North West Corner of Apartments on Main and Roxboro streets in Raleigh NC

Six months ago we moved to Raleigh, NC from Durham, NC where I attended the Duke University and studied to be a businessman. Since a lot of business started moving out of Durham since 1930s, we decided to come to Raleigh and open up a little bakery shop. Our bakery shop has been doing very well; we have a lot of business. Our shop is located in the same building we live in, which makes it very convenient for us since my wife is pregnant. We occasionally like to take walks in the Bloomsbury Park located near our apartment. We really love this city, Raleigh has grown a lot after the great depressed in the 30s, government created many new jobs for people, and the populations started to grow. It’s 1948 and the population is around 46, 8907(by the 1940 census), and this city is the state’s sixth largest city. Our apartment building is a simple, traditional colonial style building, with red brick and very symmetrical. Little shops are located on the bottom level and apartments on the upper 4 levels. The area is a middle-class neighborhood, with very pleasant people. Our street is one of the larger streets in the city, so through out the day, there are many automobiles, and people walking around, so we get a lot of traffic in a shop. We love to listen to the local (WPTF) radio station in the shop, they have great music and talk shows. The technology that has been growing here is just impressive, from new automobiles, to the recently opened large airport that took its first flight in 1943, to television sets. We were able to afford one of these new television sets, thanks to our prosperous little shop. It is a RCA 730TV1, we’re expecting a service tech at our house sometime today, to help install and set up the CRT and then teach us how to use it. We’ll be able to watch television and also listen to our favorite radio station, we are very excited!

The North West Corner Apartment building of Main and Roxboro Streets is very different from the National Art gallery. The traditional colonial style of the Apartment building is the complete opposite of the modern, cold feel of the contemporary National Art Galley. The materials used in these builds are completely different from each other. The gallery is very straight lines, and ornamentation, while the apartments have some decorations. However the apartment buildings in Raleigh are very similar to Nichols house. They employ same materials, and style, and serve same function.

As I stood

As I step beyond the chain link fence next to the side walk. I immediately feel out of place. The people around me dressed in white T-shirts jeans and multicolored hard hats, they appear foreign to me just as I must appear foreign dressed in a suit and tie. Certainly not the proper attire in which to attend a construction site. Before me sits a building's bones, a series of wooden frames connected together not fit to be called a building yet, merely a shell of its future existence. I do not feel at home surrounded by the sights and sounds before me, loud noises, I must appear like a phantom to them as they walk by with out so much as looking up at me. I feel lesser, as I approach a podium upon which building plans are strewn about I look to my right and see a large tent, beneath it a multitude of tools. A workshop established in the midst of all this dirt, its very typical. Around the edges I see hammers, boxes of nails, drills and other implements set up on card tables, saw horses, anything with a horizontal surface wide enough to support something. Wooden planks all around piled neatly into stacks, virgins to soon be sacrificed in the name of progress. Clearly all these items used frequently. I stop for a moment to take note of the center of the tent. A lonely table saw, clearly a veteran of such affairs it sits surrounded by its cohorts the other tools and yet separate. Undeniably the staple of this worksite as the pile of sawdust collected at its feet would suggest and yet, not given the same care as the power drill sitting on the work bench nearby. Perhaps it is due to the machines simplicity that it requires so little care or upkeep, or perhaps it is unappreciated for the vital cuts it makes for the construction crews. It is as this moment I am interrupted by a worksite manager, clearly inpatient he directs his eyes at the roll of paper under my arm. I am directed over to the podium, the site where the conductor may conduct his orchestra of assembly. He looks over what I have to show him and clearly by his expression he is not pleased. I suddenly find myself thinking back to the table saw, situated alone, its important role forgotten until a problem arises and its needed once more. Our meeting ends as quickly as it began, the manager walks away to inform his staff of the changes that have been made and likely a few other words not so pleasant.
This construction site is very dissimilar from the Nichols House in Boston, and yet they are the same for undoubtably at one point the Nichols house had a similar look, unfinished and a mere fraction of what it now beholds. Surely it to must have had changes made in its design much to the displeasure of its constructors. And yet it has advanced beyond the scope of my project, it is remembered and is in some ways complete. Whilst my project sits unfinished on its lot, spread far away from its neighbors, gone are the days of buildings pushing right up to the edges of each other, and my project is certainly no expansion, so much wasted space in the name of “comfort”. The Nichols House provided someone comfort long before the need for a large garden.

