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Cannon House Office Building
The Cannon House Office Building, often called the "Old House Office Building", completed in 1908, is the oldest office building of the United States Congress in Washington, D.C. A significant example of the Beaux-Arts style of architecture, it occupies a site south of the United States Capitol bounded by Independence Avenue, First Street, New Jersey Avenue, and C Street S.E. In 1962 the building was named for former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Joseph Gurney Cannon. History The first congressional office buildings were constructed immediately after the turn of the 20th century to relieve overcrowding in the interior of the then century-old United States Capitol. Previously, members who wanted office space had to rent quarters or borrow space in committee rooms. In March 1901, Congress authorized Architect of the Capitol Edward Clark (1822–1902, served 1865–1902), to draw plans for fireproof office buildings for both the House and Senate adjacent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congressional Institute
The Congressional Institute is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. The organization is best known for sponsoring an annual January retreat for Republican members of Congress. The organization also sponsors the Congressional Art Competition and publishes nonpartisan educational resources such as the House Floor Procedures Manual. It was founded in 1987 by Jerry Climer. The Institute's current president is Kelle Strickland. Overview The Congressional Institute is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia that was founded in 1987 to encourage members of Congress to convene and discuss issues outside of congressional business or campaigning. It is known as sponsor of annual retreats for Republican members of Congress and for Republican staffers. The Congressional Institute's mission is: "dedicated to helping members of Congress better serve their constituents and helping their constituents better understand the operations of the national legislature". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longworth House Office Building
The Longworth House Office Building (LHOB) is one of five office buildings used by the United States House of Representatives. The building is located south of the Capitol, bounded by Independence Avenue, New Jersey Avenue, C Street S.E., and South Capitol Street, in southeast Washington. It has a floor area of and has a total of 251 congressional offices and suites, five large committee rooms, seven small committee rooms, and a large assembly room in which the House Ways and Means Committee assembles. The building was named in 1962 in honor of former speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth of Ohio, who served as speaker from 1925 until the Republicans lost their majority in 1931. He died that year, and the building was authorized the same year. Description With a floor area of just under , it is the smallest of the House office buildings. History Construction Plans to provide the House of Representatives with a second office building were begun in 1925. Severe ove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oculus (architecture)
An oculus (; ) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in classical architecture, it is a feature of Byzantine architecture, Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. A horizontal oculus in the center of a dome is also called opaion (; ). Oeil-de-boeuf An ''oeil-de-boeuf'' (; ), also ''œil de bœuf'' and sometimes anglicized as ''ox-eye window'', is a relatively small ellipse, elliptical window, typically for an upper storey, and sometimes set in a roof slope as a dormer, or above a door to let in Daylighting (architecture), natural light. These are relatively small windows, traditionally oval. The term is increasingly used for circular windows (in which case it could also be called an oculus), but not for holes in domes or ceilings. Windows of this type are commonly found in the grand architecture of baroque architecture, Baroque France. The term is also applied to similar round windows, such as those found in Georgian architecture in Great B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dome
A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a matter of controversy and there are a wide variety of forms and specialized terms to describe them. A dome can rest directly upon a Rotunda (architecture), rotunda wall, a Tholobate, drum, or a system of squinches or pendentives used to accommodate the transition in shape from a rectangular or square space to the round or polygonal base of the dome. The dome's apex may be closed or may be open in the form of an Oculus (architecture), oculus, which may itself be covered with a roof lantern and cupola. Domes have a long architectural lineage that extends back into prehistory. Domes were built in ancient Mesopotamia, and they have been found in Persian architecture, Persian, Ancient Greek architecture, Hellenistic, Ancient Roman architecture, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coffer
A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also called ''caissons'' ("boxes"), or ''lacunaria'' ("spaces, openings"), so that a coffered ceiling can be called a ''lacunar'' ceiling: the strength of the structure is in the framework of the coffers. History The stone coffers of the ancient Greeks and Romans are the earliest surviving examples, but a seventh-century BC Etruscan chamber tomb in the necropolis of San Giuliano, which is cut in soft tufa-like stone reproduces a ceiling with beams and cross-beams lying on them, with flat panels filling the ''lacunae''. For centuries, it was thought that wooden coffers were first made by crossing the wooden beams of a ceiling in the Loire Valley châteaux of the early Renaissance. In 2012, however, archaeologists working under the Packa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corinthian Columns
