Steamy Steampunk Buildings

[J. Wilhelm]

The narrowest building in Mexico City.





The
building
on 8½
Venustiano
Carranza
Street
is said
to
have
housed
"El Malecón"
("The Pier")
restaurant
on the
first
floor.
Today
that floor is
a cellphone
repair
business.

[morozow]

Tomsk, Shishkov's house — Vyacheslav Shishkov, the author of the classic Soviet work "The Gloomy River", lived here in the 1910s. He stayed in Tomsk for almost 20 years: he worked as a technician, an engineer-prospector of waterways, participated in expeditions along Siberian rivers.

In the book "Wooden Architecture of Tomsk" for 1987, the house is characterized as follows: "Houses No. 10 and No. 14 on Shishkov Street were built at the beginning of the XX century... The architecture of these buildings also has features characteristic of the late XIX – early XX centuries, but the palace, majestic character of the buildings with huge, exquisitely decorated windows and cornices, gates, gates and courtyard facades distinguishes them from the general series of buildings of that time... Three-dimensional overhead carving decorating the end boards and sidewalls of the platbands, and openwork carving of the tympanum of the platbands and the frieze of the cornice create a unique game of decor. A special place is occupied by the sawn carving, which gives the building a special lightness and grace."

[J. Wilhelm]

Current location for a branch of the Irish-inspired casual dining chain "Toks" in Mexico City. The building was the private residence of local magnate Sebastián B. deMier, and his wife Guadalupe Cuevas Rubio deMier. The house was built in 1899 during the Porfiriato (Porfirian Era, I've heard some English-speaking historians call it), when the country had an open door policy for well to do European migrants, which massively pushed industrialization in the 20th C.

What a place to eat some cheap food and down a few beers!  Toks was a chain that started in the 1970s and inexplicably has managed to survive every since. Maybe they got a leprechaun looking after them.

The house in 1910 at the start of the Mexican Civil War (Revolución)

[Sir Henry]

Their logo fits the building as well as a bat in a soufflé! 

[J. Wilhelm]

[Image]

Their logo fits the building as well as a bat in a soufflé! 

1970s logo on late Victorian Era building.

[chironex]

Staying in the Hotel Claremont, South Yarra; another magnificent Victorian building falling apart due to inadequate care. The rest is up and down Toorak Road, near South Yarra Station.

[J. Wilhelm]

A treat I just found online today. With a chunk of history to boot. I don't think I've posted anything about this beyond one or two casual photos without context before, so I'm surprised I'm finding this now with meaningful information to post. It just goes to show you old cities are a never ending source of surprise.

Source: Mercedes Díaz @mechediazortega on Twitter.

The San Rafael Foundation in Mexico City dates back to 1845, as a group of prominent architects, alumi from the San Carlos Academy, who built elegant mansions in a plot of land comprised of 8 city blocks. Most of the surviving buildings were built later during the Porfiriato Era (~1877-1911), which I've talked about before, during which there was a great increase in European migration into the country.

One of the largest building complexes, "La Privada Roja" ("the red gated street") in the area, housed the Italian embassy. Located right next to a railroad station, the complex built with bricks featured over 400 arches and solid pine wood doors.

Already a historical building by 1920, the property was purchased by Mexican engineer Luis Azcué, whose family kept close a relationship with other famous international migrants and Art Deco Era celebrities in Mexico, like Franz Mayer, Frank Sanborns, Diego Rivera and Gustavo Baz.

[chironex]

DSCN4538 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4510 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4507 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4499 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4494 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4579 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4293 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4290 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4286 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4360 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4359 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4346 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4562 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4552 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4541 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4540 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4535 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr
DSCN4529 by Daniel Broomhall, on Flickr

[chironex]

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjALFd5
What I saw in Maryborough last weekend.

[Sir Henry]

I really like this one because it looks like they built the columns in order to support a rooftop garden. Then , once it was built, they thought it might be a good idea to fill in the rest of it underneath.

[J. Wilhelm]

I really like this one because it looks like they built the columns in order to support a rooftop garden. Then , once it was built, they thought it might be a good idea to fill in the rest of it underneath.

