Sure. Campaign 2024 on cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. G. Thank you for joining us for toNights Program. We are so thrilled to have you here with us tonight. My name is Stephanie Barnett and im the associate director of Public Programs and Community Outreach here at the greenwich good evening. Thank you for aljoining us. We are so thrilled to have you with us. My name is Stephanie Barnett and i am associate professor of programs and Community Outreach. We are so thrilled to have you and pleased to present the Nights Program on guilded age architecture which will proceed highly anticipated series coming to your screen in october which i am sure you may already know. Before we dive into toNights Program, i will review a few housekeeping details. We welcome American History television from cspan who will be recording which is exciting. We will finish with a wine and cheese reception in the lobby where you came in. That will be around 7 00. You will have the opportunity to buy the book and have it signed by him while you are enjoying your beverages. Finally, as i mentioned, this will be recorded. So we will make sure that you all receive the link after the program. Now it is my sincere pleasure to introduce our speaker for the night, mr. Philip james. An alumnus of the prestigious prince of wales architecture in london. He moved to america more than 20 years ago and after training with architecture firms he founded his own company, philip james dodd. His designed can be found in new york, grenich. He was recipient of the architectural award and named as a top 50 coastal architect by ocean home magazine. He has masters in architecture from university of notre dame and undergraduate from architecture from the Manchester School of architecture. He is fellow of classical architecture and art and serves as a commissioner. Now it is my pleasure to welcome mr. Philip james dodd. [ applause ] thank you very much, stephanie. Thank you for everyone here for inviting me to talk with you this evening. Tonight we are going to be looking at some of the material from my book an american renaissance. You saw the big huge back. Its 412 pages. In the 412 pages we span from 1875 to 1928 and we tell the story of not just 20 buildings but stories of the people that designed and commissioned them. Before i forget, and i always do, on the front cover of the book is interior of grants tomb which was completed in 1897. When this was finished, the whole generation, this was second most visited attraction in new york city behind only the statue of liberty. Everybody has forgotten about it now. People really only remember it from marks who is in grants tomb. By only featuring 20 buildings, we are able to really showcase them in detail. Details like in the University Club, whh well get a snippet tonight. In the book u have over 30 dicated pages with new photography. With that in mind, a couple people i would like to thank. On the left is john wallen, my collaborator on the project who took all the wonderful photographs and next to him is julien fellows who wrote the forward to the book. When i started work on this, i realized i needed somebody famous to write the forward because nobody knows who i am. He just finished Downton Abbey and there was a rumor that he would be working on an american vision. I have was able to reach out to them. Maybe i will tell the story later on over an alcoholic beverage. He agreed to write the forward to my book and after that, it was just very serendipitous that it would take me five years to finish and it would take him five years to finish what would become the guilded age on hbo. As stephanie said, those who are fans, season 2 is out october 29 at 9 00 p. M. So in the 9 00 p. M. Slot, i am a big believer that the success of a tv series, a book, even the design of a house comes down to good story telling. This evening, i am going to tell stories of four of the buildings that are featured inside the book. All of these start with this elegant built for vanderbilt and this was called petite shadow. It was built in 1882 in a style that would become known as vanderbilt gothic. [ laughter ] this house literally transformed architecture in america. I often get asked what is the biggest architectural loss in this country . The standard answer to that is penn station. But you can make an argument that actually this is right up there with it for how influential this building was. While the architecture and the architect are different, the story of the petite shadow is the inspiration behind the story of the russell house and the tv series where the portrayal is very much based upon vanderbilt. This is one of the things done well in the tv series. All the characters are fictitious and yet based on real life people. Then he intersperses them with historical figures like donna murphys portrayal and then nathan lane portrays ward mcalister. He uses a lot of stories that actually occurred. So the story and the tv show of howerussell is able to persuade mr. Asker to attend is a true story with vanderbilt and chateau. The architect who designed it is richard hunt referred to as dean of american architecture. He is First American to study where he did in paris. Second is richardson which people would know in boston who designed trinity church. Third is a senior partner and after that, the flood gates opened. Almost every architect of consequence from the