Fort Washington Park in Fort Washington, Maryland

TGIF to the viewers!

For this week’s YEOW, we’d like to share with you Fort Washington Park (25 mins from our office!)

The first Fort Washington was completed in 1809 and guarded the Nation’s Capital until it was destroyed by its own garrison in 1814. Twelve days later Major Pierre L’Enfant was sent to construct new defenses but worked on the fort for only a brief period before Lieutenant Colonel Walker K. Armistead replaced him. The fort was completed on October 2, 1824. Extensive remodeling was performed in the 1840s and the first guns were mounted in 1846. The masonry fort was occupied by soldiers from the First, Third and Fourth U.S. Artillery during its early history. Except for a few guns at the Washington Arsenal, Fort Washington was the only defense for the Nation’s Capital until the Civil War when a circle of temporary forts was built around the city. Battery Rogers and Fort Foote were the only seacoast forts in the system and armed with large Rodman and Parrott cannons. Fort Washington was garrisoned as the outer defense for the city. Companies of the First and Fourth Artillery as well as numerous state artillery units passed through the post during the war. In 1872 the garrison was removed and additional property purchased to construct a new defense system. Funds for the project was withdrawn and the post was abandoned for the next twenty years.

A new defense system, consisting of rifled steel guns in concrete emplacements was authorized in 1886 and work began at Fort Washington in 1891. The next year ground was broken for Battery B, later named Battery Decatur and the guns were mounted in 1896. Eventually eight concrete batteries at Fort Washington and four at Fort Hunt made up the Potomac Defense Command. Prior to World War I Fort Washington was downgraded to harbor defense and the large guns removed. During the war the post was used as a staging area for troops being sent to France. The 8th Provisional Artillery Battalion was organized at the post and sent to France where they became the 53rd Railroad Artillery Regiment. After the war the 3rd Battalion 12th Infantry moved in and became the ceremonial unit for the Military District of Washington.
In 1939 the post was abandoned and turned over to the Director of Public Buildings for use as a terminal point for a bridge across the Potomac and a parkway to be built along the shore. Before the transfer was complete the United States entered World War II. Fort Washington was returned to the army and became the home of the Adjutant General’s School. After the war the Veterans Administration managed the post hospital and other government agencies occupied some of the buildings. In 1946 Fort Washington returned to the Department of the Interior.

Website:

http://www.nps.gov/fowa/learn/historyculture/index.htm

 

 

 

"MUSIC TO YOUR EYES"

This unusual Piano and Violin shaped building built in 2007 serves as showroom for exhibiting the plans for newly created district of Shannan in Huainan City, China.





The transparent Violin houses the escalators and the staircase for the main piano building which displays various plans and development prospects for newly developed area.





It was reportedly designed by Hefei University of Technology and has been built to a scale of 50:1.





Because of its unique shape it has become a popular tourist place and many newly weds have their photo taken in its front. The locals have dubbed it “the most romantic building in China”.




http://unusualplaces.org/piano-house/

Court Of Justice- Hasselt, Belgium

September 13th, 2013 marks the opening of “Court of Justice” in Hasselt, designed by the architects team of J. MAYER H. Architects, a2o-architecten and Lensºass architecten. After finishing the exterior skin already in 2011, the interior was completed in spring of 2013. The new court of justice is an open, transparent building with direct public access, combining the Court of Justice with a university library and auditoriums for the faculty of law. In keeping with the building’s logistical requirements and safety provisions, the structure is divided into three separate units: courtrooms, the library for students and an office tower with a 64-meters-high panorama restaurant on top from which offers a panoramic view of the city of Hasselt and its surroundings.


Based on a master plan by West 8, the former railway station site has been restructured with a park, public buildings, offices and hotels, as well as urban residential blocks. The team of J. MAYER H. Architects, Lens °Ass and a20-architecten have realized one of the two high-rise buildings, “the new court of justice”, a structure that stands as a contemporary urban landmark of the new district. References in the design process point to both the image of the “tree”, the hazelnut trees in the City of Hasselt’s coat of arms, and steel structures in the once industrial- and Art Nouveau-influenced area.



German studio J Mayer H Architects has completed a building housing a law court, university library, auditoriums and offices in the Belgian city of Hasselt
The court of justice building is divided into three separate units containing the courtrooms, student library and the office tower, which also houses a restaurant with panoramic views across the city.



