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The building in San Antonio we call the Alamo originally was built as the chapel of the Mission San Antonio de Valero.

Valero mission was established at San Pedro Springs in present-day San Antonio in 1718 by Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares, a Franciscan missionary of the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro.

Like all Spanish missions, Valero was a combination of religious and industrial trade school for Indians. For several years, the mission consisted of several huts and a small stone tower, which were destroyed by a storm in 1724. Mass was celebrated in temporary quarters until the first stone church building was constructed about 1744. This building collapsed about 1756. The second stone chapel, begun about 1758 and never completed as a chapel, stands today in Alamo Plaza.

Cruciform in shape and 35 Spanish varas (more than 90 feet) long, the chapel has a large nave and a broad transept. The walls, built of local limestone blocks, are more than 3.5 feet thick. The floor was probably paved with flagstones. Study of the original part of the building indicates that the chapel was to have twin bell towers, with a dome over the center of the building.

The mission complex once covered up to four acres of ground and contained not only the church, but also the convento, or priests' quarters; a granary; workrooms; storerooms; and Indian housing, all surrounded by an outer wall.

By 1778, disease epidemics had depopulated Valero, as well as the four other missions that had subsequently been established in the vicinity, to the point that not enough Indians were left to work the fields. In 1793, Valero was converted into a self-supporting parish church.

After the conversion, the still-unfinished Valero chapel was stripped of usable doors, windows and hardware. It served at times as a parish church for soldiers who were stationed there, and it became San Antonio's first hospital from 1806 to 1812.

The Valero mission building came to be known as the "Alamo" when a company of cavalry -- called the Segunda Compañía Volante de San José y Santiago del Alamo de Parras (Second Flying Company of San José and Santiago of the Alamo of Parras) -- was stationed there for more than 10 years, beginning in 1801 or 1802. The town of San José y Santiago del Alamo de Parras in the Mexican state of Coahuila was where, in the 1780s, the unit had been recruited. As tradition dictated, the company was identified by the full name of the town. "Alamo" is the Spanish word for cottonwood. "Alamo" in the town's name is thought to refer to a landmark cottonwood tree growing on a ranch near Parras. The mission chapel is still called the Alamo; the town of Parras, however, is now called Viesca.
Its Role in the Texas Revolution
To many Texans, of course, the most important use of the Alamo was as a fort during the Texas revolution. Mexican Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos used the Alamo as his headquarters in San Antonio. In preparation for the Texan assault in late 1835, Cos tore down the chapel's arches to use as ramps for hauling cannon to the tops of the walls. And the climactic 13-day siege and battle of the Alamo in 1836 was all-important in turning the tide of the Texas revolution.
The Present Alamo Building
The signature scalloped roof line of the Alamo was not part of the building until 1849. It was added by the U.S. Army when it leased the former chapel from the Roman Catholic Church to use for storing hay and grain. The two outer windows on the upper level also were added at that time. Many representations of the building in paintings, drawings and movies wrongly show these late additions as part of the building during the 1836 battle. An army artist who sketched the Alamo compound in 1849 after the remodeling commented that the chapel had been topped with "a ridiculous scroll, giving the building the appearance of the headboard of a bedstead." Of the present Alamo building, probably only the bottom 23 feet of wall are part of the original.

The Alamo changed hands at least 16 times among Spanish, Mexican, Texan, Union and Confederate forces between 1810 and the end of the Civil War. During the early 1840s, stones from the Alamo were hauled away by scavengers. Development began creeping onto the former mission's grounds in the 1850s.

When a supply depot was built at Fort Sam Houston in 1878, the army left the Alamo compound, and merchant Hugo Grenet purchased the convento (also called the long barracks) from the church, remodeling the property to house a retail store. He leased the chapel for use as a warehouse. Grenet's renovations gave the convento the appearance of a crenelated medieval castle. After Grenet died in 1882, the mercantile firm of Hugo & Schmeltzer purchased the convento; the chapel reverted to the church, which sold it to the state in 1883.
Saving the Alamo Complex
In the 1890s, Adina de Zavala, granddaughter of Mexican-born Texas patriot Lorenzo de Zavala and first vice president of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT), extracted a promise from merchant Gaston Schmeltzer that he would sell her the convento building for $75,000. But her fund raising stalled short of the goal. In February 1904, Clara Driscoll, from a wealthy San Antonio family, advanced at no interest the $25,000 needed to hold the convento until the Legislature appropriated the purchase price. She was partially reimbursed by the state in 1905, and the Legislature entrusted both convento and chapel to the DRT. [Ed. nogte: In 2011, the state General Land Office took ownership of the Alamo, and in 2015 it took over management of the facility.] Although Driscoll is called the "Savior of the Alamo," the Alamo itself already belonged to the state. What Driscoll saved was the convento.

