19th Century Architecture

19th Century architecture is a wide subject only because there were so many beautiful and magnificent buildings built. The Houses of Parliament were built between 1840 to 1865. It was built by Sir Charles Barry in a Gothic Revival style. The buildings cover an area of more than 8 acres and contain 1100 apartments, 100 staircases, and 11 courts. The exterior, in it’s Revived Gothic style, s impressive with its three large towers: Victoria Tower spanning 336ft in the air, Middle tower 300ft, and Saint Stephen’s better known as the Clock Tower spans 320ft to the sky. The latter contains a clock with four dials, each 23ft long, and a great bell, Big Ben, weighing 13.5 tons. Among the house are the House of Peers; House of Commons; Saint Stephen’s Hall on the site of Saint Stephen’s Chapel; the residence of the speaker, the libraries, committee rooms, and lobbies connected with the House of Commons and the House of Peers; and offices.

A very well known structure was also built LA TOUR EIFFEL The Eiffel Tower, or as the French call it, La tour Eiffel, is the last metal construction from the 1887 exhibition. From top to bottom the Eiffel tower is a naked construction showing its rivets and seams proudly. Work on the Eiffel Tower began on January 28, 1887. With new techniques for metal construction the Eiffel Tower was completed in 26 months. With little cost and little labor the only complaints about it were directed at its starkness. The Parisian skyline is forever changed by this tower of steel. Three hundred meters tall when finished, it dominated the landscape of Paris. Later a telecommunications antenna was added to raise the tower's height to almost 350 meters. The Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the world until 1930 when the Chrysler building was built. The Eiffel Tower was built to commemorate the French Revolution. A competition was held for designs for a suitable monument. More than 100 plans were sent in, only three were picked. Of the three the only one standing today is the Eiffel Tower. Conceived by Gustave Alexandre Eiffel, who was an accomplished bridge engineer, the towers' designs were sent in to the Centennial Committee. The reply came not more than a month later, they were to build the tower. Work on the actual tower began more than five months after the designs were accepted. Progress was very fast, and by August of 1887 the first section had been completed. Throughout the building of the tower complaints flowed in about its aesthetic value. Making use of new techniques, the rest of the tower was finished with a minimum of time and money. The four semicircular arches that made the tower's base were dictated by Gustaves artistic sense. The curve of the trusses required the elevators to ascend on a curve. The elevators made by a U. S manufacturer became one of the principal features of the tower. The Eiffel Tower was the first of its kind. Preceding towers had tried to copy Greek architecture instead of being original. The Eiffel tower began a revolution in civil engineering and architectural design.

Another building built in the 1800’s was the White House, the building so well known to people was built in its original form between 1792 and 1800. Additions to the original building include the low-lying terraces or pavilions, which were constructed (1807) during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and reconstructed on those designs in 1902. The West Terrace (50 by 11 m/165 by 35 ft) connects with the three-story Executive Wing (1902) containing the president's office; the East Terrace (66 by 11 m/215 by 35 ft) joins the three-story East Wing (1942).

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