The form of the tower and the pattern of perforated panels on the façade reference the hazelnut trees found in the City of Hasselt's coat of arms. Steel cladding on the exterior evokes the area's industrial heritage and the influence of art nouveau on this part of Belgium.
The tree motif continues inside the building, with a veined pattern covering a wall behind the main reception desk.












http://www.dezeen.com/2013/09/11/court-of-justice-by-j-mayer-h-a2o-architecten-and-lensoass-architecten/


http://www.jmayerh.de/15-0-Court-Of-Justice.html

The Beach at the National Building Museum,

Washington, D.C.

TGIF to the viewers!

The National Building Museum presents a one-of-a-kind destination for visitors, an interactive architectural installation that brings the quintessential summer experience of going to the beach to downtown Washington, D.C. Spanning across the Museum’s Great Hall, the BEACH, created in partnership with Snarkitecture, will cover 10,000 square feet and include an “ocean” of nearly one million recyclable translucent plastic balls. Tickets include admission to exhibitions. Admission is first come, first served (no timed entry). Visit our Admissions page for more ticketing information. The BEACH is contained within an enclosure and built out of construction materials such as scaffolding, wooden panels, and perforated mesh, all clad in stark white. Monochromatic beach chairs and umbrellas sprinkle the 50-foot wide “shoreline,” and the “ocean” culminates in a mirrored wall that creates a seemingly infinite reflected expanse. Visitors are welcome to “swim” in the ocean, or can spend an afternoon at the “shore’s” edge reading a good book, play beach-related activities such as paddleball, grab a refreshing drink at the snack bar, or dangle their feet in the ocean off the pier.

 

 

 

The beach will be open starting July 4 - September 7, 2015.

 

Source:

http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/the-beach.html

Mosaic Village: Merging Jazz and Architecture

The Northwest Corridor Revitalization Initiative brings together businesses, residents, city authorities, developers, and officials from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) to boost the quality of life and economic activity of the Northwest Corridor, a major transportation route from uptown Charlotte, N.C. JCSU opened the vibrant Mosaic Village in the historic West End in 2012 as an important aspect of the revitalization project.


The 124,000-sf mixed-use project contains 80 apartments, accommodating 300 students with numerous amenities. Tenants have access to a gym, computer lab, study rooms, lounges, and a 4,000-sf rooftop terrace. A free shuttle brings riders to the main university campus and uptown Charlotte. Mosaic Village contains 7,500 sf of retail space and was designed to attract new businesses that benefit from this high-density housing. The project strives to promote identity, history, and diversity.


Architect Daniel McNamee was inspired by the neighborhood's rich jazz history and the nearby Excelsior Club, which had at one time been the largest private social club for Black professionals in the Southeast.


“The primary challenge was to take a residence hall—a building type that typically has a lot of overbearing repetition—and compose a dynamic design that tells the story of the historic West End through a connection with jazz music,” said McNamee.


The dynamic and inspiring exterior of Mosaic Village contains a brick façade, with metal panels at varying depths. The panels provide both insulation and a crisp look. They are coated with Valspar's 70% PVDF Fluropon coating in Cool Breakwater Blue and Silversmith, bringing the project to life and providing exceptional protection again the elements.


These dynamic elements helped the project win AIA Charlotte’s Urban Design Merit Award and become a neighborhood favorite, revitalizing the historic neighborhood. - See more at:






http://www.bdcnetwork.com/blog/charlotte%E2%80%99s-mosaic-village-merges-jazz-and-architecture#sthash.yLQ5EXWf.dpuf










Inspired by the area’s rich history and unmatched resilience, Mosaic Village has carefully been sculpted by the cultural influence of Jazz Music, seen and heard at the nearby historic Excelsior Club. The rhythmic progression of the building pulls from the jazz aesthetic and its improvisational yet structured nature. A study of how the layers of music can inform and compose the layers of architecture produces an array of breaks, riffs, vamps, bridges, and improvs in physical form. Following these rules from the realm of jazz, the public and physical realm of Mosaic Village becomes an architectural composition that respects its history, while chartering a new path for the Historic West End Community.


Mosaic Village has been designed as a sustainable campus that promotes diversity, mobility, identity, history, and vitality. The new urban housing development consists of 80 units (299 beds), each with a kitchen, washer/dryer, and 2 bathrooms. Lounges and study rooms are spread throughout each level to promote social interaction, while a fitness room, game room, and computer lab are located at the main lobby.


