The federal Hall National memorial was built in the 1840s in place of the original Federal Hall. At present the building is a museum in commemoration of the historical heritage associated with the building. The building acquired its current name -The Federal Hall National Memorial was – in 1939 and is under the register of historic places (New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2009). The building is opened to the public on weekdays and has a tourist information desk. Inside of its compound, there are shops the sell colonial time items. The most remarkable items of the Memorial include the George Washington Inauguration Gallery, which has both the Bible and oath of office used in his inauguration. There is the freedom of press section which highlights the underscore the incarceration of John Zenger. The journey to federal hall is an exclusive video of the history of the monument (Davidson, 2006). Space is an important environmental, artistic, economic, and entertaining value. Some space of scenic value to the community and their economic value might be hard to quantify. Preserving an incorporating of a site natural feature into useable open space enhances increases the economic value of the neighborhood. Open space also enhances aesthetic beauty of an object.
The building represent in several way the history and the ideals of the American fore fathers. The architectural design especially has a historical importance both to the history of the United States and meaning of the origin of the architectural design. The building borrows heavily the used of Dolic column from Parthenon, an old Greek architectural masterpieces (Whiffen & Koeper, 1981). The essence of the Dolic column signifies the Greek democracy, which is replicated in America. Inside the monument, the domed ceiling signifies the Parthenon and symbolizes Roman economic might.
The Greek Connection
The building is notable from a distance by the heavy columns design borrowed from ancient Greek architecture. A Doric column is thicker than the Corinthian columns. The ancient Greek uses the Dolic columns on buildings which demonstrated strength and masculinity. The columns were normally used to builds which were to accommodate more structure on the top. The slender columns such as the Corinthian were utilized for upper storey buildings. The Doric columns were use up to about 100BC the columns dominated the classical, Neoclassical and Antebellum period. The classical period started in Greek and was used to build great temple, which include the Parthenon temple, while simple columns were used for small buildings (Whiffen & Koeper, 1981).
The entablature is the building upper section just above the column and below the roofing. The entablature used the order of Architecture to which was a principle guiding the building. Orders of architecture have five principles which were adhered to during the construction of important buildings such as temples. The pediment which is a triangular design building in ancient Greek is also borrowed from the Greek. The Federal Hall design, was originally a 26 columns building housing the City Hall of New York (Nielson & Taylor, 2002). Later, upon decoration, the Federal Hall National memorial was erected on its place. The development makes the public space in the building stand out as a unique feature of a public monument.
The stairways that lead to the entrance of the Hall are raised to more than human height which give the building an imposing strength and might. Outside of the stairway, the statue of the first president of the United States, George Washington, stand tall from the height of the stairs. The interior of the Federal Hall provides visitor an ample space to experience the feel of beautify of the ancient beauty of the building, which borrow and span in to thousands of years ago (Davidson, 2006). There is a variety and atmosphere of discovery of pleasant experience on the rich architectural heritage of the design masterpiece in the structure. The arrangement of architectural features gives the important utilization of the space by the design. It is used to express the characteristics and the feature of the historical importance of the monument.
The Federal Hall National Memorial building makes use of the characteristic of space in its design. The building has capitalized on the design, scale, architecture, rationality produce interesting visual characteristics. The design has also been able to allow the accommodation of several uses for the building. Federal Hall National Memorial can be accessed form different means include driving and biking (Pile, 2007). The monument has also been able to keep enhance the environmental and natural features. In the eyes of a visitor, the buildings provide and communicate about the local characters and personality of the community (New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2009). The monument has also help improve social integration and create a sense belonging to one community and good neighborliness. It ha also provide the people who pay a visit, a comfort and safe environment. It also encourages cross-sectional interaction of people of diverse backgrounds. The building’s affords a human constant and social activities, confronting and safe movement of the people. The design and architectural feature are interesting to the eye.
Design elements are the foundation of a painting, or any design and include such properties as color. Color play a large role in design element color has been used to emphasis on the visual impact of certain color combination. Color has been used in organizing, developing and creating consistency in the historical importance of the monument. The texture of the interior design gives the viewer the idea behind the original architectural design objectives. The tactile texture has been applied in some selected areas to give more meaning to texture and fell of the design. The use of visual texture is dominated in the interior design that demonstrates ambience and elegance (Davidson, 2006). The color uses accentuate space in the design of the interior property of the monument. The overlap design where an object appears to be overlapping one another making the top overlapping object appear closer than in reality. Also some elements of shading have been used to give a two dimension an appearance of a three dimension. To achieve this, the design applies the highlight techniques, light transition, and reflected light. The use of linear perceptive has been employed to give the impression of space in the design. This principle of making an object smaller to indicate the distance has successfully been applied to create depth. The form has been use to create and emphases the importance of space in the interior design of the monument. The organic form and the synthetic form are applied to create increase space from top to bottom and also horizontally. This has been achieved through creating more than one shape in the design. It is further enhance by use of color, texture and tone (Nielson & Taylor, 2000).
The design also provides design unity; where all elements are in agreement to produce a balance design giving all the design elements equal opportunity to contribute to the whole. The method of proximity, similarity and rhythm has achieved balancing. Balance is equalization of tension and sizes. The symmetry balance is achieve throughout the architectural design by producing an informal balance which is active and eye catching. Radial balance is achieved by concentrating the design on a central object. The dome in the main hall of the Federal Hall has a transparent roof at the centre to emphasis the centre of the dome (Pile, 2007). There is hierarchy in the sequence of architectural design used in the Federal Hall design. The hierarchical design is used to arrangement elements to emphasis the importance of it. Scaling is used relative size to each other to direct attention to a certain point of focus. Similarity and contrast have been achieved by planning similar design at make it noticeable and avoid much familiarity in order to maintain the interest of the viewer. The design of the interior arrangement makes the space worth a great space in the monument and the surrounding
The design theory gives the insight in to the understanding of the principles behind any design work. There various elements of designs such as lines, shape, space, and texture. The principle of design of movement is applied in moving and not static objects. The design principle can be used in a static object to help create a sense of movement to avoid making it still and lifeless. Patterns and paintings are some of the ways used to achieve this adjective. Through a combination of various patterns, the eyes get illusions of movement in the pattern (Nielson & Taylor, 2000).
Rhythm and movement is the effect of the picture on the eye of a viewer. Use of color can help determine the theme of the design and intensity of the movement. A good design painting should give an opportunity for the viewer to move hi or her eyes around the painting. The Federal Hall National Memorial design creates the impression of strength based on the ideals its architectural design was borrowed from. The use of the Doric column popular with the Greek has two significant meaning: The rich heritage of the Greek democratic ideals and which were embraced by the American people and the strength of the principle of democracy in the country. The Federal Hall design was developed with various use and purpose of the monument in mind. In its existence, the monument has been used for various purposes including being the City Hall of the city of New York (New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2009).
