Rosewell (plantation)

Rosewell Plantation in Gloucester County, Virginia, was for more than 100 years the home of a branch of the Page family, one of the First Families of Virginia. Begun in 1725, the Flemish bond brick Rosewell mansion overlooking the York River was one of the most elaborate homes in the American colonies.
In "Mansions of Virginia", the architectural historian Thomas Tileston Waterman described the plantation house as "the largest and finest of American houses of the colonial period." Through much of the 18th century and 19th centuries, and during the American Civil War, Rosewell plantation hosted the area's most elaborate formal balls and celebrations. The home burned in 1916.
History.
Construction of Rosewell was begun in 1725 by Mann Page I (1691–1730). Son of planter Colonel John Page of Jamestown and Middle Plantation, Page was educated in England at Eton College and Oxford University. Shortly after his return to North America, Page was appointed to the Governor's Council of the Virginia Colony. He married about 1712. His first wife died in 1716 from complications following the birth of their third child, son Mann Page, who also died.
In 1718 Page had married Judith Carter (1695–1750), a daughter of Robert "King" Carter and his first wife Judith Armistead. They had five children together, including a son named Mann Page II (1718-1778) and an infant that died in 1728, at birth.
Page had intended to build a mansion to rival or exceed in size and luxury the newly completed Governor's Palace in Williamsburg. After he died in 1730, his widow Judith Page inherited the property. The primary construction materials were brick, marble, and mahogany, some of which was imported from England. Architectural historians believe that the house, double the size of the Governor's Palace, may have been designed by Mann Page himself. Larger than any residence built in colonial Virginia, Rosewell probably owed its design to the London townhouses built to the stricter codes following the Great Fire of London.
Their son Mann Page II (1718-1778) supervised completion of the mansion after reaching manhood. By then the Page family was strapped for cash due to the cost of building the great house, and Page II ultimately sold off a significant portion of his vast land holdings to fund its completion. Page descendants continued to hold and occupy Rosewell for 100 years.
In 1837 the Page family sold the mansion to Thomas Booth. He made changes, removing the parapet and two octagonal rooftop cupolas from the house. The lead roof was stripped off and sold, as were the mansion's carved marble mantles and much of its fine interior woodwork. The flat roof was replaced with a low hip roof with a single cupola surrounded by a widow's walk.
The plantation passed through several more owners. In 1916 a fire broke out and destroyed Rosewell mansion. Today, the remains of the house is a largely undisturbed historic ruin. The site has been the subject of archaeological work. This has revealed many artifacts and shed light on some aspects of colonial life and architecture that were previously unclear. The property was listed in 1969 on the National Register of Historic Places.
From the colonial period to the Civil War, Rosewell planters held enslaved Africans and African Americans to work as field hands and as house servants: valets and personal maids, cooks and housemaids. Such large plantations were essentially self-sufficient, so numerous slaves also performed skilled trades such as carriage driver and caring for horses and carriages, blacksmithing, wooodworking, and butchering at the plantation. They raised all the vegetables and produce for the owners and often some for themselves.
Page family of Virginia.
John Page (1743–1808) became a politician, being elected and serving as Governor of Virginia. A grandson of Mann Page (I) and son of Mann Page II, he had grown up at Rosewell. He attended the College of William and Mary (class of 1763) in nearby Williamsburg, where he was a classmate of Thomas Jefferson, also of the planter class. He fought during the American Revolutionary War, attaining the rank of colonel. In addition to serving as governor, he served multiple terms in the U.S. Congress and the Virginia General Assembly.
Other notable members of Virginia's Page family include Colonel John Page of Jamestown and Middle Plantation and father of Mann Page I; Governor Page's brother Mann Page III; Thomas Nelson Page, U.S. Ambassador to Italy; William Nelson Page, known for building the Virginia Railway; Thomas Jefferson Page, officer in United States Navy and Captain in the Confederate States Navy; and Confederate General Richard Lucian Page.
Description.
Rosewell Mansion and part of its history were described by author James Joseph McDonald in "Life In Old Virginia" (Norfolk, Va.: The Old Virginia Publishing Co., 1907) thus:
The mansion is substantially built of brick, three story and basement. The foundation walls are three and one-half feet thick. The reception hall is large, the ceilings lofty, and the whole mansion is indicative of refined taste and wealth. From the upper windows, a magnificent view is had of the surrounding level lands and the waters of the creeks and the York River.
During the life of Governor Page, Thomas Jefferson was a frequent and welcome visitor there. On one of his visits, he wrote the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence in what is now known as the 'Blue Room,' situated on the northwest corner of the second story of this house.
The elaborate Flemish bond brickwork, the towering three stories, and the siting of the mansion were all meant to recall elaborate London homes of the era. In that sense, Rosewell was among the most sophisticated early buildings built in America.
"Rosewell was the largest and most advanced brick building in Virginia at the time," writes architectural historian Daniel Drake Reiff. "It was unique in being of London townhouse design, and it seems likely that a London bricklayer was brought over to supervise the massive undertaking and to execute the more complicated detailings in brick – like the door casings."The similarity in Flemish bond brickwork between Rosewell and Christ Church, built in Lancaster County by Page's father-in-law, Robert Carter, has led some to speculate that the same masons may have worked on both.
The mansion was the first in the American colonies to have a projecting central pavilion, "antedating any other by a score of years," wrote architectural historian Fiske Kimball in "Domestic Architecture of the American Colonies and of the Early Republic". "At Rosewell the pavilions, front and rear, are masses deep enough to affect the spaces of the interior, but a glance at the plan reveals that they were adopted for plastic exterior effect."
As originally completed, the house had a flat lead roof behind a parapet atop its three stories, and twin octagonal cupolas at each end. Flanking dependencies in front of the mansion formed an elaborate forecourt. The interior was painted in high style, such that the restorers of Colonial Williamsburg relied, in part, on an order by John Page for paints from London to give a sense of the colors in the Governor's Palace at Williamsburg. In 1771 Page wrote to John Norton and Sons of London for new materials, appending these instructions: "As my house is very much out of repair, I shall be much obliged if you will send me the following articles: 100 lbs. white lead; 20 lbs. yellow ochre; a bri of oyl; 20 lbs. of Venetian Red; 2 gallons of spts of Turpentine; 5 lbs. of Red lead; 3 lbs. lamp Black; 2 lbs. of white Coperas."


Cooperative Business Bank Building (Ljubljana)

The Cooperative Business Bank Building is a building designed in 1921 by architect Ivan Vurnik and his wife Helena Vurnik in the so-called Slovene "National Style" using decorative ornaments in the colors of Slovene tricolor and was inspired by the Vienna Secession style of architecture (a type of Art Nouveau). It is located on Miklosich Street, Ljubljana, capital city of Slovenia, and has been called "the most beautiful building" in Ljubljana.
Architecture.
The facade is richly decorated and has five floors and in each one five windows looking toward Miklosich Street.
The interior features wall paintings and a glass ceiling with decorative multicolored bottles built into it. The staircase hall on the first and second floor have stained glass windows, depicting geometric motifs.


Giacomo Quarenghi

Giacomo Quarenghi (; ; 20 or 21 September 1744) was the foremost and most prolific practitioner of neoclassical architecture in Imperial Russia, particularly in Saint Petersburg. He brought into vogue an original monumental style, of Palladian inspiration, which was a reference for many architects who worked in Russia.
He has been described as "the last of the great architects of Italy".
Career in Italy.
Born in Rota d'Imagna near Bergamo to an Italian noble family, Quarenghi was destined by his parents for a career in law or the church but initially was allowed to study painting in the Bergamo studio of G. Reggi, himself a student of Tiepolo. Young Quarenghi was well educated and widely read. Traveling through Italy he visited Vicenza, Verona, Mantua and Venice, the places where he made the longest stays. He made drawings of the Greek temples at Paestum (Loukomski 1928) and finally arrived in Rome in 1763, at a moment when Neoclassicism was being developed in advanced artistic circles. He studied painting with Anton Raphael Mengs, then with Stefano Pozzi, later moving to study architecture (1767–69) with a traditionalist Late Baroque architect Paolo Posi.
Then he came upon a copy of Andrea Palladio's "Quattro Libri d'archittetura". "You could never believe," he wrote to his friend and long-term correspondent Marchesi, "the impression that this book made. Then it struck me that I had every reason to consider myself badly guided" before that point (Loukomsky 1928). He turned for new, Neoclassical instruction to Antoine Decrezet, a friend of Winckelmann, and the former's pupil Niccola Giansimoni, measuring and drawing the antiquities of Rome.
In Venice (1771–1772), where he was studying the works of Palladio, Quarenghi came into contact with a British lord passing through there on the Grand Tour. It was through him that the architect secured a few minor English commissions, such as garden pavilions, chimney-pieces (Loukomsky 1928), and an altar for the private Roman Catholic chapel of Henry Arundell at New Wardour Castle. Designs for a country house for Lord Whitworth were exhibited at Venice 1967. His first major commission (1771–7) was the internal reconstruction of the monastery of Santa Scholastica at Subiaco. For the Venetian cardinal Rezzonico, the nephew of Pope Clement XIII, he designed a decor for a Music Room in the Campidoglio, and designs for Clement's tomb (later executed by Antonio Canova).
His work in Italy and for English clients formed enough of a reputation that in 1779 he was selected by the Prussian-born count Rieffenstein, who had been commissioned by Catherine II of Russia to send her two Italian architects to replace her French ones (Loukomsky 1928). Despite having just designed a manege in Monaco and a dining hall for the Archduchess of Modena, 35-year-old Quarenghi seems to have felt himself underemployed, given the number of architects then working in Italy and the dearth of commissions from the church and nobility. He accepted Rieffenstein's offer without hesitation and left with his pregnant wife for St Petersburg.
Career under Catherine II.
Quarenghi's first important commission in Russia was the English Palace in Peterhof, a magnificent rectangular edifice with a Corinthian portico. The structure, which pleased the Empress immensely, was blown up by the Germans during World War II and was later demolished by the Soviet government. In 1783 Quarenghi settled with his family in Tsarskoe Selo, where he would supervise the construction of the Alexander Palace, the most ambitious of his undertakings to date.
Appointed to the post of Catherine II's court architect, Quarenghi went on to produce a prodigious number of designs for the Empress, her successors and members of her court: houses, summerhouses, bridges, theatres, hospices, a market, a bank building, interior decorations and garden designs. His projects were put into execution as far away from the capital as Novhorod-Siverskyi, Ukraine where a cathedral was constructed to his designs.
In Moscow, he was responsible for the reconstruction of medieval Red Square in a fashionable neo-Palladian mode. Count Nicholas Sheremetev engaged him to devise a theatre hall in the Ostankino Palace and a semicircular colonnade for the Sheremetev Hospital. Most of Quarenghi's designs intended for Moscow were subsequently realized with significant modifications by other architects, as was the case with Gostiny Dvor (1789–1805), Catherine Palace (1782–87), and Sloboda Palace (1790–94).
Career under Paul and Alexander I.
Emperor Paul disliked everything that was dear to his mother and Quarenghi's architecture obviously fell into this category. After the emperor took the Maltese knights under his protection, Quarenghi also joined the Order and served as its official architect until 1800. His commissions became less frequent, as the monotonous rhythm of solemn colonnades and the laconic clarity of symmetrical compositions appeared boring to those courtiers who had found Quarenghi's designs so delightful a decade earlier.
Under such circumstances, he visited Italy in 1801 and was given a triumphant welcome. He turned his attention to watercolours, enlivening conventional architectural vistas with genre scenes from everyday city life. He also published several albums of neo-Palladian designs (1787, 1791, 1810) and provided elaborate designs for decorative vases, capitals for columns and metalwork executed for imperial residences, particularly the Winter Palace.
With the enthronement of Alexander I of Russia, Quarenghi was again at the height of his individuality and fashion. In 1805 the architect became a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Arts. His design for the Anichkov Palace Colonnade, however, incurred severe criticism from the academic establishment for the perceived erratic use of classical orders. Quarenghi defended himself in a letter to Canova proclaiming that "good sense and judgment shouldn't be enslaved by commonly accepted rules and models".
Giacomo Quarenghi was granted Russian nobility and the Order of St. Vladimir of the First Degree in 1814. After 1808 he lived largely in retirement as a celebrity. Of his thirteen children by two wives, a few chose to remain in Russia, while others returned to Italy. He died at age 72 in Saint Petersburg.
When the 150th anniversary of his death was being marked in 1967, the remains of Quarenghi were moved from the Volkov Cemetery to the Lazarevskoe Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and a bust of the architect was erected between the Assignation Bank and Bank Bridge in Saint Petersburg.


