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Architecture

The Mixing of Architectural Styles in Mexican Churches

October 22, 2020 by Marshall Wheeler

Some of the many things that can bore me nearly to death, or at the very least put me into a slumber coma, are soap operas, American baseball, American football, most sitcoms, anything having to do with Microsoft and Bill Gates, and listening to George Bush speak. The one thing in the world that never puts me to sleep is the subject of Mexican churches. It’s become a passion of mine since moving to Guanajuato, Mexico, and I never tire of visiting the scores of churches in the cities we visit. In fact, I end up spending more time in the churches than I spend at most of the other tourist sites in Mexico, especially in the colonial cities. I never tire of them!

The vast majority of Mexico’s colonial churches were designed by European architects. In their designs, they very liberally adorned these churches with elaborate and luscious old-world flare in their designs. In many of the churches, some within day-trip distance from Guanajuato (like Silao, Dolores Hidalgo, and San Miguel de Allende), you can see the Gothic, Baroque, and Moorish (Arabic) influences in both the church facades and the interiors.

Influences from the local Mexicans’ designing hands can also be seen in some of the works that ended up presenting sometimes a “watered down” version of the European influence and sometimes a grand stylistic enhancement when the locals’ interpretative designs were mixed with traditional designs. There are several churches in Mexico with a mixture of the local and the traditional. One such example is in San Miguel de Allende.

The present day La Parroquia was an original colonial church. In the 19th century, a local architect and builder, Zeferino Gutiérrez, was hired to redesign and rebuild the towers and the general façade. Myth says that he had only a postcard of a Gothic church to use as a model. He worked from this to design and build the towers and façade. The result is an eclectic mixture of Gutiérrez’s interpretation of European Gothic design. It is a magnificent church, which the locals hold in the highest regard even if it perturbs the anally retentive architectural aficionados.

Most of the Mexican churches, as well as their European counterparts, follow the basic traditional design in which the churches, if viewed from the air, look like crosses. The part where the altar resides is called the nave. This comes from the Latin word, navis, meaning “ship”. (You might want to know that the longest church nave in America is in an Anglican church in New York City – 230 feet.) From the box-like nave there usually emanate cross-spaces or transepts that extend from it and create the impression of a cross. If the church has a choir loft, it is usually in the back above the main entrance.

As I am writing these words, I am standing in a plaza, Plaza Cihuapilli, in the heart of an ancient town that is filled to the brim with artisans and is called Tonalá, which is located in the state of Jalisco. I am trying to make up my mind which of the churches to visit first. The two I want to see are at opposite ends of the plaza creating a startling visual effect. Both of these churches break the usual Baroque mold of the churches you find in colonial Mexican cities. Both are fine examples of the eclectic mix you may find in churches depending on where you visit in this wonderfully mysterious country. I picked the Parish of Santiago Apostle to see first.

The Parish Church of Santiago Apostle is said to be of an architectural style that exemplifies the art and science of building and construction. It is an attempt to present a form and design that stresses the simple over the complex. It is a style that tries to emphasize how well constructed the building is rather than showing the elaborate decoration you see in the early and later Baroque styles. This describes perfectly the front or façade of this church. In one source I read, it called the façade “austere” and indeed it was. The interior has what you expect in colonial Baroque churches: the magnificent pillars reaching high to the vaulted ceiling held together with those fetching arches. It has a neo-classical altarpiece. Outside, there is a quarry monument in front of the church dedicated to Pope Pius the IX*, built in 1887. The church was a project built by the Augustinians in 1652.

The second church I visited, Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart, is located almost directly opposite the Parish of Santiago Apostle Church on Plaza Cihuapilli. The tourist office information lists one of the parishioners, Jamie de Anesagasti, as the architect. It was constructed over a former hospital in the late 19th century with an exterior in the Gothic style and a Renaissance interior. The façade is a brilliant yellow with white Gothic spires and towers housing bells. (The only two pigeons we saw in the park area were sitting below the spires.) Four square columns glisten white across the front. Two statues sit on either side of the front entrance. Emanating out of the medieval period, Gothic was a style of architecture sandwiched between the Romanesque and the Renaissance periods. This style included the pointed towering spires and aches, vaulted walls containing buttresses to reduce the stresses (load) on the vault wall.

The Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart’s interior contains some impressive Italian oil paintings of the Stations of the Cross. I found those very appealing within the walls of the Renaissance interior. What was absolutely jarring was the supposedly “lovely retablo” sitting behind the altar of this church. In the popular guidebook I mentioned previously, the author actually used the word lovely to describe a nightmarish display sitting in an otherwise fine example of a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance architecture. What went on in the mind of the artist or artists who made this thing is inconceivable to me. What is really frightening is what was going on in the minds of whoever approved it for public consumption in a church.

Basically, the idea of this atrocity is Jesus Christ standing on a massive gray cloud that is engulfing the earth. But, the whole thing looked like something more appropriately placed in a skating rink somewhere and not a church. The life-sized Jesus was the usual pearly white-faced depiction of Christ. Then the so-called cloud looked like a giant piece of Styrofoam that someone heated way too long, causing it to crinkle and curl into something twisted, gray, and monstrous looking. It looked like what the Jolly-Green Giant’s brain would appear like if you saw a surgically removed section of it. Then, the beach-ball earth that was not so much below the hideous giant brain-looking cloud formation as it was engulfed by it, looked like something you would find in an adolescent’s skating rink (made by a talentless adolescent) with strobe lights shining on its little gold-sticker stars that were pasted all over it.

Whatever this was supposed to be, it surely did not fit into a Renaissance interior. The Renaissance style was supposed to be an architectural emphasis upon “symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts.” This appeared to me to be a mixture of styles that was beyond the pale.

What this display did was jar you to your architectural soul.

A lovely retablo? Maybe. There’s no accounting for taste!

* A popular Guadalajara guidebook lists this monument as dedicated to Pope Pius the XI as does the map you can get from the tourist office in town. However, it clearly says Pope Pius the IX on the monument.

Filed Under: Architecture

The Architect's Mask

October 7, 2020 by Marshall Wheeler

Architecture historians and theorists alike have noted that participating through distance is the architect's realm. Traced back to ancient Greek theater, audience emotions participated by their witnessing a holistic plot of humanity via the actors on stage. Here was the beginning of perceiving distance, seeing the world in its totality. As an architect, drawings and models mitigate distance from what is actually to be built; emotions of the actual-to-become are mitigated through his or her imagination. An architect's mystique maybe found in his or her ability to transcend time and space, where the architect's mind is focused on what will never actually become. The "will never" is the ideal.

What the architect has is his gaze, grasping for the ideal at a distance. Architecture is required for his gaze; a particular "mask" is required for his existence in the community. The architect offers a mask, his "mask", reflecting his distance by literally reflecting the community back to its inhabitants. The "mask" is not worn on his face. Instead, it is worn by the architecture he resides within. It is a wall, separating him from others, all the while creating the illusion of depth on a pure plane. He is an alchemist by creating depth on a pure plane, a plane of light, reflective, a mirror. This is one of the most important tools for an architect and this tool physically establishes the line between him + others.

A community is soon to be realized by the sea. This community contains one architect. For professional and ideological reasons, he does not physically participate with the community he is creating. For the architect, his secret knowledge is preserved by bisecting a peninsula separating himself from the community's inhabitants, placing them on the mirror's reflective side, the side that places them on an "island". The architect faces the mainland. He also requires an equal portion of land that the inhabitants reside upon. Not to confuse this situation as one that places the architect as a feudal lord, he works at the same scale of the community, of the actual, and thus needs a reflected plan to work on. A dual community exists. The architect's side is what is to become and the inhabitant's is what is actually realized. But the actual is bound to the ideal's illusion of depth, always reflected on the architect's "mask". His gaze is separate from the actual.

