Researcher finds the building built using Golden Mean, statue of Mercury, sphynxes...bison?
From the Globe.

Sundown in the Paris of the prairies
Wheat Kings have all their treasures burried

It is not at all unlikely, but also not at all unsual. Lots of architects (and other artists) of that generation were obsessed with all things occult, and not least sacred geometry. I guess they had too much time.

Legislature Tour

I don't remember the exact details, but the same sort of thing holds true in washington dc. General George presided over the laying down of the cornerstone of the...congress? Capitol? Man, I'm forgetting. Anyway, he was there in full masonite regalia. Blessed the cornerstone and all.

Oh, yes. Unless you want to drown in a sea of conspiracy theories, don't google "washington+pentagram+mason". Too many things to boogle the mind. You'll begin to see every old monument and facade decor with suspicion... nothing but needles channeling the subterranean forces, or so would Eco say.

And what's going on with the eye and the pyramid thing on the back of US $1 bills? Huh?

I love this kind of stuff, in small quantities...



Annuit Coeptis : Providence Has Favored Our Undertakings

Novus Ordo Seclorum : A new order of the ages

quoteNOTE: "Novus ordo seclorum" was not intended to mean (nor does it correctly translate into) "new world order." Seclorum is plural (new worlds order?). And Thomson said the motto refers to the beginning of a new age – an American era beginning in 1776. The pyramid's rising rows of construction help illustrate this new series of generations.unquote

I thought this was the "Occult Bacon" thread.....durn.

quote:

Originally posted by boogerhead:
I thought this was the "Occult Bacon" thread.....durn.

damn, you too? musta been leftover brain activity from those bacon cheese burgers for lunch..... mmmmmmm, bacon

Ahhh, but what I still don't understand is: if people in 1912 were so poor, had such lousy education, had such poor science - why is it that not one of our modern buildings can ever dream of coming close to their ancient standard of excellence? Sphinxes and Golden Means are just a fraction of the sort of florid detail and beautiful design that went into old buildings like that - today "ornamentation" means cutting a some notches into bare concrete, and functionally, you're lucky if the roof doesn't leak...

She likely had Masons for architects. I've had the strange privilege of becoming good friends with an active Mason/kabbalist/occultist fellow over the last year. To cut it down to the basic message, many of those guys believe that symbols, including geometric proportions of objects or buildings, are capable of capturing energies, or communicating powerful messages that words cannot communicate. The building may not have been built to capture magical energy, it was more likely built to communicate to the people of Manitoba that it was indeed the proper seat of authority and power, thereby enhancing the legitimacy of the government and the happiness of the people. That's your more likely explanation.

also, isn't it extremely likely that a building will have golden mean ratios all over it? i mean, it's just about the first thing you learn in architecture and art history classes.

i find it much more likely that the architects wanted to have a bit of fun, rather than some occult conspiracy.

Googling le Corbusier + golden mean, I found this:

quote:

Turning to more modern architecture, while it is true that the famous French architect Corbusier advocated and used the Golden Ratio in architecture, the claim that many modern buildings are based on Golden Rectangles, among them the General Secretariat building at the United Nations headquarters in New York, seems to have no foundation. By way of an aside, a small (and not at all scientific) survey I carried out myself a few months ago revealed that all architects polled knew about the GR, and all believed that other architects used the GR in their work, but none of them had ever used it themselves. Make whatever inference you wish.

at this site
While the blogger here is probably no oracle, he has a good point. At my architecture school, the guys seriously preoccupied with sacred geometry were talent-less geeks. Everybody else just liked the idea, and used the proportions only when they seemed useful. But as said, it is somewhat different with the 'between-the-war-classicists' and the early modernists. Who made very nice buildings, so maybe we could learn something?

quote:

Originally posted by banshee:
Ahhh, but what I still don't understand is: if people in 1912 were so poor, had such lousy education, had such poor science - why is it that not one of our modern buildings can ever dream of coming close to their ancient standard of excellence? Sphinxes and Golden Means are just a fraction of the sort of florid detail and beautiful design that went into old buildings like that - today "ornamentation" means cutting a some notches into bare concrete, and functionally, you're lucky if the roof doesn't leak...

I know, I know...

I'll get a photo for y'all, but the near magistrates court in the Bris CBD spent $190k on a wavy fucking piece of steel as a part of modern art.

Sure, it's art, but somehow I don't think it's worth nearly 200 grand...

The building in Manitoba? Maybe the architect like sphinxes and globes...?

But, nah, the alternative theories are much cooler.

Actually by visual inspection the UN building is pretty darned close to being Φ taller than it is wide. The visible horizontal blocks of windows, separated by whatever , seem to be twice as wide as they are tall, and there's three big sets, so that's ~1.5. then there's the (closest to) ground floor(s) that comprise a visual block less than half the height of any of the others, so the total height could be anywhere between ~1.6times and 1.7times the width (on the long side) of the building. Yeah, yeah, but close is only close...

Trying a quick measure of height vs. width in a graphics program, got 1.82. Some guesswork on the position of the ground floor was required. I think the building's best hope at this point is if you throw in the sub-basement and look for 1 x 4 x 9 ... though so far I haven't heard of any evidence of delegates from that far afield.

Sorta related, anyone know of sites that have images of interior/exterior of the Chrysler Building. I'm more interested in the interior. That building has always done it for me.

Funny, when I take even all the stuff on the top of the building, I only get a pixel ratio of 435/245 = 1.77, and considering the picture is not square on (horizontal width looks narrower) I'd say the proportion are close.

feh.