Aquarium of Genoa

The Aquarium of Genoa (in Italian: "Acquario di Genova") is the largest aquarium in Italy . Located in the old harbor area of Genoa, Italy, the aquarium is a member organization of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), and welcomes more than 1.2 million visitors each year.
History.
The aquarium was originally built for Genoa Expo '92 (International Exhibition Genoa '92 Colombo '92), celebrating 500 years since the Genoese sailor Christopher Columbus discovered the new world. The building, which some say looks like a ship ready to head out to sea, was designed by the Genoese architect Renzo Piano of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The interior design and initial exhibits for the opening in 1992 were designed by Peter Chermayeff leading a design team at Cambridge Seven Associates. In 1998 the aquarium was expanded with the addition of a ship connected by walkway to the original building.
Exhibits.
The original exhibition concept was to show the Ligurian Sea, the North Atlantic and Caribbean reefs "from two perspectives, one the New World/Old World encounter of 1492, the other the ecological awareness of 1992 and the present."
The aquarium includes 70 tanks containing a total of , and almost of exhibit space.
The tanks host 12.000 animals of 400 different species including fishes, marine mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. Among these are dolphins, sea cows, sharks, seals, rays, boas, jellyfishes and penguins.
Conservation.
The Aquarium of Genoa coordinates the AquaRing EU project, and provides scientific expertise and content for AquaRing, including documents, images, academic content, and interactive online courses, via its Online Resource Centre.


Wawelberg Bank building

The Wawelberg Bank Building in St. Petersburg, Russia was built by the Wawelbergs - a prominent Polish banking family active in the Russian Empire. Although this building bears initials "HW" (Hipolit Wawelberg), it was commissioned by his son, Michael Wawelberg.
It is located at "7/9 Nevsky Prospekt" and is an important Nevsky Prospekt landmark.
Architect Marian Peretiatkovich, also Peretyatkovich, Peretiatkowicz;
Style: Historicism, Neo-Renaissance with elements of Art Nouveau
History.
The present building was completed in 1912 and incorporates the foundation and some of the structure of two separate 18th century buildings. In the 18th century the property owners were two brothers, Semen (Semion) Bernikov and Sergei Bernikov, both wealthy merchants. In the early 19th century one T. Roby (Thomas Roby, Robbie, Т.Роби), a British subject, ran a restaurant or pub in this building. Around the 1850s Bernikov's heirs sold one building to Shchepetilova, an army captain's widow, and the second structure to some Nochbeck, a government official. New owners in turn later sold the structure to another pair of merchant brothers, Nikolai (Nicholas) and Karl Korpus (Charles Corpus) who remained landlords until they sold both properties to Wawelberg interests in the early 20th century. From the 1870s until 1910 the building housed a variety of retail establishments and agencies: Captain Mahlein's (капитан Малейн) footwear shop, Betling s governess employment bureau (контора для найма гувернанток и Елизаветы Карловны Бетлинг). Art studios (of August Rakowski, a painter) occupied the mansard space, Ivanov's fruit emporium, Schaf's or Schaff's (Шаф) weapons and bicycle shop were also in the building before Wawelberg's takeover.
Architecture.
The structure is a heavy Italianate palazzo built on gargantuan scale - it occupies a full city block. The exterior of the building is made of gray granite. Walls, cornices, columns are richly decorated with northern art nouveau inspired sculptures and bas-reliefs by two notable period sculptors Vasily Kozlov (Vassili, Василий Васильевич Козлов) and Leopold Dietrich (Леопольд Августович Дитрих). After 1917 Kozlov and Dietrich became official Soviet sculptors of the social realism persuasion. Many contemporaries considered the building too American, too tasteless, and its appearance generated some heated public debate. At the corner of Malaia Morskaia and Nevsky is an entrance to the actual bank, now housing a collection of travel agencies, from 1960 until 1992 the building was Leningrad headquarters of Aeroflot, the space is airy, quiet with entrance passage leading through a hall to the cavernous bank lobby, complete with rows of columns and a spacious gallery above. Wawelberg Bank is one of the most remarkable turn of the 20th century bank buildings in St. Petersburg. The exterior of the building bears HW - Hyppolite Wawelberg - initials set in an arrangement resembling a coat of arms.


