Architecture sights in North America
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Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel
The parish church's pink 'wedding cake' towers dominate the Jardín. These strange pinnacles were designed by indigenous stonemason Zeferino Gutiérrez in the late 19th century. He reputedly based the design on a postcard of a Belgian church and instructed builders by scratching plans in the sand with a stick. The rest of the church dates from the late 17th century.
In the chapel to the left of the main altar is the much-revered image of the Cristo de la Conquista (Christ of the Conquest), made in Pátzcuaro from cornstalks and orchid bulbs, probably in the 16th century. Irish visitors will be pleased to find a statue of St Patrick, a tribute to the Irish who changed sides…
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St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church
Built in 1894 against the backdrop of Mt Juneau, the onion-domed church is a photographer's delight. Inside are Russian icons, original vestments and religious relics, while adjacent to the church is a small gift shop filled with books, matreshkas (nestling dolls) and other handcrafted items from Russia.
This church, named for a saint known as the protector of mariners, probably hears more camera clicks than any other building in Juneau. The octagon-shaped structure was built in 1894 and wins the prize for being the oldest Russian Orthodox Church in the southeastern region. There are exhibits of Russian icons within, as well as original vestments and religious relics.…
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Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation opens around 40 authentic 17th- and 18th-century buildings to ticket holders in the restored historic district, staffed with all the friendly townsfolk you'd expect to meet back then, all sharing the tricks of their various trades and breaking character only long enough to snap a family photo for you.
Walking around the historic district and patronizing the shops and taverns is free, but entry to the building tours is restricted to ticket holders. Expect crowds, lines and petulant children, (particularly in summer) and plenty of three-cornered hats.
To park and purchase tickets, follow signs to the visitor center (btwn Hwy 132 &…
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L Ron Hubbard House
For three years (1957–60) the father of the Church of Scientology occupied this rather handsome Dupont house, working on developing his own religion for the masses. Today, Hubbard’s old house is something of a shrine for scientologists from around the world. OK, OK: we know Scientology has become a bit of a straw man in recent years, an easy word association with ‘kooky, ’ but it’s also a religion with millions of adherents, and said worshippers take this place pretty seriously. We’re not saying you have to, but if the spirit moves you (as it were), this is the Scientology equivalent of Bethlehem, or something close to it. This is also where the Founding Church of…
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St Peter’s Church
Greek fever spread through the US in the 1820s as Americans linked the populist presidency of Andrew Jackson with ancient Greek democracy. Architects and builders who had never set foot in Greece cribbed designs from pattern books. Churches and public buildings dressed up like Greek temples with tall columns supporting a horizontal entablature and a classical pediment. Two of the best are still standing. The gray granite St Peter’s Church, built in 1838, replaced the first Roman Catholic church in the city, erected in 1785 and destroyed by fire. The white-marble1842 Federal Hall National Memorial (26 Wall St), originally the US Customs House, is now a museum.
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Octagon Museum
The apex of the Federal style of architecture pioneered in the USA also happens to be the oldest museum in America dedicated to architecture and design. Designed by William Thornton (the Capitol’s first architect) in 1800, the building is a symmetrically winged structure designed to fit an odd triangular lot. Behind it, the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) large modern offices wrap around like a protective older brother. AIA operates Octagon House and the building was closed for renovation as of press time, but should be open by the time you read this; tours ($5 prerenovation) can be arranged by calling ahead.
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Casa de Montejo
The Casa de Montejo is on the south side of the Plaza Grande and dates from 1549. It originally housed soldiers but was soon converted into a mansion that served members of the Montejo family until 1970. These days it houses a bank, and you can enter and look around during bank hours. At other times, content yourself with a close look at the facade, where triumphant conquistadors with halberds hold their feet on the necks of generic barbarians (though they’re not Maya, the association is inescapable). Typical of the symbolism in colonial statuary, the vanquished are rendered much smaller than the victors.
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Three Courthouses
Along the north side of Rue Notre-Dame Est near Pl Jacques-Cartier, three courthouses stand bunched together. The most fetching is the neoclassical Vieux Palais de Justice, Montréal’s old justice palace and oldest courthouse (1856) that’s now an annex of the Hôtel de Ville. It’s a popular backdrop for wedding photos. The Édifice Ernest Cormier from the 1920s was used for criminal trials before being turned into a conservatory and later a court of appeal. The ugly stepsister is the oversized Palais de Justice, built in 1971 when concrete and smoked glass were all the rage.