generation attends. A couple exceptions. Stanford white, george post, daniel burn em did not. They did all make sure that their sons attended. When they were in paris, they learned not one style of architecture but learned about architecture of ancient greece and roam as well as italian and french renaissance. They traveled around europe and got introduced to medieval architecture. When they came back to the states, they have all the styles together in what they called american bozarts architecture. In newport designed for vanderbilt ii, marble house also in newport which was designed for william kissing vanderbilt. He had that designed as a birthday present. When when got divorced a lot of people think she got marble house as part of a divorce settlement but it had already been gifted as a birthday present. He designed built more estate in asheville, North Carolina for George Washington vanderbilt ii. In new york city, only three of his buildings remain. They used to line the streets of new york. The only three that still remain are the pedestal to the statue of liberty, vanderbilt family mausoleum and wing d. I say wing d, this was completed in 1902 and faces on to fifth avenue. I say wing d because most biddings in the guilded age, when they got too small, they knocked them down and built something bigger, knocked it down and built something bigger. They didnt at the met. At the met they kept adding wings. So it really kind of becomes this living breathing kind of architectural history of america over the last 150 years. Anybody who has been to the met, dont ask me how we took this photograph because 24 hours a day, there was a hot dog stand right at the bottom of the steps, which we managed to somehow get rid of. If you walk in to the building and you go you were the steps, walk through the entrance, go to the back of the building into the layman gallery, which the layman gallery is wing o, added in the 70s by kevin roach, if you turn around this is what you see, the original structure. This is wing a. This faced on to central park. So the original entrance to the met faced on to the park. The reason is this was designed by calvin vax, the architect of central park. Everyone recommends olmstead but he was the junior partner. Vax was the senior partner. He trained under downing and was a proponent of the picturesque style of architecture that was described by emma stones venice. From a short time we go fr this picturesque monument to the classic of wing d. Thats how much it washifting during the timeperiod. A lot of people thk this is the original entrance. This isnt. This is wing b and was added by theodore weston who is a civil engineer. This is really the only building he ever did. This faces south towards where the city was. It is now part of the petri sculpture gallery which is wing y which was added in the 90s by kevin roach. I hope you are keeping track of the wings. There will be a test after it. This is an archival shot. Thats an old image. To get your bearings you see cleopatras needle, installed when central park was completed in 1880. Another archival image, wing d, the original entrance. This is before the flanking wings were later added. Just to get an idea of scale, you can see those carriages at the front. Also look at the steps. Theyre bigger than original steps of the building which were treacherously steep and they were replaced and you see the wings that were added. You come into the great hall of the metropolitan museum, 166 feet long, 48 wide, three stories tall. You have to remember when this was built, there was not a space like this in new york city. This completely transformed how people kind of experienced grand spaces which we kind of take for granted now. This is the first time they were structurally able to do this. It is based upon the in rome. Its all clad in limestone and we come to take these photographs. A lot of the buildings you went to on several occasions. With the met, they let us in once. We had to get there at 6 00 in the morning and had to be done by the time they opened at 10 00. We would go into the staff entrance on the northside. We are used to going to buildings where we got name badges, there are metal detecters, all sorts of security. We come in and theyre like you are the people here to photograph . Yeah. Okay, in you come. I am like have they never seen the thomas crown affair . I realized how many cameras must have been on it. We come to this shot. Until this point we made a point of having no people in the images. We realized we couldnt take it. Without any people there was no sense of scale. We photographed elsewhere and came back when it opened at 8 00 for private tours so we could get people in to give it a sense of scale. The wonderful saucershaped dome, structurally it was done by gasterbino. It was clad and had more than ornaments on this that were stripped back in the 1930s. You climb the Grand Staircase. This is by Richard Morris hunt. It led to vaxs original wing, second floor of his original wing. At the top of the staircase is the triumph. Back outside, these are new steps that kevin roach added, you get to see the wings either side which Charles Mckim later added. The facade of fifth avenue spans over 1,000 feet and four city blocks. Its absolutely huge. On the outside of the building, this is what most people kind of remember. So, believe it or not, there is over 31 pieces of sculpture on the building, all done by kyle better who did a lot of work with Richard Morris hunt. There was meant to be the great sculptures of ancient mid eve a i will art which was supposed to go over these. Hunt died about seven years before the met was finished. It was taken over by his son richard hunt. No money left, the museum decided they wouldnt do the sculpture. Hunt, jr being a little bit massive aggressive, decided he would hoist the unattractive piles of stone up there in a way to persuade the met that it was so unattractive they would have to do this sculpture. 