Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Intentions of an architect

This is a building located at the corner of Addison and Shattuck. Built during the great depression in 1934, it was built as S. H. Kress & Co.; the trading name of a chain of "five and dime" retail department stores in the United States, which operated from 1896 to 1981.





The upper level of the S. H. Kress building in Lubbock, Texas showing the characteristic architecture of the stores. This is an example of an architectural style that is shared and located all throughout the United States. With this, there is an identification and demonstration of a shared sense of order that characterized the thoughts and views of those involved in the construction and design of these building, in this case S. H. Kress & Co.



This is what the building looks like today. The architectural style and design maintains, there is even the original Kress lettering on the front, however the user intentions are now replaced. The business that operates out of this structure now , Half Price Books.

With these examples of Berkeley I wanted to focus on structures within Berkeley that had a fixed intention. I went looking for buildings that were built and designed from the ground up with the intention of permanence with use. These buildings are structures that can not be easily converted to serve any other purpose besides the one that they were built for. With this, these structures have a fixed nature of order.





This is an image of the architectural design and layout of the Berkeley public library building.







Special attention was given to the preservation of the exterior architectural elements and the restoration of the 45-foot tall Reference and Reading Rooms.









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