John Smeaton – the First Civil Engineer

John Smeaton first described himself as a 'civil engineer' in 1768. In doing so, he identified a new profession that was distinct from that of the military engineers who, since ancient times, had undertaken the construction of all public infrastructure. Thus, at the time, 'civil engineering' encompassed all non-military engineering. Although in 1847, after a frenzy of railway construction, mechanical engineering bifurcated from civil engineering as an independent discipline.

An innovative and intelligent man, Smeaton remains one of engineering's most revered professionals and is commonly regarded as the father of the civil engineering profession.

The son of a Yorkshire lawyer, John Smeaton was born on 8 June, 1724, at Austhorpe Lodge in the parish of Whitkirk, four miles east of Leeds, UK. Before his 16th birthday, while still at school, his precocious talent for engineering and use of mechanical tools possessed him to assemble a turning-lathe. Upon leaving school in 1742, he worked briefly in his father's chambers in Westminster Hall before persuading his father to allow him to follow some mechanical profession, young John Smeaton having decided upon a technical career.

Thus, Smeaton proceeded to become an instrument-maker - first as an apprentice, until 1750, when he set up business on his own and set about improving the instruments used for navigation and astronomy. Between 1750 and 1755 his predilection for mechanical appliances was evidenced by a number of papers that were read before the Royal Society, of which he became a Fellow in 1753, aged only 29.

His research into windmills, watermills and other sources of power resulted, in 1754, in a systematic set of scientific experiments that made it clear that an overshot waterwheel is more efficient than an undershot wheel. In 1756, Smeaton made a tour of the Low Countries where he studied the hydraulics of canals.

Further, in 1759, Smeaton won the Royal Society's Copley Medal for his paper An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills and Other Machines Depending on Circular Motion, which addressed the relationship between pressure and velocity for objects moving in air.

In 1756 the President of the Royal Society famously charged Smeaton with the construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse, a structure required to warn ships away from the Eddystonerocks, 14 miles southwest of Plymouth. Smeaton's challenge was to build a structure whose two previous incarnations had failed. The first one, made of wood in 1698, had lasted only five years until it fell to pieces, hammered by the waves. The next, made of wood and iron, burned down after 47 years. Smeaton's design, which remains a symbol of the profession and is enshrined in the coat of arms of the Institution of Civil Engineers, was completed in 1759 and lasted until 1881, whereupon it was dismantled and partially re-erected atop Plymouth Hoe.

Smeaton's industry resulted in two developments that contributed to the success of the Eddystone Lighthouse. First, he used a new kind of interlocking stone construction, and second, he developed a water-resistant (hydraulic) mortar to bind the blocks together by mixing blue lime and pozzolanic material from CivitaVecchia, near Rome. Indeed, Smeaton's seminal observation that the best hydraulic cements were those made from limestone containing certain proportions of clayey material are regarded as the starting point of the modern engineering use of cement and concrete.

Smeaton's research into the hydraulics of Dutch canals stood him in good stead for his subsequent projects, which included the construction of both the 21-mile long Calder and Hebble Navigation, from the Aire and Calder Navigation at Wakefield to Sowerby Bridge, and the 10-mile long Ripon Canal and River Ure Navigation, from the centre of Ripon to Swale Nab, where the rivers Ure and Swale form the Ouse.

However, it is for his work on the Forth and Clyde Canal, which stretches across central Scotland from Grangemouth on the River Forth to Bowling on the River Clyde, constructed between 1768 and 1790, that the canal engineer in Smeaton is best remembered.

John Smeaton's impressive curriculum vitae also includes, among many others, the following projects:

· 1762 - 1767 – Cold stream Bridge

· 1766 - 1771 – Bridgeat Perth

· 1767 - 1768 – Pumpsat LondonBridge

· 1774 - 1775 - Steam-pump at the Chasewater Mine

· 1775 - 1780 – Aberdeen Bridge

· 1776 - 1873 – Retention basin at Ramsgate Harbour

· 1777 - 1780 – Hexham Bridge

· 1788 - 1792 – Rams gate Harbour jetty

Today, having coined the term, Smeaton remains one of civil engineering's heavyweights - the breadth and depth of his influence are phenomenal. As the prototype for a flurry of like-minded 19th Century engineers (e.g. Henry Palmer, Thomas Telford, the Brunels) Smeaton, in his career, designed the first successful Eddystone Lighthouse, he greatly improved on Newcomen's steam engine, he designed windmills, watermills, canals and bridges as well as pumps, ports, mines and jetties.

