Milan Central Station

Milan Central Station (in Italian, Stazione Centrale di Milano or Milano Centrale) is one of the main European railway stations. The building began construction in 1906 to replace the old central station, which was a transit station and could not handle the increasing traffic. King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy laid the cornerstone of the new station on before a blueprint for the station had even been chosen. After numerous design contests architect Ulisse Stacchinia's design, based on Union Station in Washington D.C., was selected. Due to the Italian economic crisis during World War I, construction proceeded very slowly, and the project, rather simple at the beginning, kept changing and became more and more complex and majestic. This happened especially when Benito Musselini became Prime Minister, and wanted the station to represent the power of the fascist regime. The major changes were the new platform types and the introduction of the great steel canopies which 341 meters long and covering an area of 66,500 square meters. Construction resumed in earnest in 1925 and in 1931 the station was officially opened. Its facade is 200 metres wide and its vault 72 metres high, a record when it was built. It has 24 platforms. Each day about 330,000 passengers use the station, totalling about 120 million per year. The station has no definite architectural style, but is a blend of many different styles, especially Liberty and Art Deco, but not limited to those. It has been characterized by Frank Lloyd Wright as one of the most beautiful stations in the world, together with New York's Grand Central Terminal.


Brian E. Williford

Expowurm

When I visited the Bauhaus, I passed this installation on the way from the train station:

It's called the "Expowurm," and if I had to guess, I would say it was for displaying projects. There was, unfortunately, no literature or people hanging around. It was some sort of membrane stretched over a wooden frame.

The interior could feasibly house temporary exhibits. Though the construction itself may well be a temporary exhibit. It's definitely not secure, because I wiggled up through one of the openings in the bottom to look around inside, because the doors (plain glass doors on each end) were locked.



Meg Chandler
Location: Campus at Dessau, Germany
Designers: Presumably students at the Bauhaus

Mark goes on an adventure

Mark got his tongue pierced in Berlin at Trendline Piercing Studio. This link goes to a video of it, but it doesn't show anything graphic, just his facial expressions, because I didn't want to be all up in Tamara's grill with my camera while she was poking Mark in the face with sharp things.

Meg Chandler

Trains through Germany

The train ride from Berlin to Dessau was through some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Rolling hills, fields, and trees. Maybe I thought it was so beautiful because it was like South Carolina plus. The train stops were interesting, because from what I gathered, their m.o. for expansion of train traffic is not to add onto the old station, but to build a new one right beside it. In some areas there were six or seven stations, boarded up and in various states of decay, all beside and across from one another.



Meg Chandler

Guinness Storehouse Tour

The Guinness Brewery and Storehouse are located in Dublin, Ireland. The Storehouse, originally built in 1904 to house the Guinness fermentation process, was designed in the style of the Chicago school of architecture. The Storehouse closed in 1988 and reopened in 2000 as the Storehouse Tour. Before entering, the building doesn't look like anything special, but when you walk it, you are confronted with a seven floor atrium shaped like a giant pint glass (which would hold about 14.3 million pints of Guinness). The start of the tour brings you to a large exhibit containing the ingredients of Guinness beer; water, barley, hopps, and yeast. each ingredient is fully described and is physically represented in its display. There is a large indoor waterfall when you walk through the water display, and there is barley covering the floor of the barley display. After the ingredients, you are led into the steps of the brewing process. The last step is tasting where you will sample the Guinness. After this, there are displays on advertising and some other interesting Guinness facts. The best part of the tour comes last. This is when you ride up to the seventh floor Gravity bar to receive your free pint of Guinness. The Gravity bar gives you a 360 degree view overlooking Dublin. The whole tour and experience takes about 2 hours and is well worth the visit!
Mandy Hayden

Bauhaus - Meg Chandler

I took a train from Berlin to Dessau on Friday 13 to visit the Bauhaus. The train ride was the most beautiful I've ever experienced, and I met a nice couple who spoke about 20 words of English between the two of them and offered me bananas and crackers (must've thought I had the stomach flu).
The Bauhaus is a very short walk from the train station (on Gropiusstrasse, appropriately), and I got and understood directions, leaving me feeling nothing short of world traveler extraordinaire. A fair amount of these are already up on my Flickr gallery, but some I will repeat because I like them that much.Student dormitories.The dorms reflected in the buildings across the street.Everything, down to the light fixtures and door handles, was designed for the school.The building after WWII bombings.Gropius also designed houses for some of the professors, a few blocks down the road.A model of one of the houses, which were, I suppose, technically duplexes.
No kitchen cabinets -- I don't think Walter Gropius cooked much.