De Zavala and Driscoll fought over the best way to preserve the site. De Zavala wanted both chapel and convento restored to demonstrate the site's original purpose as a mission. Ironically, Driscoll, who had saved the convento, wanted it demolished, so that the chapel's role in the Texas revolution would be emphasized. A public hearing was held in December 1911, during which de Zavala offered documentation as to the importance of the convento. The convento was saved.

In its almost 300-year existence, the Alamo has played many roles. It has served as the chapel of a Spanish mission; quarters for troops; housing for Indians, Tejanos and squatters; hospital; army supply depot; Masonic lodge; jail; commercial store and warehouse; public park; tourist attraction; movie set; and historic site. To Texans, however, it will always be "The Alamo - Shrine of Texas Liberty."
- written by Mary G. Ramos, editor emerita, for the Texas Almanac .

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The building in San Antonio we call the Alamo originally was built as the chapel of the Mission San Antonio de Valero. Valero mission was established at San Pedro Springs in present-day San Antonio in 1718 by Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares, a Franciscan missionary of the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro.

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NASA in Houston

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Space Center Houston | Science and Space Exploration Learning Center

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Bold New Vision Learn how Space Center Houston is working to bring people and space closer together. Watch Video Learn More Galaxy Frights Weekend 1 | October 21-22, 2023Weekend 2 | October 28-29, 2023 Launch a weekend of space-themed Halloween fun! Learn more → COLLECTION HIGHLIGHT John F. Kennedy Lectern Sunday, Aug.

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 this was the old style of Saudi Arabian houses... which look rather minimalistic 

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 this was the old style of Saudi Arabian houses... which look rather minimalistic 

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The John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial is a monument to United States President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas ( USA) erected in 1970, and designed by noted architect Philip Johnson.

The John F. Kennedy Memorial was the first memorial by famed American architect and Kennedy family friend Philip Johnson, and was approved by Jacqueline Kennedy. Johnson called it "a place of quiet refuge, an enclosed place of thought and contemplation separated from the city around, but near the sky and earth." Dallas raised $200,000 for the memorial by August 1964, entirely from 50,000 individual donations contributed by private citizens.

The simple concrete memorial lies in the block bounded by Main, Record, Commerce, and Market Streets, approximately 200 yards (180 m) east of Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was assassinated. The block, also known as the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Plaza, is in downtown Dallas near the Historic West End district, is owned by Dallas County.

Philip Johnson's design is a cenotaph, or empty tomb, that symbolizes the freedom of Kennedy's spirit. The memorial is a square, roofless room, 30 feet (9.1 m) tall and 50 by 50 feet (15 by 15 m) square with two narrow openings facing north and south. The walls consist of 72 white precast concrete columns, most of which end 29 inches (740 mm) above the earth. Eight columns (two in each corner) extend to the ground, acting as legs that support the monument. Each column ends in a light fixture. At night, the lights create the illusion that the structure is supported by the light itself. The corners and "doors" of this roofless room are decorated with rows of concrete circles, or medallions, each identical and perfectly aligned. These decorations introduce the circular shape into the square architecture of the Kennedy Memorial.

The cenotaph lies atop a low concrete hill, embossed with squares and slightly elevated compared to street level. Inside is a low block of dark granite, 8 feet (2.4 m) square, set into a larger shallow depression. The granite square is decorated on its north and south faces with the name "John Fitzgerald Kennedy" carved in gold letters. It is too empty to be a base, too short to be a table, but too square to be a tomb. The letters have been painted gold to capture the light from the white floating column walls and the pale concrete floor. These words - three words of a famous name - are the only verbal messages in the empty room.

Two dark granite squares are set in the plaza surrounding the memorial, each approximately 50 feet (15 m) from the narrow entrances to the cenotaph. They are each inscribed with an epitaph that reads:

The joy and excitement of
John Fitzgerald Kennedy's life belonged to all men.

So did the pain and sorrow of his death.

