Tag Archives: architecture

Gone But Not Forgotten: National World War II Memorial

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Dedicated on May 29, 2004, the National World War II Memorial is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, just east of the Reflecting Pool.

The memorial honors the 16 million Americans who served in the armed forces during the war, and the millions more who supported them on the home front.

On May 25, 1993, President Clinton signed Public Law 103-32 authorizing the American Battle Monuments Commission to build the memorial in or around Washington, D.C. The memorial is funded primarily by private contributions. Construction of the memorial began in September 2001 and it opened to the public on April 29, 2004.

The Second World War is the sole 20th-century event commemorated on the central axis of the National Mall, where it joins other beacons of freedom. The U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument are symbols of the nation’s founding in the 18th century; and the Lincoln Memorial and statue of Ulysses S. Grant honor the nation’s preservation in the 19th century.

The memorial’s design, by Friedrich St. Florian—an architect based in Providence, Rhode Island—was one of 404 entries received in an open design competition in 1996. St. Florian’s design is intended to create a powerful sense of place that is distinct, memorable, evocative, and serene. Its principal features are the Rainbow Pool and memorial plaza. Ceremonial steps and ramps lead into the plaza, and two 43-foot arches serve as markers and entries on the north and south ends of the plaza. Each state and territory from the World War II era, and the District of Columbia, are represented by one of 56 pillars adorned with bronze wreaths, celebrating the unity of the nation during the war.

Issued on the day of the memorial’s dedication, the postage stamp honoring the achievement and ideals of the Americans who served during WWII was created before the memorial was completed. “The memorial was barely a scratch in the dirt when I was given the assignment,” stamp artist Tom Engeman said. His computer-generated design was based on photographs he and art director Howard E. Paine took of a scale model of the memorial housed in a trailer on the construction site. The stamp art depicts one of the two large memorial arches with a curving row of pillars, set against a dramatic sunset.

What does the National World War II Memorial mean to you?

Bridges Help Bring Us Together

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On May 24, 1883, the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, as it was known then, was opened for use, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. Later renamed the Brooklyn Bridge, the iconic structure is one if the oldest suspension bridges in the United States.

In honor of this historic landmark, here are some other great American bridges that have appeared on postage stamps.

Spanning the Niagara River between Buffalo, New York, and Fort Eerie, Ontario, the Peace Bridge was officially dedicated on August 7, 1927. The 3,580-foot steel bridge carries $40 billion in international trade each year. This stamp was issued in 1977 to commemorate the bridge’s 50th anniversary.

The longest covered bridge in America until 2008, the landmark Cornish-Windsor Bridge accommodates two-way vehicular traffic between the towns of Cornish, New Hampshire, and Windsor, Vermont. Measuring about 450 feet long, it was constructed in 1866, at a cost of $9,000, and was a toll bridge until 1943.

The double-decked San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge is an iconic structure in the San Francisco skyline. The most direct access between San Francisco and Oakland in California, the 1936 bridge is composed of three parts—a cantilever portion on the eastern span, a suspension portion on the western span, and a tunnel through Yerba Buena Island halfway across the San Francisco Bay.

The Mackinac Bridge, nicknamed “Mighty Mac,” connects the two peninsulas of Michigan across the Straits of Mackinac. Spanning a total of 26,372 feet, this bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island in New York, is named after Giovanni da Verrazano, a European explorer who sailed into the area in 1524. Two towers, each 693 feet tall, stand 4,260 feet apart; the bridge’s total length is 13,700 feet.

The Bixby Creek Bridge was one of the seven classic concrete-arch bridges that eased the way for recreational and commercial travel in California along the Big Sur coast by way of the Carmel-San Simeon Highway, now known as State Highway Route 1. Dedicated in 1932, the Bixby Creek Bridge was named after Charlie Bixby, an early settler in the area.

One of the highest bridges in the United States, the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayette County, West Virginia, features a 1,700-foot span that is the longest steel arch in the Western Hemisphere. The Washington Monument could fit under its 876-foot arch with more than 300 feet to spare.

