432 PARK AVENUE – NEW YORK CITY

432 Park Avenue is a residential skyscraper at 57th Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, overlooking Central Park. The 1,396-foot-tall tower was developed by CIM Group and Harry B. Macklowe and designed by Rafael Viñoly. A part of Billionaires' Row, 432 Park Avenue has some of the most expensive residences in the city, with the median unit selling for tens of millions of dollars. At the time of its completion in 2015, 432 Park Avenue was the third-tallest building in the United States and the tallest residential building in the world. As of 2023, it is the sixth-tallest building in the United States, the fifth-tallest building in New York City, and the third-tallest residential building in the world.

432 Park Ave. New York, NY

ASCENT MKE

 

Ascent MKE is a mass timber hybrid high-rise apartment building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 284-foot, 25-story high-rise is the world's tallest mass timber structure, edging out Norway's Mjøstårnet. It features 259 luxury apartments, retail space, an elevated pool with operable window walls, and a sky-deck.

ASCENT MKE - 700 E. KULBOURN AVE., MILWAUKEE, WI

PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL

Philadelphia City Hall serves as the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  It 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. Built of brick, white marble, and limestone, Philadelphia City Hall is the world’s largest free-standing masonry building. The weight of the building is borne by granite and brick walls up to 22 feet thick. The building structure used over 88 million bricks and thousands of tons of marble and granite. The building was constructed from 1871 to 1901. Designed to be the world’s tallest building, it was surpassed during construction by the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower. Upon completion of its tower in 1894, it became the world’s tallest habitable building. It was also the first secular building to have this distinction, as all previous world’s tallest buildings were religious structures, including European cathedrals and – for the previous 3,800 years – the Great Pyramid of Giza. With almost 700 rooms, City Hall is the largest municipal building in the United States. FUN FACT: In the 1950s, the city council investigated tearing down City Hall for a new building elsewhere. They found that the demolition would have bankrupted the city due to the building’s masonry construction. SEE ALSO: William Penn Statue

NORTHSIDE OF PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL
By Toniklemm - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81012838

UNITED STATES POST OFFICE AND COURTHOUSE (TEXARKANA)

The United States Post Office and Courthouse, also known as Texarkana U.S. Post Office and Federal Building and as Texarkana U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, is located on State Line Avenue in Texarkana, straddling the border between Arkansas and Texas. It is the courthouse of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The United States Post Office and Courthouse is the only federal office building in the United States to straddle a state line.

U.S. POST OFFICE AND COURTHOUSE - TEXARKANA

SUPERIOR DOME

The Superior Dome is a domed stadium on the campus of Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. It opened on September 14, 1991 and is the home of the Northern Michigan Wildcat football team. The dome is 143 feet tall, has a diameter of 536 feet and covers an area of 5.1 acres. It is a geodesic dome constructed with 781 Douglas fir beams and 108.5 miles of fir decking. It is the world’s largest wooden dome. The dome features a retractable artificial turf carpet. When extended, the turf can accommodate football, soccer and field hockey. The carpet is winched in and out of place on a cushion of air. Retracting the turf carpet takes 30 minutes, with full setup taking approximately two hours. The retractable artificial turf carpet is the largest of its kind in the world.

A VIEW OF THE SUPERIOR DOME FROM LAKE SUPERIOR

By Touchdown483 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9785287

MARYLAND STATE HOUSE (CAPITOL)

The Maryland State House, located in Annapolis, is the oldest U.S. state capitol in continuous legislative use, dating to 1772. The capitol has the distinction of being topped by the largest wooden dome in the United States constructed without nails.  The dine was added to the building between 1785-94, and has a height of 181 feet, exterior to the weather vane.

MARYLAND STATE HOUSE FROM COLLEGE AVENUE

By Martin Falbisoner - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28359098

GUANGZHOU CIRCLE

Guangzhou Circle is a landmark building located in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China. It is the headquarters of the Hongda Xingye Group and the home of the Guangdong Plastic Exchange. Guangdong Plastic Exchange is the world’s largest stock exchange for raw plastic material with more than 25 billion euros of annual turnover in 2012. Guangzhou Circle was designed by Italian architect Joseph di Pasquale. The building has 33 stories and a height of 453 feet. The building features an empty hole in the center that has a diameter of 157 feet. Guangzhou Circle is the world’s tallest circular building.

