I'm reluctant to believe anything you write — T Clark

A wise policy.

Tell me one thing. Why did they change the name of the Triborough Bridge to the RFK? As if NYC traffic isn't bad enough. — T Clark

I don't live up there, but I know it as the Triborough Bridge; so I can't say. I live quite near the Verrazano at the moment.

Why did they change the name of the Triborough Bridge to the RFK? — T Clark

It says they changed it at the request of the Kennedy family.

So, just like that. Somebody at Kennedy HQ picks up the phone and calls Mayor Bloomberg and says, "you know, we'd like the Triborough named after Bobby. Don't you think that would be nice? When will the new plaque be ready?" (It was in... 2008?)

My brother and I visited Europe together in 2014. We started out in Amsterdam, drove south into Germany, then along the Mosel River into Alsace-Lorraine, the Black Forest in Germany again, then back north through Luxembourg and Belgium along the Meuse River and back to the Netherlands. The north-south line we traveled was roughly along the line of battle for World War I. It is hard not to be struck by the number of castles and fortresses along our path. This part of the world has been fought over for more than 500 years.



Along the Mosel River



In Alsace



Also Alsace



Northern France



Luxembourg

And this most beautiful of all structures.

Is that your house T-Clark?

Just imagine reading on this hammock after a morning stroll, the little home between lush green and sea. Perfection.

I can drive out to a good school, a small sacrifice so that I can lie on the hammock, my son scurrying around with a ball, and a grumpy foster teen sitting on the veranda peering into her iphone. Maybe our appreciation of beautiful things is really the surprise that our dreams have been painted onto a physical canvas. I love your home. It suits you.

I can drive out to a good school, a small sacrifice so that I can lie on the hammock, my son scurrying around with a ball, and a grumpy foster teen sitting on the veranda peering into her iphone. — TimeLine

Given your desire to do good, it is unlikely you will be able to afford anything extravagant, so I'll continue to picture you in the cottage with the yellow door. I'm sure there will be plenty of room in the yard for a hammock.

Maybe our appreciation of beautiful things is really the surprise that our dreams have been painted onto a physical canvas. — TimeLine

As you may be able to tell, I have been surprised and gratified by how much these threads on beautiful things have moved me. I like this, love that, love this, like that one at a time. Putting them all together in one place is a little overwhelming. I think that reflects how much I love the world. How at home I feel here. Notice most of the things I've showed, including in the previous thread, are from the human world.

I love your home. It suits you. — TimeLine

It does suit me. More than that it is me.

This is the Olympic stadium in Munich, designed by Frei Otto. Otto designed his 'sails' by using soap bubbles to model the surface area so that he could achieve the most efficient use of materials. This is architecture literally modelled off nature.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/oct/04/architecture

Amazing!

Very similar to Temppeliaukio Church, although I was not as awestruck as I thought I would be probably because I have a fondness for classical architecture. I really find Islamic geometry used to enrich its architectural design to be fascinating, something they have taken to another level with Sancaklar.

This is the Olympic stadium in Munich, designed by Frei Otto. Otto designed his 'sails' by using soap bubbles to model the surface area so that he could achieve the most efficient use of materials. This is architecture literally modelled off nature. — StreetlightX

Really love this.

In the past, somewhere in this forum, I had also posted Sancaklar Mosque as a fine piece of architecture. — Πετροκότσυφας

More stonehengey than traditionally mosquey, but wonderful. I went on the web and looked at some stills of the interiors. Wonderful, but I already said that.

Those Finns - here is a hockey rink in New Haven Connecticut by Eero Saarinen in 1959, for goodness sakes.





Like the exterior. Love the interior.

The world is such an incredible place.

If you didn't like that Saarinen facility, then you will really hate this one:

Eero Saarinen and his Detroit-based firm were commissioned in 1955 to design the TWA Flight Center. Saarinen, who projected a high patronage for the terminal, conceived the terminal to speed up processes.

Unlike the son, the father liked boxier shapes. This is Christ Church Lutheran in Minneapolis. by Eliel Saarinen, 1949. It is a national historic landmark (which, I believe, TWA is also).





Eero Saarinen designed a social hall and education annex adjacent to the church (1962). I has classrooms, a commercial kitchen, dining rooms, and a full sized gym. All this used to get used quite heavily when the church was much larger and city churches had basketball leagues, and there were many more social activities in the church.

The 1960s were the first and leading decade of dramatic membership losses in most American churches. Quite a few churches expanded at this time, expecting to see decades of solid growth which just didn't happen.

Here is the Luther Lounge, s nice meeting room, and the gym





It is an ordinary gym, but the floor is about 18 feet below the the lawn, to avoid having the structure overpower the neighboring houses, which are close to the north side of the church.

I live across the street from the church, and am the resident atheist member. My main project in the church at this point is cleaning. Cleaning has a nice concrete quality, (especially in a building with concrete floors) and unlike social service, you can tell immediately what you have accomplished.

Yet another Eero Saarinen structure, the Gate Way [to the west] Arch in St. Louis, MO. The arch was built in a former slum on the river, occupied mostly by blacks, many of whom moved to (or were relocated to) Ferguson, MO which they and their police made famous recently.

The Empire State Building was always a magical building for me. My mother grew up in NYC and we went there a couple times a year to visit my grandfather. More than that, all of my childhood it was the tallest building in the world. It was almost a synonym for "superlative." Like Babe Ruth or Adolph Hitler. Of course we went up in it, along with the Statue of Liberty.

Then it was no longer the tallest building. I forget, was it the World Trade Center buildings that took it's place? Since then, many other's have taken their place as the tallest. I remember driving up the New Jersey Turnpike and seeing it on the horizon. Then the WTC was added. Then the WTC was gone again.