425 Park Avenue

425 Park Avenue is an office building in New York City being redeveloped by L&L Holding and GreenOak Real Estate, with a design by architectural firm Foster + Partners. Work on the new structure began in 2016, and is expected to be completed in 2021.
Design.
Original building.
The original building was designed by Kahn & Jacobs. Modernist in style, it replaced a row of sixteen four-story townhouses built by Robert Goelet in 1871. The construction of the building began in 1954, on land leased from the Robert Walton Goelet estate, who died in 1941. At the time of the construction, it was one of the tallest buildings that utilized bolted connections. The 32-story building was open in 1957 with National Biscuit Company, Kaye Scholer, Chemical Corn Exchange Bank as major tenants.
Since 2004, L&L Holding, which was founded in 2000, had been trying to redevelop 425 Park Avenue when the Goelet family intended to sell a 33% stake of the property. After an extended negotiation, L&L, in partnership with Lehman Brothers, entered into a 84-year ground lease deal with the Goelet family in 2006 that was valued at $320 million with a large upfront payment. The lease allowed L&L to redevelop the easterly block of Park Avenue between 55th street and 56th street after the existing leases with the building tenants expired in 2015. During the predevelopment phase, Lehman Brothers went into a bankruptcy in 2008. L&L attempted to buy Lehman Brothers out at a steep discount, but Lehman Brothers opted to continue funding the project through its bankruptcy with the original financial obligations. However, in 2013, L&L, GreenOak Real Estate, and other investors bought 90% of Lehman Brothers’ stake in the project, allowing L&L to have a full control of the redevelopment.
Redesigned building.
L&L designed the new building under the assumption that it would keep 25% of its former structure in order to keep the total floor area of 670,000 square feet. L&L chose Foster + Partners to design the building after a competition to choose an architect. L&L solicited bids from 11 architectural firms. These entries were narrowed to four final proposals, from Zaha Hadid Architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, OMA, and Foster + Partners. Each incorporated a portion of the original structure. Real estate news site "YIMBY" noted that, due to its three roughly 200-foot concrete fins, the Foster plan would have "[...] the most pronounced skyline effect" compared to the other proposals. Another key element of Foster + Partners design was the three tiers of very high ceiling and virtually column-free floor space.
Zoning.
The 425 Park Avenue is located in the eastern part of the Midtown Manhattan. The area, from approximately East 34th Street to East 59th Street, and from Second Avenue to Fifth Avenue, is one of the main business districts in Manhattan with more than 400 office buildings.
The 1961 Zoning Resolution restricted the size of the buildings based on floor area ratio (FAR), not the heights. As many as 300 office buildings in the area were built before 1961 with an average age of 73 years. The older building stock made the area become less competitive in the modern office space market due to the low ceiling and less open floor space by the obstruction of many columns in those buildings. The 1961 zoning was more restrictive than prior rules with low allowable FAR to make the area less dense. Many of those pre-1961 office buildings were considered overbuilt as the floor area amounts exceeded the allowable amounts per the 1961 zoning, but they were grandfathered. If the owners of those buildings would have demolished an existing building to build a new one on the site, the new building would have less floor space than the original one. This caused a deterrent for redevelopment of those older office buildings. The concern was the reason for the city's East Midtown rezoning plan, which added more air rights in the neighborhood immediately around Grand Central Terminal, thereby encouraging redevelopment.
For 425 Park Avenue, without the redevelopment, the building could only generate revenue of about $50 to $70 per square foot. With a more modern building, the revenue could be boosted to more than $100 per square foot. The 1961 zoning was a major obstacle for its redevelopment. If L&L would have demolished the building, it could only construct a building with the maximum of 580,000 square feet instead of the original 670,000 square feet. However, there was an exception to the 1961 zoning rules. If a redevelopment of a pre-1961 building could retain at least 25% of its original structure, the new building would be permitted to have up to the original square footage. This was an option that L&L explored, but the rezoning occurred only after L&L had already commissioned a design.
Development.
A $556 million construction loan is secured by the property.
Preserving the original structure led to difficulties during construction, requiring the developer to hire a third engineering firm to help orchestrate the sequence of demolition and construction. The first step was to completely demolish floor by floor from the top floor to the 18th floor. Temporary steel structures were then installed to support the remaining 17 floors before further demolition. As much as 750 tons of wind bracings, crane-bracing systems, shoring systems and temporary trusses were put in place. Installing these large temporary steel structures in the middle of a partially demolished building proven to be a challenging and time-consuming process. After the installation, the rear side of the building was demolished. Twelve new jumbo columns were erected, six as exterior columns at the front of the building and the other six at the center of the building. The new building core was also built at the rear to connect to every other floor that would be remained in the new building. The rest of the unconnected floor slabs were demolished creating high ceiling floors at the base. The work continued on the building core at the rear, and new floors were built atop the old structure. There was a waiting period of many months when more floors were built upward before the removal of the original columns and the temporary steel structures at the base, leaving those floors to be supported by 12 jumbo columns and the new building core only.
As of April 2018, the building was halfway to its full height. Facade installation began in June 2018, when the building was 22 floors from topping out. The building topped out on December 4th, 2018, in a ceremony attended by lead architect Lord Norman Foster.
Tenants.
L&L intended not to pre-lease the building, but in early 2016, hedge fund Citadel signed a lease for 200,000 square feet across several floors, including the penthouse floor. At the time it was signed, it was the most expensive lease in the city's history. Delays in construction have led some to speculate that Citadel may back out of the lease, or that it was seeking temporary offices due to the delays. L&L has asserted that the tenant will move in as planned. These concerns were officially allayed in January 2019 when Citadel executed a lease expansion for another of space, bringing their total occupancy to 16 floors of the building. The expansion will see Citadel occupy a total of , or 48% of the building's space.
The founders of restaurant Eleven Madison Park will open two restaurants in the building, originally announced in 2015. One will be two stories tall, in the building's base, totaling roughly 14,000 square feet. According to L&L's founder, David Levinson, the intention is for the restaurant to be "[...] a Four Seasons on steroids for the 21st century". The other restaurant will be open only to tenants, and will be located on the 27th floor. Despite construction delays, both venues are still expected to open when construction is complete as of June 2018.


All Saints Church, South Elmham

All Saints Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of All Saints' South Elmham, one of a group of villages jointly known as The Saints, in Suffolk, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
The church stands in an isolated position at the end of a lane adjacent to the moated Church Farm. It is one of around 40 round-tower churches in Suffolk.
History.
All Saints is included in the district of South
Elmham. "This district includes nine parishes and forms a subdivision of the
Hundred of Wangford, anciently called the liberty, manor, or township of South
Elmham. It was granted by Sigebert [Sigeberht], King of the East Angles [Anglia], to Felix the Burgundian,
his first bishop, who fixed his see at Dunwich in 630 A.D.." Several parish churches
were founded here in Saxon times, All Saints being one of them.
During the reign of Henry VIII the seat was seized in
exchange for other lands. In the Cotton Manuscripts, Nero C. ix, is an
indenture between Henry VII and Edward North, Esq., Treasurer of the Court of
Augmentations, dated 4 December 1540, where in exchange for land in the county
of Buckingham, North was given rights to the manor as well as the parish
churches of Saint James, Saint Peter, Saint Margarette, Saint Nicholas and All
Saints of South Elmham. The land was possessed from the thirty-second year of
the reign of Henry VII until the reign of King James I by the North family. It
was then conveyed to Sir John Tasburgh, Knight, 20 May 1613, the manor with
the rectories and all the demesnes. The descendants of Sir John retained the
lordship of South Elmham until the male line died out and it was passed to the
Wybornes. The estate was then purchased about 1753 by William Adair, Esq.
All Saints dates from the 12th century. The south aisle was added in about 1250, or slightly earlier. Further additions and alterations took place in the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries. The church was "considerably restored" in 1870. The churchyard is currently cared for by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.
All Saints was frequently called All-Hallows. It was consolidated with the parish of St. Nicholas on December 8, 1737, totaling 1620 acres. The population of All Saints, in 1841, was 224 persons.
Architecture.
Exterior.
The church is constructed in flint with freestone dressings, and has a lead roof. Its plan consists of a continuous nave and chancel, with a south aisle which runs along the whole length of the nave and chancel, a south porch, and a west tower. The tower is on three stages, and is round in cross-section up to its summit. At one time the top stage was octagonal, but in 1846 it had been "recently removed". In the bottom stage is a west Norman window, and in the middle stage are small round-headed windows. In the top stage the bell openings are also round-headed and have louvres. The parapet is battlemented. Along the north wall of the body of the church are three single-light Norman windows, three 13th-century two-light windows, two 14th-century single-light windows, and a blocked doorway. The 14th-century windows contain Perpendicular tracery. The east window has three lights. On the south wall of the aisle are three windows with Y-tracery. The porch dates from the medieval period, but the south doorway is Romanesque Revival from the Victorian era.
Interior.
The arcade between the nave and the south aisle dates from the 14th century. In the chancel is a piscina in Early English style which has been much restored. The font dates from the 12th century. It consists of a large square bowl carved with blank arches, supported by a central column and four smaller columns, standing on a rectangular base. There is a variety of benches. Two of these date from the 15th century, are carved with poppyheads and animals. They were originally in the porch, and consequently are weathered. Others, also dating from the 15th century, are carved with poppyheads only, and the rest are 19th-century reproductions. The single-manual organ is at the east end of the south aisle. It was built in 1884 By Eustace Ingram.


Artist Point

Artist Point is an overlook point on the edge of a cliff on the south rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The point is located east-northeast of Yellowstone Falls on the Yellowstone River. Artist Point was originally named in 1883 by Frank Jay Haynes who improperly believed that the point was the place at which painter Thomas Moran sketched his 1872 depictions of the falls. Later work determined that the sketches were made from the north rim, but the name "Artist Point" stuck.


The Illawalla

The Illawalla was an historic Edwardian single-story building in the Skippool area of Thornton, Lancashire, England. Built in 1902, it was demolished in 1996, after lying derelict for six years, to make way for three exclusive homes. Its name is preserved in the name of the road on which these houses now stand (The Illawalla) and also in the name of the adjacent cricket club (Thornton Cleveleys Cricket Club Illawalla), whose grounds partly occupy the land The Illawalla stood on.
"Illawalla" in Aboriginal Australian means "the house of plenty". It is believed Frederick J. Emery, one of the early owners of the property, gave it this name to reflect his spell as a government official in Australia.
History.
The Illawalla's architects were Tom Wilson Fairbrother and Charles Llewelyn Hall, of Fairbrother & Hall in Poulton-le-Fylde.
The building's foundation stone was laid by Vesta Tilley on 12 June, 1902. Tilley was appearing at Blackpool's Alhambra Theatre, whose chairman was C.V. Haworth, the Illawalla's first owner. Upon completion, it was the largest bungalow in Europe.
According to a "Blackpool Times" article from 21 June, 1902:
One of the rooms featured a plaster frieze depicting wading birds along the nearby River Wyre.
Haworth lived with his wife at the Illawalla up to his death in 1920. His widow continued to live there for several subsequent years.
It was next acquired by E. Broadbelt, a wholesale fruit merchant from Manchester. He was its owner during the late 1920s and 1930s.
In 1942, it was bought by Frederick J. Emery, but he was unable to move into the building for three years because it was being used by the British Army as a transit camp. It was later taken over by the Home Guard. Later in World War II it became a home run by the Ministry of Health for pregnant evacuees. In the early 1950s, Emery leased the land overlooking the River Wyre to the local cricket club, who remain there today.
Several of the interior scenes for the 1977 film "Valentino" were shot in the Illawalla's sunken entrance hall.
For the final years of its existence, after failing in an attempt to become a gentlemen's club, it instead became a nightclub.
Emmanuel Christian School in Fleetwood inquired about taking over the Illawalla in 1995, but Wyre Borough Council rejected the plan amid fears of the close proximity of an underground pipeline carrying ethylene to ICI Hillhouse in Thornton.
The building was demolished in April 1996, after lying derelict for six years, to make way for three luxury homes. Only two carved stone pillars remain on the site. They are used at the entrance to the current development. Many parts of the building were salvaged and are now used privately.
References in popular culture.
Glyn Bailey & the Many Splendid Things wrote "The Old Illawalla" about the building. It is the opening track on the 2010 album "The Disturbance". The opening line of the song is: "There once stood, at the edge of town, an Edwardian pile of great renown, but in '96 we pulled it down". Three years earlier Bailey released an album called "Songs from the Old Illawalla".