Filed Under: Architecture

SOA – Service Oriented Architecture Introduction

October 7, 2020 by Marshall Wheeler

A Brief Look at Web Services

SOA stands for Service Oriented Architecture. The services mentioned here are web services. While web services can have different meanings, it has a specific one when it comes to understanding SOA. Web services are specific, targeted software routines that are implanted into a web site in order to perform specific functions. Most often these functions have to do with information retrieval, although there are other uses.

Web services utilize XML in order to operate. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It is a multi-platform language, meaning that it can be used between computers even if they are running on different operating systems, such as Linux or Windows.

Service Oriented Architecture, in a nutshell, is a specific form of software development that is designed to enhance web service usability and in fact is completely structured around the use of these services, hence the name. That said, it is possible (although uncommon) to use SOA concepts without using web service technology.

SOA Basics

Web sites, computer networks, databases can all be designed in different ways, just as there are different ways to build a house or an office building. SOA is simply one method used to design the basic framework of a network or database.

Because of the targeted nature of web services, they are a very quick and efficient way to retrieve information, using less processing power and time lag than other methods of data retrieval. However, if your network is not designed for easy web service compatibility, these advantages can be lost by hampering the web services ability to retrieve information.

In an SOA model of architecture, then, the basic framework is fairly loose, so as not to get in the way of the web services. It is more a loose conglomeration of these web services than a rigid software architectural model.

Elements of SOA

It is important to remember that while services are the building blocks of SOA, they are not synonymous with SOA itself. As stated earlier, most web services are written in the language of XML. There is also another special language used in relation to web services: WSDL. This stands for Web Service Description Language, and as you can probably guess is used to describe web services making it easier for users to understand what the web service does.

One of the strong points of SOA design is that it is platform independent. SOA can work across any number of computers, whether they be using Linux operating systems, Windows, Unix, Macintosh, etc. Due to the nature of web services, any time one of these services is used it is working completely independently of any other service on the network, thus saving computing power, unlike some systems which must work through translators in order to work across platforms.

This independence of web services also makes it easier to test and troubleshoot a network using SOA. Think of it in terms of Christmas lights. Older Christmas lights, when one bulb blew out it could blow out the whole string, so it would take testing every single bulb to find where the problem lies. With SOA, if one service goes down the rest are still going strong, so you know exactly how to pinpoint the problem.

Moving to an SOA Model

SOA is a major part of the future of business communication and Information Technology. Every day more and more businesses are getting on board with Service Oriented Architecture.

In order to move your business to an SOA model, you will need to do a thorough study of how SOA networks are designed, as well as understand the architecture of your current set-up. This will allow you to best figure out how to change your current network model to one based on the principles of Service Oriented Architecture.

Another of the benefits of SOA is that it is designed to incorporate existing elements. Rather than a complete tear-down and rebuilding of your current networks, it is designed to fit in as seamlessly as possible. Although there can still be a lot of work involved, SOA works to fit in as easily as possible with your existing model.

It is also important to remember that SOA is merely a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. While Service Oriented Architecture can be useful in certain circumstances, you should try only to move to an SOA model when it is warranted, and leave existing networks as they are if they do not require the benefits of SOA. This will also allow you to make a gradual shift towards the SOA model, rather than doing a single and very likely expensive revamp all at once.

Filed Under: Architecture

Spring Cleaning and Decorating Your Bathroom in an Inexpensive Way

September 7, 2020 by Marshall Wheeler

There is no better way for moms to welcome the new spring season than to do her spring cleaning first! Don’t be shocked how your mom can really clean every part of your home that well. That includes the most difficult place to completely maintain the cleanliness, the bathroom. Consider how challenging it is to maintain the tiles, the flooring, the windows, the sink, cabinets, toilet bowl and the tub or shower, clean all the time. One more addition to spring cleaning is decorating your bathroom in a simple yet adorable arrangement. So for all the moms out there, taken also from everything I have learned from my experience, here is a simple guide and tips for spring cleaning and decorating your bathroom in an inexpensive way.