Yet another Eero Saarinen structure, the Gate Way [to the west] Arch in St. Louis, MO. The arch was built in a former slum on the river, occupied mostly by blacks, many of whom moved to (or were relocated to) Ferguson, MO which they and their police made famous recently. — Bitter Crank

I've always wanted to go up in the arch.

So much modern stuff seems lifeless to me, then I see something like the church in Minneapolis you showed and I get the point.

Another thing I like about Minneapolis and St. Paul is the Skyways. I remember walking in St. Paul in the winter. It made me feel differently about cities. Like somebody took a knife and cut out a slice of St. Paul cake. Or like a pop-up book.

There are soo many structures that I LOVE in Chicago but of all the places I LOVE, this one holds a special place in my idea of a beautiful structure dedicated to those who never walked their halls.

Above and Beyond - Veterans Museum Chicago

This display hangs in National Veterans Arts Museum in Chicago. It contains the dog tags for every U.S. Serviceman and woman killed in Vietnam. I have never felt so small as I did in standing in the shadows of those who gave the ultimate gift for Liberty.

You went to downtown St. Paul? Why would you do that? You must have been misdirected.

I love some parts of St. Paul -- DT isn't one of them, anymore.

The skyways are a good thing, but they have a downside: it greatly reduces pedestrian traffic at the street level, outside. I like walking outside. On the other hand, many cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul both) have long stretches of streets downtown where there is nothing to see anyway. On the skyway level there is a lot to see.

Then there is the weather -- cold in the winter, hot in the summer. We like living in the indoor temperature range of 69-72. Above and below -- can't survive.

It wasn't that long ago (40 years, 30 years, not less) when downtowns had lots of stores, cafes, and street traffic. I miss all that.

One of the reasons people like going to malls is that there is more to see. There are lots of people and lots of store windows with displays, whether one has much interest in the stuff or not. Its an agora, a forum -- except that it's private, of course, which makes a big difference. There are definitely limits on what can go on there -- a plus and a negative both.

The Empire State Building — T Clark

The Empire State Building was always, and will always be, far more attractive than the WTC buildings that aren't there anymore, and the one that is. Art Deco was a very tasteful style, and like several other design styles, it stays quite fresh with a very long shelf-life. Only the very best of the 50s and 60s International Style (like Lever House or the Seagrams Bldg.) remain fresh and attractive. Buildings that start out as looming hulks generally stay that way.

You went to downtown St. Paul? Why would you do that? You must have been misdirected. — Bitter Crank

The company I worked for had an office right at the end of the Skyway in St. Paul.

It wasn't that long ago (40 years, 30 years, not less) when downtowns had lots of stores, cafes, and street traffic. I miss all that. — Bitter Crank

That's one of the reasons I liked those pictures of towns - they always mean life to me. People walking. Talking to each other for no reason. Hardware stores. I was just thinking about Woolworth's a few days ago. 5 & 10 cent stores. What a concept.

The Empire State Building was always, and will always be, far more attractive than the WTC buildings that aren't there anymore, and the one that is. Art Deco was a very tasteful style, and like several other design styles, it stays quite fresh with a very long shelf-life. Only the very best of the 50s and 60s International Style (like Lever House or the Seagrams Bldg.) remain fresh and attractive. Buildings that start out as looming hulks generally stay that way. — Bitter Crank

I was going to include the Chrysler Bldg. too, but it doesn't really have as much personal meaning to me as the ESB does.

I love New York. I love cities. I love towns. I love buildings. I love bridges. I love the refineries and petroleum smell at the northern end of the New Jersey Turnpike. There's a place on the turnpike in northern NJ where there's the Port of Newark and a rail line on one side and Newark airport on the other. That says everything that needs to be said about the human world right there.

So much modern stuff seems lifeless to me, then I see something like the church Minneapolis you showed and I get the point. — T Clark

So much of it IS lifeless. Of course, a lot of buildings are built for utilitarian purposes and the building owners decide what the cost and quality will be. If the owners don't want to pay for elegance and beauty, then the building will be a box covered with composite stone material, the windows will be small and regularly spaced, and the structure will be totally forgettable but unfortunately not missable.

I love the refineries and petroleum smell — T Clark

Odor is a neglected topic.

I can't say that petroleum refineries are my favorite smell, but there are some industrial smells I like. One, which some people find objectionable, is soybean crushing plants. Bunge Crushers used to have a large operation near the University of Minnesota where they crushed soybeans for oil. I thought the smell was delicious, but a lot of people don't like it, for some odd reason.

Archer Daniels Midland has a flour mill not far from where I live; up close it smells like ground grain, the sort of smell I remember from the small buildings where farmers stored ground feed for hogs and cattle. It's a good smell. There is also a slightly sour-dough smell to the place.

I can summon olfactory memories of the coal-powered Chicago North Western train that used to roll into my little hometown once or twice a day. It was a warm odor of lubricating oil, coal, smoke, dirt, the small stockyard next to the railroad, country air, etc. When they started shipping iron ore from a nearby mine out on this line, they switched to diesel, which just isn't as great a fragrance.

The Koch Brothers operate a refinery south of Minneapolis (like 20 miles south); it refines oil from the Alberta Tar Sands. Bad stuff. I can't say I really like the combination of ammonia, and various other volatile chemicals. It's been there for... 60 or 70 years.

Horse manure smells much better than cow manure which smells much better than pig manure which is pretty much the limit on tolerable smells.

. 5 & 10 cent stores. — T Clark

Grant, Kresge, Woolworth...

Dentists use acrylic for some procedures -- making small impressions, lining of temporary crowns, that sort of thing. The stuff is VERY odorous, and it get's hot when they mix it up (endothermic). It smells like the cheap plastic crap you found at Woolworth's or Kresge's. Of course, at one time this cheap plastic crap was the latest thing.