Photography
Related: About this forumCaliforniaPeggy
(152,301 posts)I just love its ornate textures. I guess I'm just a romantic viewer at heart!
Thank you for posting this bit of beauty.
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)I stumbled upon this purely by accident - I was sitting in our parked car while my husband ran in to pick up our pizza order I happened to notice this beautiful detail around the bank building windows so I took a quick phone camera shot. I am happy you like it! They dont build things like this any more!
brer cat
(26,398 posts)Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)I love these old buildings with the beautiful craftsmanship and detail. They dont build em like this any more.
MLAA
(18,653 posts)When do you think it was built? Great shot.
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)I was able to look it up - it was built in 1929.
MLAA
(18,653 posts)Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)cyclonefence
(4,873 posts)I instantly saw the top part of the window, and I really and truly went "Oh!" out loud.
You've taken a beautiful photo of a spectacular architectural detail--I love it!
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)I am happy you liked my photo so much!
Just picture the workers creating this beautiful piece. Someone had to design it, too. And it still looks beautiful after 94 years!
Deuxcents
(19,950 posts)I love the ornate old architectures. I also always hope they dont raze the old buildings because the modern ones just dont have any expression..theyre so sterile.
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)Probably a lot of these ornate buildings, bridges, etc. were built during the Depression I bet.
Deuxcents
(19,950 posts)Are just beautiful better than the ones they tried to replicate
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)70sEraVet
(4,196 posts)Imagine if the facade ( am i using the right word?) were damaged over one of those windows, and they asked a contractor to rebuild it just like it was. Think of the face he'd make!
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)It has been there for 94 years, so I think it will last a long long time!
70sEraVet
(4,196 posts)Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)A 100-year old movie theatre in my area was renovated back to its original glory, complete with a plethora of wall details, a huge chandelier in the lobby, refinished marble and brass, its just stunning. I wonder where they found the painters who could refurbish all the detail on the walls.
I love that people are starting to care about historical treasures like this.
70sEraVet
(4,196 posts)Five years ago, my wife and i bought what was once a grand old Victorian style home, built in 1907. We got it for a song, because it had been neglected for many years, and, it was in this tiny rural town in Tennessee that had once been a very flourishing, promising town, but the interstates had bypassed it, and the train line quit running passenger cars through it.
What attracted me most about the home, is that most of the house was ORIGINAL! Still had old, wavy glass windows, lathe and plaster walls with wallpaper on walls AND ceilings!
Anyway, the thing i wanted to tell you, is that many of the rooms still had original woodwork (doors, door and window trim, baseboard, etc.), and i was struck by the 'fact' that each room had its own type of wood. The octagonal library had mahogany woodwork, the parlor had oak, the upstairs had quarter-cut oak, and the dining room even had burl wood, including the panels of the pocket doors!
It was a couple of months after working on it, that i realized that all of the woodwork was PAINTED to LOOK like different types of wood! It was all apparently southern yellow pine, a very hard species of pine that was very plentiful here back in the day.
Anyway, i thought you would like that. Of course, I'm trying to make the house livable, but preserving everything I can.
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)Someone PAINTED all that pine to make it look like different kinds of wood? Thats just unbelievable! That really must have taken some kind of skill!
Thank you for sharing that amazing story! And good luck refurbishing your beautiful Victorian!
70sEraVet
(4,196 posts)LisaM
(28,687 posts)Some of the crap they throw up now is so ugly in pains me to look at it.
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)housecat
(3,138 posts)more money than many owners/cities can afford.
niyad
(120,398 posts)design called, very proudly apparently, brutalism. WHY???
ShazamIam
(2,716 posts)date of the building?
Arts and crafts style: 1850- 1915, Art Nouveau style: 1880-1910 with Art Deco/modernism dated as 1880-1940.
I used to buy/sell antiques/vintage stuff and had noticed things kind of stood still during the depression era with repeats of various earlier styles versus new designs which dominated after WWII.
*Edit: thing to things.
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)It was built in 1929.
niyad
(120,398 posts)Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)PatrickforB
(15,121 posts)What I'm interested in is the symbols - the five inverted pentagrams moving across the top frame.
For those who have not thought about this, the pentagram symbolizes the four elements (earth, air, fire and water) and spirit. Placed upright the lower left leg of the star is earth. The left arm is air. The right leg is fire, and the right arm is water. The upper point of the pentagram is considered to be immortal spirit, also called akasha.
It is interesting that the designer of ornate masonry placed these pentagrams upside down, signifying that earth and fire rule, with air and water below, and all four of the elements (earthly things, desires, attachments) rule over spirit.
That is quite something, and your photo captures the essence of this in a stunning way. Very skilled.
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)So apparently this isnt just a pretty design, there is some rich symbolism behind the designs. Thank you so much for lending your expertise. Thats fascinating.
I also noticed that there were many leaves and flowers (tulips?) and daisies? in the designs.
The designer of the building is Morris Scheibel if that means anything to you and it was built in 1929.
PatrickforB
(15,121 posts)some other esoteric art.
By putting those pentagrams upside down, he was making a statement in living stone that for that building and those in it, money and power (earth and fire) ruled over that immortal flame that is spirit. I suspect he knew exactly what he was doing.
If you think about it, the really fascinating thing is the year the building was erected - 1929. The October crash that year brought on the Great Depression. Perhaps he was prescient, either consciously or unconsciously.
I just think this whole thing is fascinating, Diamond Dog. It really is.
Diamond_Dog
(34,991 posts)The Historical Society occasionally gives walking tours of downtown architecture. Now you made me want to go on one.