John Smeaton died on the 28 October, 1792, after he suffered a stroke while walking in the garden of his family home at Austhorpe. His enduring legacy is more than the engineering works, some of which remain as monuments to the great man himself. Not only is he widely regarded as the founder of the civil engineering profession, but his methods of construction site management and supervision are still in use today. John Smeaton clearly understood that managing people correctly was as important as design and construction.

Indeed, it was Smeaton's desire that practicing professional engineers should dine together - so that they might get to know one another better and thereby avoid potential hostility that might arise in their public dealings - that spawned the formation of the Society of Civil Engineers in March 1771. The Society met fortnightly at the King's Head in Holborn, and encouraged 'conversation, argument and social communication of ideas and knowledge'.

While the Society remains as a social society today (since 1830 under the mantel of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers), it is probably true that the concept of co-operation in competition between engineers led to the founding in 1818 of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

 

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1. What is John Smeaton?

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3. When was Smeaton charged with the construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse?

4. What did he develop to bind the blocks together?

5. What did Smeaton design?

6. Why did Smeaton consider that practicing professional engineers should dine together?

7. When was the Institution of Civil Engineers founded?

Текст 3

The Empire State Building

New York has perhaps the most varied skyscraper “family” in the world. All main design styles from the late 19^th century to date are represented there – as well as several buildings that have either become cornerstones in skyscraper design, or have been notable for their sheer size, stimulating imagination even more.

The term “skyscraper” came from sailor slang, meaning the tallest mast of a ship, and thus the new tall buildings that rose close to the mast forest of Downtown Manhattan in the late 19^th century were named accordingly.

Despite having lost the record for being the tallest building in the world, upon completion of the first tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan in 1972, the 381-metre high 102-storey Empire State Building, situated between 33rd and 34th Streets on 350 Fifth Avenue, New York is probably the best-known and best-loved of all tall buildings, and earns its place (perhaps arguably) in a list of the World's Most Beautiful Buildings. A trip to New York will always be incomplete unless it involves a trip to the top.

Perhaps this is because, when it surpassed the Chrysler Building for height in 1931, the Empire State Building managed to put a cap on a tall building boom that began in 1885 with the construction in Chicago of the Home Insurance Building. The Empire State subsequently enjoyed the fruits of being the world's tallest building during the 20th Century boom of media, motion picture and Hollywood.

Somewhat cryptically, the building is named after New York, the Empire State being the state's nickname. Legend has it that when Henry Hudson sailed into what is now New York Harbor, he was so taken by the beauty and majesty of the area that he proclaimed 'This is the new Empire'.

Designed by architectural practice Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates, construction of the building superstructure began on the site of the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on 17 March, 1930.(Although excavation for the foundations had commenced on 22 January, 1930.) One of the enduring achievements of the Empire State Building was the speed of construction, which was completed only one year and 45 days later enabling the building to open on 1 May, 1931, when US President Herbert Hoover pressed a button in Washington DC to turn on the building's lights.

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining, and it is quite certain that the remarkable Starrett Brothers (general contractors for the building's construction) were the silver lining on the cloud of the 1930 stock market crash on Wall Street. Refusing to be bowed by a gripping recession, Starrett Brothers and Eken, Inc, premier 'skyline builders' of the 1920s, saw the Depression as an opportunity for both acceleration and savings. Labour and materials were cheap, and the 58, 000 ton building frame went up at times faster than a storey a day - reportedly without requiring overtime - a rate of ascent that has never been repeated in post-Empire State Building skyscraper construction. Moreover, the expected $50 million budget construction cost was scythed in half.

