If you’re in Wisconsin during the winter, you may find it a bit chilly, and rightly so. That, however, provides a wonderful opportunity to step instead some of the state’s most beautiful buildings to warm up for a while and to admire craftsmanship you’re unlikely to ever see again. Wisconsin’s architectural marvels span a wide range of styles, from evocative Victorian homes to impressive college campus buildings to nearly a dozen of Frank Lloyd Wright’s innovations. Read about the top five buildings in Wisconsin >
Tag Archives: City Hall
Lovely Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky, was proving to be a delightful city. The friendliness of the people was quite shocking (where else would a gift shop tell you to take a tee shirt for free because they didn’t have the correct change for your cash purchase?), and I was loving the fried green tomatoes at nearly an addictive level. One of my biggest surprises was the astounding architecture, especially in downtown and in Old Louisville, one of the most beautiful historic districts in the United States. Read about the top five buildings in Louisville, Kentucky >
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Montreal’s Manmade Marvels
Founded as a Roman Catholic colony by France in 1642, Montreal has been growing fairly steadily for nearly four centuries. The largest city in Quebec, Montreal has expanded to all points of the large island it occupies in the St. Lawrence River. Nicknamed “la ville aux cent clochers” (the city of a hundred bell towers), Montreal teems with beautiful houses of worship of various denominations, but there are plenty of other types of buildings that caught my eye while exploring the second-largest city in Canada. Read about the top five buildings in Montreal >
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As Straight as the Arrows That Almost Killed Him
If Cupid should hit you with an arrow, consider yourself lucky. If anyone else does, it’s going to hurt. A lot. And if multiple arrows pierce you, good luck. St. Sebastian should know. A courageous captain of the Praetorian Guards in the Imperial Roman army during the 200s, St. Sebastian, in the Christian canon of gruesome martyrdoms, suffered this particular form of torture for being a devout Christian, yet he didn’t die from his arrow wounds. Rather, he survived, aided by a pious woman, only to be clubbed to death shortly after for some bold lèse-majesté against Emperor Diocletian. Despite his ultimate fate, the saint, whose feast day is celebrated on January 20, is almost always pictured as an archer’s target practice. Read about the top five depictions of St. Sebastian >
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Centuries of Copenhagen’s Best Buildings
Copenhagen, Denmark, has a certain coziness about it. That intangible feeling is called hygge, and I could sense it in the general vibe of the city as well as in many of the places I visited. Even in the grandest buildings, some of which are hundreds of years old, somehow there is still, by and large, a sense of a human scale. Read about the top five buildings in Copenhagen >
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The Best Buildings in Portland, Oregon
Known for its focus on urban planning, Portland, Oregon, takes its architecture seriously. It’s second only to Chicago in the number of LEED-accredited “green buildings” in the United States and is steadfast in preserving and repurposing older buildings. Height restrictions on new construction preserve views of Mt. Hood. But as I roamed around this likable city, I found that the most impressive buildings were those that predated the concept of urban planning. Read about the top five buildings in Portland >
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Music in the Sky: The World’s Best Bell Towers
I’ve had the opportunity to ring the bells at the Church of St. Anne Shandon in Cork, Ireland, and at the Church of the Assumption on an island in Lake Bled, Slovenia. But, for the most part, my experiences with bell towers have been restricted to admiring their vertical beauty and listening to their heavenly music, and that’s rewarding enough. No matter their purpose, from cheerful chimes on college campuses to somber tolling marking a funeral, bell towers make for striking exclamation points in a cityscape. Read about the top five bell towers >
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Amazing Architecture Among the Alps
Famed for the splendor of its over-the-top baroque and rococo churches and palaces, Austria has an embarrassment of riches of these spectacular buildings, constructed over decades and decades, until the 20th century came along and architects began rejecting the high ornamentation of these styles. But I wasn’t visiting this central European country to see boring boxy buildings; I went to see gorgeous valleys and mountain ranges, tranquil lakes, and, in the cities, the grandeur of the long-lost art of beautiful, meaningful architecture. Read about the top five buildings in Austria >
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In a Glass by Themselves
We rarely give much thought to the ordinary glass objects around our homes—our windows and mirrors, baking dishes and light bulbs, orange juice pitchers and cereal bowls. But once you start to consider its myriad uses, from the mundane to the extraordinary, you’ll develop a new appreciation for this versatile material that begins with melted sand and ends up as fantastic artwork. Read about the world’s best glassworks >
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Big Treasures in a Tiny Capital
The compact downtown area of Montpelier, Vermont, tucks a lot into it: farm-to-table dining establishments, independently owned shops, history, natural beauty, cultural attractions. Strolling among them is delightful, especially if you appreciate architecture. The city has a surprising number of noteworthy buildings, belying its diminutive size. Read about the top five buildings in Montpelier, Vermont >
Stephen Travels 