Landmade vs. manmade

If you're looking to travel to Europe, you must be interested in manmade/historical sites, at least according to Orbitz's top 10 European travel packages. (http://www.orbitz.com/App/PerformMDLPDealsContent?deal_id=europe&cnt=PKH) Say, for instance, you want to go to England. Clearly you need to sign up for the "TOTAL LONDON EXPERIENCE," Orbitz's #1 European travel package, which features Westminster Abbey, the changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London (to see the crown jewels, of course!), Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament. You will not see any nature, even though you will be stopping at Covent Garden on this excursion. However, for those of you, like myself, who have never been to London, you shouldn't expect to see any plants in the Garden unless they are for sale. Upon further investigation, I discovered that Covent Garden is a piazza with shops and street performers, not rose bushes or trees. Even mention of the Thames River in the package details makes sure to let you know you can see the views of landmarks such as the Globe Theater or London Bridge (it apparently has not fallen down yet) while on the cruise.
The same type of deal is found in the #2 most popular travel package- Simply Paris. Here you will be immersed in the same type of sightseeing, stopping at the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and strolling/shopping on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, one of the most expensive real-estate areas in Paris. This package bills Paris as "historic," "romantic," and "fashionable." Once again, the only mention of nature is the Seine River, from which you can see all the monuments. Europe offers history and landmarks associated with its history.

The opposite is true if you're coming to America for a vacation from Europe (at least from Spain, as I used my Spanish skills and the website Destinia.) (http://www.destinia.com/www/searches/index.php) Apparently the only places of interest in Los Estados Unidos are New York City and a few select cities on the East Coast, and the "natural wonders" of the Western U.S. With the Western package, travelers will see every natural landform possible, including Yosemite National Park, valleys, waterfalls, forests, the Grand Canyon, and the Colorado River. Even when heading to Las Vegas, the travelers won't be hitting the casinos! They're going to see the desert and the agricultural communities who live/work there. In Santa Barbara, the travelers are more interested in the palm trees and beaches than the city itself. A day trip to Phoenix allows travelers to see Southwestern architecture, which may be of interest to Spaniards since it was Spain who colonized the area and they can see how their ancestors left a mark in the "New World."
Trips to the East Coast offer more of the same landscape-oriented destinations, such as the "legendary" Catskill Mountains (did anyone reading this ever know this mountain range was legendary???), Niagara Falls (by way of the Maid of the Mist), and, my personal favorite, the agricultural zone of Pennsylvania.
Cities take a backseat to America's natural wonders, except when they are important to our national birth. Washington, D.C. is a big draw for Arlington, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Casa Blanca. A stop in Philly is vital because it is where "the original 13 colonies declared their independence". Five of the seven packages offer stops in New York City, in order to see the rascacielos, or skyscrapers (as we know Europe doesn't have many). It's curious that the top destinations in America are mostly natural, as America was one of the sources of natural resources in the age of exploration, and institutions of their ideas of democracy, which is arguably the greatest export, at least the most far-reaching, and when Americans travel to England, they seem to want to see institutions of the government from which they rebelled. In many ways, travellers to/from Europe/America seem to be stuck in the Columbian trade agreement.

Dollhouse

I drive past this house every day on my way to/from just about anywhere. It is located in Lancaster just outside of my circa 1980s subdivision, and its backyard actually meets up with backyards of the houses on my street. While many other people in the area have cookie cutter "suburban" houses, this home, to me, is reminiscient of the dream dollhouse I wanted for my Barbies growing up. It looks like an Eastlake version of the Queen Anne style with all that woodwork on the porch. I'm sure this house was one of the first built in the area and predates any home in "Heritage Heights" or whatever other named neighborhood is close by. As if the house wasn't over the top already, it used to have carousel horses (think merry-go-round in the Boulevard Mall) on display on the porch railing. No word on why they were removed, but those horses definitely took house adornments to a whole new level.

House Hide and go Seek

The city of Buffalo is known for its gorgeous architecture, and it is easy to admire the charm of its old houses. It is much more difficult to try to find a specific type of architectural style since there are so many styles and so many homes. I believe I found some bungalows, a Prairie style home, a Sullivanesque style home, a few Stick style homes and an abundance of Queen Anne styles.

Queen Anne examples: This home at 614 West Ferry is asymmetrical, has an abundance of materials and colors, and also features a conical tower. What I liked most was the buffalo weather vane on the tower's finial.