What is often overlooked is the Starretts' innovative project management, which revolutionised the way the construction of tall-buildings is tackled. Working to a tight programme, the Starrett's foresaw the difficulties of working in a congested city centre site, and initiated a modular assembly-type construction. Instead of importing sections for assembly on-site, sections of the steel building-frame were pre-fabricated off-site, transported into the city and then lifted straight into position.

The Empire State Building not only capped for over 40 years a burgeoning sky-scraper culture in the United States, but with its sleek Egypto-Aztec tiered pyramidical structure ended the 1920s architectural vogue for Art Deco. Each of the tower's four faç ades is indented centrally with vertical setbacks, which, unbroken from a height of 20 metres to the 86th floor observation platform at 320m give emphasis to the building's height while maintaining a sense of unapologetic unfussy boldness as it thrusts towards the sky. It is a confident structure. The tower is faced with around 5500 cubic metres of Indiana limestone and granite, and around 1000 square metres of rose famosa and estrallante marble, all outlined with aluminium and stainless steel, giving the building at once a sense of solidity, flamboyance and contemporary modernity.

The building is crowned with a series of pyramidical horizontal step-backs atop which (nowadays) is a 70-metre television mast. Originally, the building was topped off with a significantly shorter dirigible mooring mast, which had to be abandoned after several unsuccessful attempts to moor one of the great balloons.

The Empire State Building has become not only a symbol of New York but also part of its history-both real, as when a plane crashed into it 1945, and fictional, as when a model of the building was used in the 1933 version of the film “King Kong”, in the sequence in which the giant ape clings to its upper storeys while fighting off squadrons of fighter-planes.

The Empire State Building was billed at its opening as the Eighth Wonder of the World, and in support of this claim there are mosaics of the seven Ancient World Wonders in the entrance hall (lobby).

 

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1. Where did the term “skyscraper” come from?

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5. When was it opened?

6. What is the tower faced with?

7. Why is the Empire State Building a part of history-both real of New York?

Вариант 2

Текст 1

Norman Foster – Architect

Few contemporary architects could be described as household names, but then few architects have had such long and prolific careers, or have put their name to so many high-profile building projects, as Norman Foster.

Norman Robert Foster was born in Manchester in June 1935, and grew up in the working class neighbourhood of Levenshulme. He was naturally gifted and performed well at school. At the same time he took an interest in architecture, particularly in the works of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959) and the Modernist master Le Corbusier. He considered a career in architecture from an early age, but National Service and a number of rather mundane day jobs intervened. While working in the contracts department of a small Manchester-based firm of architects (John Beardshaw& Partners), however, his sketching talents were spotted, and he soon moved into the drawing department.

Foster did not need much more encouragement than that. At 21 years of age he began his architectural studies at Manchester University. Lacking in neither the attitude nor the aptitude to succeed, he won practically every prize and scholarship available. A number of these enabled him to visit Europe and take in its architecture, including the works of Jø rnUtzon (the Danish-born architect and designer of the Sydney Opera House) and Le Corbusier.

Foster's academic successes at Manchester won him a Henry Fellowship to pursue graduate studies at Yale University, USA. There he met Richard Rogers and they began a life-long friendship. After graduating from Yale, Foster travelled throughout the United States for a year, and returned to England in 1962.

He began professional practice, forming Team 4 with Richard Rogers and Wendy and Georgie Cheesman, two sisters who were also Yale alumni. Richard Rogers' first wife Su was also a member of the team. Wendy Cheesman later became Foster's first wife.

Team 4's output began with a number of small and ecologically concerned residential projects, but it was the 30, 000 sqft Reliance Controls factory (Swindon, UK, 1965-66) which made their name. This was essentially just a large steel shell containing a vast amount of flexible space. Yet it was a turning-point: the earliest example of the use of lightweight construction and industrial components, the so-called 'High Tech Architecture' which would form the basis of both Foster's and Rogers' work, and that of a great many of their peers, over the coming decades.

