Architectural Photographs

[Inanna]

Earth Hour NY photos:

[Lalaith]

How neat!

I'm afraid I don't know much about Earth Hour. I've pieced together that you're supposed to shut off lights or something.

[Inanna]

Yes, shut off lights for an hour. To reduce energy consumption.

Its' nice. We lit candles.

[Lalaith]

That sounds nice. I need to remember to do this next year! Why doesn't it fall on Earth Day? That would make it easier to remember! In fact, what day does it happen?

[Inanna]

March 27th 8:30pm - 9:30 pm

I'd missed it last year too - remembered it this year. there are some great snaps of Earth Day on flickr...

[Lalaith]

Thank you! I'll mark my calendar.

[Primula Baggins]

We did it this year and last. It reminded me how pleasant sitting by candlelight can be.

[elfshadow]

Do lights include laptops? I hope not. It doesn't count if I'm using my battery, right?

[Lalaith]

We just got home from the Mansfield Reformatory. You may remember this prison if you've ever seen The Shawshank Redemption. Evidently, the Russian prison from Air Force One was also shot there, and Lil Wayne (L'il? L'il'--you can tell I'm really into rap) shot a music video there. It was really quite interesting and had some amazing architecture. I wish I had a proper camera; I could have really gotten some neat shots. I'm working on posting them now.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... 78387177ea

[eborr]

We have moved from the small town where we were living into a village location some 7 miles from Oxford, unfortunately it's not one of the twee Cotswold villages, but a ribon development of no great age, with a rather antisceptic Victorian Church.

However 3/4 down a track is the village of Church Hanborough where St Peter and St Paul have watched over the village for more than 900 years at least.

The church is not an exstant Norman building, but it has been periodically "improved" through the years, giving it an organic development which I think is the mark of some of the best buildings.

Sited between the Thames and the Windrush the church itself is on a slight promentary .


The view from the north - if you look at the windows it's easy to pick out the distinc patters from the small norman "slits" through to the elaborate tracery of the perpendicular.


The jumble of style is nicely seen in from the west end where one of later editions is the stained glass window

one of it's most notable features is the north norman doorway



it features a carving of St Peter the Agnes Dei and the lion of St Mark, apparently reminiscent of work done at Cluny


Inside the church it's easy to pick out the lines of the original norman roof


I have to admit being quite moved by the church an would willingly have spent longer there, but time doth press

Often the beauty is in the small detail, like the remains of painted decoration, recently reavealed, 14 th century roses that had survived the white wash of the puritans, a testement to when these churches were places of light and colour and not the monochrome ediface that so many of them became


sorry that all the picks are not of great quality but I only had a camera phone will me

[Primula Baggins]

That was lovely, eborr. We of course don't have such buildings in North America, especially not in the West where I live. Thank you for sharing these.

[Lalaith]

The girls, my parents, and I went to Ripley, Ohio today (a little less than 2 hours away). If you have any interest in the Underground Railroad, Abolitionists, etc., it's worth scrolling through at least. Ripley was a very important town for escaping slaves, and Rev. John Rankin lived here. You'll probably recognize his house at the top of Liberty Hill. It's the iconic UGRR picture. Harriet Beecher (later Stowe) visited here and drew her inspiration for Uncle Tom's Cabin from the stories she heard in Rankin's home.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 6adbeed25b

There were some very moving moments today. Hiking up the 540 foot hill to the Rankin House was at the top of my list. It was hot (about 84F), and I was not dressed well for the weather. Regardless, I would still have been huffing and puffing. 540 feet is a lot to hike up! But I walked on the same path escaping slaves walked, desperate for safety and freedom. Eliza with her baby and so many others, around 2000, in fact.

It was just...very moving.

[eborr]

This has always been one of my favourite threads and I am concious of not posting for a long time. This is quite an old picture and perhaps a little cheesy. The building is a tiny Byzantine Church/Shrine on the Acropolis hill a bit further up from the Theatre of Dionysus, I guess the time would be about 6:00 pm

[Lalaith]

That's beautiful!

[eborr]

Now for something a little different we recently did some work at the Brixton Academy.

This venue has an intriguing surround to the stage which I didn't capture well

[narya]

In my recent trip to Lake Tahoe, I visited Vikingsholm, a Scandinavian period style architectural masterpiece, on the shores of Emerald Bay.

Here's the main house, fronting the bay. This was built in just a few months .... using 200 laborers/craftsmen, and all local materials (except the mortar and the stained glass windows).



The master bedroom is upstairs in the turret.



Not sure if this is a port corchere or a sally port, but it's what you drive thru to get to the inner court yard. Note the crossed dragons on the roofline, to keep everyone safe (pre Christian motif)



Everything had carvings on it, even the posts holding up the directional signs.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I never knew that these stairs existed in the Concrete Jungle by the Bay.

http://www.tiledsteps.org/

[Elentári]

How lovely! Surely helps take the mind off of tired legs when climbing...

[Primula Baggins]

Gorgeous!

[Lalaith]

I saw those on FB. Those are so pretty! (I just shared them with the girls, too, who were equally appreciative.)

narya, that is such a neat building!

eborr, very cool!