Dec 15 2012

Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art

Brent

Moca Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art

Todays photo is of the Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). This beautiful new building is within walking distance of both Little Italy and Wade Oval. Here is some information directly from MOCA’s website about the new building:

“MOCA’s new building is designed to serve as a catalyst for creativity and growth in a cosmopolitan Cleveland neighborhood, which is home to one of the country’s largest concentrations of cultural, educational and medical institutions.

The nearly 34,000-square-foot structure, which is 44 percent larger than MOCA’s former rented space, demonstrates that a museum expansion need not be large in scale to be ambitious in all respects. Devised for both environmental and fiscal sustainability, the design is at once technically inventive, visually stunning and highly practical.

The dynamic structure was designed by Iranian-born Farshid Moussavi of London, formerly with Foreign Office Architects (FOA) and now principal of Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA). This is her first U.S. commission and her first museum.

In addition to FMA, the design team includes executive architects Westlake Reed Leskosky, headquartered in Cleveland and designers of more than 50 cultural buildings throughout the United States.

Moussavi says that museums today are not just homes for art, but serve multiple functions and host a variety of activities. “Our design for MOCA Cleveland aims to provide an ideal environment for artists and visitors and to foster creativity and variety in exhibitions and programs.”

Because MOCA is a non-collecting institution – one of the relatively few such contemporary art museums in the country – its new building does not need to accommodate collection galleries, says MOCA Executive Director Jill Snyder. “This building’s design is a perfect expression of the museum’s philosophy and programs. Flexibility is key to a program like ours that embraces aesthetic, conceptual and cultural diversity, and displays works in a great variety of media and genres.”

The four-story building, which anchors the Uptown district, rises 60 feet from a hexagonal base to a square top, where the primary exhibition space is located. All four floors contain areas for either exhibitions or public programs.

Clad primarily in mirror-finish black Rimex stainless steel, the façade will reflect its urban surroundings, changing in appearance with differences in light and weather. Three of the building’s six facets, one of them clad in transparent glass, will flank a public plaza designed by James Corner Field Operations, a New York-based landscape architecture and urban design firm. The plaza will serve as a public gathering place and will link MOCA to Uptown attractions and amenities, including the expanded Cleveland Institute of Art, designed by Burt, Hill with MVRDV, and new commercial space and residential units, designed by Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects Inc.

Upon entering the building, visitors find themselves in an atrium where they can see the dynamic shape and structure of the building as it rises. This space leads to MOCA’s lobby, café and shop, and to a double-height multi-purpose room for public programs and events. From there, visitors may take MOCA’s monumental staircase, a dominant architectural feature of the building, to the upper floors. On the top floor the 6,000-square-foot gallery space has no fixed dividing walls, allowing for a variety of configurations. This floor also contains a gallery designed for new media work and the Dick and Doreen Cahoon Lounge, which overlooks the plaza and Uptown.”

For more information about this great museum click here:

http://www.mocacleveland.org/

Today’s Quote: “Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs”. – Ansel Adams

 


Jun 1 2012

Albert W. Henn Mansion

Brent

Albert W. Henn Mansion

The Henn Mansion is one of those treasures that more Clevelanders need to know about. It is vaguely Tudor Revival in style with Bungalow/Craftsman overtones. It is a beautiful home and thanks to some wonderful volunteers it is still around to be enjoyed today. You can even rent it out for special occasions.

From the Henn Mansion Website:

Albert W. Henn was born at New Britain, Connecticut, January 26, 1865. His parents were Francis A. and Barbara Wilhelmy Henn. His father was born at Baden, Baden, Germany, April 1, 1825, came to America a political refugee in 1859. He was a gunsmith by trade and after coming to New Britain found employment in some of the big
hardware manufacturing houses, notably the firm of Russell & Erwin and Landers, Frary & Clark.

Albert W. Henn went to school until he was thirteen years of age completing the eighth grade. The boy went into the factory of Landers, Frary & Clark, covering a period of four years. At the age of nineteen he came to Cleveland and here secured a position as entry clerk with the wholesale dry goods house of Root & McBride, where he remained for thirteen years. During this period he had, apparently, little use for the mechanical knowledge he had secured in his boyhood, but when the opportunity came he found himself thoroughly interested and quite able to apply it.