This house at 65 Bidwell Pkwy. is also asymmetrical and has a conical tower. Its tall chimney and front porch are also characteristic of the Queen Anne style. It seems to me that the right peak has more of a Dutch style, and I doubt that awning was part of the original design.

This business at 1074 Elmwood Ave. may have been a home originally. Its polygonal tower and dormer window are Queen Anne touches.
This house at 72 Woodward Ave. also has a tall chimney and a conical tower. It also features a number of different building materials. It was actually being rehabbed as I snapped the picture, as evidenced by the man hanging out of the tower window. Though they were working inside, I wonder if that second story porch was an original asset.

Stick Style Examples:

This home at 44 Lincoln Parkway looks like an Eastern Stick style house with its external bracing, projecting gable, and whatever is protruding from the roof peaks.

This house at 23 Burbank Terrace has knee braces on the porch and struts/diagonal braces under the roof and between the second and third stories.

Prairie Style Examples:

This home at 625 Bird Ave. is a low two-story home with a widely protruding roof and large central fireplace characteristic of a Prairie style home. The last picture shows a close-up of the horizontal windows with stained panes in geometric patterns.

Bungalow Style Examples:

These bungalows at 83 and 79 Chenango are actually being rehabbed at this very moment. The top bungalow is an almost complete renovation that still holds true to the 1.5 story style, yet appears to have added a front porch with tapered porch posts, true to the design of bungalow style. The second home has yet to have exterior work done on it, and you can see the difference in porches from one house to the next. I bet the old bungalows didn't have central air, as these are advertising.

Sullivanesque Examples:

This home at 356 Richmond Ave. looks Sullivanesque to me. The enrichment along the flat roof and above the rectangular windows and the protruding roof were all reminiscent of the Guaranty Building, which was built by Sullivan himself. I don't think that porch was part of the original home, nor were the skylights.

Unknown Styles:
I know there are a million houses out there that resemble this house at 33 Burbank Terrace, but I don't know what to call it. Since it is such a common style I feel it should be identified or recognized by another architectural guide book other than the Blumenson one I used. Maybe its style didn't originate in America?

This home at 51 Burbank Terrace also was tough to identify. It almost looks like a Dutch Colonial home to me, but looked very out of place on this street. Maybe at one time it was someone's barn.

Other interesting houses:

This home at 91 Middlesex seems to be built in the New England Colonial style, with the second story overhanging the first and the triangles on the side of the house. Yet with its symmetry, it also looks like a Classical Revival home.

Finally, this home at 20 Lincoln Parkway reminded me of the class when we learned about different brick patterns. These spacers look smaller than normal bricks and the headers are protruding and look as though they have been painted or are a different type of brick altogether.

Initial Aspect

Going back to Friday's discussion of house adornments, I decided to take a drive down George Urban Blvd. in Depew to snap a few pictures of the deocrations.

Since I grew up close to this neighborhood, I drove past this house every day on my way to elementary school. I liked to imagine that the K stood for Katie, but now reason gives way to me thinking this house must belong to a family whose last name begins with K.

This house is just a few away from the K's house. I don't know who decorated their house first, but the K's and the S's seem to have a case of keeping up with the Joneses.

This home is also right in the same area. Though it isn't adorned with an initial, it does have a bird in the "pediment" (had this been a Greek Revival house). My own personal theory, though I'm not sure if this is even close to being true, is that this bird could be an eagle. Going along with our hypothesis that house adornment is a Polish-American custom, this makes sense, as the eagle is one of Poland's national symbols (it's on the coat of arms and on special civil flags). If this had been taken in the spring, I'm sure there would be many more lawn decorations present, as they usually abound on this street. However, if you look closely, you can see windchimes on the left side hanging from the roof. For more examples of inital adornments, George Urban Blvd. turns into Columbia after it crosses Transit Road heading east and there are a few houses with initials there. Heading down George Urban near the Galleria Mall (George Urban east of Union and west of Dick Road area) I believe there are a few more.

Skyscrapers vs. Green Space

Rome, Italy, and New York City are two of the most desirable travel destinations (at least in my mind.) There is a saying that goes, "If the United States is today's Roman Empire, New York City would be Rome itself." Yet in the following pictures, it seems that there are many differences between the ancient capital and the modern-day metropolis.

This is a view of Midtown Manhattan all lit up at dusk.

Here is a view of downtown Manhattan.