When he died on November 22, 1963, shock and
agony touched human conscience throughout the world.
In Dallas, Texas, there was a special sorrow.

The young President died in Dallas. The death
bullets were fired 200 yards west of this site.

This memorial, designed by Philip Johnson,
was erected by the people of Dallas. Thousands of
citizens contributed support, money and effort.

It is not a memorial to the pain and sorrow
of death, but stands as a permanent tribute to the joy
and excitement of one man's life.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy's life.

Dallas County Judge Lew Sterrett was credited as the first to propose a monument to Kennedy on November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination. The concept became a formal proposal on December 2, when Sterrett formed the John F. Kennedy Citizens Memorial Committee with Mayor Earle Cabell and two dozen prominent Dallas citizens. However, other Dallas civic leaders, including former mayor R.L. Thornton, said the memorial was better placed in Washington D.C., attempting to distance Dallas from the infamy it had gained as the assassination site. The Committee solicited designs for a memorial after its formation; 260 proposals were received within a week, and 700 proposals were received by February 1964.

On February 5, 1964, the Committee, led by W. Dawson Sterling, announced it had met for a fifth time to narrow down the proposals to three or four finalists. On February 22, 1964, the Committee announced that two memorials would be created: one at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, and another "dignified and modest memorial near the assassination site". The location near the Old Red Courthouse was chosen in April 1964. The original location, announced as the block bounded by Main, Elm, Record, and Market Streets, was shifted to another plaza one block south bounded by Main, Record, Market, and Commerce. Both plazas were owned by Dallas County and were being prepared as part of the new Dallas County Court House, then under construction. By September, the concept for the Kennedy Plaza included a green space with a modest marker.

Committee member Stanley Marcus flew to New York and successfully asked Philip Johnson to take on the memorial design, which he did for no fee. Johnson's proposal model was shown to the Committee in December 1964, and the Committee formally announced the design on December 12, hoping to demolish the existing buildings and have the memorial ready by November 1968, the fifth anniversary of the assassination. An underground parking facility was built under the memorial site, however, and construction did not start until 1969. The Committee stated in June 1969 the memorial was being constructed for a reasonable fee and would be dedicated by January 1, 1970. It was finally dedicated on June 24, 1970 in a ceremony attended by 300 people. Sargent Shriver was the first Kennedy family member to visit the memorial in 1972.

The memorial was vandalized with graffiti in the spring of 1999. In mid 1999, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza undertook management of the memorial, rallying the support of Dallas County and the City of Dallas. The Museum became caretaker of the monument and launched a full-scale restoration project aimed at preserving the memorial and its history. Philip Johnson, the original architect for the monument, guided the restoration process implemented by Corgan Associates, Inc. and Phoenix I Restoration and Construction, Lt. Numerous local suppliers donated the labor, materials, and equipment required to return the memorial to its original beauty. In 2000, a panel of experts wrote an explanation of the memorial to satisfy the public.

The monument attracts approximately 500,000 visitors annually.

Soon after the Kennedy Memorial was completed, Gary Cartwright wrote in 1971 for The New York Times the "memorial seems esthetically spare, even forbidding", true to the concept proposed by Johnson. In a 1999 interview with The Washington Post, Johnson confirmed the concept: "I don't think it's sterile, of course. I love it. The idea of going into an empty room with nothing to help you, except to think about the slain president, I think that's a very moving image." Cartwright also noted the memorial "was erected, after much delay, by the city fathers of Dallas."

Architectural critic Witold Rybczynski wrote in 2006 that the monument is "poorly done", likening its precast concrete slab walls to "mammoth Lego blocks", and commented that Kennedy "deserved better than this". On the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination, Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster called the monument "a disappointing product of the city's ambivalent response to the events of November 1963" and said that Johnson lacked "an animating vision that might have produced an inspiring design. This, in turn, was compounded by a lack of experience". Lamster also noted the similarities between Johnson's design and the unrealized Neue Wache redesign proposal for a war memorial in Berlin, created in 1930 by Mies van der Rohe.

Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne echoed these prior criticisms in 2013, stating the memorial "symbolizes the city's deep ambivalence about commemorating the assassination. A spare cenotaph, or open tomb, designed to be built in marble, it was instead cast in cheaper concrete. And its location east of the assassination site suggested an effort to tuck the history of that day away."

Lord, Philip (April 14, 2003). JFK (A&E Biography). DK Publishing. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-7894-9316-3.