In 1967 the members of Team 4 went their separate ways. Richard Rogers went on to collaborate with Renzo Piano on the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Norman and Wendy formed Foster Associates, now known as Foster & Partners. 1968 saw the beginning of a long period of collaboration with the American architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, which continued until Fuller's death in 1983. Foster and Fuller worked together on the Samuel Beckett Theatre project, and on a number of theoretical designs aimed at developing environmentally friendly offices and houses. While these designs remain unrealised, this period of collaboration continues to inform Foster's architecture to this day, and provided inspiration for the office tower at 30 St Mary Axe in the City of London, the UK's first-ever ecological skyscraper.

An important early breakthrough for Foster's own practice was the Willis Faber & Dumas headquarters in Ipswich, UK. This was a pioneering piece of social architecture completed in 1974. The client was an insurance company, originally a family firm, which wanted to restore a sense of community to the workplace. Foster responded by creating open-plan office floors long before open-plan became the norm. In a town not over-endowed with public facilities, the roof gardens, Olympic-sized swimming pool and gymnasium greatly enhance the quality of life of the company's 1200 employees. All this is wrapped in a full-height glass facade which moulds itself to the medieval street plan and contributes real drama, subtly shifting from opaque, reflective black to a glowing backlit transparency as the sun sets.

Foster remains proud of the building to this day, not only because it has won as many awards for energy conservation as it has for architecture, but also because he sees this as the project where all his aspirations came together: the concept of the building in relation 'to history, to a social dimension, to energy usage, and to the appropriate usage of technology'. The building is now Grade One Listed.

Foster was able to bring fresh creativity and innovation to a building type long thought to have been fully investigated by other architects. This was proof positive that a major talent had arrived, and led to further commissions.

Among these was the 50-storey Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank headquarters (Hong Kong, 1979-86), at the time rumoured to be the most expensive building ever constructed. The building was innovative in that whereas a traditional skyscraper would be built outwards from a central solid core, Foster placed the load-bearing masts and struts on the exterior of the building. This allows the central space to serve as a vertical daylit atrium, providing natural light and considerable drama to each office floor. The concept was so successful that Foster re-used elements of it in the designs for the Commerzbank headquarters in Frankfurt, the earthquake-proof Century Tower in Tokyo, and the hypothetical Millennium Tower once proposed for the site of the bombed Baltic Exchange in the City of London.

The Millennium Tower remained little more than a pipe-dream - 400-metre towers simply do not get built in the City - yet Foster's impact on the skyline and cityscape of London is considerable.

The Baltic Exchange site was used for the 180-metre Swiss Re Insurance headquarters at 30 St Mary Axe. This is Foster's second-tallest building in London after the 200-metre HSBC tower at Canary Wharf. Foster & Partners have also put their name to mid-rise office developments at One London Wall, 100 Wood Street, and 50 Finsbury Square. They designed City Hall - the Mayor of London's new offices - along with a further office development directly adjacent to Tower Bridge. They co-designed the London Millennium Bridge with engineer Chris Wise and the eminent sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, and are currently working on the Wembley Stadium redevelopment in collaboration with HOK Sport.

Foster's work has by no means been confined to the British Isles. Perhaps the most prestigious commission completed to date was the rebuilding of the Reichstag - the German parliament building in Berlin. This was part conservation project, part new build, and an inherently emotive and sensitive challenge.

Today Foster & Partners are one of the very largest architectural practices in the world, employing roughly 500 people. They maintain offices in Hong Kong and Berlin, along with their headquarters on the South Bank of the Thames next to Battersea Park - the studio itself being a Foster creation. The firm's output is phenomenal and shows no sign of abating.

Foster ceaselessly travels the world, frequently in aircraft piloted by himself, casting a watchful eye over the numerous projects which the practice has on the go at any one time. His influences, his ambition to reduce energy consumption, and his determination to utilise cutting-edge technology in order to create the finest buildings possible, continue to inform every piece of work the practice completes.

Ответьте на вопросы по тексту:

1. What is Norman Foster?

2. When did he begin his architectural studies at Manchester University?

3. What was team 4’s output?

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5. Why does Foster remain proud of this building to this day?

