It’s not enough to say that when Yankee Stadium closed this year it was the end of an era. It was the end of history as we know it. It was the House the Ruth Built, the home of the 26 World Champion winning Bronx bombers and it really should have gone out in a blaze of post-season glory. But it was not to be.

The cathedral of baseball was built in 1922-23 after John McGraw, the owner of the New York Giants, kicked the Yankees out of the Polo Grounds. The relationship between the teams began deteriorating when the Yankees added Babe Ruth to their roster and the tenants started eclipsing the owners of the ball field. In 1920 Yankee attendance doubled to 1,289,422, 100,000 more than the Giants. Yankee co-owners Jacob Ruppert and TillinghastHuston set out to build a spectacular ballpark of their own, baseball’s first three-tiered structure. With an advertised capacity of 70,000, it would also be the first to be labeled a “stadium.” (more…)

More than a way to get from point A to point B, bridges represent some of mankind?s most dazzling technological innovations and form landmarks which instantly identify a place and time. Here are some of the most beautiful bridges from the past 2,000 years.

Rion-Antirio Bridge – Greece

photo credit: madmetal

The bridge crosses the merge point between the Corinth Gulf and the Patraikos Gulf, connecting ?mainland? Greece with its huge peninsula, the Peloponnese. Before now, only ferries tied to the two land masses together along this stretch of coast.

Due to the strong seismic activity in the area the Rion-Antirion Bridge needed to be able to withstand an earthquake of 7.4 on the Richter Scale. Engineers solved that issue by building a suspended deck that acts as a pendulum during an earthquake.

Gateshead Millennium Bridge – United Kingdom

photo credit: ny156uk

Designers entering the competition to build the world?s first and only tilting bridge were briefed to design a structure for pedestrians and cyclists that wouldn?t overshadow the six bridges already crossing the River Tyne. The winning entry did end up overshadowing the other bridges, but not because of its size. Instead, the unique tilting mechanism, built to allow ships to pass underneath, became a landmark on its own. The bridge is made up of a pair of steel arches: a pedestrian and cycling deck and a supporting deck that form an ark over the river. The tipping movement of the two curves that make up the bridge?s structure has been compared to the opening of an eyelid.

Millau Bridge – France

photo credit: PhillipC

At 984 feet tall, the Millau Viaduct over the Tarn River soars above the Eiffel Tower, which was also built by the French construction group Eiffage. It is the world?s tallest road bridge as well as the world?s longest cable-stayed bridge. The bridge, which opened in 2004, has a steel rather than a concrete roadbed. Drivers over the span have compared the experience to flying. At almost 1.5 miles long, the Millau Bridge is longer than the Champs Elysees.

Tower Bridge – United Kingdom

photo credit: robmcm

A bascule bridge in which the platform is raised and lowered to accommodate ships along the Thames, the Tower Bridge opened in 1894 to catcalls and derision. Critics panned its Neo Gothic architecture, designed to mimic the nearby Tower of London, as

? architectural gimcrack ?

? a monstrous and preposterous architectural sham ?

? a discredit to the generation that created it ?

But the critics eventually came around perhaps because of the sophisticated mechanism for lowering and raising the platform that lay underneath its gimcrack exterior. Originally powered by steam and now by electricity,the energy created by the bridge?s enormous pumping engines was then stored in six accumulators so power was instantly available as soon as the bascule needed to be raised. The accumulators fed the driving engines, which drove the bascules up and down. Despite the complexity of the system, the bascules only took about a minute to raise to their maximum 86 degrees.

Stari Most – Bosnia and Herzegovina

photo credit: JasonRogers

Stari Most, the ?Old Bridge? is now the new bridge crossing the river Neretva in Mostar. The 16th Century bridge was destroyed in 1993 by a Croatian shell. The shell not only destroyed the physical bridge, it also destroyed a structure that had symbolized Mostar since the bridge was built by the Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Great in 1566. Mostar means bridge keeper and Mostar?s bridge had enabled the town to become a vital crossroads of the Ottoman Empire.

The bridge reopened in 2004 after a 10-year reconstruction that used as many of the stones from the original bridge that could be salvaged from the river. The remaining stones were cut from the same quarry that was used in the original bridge. Flanked by the Halebija Tower on the right bank and the Tara Tower on the left, the bridge has a single hump-backed arch that rises 13 feet in the center.

Kintaikyo Bridge – Japan

photo credit: d?n’c

The Kintaikyo was built in 1673 by the feudal lord Kikkawa to be used by Samurai. Devasted by a typhoon in September 1950, it was rebuilt in 1953 without the use of a single nail, exactly as the original had been. The span stretches 210 meters long across five wooden arch bridges.

xSydney Harbour Bridge – Australia

photo credit: krossbow

Known locally as the coat hanger, the bridgeand adjacent Opera House in Sydney Harbor are Australia?s most feted landmarks. Australians had been talking about building a bridge in Sydney Harbor since the early 19th Century, but it took 20th Century advances in both engineering and the production of steel and reinforced concrete make the project feasible.

