Architecture sights in North America
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Grand Central Terminal
Completed in 1913, Grand Central Terminal – more commonly, if technically incorrectly, called Grand Central Station – is another of New York’s stunning Beaux Arts buildings, boasting 75ft-high, glass-encased catwalks and a vaulted ceiling bearing a mural of the constellations streaming across it – backwards (the designer must’ve been dyslexic). The balconies overlooking the main concourse afford an expansive view; perch yourself on one of these at around 5pm on a weekday to get a glimpse of the grace that this terminal commands under pressure. It’s quite amazing how this dramatic space evokes the romance of train travel at the turn of the 20th century while also enduring …
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Catedral
Morelia's beautiful cathedral (unforgettable when it's lit up at night) dominates the plaza and took more than a century to build (1640−1744), which explains its combination of Herreresque, baroque and neoclassical styles.
The twin 70m-high towers, for instance, have classical Herreresque bases, baroque midsections and multicolumned neoclassical tops. Inside, much of the baroque relief work was replaced in the 19th century with neoclassical pieces. Fortunately, one of the cathedral's interior highlights was preserved: a sculpture of the Señor de la Sacristía made from dried corn paste and topped with a gold crown from 16th-century Spanish king Felipe II. It also has a w…
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Arcosanti
The brainchild of groundbreaking architect and urban planner Paolo Soleri, Arcosanti is a desert outpost based on 'acrology': architecture meets ecology. This cross between a kibbutz and design school 65 miles north of Phoenix looks like a village on Luke Skywalker's home planet. Radical when conceived in the 1960s, Soleri's ideas now seem cutting-edge in this age of urban sprawl and global warming. Arcosanti is good for a day trip or a long stay - there are week- and month-long seminars, a café, one-hour tours, concerts and other events. Basic accommodation is available, and the Sky Suite is designed for great views of a dark desert night.
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Golden Gate Bridge
Imagine a squat concrete bridge striped black and caution yellow spanning the San Francisco Bay - that's what the US Navy initially had in mind. Luckily, engineer Joseph B Strauss and architects Gertrude and Irving Murrow insisted on a soaring art-deco design and International Orange paint that harmonized with the natural environment. The result is the 1937 Golden Gate Bridge. Cars pay a $6 toll to cross from Marin to San Francisco; pedestrians and cyclists stroll the east sidewalk for free.
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University of California at Santa Cruz
In the hills above town, the University of California at Santa Cruz has 13,000 liberal-leaning students, a redwood-studded campus, architecturally interesting buildings – many of recycled materials – two top-notch galleries and a beautiful arboretum (831-427-2998).
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Mt Zion United Methodist Church
One of the sites that recall the history of Georgetown’s 19th-century free black community, who lived in an area known as Herring Hill is this church, founded in 1816 and DC’s oldest black congregation. Its original site, on 27th St NW, was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
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Unity Temple
The Unity Temple is the only other Wright building that devotees can go inside; it requires a separate admission fee for a self-guided look around.
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Prairie Avenue Historic District pp106–7
By 1900 Chicago’s crème de la crème had had enough of the scum de la scum in the nearby neighborhoods. Potter Palmer led a procession of millionaires north to new mansions on the Gold Coast. The once-pristine neighborhood, which lined Prairie Ave for several blocks south of 16th St, fell into quick decline as one mansion after another gave way to warehouses and industry, hookers and gin. Thanks to the efforts of the Chicago Architecture Foundation, a few of the prime homes from the area have also been carefully restored. Streets have been closed off, making the neighborhood a good place to stroll. A footbridge over the train tracks links the area to Burnham Park and the M…
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Basilique Notre-Dame
The grand dame of Montréal’s ecclesiastical treasures, this basilica is a must-see when exploring the city. The looming neo-Gothic church can hold up to 3000 worshippers and houses a collection of finely crafted artworks, including an elaborately carved altarpiece, vibrant stained-glass windows and an intricate pulpit. The Sulpicians had an ever-growing congregation and no one in the soon-to-be Canadian colonies schooled in neo-Gothic architecture. So they commissioned James O’Donnell, a New York architect and Irish Protestant, to design what would be the largest church north of Mexico. Such was O’Donnell’s dedication to the project that he converted to Catholicism so he…
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Recinto de La Catedral
Cuernavaca's cathedral stands in a large high-walled recinto (compound) - the entrance gate is on Hidalgo. Like the Palacio de Cortés, the cathedral was built in a grand fortress-like style, in an effort to impress, intimidate and defend against the natives. Franciscans started work on what was one of Mexico's earliest Christian missions in 1526, using indigenous labor and stones from the rubble of Cuauhnáhuac.