6. What are Foster’s main projects?

7. What did Foster rebuild in Berlin?

Текст 2

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge, widely regarded as the most glamorous bridge across the Thames, was built because the demand for access across the Thames in London far exceeded the capacity of the existing bridges. Increased commercial activity in the East End was creating a need for more vehicles to be able to cross the river, downstream of London Bridge.

Sheer weight of traffic was causing huge problems, and over a period of 11 years around 30 petitions from public bodies were brought before the authorities. The most common suggestions were the building of a new bridge or the widening of London Bridge, although there was also a proposal for a railway line to be built at the bottom of the river.

In August 1882 the traffic over London Bridge was counted for two days to work out an average for a 24-hour period. At that time London Bridge was only 54 feet wide, yet was carrying over 22, 000 vehicles and over 110, 000 pedestrians. A committee was set up to consider the petitions and make a decision. Subways and large paddle ferries were also considered at this time.

In 1878 the City architect Horace Jones proposed a bascule bridge. 'Bascule' comes from the French for 'see-saw', and a bascule bridge at street-level has two 'leaves' that can be raised on a horizontal axis to let ships pass on the river. Similar to a drawbridge, it works on a pivot with a heavy weight at one end to balance the length (weighing 1000 tons) at the other end. It would mean that steep approaches to the bridge could be avoided. His first design was rejected, but in 1884 his second was approved, and an Act of Parliament was passed in 1885 authorising its building. The Act stipulated an opening central span of 200 feet and headroom of 135 feet when the bridge was open. In practice these measurements were exceeded by five feet and six inches respectively. It was to be built in keeping with its surroundings - the Tower of London. The site was chosen because, in an area surrounded by wharves, it was cheaper to build the north side of the crossing in the Tower's ditch than it would have been to buy the land.

Horace Jones was appointed architect. His original designs were very medieval in influence, with the bascules being raised by chains. The revised design was been jointly presented with John Wolfe-Barry, a civil engineer, and was more influenced by the Victorian Gothic style, possibly because Wolfe-Barry's father had been one of the architects on the Houses of Parliament. The bridge's main towers are similar to those of a medieval Scottish castle and the bascules open like an old castle drawbridge. Many of the decorative elements on the stone faç ade, and the cast iron work are typical of Victorian Gothic architecture.

Horace Jones died in 1887, just over a year after building work had begun. The foundations had not been completed, and the architectural designs were still only sketches. His assistant George Stevenson took over, and changed the stonework from red brick to Portland stone and Cornish granite. Stevenson also designed many of the decorative details.

The bridge was opened to traffic by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) on 30 June, 1894, on behalf of Queen Victoria. The bridge had required eight years of construction at a cost of just over £ 1, 000, 000.

Work was started on the bridge in 1886, with the Prince of Wales laying the foundation stone over a time capsule containing papers and coins. The work was intended to take only three years, but parliament was asked twice for more time. Two piers containing 70, 000 tons of concrete were sunk into the river bed to support the weight of the bridge, and it was on these that the towers were built. Because the central area of the river could not be obstructed, the towers were built one at a time. The bascules had to be built in the upright position, including the wood paving.

The towers are 293 feet tall from the foundations, and are made of a steel frame to support the great weight of the bascules, clothed in stone to fit the stipulation that the bridge harmonised with the Tower of London. They contain lifts and stairs to the two walkways running between the towers. The walkways are 110 feet above the roadway and are held in place by metal girders. They were used to stabilize the bridge, and to give pedestrians a way to cross so that they did not have to wait for the bridge to be lowered before they could cross the Thames. As boats used sails less, and steam more, the bridge took only six minutes to open and close. Most pedestrians simply enjoyed the view while waiting for the bridge to close again.

The two side-spans operate on the suspension principle; the 270-foot long approaches (decks) are hung from curved lattice girders. The girders are attached to the towers at the level of the walkway where they are linked together by a chain - each side anchoring the other. They curve down towards the road, then curve up again, reaching up and over the abutment towers at the shoreline before curving back down to the shore where they are anchored. Each chain that runs between the girders and the bridge weighs about the same as a small elephant, per metre.

