Saturday, February 12, 2011

43/365: Egypto-Babylo-Grecian-St. Louisan

.
Civil Courts Building 2008-10-26

I've featured the wacky architecture of our Civil Courts Building here and there on St. Louis Daily Photo. The main part of the building is straightforward neoclassic 1920s high rise. The upper part of the building is a replica of the tomb of King Mausolus, built in 352 B.C. at Halicarnassus in Asia Minor. It has 32 Ionic columns around the top, made from real ions. The top has two large sphinxes, facing east and west. There are some fleurs-de-lis, the symbol of King Louis IX of France, thrown around for good measure. You have to wonder whether the designers were smoking something other than Lucky Strikes.


Labor of Love 3 Today St. Louis Daily Photo goes to an art show opening. Someone please buy the photo of the Buddhist monks.

1 comment:

T. Becque said...

That's quite the mixture of influences for architecture! I really like your title photo.