Prepare Your Magic Cleaning Supplies

Before anything else, make sure that you have all the cleaning supplies you need. If you are one of those “brand-conscious-moms”, go ahead and spend on your well-trusted products. I don’t see anything wrong on spending your money on those products as long as they do their magic well to your bathroom. But for some thrifty mothers existing out there, dollar stores are their first love when it comes to affordable cleaning supplies, not to mention most of their products really work. If you want to check out the bathroom cleaning supplies that only costs a dollar, you may go to the the dollar tree website for their bathroom cleaners and all purpose cleaner supplies. You may check your neighborhood too for stores offering unbranded and inexpensive cleaning supplies.

The basic bathroom cleaning supplies you need are the following: liquid bowl cleaner, tub and shower cleaner, or you can find an all purpose bathroom cleaner for both the tub/shower and toilet bowl, bleach to help whiten your tub/shower and toilet bowl more, disinfectant wipes, cleaning scrubs, toilet bowl brush, and a pair of clean gloves.

Grab and Set Aside Your Bathroom Essentials

To make sure you are able to clean every corners and spaces in your bathroom, set aside your bathroom essentials first. Empty your bathroom caddy, your toilet sink, the floors, and whatever things you have in your bathroom. Set them aside and if you need to wipe or dust them off, you may do so. Just make sure that they are in a safe place unable for your small kids to reach. You can take notes at the same time for the things you have ran out already or soon to ran out off. Here is a simple checklist you may use for the things you need for your bathroom.

DATE:___________

BATHROOM ESSENTIALS QUANTITY LEFT BUY NOW

Toothpaste

Toothbrush

Mouthwash

Dental Floss

Hand soap

Hand and Body Lotion

Shampoo

Conditioner

Soap

Body Scrub

Toilet tissue

Shaving Cream

Razor

Deodorant

Air Freshener

Fill up the date and the necessary boxes needed. Allow extra rows for you to add up more of your basic bathroom essentials. This will serve as a good reminder and a helpful tool for your spring bathroom cleaning, too.

Start With Your Tub or Shower

You can take out your shower curtain if you want to and wash it first. Wear your gloves and clean the tub/shower using your all purpose cleaner or tub/shower cleaner. Don’t forget to scrub the tiles on the walls too. Include scrubbing the shower knob, caddy, and shower sprinkler in your cleaning. If you are using a non-slip bathtub mat, scrub both sides carefully and set aside after cleaning it. If you are sure that everything is well cleaned already, you may use a bleach for additional cleaning to disinfect and whiten the tub even more. Leave it for a while and trust the bleach to do its wonders! If you don’t like the strong smell of the bleach, you may use anything you want to cover your nose and mouth to prevent from exhaling too much of the bleach odor.

Head Out Next to the Toilet Bowl

Still using your gloves, clean the external sides of the toilet bowl first. Use the disinfectant wipes to clean the top, the sides, and the bottom of the bowl. Check out even the back side of the toilet bowl to make sure there is no dust left. Next is to wipe the seats. You can make a follow up wiping using tissue paper for the sensitive members of the family. This is to ensure that there is no remaining wet residues of the wipes. Afterward, pour over your toilet bowl cleaner and scrub the upper sides, lower sides and the bottom of the bowl. Again, to add up to the spring bathroom cleaning strategy, pour over some bleach on the sides of the bowl first doing a round motion, until the bleach reaches the bottom. Leave it again for a while.

It is Sink Time

I know, it seems like forever, with matching sweats all over your face and body! Think about this: “Cleaning is an unconscious way of loosing weight, too!”. Make this your ultimate motivator and remind yourself once in a while for you to be able to finish your spring bathroom cleaning. We are now halfway, so it will all be over soon. Cleaning the sink is a lot easier than the tub/shower and toilet bowl. Thinking about this is quite restful already! So start by wiping the counters and the mirror. Again, still using your gloves, clean the sink using your all purpose cleaner and scrub it nicely. Don’t forget to also scrub your sink faucets or fixtures. One good tip is, choose a cleaner that has a lemon scent or a flowery scent if you prefer it more. This will give your bathroom an extra good feeling of spring. You can rearrange your sink cabinets too if you still have the time. You can put cabinet mats or simply old newspapers or magazines. This is for unnecessary spills if you are storing your cleaning supplies under your sink cabinet.