The road has a width of 35 feet, with a 12.5-feet-wide pavement on either side; this makes the bridge 60 feet wide. Despite its appearance, Tower Bridge is a steel bridge, not stone, and is extremely strong. It was originally painted in a chocolate brown colour.

The bridge has always been operated by hydraulics; originally the two pumping engines were powered by steam engines, and the energy stored in six accumulators, ready for use when needed. One set of engines powered the lifting engines which worked the pistons, cranks and cogs that raised the bridge, to save wear and tear. It lifted in less than one minute to 86 degrees. The south side opened slightly before the north side, as they were controlled seperately. Since 1976 the hydraulics have been powered by oil and electricity, and the bascules now open together.

When the bridge is shut, and the leaves brought together, two bolts called the 'nose bolts, ' carried on each leaf, are locked by hydraulic power into sockets on the other leaf.

When the bridge needs to rise (this requires 24 hours notice), traffic lights stop the traffic. The road gates close, then the pedestrian gates close. The nose bolts are withdrawn, and the bridge lifts. The bascules only fully open for large ships, or to greet ships of importance. In their first year the bascules were raised 6160 times. Nowadays the bridge lifts around 1000 times a year to allow tall ships, cruise ships, naval vessels and other large craft to pass under, and can open and close in five minutes. The record amount of activity stands at 64 lifts in 24 hours in 1910.

The bridge has been the backdrop for a few exciting events, and has appeared in a number of films. These include Bridget Jones's Diary, The Mummy II, Spice World and The World is Not Enough.

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Текст 3

St. Paul Cathedral

The present St Paul's Cathedral is at least the fourth to occupy its site on Ludgate Hill; the first cathedral dedicated to St Paul was built in 640AD. As the cathedral of the capital city of the UK, it is considered the spiritual home of the nation, and is where many major events are celebrated.

Sir Christopher Wren had been approached to draw up plans to refurbish St Paul's Cathedral in 1663. The cathedral was in a very sorry state after years of Puritan neglect - Cromwell's troops had stabled their horses there, and it had become a place for 'after-dark entertainment'. His advice - to demolish it and start again - was not considered to be acceptable. Other plans he came up with were also dismissed until one week before the Great Fire of London when one was finally approved. A week later the only option was to demolish the remains of the colossal Norman Cathedral and rebuild and so Wren had to go back to the drawing board. His ideas meant a total change of architectural style.

Wren came up with a number of plans before one was finally approved (again). The rejected designs included an equilateral Greek Cross ground plan and a plan which he built as a model at a cost of three times his annual architect's fee, reducing him to tears. In 1675 he finally gained the royal warrant to start building, which gave him leeway to 'make some variations rather ornamental than essential'. He used this leeway to make some changes which would not have been approved, but since it had taken over a decade to finally gain permission to start after being first approached, who can blame him? He shortened the nave and changed the planned steeple to the now famous dome - something that wasn't considered appropriate for English cathedrals.

The old walls were demolished with gunpowder and battering rams, and the first stone of the new building was laid in the summer of 1675. The final stone was not laid until 35 years later, by Wren's son when he placed the highest stone of the lantern upon the cupola of the cathedral in the presence of his father to mark its completion.

Normally structures such as St Paul's would be built section by section from the east, opening each completed area as they went. Wren was concerned that rising costs would cause the project to be aborted, or that he would be pressured to scale down his designs so he built the entire building from the ground up, rather like a child building a Lego house. This also allowed him to keep his plans to build a dome secret until it was too late. Due to the way it was built, none of the building could be used before 1697, and he didn't get away with it entirely; half of his fees were held back so that on completion he had to petition the monarch for payment.

The building costs were met by a levy on coal which also financed the rebuilding of other public edifices. St Paul's had nearly half of all money raised, Ј750, 000, although as the cathedral wasn't complete until 1710 the cost was spread over half a century.

The Cathedral is 515 feet long including the portico but not the steps. The interior is 479 feet long. The transepts from door to door are 250 feet. The nave and aisles are only 102 feet. Height from the pavement to the top of the cross is 365 feet. The inner dome is 225 feet high with a diameter of 102 feet. The western towers are 221 feet in height. The golden ball on the top of the dome is six feet in diameter (with room inside for ten people).