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Bank of Montréal
Modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, the grand colonnaded edifice of Canada’s oldest chartered bank, built in 1847, dominates the north side of Place-d’Armes and is still a working bank. The imposing interior has 32 marble columns and a coffered 20m ceiling in Italian Renaissance style over a long row of tellers behind glass partitions. The helmeted marble lady is Patria, representing a minor Roman god of patriotism to honor the war dead. A snoozy money museum inside the bank has a replica of a cashier’s window, old banknotes and an account of early banking in Canada.
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St Patrick’s Basilica
Built for Montréal’s booming Irish population in 1847, the interior of St Patrick’s Basilica contains huge columns from single pine trunks, an ornate baptismal font and nectar-colored stained-glass windows. The pope raised its status to basilica in 1989, in recognition of its importance to English-speaking Catholics in Montréal. It’s a sterling example of French-Gothic style and, as you might expect, is classified a national monument. The Irish-Canadian patriot D’Arcy McGee was buried here after his assassination in 1868; his pew (number 240) is marked with a small Canadian flag.
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Templo La Valenciana
Near the mine is the stunning Templo La Valenciana (aka Iglesia de San Cayetano). One legend says that the Spaniard who started the mine promised San Cayetano that if it made him rich, he would build a church to honor the saint. Another says that the silver baron of La Valenciana, Conde de Rul, tried to atone for exploiting the miners by building the ultimate in Churrigueresque churches.
Whatever the motive, ground was broken in 1765, and the church was completed in 1788. Templo La Valenciana's facade is spectacular, and its interior dazzles with ornate golden altars, filigree carvings and giant paintings.
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The Breakers
Most magnificent of the Newport mansions is the Breakers, a 70-room Italian Renaissance megapalace inspired by 16th-century Genoese palazzos. Richard Morris Hunt did most of the design, though he imported craftsmen from around the world to perfect the sculptural and decorative programs. The building was completed in 1895 and sits next to Ochre Court at Ochre Point, on a supremely grand oceanside site. The furnishings, most made expressly for the Breakers, are all original. The content of the tour is well conceived and presented. Don’t miss the Children’s Cottage on the grounds.
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Miami Beach Post Office
If you’re going to send the family some corny postcards (of which there is no shortage), do so from this 1937 deco gem, the first South Beach renovation project tackled by preservationists in the ‘70s. This Depression moderne building in the ‘stripped classic’ style was constructed thanks to President Franklin D Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), which supported unemployed artists during the Great Depression. On the exterior, note the bald eagle; inside, gaze at a beautifully restored painted paper ceiling and a large wall mural of the Seminole Wars.
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Ex-Templo de San Agustín
Ex-Templo de San Agustín was built for Augustinian monks in the 17th century. During the 19th-century anticlerical movement, the church became a casino. In 1882 it was purchased by American Presbyterian missionaries who destroyed its 'too Catholic' main facade, replacing it with a blank white wall. In the 20th century the church returned to the government. Today it hosts art and cultural exhibitions. The adjoining former monastery is now the seat of the Zacatecas bishopric.
The church's finest feature is the plateresque carving of the conversion of St Augustine over the north doorway.
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Windsor Hotel
The palatial Windsor was Canada’s first grand hotel (1878) and played host to all manner of international guests and celebrities, including Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II and John F Kennedy. The original Windsor had six restaurants and 382 sumptuous guest rooms, but a fire that devastated the hotel in 1957 left only the annex – the portion still standing today. You can stroll down the magnificent main hall, Peacock Alley, and peek at the vast wooden dance floors, chandeliers and high windows that recall turn-of-the-century splendor.
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Commercial Street
Back when the red lights of Commercial St could be seen down by the waterfront, this strip provided many provocative answers to the age-old question: what do you do with a drunken sailor? Conveniently located across Portsmouth Sq from San Francisco’s City Hall, this hot spot caught fire in 1906. The city banned its 25¢ Chinese brothels in favor of white-run ‘parlor houses, ’ where basic services were raised to $3 – watching cost $10 at the faux-French Parisian Mansion. Today that much gets you a couple of hot dishes – of dumplings, that is, at City View.
