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Showing posts with the label Le Grand Louvre

Perspective - One Point Perspective - Portfolio & Comments

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Over the years I have created quite a few one point perspectives. The following are samples of layouts, both hand and computer generated. Some illustrate an aspect of layout work, but most are simply here to show the range of projects that accommodate one point views.  This layout from the 1980’s shows a pedestrian way through the Harper and Row Headquarters Building in Manhattan. It is essentially an elevation with steps in the foreground, and a rectangular passage receding geometrically into the distance. It could have been worked out using a diagonal vanishing point alone, but was actually constructed from a measured plan which can be seem in light pencil under the passageway itself. The most difficult part was the lettering on the cylinder to the left of the opening, which was worked out by eye. This view of an office hallway at the General Reinsurance Headquarters in Manhattan was typical for sketches in the ‘80s. The plan can be seen at the bottom of the column, and the pict...

Airbrush Demo - I M Pei's Louvre

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The Louvre in Paris has been around for hundreds of years, beginning as a businesslike medieval castle, and developing into a royal palace. It acquired its present style in the Renaissance under Francis I, who tore down the old castle and began to develop the dignified, sculpted facades we see today.  The Louvre has long housed a private museum for the French kings, and under Louis XIV, the Sun King, the state academies were established there.  With the revolution the museum became a public institution and the royal academies became the Ecole des Beaux Arts (and were moved to their own digs).  The photo above shows the courtyard at the turn of the century.  The monument in the foreground to Leon Gambetta was removed during World War II, but otherwise the configuration of the Louvre was unchanged until the arrival of Pei's pyramid in 1989. The following images are the scanned slides I took while producing a comprehensive image of the new construction.  For anyone...