Here is another angle of downtown Manhattan with the Brooklyn Bridge in the forefront.

Here is another view of downtown Manhattan across the East River.

These views of Rome can be seen from St. Peter's Basilica.

When I think of a metropolis, I think of urban space with high-rises and skyscrapers dominating the terrain. New York City is the picture-perfect example of my interpretation. When looking at pictures of Rome, I can't help but asking "Where are the skyscrapers?" The tallest building looks to be, at the most, ten stories. The steeples and domes of churches seem to tower over most of the surrounding structures. I can't help but think of how St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue is dwarfed by the infinite skyscrapers and note the stark contrast between the cathedral and the churches in the top picture of Rome. Another difference is that Rome seems to have ample green space, trees, and grasses, even along what appears to be the streets. Maybe it's because Manhattan is pressed for space since it's an island, but I can't recall trees in any US city unless they were a part of an urban-area park or in a "square". Another big difference I can't help but noticing is the lack of water in pictures of Rome, and the abundance of it in the images of New York. Once again, it's possible to attribute that to the island geography of Manhattan, but Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baltimore are all located on the water. I know the Fiume runs through Rome, but the city is essentially land-locked and is pretty far from the coast in comparison to US cities. No wonder the Romans utilized the acqueduct! I wonder if this is because "all roads lead to Rome" and therefore the transport system was on land, in contrast to US cities which depended heavily on water to transport goods. Based on this theory, Eastern seaboard cities could also then attribute trans-Atlantic trade to their coastal locations.

My Big Fat Greek Revival

The Parthenon is in the upper echelon of ancient architectural structures. Its columns, pediment, and overall style has been mimicked for centuries. Buffalo is home to a multitude of examples of Greek Revival examples, from buildings that are almost exact interpretations of the Parthenon to some structures that have a vague trace of one of its details.

The Dr. E. J. Meyer Building at 135 Linwood Ave. in Buffalo is a pretty close rendition of the Parthenon's shape with a modern paint job.

Just about a block away from the Meyer building, you can find another close replica of the Parthenon at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural site. This building is located at 641 Delaware Ave., close to its intersection with North St. One major difference between this site and the Parthenon, however, is its flat columns compared to the fluted ones of the Parthenon.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery on Elmwood Ave. near Delaware Park is another example of a pretty literal interpretation of the Parthenon style.

Just across the 198 from the art gallery is the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society, which features a sculpture in the pediment, just like the Parthenon. Both also have Doric style columns, and, to me, this is the closest large-scale replication of the Parthenon in Buffalo.

A number of mausoleums in Forest Lawn Cemetery, also near Delaware Park, are miniature versions or variations of the Parthenon. Above are examples with Doric columns. The second-to-last of that set is the Birge Memorial, and the final one is the Letchworth-Skinner Memorial.

This mini-Parthenon is pretty close to the real thing, but its columns are Ionic style instead of Doric style.

This mausoleum has Corinthian style columns.

This is the Williams-Butler House, just across the street from the Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration Site at the intersection of Delaware Ave. & North St.

Though it may not look like the Greek style from far away, this mansion at 540 Delaware Ave. near Allen St. has Ionic style columns surrounding its center entrance.

This mansion, also on Delaware Ave., also has Greek style columns along its front entrance. This mansion is located where Delaware and Edward St. intersect, and is just another example of Greek Revival in the area, which includes the Dr. E. J. Meyer Building, the Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration Site, the Williams-Butler House, and the mansion at 540 Delaware Ave. I'd say there were a few instances of keeping up with the Joneses going on at the time of this revival in Buffalo.

While the Greater Buffalo Savings Bank hardly resembles the Parthenon, it does have examples of Corinthian style columns. This building, known affectionately in my family as the Gold Top Building, is located downtown at the intersection of Washington St., Genesee St., and East Huron St.

The Guaranty Building at Church St. & Pearl St. is one of Buffalo's greatest architectural gems. To me, the ornamentation along the top and the columns seem like the capital of a Corinthian style pillar.

This building at 110 Franklin St. downtown has a pediment just like the Parthenon. It also has modillions and dentils, which are decorative border features along the pediment.

Lastly, this home at 160 Windsor Ave. close to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery looks like a mix of the Greek Revival and Georgian styles. Its Ionic columns are definitely Greek-inspired, but the symmetric windows and the third-story attic windows are reminiscent of a number of pictures from Friday's class. Looks like the design plan was all Greek to the architect.