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Carbide and Carbon Building
Chicago designers found inspiration from the French movement: Art Deco. The style took on sharp angles, reflective surfaces and a modern palette of blacks, silvers and greens in geometric elements. One of the few remaining buildings in the Loop that characterize this style, the Carbide and Carbon Building, has now become a Hard Rock Hotel Chicago. But check out the building’s polished black granite, green terra-cotta and gold crown – all colorful signals of the deco palate, which is rumored to be designed to look like a champagne bottle.
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Seagram Building
Architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, who left Europe in the early 1930s, brought the vision and know-how of the avant-garde German Bauhaus to America. Architecture that rejected the past, it imagined future cities of functional glass towers. The Seagram Building, 1958, designed by Mies van der Rohe, a stunning amber glass and bronze slab, is set on an open plaza. Van der Rohe, given an unlimited budget, produced a masterpiece of the International Style. Cheaper glass towers that followed didn’t measure up.
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Gare Windsor
The massive Victorian building hugging the slope west of the Marriott Château Champlain is the old Windsor Station, opened in 1889 as the headquarters of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Romanesque structure inspired a château style for train stations across the country; its architect, Bruce Price, would later build the remarkable Château Frontenac in Québec City. The station is no longer the terminus of the transcontinental railway but still serves commuter trains. Much of the building today houses offices and shops.
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Meridian International Center
Many people who have lived in Washington for years haven’t even heard of Meridian House, which isn’t surprising –this impressive mansion does spring out of nowhere, looking like the headquarters for some world-dominating secret society. In fact, it’s an education and hospitality center for DC’s international community; the interior grounds are as impressive as the exterior facade. John Russell Pope built the structure to resemble a French country chateau, complete with a stately walled entrance, a charming cobblestone courtyard and a decorated limestone facade.
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Barrio Antiguo
The most atmospheric part of town, the Barrio Antiguo has cobbled streets and fine colonial houses, many of which have been converted into cafés, restaurants and art galleries. Avenida Constitución to the south and east, Dr Coss to the west and Padre Mier in the north form its historic boundaries (note the old-style street lights and lack of electricity wires), though its vibe extends a few blocks further north. On Thursday, Friday and especially Saturday nights it becomes a major party zone with an excellent assortment of bars and clubs.
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Callejón del Beso
The narrowest of the many narrow alleys that climb the hills from Guanajuato's main streets is the Alley of the Kiss, where the balconies of the houses on either side practically touch.
According to local legend, a fine family once lived on this street, and their daughter fell in love with a common miner. They were forbidden to see each other, but the miner rented a room opposite, and the lovers exchanged furtive besos (kisses) from these balconies. Of course, the romance was discovered and the couple met a tragic end.
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Filbert Street Steps
Somewhere in the middle of the steep climb up Filbert Street Steps to Coit Tower, you might begin to wonder if it’s worth the trouble. Well, take a breather and look around. Already you’re passing hidden cottages along a wooden boardwalk called Napier Lane, sculpture tucked in among gardens flowering year-round, and sweeping vistas of the Bay Bridge. If you need a few words of encouragement, the wild parrots in the trees have been known to interject a few choice words that your gym instructor would probably get sued for using.
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Dade County Courthouse
If you end up on trial here, at least you’ll get a free tour of one of the most imposing courthouses in America. When Miami outgrew its first courthouse, it moved legal proceedings to this neoclassical icon, built between 1925 and 1929 for $4 million. It’s a very…appropriate building; if structures were people, the courthouse would definitely be a judge. Some useless trivia: back in the day, the top nine floors served as a ‘secure’ prison, from which more than 70 prisoners escaped.
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Palais des Congrès
Entering the hall of this convention center with its facade of popsicle-colored panes is akin to strolling through a kaleidoscope. Day brings out the colors, night the transparency. The cutting-edge Palais integrates several historic buildings: a 1908 fire station, the art-deco Tramways building from 1928 and a Victorian-era office complex. Immediately east of the Palais lies a landscape garden with stone pathways linking 31 heaps of earth, each topped off with Montréal’s official tree, the crab apple.
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