Dupont Underground is an abandoned trolley station underneath Dupont Circle that recently had a design competition to reuse a whole lot of plastic balls from National Building Museum’s The Beach. The winning entry was Raise/Raze, which formed the balls into 3 x 3 cubes that were used to build columns and walls in a portion of Dupont Underground. The structures built by the balls were rather interesting, especially when considering they were built with spheres. I also rather liked the way the cube blocks mimicked the tiles on the outer wall of the underground. 
Tag Archives: architecture
Grand Avenue Bus Depot
I toured the New York MTA’s Grand Avenue Bus Depot with the New York Transit Museum. The depot is relatively new, which is evident when you are inside. I don’t know much about bus depot design, but I was astounded by the amount of ventilation in the building. Considering the number of vehicles going and in and out every day, the ventilation is needed, but still I was surprised by the amount of it. The bus depot occupies the first level of this huge building, and the second level holds the Central Maintenance facility. They are considered to be different facilities. The bus depot is, well, a depot, or parking area for when the buses are not in use. The depot also where regular maintenance is performed and everyday activities like fueling, money removal, and washing.
Multiple bays for maintenance
Regular maintenance performed on buses
Hoses needed for normal maintenance hang from ceiling
Lanes for parking and to maintenance bays
Buses parked closely until needed
I asked the facility manager what this garage style door was for. He looked at it and me and said he had never been asked that and wasn’t actually sure. Leave it to me to be able to stump people.
Confession: Other people in the group asked the depot manager to please let us go through bus wash, so he granted their wishes, and we all boarded a bus and went through a wash.
Bus wash
The ceilings and walls were almost completely filled with ventilation ducts, pipes, and conduits.
Ventilation everywhere
Ventilation, pipes, and conduit everywhere.
I couldn’t get over the amount of conduit.
One of my favorite parts of the tour was learning that they vacuum money out of the fare box. MTA buses only accept coin and not bills. They hook up a hose to outlet at the bottom of the fare box, and the money is vacuumed out to secure boxes where it falls into bags or some other movable containers. The staff of the facility never touches the money. Then the money is removed from the boxes on a regular basis by armed staff. I think it is because I have a B.S. in chemical engineering that I found this so fascinating. We learned about pipes and other conduits and pump design for fluids. Coins are obviously not fluids. I am intrigued by the design that would be needed by items that are going to bounce around and not flow the way a fluid does. Also the pressure needed to pull coins out must be interesting.
The outlet at the bottom of the fare box is where a hose is inserted to vacuum out the money. They vacuum the money to a secure box.
Hoses and vacuum pump used to vacuum money out of fare boxes.
Viejo San Juan’s Colorful Buildings
I love buildings that are painted bright colors. They grab you and make you look at them. They look fun, festive, and alive. The Caribbean is famous for its colorful buildings, and Viejo San Juan has its share. Here are a few of the colorful buildings I saw in Viejo San Juan that I really liked.
Skinniest building I’ve ever seen
Colorful houses
A school
Antiguo Casino
Green building
Alcaldia (City Hall)
Lots of balconies
All different colors
Turquoise
The pink building used to be a bank
Viejo San Juan
It wasn’t until I walked around Viejo (Old) San Juan, especially the perimeter of it, that I realized how it really is a walled city. El Morro guards the entrance to the bay, but the fortifications encircles the entirety of the old city. One of the few ways, and the historic way, from the sea level to the city is through La Puerta de San Juan. Walking through the La Puerta, you realize the fortification is serious fortification, as La Puerta is almost a tunnel in terms of the distance you must walk to go from the sea side to the city side. The fortification is truly impressive with the wall thickness and garitas and small openings for guards to stand ready. One modern day bonus of the fortification is that it must help protect Viejo San Juan from any hurricane storm surge. There is a promenade that follows the wall from its beginning on the bay side and ends on the ocean side of El Morro. It gives spectacular views of the fort and the water as well.
Beginning of bay side wall
End of Paseo de lan Princesa
Bay side of El Morro
Garita
Bay side wall
La Puerta de San Juan
La Puerta de San Juan
Ocean side wall
Ocean side wall
Ocean side wall with El Morro is background
Brooklyn Navy Yard
As part of Open House New York, I got to wander around the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The old navy shipyard is being redeveloped for commercial use. There are several dry docks, and one dry dock is still operational. There is also many green features includes renewable power. However, the site is quite simply a really cool place to photograph.