Golden Gate Bridge – United States

photo credit: cking

When the idea for building a span across the Golden Gate was first broached, many thought that it couldn?t be done. Experts said that the ferocious winds, blinding fogs and swirling tides at the location would prevent construction. And San Francisco?s chief engineer said the project would cost around $100 million, an unheard of figure at the time.

A 1916 newspaper article asked engineers to come up with a cheaper plan and Joseph Strauss took up the challenge. It took Strauss more than a decade of lawsuits and political infights to get permission to build the span, but the project broke ground in 1930 and opened seven years later.

Strauss, the public face of the bridge, wasn?t, however, the man responsible for its design?though he pretended to be. That honor belongs to Charles Ellis, a self-taught engineer who was never given credit for the design until his obituary. Irving Morrow designed the shape of the bridge towers, the lighting scheme, and the streetlights, railing, and walkways.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

photo credit: mborowick

The last great public works project by Robert Moses, the Verrazano was the world?s longest suspension bridge from 1964 until 1981. Its 693-foot-high towers are farther apart at their tops than at their bases to compensate for the curvature of the earth. The bridge remains a vital link in New York City?s vast transportation network, carrying approximately 190,000 cars traveling a day along 12 lanes.

A bridge along the narrows had been the subject of great discussion since before all five boroughs united to form New York City in 1898. Until the bridge, Staten Island was only accessible by ferry, a method that worked fine when the weather was fine but not when the bay was choked with ice or when a fog closed in.

Brooklyn Bridge – United States

photo credit: ??I????O

The great bridge linking the then-separate cities of Brooklyn and New York opened in May 1883 after 13 years of construction costing $15 million and 20 lives. Designed by John Augustus Roebling and completed by his son Washington Roebling, the bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion. It was also the first suspension bridge to use steel for its cable wire and the first bridge to use explosives in a dangerous underwater device called a caisson. Work on the caissons permanently debilitated Washington Roebling, who was afflicted with the bends while working underwater.

Kintaikyo Bridge – Japan

photo credit: d?n’c

The Kintaikyo was built in 1673 by the feudal lord Kikkawa to be used by Samurai. Devasted by a typhoon in September 1950, it was rebuilt in 1953 without the use of a single nail, exactly as the original had been. The span stretches 210 meters long across five wooden arch bridges.

Mackinac Bridge – United States

photo credit: mandj98

After the 1883 opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, Michigan residents began lobbying for a bridge to span their state?s lower and upper peninsulas. Unfortunately, they wouldn?t get one until 1957. Until then, traffic between the two landmasses was strictly by ferry and thus came to a virtual standstill in the winter when the waters froze.

Michiganders claim their bridge is the longest in the Western hemisphere, a fact disputed by champions of the Golden Gate and fans of the Verazzano-Narrows bridge in New York. Length, it turns out, is subjective. The total length of the Mackinac Bridge is 26,372 feet. The length of the suspension bridge (including anchorages) is 8,614 feet. The length from cable bent pier to cable bent pier is 7,400 feet while the length of the main span between the towers is 3,800 feet. The Golden Gate stretches 4,200 feet between its towers.

Pont du Gard – France

photo credit: Wolfgang Staudt

Built around 19 AD to carry water from Uzes to Nimes, a 30-mile trek, this bridge over the Gard is 900 feet long and 160 feet high. On its first level it carries a road and at the top of the third level, a water conduit, which is 6 feet high and 4 feet wide.

The three levels were built in stone without mortar. Every stone block was cut to fit its place perfectly and some still bear the numbers assigned to them at construction. It is believed to have taken three to five years to build and around a thousand workers. It is the highest aqueduct bridge ever built by the Romans with three rows of arches: six on the bottom row, 11 on the second level and 47 on the top.

Bosphorus Bridge – Turkey

photo credit: WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong?

The only bridge in the world to connect two continents?Europe and Asia?the Bosporus Bridge was also the site of the only tennis match on two continents, an exhibition game between , Venus Williams and Turkish star Ipek Senoglu. The 4,954-foot-long bridge opened in 1973, but men have been trying to bridge the waters since 490 BC when a pontoon bridge was built so the Persian Emperor Darius the Great could move his army into Europe.

Conwy Suspension Bridge – United Kingdom

photo credit: inf0mike

One of the first road suspension bridges in the world, the bridge?s supporting towers were designed by builder Thomas Telford to match the turrets of the Conwy Castle, a 13th Century structure built by King Edward I. The bridge, in fact, is built into the rock on which Conwy Castle stands. The suspension bridge is small, only about 2 1/2 meters across, and is now open to pedestrians only. A wrought iron tubular railway bridge built by Robert Stephenson runs alongside the suspension bridge.

