Liceul Teoretic Ovidius

IMPORTANT BUILDINGS IN
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Profesor coordonator : Jinga Elena

Blan Daniela
Elev : Netian Bianca Iulia clasa a XII-a B

17 mai 2016
Constana

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 Table of contents

Introduction.3

I. New York
a. The Empire State Building..4
b. The Flatiron Building..4
c. One World Trade Center.....5
d. The Statue of Liberty...6

II. Washington D.C.

a. The Lincoln Memorial..8
b. The White House..8
c. The Smithsonian Museums.10

III. Las Vegas

a. Hoover Dam.11
b. A Little White Wedding Chapel......12
c. The Stratosphere...12

Conclusion....14

Annexes....15

Bibliography..16

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 INTRODUCTION

USA has always been the place where I wanted to live ,because as a kid I used to watch a lot of
American movies and I fell deeply in love with how people were and acted. I was endlessly
wishing for a life like that , living in a big house from a blossoming residential area , hanging out
with friends that would come over unexpectedly , a thing that almost never happens here. Also, I
chose to create a project with this kind of title because this subject is what inspired me to be and
to do today and that is a future architect with a travelers spirit, given the fact that every time I
would visit a foreign country I would get so fascinated by the buildings and their stories that I
would lose myself in my own world.

(In the year 2015)Last year I went through a life-changing experience that I never thought would
happen. Finally turning 18 , my birthday present was something that I could never forget: a trip to
the United States of America , by myself. During this presentation , Im going to walk you
through the journey that made me more independent, by sharing bits of information about
buildings that I thought I would only see in movies, buildings that are known throughout the
world as United States representatives.

The city that I loved most and I can say I still do is New York City or The City of Lights, named
for the active nightlife. Other cities that I adored were Washington DC and Las Vegas , cities that
also impressed me with their luxurious buildings.

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 I. NEW YORK

a. The Empire State Building

The Big Apple is sprinkled with the iconic , tall, dizziness-spreading buildings that are now its
emblems. The first one that I considered essential is The Empire State Building , the support of
more than 90 movies and many songs , the key piece of the New York Citys skyline that, believe
it or not, was built in 11 months. The Empire State Building is a 102-story skyscraper located in
Midtown Manhattan, on Fifth Avenue that stood as the worlds tallest building for nearly 40
years, until the completion of the Worlds Trade Centers North Tower in 1970. The Empire State
Building is an American cultural icon designed in the distinctive Art Deco style and has been
named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

The Empire State Building is , after many looks on Flickr , the most photographed
building in the world , building on top of which couples can feel the electric
connection (1).
Talking about electricity , The Empire State Building is a lightning rod for the
surrounding area. It is struck by lightning an average of 23 times per year.
On a clear day , you can see five states from its Observatories : New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

b. The Flatiron Building

The Flatiron Building was originally the Fuller Building , a triangular building located in the
borough of Manhattan , New York. The building , which was designated a New York City
landmark and also a National Historic Landmark , sits on a triangular block formed by Fifth
Avenue, Broadway and East 22nd Street and it has gotten its name from the shape of a cast-iron

(1) Electric connection - Static electricity gathers at high heights, and under the right
atmospheric conditions, couples can experience a slight electric shock when they kiss.

clothes iron. The Flatiron Building appeared in movies such as Bell, Book and Candle and Reds.

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The building is also said to have helped coin the phrase "23 skidoo", from what cops would shout
at men who hung out on 23rd Street trying to get glimpses of women's dresses being blown up by
the winds swirling around the building due to the strong downdrafts it created. The Flatiron is a
functioning office building. The workplaces at the fact are dependably the most desired on the
grounds that they look straight forwardly on to the Empire State Building. The area around the
building is known as the Flatiron District after its mark building.

The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham in the Beaux-Arts style. Like
a classical Greek column, its limestone and glazed terra-cotta faade is divided into a base, shaft,
and capital. The building has 22 floors and is 285 feet (87 meters) high., being considered to be a
ground-breaking skyscraper. When the English author H.G. Wells (1866 - 1946) was visiting
New York in 1906, he felt moved to comment:
"I found myself agape, admiring a skyscraper - the prow of the Flatiron Building, to be
particular, ploughing up through the traffic of Broadway and Fifth Avenue in the late-
afternoon light".

c. One World Trade Center

One World Trade Center (One WTC ) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center
complex in lower Manhattan , New York City. It is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere
and the 6th tallest skyscraper in the world. The humongous building is named after the North
Tower of the original World Trade Center that got destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September
11 , 2001. When viewed from street level in proximity to the tower , the skyscraper appears to
ascend to a pyramid point.

