Staten Island in New York City

16 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  8 minutes

Conference House © Dmadeo/cc-by-sa-4.0

Conference House © Dmadeo/cc-by-sa-4.0

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city’s southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 495,747 in the 2020 Census, Staten Island is the least populated borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km²).   read more…

Miami Modern architecture (MiMo)

14 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  7 minutes

Bacardi Building in Edgewater © Averette/cc-by-3.0

Bacardi Building in Edgewater © Averette/cc-by-3.0

Miami Modernist architecture, or MiMo, is a regional style of architecture that developed in South Florida during the post-war period. The style was internationally recognized as a regionalist response to the International Style. It can be seen in most of the larger Miami and Miami Beach resorts built after the Great Depression. Because MiMo styling was not just a response to international architectural movements but also to client demands, themes of glamour, fun, and material excess were added to otherwise stark, minimalist, and efficient styles of the era. The style can be most observed today in Middle and Upper Miami Beach along Collins Avenue, as well as along the Biscayne Boulevard corridor starting from around Midtown, through the Design District and into the Upper Eastside.   read more…

Philadelphia City Hall

6 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© flickr.com - nakashi/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – nakashi/cc-by-2.0

Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, City Hall houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the offices of the Mayor of Philadelphia. It is also a courthouse, serving as the seat of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and houses the Civil Trial and Orphans’ Court Divisions of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.   read more…

Brownstones in New York City

3 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Living, Working, Building, New York City Reading Time:  11 minutes

Brownstones in Park Slope © Mikeruggy/cc-by-sa-4.0

Brownstones in Park Slope © Mikeruggy/cc-by-sa-4.0

Brownstone is a brown TriassicJurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Brownstone, also known as freestone because it can be cut freely in any direction, was used by early Pennsylvanian Quakers to construct stone mills and mill houses. In central Pennsylvania, some 1700s-era structures survive, including a residence known as the Quaker Mill House.   read more…

Hialeah in Florida

30 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  4 minutes

Taco Bell © flickr.com - Phillip Pessar/cc-by-2.0

Taco Bell © flickr.com – Phillip Pessar/cc-by-2.0

Hialeah is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. With a population of 223,109 as of the 2020 census, Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida. It is the second largest city by population in the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people at the 2018 census. It is located west-northwest of Miami, and is one of a few places in the county—others being Homestead, Miami Beach, Surfside, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, and Golden Beach—to have its own street grid numbered separately from the rest of the county (which is otherwise based on Miami Avenue at Flagler Street in Downtown Miami, the county seat).   read more…

Arlington Heights in Illinois

29 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  12 minutes

Harmony Park in Downtown © panoramio.com - bogdanstepniak/cc-by-3.0

Harmony Park in Downtown © panoramio.com – bogdanstepniak/cc-by-3.0

Arlington Heights is a municipality in Cook County with a small portion in Lake County in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of the city’s downtown. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 77,676. Per the 2010 Census, it is the most populous community in the United States that is incorporated as a “village”, and is the 13th most populous municipality in Illinois, although it is not far ahead of its nearby Illinois neighboring villages of Schaumburg and adjacent Palatine. Arlington Heights is known for the former Arlington Park Race Track, home of the Arlington Million, a Breeders’ Cup qualifying event; it also hosted the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships in 2002. The village is also home to the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, which has one of the largest collections of books in the state.   read more…

Pleasanton in California

28 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Michael C. Berch/cc-by-sa-2.5

© Michael C. Berch/cc-by-sa-2.5

Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the Amador Valley, it is a suburb in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 79,871 at the 2020 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in the United States by the Census Bureau. Pleasanton is home to the headquarters of Safeway, Workday, Ellie Mae, Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Blackhawk Network Holdings, and Veeva Systems. Other major employers include Kaiser Permanente, Oracle and Macy’s. Although Oakland is the Alameda County seat, a few county offices are located in Pleasanton. The Alameda County Fairgrounds are located in Pleasanton, where the county fair is held during the last week of June and the first week of July. Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park is located on the west side of town.   read more…

Billionaires’ Row in Manhattan

27 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, New York City Reading Time:  9 minutes

Part of Billionaires' Row and Central Park (background) © Itrytohelp32/cc-by-sa-4.0

Part of Billionaires’ Row and Central Park (background) © Itrytohelp32/cc-by-sa-4.0

Billionaires’ Row is a set of ultra-luxury residential skyscrapers, constructed or in development, that are arrayed roughly along the southern end of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. Several of these buildings are in the supertall category, taller than 1,000 feet (300 m), and are among the tallest buildings in the world. Since most of these pencil towers are on 57th Street, the term has been used to refer to the street itself as well.   read more…

Glendale in Arizona

22 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Glendale Glitters around Christmas © Gage Skidmore/cc-by-sa-3.0

Glendale Glitters around Christmas © Gage Skidmore/cc-by-sa-3.0

Glendale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located approximately 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Downtown Phoenix. It hasd a population of 248,325. In the late 1800s the area that is now Glendale was all desert. William John Murphy, a native of New Hartford, New York, who resided in the town of Flagstaff in what was then the territory of Arizona, was in charge of building the 40-mile-long (64 km) Arizona Canal from Granite Reef to New River for the Arizona Canal Company. In 1885, he completed the canal, which would bring water to the desert land. Murphy was deep in debt, since he had agreed to be paid in Arizona Canal Company stock and bonds and land instead of cash.   read more…

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