Central Railroad NJ Terminal

A few weeks ago, I went to Liberty Park in New Jersey.  I came across a very intriguing train station.

Its train tracks are home to a forest of plants that grow as high as fifteen feet. It looks as though the concrete and steel that were designed and built in 1889 were just the prelude to this perfect balance between hard and soft, man and nature. The rusted tracks are still visible in certain places while the gray concrete platforms have cracked to allow luscious green to flourish. A couple of old train cars and locomotives still occupy their places on the tracks, but they look like they belong to the earth that is slowly reclaiming the iron they are made out of. The big wheels that used to move across thousands of miles do not give a single hint that they are tools of transportation. It was the first time I saw anything be so still and yet so alive.

 After marveling at the sight of these twenty tracks for a good while, I finally decided to look around me. The building of the old train station, as I discovered later, was built by Stearns and Peabody, a Boston based firm that created this brick structure in response to the transportation needs in the area. This station was also used to accommodate about 80% of immigrants that entered the United States through Ellis Island. In fact, the ferry terminal east of the building is still used today for the visitors of the museum at Ellis Island. The decoration on the outside looks very Victorian while on the inside, the building is decorated with many details of steel to celebrate the American Industrial age. In the 1960s the Railroad company declared bankruptcy and the train station was abandoned in 1975. 

In my opinion, this place is a jewel, not only for its history, but also for the experience of this occurrence that allows people to see nature in an uncommon light: that of reclaiming what was once taken from the Earth.

Prairie Style

It is nearly impossible to accurately summarize all the great things that Frank Lloyd Wright brought to American architecture as well as the lives of American people. The Prairie style was the beginning of a revolution in the way the American middle class lived. Wright opened up the living area in the home. The living room was not a room anymore, but rather a space defined by walls but not confined by them. The same thing happened for the dining room and in most houses the kitchen as well. There is an ease of movement that exists in this type of house which is unseen in the colonial style home which was the standard American home until the beginning of the 20th century. The living room in a colonial home is just that: a room closed off to the rest of the house. The images below are of the Jacobus Vanderveer house in New Jersey and of the Robie House in Chicago. Guess which one is Wright's house.

The Vanderveer house was built in 1776 and it underwent major renovations, the last one occurring in 1910. The Robie house was built in downtown Chicago in 1909. Most houses in the US built since this time period have had at least a bit of influence from the prairie style house in the way that the living space is organized for the inhabitants.

For more information on the Vanderveer House, click here.
For more information on the Robie House, click here.

Taliesin

Frank Lloyd Wright is America's most influential architect. He revolutionized the way the american middle class lived. The homes that have been constructed since then are in many ways reproductions of Wright's designs in the way that space is organized and centered around the hearth.
Wright developed this new type of design over decades making it difficult for one to pinpoint the first house of it's kind. The Prairie Style - as it is commonly referred to today - began with the Wilson house which was one of Wrights early commissions. However, the house that details the evolution of Wright's ideas is Wright's own house, Taliesin.
Taliesin was first built in 1911 in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The house was the victim of two major fires which were the cause for the names Taliesin I (1911), Taliesin II (1914) and Taliesin III (1925). Because of these fires, Wright was forced to rebuild the house and each time, modifications were made where Wright changed and modified the house to suit his family's needs as well as the needs of his practice which underwent drastic changes during these periods. Even through all the fires and renovations, Taliesin is still the symbol of the Prairie Style: a house that is made for the American family and is connected with nature both physically and aesthetically.

The house sits on top of a hill with beautiful landscaping all around it. Steps carved out of natural stone lead the visitor to the house which is concealed by trees and greenery around it. Various horisontal planes of shingled roofs give the impression that the house has not been imposed on this plot of land. Instead, it is an extension of the landscape and it seems as though this house is as big a part of this hill as the grass that covers it and the trees that grow out of it.
The entrance into Taliesin may be compared to the entrance into a cave at the side of a mountain. However, once inside, one has entered a haven of light and warmth. This is all achieved by the numerous windows and wooded floors and trimmings all around. The windows allow light while keeping the harsh rays of the sun from entering which allows for a glow of sorts. The wood adds to the warmth of the space by making this feel a much natural form of shelter.