Architecture

How One Family Built America's Public Palaces()  

The elaborately tiled City Hall subway station in New York City — still extant but now closed to the public, alas — used the Guastavino touch to convince wary city dwellers to head underground for a train trip.

April 29, 2013 The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., has a new exhibit about the soaring tile vaults built by a famous father-son team. The Guastavinos came to this country from Spain in the late 1800s, and left their mark on some of America's most important public spaces.

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Krulwich Wonders...

Trees On Top Of Skyscrapers? Yes! Yes, Say I. No! No, Says Tim()  

Bosco Verticale Detail

April 19, 2013 Two residential towers, dense with trees, will have their official opening later this year in downtown Milan. Blogger and critic Tim De Chant thinks it's high-time we stop planting trees on skyscrapers. Krulwich disagrees.

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U.S.

FBI Building May Soon Be 'Put Out Of Its Misery'()  

The Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington, just blocks from the White House, has long been the government building everyone loves to hate.

April 5, 2013 With D.C. real estate booming, it's no surprise that the government is thinking about unloading a building seen by many as an eyesore. The J. Edgar Hoover Building, headquarters of the FBI, sits on a valuable spot along Pennsylvania Avenue, not far from the Capitol and the White House.

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Self-Taught Architect Behind Brooklyn's 'Broken Angel' Faces Eviction()  

Over the past three decades, Arthur and Cynthia Wood turned their four-story home into a work of art. They purchased the brick tenement at the intersection of Downing and Quincy streets in 1979 for $2,100 in cash.

March 29, 2013 Over the past three decades, artist and sculptor Arthur Wood has turned his four-story home into a towering cathedral built out of salvaged junk. But after a fire in 2006, the New York City Department of Buildings determined that the Clinton Hill landmark was no longer a safe place to live.

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Europe

Versailles Gets Spiffed-Up On Its Day Off()  

Restorer Nicoletta Rinaldi works on the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors at the Versailles Palace,  west of Paris, in 2007.

March 29, 2013 Nearly 7 million people visit the Chateau at Versailles a year. But one day a week, it's closed. That's a spa day of sorts, when conservation work and cleaning takes place at the Grande Dame of France royal residences. The hardwood floors alone require nearly 1,000 gallons of wax a year.

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