150 years later, those bitsof stone are still there. You can see it didnt really work. Nt was so well regarded that when he passed away, this memorial was built for them. Its on fifth avenue on central park between 70th and 71st street. If you want to go into architecture and want monuments, architecture is not the profession. This is the only monument in america to an architect. The sculpturebruce price is better known as father of post who wrote the book on social etiquette. So from one grand building to another, during the guilded age, the center of the economy was the thriving railroads. In particular one family, vanderbilt family. We stood in the Vanderbilt Education Center so its nice to be talking about the vanderbilt family. If i was just going to talk about Grand Central and the vanderbilts, that would be the whole evening. We are going to fast forward through a lot of that. By 1819, the Family Business is being run by william kissing vanderbilt he of the petite chateau. The vanderbilts controlled all the railroads to the north of new york city. Harlem, hudson, new haven lines. Thats why metro north gets the name of the old train alliance. They built the original station called Grand Central depot. It was built in 1871 by john snook, second empire style, same location on 42nd street. In 1898 which is when this was taken, it was given a face lift by gilbert and renamed Grand Central station. This was still hardly the way to enter into this great city which was trying to rival great cities of the world of london and paris and rome. What is that joke . You wait for a bus and two come along at the same time. Thats what happened. We go from no train stations to two. First, penn station in 1910 and three years later, we get what would become Grand Central terminal in 1913. If you look at the very top right hand corner, you will see an eagle up there. That eagle was reused. Its cast iron. There are a few of them on the prior building and they reused not just on this building, but a lot of sculptures, when buildings were taken down they used the sculpture. They use a lot of the eagles elsewhere. Entering Grand Central on the corner of 42nd look up and you will see the eagle salvaged from one of the previous iterations. The designed of Grand Central terminal, from depot to station to terminal, it was a collaboration between two architectural films. The first was readen stem and they were from st. Paul, minnesota. They specialized in designing train stations. It was their Organizational Skills that were responsible for the elevated road way that allows to wrap around Grand Central. Then also for the ramps inside, stair cases. This may seem common sense but this is one of the problems penn station had. Beautiful stair cases which were not ideal, only if you were hauling a lot of suit cases around with you. It actually sped up the pedestrian traffic as well. The second firm just finished in new york yacht club. Think and in particular Whitney Warren were responsible for artistic composition of Grand Central terminal which is one of the great spaces in new york city. It measures 12 stories tall, 275 feet long, 120 feet wide. We were at either end of the concourse, and you see the arch windows. Behind those are walkways which lead to offices. This photograph is taken high up on one of the walkways peering through the window. The ceiling is in blue with gold leaf constellations and stars are illuminated by tiny electric lights. It is depicted as a view of the heavens from aquariums of cancer in an october sky. That means not the view looking up but the view looking down. It is astronomically incorrect. There have been so many conspiracy theories as to why it is wrong. Really the most obvious answer is the artist who is from brooklyn, he just made a stake. [ laughter ] again, i love th image. In a renovation done quite a long time ago i think in the 1940s, the ceiling was covered by 1,944 concrete asbestos boards each measuring four feet by eight feet. If you look, you can see the four feet by eight feet boards with the rivets holding them in. When restored in the 1990s it has decided it was too dangerous and expensive to remove those. Sothey were cleaned and repainted and are still up there. Around the windowswe ve are he leaf sculpture which kind of alternates between wing locomotives i wish we took the wing locomotive shot because thats a nicer picture. This one is a globe surrounded by clouds and theyre meant to be emblems of world travel. Over the entrance to each of the train tracks are these panels that incorporate the vanderbilt, the monogram, in and because they were new money, vanderbilts, they didnt have previous heraldry. So it had to be invented for them and they adopted acorn and oak leaves as the family emblem. Most of the interior of Grand Central is actually constructed from what we call cheyenne