State Savings Bank Building

The State Savings Bank Building is a heritage-listed large bank building and commercial offices situated at 48-50 Martin Place, in the Sydney central business district in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Ross & Rowe Architects and Consulting Engineers and built from 1925 to 1928 by Concrete Constructions Ltd. It is also known as The Government Savings Bank of New South Wales, Commonwealth Bank building (former), and CBA Building. After several decades of use by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, including as its headquarters from 1984, it was purchased by financial services company Macquarie Group in 2012, refurbished, and now serves as Macquarie's global headquarters as 50 Martin Place. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 17 November 2000.
History.
1920-1928.
The successful growth and development of the Government Savings Bank of NSW over several decades necessitated relocating the operation to larger premises capable of not only accommodating the current requirements but also future ones. Between 29 November 1920 and 21 September 1921 the Commissioners of the Bank purchased five adjoining strips of land (comprising seven properties) between Castlereagh and Elizabeth Streets. The properties had frontages of to both streets and a total cost of .
The eventual dimensions of the amalgamated site were to Martin Place on the south, to Elizabeth Street on the east and to Castlereagh Street on the west. In addition to its potential for development at the required scale, the site was undoubtedly favoured for its proximity to an established civic district and central location amidst the emerging retail and financial districts of the City following World War I. It was during the Bank's administration of W. H. O'Malley Wood (President) and H. D. Hall and J. H. Davies (Commissioners) that 48 Martin Place was erected. During a ceremony on 13 March 1922, three foundation stones for the building were laid by The Hon. James Dooley MLA - Premier of New South Wales, The Hon. J. T. Lang MLA - Colonial Treasurer, and Mr O'Malley Wood - President of the Bank.
Construction eventually commenced in February 1925 and 48 Martin Place was completed late in 1928, and was officially opened by the Premier of New South Wales, the Hon, T. R. Bavin, on 13 December 1928. The roof provided panoramic views over the harbour and the city in 1928, and the whole building symbolised the optimism and forward thinking of the 1920s prior to the great Depression, in addition to the prestige, security and strength of the Bank. The location, size and grandeur of the building confirmed a belief in the stability and endurance of the Australian economy in general, and the distinguished place of New South Wales in that development in particular. At the time of its construction, the building was the most expensive in Australia, having been constructed at a cost of .
1980-1990.
Recognising the importance of 48 Martin Place, the Commonwealth Bank commissioned Australian Construction Services late in 1980 to develop proposals for the conservation and upgrading of the building. Various building elements, in particular the facade, were examined over several subsequent years. Research also included the removal of one window of each type from the south-east corner of the building to investigate the method of detailing and the condition of the metal and working mechanisms.
Following the relocation of the Commonwealth Taxation Department in 1983, who had occupied the floors above the Banking Chamber since the 1930s, the Commonwealth Bank took the opportunity to engage in a major restoration project for this notable city property. After a series of feasibility and design studies were undertaken by Australian Construction Services, with input from Mr Peter Freeman of the Australian Heritage Commission, the Commonwealth Bank decided, in early 1984, to make 48 Martin Place Head Office for the organisation. The restoration programme was undertaken in three stages between 1984 and 1990:
Description.
The Government Savings Bank of New South Wales building fronts Martin Place on the south, Elizabeth Street on the east and Castlereagh Street on the west. The building is an extensive eleven-storey structure plus mezzanine above ground, with three basement levels. Externally the building displays monumental civic scale in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, and precise symmetrical detailing utilising classical motifs. The Classic inspiration for the building is evident in the columns used on the exterior:
The great Ionic columns on the Martin Place façade unite the six central floors, with the remaining floors serving as base and frieze. Above the base storey, strongly expressed with red granite facing, the cladding is pink terracotta blocks arranged in small tessellated effect. Terracotta cladding is also used on the Martin Place columns. At the upper levels, ornate terracotta detailing is included on the cornice, entablature and pilaster capitals. At roof level, the building has a Classical attic storey and dentilated cornice.
48 Martin Place has tremendous civic presence, portraying an image of massive solidity. The rich colour of the façade materials makes the Bank a most eminent landmark amongst its neighbours. It is a magnificent example of Beaux-Arts revivalist architecture, and a visual and technical masterpiece. The style was used to express the wealth and stability of financial institutions emphasising the qualities of:
Extensive conservation works have restored the principal public areas to near original condition internally. The Banking Chamber, Grand Hall and Safe Deposit area are impressive in scale and detailing and form a sequence of grand interiors.
The Banking Chamber is detailed in an extravagant neo-Classical style, displaying substantial use of marble, and scagliola on tremendous stylised columns. The banking staff occupy the central space, which features marble, bronze and glass partitions. The main entrance is from Martin Place with access available from both Castlereagh and Elizabeth Streets, and also at the northern end of the building, between the Grand Hall and the Banking Chamber. The lofty ceiling is coffered and treated in a decorative manner, achieved by use of Wunderlich pressed metal panels fixed to the concrete slab. The arrangement had been detailed to give efficient and reflected light. Large bronze lamps supply artificial light reflected off the ceiling, providing diffused general lighting.
The Grand Hall forms a pedestrian way between Castlereagh and Elizabeth Streets. A ribbed barrel dome, embellished with mosaics and stained glass panels depicting prosperous Australian industries at the time of construction, surmounts the passage. Located centrally within the Hall is the Grand Stair, a wide marble staircase with bronze grille balustrade and Queensland maple handrail. The stair converges centrally at the Government Savings Bank's Memorial Window and Tablet located on the northernmost wall. Walls of marble and the sumptuous detail create a remarkable architectural space.
The Safe Deposit area in the basement level is remarkably intact. Great barrel domes create a magnificent groined ceiling of three bays supported by marble pilasters. The ceilings are decorative, and brass pendant lights hang from the centre of each dome. Mosaic spandrels above marble walls are framed by the ceiling vaults and depict wreaths and festoons in rich green and red against a neutral setting. The whole is framed by a green and red leaf and berry motif on deep yellow mosaic tiles. The floors are white marble with decorative black border tiles.
While the lettable office space on the upper floors has been extensively altered, the stairways connecting the upper floors are largely intact. The stairs within the chambers are terrazzo, and balustrades are bronze with timber handrails. Original timber framed hydrant covers with frosted glazed panels and timber and brass mail chutes, no longer in use, have been retained within the stair chambers, along with the floor levels detailed in decorative tiles on the walls. Windows with deep reveals are located at each level of the stair chambers.
The building was purchased by Australian financial services company Macquarie Group in March 2012 along with an adjoining building, with suggestions that the State Savings Bank building itself might be refurbished and on-sold. Instead, Macquarie refurbished the building and it now serves as the company's global headquarters. In the ground floor banking hall, Macquarie installed two circular glass lifts with the lift shaft penetrating the ceiling. A widened atrium penetrates the office floors above, and the roof has been renovated with the addition of a large glass elliptical dome.
Condition.
As at 6 July 2000, the physical condition is excellent. The archaeological potential is low.
Modifications and dates.
The building had no major building construction since completion in 1928. The major changes that had occurred in the building since its construction until 1984 are listed below:
A synopsis of the extensive conservation works undertaken throughout 1984-1990 is provided below:
Money boxes.
After its purchase by the Commonwealth Bank in 1931, the image of the building was sometimes used on money boxes issued by the Commonwealth Bank to children. The money boxes were rectangular shape, roughly reflecting the dimensions of the bank building, and printed with the building's exterior. As a result, it is sometimes referred to as the "money box building" (although more often that nickname refers to the Commonwealth Trading Bank Building, on the corner of Pitt Street and Martin Place, which had been depicted on money boxes since 1922 and remained the image on the majority of money boxes).
Heritage listing.
As at 6 July 2000, The Government Savings Bank building at 48 Martin Place is culturally significant at a National level as a rare example of Inter-War Beaux-Arts architecture demonstrating outstanding technical accomplishment. It is also of exceptional local and State significance. Located at a prominent address on Martin Place, the building played an important role in the development of the economy in New South Wales during the 1920s. The building was constructed between 1925 and 1928 and is one of the most important examples of its style and type within New South Wales and Australia. 48 Martin Place is one of the finest banking institutions in Australia and the finest in New South Wales. The cultural significance of 48 Martin Place and its setting will be maintained through its association with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The building was listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate between 1978 until the register's abolition in 2007; and is listed on the City of Sydney local government heritage register. The Government Savings Bank building was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 17 November 2000 having satisfied the following criteria.
The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales.
The building at 48 Martin Place represents the importance of the savings bank movement established in New South Wales, which founded the pattern for the other Colonies, and of which both the Government Savings Bank and the Commonwealth Bank were successors. 48 Martin Place is associated with prosperous industries within New South Wales at the time of its construction. Stained glass panels within the Grand Hall depict the "basic sources of wealth" as they were seen in the 1920s, which were ultimately connected to banking. The Government Savings Bank promoted thrift, playing an important role as the 'People's Bank' for the average citizen who could deposit small sums and gain interest, including children via school savings accounts. The institution operated a wide network of offices and branches throughout suburban and rural New South Wales. The Government Savings Bank is directly associated with much of the suburban development of the 1920s in New South Wales by providing home loans through the Advances for Homes Department. This assisted subsequent prosperity within the building industry and associated services. In 1931, the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales was the largest savings bank within Australia and the second largest in the British Empire.
The distinguished location, scale and majestic style of the new Head Office signified the optimism and confidence of the 1920s following World War I, the belief in the stability and endurance of the Australian economy and the pre-eminence of the Sydney CBD financial centre. The project instigated by the President and Commissioners of the Government Savings Bank was remarkable in scale and cost, providing a considerable boost to employment and the building trade in NSW in the 1920s.
The building is associated with the emergence in the 1920s of large construction companies. The project was instrumental in the expansion of Wunderlich within New South Wales, who effectively established a new Australian industry for the creation of terracotta blocks. The Government Savings Bank was directly associated with critical political and financial events of the Depression period. As a major financial institution representing small investors, the collapse of the Government Savings Bank in 1931 had a devastating effect upon the lives of ordinary citizens. The Bank was a significant and conspicuous casualty of the conflict between Federal and State governments over economic policies to relieve the Depression. The closure contributed to division within the Labor party that was brought about by the contentious policies of the New South Wales Labor government under J. T. Lang's Premiership. The collapse represented a crucial loss of confidence at a critical time in the Depression that was encouraged by media reports. Loss of confidence also arose from the dispute between Federal and State Labor governments and general fear of the policies instigated by NSW Premier Jack Lang.
Establishment of the Commonwealth Bank is associated with the philosophy of the Federal Labor government prior to World War I for state control of banking. 48 Martin Place has been consistently used as a financial centre and public banking facility, and continues to provide evidence of its associations. The restoration of the Bank between 1984 and 1990 was a significant conservation project by an important government institution, reflecting the prosperity and confidence of the banking industry during the 1980s. 48 Martin Place represents an important conservation project, enabling the revival of several trades and skills associated with the heritage industry. The building represents the ability of older buildings to maintain original functions at a time of major institutional and technological change in banking. The intactness of the original Bank building retains the ability to demonstrate the original customer service procedures and the hierarchy of the management structure. Many such features were preserved during the restoration. 48 Martin Place is an excellent example of the continuing American influence on the design of large commercial buildings in Sydney and contains many features of turn-of-the-century American financial institutions. The direct contact with American architecture is significant.
The building was commissioned by the first president of the Government Savings Bank of NSW at 48 Martin Place, W. H. O'Malley-Wood, and Commissioners H. D. Hall and J. H. Davies. The building is associated with political figures James Dooley (former Premier of NSW) and J. T. Lang (former Colonial Treasurer), who along with O'Malley-Wood laid the foundation stones in 1922. 48 Martin Place represents the finest work of the significant architectural and engineering firm of H. E. Ross and Rowe. The surviving comprehensive documentary record of the original sketch, design and construction drawings enhances the importance of this association. 48 Martin Place represents a building constructed within the final phase of use of the combined skills of architecture and engineering within the architectural profession. The building was directly associated with the firm after completion when Ross and Rowe moved their practice into the building.
The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.
48 Martin Place is a magnificent example of Beaux-Arts revivalist architecture - a visual and technical masterpiece. The building is aesthetically distinguished. The façade materials are detailed in rich colours that make the building distinctive amongst the significant streetscape of Martin Place. In particular, the terracotta is aesthetically distinguished not least because of its contrast to the traditional masonry materials of the surrounding buildings. The roofscape has been designed to integrate service elements with the neo-Classical design of the remainder of the building, with respect for the high visibility of the roof. Internally, the extensive use of Australian marbles and scagliola provide rich appeal. The building reflects the materials and wealth of natural resources available within NSW and Australia at the time of its construction. 48 Martin Place displays high quality craftsmanship and high quality materials throughout. The building displays tremendous civic presence through its monumentality and consistent use of classical motifs. It is prominently located over the width of an important city block.
The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.
The State Savings Bank building is an important financial institution and Sydney has been the National Headquarters since 1913. 48 Martin Place was originally constructed as a Head Office (for the Government Savings Bank of NSW) and is significant now as the Head Office for the Commonwealth Bank, an institution of national importance. In 1990, operations were relocated from 120 Pitt Street, the original Head Office. 48 Martin Place provides evidence of the significance of banking to the community, especially in a government and business sense. The building was designed to represent the status of banking institutions in the public esteem through the instruments of government and politics, and reflected the stability and confidence of the era which were considered as an important part of banking. While the building itself remains a symbol and the importance of banking is still acknowledged, current community values and the regard for politics and large institutions in general have changed. The Martin Place Executive offices on Level 2 were designed for and originally occupied by the Commissioners and the Senior Executive Officers. The prestige of their design and location is directly connected with people who hold authority within the Bank. Social significance can be attributed to these rooms as they continue to be used by Senior Executives.
The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.
The building demonstrates superior technical accomplishment, utilising innovative and unique design and engineering features and technical innovations, including the use of terracotta blocks as permanent formwork over a majority of the façade. The Martin Place entry doors display significant technical innovation, being hydraulically operated vertical action doors housed in special cavities in the basement. The mechanical fire escape operating from Level 1 and incorporating a false sill and keystone is the only known example within Australia. The physical evidence of the mechanical fire escape, albeit retained in a non-working state, provides a major source of information. The main Safe Deposit Vault door and small-scale emergency doors employed the most up-to-date technology of the time, and have not required replacement since their installation. The technology extended to the treatment of the retracting floor around the main door, used to allow the door to swing freely for opening and closing, and also to keep it in place during the Bank's operating hours. The reinforced concrete frame was a large-scale concrete structure used relatively early within Australia. The strong rooms located within the columns display a significant degree of technical innovation. 48 Martin Place has strong associations with creative achievement within Australia and the building has lost little of its design and technical integrity. The visual/sensory appeal and landmark/scenic qualities remain as strong as they were initially. 48 Martin Place is a well documented and researched building. In addition to the original drawings, a remarkable surviving source of information, much of the research potential was investigated and recorded in the recent conservation work (1984-1990). Considering the thoroughness of the previous conservation work, the building is unlikely to yield additional information.
The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.
The Beaux-Arts style is rare in Australia, with no identifiable distribution pattern evident, and the building exhibits uncommonly rich detailing and unique use of materials. 48 Martin Place is a rare example of an early 20th century financial institution within the country, remarkable in its setting within the Martin Place streetscape and in exceptional condition. The technique of using façade terracotta as formwork and also special features such as the mechanical fire stair and Martin Place hydraulic door are rare within Australia.


