Abigail Lera

Abby Lera
3 min readMay 10, 2020

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AAD 108 Fundamentals of Design

This class allowed me to seek different ways of analyzing, creating and appreciating architecture. Each poetic stanza artiscally explores various topics of which exsiting buildings may represent. Topics and poetic stanzas are inspired by Thirteen Ways: Theoretical Investigations in Architecture by Robert Harbison and Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, a Poem by Wallace Stevens.

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary/ San Francisco, California/ U.S. Army, Bureau of Prisons; U.S. Army/ Originally built in the 1850s as a Military fortress/ reconstructed as a prison in 1934

I

It was water, all around

It was held captive where rock meets wave

And it was claimed by many

The seabird sat

Upon the bricks of gloom that share their stories

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Now used for guided tours, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary educates about their many- layered history through the centuries, specific events that took place inside the prison walls, and currently stands as a symbol of post-Depression America.

Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall/Atomic Bomb Dome/ The Hiroshima Peace Memorial/Jan Letzel/ Hiroshima, Japan/ 1915

II

O burnt walls of consequences,

Why do you stand to remind us?

Are the photos and demolished belongings enough

To linger about the minds

That walk past the skeleton of political mistakes?

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The original Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall now stands as the Atomic Dome, showing the aftermath of World War II.

Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana/ Alicante Metropolitan TRAM/ Alicante, Spain/ began operation in 1999/ Pictured is the Plaza Luceros underground tram station

III

The tram hugs in and around the city.

This was made for us.

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The commuter rails and tram stations run alongside the natural terrain of one of the most poor cities in Spain, offering low fare prices and providing an economical way of transportation for the people of Alicante.

Muhammad I of Granada/ The Alhambra/ Granada, Spain.

IV

The curved openings and nature are one.

The curved openings, creatures, and water are one.

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This fortress is hidden amongst the hills with cleanly sculpted landscapes connected and embraced by nature that has reached the architecture.

The Edge/ Amsterdam, Netherlands/ PLP Architecture/ client: Deloitte

V

It stands translucent, light but powerful.

One day, an idea knew no limits,

nothing mattered less.

The features carry the Edge of green architecture.

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The Edge office building in Amsterdam Netherlands is named the most sustainable building in the world, reinventing what it means to be a green city and having the optimal workspace.

Palace of Fine Arts/ San Francisco, California/ Bernard Maybeck, 1964–1974

VI

At the sight of the palace

Reflecting in the water,

A beautiful Roman ruin

Represents a memory, an achievement, a reminder of human vanity.

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Maybeck was inspired by a Roman ruin, designing the Palace of Fine Arts to be a half circle, symbolizing the impermanence of grandeur and the remembrance of completing the Panama Canal.

Andre H. J. Waterkeyn/ Atomic Exhibition Building/ 1958/ Brussels, Belgium

VII

Giant atoms fill the sky.

Bars binding the molecular forces.

Shining spheres celebrate the new world, for a meaningful cause

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The Atomic Exhibition Building expresses a celebration of Atomic energy through the design concept of a iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.

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