Between Buildings 30 and 58
Dry dock that is no longer in use
Building 128
Building 25
Building 20
External staircase on Building 127
Crane for operation dry dock
Operational dry dock next to the East River
Old crane
Tank next to Building 41
Building 58
Renovated Bluiding 92
Brooklyn Army Terminal
As part of Open House New York, I toured the Brooklyn Army Terminal. It was built at the end of World War I and was a huge military base that was used to transfer people and materials from land to sea. It was built in an entirely utilitarian design and in the incredibly short time of 17 months. However, its utilitarian design is what I find incredibly interesting. Building B has this huge atrium with two sets of railroad tracks. Trains would travel directly into the building where material would be off and on loaded from various levels. There are several bridges connecting several buildings so that material could be moved between buildings on vehicles without interfering with the train traffic below. The atrium is dramatic, and I love that the concrete pour lines are visible.
Building B Atrium
Building B Atrium
Building B Atrium
Building B Atrium
Building B Atrium loading docks
Building B Atrium
Building B entrance, the black lines show where railroad tracks originally were
Exterior of Building A
Building A
Bridge between Building A and Annex
Bridge between Building A and B
Turkey: Hagia Sofia of Istanbul
Hagia Sofia is an amazing piece of architecture and art. It was a church that became a mosque that became a museum. The interior is covered with beautiful stone panels, carved stone, mosaics, and painted plaster. Much of the mosaics were covered with plaster and then painted centuries ago, but the revealed mosaics are intricate and beautiful. The painted plaster is quite beautiful also. The stone panels demonstrate the beauty of natural stone. Besides the actual decorative interior, the actual architectural form of the building with all its domes and arches is gorgeous and also amazing from an engineering standpoint. Considering the age of the building and the number of earthquakes the area has suffered, it is amazing that the building is still standing. Some earthquake damage can be seen such as a leaning column in a photograph below.
Hagia Sofia
Arches
Central area
Carved stone arches
Central dome
Column leaning from earthquake
Front of interior
Hall
Mosaic revealed under painting
Stone panels
Virgin Mary mosaic
Turkey: Blue Mosque of Istanbul
While in Istanbul, our tour group visited the famous Blue Mosque. It is gorgeous. The exterior is beautiful, but the interior is even more beautiful. The interior is arches upon arches upon domes. Most of the interior is covered with gorgeous mainly blue and white tile, which gives the mosque it’s name.
Blue Mosque
Blue Mosque minuet
Arches of Blue Mosque interior
Arches of Blue Mosque interior
Carved stone
Domed ceiling of Blue Mosque
Prayer area
Blue and white tile
Greece: Santorini
Today we visited Santorini. We came in at sunrise and left after sunset. It is not often I get both sunrise and sunset photos in a single day, but Santorini was worth it. Santorini is a photographer’s dream place. The island group of Santorini is a collapsed caldera. The main towns on the island of Santorini, Fira and Oia, are set on the ridge of the caldera. So, it’s a rather dramatic setting. The architecture is the classic Cycladic, but not all the buildings are white stucco. Some are different colors, and of course there are many churches with the beautiful, simple blue dome. If you can find the good vantage points, which is not always a simple endeavor, then you can get some amazing photographs. Finding the good vantage points involves going down many different tiny sidewalks that twist and curve and at times look like they lead no where.
Santorini sunrise
Santorini sunrise
Fira
Fira
Fira Catholic Church
Oia
Oia
Oia
Oia
Oia
Oia
Pink house in Oia
Kameni in middle of caldera
Santorini sunset
Greece: Paros
This afternoon was spent in Paros. I really liked Paros. It is small, not too touristy, pretty, and friendly. The Church of Ekatontapiliani was a highlight of our walking tour. It was a wonderful church to photograph with its beautiful stonework.
Paros harbor
Alley
Frankish Castle
Windmill
Church of Ekatontapiliani
Church of Ekatontapiliani
Church of Ekatontapiliani Baptistery