Word: globular
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...three visionary architects whose plans are exhibited at St. Thomas have long been studied by subsequent architects because they foreshadow so many buildings built in the 20th century. Etienne-Louis Boullée (1728-99) was a popular teacher at Paris' Royal Academy of Architecture who designed giant globular monuments as a means of classroom elucidation. Among the remaining sketches of his works is one of a projected monument for Sir Isaac Newton, consisting of a giant sphere pierced by tiny openings to simulate starlight. Today's planetariums and, indeed, even Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes recall...
...Step. Study of the southern heavens will provide checkpoints on what scientists have learned in the past several years about X-ray sources in space. It will also yield some of the secrets of spectacular globular star clusters like Omega Centauri, 15,000 light-years from earth. The brightest clusters, including those nearest the earth, can be found only in the southern sky. Since the clusters are believed to contain some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way, they may provide invaluable knowledge regarding the age of the universe...
...Smithsonian had originally intended an orrery, the globular celestial map made of intersecting rings and developed for the 17th century Earl of Orrery, for the front of the new building; but its architect, Walker O. Cain, called on De Rivera instead. De Rivera has titled his 20th century piece Infinity, explaining modestly that he named it that solely to prevent the U.S. Government from giving it a still more pretentious name. He made its swooping, stainless-steel lines by extruding a rod of steel and welding its ends together, alternately heating and hammering it like the village smithy...
...music is not, as many conclude on first hearing, the work of a prankster. He often composes twelve hours a day. "I want to be able to bring sounds from every surface area of the room," he says. "Why not loudspeakers on swings overhead, or a completely globular room with loudspeakers blanketing the walls and the listeners on a platform suspended in the center?" As far as some concertgoers are concerned, a better idea would be to suspend the composer...
Structurally, the Saratoga Center towers over all of these retreats. Audiences approach the theater across emerald lawns illuminated by 40 globular lights perched like tiny moons on four concrete runways. With its peaked roofs and long supporting beams, the building has the lines of a super circus tent. Inside, the most imposing feature is an acoustical canopy jutting 50 feet from the stage like some op-art gargoyle...