stone which is a crushed stone. It gives the appearance that it is all limestone, but it is not. The reading room, a lot of interiors of new york blic library are built out of this as well. The structural, sculptal composition on the front facade is titled transportation. It was modeled in plaster at core to scale by an artist. The model was shipped to america d was full scale in long island city. When they asked jules to come and over see the installation, he refused. He said he would be offended by all the buildings. Typical french, wasnt a fan of american architecture. I can say that because i am english. This would be put in place over a year after Grand Central was completed. Grand central remains the largest train station in the world. The story of Grand Central very much goes hand in hand with story of penn station that we have already mentioned and is demolitioned in 1960s and led to the creation of the new York Preservation commission which was put in place to safeguard other buildings from the same fate including Grand Central station. Penn station was designed by mckim, meade, white and principally by Charles Mckim. Charles mckim is in the center and in ex to him on the left is William Meade who was the managing partner of the firm. He said his job was to stop the other two from making fools of themselves. Closest to me is the infamous Stanford White. You have to understand this was not a firm of equals. The division of profits gave mckim 42 , meade 33 , and white as jr partner, just 25 . So despite the popularity of Stanford White in modern day folklore, after the the death, who took up the leading architect. One of his other designs is the University Club, which is located on the corner of fifth avenue and 54th street , which is located very much in the heart of vanderbilt road and this is a nine story structure designed to resemble a proportionally correct 16th century italian palazzo. The modern architect said that if you want to see the best in the world, dont go to italy and come to new york. They had very different ways of designing the offices all night long, because they never knew when would double in with a napkin with a sketch on it. He didnt do that set him up a draft and he would say, i want the window to look like. He would go to the library and come back with the book. He had this photographic memory and a lot of his holdings are very much versions lots of different building. Not just a copy of one. For this particular building, he sold in florence and siena. One of the things that is fascinating about this building is that there is no Grand Staircase. Most of the buildings have a Grand Staircase. The University Club doesnt. What that did was allow a great space set on each floor and on the rooms of each floor that would flow off of that atrium spac. Here on the first floor, the all in marble and 25 feet tall anyou can see the bolted space around it and this leads into the lounging room and it occupies the link the fth avenue and is finished with one the crimsovelvet wallcoverings and decorateto thing. We took this photograph and we didnt think anything of it and it was not until john was able to zoom in and give the gentleman there reading the newspaper Something Like the wall street journal or new york times. Instead, he is reading the po. Didnt exactly bring a lot to the space. On the seventh floor is the dining room, which is the largest of the rooms in the clubhouse that measures 136 feet long and 30 feet tall. It is all finished in english oak and the ceiling is modeled on the same ceiling of the palace in venice and around the attic, these plaques were originally taxidermy with the heads of various animals. They incorporate these wonderful murals, which replace over doors and they depict the six oldest colleges in america with this william, mary, yale, pennsylvania, columbia and princeton. As wonderful as that is and spectacular, even go to the fourth. This is the atrium space. This is the floor. The atrium space is very much designed to do some resemble the architecture pompeii. This is wonderful neoclassical pompeii space and a grpetir for what i thinkis the finest room in new york city, which is the brar of the University Club. This complex space is divided into five alcoves on each side and it is centonthe arch windows that face onto 54th street and the ceiling springs from these double height bookcases that have english oak and a narrow staircase in between each of them which have bronze balconies, see you can have the bookcases. Originally, there was no budget to paint the ceiling. Intentionally left it there plaster. That is until the University Club would come up with the phones. They decided to give him the money and splurge on this, so he hired and he sent him to a room to spend two years studying the paintings at the border. I have been waiting my whole career and send me to the room for two years. En he returned and he spent two years studying, he comes back tonew york and he spends three years painting these minerals murals. They were actually painted on canvas in a studio, applied like per nowadays. In the center of vat is panels that depict literature, art, science and philosophy. The other themes include the new testament and egyptian mythology. Five years after the clubhouse is opened, this gentleman and j. P. Morgan to be the unveiling of the murals. It was a long and painful silence. Finally, he says to