Museum of Modern Art : Ray Hollis Ashtray

The Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA), located in New York serves as a building that dedicates itself to modern and contemporary art. It was founded in 1929 as an educational institution. Some of the collections that the museum includes is architecture and design, paintings, photography, and films. The museum has recently gone through a new building change. It now consists of new spaces with the original architecture to considerably enhance the museum’s modern and contemporary art. Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, designed the new building. A statement from Taniguchi said that his goal was to “transform MoMA into a bold new museum while maintaining its historical, cultural, and social context.” After reading the website I learned that the museum “seeks to create a dialogue between the established and the experimental, the past and the present, in an environment that is responsive to the issues of modern and contemporary art, while being accessible to a public that ranges from scholars to young children.”
The reason I chose this building to house the Ray Hollis Ashtray was because of how modern it is. The straight edges and simple form compliment the building itself. The exterior and interior components of the building help mimic not only the ashtray, but also the other pieces of art that sits within the museum. The placement of the collections inside the building is very simple making it easier for an onlooker to view the pieces without having distractions. The styles of both the building and ashtray compliment each other by the forms and linear edges.

Compared to the Nichols House in Boston, both are very different in some way. The Nichols House seems to be located in a neighborhood rather than in the middle of a city. The styles of the buildings contrast each other by the Nichols House looks like a place where someone once lived rather than a place that was built just to be a museum.

The National Gallery of Art building is similar to the Museum of Modern Art. The exterior forms are incredibly similar by the geometric shape. Another comparison is that both of the buildings serve as a place where people can go and look at artists/designers work from all different time periods. Both buildings were built for this specific reason.

Beach House Eastern North Carolina

When referring to the image below the second level floor window to the left houses this room.
The bedroom above is represented by the upper level window to the left, the center window represents the the loft that is later written about, and to the right is another bedroom.


As a retiree my husband and I have decided that we are ready for a change. We have decided that we are going to move from the city of New York after living here for forty years. We have chose to move down to the coast of North Carolina. We were not sure of the exact location we wanted to live, however we knew that we wanted beach front property fully furnished included would be a waterbed. Believe it or not it was a difficult search for a place with a waterbed. We wanted a waterbed to have that feeling of being closer to the ocean as if we were out on a boat at sea continuously. After months of traveling back and forth between North Carolina and New York, we finally found a beach house on Topsail Beach, at 107 South Permuda Wynd. The home is a single family home accommodated with two bedrooms one being a master bedroom and the other being extra as a guess bedroom, that room holds to full size bed and bunk beds for when my children and grandchild when they visit. There is also a loft room between the two bedrooms. Furthtermore, these rooms just describe are all upstairs. Downstairs there is a laundry room and kitchen and dinning room, and living and din area. The Master bedroom is upstairs to the left when referring to the photo above. The room give one a view out to the ocean however. the window faces more to the sky which gives one the notion of being out on a boat on beach chair while glazing at the sky. The color on the wall in the room is of a pale color blue that resemble a summer sky, while the color of the carpeting of the room is of a tan that mimics the color of the sand on the beach. The really set the room theme off great as to giving one that feeling of closeness to the ocean. If it had been bed from artifact grid,mercury 3 the bed would have been very high style for a simplistic room setting. It would fit greater in a high ceilinged room, while the ceiling on the beach front is at slant taking away from the height that the ceiling could be.

John Hancock Center Conference Room

Forcing my way through the bustling crowd, coffee splashes on my crisp white button-down. Heads down, men in suits corral like cattle along the bleak streets of Chicago. This daily pilgrimage is interrupted only by newspapers littering the streets screaming "PRESIDENT CARTER: COMMANDER IN CHIEF" and "VIKING II LANDS." After years of economic hardship and social turmoil, it seems unlikely that anyone could see our great nation through these hard times. As I round East Delaware Street, the newly completed John Hancock Building towers before me; I have yet to adjust to working in such a monstrous building.

Although the view from my new office is spectacular, my office seems to integrate smoothly into the stale, cold winter landscape. The building is too modern for my taste- and not without its share of problems, but it is nice finally settle in. Even these strange tulip chairs, I think they call them, are different from the Mackintosh style chairs at the old office. It is no surprise that this building is quite different from other buildings, such as the Empire State Building in New York, because it has living quarters, shops and even an observatory.

Shortly after my arrival, my secretary informs me that I have a meeting concerning new technology being implemented in the office. The office has been buzzing with news of some new Intel microprocessor and the Apple I. Since the development of the floppy disc, our office has seen leaps and bounds in technology, so I am excited to see what information they've prepared for us.

I join a group gathering in a large room central to our floor. I take my seat at the conference table, awaiting the big news from the Intel. This conference room has proved quite handy for presentations such as these, as it allows everyone a good view of the speaker. The table is much bigger than we've ever had, so we can host large meetings with no shortage of room. The presenter appears with some of the most fascinating contraptions we've seen; perhaps change is not too far out of sight after all.

