All Things Must Come to an End

This, I believe, is my final post after going through a new and very interesting adventure. I call this all of this time that I have been blogging and adventure because it is something I would have never thought of doing on my own. In my bucket-list, blogging was definitely in the same section as 'swimming with a shark' or 'riding an elephant'. It was one of those things that I certainly wanted to try out eventually, but wasn't really looking forward to it in a near future. Nevertheless here I am. Over a dozen posts later trying to think what my real thoughts on blogging are. And to be honest, it was a surprisingly good experience. I believe that I have learned a whole lot researching and reading other bloggers. I have found valuable information that normal research would have not allowed me to find, such as being able to personally interact with architects who periodically blog.

With this said, I do not think that I will be blogging in the near future. I  have learned that blogging takes time. Time which I do not have plenty of. In my case, college combined with work, plus extracurricular activities did not leave me with a sufficient amount of time to do an extensive amount of research and write fully edited posts. I will, however, reconsider the idea of blogging later on in the future. After college, and possibly after my career is stable. It will be until then that I will resume my blogging career, but for now I must say good bye.

One World Trade Center: Revised

There have been numerous events in U.S. history that have become unforgettable. The most recent, and one of the most known, are the attacks of September 11, 2001. Almost 13 years have passed by and this event still seems as it happened yesterday, but this does not mean that the country as a whole has not began to move forward. The greatest example of how we as a country are overcoming this tragic event can be seen through the reconstruction of the World Trade Center in New York. This major project is not just an architectural marvel throughout its 7 different buildings and the 9/11 memorial, but, it is also a symbol of strength and revival to the entire country.

Out of these 7 buildings, the main building is known as the One World Trade Center which I will focus on today. 

The One World Trade Center, previously known as The Freedom Tower, is the center point of the World Trade Center renovation project. The tower was designed to measure 1,776 feet from the ground up to its highest point, the spire, as an allusion to the year in which the Declaration of Independence was signed. This makes it the tallest tower in the country, overtaking the Empire State Building by 526 feet, and the existing Twin Towers by 408 feet. The One World Trade Center also has 104 stories, all covered with over 2,000 pieces of glass. The building also has an unique design compared to the rest of the buildings in New York, allowing it to stand out as a beautiful new addition to the view of the city. The head architect, David Childs, designed two buildings in the World Trade Center project; the 1WTC along with the 7 WTC, which opened back in 2006. His design included the square base of the building, which then divides in to a hexagon-like shape as the structure goes up with slanted glass walls.
This design, although beautiful at sight, has been criticized and has shown certain flaws. On Wednesday, February 19, after one of the very common snow storms in the Northeastern part of the United States in 2013, large amounts of ice began sliding off the building, potentially harming pedestrians. This obviously frightening incident could have been caused by the irregular shape of the building. A reporter from the website Popular Mechanics points out something very interesting in one of his posts. In it he says that architects and engineers could design buildings in a way that would prevent ice from forming at the top of buildings, which then break off and fall dangerously to the ground. Other places where snow is much more common have solved this dilemma with designs that that prevent the break and fall of ice, one example is Russia and its onion shaped roofs. This is a very typical architectural trait from Russia and be seen in many important buildings from that country, but is purpose is not just to look good. The rounded shape prevents ice from forming on top it, any snow or water that falls on top of the roof would simply slide down before being able to freeze in to large chunks. Designers of modern skyscrapers have opted to not include the onion shape roofs, but use a either a type of snow guard that keeps the snow from falling from the sides or inward slanted roofs that contain the snow or ice. Unfortunately, the One World Trade Center does not seem to incorporate any of these additions to it's design. Perhaps the architects and engineers missed a small, little details.

In any case, the building is yet to be completed, but expected to be completed this year. Apart from being a beautiful sight to look at, once it is completed it will encourage many who are still devastated from the attacks of 9/11 on to overcoming such horrible events, and move forward. 

Top Most Beautiful College Campuses, according to Forbes

There are thousands of colleges and universities throughout the United States. As college-bound students, we tend to pick one from this long list of choices based on four main key points; career in mind, academic excellence of the university, price, and the look of the campus. They are all very important, but in this post I would like to focus on the architectural part, the look of the campus. 

Forbes, one of the most known US magazines, created an article in which it gave a list of 'America's most Beautiful College Campuses'. The list contains 15 different campuses from all around the United States. I picked my two top campuses which I would love to be part of, or at least visit. 

1. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA-

     This is certainly one of the most beautiful campuses in my opinion. The main attraction and the center point of UVA is certainly the Rotunda, which was designed by none other then Thomas Jefferson in the early 1800's. His design was influenced by the Pantheon in Rome, which was a symbol of power and wealth to the Romans. 

2. Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Fla-

    I personally like this campus a lot due to the fact that it was designed by one of the greatest architects of all times, Frank Lloyd Wright. In fact, The American Institute of Architects awarded him the title of 'The greatest American Architect of All Time' in 1991. One of the buildings that he designed in this campus was the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel. This is a one of a kind chapel completed in 1941 with a completely irregular design that is strange and incredible even by today's standards.