The village has a goal of sharing resources innovatively, appreciating the individual differences that come with diversity, and celebrating the opportunities for collaboration and engagement involved with being part of the overall mosaic that is Historic West End.




http://neighboringconcepts.com/project/mosaic-village-2/

Cells of Life at Jupiter Artland

 

TGIF to the viewers!

For this week’s YEOW, we’d like to share with you, Cells of Life at Jupiter Artland by Charles Jencks.

Eight landforms and a connecting causeway surround four lakes and a flat parterre for sculpture exhibits.
The theme is the life of the cell, cells as the basic units of life, and the way one cell divides into two in stages called mitosis (presented in a red sandstone rill). Curving concrete seats have cell models surrounded by Liesegang rocks. Their red iron concentric circles bear an uncanny relationship to the many organelles inside the units of life. From above, the layout presents their early division into membranes and nuclei, a landform celebration of the cell as the basis of life.

Biography
Charles Jencks is an architectural theorist, writer and landscape architect. Born in Baltimore, 1939, he studied English Literature at Harvard and later Architectural History in London. He has lectured widely on architecture and the arts around the world and among his books The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977 and six later editions) was the first to define this movement in the arts, especially architecture. He has also written numerous other books on contemporary arts and building, including The Iconic Building, the Power of Enigma (Frances Lincoln, 2005), What is Post-Modernism? (fourth edition,1995) and Critical Modernism (Wiley, 2007), a look at where Modernism is going.
His celebrated garden in Scotland is the subject of his book The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (Frances Lincoln, 2003) and in 2004 the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, won the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums for his design, Landform Ueda. His landscape work is inspired by prehistoric landforms as well as more recent themes that are known to underlie nature such as strange attractors, genetic organisation and the fractal geometry of nature. Seeking to base a language of design on the basic units of the universe he has constructed a Black Hole landscape in Beijing Olympic Forest Park, DNA sculpture in Cambridge and Time Garden in Milan. Such ideas are discussed in his Garden of Cosmic Speculation, 2003, a book that explains in detail his Dumfriesshire garden and how it abstracts various underlying laws. These stylisations become a hybrid practise of sculpture, words and gardens he calls landforming. Charles Jencks divides his time between lecturing, writing, and designing in the USA, the UK, and Europe.

Sources:

https://vimeo.com/50361123

https://www.jupiterartland.org/artwork/cells-of-life

https://www.jupiterartland.org/artwork/metaphysical-landscapes

Art Through Architecture (American Visionary Art Museum)

The founder and director of the AVAM is Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, who while working in the development department of Sinai Hospital’s (Baltimore) People Encouraging People (a program geared toward aiding psychiatric patients in their return to the community) began to develop the idea for a visionary museum, an idea that eventually blossomed into the American Visionary Art Museum, or AVAM. Initially, Hoffberger was simply interested in the artwork created by the patients in the People Encouraging People program, and found herself “impressed with their imagination” and looking to “their strengths, not their illnesses.”
Hoffberger found inspiration on a visit to the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, which was established by French artist Jean Dubuffet as a collection of “l'art brut” or “raw art because of the untamed emotions resonating in it.” Hoffberger described the museum as “the best, the most imaginative, the most original museum” and soon adopted the idea of “l'art brut” for her own visionary museum

 In her inaugural address, Hoffberger stated that “the American Visionary Art Museum opens its doors of perception not in an effort to make war on academic or institutionalized learning, but to create a place where the best of self-taught, intuitive contributions of all kinds will be duly recognized, explored, and then championed in a clear strong voice.” Since its designation—by a unanimous vote of the U.S. Congress—as America's "official national education center, repository and museum for self-taught, intuitive artistry,"

The AVAM is the official national museum and education center for self-taught and intuitive artistry. Visionary art beats to the rhythm of its own drum, or rather, it's own fantastical self-made instrument. The American Visionary Art Museum provides an inclusive space for 'outsider' art. However, there is a fine line to walk when 'fringe' or 'outsider' art is concerned.

The Hoffberger Family Welcome Plaza connects the Jim Rouse Visionary Center, which opened in 2004, to the rest of the museum complex. The Plaza host several works including Phoenix by Dr. Tom Evermore and Cosmic Galaxy Egg by Andrew Logan.

http://www.avam.org/

http://arts.gov/photos/breaking-tradition-american-visionary-art-museum