U. S. CAPITOL BUILDING, WASHINGTON D.C. The most symbolically important and

architecturally impressive buildings in the nation. It has housed the meeting chambers of the house of representatives and the senate for two centuries. The capitol, which was started in 1793, has been through many construction phases.

It is situated on capitol hill at the eastern end of Pennsylvania avenue. The Washington monument and the Lincoln memorial lie to the west, and the supreme court and the library of congress lie to the east.

The cornerstone was laid by president Washington on September 18, 1793. The north wing, containing the senate chamber, was completed first, and congress convened there in November 1800. The south wing, containing the chamber of the house of representatives, was completed in 1807.

DESIGN- Today this stately five-level building with its approximately 540

rooms sprawls across some four acres (1.6 smaller two wings (inner north) and inner south) containing the two original smaller meeting chambers for the senate and the house of representatives (between 1800 and late 1850s) and then flanked by two further extended (newer) wings, one also for each chamber of the larger, more populous congress:

The new north wing is the senate chamber and the new south wing is the house of representatives chamber.

The capitol houses vast historic art and statuary collections. The capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white

exterior. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries.

A marble duplicate of the sandstone east front was built 33.5 feet (10.2 m) from the old front.

Entry was made through the massive sculpted Columbus doors, through a small narthex cramped with security, and thence directly into the rotunda.

The capitol's building is marked by its central dome above a rotunda in the central section of the structure.

Above these newer chambers are galleries where visitors can watch the senate and house of representatives.

On the ground floor is an area known as the crypt. It was intended to be the burial place of George Washington, with a ringed balustrade at the center of the rotunda above looking down to his tomb.

In order to provide more space for the increasing numbers of legislators from new states, in 1850 congress

approved a competition for a design to expand both wings of the capitol. The winner, the Philadelphia architect Thomas unstick Walter, finished the extension of the south wing in 1857 and the north wing in 1859.

The major architectural change to the capitol during Walter's tenure was the replacement of the old Bulfinch dome with a 287-foot- (87-metre-) high cast-iron dome. On December 2, 1863, freedom, a bronze statue 19.5 feet (6 meters) high by Thomas Crawford, was installed on top of the dome‟s crowning cupola.

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The hall of columns is located on the house side of the capitol, home to twenty-eight fluted columns and statues from the national statuary hall collection.

In the basement of the capitol building in a utility room are two marble bathtubs, which are all that remain of the once elaborate senate baths.

The house of representatives chamber has 448 permanent seats. The capitol grounds cover approximately 274 acres (1.11 km²),

with the grounds proper consisting mostly of lawns, walkways, streets, drives, and planting areas.

The current grounds were designed by noted American landscape architect Frederick law Olmsted.

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DOME- • Constantino Brumidi‟s allegorical fresco „apotheosis of Washington

(1865)‟, which depicts gods and goddesses intermingled with Washington and other American heroes, adorns the ceiling‟s dome.

• The 1850 expansion more than doubled the length of the capitol, dwarfing the original, timber-framed, copper-sheeted, low dome of 1818, designed by Charles Bulfinch and no longer in proportion with the increased size of the building. In 1855, the decision was made to tear it down and replace it with the "wedding-cake style" cast-iron dome that stands today.

• Walter's dome is double, with a large oculus in the inner dome, through which is seen "the apotheosis of Washington" painted on a shell suspended from the supporting ribs.

• The weight of the cast iron for the dome has been published as 8,909,200 pounds (4,041,100 kg).

• The dome rises to 289 feet (88 m). The statue on top of the dome is the "statue of freedom“

• The interiors decorating the walls are animals, insects and natural flora indigenous to the united states

• "The apotheosis of Washington" was painted beneath the top of the dome,.

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BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHITECT- CHARLES FOLLEN MCKIM, MEAD AND WHITE LOCATION- BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS DATE- 1887- 1895 STYLE- NEO CLASSICAL (RENAISSANCE REVIVAL) CONSTRUCTION- BEARING MASONRY, STONE It is the largest municipal public library in the united states. The library officially opened to the public in 1854.. The building had been built more for its artistic architectural grandeur than for its functionality as a library.

THE MCKIM BUILDING- This building included a children's room, the first in the nation, and a sculpture garden in its central

courtyard surrounded by an arcaded gallery in the manner of a renaissance cloister. The library presents a façade reminiscent of palazzo Della Chancelleria, a sixteenth century Italian palace in

Rome. The arcaded windows of its façade look alike to the side elevations of Alberti's Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini, the first fully renaissance building.

The three central bays are subtly emphasized without breaking the rhythm. The library also represents one of the first major applications in the united states of thin tile vaults. Seven different types of guastavino vaulting can be seen in the Boston Public Library.

