The Guggenheim Museum is an iconic art museum in New York City located at 1071 5th Avenue.  This is the permanent home of an extensive collection of Impressionist, Post Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art.

   The first home of the Guggenheim was opened in 1939 in rented space by the Stanley Guggenheim Foundation.  

     The museum retained Frank Lloyd Wright to design a new home for the collection.  He proposed a cylindrical building that was wider at the top than the base.  As a cost saving measure the outer walls were made of concrete instead of stone.  Wright’s original plan was the the walls would be red; this plan was discarded for white walls.  The museum moved to the new building in 1959.

     The builds was renovated and expanded in 1992.   The Guggenheim Museum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 6/6/2008.

Qq

,

     Bayfront Park is located in Sarasota at 5 Bayfront Drive near the intersection of US 41 and Gulfstream Avenue. It sits on Sarasota Bay between the bay and the city marina.  From the park, downtown  sky line can be seen.

     The parking is free.  It features excellent paths for walking and jogging.  Fishing and boating are available.  There is a play ground and a children’s play fountain.  There is a Dolphin Fountain.

Bay front Park

     This bridge is the John Ringing Causeway aka Ringling Bridge or Gil Waters Bridge

     The first bridge at this site was built in 1925 by John Ringling.  It extended from Sarasota to Lido and Longboat Keys.  Ringling financed the bridge at a cost of $750,000.  He built the bridge to have access to his land holdings on the two keys.  The bridge opened in 1926.  Over the years, the bridge deteriorated and the damage was so extensive that in 1951 the state began to replace the bridge

     The replacement bridge was a four lane drawbridge.  It opened in 1959  The cost of the bridge was $20 million.  Around 2000, the bridge exhibited marked deterioration.  

     A new high span bridge was proposed and was built.  It opened in 2003.  This current bridge carries 4 lanes of traffic on SR 789 and a pedestrian lane.It crosses Sarasota Bay. Design is segmental box girder.  Total length of the bridge is 3,097.04 feet. Width is 106.35 feet.  Height is 65 feet.  There are 11 spans.Construction costs are 68 million dollars.  The bridge was constructed by PCL Construction.

    

   This mid century modern house was built in 1956. The architect was Ralph Twitchell from the Sarasota School of Architecture.  The house is currently for sale.  It is located on a .34 acre lot.  It has 2,377.59 square feet of space.  It has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths.

       Beginning with the Spanish explorers in the 16th century, the English Colonist, and the early American settlers, these men all  dreamed of a cross Florida canal from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.  It was not until 1932 that concrete plans were developed for this canal.  In March of 1826, Congress authorized $20,000 for a preliminary survey of canal routes by the Army Corps of Engineers. From the 1840’s until 1932, the Army Corp of Engineers considered 28 routes for the canal.  They drafted plans for a 30 foot deep waterway for large vessels to cross the state along a circuitous route from Jacksonville to Yankeetown.  The route began at Jacksonville and followed the Saint John River to Potlaka and then along the Ocklawaha River to Silver Springs then westward across land below Ocala to Dunnellon and finally along the course of the Withlacoochee River to the Gulf of Mexico.  

     In 1935 during the Roosevelt administration, construction began on the canal.  The justification was that it would be a job creator.  The construction only continued for a year.  In 1942, Congress passed a bill authorization a canal along the 1932 route.  

     However, money for the project was not appropriated.  The proposed canal was modified from the original plan.  It would be a barge canal 12 feet deep and there would be locks and dams. Nothing was done on the project until 1964.  Funding was authorized during the Lyndon Johnson administration.  This was touted as a national defense project. The construction continued for 7 years.  Approximately 1/3 of the 200 mile project was finished during this time period.

     Conservatives and conservationists mobilised to block the project.  They were able to convince the courts and President Nixon to halt the project on January, 1971.  These activist were not content with their successes.  They also sought to have existing canal structures in the Ocklawa River removed. These consisted of the Rodman Dam and adjacent reservoir without success.

     

     The Elion Hitchens Building is located on Cornwallis Road in Research Triangular Park, North Carolina.  Burroughs Wellcome and Company was founded in 1880 in London.   They established research and manufacturing facilities in the 1920’s in New York.  Burroughs Wellcome moved its headquarters and research facility to Research Triangular Park, North Carolina.  Construction started in 1969.  It was completed in 1972.  The architect selected was Paul Rudolph.  Architectural style was Brutalist.  This style emerged in the 1950’s. This type of building is characterized minimalist constructions that showcase bare building materials and and structural elements over decorative design.

     The building design was an A frame with terraced floors and angled walls and windows with an eccentrically loaded trapezoidal frame with columns inclined at 22.5 degrees.The entrance has three levels with columns.

     The original building was 300,000 square feet of space.   In 1988, 130,000 square foot wing with more offices was added.  This building was named the Gertrude Elion and George Hitchens building.                   

    Glaxo PLC acquired Wellcome PLC in 1995.  GlaxoWellcome merged with SmithKline Beecham in 2000 to form GlaxoSmithKline.     The merged corporation moved its operations from Cornwallis Road and Maughn Road to Moore Drive in in 2011. In 2012, United Therapeutics bought the building from GlaxoSmithKline along with 140 acres of land and two other buildings. The new owners tore down 400,000 square feet of the buildings in 2014. They pledged to save the remaining 150,000 square feet; this is a promise that they never fulfilled.

     United Therapeutics received a demolition permit in September, 2020. They claimed that it was too expensive to renovate.  A campaign to save the building went nowhere.  The building was demolished in January, 2021.

    This line was 16.5 miles.  It was built from 1910 to 1911. The first passenger service was in November, 1911.  This extension helped business development, residential growth and tourism in the local communities of Venice, Laurel, Nokomis and Osprey.  The last passenger train departed Venice in 1911.  The railroad continued freight service until 1992.   The abandoned line was the site of the Legacy Trail.