Former Residence of Deng Xiaoping

The Former Residence of Deng Xiaoping () was built in the late Qing dynasty (19th century). It is located in Paifang Village of Xiexing Town, Guang'an District, Guang'an City, Sichuan, China. It has a building area of about , embodies buildings such as the old houses, the statue of Deng Xiaoping, the Dezheng Place (), the Cultural relics Exhibition Hall, the Hanlin Yard ().
History.
In the late Qing dynasty (19th century), the house was built by Deng Xiaoping's great-grandfather Deng Xinzao () and grandfather Deng Keda ().
Deng Xiaoping was born here on 22 August 1904, in the 37th year of the Guangxu reign. He lived here for about 15 years.
In July 1997, it was listed as a National Patriotic Education Base by the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China.
In February 1998, the CPC General Secretary Jiang Zemin wrote "Deng Xiaoping's Former Residence" on the horizontal tablet.
On 25 June 2001, it was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level by the State Council of China.
On 13 August 2004, the CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao attended the unveiling of the statue of Deng Xiaoping.


Vooruit

Vooruit (, ) is an historic complex in Ghent, Belgium. Vooruit was originally the festival and art center of the Ghent-based labor movement, with a ballroom, cinema, theater, etc. It is now mainly used for concerts and other cultural events.
History.
Vooruit was designed by Ferdinand Dierkens and built between 1911 and 1914 and became a symbol of the socialist movement in the interwar period. The building is named after the socialist consumer organization (or cooperative) "Vooruit" ("Forward") (1891-1970), supported by Edward Anseele, to protect workers against the instability of capitalism. There workers could eat, drink and enjoy culture at affordable costs.
As a festival and art center, Vooruit was part of the compartmentalized Flemish society until World War II. After the Second World War the building deteriorated until the re-launch in 1982 in its present form as a cultural center. In 1983 Vooruit was recognized as a listed monument. The building continued operating during the restoration process, from 1990 to 2000. In 2000, a fully restored Vooruit was awarded the Flemish Monument of the year Prize.
Presently the rooms are used for parties and concerts, but also for cultural events or debates.


Burnham Beeches, Sherbooke

Burnham Beeches is a 1930s streamline-moderne mansion built for Aspro-brand sales magnate Alfred Nicholas on Sherbrooke Road, Sherbrooke, Victoria in the Dandenong Ranges, 40 kilometres from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
History.
Built during the late 1920s and 1930s, the property was named after the English National Forest of Beech trees in the county of Buckinghamshire, near the location of Nicholas's United Kingdom Aspro factory.
The architect was Harry Norris, who had toured Europe and America in 1929 for G J Coles to research the latest elements in chain-store design and construction before he finalised the plans for Coles store No. 12, the Bourke Street store, in Melbourne. Nicholas and Norris were neighbours in Melbourne, and Norris was engaged to design a house with the brief that it was to have “fresh air, sunshine and an outlook of command, yet under control”. Nicholas visited the Chelsea Flower Show in 1929, obtained many plants and engaged a Cornishman, Percival Trevaskis, to do the landscaping.
Norris’s design was for a three-storey mansion in the Art Deco Streamline Moderne style. The house was completed in 1933. The lines are said to be reminiscent of an ocean liner. The zig-zag motif was used as decoration on the decorative wrought-iron work and the balcony balustrades. The exterior of the house was of reinforced concrete, painted white and decorated with Australian motifs of koalas and possums in moulded relief panels.
A contemporary journal article cited in a 1980s pamphlet stated that the house included a “private theaterette with talkie equipment”, an “electric pipe-organ” in the music room, orchid houses, a dairy with “prize Jersey cows”, and the gardens included artificial waterfalls, a lake and floodlighting at night.
Nicholas died in 1937 and was survived by his widow, Isabel and two children.
In 1941, during World War II, the house was loaned as a children’s hospital. After the war from 1948-50 it was redecorated by Nicholas’s widow. Mrs Nicholas moved from the house to Toorak in Melbourne in 1954. Two additional wings called the Garden and Forest wings were constructed during the 1950s and 1960s.
From 1955, the Nicholas Institute used the house as a research facility. The gardens, having been named the ‘Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens’, were donated to the Shire of Sherbrooke in 1965 and were transferred to the Forest Commission of Victoria in 1973. In 1981 the house was sold and operated as a small hotel for about a decade.
Redevelopment.
The hotel was last operated by Adrian Zencha (Aman Resorts) in 1991. A group of investors commenced works in 2005 but ceased those works in 2008.
The property was purchased in 2010 by investor Adam Garrisson (Oriental Pacific Group) and chef and restaurateur Shannon Bennett.
The pair have proposed to utilise the buildings and grounds to create a "sustainable resort" with hotel, spa, wellness centre, villas, café, bakery, function areas and restaurant. The proposal is ambitious with much residential accommodation included, and is therefore proving to be contentious because of the possible adverse impact on existing residents and the overall very special nature of the Sherbrooke/Dandenongs region; there are also concerns over health and safety issues such as traffic management and bushfire response. The proposal was rejected pending further information at the Yarra Ranges Council meeting of 11 August 2015.
In March 2019, Burnham Beeches was transformed into an art installation by street artist Rone aka Tyrone Wright, ahead of its conversion into a luxury hotel beginning in mid-2019.