A marvel of engineering, the walls and eight pillars support a dome weighing 64, 000 tons. It is made of wood with a thin covering of lead. Because it is so large and heavy, its weight would have pushed out the walls that supported it, so Wren came up with the idea of putting a giant chain into the material to prevent the walls from collapsing. He also created three domes, to lessen the weight. This meant that he could make the outer dome the size he wanted, without adding to the weight.

The inner dome is built of wood, to keep the weight down as much as possible. The middle 'dome' is a supportive cone-shaped skeleton made of wooden rafters - it wasn't solid to further save weight. The outer dome is a protective skin of lead.

The statue of Queen Anne which stands outside the west front shows which monarch ruled England at the time the cathedral was finally finished in 1710. This statue is not the original that was erected in 1712 and made by Francis Bird, but an exact (though some say inferior) replica made by Richard Belt in 1886 as the original had become dilapidated. The ladies around the base of the statue represent England, France, Ireland and North America, as at that time Anne considered herself to be queen of them all.

The original Carrara marble statue of Anne and four ladies-in-waiting was given to Augustus Hare, a writer of travel guides to London and Rome who had paid for Belt's version. He moved it to his home in Holmhurst St Mary, Sussex.

During the Blitz in September 1940 raiders dropped a landmine which lodged beneath the south-west tower of St Paul's. As Winston Churchill had declared that 'the cathedral must be preserved at all costs' every effort possible was made to save it. It took two demolition engineers three days to dig out (a feat which won them the George Cross) and when it was detonated on Hackney Marshes it made a crater 100 feet across. In December the same year the dome caught fire during a raid and the Cathedral fire watch quickly dealt with it. Another incendiary burnt through the roof and fell inside where it could be smothered safely.

The Cathedral is still a 'working church'. It is possible to get married, or have your children baptised there, but only if you are the holder of a very short list of British Orders and decorations.

St Paul's is in the City of London and is near to the Thames. It is on a roughly triangular site, with Ludgate Hill at the west (top) of the triangle, Cannon Street to the south and the junction of Cheapside and Newgate Street to the north. The closest bridge across the Thames is the Millennium Bridge, directly south of the cathedral.

Although services are free, visiting the Cathedral as a tourist does incur a charge. It is open from Monday to Saturday from 8.30am until the last admission at 4pm. Members of the public are allowed in at no charge for quiet reflection and prayer outside of services, but movements within the Cathedral are restricted. It may close to visitors at short notice for special events.

 

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1. Where is St. Paul Cathedral situated?

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5. When did Wren gain the royal warrant to start building?

6. What is height of St. Paul Cathedral?

7. What the inner dome built of?

Вариант 3

Текст 1

Renzo Piano – Architect

If built, the London Bridge Tower - a 1016 foot (310m) 'shard of glass' designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano and rising directly above London Bridge station - would be by far the tallest, and perhaps the most immediately identifiable building in Europe. Many cities would jump at the chance, but this is London. Protected views and the 'heritage' lobby are given at least as much credence as civic regeneration and economic development. As a result, such a proposal is guaranteed to generate controversy. Londoners would be justified in asking therefore, just who is this man who would build Europe's tallest skyscraper in our city?

Born in Genoa, Italy in September 1937, the young Renzo practically grew up on construction sites. The son of a successful builder, Piano studied architecture at the University of Florence and at Milan Polytechnic, while simultaneously working in the family business.

He graduated in 1964 and founded Studio Piano the following year with the support of his father. Between 1971 and 1978 he worked in partnership with Richard Rogers and it was during this period that both Piano and Rogers were catapulted into the international spotlight, as co-architects of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. At once shocking, controversial and yet genuinely elegant, Pompidou was a moment of enlightenment, quite literally redefining many people's concept of architecture overnight.

