GRGR(14) 'notes' & queries #1

[David Morris]

>From: JL
>
>298.20 : ' Somebody in the thirties was big on parabolas anyhow '
>  Weisenburger sez P's association of Speer with Parabolas was something
>  of a stretch.  This throwaway line admits as much but as usual, it's hard
>  to identify the real narrator here.  Whatever, it's a good excuse to draw
>  AS into the tale.  More later on the New German Architecture, and Frozen 
>Music.
>

I don't think Speer ever used parabolas.  His forms were more "Platonic."  
Parabolas were really big in 50's Modernism, especially w/ this guy, Eero 
Saarinen:

Dulles Airport's roof structure is an upside-down parabola, constructed by 
literally hanging cables between those outward-angled posts.  This idea 
really follows the structural modelling done by Antonio Gaudi, who designed 
cathedral vaults by first constructing an upside-down model using hanging 
chains to determine the most ideal profiles for the structure.  The parabola 
makes an extremely efficient arch, in terms of economy of materials.
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Dulles_Airport.html

Another by him, the St.Louis Gateway Arch.  Makes me think of McDonalds...
http://www.nps.gov/jeff/arch-ov.htm








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