morgan, Stanford White is crazy about this work. Morgan famously response, stanford whit always crazy. Then, he says, magnificent and have been impressed, because he hires him to work on his own library, which is the Morgan Library museum at 225 fifth avenue and you can see the similarities between the spaces. By the way, it was from inside the University Club that j. P. Morgan would broker the deal to create u. S. Steel, which was the first multibilliondollar company in the country. From one famous to another, in season one of the gilded age, George Russell was played by morgan and is very much based upon the infamous who was referred to as the king. Along with his partners would manipulate the stock market to the First Financial panic of 1869 and what would become the first black friday. He famously said, take a skunk. One of my favorite stories. Im going off script, but one of my favorite stories is that his house is not fire from here and he is actually buried at woodlawn cemetery, which is the last chapter in the book and it is right in the center of woodlawn. When he passed away, they welded his sarcophagus shot. The newspaper reported that it was to stop his soul from escaping and causing more havoc on wall street. The reality was that at that time, people would come still bodies and ransom them back to the families, so it was a way to prevent them from happening. For anyone who has seen the trailers season two of the gilded age and very much involves strikes and union busting, so it seems that perhaps the character of George Russell is not so much based on anymore, but another one of the most hated. After he had finished his somewhat tumultuous business relationship with carnegie, he sells in u. S. Steel and moves from pittsburgh to new york city. He rents one half of the triple palace on fifth avenue between 51st and 52nd street, which is the two buildings closest to us. It is a streaming. The triple palaces. It is to buildings. Hoover designed by charles are fluid and the brothers. The southernmost mansion, which is the one closest to us with the william, then the northern was actually a duplex, hence the name triple palaces. It was a duplex, but his two daughters. A courtyard enabled two daughters to visit their parents without ever having to leave the property. Upon williams death, the southernmost is inherited by his son George Washington vanderbilt the second who is busy building it has no interest in living here, so he rents it out. Frank had long been an admirer of the building and he is very happy. If you look next to the triple palace, you can see the shadow that we looked at earlier on and a little bit further on fifth avenue between the two churches is University Club, which we just looked at, which was finished when the photograph was taken. The story goes that is very happy living at the trip palace and one day he takes a carriage ride through central park and he gets off 96th stre and he mas his way back down fifth avenue anhe passes the georgia matching mansion, which was surrounded by gardens. It is unusual, because most of the homes actually went all the way to the street because they were trying to take advantage of all of the real estate, so it was quite luxurious for the house to be surrounded. He says to his driver, whose house is this . He goes, its Andrew Carnegies house. In an era of rivalries, he says, im going to build a house that mas his look like a shack. What would become the collection was built in spite. It was a spite mansion and this was no the Smithsonian Design Museum and this was the entrance to 91st street and very much an inspiration to the entrance of the russell house on the tv series. He purchases a property on fifth avenue between 78 and 71st street. If you pay attention, that is the same block that the memorial was on. Opposite was the library, which was built by hunt, which is why they placed his monument there, so he is overlooking one of his buildings and the library would be knocked down and was knocked down when it merged collections with the tilden trust and library to create new york public library. He purchases the property and he hires this dream team of Thomas Hastings on the left who is an architect of the neo public library. In the middle is charles, famous english decorator who was working on buckingham palace. Extreme is laura joseph, antiquities. You had showrooms in paris and new york. It took 16 years to build the library and he had to wait five years before he could start construction, because part of the deal was that he couldnt start until the light removed his collection over. Because of his union bursting, he accused all of the workmen to be working slow to stick to him. This was completed in two years. 