Friday, May 23, 2014

Bishop Museum

The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science located in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Founded in 1889, it is the largest museum in Hawai'i and is home to the world's largest collection of Polynesian cultural artifacts and natural history specimens. Besides the comprehensive exhibits of Hawaiiana, the Bishop Museum has an extensive entomological collection of over 13.5 million specimens, the third largest collection in the United States. The museum is accessible on public transit: TheBus Routes A, 1, 2, 7, 10.
The museum complex is home to the Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center.


Charles Reed Bishop (1822-1915), a philanthropist and co-founder of Kamehameha Schools and of the First Hawaiian Bank, built the museum in memory of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (1831-1884) - the last legal heir of the Kamehameha Dynasty, which had ruled the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi between 1810 and 1872. Bishop had originally intended the museum to house family heirlooms passed down to him through the royal lineage of his wife.
Bishop hired William Tufts Brigham as the first curator of the Museum; Brigham later served as director from 1898 until his retirement in 1918. More info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_Museum

Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge is a bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. It has a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed.
Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name from an earlier January 25, 1867, letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an icon of New York City, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.

he Brooklyn Bridge was initially designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, Waco Suspension Bridge in Waco, Texas, and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio.
While conducting surveys for the bridge project, Roebling sustained a crush injury to his foot when a ferry pinned it against a piling. After amputation of his crushed toes he developed a tetanus infection which left him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death, not long after he had placed his 32-year-old son Washington Roebling in charge of the project.Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sickness shortly after the beginning of construction on January 3, 1870. This condition, first called "caisson disease" by the project physician Andrew Smith, afflicted many of the workers working within the caissons. Roebling's debilitating condition left him unable to physically supervise the construction firsthand. More info visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Bridge

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a 16.3-acre (6.6-hectare) complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Jed Bernstein began as president in 2014. A consortium of civic leaders and others led by (and under the initiative of) John D. Rockefeller III built Lincoln Center as part of the "Lincoln Square Renewal Project" during Robert Moses's program of urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s.[2] Respected architects were contacted to design the major buildings on the site, and over the next thirty years the previously blighted area around Lincoln Center became a new cultural hub.
Rockefeller was Lincoln Center's inaugural president from 1956 and became its chairman in 1961. He is credited with raising more than half of the $184.5 million in private funds needed to build the complex, including drawing on his own funds; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund also contributed to the project.[2] The center's three buildings, Avery Fisher Hall (formerly Philharmonic Hall), David H. Koch Theater (formerly the New York State Theater) and the Metropolitan Opera House were opened in 1962, 1964 and 1966, respectively.



While the center may have been named because it was located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, it is unclear whether the area was named as a tribute to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The name was bestowed on the area in 1906 by the New York City Board of Aldermen, but records give no reason for choosing that name.[4] There has long been speculation that the name came from a local landowner, because the square was previously named Lincoln Square. However, city records from the time show only the names Johannes van Bruch, Thomas Hall, Stephan de Lancey, James de Lancey, James de Lancey Jr. and John Somerindyck as area property owners. One speculation is that references to President Lincoln were omitted from the records because the mayor in 1906 was George B. McClellan, Jr., son of General George B. McClellan who was general-in-chief of the Union Army during the American Civil War and a bitter rival of Lincoln. more visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Center_for_the_Performing_Arts

Central Park

Central Park is an urban park in Manhattan in New York City. The park was initially opened in 1857, on 778 acres (315 ha) of city-owned land (it is 843 acres today). In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan. Construction began the same year, continued during the American Civil War, and was completed in 1873. Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States.
Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, the park is currently managed by the Central Park Conservancy under contract with the city government. The Conservancy is a non-profit organization that contributes 83.5% of Central Park's $37.5 million annual budget, and employs 80.7% of the park's maintenance staff.


 Central Park was not a part of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811; however between 1821 and 1855, New York City nearly quadrupled in population. Since it was not part of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, John Randel, Jr., surveyed the park and the only remaining surveying bolt from his survey is still visible. The bolt is in a rock just north of the Dairy and the 65th Street Transverse and south of Center Drive. As the city expanded, people were drawn to the few existing open spaces, mainly cemeteries, to get away from the noise and chaotic life in the city.
 Video slid show for Central Park