Mckim incorporated the new design process of “tile vaulting” as a method to fireproof his new library building.

Additional extraordinary architectural features included a grand marble staircase flanked by statutes of two lions sculpted by the artist Louis St. Gaudens

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS- Architect Charles Follen Mckim chose to have monumental inscriptions, similar to those found on basilicas

and monuments in ancient Rome, in the entablature on each of the main building's three façades. Courtyard of the Mckim Building looking north. The campanile of old south church can be seen.

THE JOHNSON BUILDING- Designed by Philip Johnson, a late modernist addition was built in 1967-1971 and opened in 1972. The

Johnson building reflects similar proportions, and is built of the same pink granite as the Mckim building. Bates hall features a majestic barrel-arched ceiling enclosed by half domes on each end, english oak

bookcases, busts of eminent authors and Bostonians, and a richly carved limestone balcony. THE CHAVANNES GALLERY- Painted by the renowned French artist Pierre Puvis De Chavannes, exquisite murals adorn the walls, grand

staircase and second floor gallery.

THE ABBEY ROOM- Murals titled the "quest of the holy grail," by American artist, Edwin

Austin Abbey, grace the walls of the abbey room on the second floor of the Mckim building. The murals are composed of a series of 15 panels featuring 150 life-sized figures illustrating the Arthurian legend.

The room also features a beautiful fireplace of French rouge antique marble, dark oak wainscoting, and a beamed ceiling.

BATES HALL- Bates hall is named for the library's first great benefactor, Joshua

bates. The form of bates hall, rectilinear but terminated with a hemi-

circular apse on each end, is reminiscent of a roman basilica. A series of robust double coffers in the ceiling provide a sculptural

canopy to the room. The east side has a rhythmic series of arched windows with light buffered by wide overhanging hood on the exterior.

Heavy deep green silk velvet drapery installed in 1888, and again in the 1920s and 1950s was not recreated in the 1993 restoration of the room. The drapery helped to muffle sound and lower light levels.

Bates hall has a coffered ceiling in a wide catena-arched barrel vault. Internet and power connections are discreetly beneath the large wooden research tables.

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NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

DATE- 1911 STYLE- BEAUX ARTS ARCHITECT- CARRERE AND HASTINGS CONSTRUCTION- STONE

One of the world's greatest libraries, the NYPL was formed in 1895 by combing the Astor, Lenox

and Tilden libraries. This was previously the site of the croton distributing reservoir, a massive tank holding water from the croton river, completed in 1842. The base of the reservoir serves today as the library's foundation.

Following a competition among the city's most prominent architects, the relatively unknown firm of Carrere and Hastings was selected to design and construct the building. The result, a beaux-arts design, was the largest marble structure up to that time in the united states.

The cornerstone was laid in may 1902, but work progressed slowly on the project, which eventually cost $9 million. In 1910, 75 miles of shelves were installed, and it took a year to move and install the books that were in the Astor and Lenox libraries.

Two famous stone lions guarding the entrance were sculpted by Edward Clark potter. The main reading room of the research library (room 315) — a majestic 78 feet (23.8 m) wide by 297 feet (90.5 m) long, with 52 feet (15.8 m) high ceilings.

Lit by massive windows and grand chandeliers; furnished with sturdy wood tables, comfortable chairs, and brass lamps.

In the 1980s the central research library added more than 125,000 square feet (12,000 m²) of space, this expansion required a major construction project in which Bryant park, directly west of the library, was closed to the public and excavated. The new library facilities were built below ground level and the park was restored above it.

Marble on the library building is about three feet thick, and the building is Vermont marble and brick all the way through. The exterior is 20,000 blocks of stone, each one numbered in preparation for a renovation announced in 2007. It stretches 390 feet along fifth avenue.

Before the end pavilions are flagpoles, whose sculpted bronze bases designed by Thomas Hastings.

In may 2014, one of the "gilded-plaster rosettes" in the ceiling of the rose main reading room fell to the floor 50 feet below.

Walking in through the doors into the enormous welcoming vestibule, you would stand at the front door and you would be overwhelmed by the grandeur of the space that you were in, but if you looked straight ahead you looked through a public gallery to a door in the distance. And that door led into the book stacks.

Walking into the great marble lobby and the main public rooms are either the gallery on the first floor or the catalogue and reading rooms which were placed on the third floor. And they were placed up there on purpose so that they could get the most amount of natural light, and that they would be farthest from the noisy street.

Typical of a beaux-arts building is it's filled with allegorical sculpture that says something about the use of the building. There are fountains flanking the entrance that are symbols of truth and beauty.

Above the entrance there are statues representing poetry and romance and history.