Wallingford Museum

Wallingford Museum is a museum with collections of local interest, housed in a Tudor house in High Street, Wallingford, Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire).
The museum has an extensive collection relating to the town's history. Displays include archaeology, Wallingford Castle, and the town in mediaeval and Victorian times. A free audio tour is available.
The museum is in a mid-16th-century timber-framed house with a 17th-century flint façade. It faces the Kinecroft, an open space in Wallingford which is bordered on two sides by Anglo-Saxon burh defences built in the 9th century.
The Museum, which is fully accredited, is run entirely by volunteers. Wallingford Museum is an independent charitable company registered in England & Wales.


Timpanogos Cave Historic District

The Timpanogos Cave Historic District is an historic district in the Timpanogos Cave National Monument in American Fork Canyon in northeastern Utah County, Utah, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
Description.
The district consists of support and administration buildings built in the monument in the 1920s and 1930s. These structures are notable examples of the National Park Service Rustic style, designed to fit with their environment. The earliest trails and structures were built by Errol M. Halliday while the location was still under the administration of the U.S. Forest Service. The Old Cave Trail was built in 1921-22. The stone storage building was built in the 1920s, together with a frame custodian's residence that no longer exists. A stone confort station (Building 126) was built in 1928.
The structures are scatted on a steep landscape. The most significant building is the superintendent's residence, of rubble stone construction with a log-framed roof, covered with green shingles. The bridge is a single span built in 1935, using rubble stone. The 1935 Comfort Station restroom (presently named Last Chance restroom) is built on a ledge on the mountainside, and has a nearly flat concrete roof faced with stone. The 1928 comfort station is larger and built with a shingled roof. It is no longer used as a restroom. The rubble storage building is covered with a flat concrete roof. There are also two cold cellars on the site, both built about 1930. The trail climbs the cliffs for between one and , its vertical climb of supported by stone retaining walls.
History.
The National Park Service took over the monument in 1933. Monument facilities were expanded using labor provided by the Works Progress Administration, with another comfort station (Building 127) in 1939. The unnamed stream that flows through the American Fork Canyon (and becomes the American Fork river at the mouth of the canyon) was diverted and a new bridge was built in the 1930s. The Superintendent's Residence was completed in 1941.
The Timpanogos Cave Historic District was placed on the NRHP on October 13, 1982.


Puebla Cathedral

Puebla Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Puebla's historic centre, in the state of Puebla, Mexico. It is a colonial cathedral, and is the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Puebla de los Ángeles. The cathedral's archbishop is Víctor Sánchez Espinosa. The cathedral is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.
History.
On January 24, 1557 Viceroy Martín Enríquez (1562–80) authorized construction. The design was submitted to the Dean and Cathedral Chapter on November 11, 1557.
Construction began in November 1575, under the direction of architect Francisco Becerra and Juan de Cigorondo. Construction was interrupted in 1626 but in 1634 Juan Gómez de Trasmonte modified the design and construction began again in 1640 when Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza arrived with the appointment of visitor-general of New Spain and bishop of Puebla. The cathedral was in bad shape when Palafox arrived in 1640, the building not yet completed and unconsecrated. When Palafox lost his struggle with the Jesuits and viceroy Salvatierra, he was appointed bishop to a minor diocese in Spain, but before he left New Spain in 1649 he devoted considerable energy to completing the cathedral and its consecration. The renovation over nine years had cost 350,000 pesos, engaged 1,500 workers under the supervision of an Aragonese Pedro García Ferrer. The ceremony of consecration was set for April 18, 1649, and for Palafox was not only the culmination of the massive building project, but also his grand farewell to his diocese. The Cathedral was consecrated to the Virgin Mary in a huge and emotional ceremony, with civil and religious participants, the reburial of the remains of previous prelates, brilliant musical performances, and a sermon by Palafox himself in his final farewell to his flock.
It was not entirely completed until 1690.
The front façade was built out of a black limestone, and it has two towers, the tallest in Mexico, one of which has no bells. According to legend, an underground river passes under that tower and if bells were placed in it, the tower would collapse.
Interior.
The interior of the cathedral contains many artistic artifacts that are found in its 14 lateral chapels and the main altar. Its principal altar is referred to as "The Major Altar", or "The Altar of the Kings", which was designed by Manuel Tolsa and built between 1797 and 1818. Some bishops of Puebla are buried under it. Across most of the rear wall of the cathedral is a Blessed Sacrament chapel. The inside of the dome of the apse chapel was painted with "The Assumption of the Virgin" by Cristóbal de Villalpando.
Music.
The cathedral in Puebla had a distinguished musical tradition, dating from the late sixteenth century. One of the most distinguished musicians was Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, active as chapel master from 1629 to 1664. His wrote extended and complex works, including polychoral masses as well as "villancicos" (for the Christmas season). His music shows the evidence of New Spain's non-white population in "tocotines" (Nahua influence) and "negrillos" and "porto ricos" (African influence). The Cathedral has extant choir books of his compositions. His villancicos "stand as one of the greatest contributions to American music history."


Great Synagogue (Katowice)

Great Synagogue was the largest synagogue in the city of Katowice (Kattowitz), in southwestern Poland. It was erected in 1900 in what was then the German Empire, and was designed by Max Grünfeld. The synagogue was set on fire by the Nazis in early September 1939 during the invasion of Poland.
History.
The plans to raise a new synagogue in Katowice arose around 1890, when the Old Synagogue (Katowice) became too small for the local worshippers. The construction begun in 1896, and the architect in charge was Max Grünfeld, son of Ignatz Grünfeld who designed the old synagogue. The construction was finished in 1900 and the synagogue was opened on 12 October 1900.
The synagogue was set on fire by Nazis in early days of September 1939 after they gained control of the city during the invasion of Poland (1939); probably on 8 September.
After the war the few Jews who survived the Holocaust were unable to gather enough resources and support to rebuild the synagogue. Today in the place where this building once stood is a square (Synagogue Square). In the 1988 a monument was raised in the square, dedicated to the Jewish inhabitants of the city who perished during the Second World War.
Design.
The brick synagogue was designed on the basis of a modified rectangle in style mixing Neo-Gothic with Neo-Renaissance, eclecticism and traces of Mauritian style; similar to the style of reformed Judaism synagogues in contemporary Germany.
The synagogue had a large dome with a cross-ribbed vault over the main prayer chamber which was preceded by a large entrance hall with offices and the chamber of marriage. The main chamber was topped with a lantern. Other characteristics elements included large decorated windows and small towers.
The main chamber could hold 1120 people; 670 males and 450 females.


Braxted Park

Braxted Park, formerly called Braxted Lodge, is a country house in the Queen Anne style set in a landscaped 2,000 acre park near the village of Great Braxted, Essex.
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Eudo Dapifer is shown as owner of the manor. All Saints' Church, originally built in about 1115 and restored in the 18th century, also lies within the park grounds.
The property, recorded as a 'deer park' in 1342, was held by a series of Essex families including those by the names of Anesty, Montchensy, Valence, Hastings, Grey, Montgomery, Ayloff and Maynard.
The lands were purchased by Thomas Darcy in 1650 from the estate of the then Countess of Pembroke. Braxted Lodge was built on the property in 1680 by Darcy's son. During his ownership, the property was enlarged and landscaped, with several large man-made ponds being added, including one that is now visible from the main house and is referred to as 'the lake'.
In 1745, the estate was purchased from the Darcy family by Peter Du Cane, Sr. of nearby Coggeshall, a wealthy cloth merchant, trader and businessman descended from noble Huguenot ancestors by the name of 'Du Quesne'. Having moved the family to Essex, where he had become High Sheriff and Member of Parliament for Colchester, Du Cane ultimately settled the family at Braxted Park in 1751.
Du Cane, a director of the Bank of England and the East India Company, reconstructed and enlarged the house around 1760, assisted by Isaac Ware, Thomas James and Robert Taylor (architect). Du Cane thoroughly landscaped and upgraded the property, more than doubling its size.
The property passed to Peter Du Cane (II), then 62, when his father died at the age of 90 in 1803. He accomplished even more improvements and alterations to the building and grounds, bringing the main house and gardens largely to their present state. Peter Du Cane (III) inherited the property in 1823 and continued to add to the holdings, including the restoration of the church (including the building of the Du Cane Family crypt) and the addition of several other buildings.
In 1841, Charles Du Cane acceded to the property on the death of his cousin Peter, who had by then already formally changed its name to 'Braxted Park'. Member of Parliament for Maldon from 1852 to 1854 and for Essex North from 1857 to 1868, Du Cane served as civil Lord of the Admiralty for two years. Sir Charles was appointed Governor of Tasmania from 1868 to 1874 and died on the estate in 1889.
Braxted Park was acquired by Sir William Boulton, 1st Baronet, from the Du Cane family in 1919. The Boulton Baronetcy of Braxted Park was created in 1944. The Boulton family sold the estate to The Plessey Company in 1947. Sir Allen George Clark, chairman of the company, and his descendants have been its occupants to the present day.
At present there is a disused Victorian school on the Estate. This was built for the use of the children of the Parish.