16 years and the collection was just two. It is based on a hotel and i always thought that it was much more wellsuited to newport than what it is through the hustle and bustle of new york city. The garden entrance and what he used at the entrance of the new york public library. Later on lets go back. On the left is the original entrance, c would come through the metal gates and you would come to the courtyard, which is how you would enter the building. When it was converted into a museum in 1932, it was moved forward to the street and they are able to salvage a lot of the pediment. You can see that it is a scandalously nude figure lying down there and she is based on a model named audrey marie munson. She did not win a beauty contest, but she was a favorite of much of the sculptures at the time, see you can see her all over manhattan. That is how she got her name anshis one of the figures on the memorial, icis offset the pompeii in court also added late in 1945 as part of the conversion and this is part of the courtyard where they pulled into, so this is not part of the original structure. In the original structure, you would enter and pretty much everything you see was designed by hastings and frick did not get along at all, so he did very little of the architecture. Insi of it all is marble and on the Grand Staircase is inspired court. One of the interesting things is that the mansion had no ballroom. Most of the rooms had grand ballrooms, so because there was no ballroom, there is nowhere for the orchestra to play. An organ was incorporated into this design and frick actually paid d called it our descption, annual salary of 400,000 to play the organ every night to the guests. For a long time, there is a story that the organ was actually salvaged from christopher in england. Thats not true. It was designed and fabricated in new york city. This is the staircase that leads up to the second floor. It is closed for renovations and the second floor is owned by. When it is used, they open and use the galleries to finally see. When we took this photo, we felt so special, because they wouldnt let anybody of the staircase. Now, everyone will be able to go up the staircase. We are taking this picture and john says, we can fit everything up to that little picture on the left and the lady says, did you just call about a little painting . Im like, okay. It a little painting. In the dining room, it was all designed and the john hoeper. One of the things he did was very clever and smart. He made sure that when he slid to the purpose and other things to make sure that the mantelpiece was deep enough, so that he could put some basis to display on top of them. The next room is the famous room and this was added a year after the original drawing. These panels were purchased from the state of j. P. Morgan as his family was struggling to pay the inheritance taxes after he passed away. The crazy thing is that most of his fortune was antiquities and not cash. John d rockefeller famously said, he owned all and wasnt that rich. By the way, these panels were installed higher up, which is why you get a little crown in the room. The reason they were applied higher was so that they could sell more furniture to be placed underneath. Im always thinking about that stuff. After dinner, there is a huge part of the golden age. The men in the house would go downstairs to where the room was and there was a Bowling Alley down there and they would smoke cigars and have cognacs down there and the ladies would go to the drawing room where the name comes from. They would withdraw to the drawing room and they would meet up here in the living room with oak panels and over the fireplace is the famous of saint jerome and either side of that, thomas moore and cromwell. Finally, the ar salon, which was the largest private gallery space in new york city. It is important to know that divvying sold a lot of questionable pieces to newly minted millionaires. He reserved all of the good stuff for morgan and andrew mellon. Its interesting that all three of those collections have now become national museum. Andrew mellon is the national in d. C. And morgans collection is the backbone of the metropolitan museum in new york and here, we have the frick collection. Just as the stories. They died just a few months apart. When carnegie knew he was coming to the end of his days, he sent intermediaries to, because he wanted to patch things up. Frick responded but you can tell carnegie that i will see him in. Their stories are kind of linked together, but so are the other stories and when he left and made voyage on april 10, 1912, they were both meant to be on board. Morgan was actually negotiating with the u. S. Government to remove import duties on art and antiquities. Believing a deal was done, he booked his passage on board the titanic. Most of his collection was meant to be on board last minute to deal fell through and kept his collection in london and missed. Later on by the way, the u. S. Government did allow him to bring his collection without paying any taxes. Him and his wife are touring around italy and she sprained her ankle and had to be hospitalized, so that caused them to miss a voyage. It didnt start until a few months after, so if they had both been aboard, we would not have the collection or these great at collections that j. P. Morgan had contributed towards, so when you watch season two of the gilded age, if any of the cast avoid disaster by having a business deal go wrong or by spraining their ankle, you are going to know where the inspiration for the story line came from. With that, that is it. Thank you very much. And go. And i only take it easyd go. If anybody eshas questions, stephanie has a microphone. I only take easy questions. Why did they make instead of using limestone . It was cheaper. Did it way less . It is one of the other things. Its actually not marble, but material must tell you, which is plastered to resemble it. The ironic thing is that now it is costing more to make that what it does to turn, because the technology changed and its easier to work with stone and the craftsmanship