Building
The building was the first free-standing glass and steel frame structure of its type to be built in the United States. Construction took place from 1928-1931, when Higgins hired Boston architect Joseph D. Leland to design the new home for his collection. It was so innovative that Leland was instructed to build a one-story prototype to prove that the building would stand. The distinctive L-shaped, four-story facility is an extremely rare example of steel frame Art Deco architecture.
The interior walls of the main galleries were constructed of plaster on metal lathe, formed to resemble the stone Gothic arches of a medieval castle. In the spring of 1992, construction of an auditorium with state-of-the-art media capacity, a museum-quality climate-controlled special exhibits gallery, and fully equipped classrooms and education offices was completed. A central HVAC system was also installed to provide the proper environmental climate.
Read more about this topic: Higgins Armory Museum
Famous quotes containing the word building:
“Notice how he has numbered the blue veins
in my breast. Moreover there are ten freckles.
Now he goes left. Now he goes right.
He is building a city, a city of flesh.
He’s an industrialist.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“We have our little theory on all human and divine things. Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which, in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall—which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“By building relations...we create a source of love and personal pride and belonging that makes living in a chaotic world easier.”
—Susan Lieberman (20th century)