GUANGZHOU CIRCLE

RED DOG MINE

The Red Dog Mine is a zinc and lead mine located 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Arctic Borough of Alaska. It is owned and operated by the Canadian mining giant Teck Resources. Red Dog Mine is the largest lead-zinc mine in the world. In 1991, Alaska Structures completed a conveyor enclosure at Red Dog Mine. The conveyor enclosure is more than a mile in length and is the longest fabric building in the world.

RED DOG MINE CONVEYOR ENCLOSURE

NORTH DAKOTA MILL AND ELEVATOR

The North Dakota Mill and Elevator is the largest flour mill in the United States. It is located in the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Established by the state government when it was led by Nonpartisan League representatives, it is the only state-owned milling facility in the United States. With eight milling units, the Mill produces and ships 49,500 cwt. of milled products daily. In addition, the Mill ships over 14,000 cwt. of food grade bran and wheat midds daily. The Mill cleans, processes and mills over 100,000 bushels of top-quality North Dakota wheat daily. On an annual basis, the Mill adds value to 34 million bushels of spring and durum wheat. The terminal elevator has a storage capacity of 4.3 million bushels of wheat.

The North Dakota Mill and Elevator

POTOLA PALACE

The Potala Palace, the world’s highest palace, is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. It is located at an altitude of 12,100 feet from sea level on the “Red Hill” in Lhasa Valley. It served as the residence of the Dalai Lama, the chief authority of Tibetan Buddhism until the 14th Dalai Lama was forced to flees to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. The Potola Palace is currently promoted by the Chinese government as a tourist site. It has been declared a World Heritage site by the UNESCO.

POTOLA PALACE
By Coolmanjackey - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27853762

75 ½ BEDFORD STREET – THE NARROWEST HOUSE IN NEW YORK

75 ½ Bedford Street is a house located in the West Village neighborhood of New York City that is only 9 feet 6 inches wide. Built in 1873, it is often described as the narrowest* house in New York. Its past tenants have included Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ann McGovern, cartoonist William Steig and anthropologist Margaret Mead. The three-story house is located between Commerce and Morton Streets, not far from Seventh Avenue South in the West Village section of Manhattan. It is considered the narrowest* townhouse in New York City by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. On the inside, the house measures 8 feet 7 inches wide, and at its narrowest, it is only two feet wide. The external dimensions of the house are approximately 9.5 feet by 42 feet, on a lot that is 80 feet deep. City records list the house as 999 square feet. The current owner is George Gund IV (son of sports entrepreneur George Gund III), who purchased the house for $3.25 million in June 2013. *According to Wikipedia, New York City tax records suggests that several residential buildings may be smaller, The tax files list a 9-foot wide house that shares a lot with a larger house on East 27th Street in Manhattan, and a corner building in Greenpoint in Brooklyn with an office on the ground floor listed at just under 8 feet. (Your humble blogger is not inclined to conduct any further investigation, and is going with 75 ½ Bedford as being the narrowest house in NYC).

75 ½ Bedford Street, New York City

SPIRAL ESCALATORS

A spiral escalator is a special design type of escalator in the form of a spiral/helical with curved steps. This escalator can curve to the left or right. The first spiral/helical escalator was developed and sold by Mitsubishi Electric in 1985. Since that time, Mitsubishi Electric has continued to be the only manufacturer to offer spiral escalators for indoor use. The first spiral escalator was installed at the International Exhibition Center in Osaka, Japan. The largest order of spiral escalators was the Shanghai New World Daimaru in Shanghai, China. A total of 12 units were installed in 2015.