The first construction was the Capilla Abierta de San José, an open chapel on the cathedral's west side. The cathedral itself, the Templo de la Asunción de María, is plain and solid, with an unembellished facade. The side door, which faces north to the compound'…
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Santana Row
A completely planned real-estate venture, Santana Row is a mixed-use space that brings together shopping, dining and entertainment along with townhouses, lofts and flats. There's a large boutique hotel and a multiplex cinema.
At its heart is a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare that calls to mind 'Main St' ideals of traditional American small-town life, but the style of the architecture and overall effect is Mediterranean. The restaurants spill out onto sidewalk terraces, and public spaces have been designed to invite loitering and promenading. The idea is a popular one, and on warm evenings, the area is swarming with an energetic crowd. There are some excellent restaurant…
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Union Station
How beautiful is Union Station? Well, even commuters who use it to get to work – people who should loathe the sight of it – say the grand entrance hall, meant to resemble a Roman triumphal arch, never fails to impress. This was the first structure built in accordance with the McMillan plan, the 1901 campaign to revitalize DC’s then dead urban core. Union is one of the pinnacles of the beaux arts and city beautiful movements that transformed the American urban landscape in the 20th century. Besides being an architectural gem, Union is also a semi-minimall and serves as Washington’s main rail hub. The main hall, known as the Grand Concourse, is patterned after the Roman Bat…
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Cathedral
Guadalajara’s twin–towered cathedral is the city’s most beloved and conspicuous landmark. Begun in 1558 and consecrated in 1618, it’s almost as old as the city itself. And it’s magnificent. Time it right and you’ll see light filter through stained glass renderings of the Last Supper and hear a working pipe organ rumble sweetly from the rafters. The interior includes Gothic vaults, massive Tuscany-style gold-leaf pillars and 11 richly decorated altars that were given to Guadalajara by King Fernando VII of Spain (1814–33). Its crucifix is one of the most subtle and tasteful in Mexico (Jesus isn’t white!). The glass case nearest the north entrance is an extremely popular…
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Scottish Rite Temple
The regional headquarters of the Scottish Rite Freemasons, also known as the House of the Temple, is one of the most eye-catching buildings in the District. That’s because it looks like a magic temple lifted out of a comic book, all the more incredible for basically sitting amid a tangle of residential row houses. It’s as if someone plopped the Parthenon in the middle of Shady Acres suburbia. There’s a lot of heavy Masonic symbolism and ritual associated with the building. Thirty-three columns surround the building, representing the 33rd Degree, an honorary distinction conferred on outstanding Masons. Two sphinxes, Wisdom and Power, guard the entrance, and past the gates …
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La Ciudadela
The expansive, square complex called the Citadel is believed to have been the residence of the city's supreme ruler. Four wide walls, each 390m long and topped by 15 pyramids, enclose a huge open space, of which the main feature, to the east, is a pyramid called the Templo de Quetzalcóatl. The temple is flanked by two large complexes of rooms and patios, which may have been the city's administrative center.
The temple's most fascinating feature is the facade of an earlier structure (from around AD 250 to 300 - the temple was built sometime in the following century), which was revealed by excavating the more recent pyramid that had been built on the same site. The four su…
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Rocky Neck Art Colony
The artistic legacy of Gloucester native Fitz Hugh Lane endures, as Gloucester still boasts a vibrant artists community at Rocky Neck Art Colony. The association operates the cooperative Bryan Gallery in a beautiful space overlooking Smith Cove.