has disappeared and not many people know how to make it. They are constantly looking to save money and more impressive than what they were. A lot of times, you look up and see sculptures high up and think that it is carved out of stone, but it was out of plaster and they just painted it. It is a lot of stage set design going on with a lot of these buildings. Can you comment on the recent renovation . Two or three years ago, there was some discussion to do away with the interior garden and they do have the garden back in. I dont know what the story is. I dont know specifically about that. I will answer it differently. People often ask about the buildings getting knocked down. People assume that when the building is knocked down, it is replaced by a not so great building. Generally speaking, that is the case. You can look at all of the buildings that have gone up and an example of when it wasnt the library was a very famous building and beautiful, but the fricks had a better building. New york city is always evolving and they werent trying to build the gilded age or architecture, but this was contemporary. Everything is always being changed and added. It is a contentious argument to get involved with how you should do in addition to a museum. A lot of people dont like what was done to the morgan. I dont mind it, because i think it was a collection of various buildings that were connect to various styles and what was done is that they kind of help bring them altogether. We will see what happens. I think it is to open next year. You are so engaging. I would love to know how you got interested in this and how you see because of your enthusiasm and knowledge what you are sharing with us could help better convince people to appreciate this. Here in greenwich, we are seeing the demolition of so many Historic Homes with cookie cutter homes that have no architectural style whatsoever, but large coming. I see you as helping share the enthusiasm of the love that you have and knowledge to educate people to appreciate design. How did you get so excited about what you talked about tonight . And came to new york in fall 1996. I am making 10 an hour in new york city, which meant that i could eat bagels sometimes with cream cheese. I had nothing to do but walk around the city and i thought i was coming to a city full of skyscrapers, because that is when you what you think. I would literally walk down each street and i have always loved judicial class architecture. One of my colleagues said this is before the internet. One of my colleagues said, if you need a postcard back home, dont go to the main branch in the post office. Go down to Bowling Green and go into the building. It was the first building we photographed. Back then, a little Satellite Office inside and a little spaceship that landed inside and you go inside the building and it is inspiring. In the book, it is one of the pages that pulls out and you stand in the space and it is right next to the ball and no one walks inside the Cunard Building to see the space. I have always loved this and history. I was just in newport and i was asked to give a talk for the Preservation Foundation of their up there. Afterwards, i was talking to the head of the Preservation Foundation. She said how the year before Julia Fellowes had come and had met with a board of directors and told them that their success had depended on storytelling rather than history lessons. I am a big believer in that. This is not an architecture book. The architecture is the backdrop to all of the stories and people remember stories. People tend to not remember names. You remember the stories. That is why it brings the buildings to life, especially when you talk about the houses. The houses have a personal connection. It is hard when you are talking about a ground civic structure. With the house, that is what you need to do. That is an important component. The homestead homes that i designed, i tried to tell a story and paint a picture in my clients head of how they will be using the space and how they will feel. I hope that answers your question. I think we have time for one more question, then after, we will have a lot of time for questions in the lobby. The newport flower show was held at marble house and as i was making my way through, and kept looking at the ceiling and wondering, is that real marble . It is a combination. When its close and you can touch it, it tends to be real. When it somewhere where you cant touch it, because so much of the materials is to the touch and thats how you feel it. They want everything to look grand, but they didnt waste their money. Back then, designers were created and refer to the truly box. The entire house is a big jewelry box and its not like building these huge homes where it is within these buildings. To think that the same treated that and biltmore is Pretty Amazing that something that most people dont even know about. I dont know if they were trying to outdo each other. Not to get into a history lesson, but they have where all of these homes were built for the grandchildren of, so you get more and the house and breakers. You also get out of court, which was a manics, the largest shingles house built and the whole generation just built some of the grand homes that have ever been seen in the country. I think thats it. Thank you so much. Lets give one more big round of applause to our audience. Thank you. In 184 w