SPRIAL ESCALATOR INSTALLATIONS IN THE U.S.
BUILDING	LOCATION	YEAR INSTALLED
San Francisco Center	San Francisco, CA	1988
The Forum Shops at Caesars	Las Vegas, NV	2003
Wynn Las Vegas	Las Vegas, NV	2004

NEW CENTURY GLOBAL CENTER – LARGEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD BY TOTAL FLOOR AREA

New Century Global Center, a multipurpose building in the Tianfu New Area of Chengdu, China, is the world’s largest building in terms of floor area. The 330-foot tall structure is 1,600 feet by 1,300 feet in size with 18,000,000 square feet of floor space. The building houses shopping, offices, conference rooms, a university complex, two commercial centers, hotels, an IMAX cinema, a “Mediterranean Village”, a pirate ship and an Olympic-size swimming pool. The centerpiece of the building is a water park (“Paradise Island Water Park”) containing a 54,000 square-foot artificial beach where a 490 by 130-foot screen forms the horizon to offer sunrises and sunsets. Must see video!

FIVE TALLEST MASONRY DOMED BUILDINGS IN THE WORLD

NAME	LOCATION	HEIGHT (Feet)
St. Peter’s Cathedral	Rome, Italy	446
St. Paul’s Cathedral	London, U.K.	355
Global Vipassana Pagoda	Mumbai, India	315
Santa Maria Del Fiore	Florence, Italy	295
Washington State’s Legislative Building	Olympia, Washington	287

WASHINGTON LEGISLATIVE BUILDING (CAPITOL) - TALLEST SELF-SUPPORTING MASONRY DOME IN NORTH AMERICA

U.S. EMBASSY IN IRAQ

The Embassy of the United States of American in Baghdad is the largest and most expensive embassy in the world. It is nearly as large as Vatican City. The embassy complex is about five times the size of the U. S. Embassy in Yerevan (Armenia), which is the second largest U.S. diplomatic mission abroad and over ten times the size of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which is the third largest U.S. diplomatic mission abroad.

CHANCERY BUILDING - U.S. EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD, IRAQ

LONGEST AIRPORT CONCOURSE IN NORTH AMERICA

At 1 mile in length, Concourse A in the Edward H. McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, is the second longest concourse in the world. (The longest terminal in the world is in Terminal 1 of Japan’s Kansai International Airport). In addition to moving walkways spaced along its length, Concourse A has a people mover named the Express Tram. It transports passengers between each end of Concourse A in just over three minutes.

Concourse A in the Edward H. McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (Note Express Tram in the upper right hand corner of the picture)

WORLD'S FIRST TWO-SIDED BUILDING

The Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Building, located on Constitution Plaza in Hartford, Connecticut is the world's first two-sided building. It is known locally as the “Boat Building”. It was completed in 1963 and is home to The Phoenix Companies.

Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company in Hartford, Connecticut

IS IT A GARGOYLE OR A GROTESQUE?

In order for an ornamental building structure to be considered a gargoyle, it must be designed with a spout to convey water from a roof away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls. When not constructed as a waterspout and only serving an ornamental or artistic function, the correct term for such a sculpture is a grotesque. H/T Alexa

Gargoyles of Notre-Dame de Paris

6 TALLEST STATE CAPITOL BUILDINGS

A State Capitol herein refers to the building or complex of buildings from which the government of each U.S. state and District of Columbia along with organized territory, exercises its authority. While most states (39 of the 50) use the term "capitol" for their state's seat of government, Indiana and Ohio use the term "Statehouse" and eight states use "State House": Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont. Delaware has a "Legislative Hall". The State of Alabama has a State Capitol, but the Legislature has, since 1985, met in the State House. Eleven of the fifty state capitols do not feature a dome: Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Virginia.

CAPITOL	LOCATION	HEIGHT	NOTES
Louisiana State Capitol	Baton Rouge	450 Feet	Tallest state capitol
Nebraska State Capitol	Lincoln	400 Feet	Second tallest state capitol
Illinois State Capitol	Springfield	361 Feet	Tallest non-skyscraper capitol, including Washington, DC
Kansas State Capitol	Topeka	326 Feet
Florida State Capitol	Tallahassee	322 Feet	Newest state capitol and second largest state capitol
Texas State Capitol	Austin	311 Feet	Largest state capitol

Louisiana State Capitol Building, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL - TALLEST CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES

St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Roman Catholic) in New York City is the tallest church in the United States. It was completed in 1888 and is 329 feet tall.

ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL IN NEW YORK CITY