The Point Park Civic Center was a proposed civic center for downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers forms the Ohio River. The structure was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on commission from Edgar J. Kaufmann in the late 1940s. Wright initially envisioned a circular building more than 1000 feet (300 m) in diameter and 175 feet (50 m) tall. The structure, containing an opera house, sports arena, three movie theaters, and a convention hall, was wrapped with a spiraling strip of road. The plan expressed Wright's insistence on bringing the automobile into the social setting. It did not find favor with Pittsburgh authorities. To make the design more palatable to its audience, Wright developed a radically different proposal for a monolithic tower supporting bridges across the Allegheny and Monongahela. This too was unsuccessful, and none of Wright's work for the site was ever built. The site is now occupied by Point State Park. The unused design has garnered scholarly attention, and elements of it have been compared to other Wright designs, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and his unrealized plans for Monona Terrace. (more...)
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1054:
Siward, Earl of Northumbria, led an invasion of Scotland and defeated Macbeth, King of Scotland, in a battle north of the Firth of Forth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siward%2C_Earl_of_Northumbria
1302:
Byzantine–Ottoman Wars: The Ottoman emirate scored its first major victory against the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Bapheus in Bithynia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bapheus
1663:
The Parliament of England passed the second of the Navigation Acts, which required that all goods bound for the American colonies had to be sent in English ships from English ports. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_Acts
1921:
University of Toronto researchers led by Frederick Banting proved that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/insulin
1942:
World War II: Allied forces halted the Axis invasion of Egypt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_El_Alamein
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
captious (adj): Tending to find fault at any opportunity; prone to raising petty objections http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/captious
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I've been sleeping through my life
Now I'm waking up And I want to stand in the sunshine I have never been ecstatic
Had a flower but it never bloomed In the darkness of my wasted youth
It was hiding in the shadows Learning to become invisible Uncover me. --Juliana Hatfield http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Juliana_Hatfield