Oresund Bridge – Denmark and Sweden

photo credit: gripso_banana_prune

The longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe connects the two metropolitan areas of the Oresund Region: the Danish capital of Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo. More than a bridge, the 10-mile-long structure consists of a tunnel, a bridge and an artificial island. The artificial island of Peberholm was built to transfer traffic from the tunnel up onto the bridge. Peberholm is about four kilometers long and made up of dredged material from the surrounding seabed. The Oresund is the longest border crossing bridge in the world and the tunnel is the longest immersed tube tunnel for road and rail traffic in the world.

Ponte Vecchio – Italy

photo credit: freshwater2006

Built in the 14th Century, the Ponte Vecchio is the most famous of Florence?s six bridges spanning the Arno River. Lined with shops since its opening, Ferdinando I kicked out the original butchers, tanneries and greengrocers to make way for goldsmiths, reducing the odor emitting from the Ponte Vecchio and upgrading the neighborhood. The row of shops is interrupted in the center and the bridge opens over the Arno with two panoramic terraces.

In the 16th Century, Cosimo I de? Medici, Duke of Florence, commissioned a corridor to run over the bridge and connect the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti.

Rialto Bridge – Italy

photo credit: C.Alary – expose ? La Taverne de Cluny-Paris 5?

Built between 1588 and 1591, as a permanent replacement for the boat bridge and three wooden bridges that had spanned the Grand Canal at various times since the 12th Century, the Rialto was the only way to cross Venice?s Grand Canal on foot until the Accademia Bridge was built in 1854.

Khaju Bridge – Iran

photo credit: Hamed Saber

Built about 1650 by Shah Abbas I as a dam, the 435-feet-long bridge has two levels: The lower level regulates the flow of river by locks; a covered indoor area upstairs provides a space for people to drink tea and socialize.

Lupu Bridge – China

photo credit: harryalverson

The world?s longest arched bridge, at 550 meters high, is also the world?s first completely welded bridge structure. It opened in Shanghai in 2003.

Whether you?re looking at big, established cities or smaller towns, the places in the United States that are growing most rapidly are likely technology hubs close to universities, according to ?Forbes? magazine. The country?s fastest growing metro areas are also likely to be warm weather places in the west or the south. (more…)

Whether it’s the spartan Brooklyn apartment of Ralph and Alice Kramden or the unrealistically large New York City apartment where Monica of “Friends” resides, where a TV character lives says a lot about that person. In fact, sometimes the house is as well loved as the show.

001 Cemetery Lane, “The Addams Family”

Their house was a museum, where people came to see ‘um. The Addams family mansion at 001 Cemetery Lane was filled with instruments of torture and landscaped with hemlock and poison ivy.

The house was said to be inspired by creator Charles Addams’ real-life boyhood home in Westfield, NJ.
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It’s all about the Foosball and the free meals. That’s what people generally think of when you mention the so-called campuses where today’s high tech companies reside. And indeed many prominent companies take great pains to promote their freewheeling culture and the fabulous amenities available at the workplace.

But it’s not all fun and games. In the tech world, green is the new black as leading technology companies strive to make their HQs more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

And not every technology company is headquartered in a glass-walled state-of-the-art complex. Sun Microsystems, for example, is housed in a historic landmark that’s been painstakingly renovated to look exactly like it did almost 100 years ago.

Here’s a look at where the employees of some of the nation’s leading technology companies work.
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For celebrities who have the cash to spare, owning an island provides the perfect getaway. Private islands don’t come cheap; in addition to the cost of buying the land, owners have to supply their own water and electricity, create waste disposal and build a dock or an airstrip for access. Then there’s the cost of security: Somebody has to watch over the place when you’re not there.

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Chicago lays claim to the world’s first skyscraper. The 138-foot-tall Home Insurance Building was built in 1888 and was the first building to use steel beams as support. Soon after, builders in Chicago and New York were competing with each other to build the world’s tallest building.

In the early years, the world’s highest building seemed to change from week to week as architects, engineers and business magnates raced to design, build or own the biggest, best and tallest building in their city’s skyline.

It was a race that started in the United States, where the Empire State Building won the race and held the title for more than 40 years after Depression called a halt to the building boom. The US picked up the ball again in the 1970s with the construction of the World Trade Center and the Sears Tower. But in recent years, Asia has thrown its heart and soul to the race: Taipei 101 in Taiwan is currently the world’s tallest building, but Dubai’s Burj Dubai will take the title later this year. And more buildings are in the works. Here’s a look at some of the more noteworthy skyscrapers of the last 100 years or so.