Malta Kiosk

The Malta Kiosk (), also known as the Malta Pavilion, is a historic imperial Ottoman residence located within the garden of the Yıldız Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. The two-storey pavilion was commissioned by Sultan Abdülaziz (reigned 1861–1876) as a hunting lodge, designed by the architect Sarkis Balyan in the neo-baroque style and completed in 1870.
The pavilion, perched atop a steep hill, is one of the two lodges of its art within the Yıldız Park, the other one being the Çadır Pavilion (). It is located at the north side of the wall separating Yıldız Palace. There are also two watching and resting pavilions in the grove being the rear garden of Çırağan Palace from the Abdül Aziz I period.
The origin of the name comes from the executive use of limestone from Malta, which is the prominent material used.
Architecture.
Malta Kiosk is an example of westernised architecture of the 19th century. The building was constructed by Sarkis Balyan and his brothers. During the Abdül Mecid I period, the architects have been influenced by the European architecture and motifs of nature, flowers, fruits and hunting animal figures have been widely used on the walls. Round marble columns, terraces, bedrooms, wooden and crystal halls have features like neo-classical, neo-Islamic and neo-Ottoman characteristics. The arches in S and C shapes originated from the Rococo style. Columns, palmets or sea shells have been added to the keystones of the arches. The baroque style of the 19th century has been reflected with oval windows, fluted cornices, flushed columns with small tower on ends. The vertical and horizontal elements have been balanced in the Empire style symbolising the Napoleonic period under the influence of Egyptian and Roman architecture.
The facades of the building on each side, painted in yellow and green, consists of three parts with a large center section flanked by two smaller. Main elements of the facades are triple, tall but narrow, round-arched windows. At the second floor on the side overlooking the Bosporus are also balconies. The building has four doors in total.
The waterside entrance opens onto a large hall. On both sides of the entrance hall, two staircases rise to upper floor. A large chandelier hangs from a dome-shaped ceiling, which is opulently decorated with curving branches and clusters of various flower motifs. The lower salon contains a big marble fountain and a marble pool in the center decorated with carved swan and fish figures. Between the hall and the salon, there are five-tier marble fountains again with carved swan figures. Two marble columns erects here to the ceiling.
The salon on the upper level is flanked with two large and one small-sized rooms. The large salons on both floors are equipped with a carved marble fireplace worked with colorful flowers. Oil paintings with landscape themes beautify the walls of the salons. Two rooms on the upper floor are decorated with flower motifs. There are balconies on the second floor facing the sea.
Witness to political incidents.
When Sultan Abdülaziz was dethroned in 1876, his nephew Murad V (reigned May 30-August 31, 1876) was elevated to the throne. However, he was in turn deposed only after 93 days on the grounds that he was mentally ill, and was replaced by his brother, Abdul Hamid II (reigned 1876–1909). Abdul Hamid II detained Murad V in the Malta Pavilion.
Midhat Pasha, grand vizier and statesman, was ordered by Sultan Abdul Hamid II to be arrested the second time in 1881. Although escaped in the first instance, Midhat Pasha returned a short time later claiming a fair hearing. The trial was held in the nearby Çadır Pavilion, and lasted three days in June that year, during which he was tortured in the basement. The trial of Midhat Pasha took place in a tent behind the pavilion.
Redevelopment.
Following the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, the Malta Pavilion, as many of Ottoman imperial buildings, stood unused and was neglected over a long period. In 1979, the Touring and Automobile Club of Turkey (TTOK) under its CEO Çelik Gülersoy signed an agreement with the City of Istanbul to restore and preserve specific imperial residences, and to run them as public premises. Malta Pavilion was the first restoration work accomplished.
The exterior walls were repainted green with white trim, and the interiors were restored to their former glory. Furnishings, chandeliers and paintings were collected to fit the style of the rich neo-baroque building.
Opened to the public in 1982, the Malta Pavilion was run as a cafeteria and restaurant by the TTOK until the lease license expired, and the Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul did not renew it. From 1997 until 2003, it was operated by the tourism company Beltur of the Metropolitan Municipality. Today, the premise is being run by a private company. In the restaurant and cafeteria on two floors, up to 150 guests can be served.
Dessert.
"Malta Köşkü" is also the name of a cake in the Turkish cuisine prepared with the loquat fruit ().


Wellington clock tower

The Wellington clock tower is a structure that stands on the seafront at Swanage in Dorset, England. It was originally built by the Commissioners for Lighting the West Division of Southwark at the southern end of London Bridge in 1854. It was intended as a memorial to the recently deceased Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, though funds proved insufficient to provide a statue of the man at the top of the tower, as had been originally intended. It housed a clock with four faces that were illuminated from within and a small telegraph office. Within 10 years the structure was overshadowed by the construction of nearby railway structures and became an obstruction to traffic using the bridge. It was disassembled in 1867.
The structure was saved by the Swanage-based contractor George Burt and shipped back to his hometown, without the clock mechanism. He gifted it to fellow contractor Thomas Docwra who erected it in the grounds of his house at Peveril Point. Later owners removed the spire in 1904, though the structure remains a prominent landmark in the town and was granted grade II protection as a listed building in 1952.
London Bridge.
The Wellington clock tower was constructed as a memorial to the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the former British Army general and politician who died in 1852. It was funded by a public subscription and contributions from railway companies organised by the Commissioners for Lighting the West Division of Southwark. A design was drawn up by the Arthur Ashpitel in the Perpendicular Gothic style (the Gothic Revival was popular in English architecture of this period). The tower as built had three levels, square in plan. The lower two levels were enclosed by walls and the uppermost level, within which a statue of Wellington was to stand, left open. One face of the lowest (ground) level contained a door with an ogee canopy, the other three faces contained a single arch window in the centre. The second level (first floor) had an arched window on each face, above which were circular apertures for the clock faces, surmounted by crocketted gables. The faces were transparent to allow the clock to be lit from within the tower. The uppermost level comprised four piers (one at each corner of the structure) atop which are trefoil cusped arches which supported a spire. The structure is buttressed in the double angled style in which a buttress support stands on either side of the external corners (making eight in total). The buttresses are also topped with crockets.
The tower was to be sited at the end southern end of London Bridge and the foundation stone was laid on 17 June 1854 by T. B. Simpson, treasurer to the Commissioners. The tower was completed within 6 months, although the money raised proved insufficient to provide the statue, as originally intended. The clock in the tower had been made by Bennett of Blackheath for the 1851 Great Exhibition and Bennett promised to maintain the clock for the remainder of his life. Owing to the vibrations from the heavy passing traffic the clock proved unreliable. The room in the lower portion of the tower found use as a telegraph office.
The tower was overshadowed by the construction of the Charing Cross to London Bridge railway and the 1863 Waterloo East viaduct, which detracted from its aesthetic. It was later condemned by the Metropolitan Police as an obstruction to traffic using the bridge and it was demolished in 1867.
George Burt.
George Burt was a building contractor from Swanage, who managed his uncle's construction firm Mowlem. Under Burt's control the firm carried out work on prominent buildings in London. Many of these were built with Purbeck stone shipped by barge from Swanage harbour. The barges required ballast to stabilise them for the return journey and Burt used material salvaged from buildings demolished in the capital, re-erecting many of them in his hometown. Even today, many of the Swanage's traffic bollards and lamp posts were originally used in London and the façade of its town hall was originally Christopher Wren's 17th-century Mercers' Hall.
Re-erection in Swanage.
The fabric of the Wellington clock tower was acquired by Burt and transported to Swanage as ballast in his ship "Mayflower". He presented the tower as a house warming gift to his friend and fellow contractor Thomas Docwra. Docwra rebuilt the tower in the eastern portion of his residence, The Grove on Peveril Point, in 1868. The work cost Docwra as much as it had cost to build the tower in London. He commemorated the completion of the work by having his initials and the year engraved on the base of the tower, which are still visible today. The tower's clock did not accompany it to Swanage and its four faces were replaced with circular windows.
The spire was removed in 1904 for unknown reasons, possibly due to storm damage and possibly because the then owners - who were fervent Christians - found it sacrilegious. It was replaced by an ogee-shaped copper cupola. This was criticised by architectural experts and the resulting structure was described as incongruous with its setting. In 1907 "The Antiquary" magazine stated that "the first sight one sees on sailing into Swanage Harbour" is the Wellington clock tower. The structure was granted protection as a grade II listed building on 26 June 1952.
The Wellington clock tower remains a prominent landmark in Swanage. A photographic survey and condition report of the structure was carried out in September 2015 to serve as a baseline and to assist in identifying any structural problems.


Convento de San Juan de la Penitencia, Toledo

The Convento de San Juan de la Penitencia, also known as the Colegio de Doncellas pobres de San Juan de la Penitencia, is an Isabelline former convent building that was erected in 1514 in Toledo, Spain.
The convent was established to rescue women from the street until they marry or to insert them into religious life.
The convent was commissioned by Don Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros and built by architect Pedro Gumiel, combining elements of Moorish style with the Renaissance. The altarpiece was made by Alejandro Semini.
The convent building suffered a devastating fire in 1936. It later served as a refuge for the homeless after the Spanish Civil War.
The building currently houses the Music Conservatory and the Center for International Studies of the Ortega y Gasset Foundation.