Mr. Henn was married in Cleveland, April 17, 1889, to Miss Gertrude Jeannette Bruce, and they had six children, their first two sons, Jesse and William died in infancy
leaving three sons and one daughter surviving. Edwin C., a graduate of Cornell University; Howard R. a graduate of Yale University, Jeannette, a graduate of Vassar College; and Robert B a graduate of Cornell University.

Mr. Henn and his brother E. C. Henn patented the Multiple Spindle Lathe, (EC’s invention) which revolutionized the machine tool industry. Then they organized the Acme Machine Screw Company, with E. C. Henn as president and Albert W. Henn as secretary and treasurer. In 1902 they merged their enterprise with the National Manufacturing Company of Cleveland and changed their caption to the National-Acme Manufacturing Company.

Mr. Henn became Secretary of the concern at that time (1908), became treasurer, and was elected president in 1918. He was also treasurer and a director of the Maynard H. Murch Company, investments; president of the Goodhold Farm Company, vice president of the Ohio Muck Farm Company, and a director in the Lincoln Electric Company and the Winton Hotel Company.

For more photos inside the Henn Mansion:

http://www.hennmansion.org/

Today’s Quote: “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy”. – Norman Vincent Peale


May 7 2012

CLEVELAND UNION TERMINAL

Brent

Cleveland Union Terminal

From the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: “The Cleveland Union Terminal and the Terminal Tower, Cleveland’s most familiar landmark, was the largest construction project of the 1920s in the city. Originally intended for the north end of the Mall, the railroad terminal was located on Public Square Oris and Mantis Van Sweringan following a public referendum in 1919. Excavation of the site began in 1924. The entire depot and office complex was designed by Chicago architects Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. The unprecedented engineering for the project included foundations 250′ deep for the tower, the demolition of more than 1,000 buildings, and the construction of many bridges and viaducts for the railroad approaches. Construction on the steelwork began in 1926, and the 708′ Terminal Tower was completed in 1927, the tallest building in the world outside New York City until 1967.

For more info: http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CUT

Today’s Quote: “All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem”. – Martin Luther King Jr.


Jan 17 2012

Cleveland Trust Rotunda

Brent

Cleveland Trust Company Rotunda

Today’s Photo: Cleveland Trust Rotunda

Today’s photo shows some of the details in the old Cleveland Trust Company rotunda. This building is located in downtown Cleveland on the corner of E. 9th and Euclid Ave.  For more information on this amazing piece of Cleveland history check out this link:

http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=A8

Today’s Quote: It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world – Thomas Jefferson


Jan 12 2012

Side chapel of Trinity Cathedral

Brent

Trinity Catherdral

 

Today’s Photo: Side chapel of Trinity Cathedral

Today’s photo is of the beautiful side chapel located inside Trinity Cathedral in downtown Cleveland.

“But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things”. ~Vincent van Gogh


Dec 13 2011

Grand staircase of the Henn Mansion

Brent

Henn Mansion

Today’s Photo: Grand staircase of the Henn Mansion

The Henn Mansion is one of those treasures that more Clevelanders need to know about. It is vaguely Tudor Revival in style with Bungalow/Craftsman overtones. It is a beautiful home and thanks to some wonderful volunteers it is still around to be enjoyed today. You can even rent it out for special occasions.

From the Henn Mansion Website:

Albert W. Henn was born at New Britain, Connecticut, January 26, 1865. His parents were Francis A. and Barbara Wilhelmy Henn. His father was born at Baden, Baden, Germany, April 1, 1825, came to America a political refugee in 1859. He was a gunsmith by trade and after coming to New Britain found employment in some of the big
hardware manufacturing houses, notably the firm of Russell & Erwin and Landers, Frary & Clark.

Albert W. Henn went to school until he was thirteen years of age completing the eighth grade. The boy went into the factory of Landers, Frary & Clark, covering a period of four years.  At the age of nineteen he came to Cleveland and here secured a position as entry clerk with the wholesale dry goods house of Root & McBride, where he remained for thirteen years. During this period he had, apparently, little use for the mechanical knowledge he had secured in his boyhood, but when the opportunity came he found himself thoroughly interested and quite able to apply it.

