Old Executive Office Building

Attached to the white house is a wedding cake of a structure known as the Old Executive Office Building or the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Built from 1871 till 1888 in the Second Empire French style -it originally held the State, War & Navy Departments. Designed by Richard Ezdorf and Alfred Mullett - this local favorite is built of the expected granite & slate -but also cast iron. Fun fact -there are 900 columns and 1,572 windows on the exterior!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and gets to enjoy some 'cake' of their own!

Washington Monument

One of the great things about having guests in town is that you get to do all of the cool stuff you don't ordinarily do. Tonight I spent the rainy evening visiting the Washington Monument.

Designed by the architect Robert Mills, the monument to our first president began construction in 1848 and was finally completed in 1884. The interior is made of up beautiful plaques donated from around the world. This one is the largest - from NYC in 1852. One was donated by the pope but was ripped out and trashed by soldiers at one point!

An observation deck is at the top. You can see the interior face of the stone -which is protected by glass panels seen here.

The obelisk rises 555 feet and 5 inches high, the tallest structure in DC. It was the tallest building in the world, beating the Cologne Cathedral and held this distinction until the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889.The views are spectacular as one would imagine. Visibility was low due to the rain and fog, but you can see the WWII memorial at the base of the following picture, with the lincoln memorial closer to the top.Each view is labeled above the window, as you see here.

The cap at the top is made of aluminum -which was the most precious metal at the time the building was completed due to its' rarity. Now we use it to wrap up leftovers!

Quote by George Washington written in glass inside the observation deck:

"My first wish...is to see the whole world in peace, and the Inhabitants of it as one band of brothers, striving who should contribute most to the happiness of mankind." (1785) AMEN!

The monument was recently renovated with a barrier creating an outer ring for security. An inner ring is made up of American flags.

Window displays

A friend was recently in Copenhagen and snapped this photo of the Royal Copenhagen's flagship shop window display. What great marketing! China companies probably do 75% of their business anymore from wedding registries: why not market that fact? The pretty wedding dress, cake and display of china really play into that; apparently the store was full of dresses too. I also love the reflection of the typical traditional Copenhagen streetscape in the window too!

La Ronda UPDATE

The hearing of the local commission is on Wednesday, June 3rd at 6:30PM in the Lower Merion Township Building on Lancaster Avenue to decide the counties' stand on the demolition of the Addison Mizner designed mansion. Please attend and show your support if you are in the Philadelphia area!

http://www.lowermerion.org/index.aspx?recordid=1671&page=51

Up!

This past weekend I saw the new Pixar movie, UP. WOW! You all have to see it; It may be the best Pixar movie yet! I wouldn't take very young children to it though, it has some very sad situations that were hard enough for me to take! The animation is superb and the writing is excellent. Even the small 'short' before the movie was really entertaining!Without giving too much away, the premise is an elderly widower who attaches 1,000s of helium balloons to his quirky Victorian house to fly to South America! Don't ask, just go; Let me know what you think!