After more than four years of construction, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic on May 28, 1937. Boasting a 4,200-foot-long main span, the “International Orange” bridge carried the moderate price tag of $35,000,000.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida was one of the first major concrete-and-steel, cable-stayed bridges in the United States. Completed in 1987, the main bridge and approach spans stretch more than four miles across Tampa Bay and link the Gulf Coast communities surrounding St. Petersburg and Bradenton. Engineers designed the cable-stayed section of the bridge to soar 190 feet above the water to allow unhindered navigation to and from the busy port of Tampa.

The 1,500-foot Eads Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri, was completed in 1874. The hustle and bustle of steamboats chugging along the river and streetcars and carriages crossing the bridge in the stamp art portrays the importance of structures like the Eads Bridge in westward expansion and the Industrial Revolution.

Bridges are truly fascinating feats of engineering. The ability to span bodies of water helped connect American commerce and travel in significant ways throughout our history. Most bridges provide stunning views of nearby scenery, too. Which is your favorite?

NYC’s Empire State Building & Other Iconic American Architecture

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On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover dedicated the Empire State Building in New York City. For 40 years this icon of American architecture was the tallest building in the world, with 102 stories and rising 1,250 feet above the ground. The anniversary got me thinking about other wonderful American buildings that have appeared on stamps. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Charles and Ray Eames completed Case Study House #8 in 1949 as part of a program to create affordable homes out of materials and technology developed during World War II. Located in Pacific Palisades, California, the house is composed of two two-story structures made of steel and glass and connected by an open court. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

Two identical apartment towers of steel and glass, each 26 stories tall, opened at 860-880 Lake Shore Drive in Chicago in 1951. Their pristine, spare elegance was the hallmark of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s famous principle that “less is more.”

A masterpiece of the Prairie style of architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House (completed in 1910) in Chicago was an important forerunner to modernism.

A National Historic Landmark, the Baltimore Cathedral in Maryland calls itself “America’s First Cathedral.” The cathedral, which was designed by Benjamin Latrobe and built between 1806 and 1821, sits on a hill overlooking Baltimore Harbor.

The central reading room in the powerful library at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire is circled by balconies containing the stacks. Study carrels are positioned along the perimeter of the building, where small windows at eye level can be closed by sliding wooden shutters. Architect Louis I. Kahn’s library for this noted prep school was completed in November 1971.

What’s your favorite building featured on a stamp? Let us know in the comments.

© Eames Office LLC 2007

Artist Spotlight: Margaret Bauer

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In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re recognizing some of the great female artists and designers who have contributed to the stamp creation process. This is the third in an occasional series of interviews.

Margaret Bauer is passionate about art and design. She spent 12 years in the Publishing Office of the National Gallery of Art, and in 2007, opened her own studio in Washington, D.C. She has designed a handful of stamps for the Postal Service. Her most recent projects were the Romare Bearden Forever® stamps and the Pioneers of American Industrial Design Forever® stamps, which were released in 2011.
I caught up with Bauer this week.

Growing up, were you interested in art?

Yes. I took afterschool art classes, and in school it was always the class where I felt most at home. We lived in New York City when I was young and we often went to museums. Also, my dad loved architecture and so looking at buildings and thinking about form was something I was exposed to.

How did you become interested in graphic design?

I took my first graphic design class my senior year in college and that’s how I learned that there was such a thing as graphic design—which was different than advertising or from being an “artist.” I immediately fell in love with it because it spoke to both my creative instincts and my sense of the meticulous.

Do you have a favorite art museum?

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice is terrific, as is the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, but I suppose if I had to pick a favorite, it would still be the National Gallery of Art in Washington. It is really and truly a national treasure, and having worked there for 12 years, it has a special place in my heart.

How did you first get involved with the Postal Service?

Art Director Derry Noyes asked me to work with her on the Georgia O’Keeffe stamp in 1995, and the collaboration took off from there. Since then we’ve worked together on Teddy Bears, Modern American Architecture, Industrial Design, and Romare Bearden.