A lengthy and illustrious partnership with the engineer Peter Rice followed, initially as Piano & Rice Associates, and later through Piano's own practice, the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Today, the Building Workshop boasts an exemplary portfolio of projects completed over more than 20 years and employs around 100 staff, with offices in Genoa, Paris and Berlin.

Pompidou was revolutionary in that all services - pipes, elevators, ventilation ducts - are banished to the exterior, leaving the internal spaces as free and as flexible as possible. The result is an unorthodox and uncompromising exterior aesthetic which, perhaps not surprisingly, created a flurry of controversy. While Rogers took this idea to its literal extremes with his famous Lloyd's Building (City of London, 1986), for Renzo Piano it became merely one aspect of the architectural language he was to employ over the coming years.

The Building Workshop's Menil Collection (Houston, 1986) is an elegant counterpoint to the high-tech of Pompidou. It is a gallery and study centre, clad in clapboard and utilising a roof of ferro-concrete 'leaves' which allow the maximum of natural light to enter while fending off the direct rays of the merciless Texas sun. The Menil Collection provided a contemplative environment for the study of artworks, and demonstrated the extent to which Piano's style had matured in the decade since the completion of the Centre Pompidou.

A great many high-profile and diverse commissions followed including the 41-storey Aurora Place in Sydney, a wind tunnel for Ferrari and AS Bari's San Nicola Stadium. Arguably the Building Workshop's most ambitious project to date is the Kansai International Airport terminal, built on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, Japan. Stretching 1.7 kilometres - quite probably the longest building ever constructed - and with a vast, sweeping roof clad in stainless steel panelling, this is a truly beautiful structure and a remarkable feat of engineering. Peter Rice did not live to see the project completed, but Kansai serves as a wonderful climax to, and a fitting legacy of, this period of collaboration.

Renzo Piano's creativity continued to reach new heights with the Tjibaou Cultural Centre on the small South Pacific island of New Caledonia. The last of Franç ois Mitterand'sgrandsprojets (and therefore the product of a colonial government) this was a sensitive commission. Piano responded in style, basing his structure around lofty, soaring, wooden shells which evoke native building traditions and integrate almost organically with the landscape. Rarely, if ever, is architecture so romantic and yet so subtle.

From Pompidou to New Caledonia, Piano's style is remarkable for its broad heterogeneity. There are common factors, such as extensive use of natural lighting, frequently exposed structural components, and a determination to combine cutting-edge technology with local traditions and materials. Yet the fact remains that no two of his buildings look the same. This is because each single project is approached as exactly that: a unique challenge. For Piano, creating a building which is right for its users, for its location and for the local community is just as important as placating his fee-paying clients.

This is entirely consistent with the man's natural humility and humanity: there is a warmth which shows through in his buildings. His ability to create built environments of vast scale and which cope with enormous numbers of people - stadia, basilicas, airport terminals - and yet which empower rather than marginalize the individual is a strength all too rarely found among his peers.

Piano is characteristically understanding about Londoners' scepticism surrounding the London Bridge Tower. After all, our existing tall buildings are closed, hostile and usually very ugly office towers, machines for making money out of us and keeping us at arm's length. Renzo Piano, however, is no ordinary architect, and the London Bridge Tower would be no ordinary office block. In fact less than half of the floors will be given over to office space. The architect talks of public accessibility, sky gardens, and a peace chapel 260 metres up in the sky, not to mention a cornerstone of the ongoing economic and urban regeneration of Southwark, widely considered to be one of central London's shabbiest neighbourhoods until very recently. In describing his plans, Piano's vocabulary speaks volumes: words such as 'democratic', 'dreams' and 'love' abound.

Now well into his late sixties, Renzo Piano is as busy as ever, and the talents of the Building Workshop are in constant demand, with Piano finding it necessary to turn down 'more or less a job a day'³. The decades of outstanding work have been honoured around the world, with Piano having been awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal, the American Pritzker Prize and the Cavalieri di Gran Croce in his native Italy, among numerous other prestigious awards.

Renzo Piano is unquestionably regarded as one of the very finest architects in the world and one of few living architects who could be described as a 'Master' without fear of promptly being taken to task. Long may he continue.

 

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