Brosio, M.D. (2016). The JFK Memorial and Power in America. Createspace Publishing. ISBN 1492861871.

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial - Wikipedia

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The John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial is a monument to United States President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas ( USA) erected in 1970, and designed by noted architect Philip Johnson. The John F.

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Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE AIA:

Designed by Eero Saarinen, the Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges are part of Yale's system of residential colleges. Located on an irregular site at the western edge of the campus, it has an organic geometry, with the two colleges bifurcated by an elevated walk. The renovation focused on the transformation of the student housing mix from single rooms into suites, the provision of 25,000 square feet of student activity space below grade, and the transformation of outdoor hardscapes into a sustainable landscape. The addition is conceived as being unified with the landscape, extending it through the architecture, fusing inside and outside, new and old, and above and below.

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Project Details FROM THE AIA: Designed by Eero Saarinen, the Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges are part of Yale's system of residential colleges. Located on an irregular site at the western edge of the campus, it has an organic geometry, with the two colleges bifurcated by an elevated walk.

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this is an old "house of government" in jeddah, Saudi Arabia  

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this is an old "house of government" in jeddah, Saudi Arabia  

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David S. Ingalls Rink is a hockey rink in New Haven, Connecticut, designed by architect Eero Saarinen and built between 1953 and 1958 for Yale University. It is commonly referred to as The Whale, due to its shape. The building was constructed for $1.5 million, which was double its original cost estimate. It seats 3,500 people and has a maximum ceiling height of 23 meters (75 ft). The building is named for David S. Ingalls, Yale class of 1920, and David S. Ingalls, Jr., Yale class of 1956, both of whom were hockey captains. Members of the Ingalls family were the primary benefactors of the arena. The building was included on the America's Favorite Architecture list, created in 2007 by the American Institute of Architects.

The rink employs an innovative structural system employing a 90-meter reinforced concrete arch, a catenary arch form for which Saarinen's projects became known. From the arch a cable net is strung, supporting a timber roof. This causes a stable, double curvature form. Exterior cables linking the arch directly to the outer edges of the roof were added during structural design development. These cables address forces caused by asymmetrical wind loads. Fred N. Severud was the structural engineer for the project.[citation needed ]

On May 1, 1970, several rock bands were playing a concert in Ingalls Rink as part of the protests on New Haven Green against the Black Panther trials. Shortly before midnight and towards the end of the concert, two bombs exploded in the north end of the rink's basement. The explosions caused no injuries, but shattered the building's glass doors and caused cracks to form in its arch. No culprit was ever identified, and both Yale President Kingman Brewster and New Haven Police Chief James Ahern contended that either pro- or anti-Panther partisans could have planted the devices.

The building has been renovated by Kevin Roche and Roche-Dinkeloo, the firm which is a direct outgrowth of Eero Saarinen and Associates. In 1991, a new concrete refrigerant slab was added at a cost of $1.5 million.[citation needed ]

In 2007, it was announced that the rink would undergo a $23.5 million renovation which would include approximately 13,000 square feet (1,200 m ²) of varsity operational space as well as a complete renovation of the facility, including new men's and women's varsity locker rooms, training and strength and conditioning rooms, an added press box, a lower level hockey heritage area, offices for coaches of both programs, a student-athlete study area, new lights, as well as a sound system and de-humidification unit. The lower level interior would also be decorated with photos displaying the history of Yale hockey. These renovations were completed in 2009.

1. ^ "America's Favorite Architecture". American Institute of Architects. Archived from the original on 2011-05-10.

2. ^ Kalman, Laura (2006). Yale Law School and the Sixties: Revolt and Reverberations. University of North Carolina Press. p. 212. But when a bomb hit Ingalls Rink during May Day weekend, Brewster, who was anathema to the Nixon administration, "considered it equally likely that the bomb could have been set by a provocateur from the left or right."

3. ^ Donner, Frank (1992). Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. University of California Press. p. 326. A few incidents occurred (the most serious of which was a bombing at the Yale Ingalls Skating Rink; Chief Ahern conjectures that the perpetrators could have been either pro- or anti-Panther), but the weekend passed and the city survived.

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David S. Ingalls Rink is a hockey rink in New Haven, Connecticut, designed by architect Eero Saarinen and built between 1953 and 1958 for Yale University. It is commonly referred to as The Whale, due to its shape. The building was constructed for $1.5 million, which was double its original cost estimate.