Be the Floor Manager

To really make your spring bathroom cleaning complete, you can wash your bath rugs or put in your extra ones for a new fresh look too. But keep hold of your bath rugs for awhile. You need to clean the floors first. You can use a mop for tiled, marbled or laminated flooring. For wooden bathroom floorings, vacuum the floors first and use a very dry damp mop because excess water can ruin the wood. You can empty the trash at this stage. You can add up wax if you prefer.

Washy Washy Tub and Toilet Bowl

Now is the right time to wash the tub/shower and toilet bowl from the bleach. You can use the scrub again to wash the bleach thoroughly. Then you can put back the shower curtain. And put back all your bathroom essentials in the caddy or in places you want to. If you can avoid placing your shampoos, conditioner, etc. from the sides of the tub, do so. This will help you eliminate any dirt formation around the tub. Use a shower caddy as a better option for your essentials. You can now also bring back your bathtub mat, after drying the area of the tub where you are placing your mat. Another tip is to spread out your shower curtain even if it is not in use. This will help your curtain keep dry hence avoiding bad odor.

Time to Put Back Your Bathroom Essentials

Continue on putting back your essentials on the sink counter, on your extra bathroom caddies and of course keep your cleaning supplies. Rearrange them on the counter sink, that is if you prefer putting your essentials on the counter. Arrange your essentials, for example the toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, floss and hand soap, then place the ones in front for those you use most.

Decorating in an Inexpensive Way

Maybe at this time, you feel more relaxed. Every corners and spaces inside your bathroom are spic and span. You are beginning to feel the spring fling around your bathroom. To make your bathroom more spring looking, you can add a pot of plant or a vase of flowers. As much as possible, choose a live plant or fresh flowers to go with your bathroom. Choose a light colored pot or vase with a shade of green, yellow or orange if you want to really accent your bathroom with a spring look. You can match your bathroom rugs, shower curtains and/or window accents with the same spring color to add up the mood. Use a freshener if you want to for additional spring scent around your bathroom. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to redecorate your bathroom for spring, because you can just pick up flowers from your garden or any plant you like. It is inexpensive and the most important accent that can lighten up your bathroom.

There you go. Cleaning up your bathroom may sound exhausting but actually very rewarding. Seeing your bathroom so clean and fresh looking, and also good smelling, makes you feel relaxed and happy. Indeed the spring season is here. So go on and do your spring bathroom cleaning now. And of course add up a spice of spring by adding up fresh flowers or plant as an inexpensive spring decoration in your bathroom.

Looking for a simple weekend decorating project? Why not finally declutter your bookcase and turn it into an attractive focal point in the room. Most of us have a bad habit of holding on to every book we’ve ever read, which makes a bookcase look heavy and worn down. Use these different ways to decorate a bookcase, and don’t throw out any of your favorite books!

Use any, or all, of these different ways to decorate a bookcase and transform your cluttered, messy bookcase into something beautiful.

Remove the excess – The first step in decorating a bookcase is to remove all the excess junk. We’re all guilty of haphazardly tossing loose paperwork and other miscellaneous items where they don’t belong. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t belong and toss it out. Anything that can’t be thrown away should be neatly organized in wicker baskets or bins.

Paint the backing – Decorate a bookcase in a snap with a fresh coat of paint. To do this, paint the backing of the bookcase a bright color that will stand out from the rest. If the bookcase itself needs touched up, consider painting it semi-gloss or high-gloss white paint.

