A marble obelisk designed by Lin Huiyin rises ten stories above Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Dedicated to the martyrs of the 19th and 20th centuries fighting for communism, the Monument to the People’s Heroes was constructed in 1952, though it has since also been assigned as a memorial to those who died in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. This is one of the few new projects designed by Lin Huiyin, who had a deep passion for restoring and preserving historic structures.
In 1932 Lin and her husband we asked to help restore the Wenyuan Chamber to preserve it for the future generations to come. They thoroughly analyzed its structure and integrity in order to find the most productive way to preserve the palace and imperial library.
This monument built for the Bhuddist monk Jianzhen became a restoration project for Lin and her husband in the mid 1930s. He traveled many times to spread Bhuddism to Japan, eventually becoming ill and blind. This is just another important historical and cultural structure Lin helped restore and preserve for us to appreciate today.
Lin Huiyin was involved in not only the design of the Chinese national flag but also in the design of the national emblem of the People’s Republic of China. Working as a professor of architecture at Tsinghua University and was involved in their proposal of a national emblem. Pictured is the Tsinghua University jade disk emblem proposal. In spirit with Lin Huiyin’s passion for preserving history, the proposed emblem was regarded as” too bourgeoisie” due to its multitude of traditional symbols.
The Nagle Warren mansion, located in Cheyenne, WY, was built in 1888 by Erasmus Nagle. After serving as a place of residence and before serving as the bed and breakfast it does today, the Nagle Warren Mansion was gifted to the YWCA and served as chaperoned housing for single women. It has twelve rooms, primarily decorated in Victorian styles, with the odd additions of a giant Moroccan chandelier in the foyer and ceilings adorned with carved leather in a few rooms. This building is also a historic landmark in my hometown, and I remember it from tours when I was a little kid. I don’t have any particularly fond memories of this building, but I do remember it standing out to me due to some of the oddities of its design and décor – all essentially original pieces of this mansion.
Designed by Henry Van Brunt, the Union Pacific Railroad Depot in Cheyenne, Wyoming is a western historic landmark. It stands facing, as well as just down the street, from the state capitol. Since its construction in 1887, it has been converted into a museum and serves as an opportunity to teach the history of my hometown. There has been a plaza built that serves as a gathering location for small concerts, and every summer there is a free pancake breakfast served by the local boy scout troops. The depot is the center of some of my fondest childhood memories because when you step inside, you are taken back in time to the wild west. The historical elements of the depot are preserved incredibly well, due to the sandstone exterior’s capability to resist the brutal winters of the plains. When you step inside, you are taken back to the days of the wild west and it feels as though you’re living the birth of the city with the pioneers.
Devon Energy Center, or Devon Tower, is a skyscraper that reaches 50 stories in downtown OKC and serves as HQ for Devon Energy. The project was designed by Jon Pickard and cost an estimated $750 million USD to complete. The first time I ever saw Devon tower as the day I moved to Oklahoma for college. After a 6 hour drive, the afternoon sunlight reflected off of the angled top of the tower and cast a beam of light across the OKC skyline. After being exhausted for driving for two days on end, it was literally the light at the end of my tunnel – completing my journey across states and signaling the beginning of the next chapter of my life. Every time I see Devon, I’m reminded of my first memory of it. Devon Tower is a giant compared to the rest of the city’s skyline, capable of being seen from miles away and mirroring Oklahoma’s skies across the metro.
The Museum at Prairiefire offers several dynamic approaches to natural history, science, and culture. I chose to blog about this building because of its beautiful stained glass exterior. It also uses a multitude of colored metals in a shingle-like pattern to create a seamless transition into the geometric design of the walls. This building looks like a castle out of a fantasy to me and reminds me of the happy memories I made touring it with my coaches and some of my closest friends after a long week of competition at a national debate tournament.