The building's architect was David Childs, whose firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) also
designed the Burj Khalifa and the Willis Tower. The construction of below-ground utility
relocations, footings, and foundations for the new building began on April 27, 2006. One World
Trade Center became the tallest structure in New York City on April 30, 2012, when it surpassed
the height of the Empire State Building. On March 30, 2009, the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey (PANYNJ) confirmed that the buildings official name would be, legally, "One World

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Trade Center", and not "Freedom Tower", its colloquial name. The building is 104 standard floors
high, but the tower has only 94 actual stories. The tower's observation deck, booked to open in
2015, was particularly developed with the memory of the Twin Towers at the top of the priority
list. The deck itself begins at 1,362 feet, and a glass parapet reaches out to 1,368 feet, the accurate
height of the South and North Towers.

In addition to the many green features of the 1WTC towerit was built from recycled
construction debris and materials, and will generate power internallythe entire site was
specially built to collect rainwater to help care for the plaza's greenery, cool the building, and
replenish the memorial fountains (2).

d. The Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) is a colossal neoclassical

sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the United States. The
copper statue, designed by Frdric Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor, was built by Gustave
Eiffel and dedicated on October 28, 1886. It was a gift to the United States from
the people of France. The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman
goddess, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed
the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her
feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States, and was a welcoming sight to
immigrants arriving from abroad.

Because of the post-war unsteadiness in France, work on the statue did not commence until the
early 1870s. In 1875, Laboulaye proposed that the French finance the statue and the Americans
provide the site and build the pedestal. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm

(2) Memorial fountains the fountains light up in the sky with holograms that replace the two
destroyed towers when celebrating

before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international
expositions.

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Bartholdi wrote of his technique:

The surfaces should be broad and simple, defined by a bold and clear design, accentuated in the
important places. The enlargement of the details or their multiplicity is to be feared. By
exaggerating the forms, in order to render them more clearly visible, or by enriching them with
details, we would destroy the proportion of the work. Finally, the model, like the design, should
have a summarized character, such as one would give to a rapid sketch. Only it is necessary that
this character should be the product of volition and study, and that the artist, concentrating his
knowledge, should find the form and the line in its greatest simplicity.

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 II. WASHINGTON D.C.

a. Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the
United States, Abraham Lincoln (4). It is located on the western end of the National
Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument. It has dependably been a
noteworthy tourist attraction and since the 1930s has been symbolic center focused on race
relations. The building is as a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated model of Abraham
Lincoln and engravings of two understood discourses by Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address and
his Second Inaugural Address.. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches,
including Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, during
the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 2007, it was ranked
seventh on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.
Since 2010, approximately 6 million people visit the memorial annually.

Above the colonnade, inscribed on the frieze, are the names of the 36 states in the Union at the
time of Lincoln's death and the dates in which they entered the Union. Their names are separated
by double wreath medallions in bas-relief.

b. The White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United
States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. It has been the residence
of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800.

There are 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and 6 levels to accommodate all the people who live
in, work in, and visit the White House. There are also 412 doors, 147 windows, 28 fireplaces,
8staircases, and 3 elevators.