Do you enjoy working on stamps?

Stamps are incredibly fun to work on for many reasons. I had a teacher that described stamp design as “poster design in miniature.” A lot of the same issues come into play—issues of readability and strong visuals. There’s not a lot of real estate to work with so the typography has to be carefully considered, and issues of scale and balance are important. I particularly enjoy working on sheets of stamps because then you are thinking about the composition of the sheet as a whole in addition to the design of each individual stamp. And of course it is thrilling to get a letter in the mail with a tiny piece of your creative effort stuck in the corner.

The Pioneers of American Industrial Design stamps seemed unique—what was it like working on those?

The Industrial Design stamps were sort of an extension of the Masterworks of Modern American Architecture sheet—both focused on the idea of “American Design.” At least, that’s how Derry and I conceived of them. So, the design objective was to use the basic format and palette that we used for the Architecture stamps, but rework it to fit the subject at hand, such that they might feel like part of a series and yet be unique enough to stand on their own. The difficulty came in trying to give commonplace objects a sense of presence and in finding a balance between something playful and something serious.

Do you have a favorite stamp project that you’ve worked on?

I most enjoyed working on the Architecture stamps because they were the first sheet of 12 I ever worked on and because the subject matter was unbeatable. Also, I was intrigued by the challenge of the project: how to treat the buildings in a way that wasn’t static; how to show the details of these huge structures; how to make something cohesive out of images that were so diverse. Deciding to show dramatic details, to reproduce all the photography in black and white and contrast that with colorful but very structured typography, and to stagger the stamps on the sheet are some of the solutions we came up with.

Are you working on anything specific right now that you’d like to mention?

I am predominantly a book designer, working mostly on large exhibition catalogues for museums. Right now I am designing a book for MoMA and one for the Princeton University Museum of Art.

Carmel Mission Express Mail Stamp Available Today

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The U.S. Postal Service is proud to issue the Carmel Mission Express Mail stamp today, honoring the historic Carmel Mission in Carmel, California—a landmark of the state’s Spanish heritage.

Formally known as Mission San Carlos Borroméo del Río Carmelo, it was founded on June 3, 1770. It was the second in what would become a chain of 21 Spanish missions along the coast of California, each positioned about one day’s ride on horseback from the next. Established by Spain in an attempt to colonize its territories in Alta or Upper California, the missions were run by Franciscan friars. The friars converted local Native Americans to Catholicism and taught them trades related to ranching and farming. They also instructed their charges in music, fine arts, and the Spanish language. Indian converts, or neophytes, spent their working hours herding cattle and growing European crops such as wheat. European contact ultimately proved disastrous for the California natives, as they had little resistance to smallpox, measles, and other devastating diseases the colonists brought with them.

First Day Cover (click to order)

The Mission era ended sooner than its founders intended. When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, the missions suddenly stood on foreign soil. Starting in 1833, the Mexican government began secularizing the missions and stripping them of their land. Most of the mission buildings were soon abandoned, but the mission system’s brief heyday left a lasting imprint on the art, literature, music, industries, and language of California. Distinctive elements in the state’s architecture, such as red-tiled roofs and floors, running arcades and archways, and exposed wooden beams, can all be traced back to the Mission era.

Often described as one of the most beautiful mission churches in California, Carmel Mission is known for its dome-shaped bell tower and the elaborate star-shaped window that adorns its façade. Unlike most mission buildings, which were commonly built from adobe bricks, the walls of the church were constructed from sandstone and date back to 1797. In 1931, Harry Downie, a leading authority on mission architecture, began a painstaking restoration. Carmel is now considered one of the most authentic missions in the state.

Designed by art director Phil Jordan, the stamp features an illustration created by artist Dan Cosgrove. The Carmel Mission Express Mail stamps are being issued in self-adhesive sheets of 10 at the $18.95 rate, or $189.50 per sheet.