Wallpaper the backing – Wallpaper immediately draws the eye to the pretty pattern it displays, so if you really want to add a bit of flair to your bookcase, consider adding wallpaper to the back of the bookcase instead of paint. You’ll require very little wallpaper (probably one roll or less), and it will take just an hour or less to decorate a bookcase with this method.

Organize – For those of us that love books, it’s easy to get carried away with the amount we collect. If you can’t force yourself to throw anything away, simply organize the books you have. Arrange them by size and spine color so that they are pleasing to the eye.

Light the way – One of the best ways todecorate a bookcase is by illuminating the shelves. You needn’t spend a lot of money on expensive lighting, just use a few ‘tap’ lights or plug-in rope lighting. (Be sure to hide any cords behind books)

Add accents – To decorate a bookcase, you’ll want to add a few simple accents to break up all the books. Add small sculptures, photos, flowers, plants, candles, and so on. Try to separate the groupings of books as much as possible without creating more clutter.

As you can see, with a little organization and imagination, you can turn your bookcase into the focal point of your room and finally be proud of the books you have on display. These same tips can be used to decorate a china cabinet or hutch too!

More from Jennifer Wagner:

12 Uses for Old Wallpaper Books

Storage Solutions for Small Spaces

Unique Uses for Leftover Wallpaper

Filed Under: Architecture

Residential Architecture in America

August 1, 2020 by Marshall Wheeler

Architectural home design has shown many faces throughout history. Though there have been numerous styles of design throughout the years. those that may be the most memorable include French Colonial, Georgian, Federal, the Italian Villa, the Chateau and the Bungalow.

French Colonial (1700-1830)

French Colonial style homes are based on “post on sill” construction. A series of vertical posts are fitted underneath rooftops which extend out past the exterior of the home. This creates a cover for an outside porch, or galerie. In early nineteenth-century French Colonial plantations, the main floor was raised and encircled by a covered porch. The main living quarters were accessed by an exterior staircase. Large, cobblestone chimneys, double-casement windows and flared eaves on the rooftop are found on French Colonial homes.

Georgian (1700-1800)

Characterized by symmetrical design and classical detail, Georgian-style homes typically have a colossal-sized pillar on each side of the front door. Above these columns is a pediment which is reminiscent of Greek architecture. Commonly placed above this pediment is a Palladian or Venetian window on the second story. Rooftops often have what is known as a balustrade, which is a white, fence-looking structure. Rooftop corners feature square pedestals with stone urns placed atop.

Federal (1780-1820)

Federal-style homes have a square and boxy appearance. A low pitched roof and smooth, brick-finish exterior are characteristic of Federal homes. They often feature a domed circular portico or elliptical arch at the front door entrance. An elliptical window is often located at the header of the door with narrow windows located on each side of the door.

Italian Villa (1830-1880)

Expressing asymmetrical design form, the outstanding feature of the Italian Villa style is a tall tower combined with a two-story floor plan. Narrow, rounded-head windows were placed in groups of three. There were often small balconies on the upper level. The exterior is a smooth, stucco finish but the enriched ornamentation around windows and balconies gives the Italian Villa an elaborate baroque appearance.

Chateau (1860-1890)

The Chateau style is made of stone and is massive in size. Characterized by steeply-pitched roofs, the Chateau has dormers, cone-shaped towers and tall, elaborately-decorated chimneys. Stone window tracery was featured in certain areas. Details such as crosses positioned atop window gables are reminiscent of Gothic style. The Chateau was suited to wealthy clients who wanted impressive residences.

Bungalow Style (1890-1940)

A typical bungalow home is one-story and has broad, gently-pitched gables. The lower gable usually covers a front porch which may be screened or left open. Rafters and beams extend beyond the wall and edge of the roof. A bungalow’s chimney is made of cobblestone or rough-faced brick. Wood shingles are most common; however stucco or brick may also be used. Bungalows were built across the country, displaying a huge variety of configurations and exterior finishes.

Reference:

Identifying American Architecture; John Blumenson; 1981

Filed Under: Architecture

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