(4) Dedicated in 1922, it is one of the several monuments built to honor an American president.
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 The White House has six floorstwo basements, two public floors, and two floors for the
First Family.
At various times in history, the White House has been known as the "President's Palace,"
the "President's House," and the "Executive Mansion"(5).
The White House receives approximately 6,000 visitors a day.
With five full-time chefs, the White House kitchen is able to serve dinner to as many as
140 guests and hors d'oeuvres to more than 1,000.
The White House requires 570 gallons of paint to cover its outside surface.
For recreation, the White House has a variety of facilities available to its residents,
including a tennis court, a jogging track, a swimming pool, a movie theater, a billiard room, and a
bowling lane.
President George Washington oversaw construction of the White House, but he never
lived there! It was our second president, John Adams, elected in 1796, who first lived in the
White House. His term was almost over by the time he moved in, and only six rooms had been
finished.
While James Madison was president, from 1809 to 1817, the United States went to war
with England. On August 24, 1814, British soldiers sailed up the Potomac River and set fire to
the White House. A summer thunderstorm put out the fire, but only the charred outside walls and
the interior brick walls remained. It took three years to rebuild the White House.
In the late 1700s, it was decided that our country needed a capital city. Our first president,
George Washington, picked a site on the Potomac River, midway between the northern and
southern states. This spot would come to be called Washington, District of Columbia.
Pierre L'Enfant, a city planner from France, designed the new city. He decided to place
the Capitol Building on one hill and the "President's House" on another hill. L'Enfant had many
plans for building the city, but he lost his job after too many disagreements with landowners. The
streets and parks that exist in Washington, D.C., today are the result of the work of two surveyors,
Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker, who made maps and plans based on L'Enfant's original
designs.
The original District of Columbia was like a wilderness, and the Potomac River caused
the area to be marshy. Pigs roamed the streets, and mosquitoes made people sick from malaria.
Conditions improved, however, when the marshes, creeks, and canals were drained.
c. The Smithsonian Museums (The Mall)
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a gPresident
e Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901.
The Smithsonian Institution Building (6) was completed in 1855 to house an art gallery, a library,
a chemical laboratory, lecture halls, museum galleries and offices. During this time the
Smithsonian was a learning institution concerned mainly with enhancing science and less
interested in being a museum. Under the second secretary, Spencer Fullerton Baird, the
Smithsonian turned into a full-fledged museum, mostly through the acquisition of
60 boxcars worth of displays from the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The income from
the exhibition of these relics took into consideration the development of the National Museum,
which is currently known as the Arts and Industries Building. This structure was opened in 1881
to furnish the Smithsonian with its first legitimate office for open showcase of the developing
accumulations.

The Smithsonian museums are the most widely visible part of the United States' Smithsonian
Institution and consist of nineteen museums and galleries as well as the National Zoological
Park. Seventeen of these collections are located in Washington D.C., with eleven of those located
on the National Mall. The remaining ones are in New York City and Chantilly, Virginia. As of
2010, one museum, the Arts and Industries Building, is closed in preparation for a substantial
renovation and another, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened
in 2015.

(6) The Smithsonian Institution Building - also known as "The Castle"

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 III. LAS VEGAS

a. Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam (7) is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on
the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and
1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its development was the aftereffect of an enormous exertion
involving a huge number of laborers, and cost more than one hundred lives. The dam was
disputably named after President Herbert Hoover.

Since around 1900, the Black Canyon and adjacent Boulder Canyon had been researched for their
capability to support a dam that would control surges, give irrigation systems water and create
hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress approved the undertaking. The triumphant offer to
construct the dam was presented by a consortium called Six Companies, Inc., which started
development on the dam in mid 1931. Such a substantial solid structure had never been
assembled, and a percentage of the strategies were unproven. The torrid summer weather and
lack of facilities near the site also presented difficulties. Nevertheless, Six Companies turned over
the dam to the federal government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule.

Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume. The
dam is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on
the construction project, about 30 mi (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dam's
generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California.
Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction; nearly a million people tour the dam each year. The
heavily travelled U.S. 93 ran along the dam's crest until October 2010, when the Hoover Dam
Bypass opened.

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 (7) Hoover Dam also known as Boulder Dam

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 b. A Little White Wedding Chapel

A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, has been the site of many "quickie"
celebrity weddings (8). It was established in 1951, and has married about 800,000 couples and it
employs ten ministers.

Similarly named Las Vegas wedding chapels, for example, The Little Church of the West, The
Little Chapel by the Courthouse, and the Chapel of the Flowers are often mistaken for A Little
White Wedding Chapel. The Little Chapel by the Courthouse is also owned by We've Only Just
Begun Inc., additionally the owners of A Little White Wedding Chapel. Charolette Richards, the
owner, likewise has had association with the Little Church of the West.

Richards has worked at the chapel since the late 1950s. She came into the wedding business after
her first husband abandoned her in Las Vegas, and Merle Edwards, who worked in the wedding
chapel business, rescued her from the street and soon after became her second husband. He died
in 1982. Richards is an ordained minister of a "non-denominational church". She has presided
over the marriages of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Michael Jordan, Britney
Spears, Bruce Willis, and Demi Moore.

