spires and pointed arches. The front doors of the church are magnificent. The huge bronze doors also show gothic architectural brilliance. There is a line of pillars and arches from the entrance to the face of the church and is capable to accommodate a large audience. Like all the historical building it is specious and have lots of stained glass windows that are beautiful the largest is the one at the end. The ceiling of the church also follows the same pattern of arches and is beautiful to look at. The outer walls of the Trinity Church are parapets they have battlements in them like the Gothic buildings do have. They provide more strength and potency to the building. There are chimneys in the church that are grouped. The building also possesses two large sculptures resting in the windows like structure at the entrance front. One is the statue of Jesus Christ and the other of Mary. They are of the same color as the front tiles of the church; there was also a tree sculpture in front of the entrance which is destroyed by now. There are twenty three bells at the church currently on the tower that only ring on special occasions and on Sundays only. There are three burial grounds also associated to the church. The church is holy building and the Gothic architecture provides it more height as the Gothic style building have a elongated view, they look like moving upwards as all its features are mostly pointed and the lines are vertical. In a gothic style building walls are high and thick they give a mysterious look. The Trinity church is not as must decorative and full of sculptures and paintings as the English parish church of the l4th century. The more emphasis is on the exterior then the interior although the interior is beautiful but mainly due to stain glass windows. The people wanted to revive gothic architecture at that time because wanted to break the hierarchy of sculpture paintings and art in the buildings that is why Trinity church looked like what it is. (Campbell. 2006, pp. 48) 3. Jefferson Market Library Jefferson Market Library was at first a courtyard. It was ceased as a court in 1945. The present library started serving in 1967. The building was first of its kind in the town when it was first built. The clock at the tower is the prominent and unusual feature it had at that time. The architecture of the building is gothic but the building has many features that are not typically gothic like the Trinity church building. It has the same look of the castle that gothic architecture should have but for a courtyard it do not sounds much suitable. The building is full of pinnacles however the windows are not oriel and do not have decorative tracery attached to them. This was maybe because originally it was made to be courtyard. The exterior however is not must suited for its original purpose because the courtyard does not need to be decorative or castle like but the Jefferson Market Library is full of stain glass decorative windows, another prominent feature of the gothic architecture. The windows are large and beautiful. They even have figures on the windows. There is also a spiral staircase that leads to the top of the tower just like the staircase of the fairy tales it is magical and castle like. The staircase is surrounded by small windows that have Pre-Raphaelite beauties beautifully made increasing the magic of the building. In my opinion the exterior of the building is beautiful and is very pleasing for the library but was not a good idea for the courtyard. As the building is spacious and had two big halls it is better that it is now a library. The halls however were correct for the courtyard. Jefferson Market is a noisy place that is why the court was served at night and then finally it was ceased, I did not understand the idea converting a noisy building into a library. Although the library and its setup is admiring but the noise is annoying sometimes. Otherwise the specious halls are the best settings for reading, specially the children reading room is quite calm and well decorative. It is very appealing for reading. The place could have been used for other proposes, if there was no noise it would have been perfect for the library, still it is a good place for the readers. 4. Comparison between Kimmel Student Centre (NYU) and Lerner Student Centre (CU) Alfred Lerner hall is a student centre of Columbia University situated in the Broadway in United States. It is a postmodern architecture that was highly criticized before it was even completed. It was completed in 1999. Especially the escalating ramps of the building never met its purpose as a social meeting place. Despite all the harsh criticism the building is serving a number of academic events of the Columbia University since it’s made. Kimmel student centre is located at the 60 Washington Square S, New York it was completed in 2003 and is a large building that is a modern structure having a prominent glass house that is well planned. The only criticism it received was due to its height it had because it blocked the view of the skyscrapers and the sky from the arch at the square it also forms a big shadow at the Washington Square Park. The two buildings are very different from each other yet serving the same purpose, providing the same facilities and have a similar interior as per requirement of any student centre. Both of their structure and formation is different. Both possess a different view and shape. The facilities both these building include ATMs, computers with Wi-Fi throughout the building, halls, dining rooms, lounges, lockers, outdoor terraces, public phones but the main comparison is of handing the space the Kimmel student centre handles the space more better then the Lerner Student Centre because there were so many empty spaces left in the building that the active student unions occupied those places and left only the lockers for the other. The glass house at the Lerner Student Centre is also being criticized because unlike the Kimmel Student Centre it was ill handled by the architects. The look of the Kimmel Student centre is very typical to the 2000 to 2005 usual buildings there is nothing new about especially the front. Likewise the Lerner Student centre is typically postmodern it could have been much better if it was constructed similar or in contrast to the other buildings of the Columbia university, it do not fit the atmosphere of the university however the interior is modern and is halls are beautifully designed. The artistic design of both the centre is modern but both are not as specious as a student centre should be. The location of the Lerner student centre and Kimmel are appropriate to the university whoever the Kimmel is at a noisier place. If I had a choice to choose between both I would prefer the Kimmel Student Centre because it have better building and a look although the Lerner Student Centre have a better location but the building could have been better. 5. Reference Campbell. G, “Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts.” UK: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Read More