30 St. Mary Axe
London

photo credit: .Martin.

Known in London as “The Gherkin”–also as the Erotic Gherkin, the Towering Innuendo and the Crystal Phallus–this 2004 building is London’s first environmentally sustainable skyscraper. Atria between each floor link together vertically and spiral up the building. These spaces function as the building’s lungs, distributing fresh air drawn in through panels in the facade. This system allows the building to use half the energy needed to cool conventional air-conditioned office towers.

The building sits on the site of the Baltic Exchange, which was damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992. Headquarters for Swiss Re, an insurance company, the building is 591 feet tall and covers 516,100 square feet. The top level contains a private restaurant and lounge while the landscaped plaza on the ground features numerous shops and restaurants and is open to the public.

By the numbers:

• The elevators attain speeds of more than 19 feet per second and can accommodate 378 people.
• The building’s maximum circumference is just two meters less than its height.
• 21 miles of steel and 258,333.850 square feet of glass was used in its construction.
• Each floor rotates five degrees from the one below.

20 Exchange Place
New York

photo credit: C R

The fourth tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1931, architects Cross and Cross originally envisioned a pyramid sitting atop a 71-story structure, which would have made it the tallest building in the world–at least for a short time. But the Depression forced the builders to scale back to 56 floors and to eliminate the pyramid altogether. In June 2004, real estate developers Berman and Bruckner bought the building for $152 million. The firm is in the process of converting the top 41 floors into luxury apartments.

2 International Finance Center
Hong Kong

photo credit: laszlo-photo

Tower 2 in this four-building complex is the seventh tallest building in the world at 415 meters, or more than 1,361 feet. The complex consists of two skyscrapers, the IFC mall and the Four Seasons Hotel.

Fun facts:

• The complex includes three garage levels that can accommodate more than 1,800 vehicles.
• The tower is 56.960 meters wide at its base, and 39.148 meters wide at the main roof.
• The building is featured in a scene of the movie “The Dark Knight.”
• Officially, the building has 88 stories and 22 trading floors, numbers the Chinese believe to be lucky. However, two floors are missing: The 14th and the 24th, both of which are associated with death in Chinese culture.

2 Prudential Plaza
Chicago

photo credit: mrkathika

Its beveled roof makes “Two Pru” instantly recognizable in the Chicago skyline. The tallest reinforced concrete building in the city was built in 1990 and designed by Stephen T. Wright of Loebl, Schlossman & Hackl. The skyscraper has 64 floors and reaches 995 feet with its spire.

Al Faisaliah
Riyadh

photo credit: Snap?

Riyadh’s first skyscraper is part of a complex that includes a five-star hotel, a banquet hall/conference center, luxury apartments and a mall. The skyscraper is organized into three blocks that are nine, 10 and 11 stories high respectively and separated by cross beams that transfer the load of the columns onto the pillars. Offices take up the building’s first 30 floors. Inside the golden glass globe at the top of the building is a three-story restaurant. The globe is 24 meters at its diameter.

Below the plaza is a 50,000-square-foot conference and banquet center, which can be adjusted for size with removable panels. Prince Sultan’s Grand Hall, can accommodate 4,000 conference attendees or 2,800 diners.

American Radiator Building
New York

photo credit: Doonvas

Architect Raymond Hood had been designing the company’s radiator covers when he was chosen to design the its new showroom and office tower.

The black brickwork facade and gold-painted friezes were designed to make the building look like a glowing radiator coil when illuminated at night, at least that’s one theory. Others say the architect made the bricks black so that the windows would blend in with the facade to create the illusion of a solid mass. The bricks were dipped in manganese to make them black.

The base of the structure is clad in black granite and adorned with bronze carved allegories, symbolizing the transformation of matter into energy. The black motif continued into the lobby, which was decorated with black marble and mirrors.

After remaining vacant for years, the building opened as the Bryant Park Hotel in 2001. The interior was completely changed, with black tiles and red leather replacing the lobby’s marble and mirrors. but the exterior remains the same thanks to the building’s status as a national landmark.
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Upside down, in a shoe or up a tree. There’s no end to what an inventive mind can do when it comes to building.

House of the future

Futuro house

The Futuro house was designed in 1968 by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, who designed it as a vacation house for a friend. After the first house was built, Polykem approached the architect about designing a prefabricated model and it became an overnight sensation.

The house came in 16 pieces of fiberglass and plastic. A hatch door in its lower half opened down to reveal steps, like an airplane, and led into a room outfitted with six plastic bed-chair combinations, a fireplace, a kitchenette and a bathroom. The house sold for between $12,000 and $14,000 in the US before the energy crisis of the 1970s and changing tastes led the manufacturer to stop production.
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