The chapel has been featured on such TV shows as "WWE Raw", Friends and Good Morning
America. Michael Ross and Naomi Defensor, two cast members on the 2011 season of The Real
World: Las Vegas, participated in a mock wedding at the Chapel during the June 1, 2011 season
finale of that series.

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 c. The Stratosphere

Stratosphere Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on Las Vegas Boulevard just north of the Las
Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

(8) It is noted for its Drive-Thru Tunnel of Vows.

The property's (9) signature attraction is the 1,149 ft (350.2 m) Stratosphere Tower, the
tallest freestanding observation tower in the United States, and the second tallest in the Western
Hemisphere, surpassed only by the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario. It is the tallest building west
of the Mississippi River and also the tallest structure in Las Vegas and in the State of
Nevada. The hotel is a separate building with 24 stories, 2,427 rooms and an 80,000 sq ft
(7,400 m2) casino.

While the traditional meaning of the Strip excludes the Stratosphere, it is frequently included into
travel guides as a Strip attraction. Using this substitute definition, the Stratosphere is the
northernmost of the real Strip resorts, and it is the main Strip hotel really situated inside of the
City of Las Vegas.

The top of the tower has two observation decks, a restaurant known as "Top of the World"
(revolving restaurant), and four thrill rides:

Big Shot at 1,081 ft (329 m) is the highest thrill ride in the world.
Insanity, opened in 2005, at 900 ft (270 m) is the second highest thrill ride in the world; it
dangles riders over the edge of the tower and then spins in a circular pattern at
approximately forty miles per hour. In a 2005 incident, riders were left dangling a few
hundred feet over the Las Vegas Strip for 60 minutes and a half when Insanity close

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 down. The ride did not glitch, but rather was modified to stop operation if a shortcoming
or issue is distinguished by the ride's control system.
SkyJump Las Vegas, a controlled-descent, Bungee-jumping-like ride that will allow riders
to plummet 855 ft (261 m) attached to a high-speed descent wire. SkyJump opened on
April 20, 2010.
X-Scream at 866 ft (264 m) is the third highest thrill ride in the world.

(9) The Stratosphere is owned and operated by American Casino & Entertainment Properties

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 Conclusion

Remembering everything I visited and experienced , I realized that that these buildings,
humongous or tiny, represent an unimaginable impact on the United States of America economic
situation, as millions and millions of people come every year to see the unthinkable. This impact
does not stop at the economic status , but its also influential to the ones that are lucky to see
them.

From my own experience I am able to say that being in those constructions proximity changed
my way of thinking as a future architect and as a human being, because our imagination and
therefore, creativity is limited by our countrys possibilities. After setting eyes on those human-
made treasures I realized that there is way more to see and do in this world and moreover , that
anything is possible. I never thought I would stand next to a sky-high tower or ride a rollercoaster
at 866 ft above Las Vegas , but being there, I discovered a side of mine that I had no clue I
possessed.

New York City, the one I loved most and the home to The Empire State Building , One World
Trade Center, The Statue of Liberty is the influential center of art, culture, fashion and finance.
Washington D.C. is the center of all the political matters, impressing with its neoclassical iconic
buildings, home to The White House, The Lincoln Memorial and an entire park of Museums that
attract people to find out more about Americas history and many others. If these two cities were
based on culture and art, Las Vegas is the core of gambling, fun and dreams that come true, being
represented by chapels ready to grant every couples wish and massive, colossal hotels and that
stand tall on the Strip to impress even more. These are the cities that gave my thoughts a whole
new meaning and that changed my life, not only by seeing them in pictures or movies, but
actually feeling their pace and the one thing Im sure of is : Im not going to stop here.

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 Annexes

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 Bibliography

https://www.vegas.com/traveltips/top-10-historic-las-vegas/
https://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0877632.html
http://www.traveladvisortips.com/top-10-interesting-empire-state-
building-facts/
https://www.esbnyc.com/fun-facts
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mrloganrhoades/12-random-things-you-
might-not-know-about-the-flatiron-build#.ya1RpQzKA
http://www.stratospherehotel.com/Activities

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