Mr. Henn was married in Cleveland, April 17, 1889, to Miss Gertrude Jeannette Bruce, and they had six children, their first two sons, Jesse and William died in infancy
leaving three sons and one daughter surviving. Edwin C., a graduate of Cornell University; Howard R. a graduate of Yale University, Jeannette, a graduate of Vassar College; and Robert B a graduate of Cornell University.

Mr. Henn and his brother E. C. Henn patented the Multiple Spindle Lathe, (EC’s invention) which revolutionized the machine tool industry. Then they organized the Acme Machine Screw Company, with E. C. Henn as president and Albert W. Henn as secretary and treasurer. In 1902 they merged their enterprise with the National Manufacturing Company of Cleveland and changed their caption to the National-Acme Manufacturing Company.

Mr. Henn became Secretary of the concern at that time (1908), became treasurer, and was elected president in 1918. He was also treasurer and a director of the Maynard H. Murch Company, investments; president of the Goodhold Farm Company, vice president of the Ohio Muck Farm Company, and a director in the Lincoln Electric Company and the Winton Hotel Company.

For more photos inside the Henn Mansion:

http://www.hennmansion.org/

Today’s Quote:

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. – Thomas Jefferson


Nov 10 2011

Bike on Euclid

Brent

bike on Euclid Ave

Today’s Photo: Bike on Euclid

This is a photo of a bike that was locked up on Euclid Avenue near the Idea Center and the Playhouse Square theaters. Biking is an excellent way to get around if you live in the city. It is also a great way to see the city if just want to slow down and see the sights. Here is some information about a company that offers bicycle tours in Northeast Ohio:

Great Lakes Touring Co. is Northeast Ohio’s premier source for custom bicycle tours and excursions. The company aims to bringing fitness, fun and adventure together on Cleveland-area bicycle trails, while promoting interest in regional tourism and history. Tours of Northeast Ohio communities, the 55,000-acre Cleveland MetroParks and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park are available throughout the year for riders of all experience levels from beginner to expert cyclist. Great Lakes Touring Co. offers corporate team building events, gym alternatives and birthday party packages.

For more info:

http://www.BikeCLE.com

http://www.facebook.com/iBikeCLE#!/iBikeCLE?sk=info

Today’s Quote:

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. ~H.G. Wells


Oct 4 2011

Trinity Cathedral

Brent

Trinity Cathedral

Today’s Photo:  Trinity Cathedral

This is an amazing church located in downtown Cleveland. When I first walked inside it reminded me a lot of Westminster Abbey in London.  It is an absolutely beautiful church and I will have some more photos of it in future blogs. Here is a history of the church from its website: “On November 9, 1816, a group of Episcopalians met in the home of Phineas Shepard on the West side of what now is greater Cleveland, to organize what was to become Trinity Parish. When in 1825 Trinity parish moved to the east bank of the Cuyahoga River, worship services were held in the upper story of the log house on Public Square, which also served as the public courthouse and jail. In 1829, the congregation’s first church building was consecrated by Bishop Philander Chase. It was the first church building within the Cleveland village limits. In 1855 the parish moved into a new, larger stone building of gothic design, which served the congregation’s needs until 1902. At the end of the nineteenth century, Trinity was the strongest parish in the diocese numerically and financially and was also rich in traditions of strong pastoral leadership and in service to the community and the larger church. In 1890, Trinity Church was offered to Bishop William A. Leonard as a cathedral to be maintained by the parish. At the same time, a new building site was sought in a more central but less commercial section of the city. Plans were begun for a building at Euclid Avenue and East 22nd Street, with Charles F. Schweinfurth of Cleveland as the architect. His plan eventually evolved into the present English perpendicular Gothic structure, begun in 1901 and consecrated September 24, 1907. From its early days, the Cathedral has served as an anchor in the Quadrangle neighborhood and in downtown Cleveland. However, near the century’s end, Trinity’s leaders realized that the original cathedral could no longer accommodate its growing congregation’s
needs. In 2000, renovation and expansion work began. The result was Trinity Commons, opened in 2002.”

For more information:

http://trinitycleveland.org/

Quote of the day:

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.- George Washington