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Embassy Row
How quickly can you leave the country? It takes about five minutes; just stroll north along Mass Ave from Dupont Circle (the traffic circle the neighborhood is named for) and you pass roughly 50 embassies housed in mansions that range from the elegant to the imposing to the out there, plus the foreign soil they technically rest on. FYI, the ‘electronic embassy’ (www.embassy.org) is a good resource on all things diplomatic in town. Many consider the 4-acre British Embassy the queen of the row. Look for a fantastic 1928 redbrick mansion with a statue of Winston Churchill out the front, with one foot placed on British soil, the other outside the embassy property line, pl…
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Industrial Trust Building
Come to Providence and you’ll find an urban assemblage of unsurpassable architectural merit – at least in the States. It’s the only American city to have its entire downtown listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The beaux-arts City Hall makes an imposing centerpiece to Kennedy Plaza, and the stately white dome of the Rhode Island State House remains visible from many corners of the city. The Arcade is modeled after Parisian antecedents. These impressive buildings, along with the art deco Industrial Trust building – note the third story friezes of industrial progress on the Westminster Street facade – are only a few of many showcase buildings. The more …
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City Hall
This elegant, cupola-topped marble hall, located in placid City Hall Park facing the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge, has been home to New York City’s government since 1812. In keeping with the half-baked civic planning that has often plagued large-scale New York projects, officials neglected to finish the building’s northern side in marble, due to objections about cost. Finishing the northern facade in brownstone and reducing the size of the building overall made a compromise. The domed tower was rebuilt in 1917 after being damaged by two fires, and the original marble (and brownstone) facades were replaced with limestone over a granite base in 1954–56. Its beautiful res…
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Taos Pueblo
One of the most photographed destinations in New Mexico and continuously inhabited for more than a thousand years, this quintessential example of Pueblo Revival architecture is a must-see for anyone interested in Native American life, history and culture.
Built entirely out of adobe and set against the stunning backdrop of the Sangre de Cristos, Taos Pueblo is the only living Native American community designated both a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and a National Historic Landmark. The two five-story complexes, built between 1000 and 1450 AD, are one of the best examples of pueblo-revival architecture in the country, and have been continuously inhabited for 1000 years. To…
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Liberty City
Liberty City, northwest of Downtown, is a misnomer. Made infamous by the Liberty City Riots in 1980, the area is poor and crime is higher than in other parts of the city. And, while plans exist to renovate the area by creating a village of cultural and tourist attractions, the prospects of that happening in the near future look doubtful.
Whites, fearing 'black encroachment' on their neighborhoods, actually went so far as to build a wall at the then-border of Liberty City - NW 12th Ave from NW 62nd to NW 67th Sts - to separate their neighborhoods. Part of the wall still stands, at NW 12th Ave between NW 63rd and 64th Sts.
For information on Liberty City, Overtown and other …
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Swedenborgian Church
Radical ideals in the form of distinctive buildings make beloved SF landmarks; this standout 1894 example is the collaborative effort of 19th-century Bay Area progressive thinkers, such as naturalist John Muir, California Arts and Crafts leader Bernard Maybeck and architect Arthur Page Brown. Church founder Emanuel Swedenborg was an 18th-century Swedish theologian, a scientist and an occasional conversationalist with angels, who believed that humans are spirits in a material world unified by nature, love and luminous intelligence – a lovely concept, embodied in an even lovelier building. Enter the church through a modest brick archway, and pass into a garden sheltered by …
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Bob Kaufman Alley
What, you mean your hometown doesn’t have a street named after an African American Catholic-Jewish-voodoo anarchist Beat poet who refused to speak for 12 years? The man revered in France as the ‘American Rimbaud’ was a major poet who helped found the legendary Beatitudes magazine in 1959 and a spoken-word bebop jazz artist who was never at a loss for words, yet he felt compelled to take a Buddhist vow of silence after John F Kennedy’s assassination that he kept until the end of the Vietnam War. Kaufman’s life was hardly pure poetry: he was a teenage runaway, periodically found himself homeless, was occasionally jailed for picking fights in poetry with police, battle…
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Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
The largest Catholic house of worship in North America can host 6000 worshippers (Some might say that’s when the building is at critical mass. Get it? Sorry.) This is an enormous, impressive, but somehow unimposing edifice, more Byzantine than Vatican in its aesthetic. Outlaid with some 75,000 sq ft of mosaic work and a crypt modeled after early Christian catacombs, the (literal) crowning glory is a dome that could have been lifted off the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The Marian shrine sports an eclectic mix of Romanesque and Byzantine motifs, all anchored by a 329ft minaret-shaped campanile. Downstairs, the original eastern-style crypt church has low, mosaic-covered vault…
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Misión Santa Rosalía de Mulegé
Across the Transpeninsular and near the southern bank of the river, Mulegé's restored Misión Santa Rosalía de Mulegé stands atop a hill southwest of town. Founded in 1705 and completed in 1766, the mission functioned until 1828, when the declining indigenous population led to its abandonment.
Remodeled several times, the church is less architecturally distinguished than its counterparts in San Ignacio and San Borja; it's imposing but utilitarian, with fewer enticing details. The exterior alone is still faithful to the original.
Behind the church, a short footpath climbs a volcanic outcrop to an overlook with soothing views of the palm-lined Arroyo Santa Rosalía and its…
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