What period is this? Because there's a number of US late colonial era buildings that have the same look (flat rooftop with balustrade all around).  What would have been the largest sale ($3 mill) in our late grandfather's company involved covering the whole facade of a large reproduction mansion similar to that one in Houston. 

[chironex]

Built 1914-15.

[chironex]

The new ground-level storefront just doesn't work for me. And what does it do now? Roughly the same as the Jubilee Building next door.

[J. Wilhelm]

The new ground-level storefront just doesn't work for me. And what does it do now? Roughly the same as the Jubilee Building next door.

Yeah. That's s commonplace occurrence for buildings in Austin. There's no formal protection to historical buildings, so owners are free to adapt the building throughout the decades. What looked like a good idea in 1956, turns out to look horrifying to a 2023 observer trying to catch a glimpse of the past.

It's still a nice building, though.

[J. Wilhelm]

Which beings me to this next building. I don't remember posting anything about it before.  Hopefully I'm not wrong.

Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas.

The Paramount Theatre is a live / movie theater built in  classical revival style structure was built in 1915, in the Classical Revival Style.

From Wiki

The four-story theater was built by Ernest Nalle, who commissioned architect John Eberson to design the building in January 1915.[5] The theater opened under the name "The Majestic" on October 11, 1915, and hosted various vaudeville performers including the Marx Brothers. In 1930, the theater was purchased by Karl Hoblitzelle, who renamed it to the "Paramount Theatre" and added carpeting, upholstered seating, and the addition of a giant lighted blade sign reading "Paramount".[5] In 1941, the theater was purchased by the Margaret Reed Estate.[6] In November 1963, the building's facade received a renovation. The renovation included the removal and reprogramming of the signature blade sign. However, the sign was never re-installed and its fate was never revealed.[7]

By the 1970s, the popularity of television and suburban movie theaters led to a decline in theater attendance. In 1975, proprietors John M. Bernardoni, Charles Eckerman, and Stephen L. Scott formed a nonprofit group to restore the building, which was in deteriorating condition.[5] Local philanthropist Roberta Crenshaw, who owned a 50% stake in the building through her late husband's estate, donated her half of the trust to the nonprofit, meanwhile, the other half of the trust offered a 99-year lease.[6] In 1976, the theater's listing on the National Register of Historic Places qualified the venue for federal restoration funds. Renovations began in September 1977 following a $1.85 million grant from the federal government, which was also used to spur economic development in Downtown Austin.[5]

In 2015, the theater embarked on an effort to recreate the signature blade sign that was lost in 1963. Since there were no known architectural or engineering plans for the original sign, the designers analyzed old footage of the theatre that included the sign. On September 23, 2015, the blade sign was lit for the first time in over 50 years.[7]

[Hurricane Annie]

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjALFd5
What I saw in Maryborough last weekend.

Yhat is  Incredible  architecture. It was a creative era

[Synistor 303]

I love the contrast of the building next to it!!!

[chironex]

Flinders Street Station, Melbourne.

[J. Wilhelm]

Not a building, but the largest remaining wood railroad bridge in the world. There are talks regarding potential rehabilitation of this structure.

From @fasc1nate on X.com:

The Goat Canyon Trestle, found in San Diego County, California, is the biggest wooden railroad bridge globally.  Built in 1919 as part of the Carrizo Gorge Track, it stretches over 600 feet long and 186 feet high, made of redwood beams, showcasing remarkable engineering for its time.  Situated in the Anza-Borrego desert, the area posed challenges for building the railroad, leading to its nickname, "the impossible railroad." It involved constructing 17 tunnels and many trestles.  Over time, the trestle has faced damage from fires and floods, notably during Hurricane Kathleen in 1976, which caused several tunnels and trestle beams to collapse, prompting the Southern Pacific Railroad to abandon the line.  Despite its abandonment, the Goat Canyon Trestle attracts hikers and adventurers, who embark on a 6-mile roundtrip hike to reach it.  Abandoned rail cars in the area add to its appeal. As of January 2018, the Baja California Railroad was evaluating the line for potential repairs to revive its operation.