The National Gallery of Art (East Building)

The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C has two buildings. The west building is a classic style that follows the styles of the white house, the capital building, and the Lincoln memorial. However, the east building is a newer building with a contemporary style. The building alone is meant to be a large sculpture that stands apart from the rest of Washington D.C. Also, the Building is meant to be a first look into what the people will see when they go inside. 

  This newer museum was built in 1978, a good 30 years after the West building was finished. The reason for the new museum was based on a growing increase in the art gallery's collection. Approved by president Jimmy Carter, the building houses a library, sculpture garden, research center, and large rooms of drawings and prints.

This Building is very open, allowing for a perfect place to house the Alexander Calder Mobile. There is a central lobby in the museum, that shows all stories of the building as well as the triangular shapes on the steel beams of the windows. The Calder mobile rests directly in the middle of the hallways that each floor consists of, which allows each person to see the mobile more than once while they tour the museum and the art within it. 

Being a modern piece of art, the east building was a better choice than the west national art gallery. Like the exterior of the building, with it's "sculpturesque" design, and the sculpture garden located outside, the mobile stimulates the same style. The angles of the exterior walls create a modern feel. Also, as mentioned before, the ceiling of the east building has triangular steel beams that create a unique view from the outside looking in and from the inside looking out. The angles allow for triangular shadows to rest on the floor. Alexander Calder's mobile is a good contrast to this ceiling because it's rounded edges can be seen next to the contrast of the triangles when somebody is looking up at the piece.

The National Art Gallery is much different than Nichols house in Boston. The red brick on the outside of the building as well as the classic detailing, is unlike the off-white concrete walls on the museum. The gallery has clean lines and angles, while Nichols house looks like a typical townhouse in Boston. Also, Nichol's house, which is a museum, looks more like a home than a museum setting. 

One similarity in the national art gallery and Nichols house museum, is the fact that they both house pieces of art in a "museum" setting. This means that they both allow for circulation of many people at once with places to sit and view art. Both seem to have the same functions with different style.

Changing Perspectives

West Mt. Vernon Street Nichols House is on the Furthest Left Side

The Candelabrum is located on the second floor on a side table providing not only light, but a decorative element to the room.

I walk onto Mt. Vernon Street located in Boston, Massachusetts feeling comforted by the upscale, mostly crime free neighborhood. As I inspect people walking on the street they are characterized with an upper middle class persona. They mostly do not smile while passing and continue to be committed to their prior appointments by avoiding eye contact and casual conversation, but this does not discourage my excitement to explore the Nichols House Museum. Coming from a suburban raised upper middle class household I feel comfortable relating to people on the street, but a little shy with my sense of direction in a city that I have visited only once. All the streets in this neighborhood look very similar with their red brick and symmetrical appearances. Finally reaching my destination I look upon this 1804 brownstone town home and there is an overcoming feeling of patriotism and honor of my country and the amazing things we have created. When entering the museum I am overcome with the feeling that I am in a home setting more than a typical museum. I take notice of the front walkway, very casual almost too casual as you enter such a famous house. I gaze at the floor length mirror in the hallway making sure I appear presentable to meet my potential new boss. The artwork in the hallway seems extremely appropriate to the time period and the colonial style the house portrays. Venturing on to the second floor I am bombarded with the sophisticated arrangement of the living room. It is very suitable for the family that lived in this home and the entertaining purposes they used it for as well. I look at the Queen Anne Styled Clock and notice I have ten minutes to spare, so I take the extra couple minutes to journey upstairs and explore one of the many bedrooms that are of access in the house. My mind figures to a Chippendale style tall chest of drawers that was most likely developed from an English base. I ponder the question if it was produced here in America or overseas as I wait to be called in for my interview.

Comparing the Nichols House Museum to another structures during this assignment the White House could go either way. It is similar in the aspect that they are both designed off of a classic architectural movement. The White House being developed off of the Grecian or Roman Revival and the Nichols Home is based off of the Colonial era. They also stand similar in the act of symmetry.

When contrasting these two buildings they are completely different in not only materials, but sense of ambiance. Since the Nichols House Museum was once a home it still has many domestic characteristics, but it is now a museum so it therefore adds a slightly more formal, unlivable element to the space. Where as the White House was and still is a home and the tour was added in afterwards. Even though the White House is still accessed by the public, it is highly secured and only certain areas on special occasions are allowed to be toured allowing the home to seem more comfortable for the family living in it.