Holy Trinity Church, Wensley

Holy Trinity Church is a redundant Anglican church on Low Lane in the village of Wensley, North Yorkshire, England. The building is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building (since 13 February 1967), and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Alec Clifton-Taylor included the church in his list of 'best' English parish churches.
History.
The present church dates from the middle of the 13th century, and is built on the foundations of an 8th-century Saxon church. Additions or alterations were made in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the tower was added in 1719. Church records list rectors from 1181 (Geoffrey de Well) to 2001 (Robert Miles). For centuries starting in the 1300s, Holy Trinity received support from the owners of Bolton Castle, the Scrope family.
A report on this building by the University of London provides the following specifics:
"The church dates from about 1240, the south chancel wall being almost intact of that date. The chancel was then of the same size as at present, but the east window and the piscina appear to be somewhat later, and the north wall of the chancel has evidently been rebuilt upon the old foundations. The chancel arch and the capitals and bases of the two nave arcades are also work of this date. The arcades are unusually lofty; the aisles were rebuilt about 1330, when these arches seem to have been raised to the same height as the chancel arch. The north vestry, with priest's lodging above, and the north and south porches are work of the 15th century. The tower and the west ends of the aisles were rebuilt in the 18th century."
Box pews were added in the early 19th century but the medieval character was retained. The two manual pipe organ was installed in 1885. The church was restored in 1927 when the roof was renewed, and the whitewash on the walls was removed. This restoration revealed wall paintings depicting Jacob and Esau which were restored as far as possible. Rt. Revd. Lucius Smith, Bishop of Knaresborough re-opened it on 25 January 1928.
When the church was vested in the Churches Conservation Trust in 2006 a number of repairs were necessary costing about £125,000.
While it is not used for worship, the church remains open to visitors; some events are also held here, such as the flower festival, christenings, weddings and funerals.
Architecture.
Exterior.
The church is constructed in stone rubble with sandstone ashlar dressings. The roof is in Welsh slate, with lead on the chancel and the north porch. A number of carved Saxon stones are built into the walls. Its plan consists of a nave, with north and south aisles and north and south porches, a chancel with a north vestry, and a west tower. The tower has three stages, with buttresses on the bottom stage, and a two-light west window. On the south side is a stair turret. The clock was made by W. Potts and Son of Leeds and is dated 1899.
In the middle stage there are single-light windows on the west and south faces, a door on the east side, and a clock on the north face. The top stage contains two-light bell openings. On the summit, the parapet is plain and there are small obelisks at the corners. The south aisle has a two-light west window. The gabled south porch dates from the 15th century and has diagonal buttresses. Above its opening is a sundial dated 1846. Inside the porch are stone benches. The north porch dates from the 14th century; it is also gabled with diagonal buttresses. Above the doorway are coats of arms, and it also contains stone benches. On the south side of the church are buttresses with three double lancet windows, the middle one of which is over a priest's door. The east window has five lights, and on the east gable end is a cross. The vestry on the north side has two storeys. There is a two-light window on each storey. Inside the church is a tower arch, a chancel arch and a three-bay arcade, all dating from the early 14th century.
Interior.
The church is considered to be as notable for its furnishings as for its architecture. In the chancel is a piscina with a trefoil head. On the chancel floor are two brass memorials. The choir stalls have carved ends dated 1527, and the communion rail dates from the 17th century. In the tower arch is a 15th-century rood screen. The nave contains the Scrope family pew with a 17th-century front and, at the back is a carved parclose screen from the early 16th century, that was moved from Easby Abbey at the Dissolution. The nave also contains 17th-century benches and box pews from the 18th century, an 18th-century double-decker pulpit, and an octagonal font dated 1662 with a cover wooden cover surmounted by a pineapple finial. On the walls are memorials, and on the north wall are fragments of (14th century) medieval wall paintings discovered during 1927–1928. In the east window of the south aisle are fragments of medieval stained glass.
Also in the church is a royal coat of arms dated 1701, and the standard of the Loyal Dales Volunteers. A wooden cupboard in the church is claimed to be a reliquary containing remains of Saint Agatha. The three-manual organ was built by Isaac Abbott of Leeds in memory of Letitia, Baroness Bolton (d. 4 January 1882) and opened on 19 April 1883, and later restored by Wood Wordsworth, also of Leeds. There is a ring of three bells. Two of these were cast in 1725 by Samuel II Smith, and the third was cast by Charles and George Mears of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1847.


Selztaldom

The Evangelische Pfarrkirche in Großwinternheim, part of Ingelheim am Rhein, also called Selztaldom meaning "Selz valley cathedral", is a romanesque revival aisleless church built according to romaneque architecture blueprints from the Middle Rhine. The building is protected by cultural heritage management.
History.
The church was erected in 1888 according to the drawings of Heinrich von Schmidt (Munic) on the cemetery, still in use. The building time was two years. She replaced the old church in the village center, being now the fire brigades home.
Architecture.
Exterior.
The church is built as hall church in southward direction with a short nave and crossing as well as a diminished apse.


Astor Theatre, Perth

The Astor Theatre is located at 659 Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley, Western Australia. It comprises a single, two and three-storey masonry Inter-war Art Deco style theatre and retail building.
History.
The building was originally known as the Lyceum Theatre and was designed by David McClure, and built by Simon Alexander, whose family owned the premises. The Alexander family also owned the Alexander Building on the south-west (opposite) corner of Beaufort and Walcott Streets. It was constructed in 1914/1915 in a Federation Free Classical style and was designed for a mixture of vaudeville and lantern slide shows.
By 1922, the Lyceum Theatre was advertising "motion pictures and popular orchestra". In the mid-1920s, with the development and popularity of silent movies, the Lyceum was converted to a cinema, and the name was changed from the Lyceum to the State Theatre.
In 1939 the theatre was redesigned in an Art Deco style by William Leighton, and reconstructed by Simon Alexander's son John. In the late 1930s Leighton secured a reputation as a leading cinema designer for his work on several Perth cinemas, including the Piccadilly Theatre and Arcade, the Windsor Theatre in Nedlands, and the Cygnet Cinema in South Perth. He was also behind the refurbishment of the Royal Theatre and Grand Theatre. The remodelling of the State Theatre left it structurally intact but altered its appearance, "dispensing with the arches and pediments and imposing a simple restrained facade". The alterations included the entrance to the picture garden, and made provision for a grocery store on the corner, a millinery shop, and refreshments in the cinema vestibule. Leighton's Art Deco design introduced the Mayan flower to the Theatre. The Art Deco theme runs from the Main Auditorium through the external facades to Beaufort and Walcott Streets. The remodelled State Theatre opened on 12 May 1939.
The Astor Theatre received its current name in 1941 when an Act of Parliament decreed it an offence for a private business to use the name "State". Mr John Alexander's wife, Mavis, renamed the theatre The Astor in memory of a theatre of the same name in New Farm, Brisbane that was the first cinema they went to after their marriage.
With the decline in cinema attendances in the 1950s and 1960s due to the introduction of television, the Astor Theatre became a shadow of its former self, eventually reduced to showing pornographic films. It was also used as a venue for a number of activities including amateur dramatic shows, a dancing studio and bingo. In December 1978, Astor Theatre was purchased by a group of Perth businessmen and families. In 1988 rumours grew that Astor Theatre was to be demolished, and Ron Regan, from Sydney, arranged a five-year lease of Astor Theatre through his company Entrevision Pty Ltd.
In 1989, the 50th anniversary of its Art Deco redevelopment, the Theatre underwent an extensive refurbishment by Philip McAllister, Architect for Entrevision Cinemas Pty Ltd, who wished to return the cinema to its Art Deco glory and provide a quality film experience in a quality environment.
The Astor Cinema was officially re-opened on 26 July 1989 by the mayor of the City of Stirling, Cr. A. A. Spagnolo, prior to a screening of Australian director Peter Weir's film "Dead Poets Society".
21st century.
Since its reopening, the Astor Cinema has undergone further refurbishment in November 2006, with the cinema facilities continuing to be upgraded. In August 2008, the owners announced that the cinema would close because it is no longer profitable, stating that "the cinema had been running at a loss for some time, with just $34 in takings in four hours of trading". A Music Rocks Australia concert (a kid rock band group of schools) was one of the last performances at the Astor.
The theatre reopened in October 2009, and now hosts live music, comedy and other community events.
Heritage value.
The Astor Theatre was classified by the National Trust (WA) on 1 August 1988. The building is also included on the City of Stirling Municipal Inventory. and was permanently listed on the State Register of Heritage Places on 14 May 1999.


Virginia Department of Highways Building

Virginia Department of Highways Building, also known as the State Highway Commission Building, is a historic government office building located in Richmond, Virginia. The building serves as headquarters for the Virginia Department of Transportation. It was built in 1937, and is a four-story, Stripped Classicism style building. It is of steel and reinforced concrete construction, with a veneer of limestone, Virginia greenstone, and pink granite.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.


Woodcock Street Baths

Woodcock Street Baths is a swimming pool, part of the Sir Doug Ellis Woodcock Sports Centre in Birmingham, England. The pool dates from 1902. It was originally a public baths; it is now part of Aston University and is operated by Sport Aston. It is a Grade II listed building.
The pool is open to students and staff of the university, and to the public.
History.
It is one of the oldest operating pools in Britain.
Woodcock Street Baths was originally opened in 1860. It was Birmingham's second public baths after the passage of the 1846 Public Baths and Wash-houses Act. In 1902 an additional pool, the First Class Pool, was built. In the 1920s the baths were reconstructed; the 1902 pool was a part that remained from the earlier building.
It was taken over by Aston University in 1980. There was further redevelopment in 2011, and in 2013 the sports centre was named after Sir Doug Ellis.
Architecture.
The pool retains most of the original features. The long rectangular hall has white tiled walls with blue and brown banding; along the sides are cubicles with terracotta arches. The roof is supported by elliptic girders that are pierced with quatrefoil shapes.


St Mary the Virgin Church, Turville

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a 12th century English church located in Turville, Buckinghamshire, England.
History.
The church is first recorded in the 12th century. It was built mainly using flint, principally due to its sole availability in the Middle Ages. The nave of the church is the oldest surviving part, dating from the early 12th century. In 1340, the present bell tower was built and the chancel was enlarged. The four bells in the tower date from 1670 and 1744.
Further changes to the church were made in 1733, with the addition of the north aisle, which aimed to house the pew for the Lord of the Manor, William Perry. The north aisle also includes a marble monument to William Perry. Two armorial glass windows in the south wall commemorate the connection of the Parry family with the church.
Restoration.
The church was restored on numerous occasions, notably in 1875 when the chancel floor was raised, in 1901 when the vestry was constructed, in 1972 when the roof was repaired and, in 1996 with the new bell-frame and re-tuned peal. The 1901 restoration uncovered a stone coffin containing two skeletons, one dating from the 16th century which had a hole in the skull, indicating a possible murder victim. Today, the coffin stands in front of the north aisle. The coffin might have been used as an ossuary during a time when the churchyard became overcrowded.
Popular culture.
The church was used in the sitcom "The Vicar of Dibley", where it was used as the parish church named St Barnabus' "(sic)".