Who'd have expected that the world's best collection of stained glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) would be within an hour of Disney World? The Morse Museum also has the…
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March 10, 2020
Spur Rock Arch (destroyed). Photo: Victor Prevost, 1862
Given the size of Central Park, it was obvious to engineer Egbert Ludovicus Viele that roads would have to be built across it for use by commercial traffic. In his…
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January 29, 2020
Sunrise in Fort Myers, waiting to catch the ferry to Key West.
One of my hobbies is snapping photos as I take long walks around New York City ... and this year, in Chicago, Philadelphia, Memphis, and Florida as well. These are…
Egyptian Obelisk, a.k.a. "Cleopatra's Needle" Date: created ca. 1461 BC; dedicated in Central Park 1881Medium & size: Granite, 71 feet high, 18 feet on each side; later base and steps…
In 2019, I emailed 156 art-related items to my members of my free Sunday Recommendations list. (To join, just ask me: DuranteDianne@gmail.com.) For supporters, I recommended 52 more items. The items…
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January 1, 2020
Original reservoir, 1842. Image: New York Public Library
Imagine standing in the center of that large, open area behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, taking a deep breath … and sucking in water. For more than two centuries,…
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Except for the four brutally practical transverse roads, the only straight line in the Greensward plan is the Mall. Vaux and Olmsted thought a grand promenade was essential for a…
Jacob Wrey Mould (1825-1886) was a bit of a beast. George Templeton Strong, who admired him, called him “ugly and uncouth.” A leading architectural magazine labeled him “brilliant, accomplished, ingenious,…
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The Belvedere was closed for renovations for over a year: it was reopened on 5/28/2019. Once upon a time, Calvert Vaux designed a fairy-tale castle - not for a princess,…
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