Charleston, Broad Street

Charleston, Broad Street

Image by hdes.copeland
Charleston, SC. Numbers 92, 90 and 88 Broad Street as they appear in this Historic American Building Survey (HABS) photo, taken c.1909 from direction of US Post Office located on the south side of the street.

Included is a partial view of the Hebrew Orphan House and Hebrew Benevolent Society Hall seen to the right in the photo. The original collection to which this photo belongs is very likely in the Library of Congress (LOC).

Notable details include typical street lighting found on Broad street at the turn of the 20th century and the variety of architecural styles used along many of the city's oldest commercial streets. The gas light seen in the forground to the extreme left in the photo, is typical of the more finely finished glass encased street lamps used in larger cities throughout the eastern United States and Great Britain by the mid-19th century.

These were mass produced and designed to draw from existing natural gas service lines then available in most larger cities. Each lamp was self regulating so as to maximize the gas for lighting purposes with less waste, while using clear and opaque glass to maximize the lighting efficiency. Not bad for an age long before concerns with global warming.

The lamps were also designed to be capable of replacing older, less efficient lamps that dated from 18th century designs before the use of gas. The older pedistals or columns could be retrofitted with gas service lines and the globes or lamps replaced with the newer designs. Charleston continued this tradition of replacing the globes on older lamp posts right up until the 1960's. The gas lamps were eventually replaced with electic glass urns. Wooden and cast iron utility poles were eventually outfitted with an elaborate sconce version of the electric glass urns starting in the early 20th century. Many of these lasted until the 1960's when they were replaced with aluminum goose neck blue vapor lamps that resembled the alien space ships in the 1950's science-fiction movie version of "War of the Worlds".

Finally the city began replacing everything with aluminum relicas of "original" gas lamps...only the silver metal lamp posts are too tall, spay painted with a poor grade of black paint and the lamps glow blue with mercury vapor lamps behind opaque glass. Where true gas lamps have been reinstalled on main historic streets, these are designed to resemble the poorest quality versions that would have historically existed on Charleston's side streets, not its main thoroughfares.

Ironically, the last remaining examples of the street lamp once lining Broad Street and that appears in this photo can now only be seen on Chalmers Street, a very minor though quaint side street in the old city. That side street was retrofitted in the late 1960 by a local preservation group with brand new versions of this old gas lamp. Now Broad Street today is lined with gas lamps that once lined Chalmers Street while Chalmers Street is graced with the far more elegant style lamp that once lined Broad Street, one of the city's most famous commercial venues.

In another design twist, number 90 Broad Street, the narrow middle building, is an example of 19th century infill construction between two larger and older 18th century structures known as 88 and 92 Broad Street. This connection is sometimes indentified as a hyphen that connects two more substantial buildings, though this term is usually applied to connections between larger main structures and formerly detached dependencies in the rear giving these varied buildings gradually decreasing in size a kind of telescope effect in their arrangement. In this example of a hyphen, this is how zero lot lines were employed and side line set backs were abandoned for properties fronting valuable commercial urban streets.

As these streets became more congested and were fully developed because of their commercial potential in the urban center, the original and more medival urban plan for Charleston as defined in the 1690's came about through economic influences. As land became more expensive and businesses congregated along well defined thoroughfares, open spaces between existing buildings were filled in and the height of main structures fronting these major streets were maximized, though usually to a height that was nominally equal to the width of the street.

Only after the advancement of new technologies, especially involving private transportation and the use of elevators in new commercial construction, did the time honored traditional and symbionic balances between height, scale and mass in the urban context begin to break down. After the 1st quarter of the 20th century this change, common to many American cities before the outbreak of WWI, began to appear in Charleston. After the 2nd quarter of the 20th century and following WWII, this change accelerate to the point that many of the historical reference points for proper urban design were being lost throughout Charleston's urban core.

Though Charleston had already been identified in the 1930's as the last American city to possess a genuinely European character, by the 1950's and 1960's it was rapidly destroying all the physical landmarks that allowed that type of city to function efficiently and inclusive of its many well defined parts.

Another perspective on this specific building's design:

The hyphen in this example, still allows pedestrian access to the upper floors of 92 Broad Street, to the left, while providing a carriage or service entrance to the rear, as seen with the double wooden gates and sally port to the right of the street level door. These were replaced in the 1940's by a staircase and storefront. That later remodeling was made more interesting by its interior design which used what could only be called Art Deco materials and colors for a corporate real estate office. This small and unassuming office later became the headquarters of J.C. Long's property empire now known as the Beach Company.