The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order, which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order. In Ancient Greek architecture, the Corinthian order follows the Ionic in almost all respects, other than the capitals of the columns, though this changed in Roman architecture. A Corinthian capital may be seen as an enriched development of the Ionic capital, though one may have to look closely at a Corinthian capital to see the Ionic volutes ("helices"), at the corners, perhaps reduced in size and importance, scrolling out above the two ranks of stylized acanthus leaves and stalks ("cauliculi" or ''caulicoles''), eight in all, and to notice that smaller volutes scroll inwards to meet each other on each side. The leaves may be quite stiff, schematic and dry, or they may be extravagantly drilled and undercut, n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda () is any roofed building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It may also refer to a round room within a building (an example being the one below the dome of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.). The Pantheon in Rome is perhaps the most famous, and is the most influential rotunda. A ''band rotunda'' is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome. Classical architecture The terminology of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture distinguishes between two types of rotunda: a tholos is enclosed by a wall, while a monopteros is just a circular colonnade with a roof (like a modern bandstand or park pavilion). It is not clear that any Greek example was actually a Greek temple, but several were Roman temples, though mostly much smaller than the Pantheon, and with very different designs. The Temple of Hercules Victor and Temple of Vesta in Rome, along with the Temple of Vesta, Tivoli, are the best known and best prese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louvre Colonnade
The Louvre Colonnade is the easternmost façade of the Louvre Palace in Paris. It has been celebrated as the foremost masterpiece of French architectural classicism since its construction, mostly between 1667 and 1674. The design, dominated by two loggias with trabeated colonnades of coupled giant columns, was created by a committee of three, the Petit Conseil, consisting of Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, and Claude Perrault. Louis Le Vau's brother, François Le Vau, also contributed. Cast in a restrained classicizing baroque manner, it interprets rules laid down by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, whose works Perrault translated into French (1673).Neumann 2013, pp. 296–297. Its flat-roofline design, previously associated with Italy and unprecedented in France, was immensely influential. Description Little that could be called Baroque can be identified in the Colonnade's cool classicism that looks back to the 16th century. The use of one central and two terminal pavi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pilasters
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an extent of wall. As an ornament it consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth (base) at the bottom, and the various other column elements. In contrast to a Classical pilaster, an engaged column or buttress can support the structure of a wall and roof above. In human anatomy, a pilaster is a ridge that extends vertically across the femur, which is unique to modern humans. Its structural function is unclear. Definition A pilaster is foremost a load-bearing architectural element used widely throughout the world and its history where a structural load is carried by a thickened section of wall or column integrated into a wall. It is also a purel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doric Columns
The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of the columns. Originating in the western Doric region of Greece, it is the earliest and, in its essence, the simplest of the orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above. The Greek Doric column was fluted, and had no base, dropping straight into the stylobate or platform on which the temple or other building stood. The capital was a simple circular form, with some mouldings, under a square cushion that is very wide in early versions, but later more restrained. Above a plain architrave, the complexity comes in the frieze, where the two features originally unique to the Doric, the triglyph and gutta, are skeuomorphic memories of the beams and retaining pegs of the wooden constructions that preceded stone Doric tem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balustrade
A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its construction are wood, stone, and less frequently metal and ceramic. A group of balusters supporting a guard railing, coping, or ornamental detail is known as a balustrade. The term baluster shaft is used to describe forms such as a candlestick, upright furniture support, and the stem of a brass chandelier. The term banister (also bannister) refers to a baluster or to the system of balusters and handrail of a stairway. It may be used to include its supporting structures, such as a supporting newel post. In the UK, there are different height requirements for domestic and commercial balustrades, as outlined in Approved Document K. Etymology According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', "baluster" is derived through the , from , from ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entablature
An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave (the supporting member immediately above; equivalent to the lintel in post and lintel construction), the frieze (an unmolded strip that may or may not be ornamented), and the cornice (the projecting member below the pediment). The Greek and Roman temples are believed to be based on wooden structures, the design transition from wooden to stone structures being called petrification. Overview The structure of an entablature varies with the orders of architecture. In each order, the proportions of the subdivisions (architrave, frieze, cornice) are defined by the proportions of the column. In Roman and Renaissance interpretations, it is usually approximately a quarter of the height of the column. Va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