The Art Deco design by local architect Gus Constantine that took shape behind this Victorian infill facade was destroyed in the 1990's as part of a post-Hurricane Hugo and redevelopment project. All three buildings were gutted by their new owner, Charleston County Government, as part of the judicial complex expansion. They were later resold to private individuals and, as of 2008, still await renovation and reuse.

Incidentally, 92 Broad Street occupied in 1904 as a business on the street level and a private home on the two floors above. This was about the same time as this photo was taken. The son of the family occupying the residence at 92 Broad Street at the time, Simon Foggerty, was a student at the College of Charleston who became a founder of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. Foggerty later became a well respected public school educator. He was for a time the prinicipal of Memminger High School for girls and later principal of the High School of Charleston for boys.

Original Photo uploaded from the web and text added: 31 January 2008.

Pimo Studio

Image by pixyliao
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Russia, Moscow, seven sisters

Image by hdes.copeland
Moscow, State University, photo borrowed from web, c.2006. This is one of the seven sisters, a name given to a series of largely concrete building projects begun at the behest of Joseph Stalin after WWII. A mixture of modern gothic and post art deco, these massive public works projects were already out of date when they were designed. The Soviet government pushed ahead, nevertheless, if only to make an impression on the Moscow skyline that would place it clearly among its peers in the modern post war world of the 1950's. Despite the expense the construction, the technical problems presented during construction and the functional limitations, these symbols of Soviet collectivism under Stalin are now well recognized landmarks in and around Moscow standing austerely in the background as gold domes and terracota red brick walls of Imperial Russia shine again in the foreground. Modern Moscow would be a greatly deminished city if it was to surrender the symbols of either regime.

Image and text posted: 8 May 2008
Revised: 17 January 2012
Copyright reference: unknown

#8d Decorative Metal Bridge

Image by catchesthelight
Merwins Lane more in full here: www.flickr.com/photos/catchesthelight/3704424272/ but the metal spider webs can be seen best above :>)!

www.contextsensitivesolutions.org/content/case_studies/Me...

These bridges were designed primarily in the Art Moderne and Art Deco styles, with no two alike. adventure.howstuffworks.com/scenic-drive-in-connecticut-m...

Allied Arts 1--Art Deco Skyscraper

Image by Universal Pops
At present, I’m mostly inactive on Flickr for an indefinite period of time. However, I will continue posting photos when able. I am always appreciative of views and comments; thank you for taking time to look.

This is a series of ten images which cover most of the significant features of this building.

The premier Art Deco structure in Central Virginia is the Allied Arts Building in Lynchburg, finished in 1931. Designed by two Lynchburg architects, Stanhope S. Johnson and Addison Staples, it is a landmark 17-story skyscraper for Lynchburg, the tallest structure in the city until 1974. A steel-frame structure, it’s clad in yellow brick and greenstone, which was quarried in the vicinity. Only 40’ wide at the entrance on Church Street, it extends 132’ back into the hillside separating Church and Court Streets. The facing materials create the visual divisions of base, office shaft, and capital. The first three stories (the base) are faced in greenstone. The main entrance is 2-stories high and has double doors [image 6] with a burnished metal grill above with Art Deco motifs [images 7, 8, and 9]. Between the grill and the door the words Allied Arts Building are carved into the stone [image 6]. To either side of the entrance are shops; on the second level oriel windows of metal and glass are on either side [image 10]. The third floor contains decorative stonework, vertical horizontal lines carved into greenstone topped with stylized lions’ heads [image 3]. Yellow brick becomes the building material from floors 4 through 15 where the emphasis is on the vertical, emphasized by alternating broad and narrow piers [image 1]. The space between the windows is of unadorned greenstone, offering a color contrast of the brick and the stone [image 1]. The final two floors (the capital) are recessed, the greenstone panels are once again decorated, and the piers assume a buttress form [image 2]. An “attic” of greenstone is above the 17th floor. The rear portion of the building only extends upward 13 floors, offering another visual contrast. I’m not certain where the eagles in image 4 are located on the structure. Image 5 is a recessed side door and shows carved diagonal lines at the top.

The Allied Arts Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places December 19, 1985 with reference number 85003203.

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