Archinect - News

Lost original drawings for Statue of Liberty discovered by map dealer

2020-05-28T11:48:00-04:00

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a recently discovered set of Gustave Eiffel’s original schematic drawings for Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s statue have been found and show the development of his innovative design. California map dealer Barry Lawrence Ruderman purchased a folder of material from Gustave Eiffel's workshop at an auction in 2018 only to find that 22 original engineering drawings of the Stature of Liberty were hidden in the contents. The drawings can be seen on raremaps.com.

See inside the Statue of Liberty’s new museum ahead of this week’s opening

2019-05-14T12:56:00-04:00

The Statue of Liberty is a universally recognized structure and symbol. But do most people know the story of its creation? Opening this Thursday, the new Statue of Liberty Museum aims to educate visitors about the history and legacy of the statue through immersive gallery spaces and artifacts. During a press preview last week, 6sqft toured the 26,000-square-foot museum and its landscaped roof, located on Liberty Island across from Lady Liberty herself.

All photos by James and Karla Murray exclusively for 6sqft.

Construction for new Statue of Liberty Museum progresses, opening date currently set for May 2019

2018-08-28T18:43:00-04:00

Since topping off last December, the new Statue of Liberty Museum continues to shape up ahead of schedule and is currently expected to open in May 2019. Last month, the Statue of Liberty Museum-Ellis Island Foundation launched a fundraising campaign that would help the construction of the new 26,000 square-foot space reach completion.

Rendering of the new Statue of Liberty Museum. Credit: FXCollaborative.

With FXCollaborative as architect and ESI Design in charge of exhibition design, the new museum will be accessible to more of the Statue of Liberty's estimated 4.3 million visitors annually. Below are a few recent construction photos that FXCollaborative shared with us:

Photo: Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

The new museum will have a green roof, reflective glass exteriors, interiors and exteriors built with materials native to Liberty Island, as well as materials used to build the Statue of Liberty and Fort Wood, like Stony Creek granite, br...

Statue of Liberty Museum tops off construction ahead of 2019 opening

2017-12-05T11:27:00-05:00

Yesterday morning construction topped off at the Statue of Liberty Museum, a brand new $70 million building on Liberty Island designed by FXFOWLE and ESI Design, marking a milestone before the 2019 opening. Diane von Furstenberg, who is still working to raise money for the museum, and Stephen Briganti, president of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, signed their names on the beam symbolically hoisted to the top of the structure.

Rendering via FXFOWLE

Photo from topping off ceremony by Emily Nonko for 6sqft

FAA restricts drones over ten major U.S. landmarks, including St. Louis Gateway Arch, Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore

2017-10-02T14:14:00-04:00

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a new regulation restricting unauthorized drone operations over 10 Department of Interior sites, including the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. [...] The announcement says the action comes at "the request of U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies."

These new FAA restrictions will be effective as of October 5 so make sure to keep your drones at least 400 feet away from these ten National Landmarks:

Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York, NY
Boston National Historical Park (U.S.S. Constitution), Boston, MA
Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, PA
Folsom Dam; Folsom, CA
Glen Canyon Dam; Lake Powell, AZ
Grand Coulee Dam; Grand Coulee, WA
Hoover Dam; Boulder City, NV
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial; St. Louis, MO
Mount Rushmore National Memorial; Keystone, SD
Shasta Dam; Shasta Lake, CA

Flying firefighters: the jetpack is quickly becoming a reality

2015-11-11T22:18:00-05:00

In the near-future, Dubai Civil Defence officers may be zooming in on to the scene of building fires using futuristic personal jetpacks. Designed by New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft Company, the jet-packs can be operated by a single pilot for 30 minutes at ranges of between 30 and 50 kilometres at altitudes of up to 3,000 feet. The pilot stands on a platform in a 'pilot module' between two propeller engines, which look like large versions of those commonly found on civilian drones.

I'm not sure when or how it happened, but apparently jet packs are a real thing now. On Tuesday, the Dubai Civil Defense service signed a deal with Martin Aircraft for the future delivery of jetpacks, training material, and spare parts. Dubai's towering skyline necessitates a degree of vertical mobility in its emergency respondents. Equipped with jetpacks, firefighters can rapidly rescue people stranded near the top of a building if an emergency renders the elevators inoperable (as they tend to do).

And then last week, the US Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration let an Australian named David Mayman fly around the Statue of Liberty with a jetpack made by Jetpack Aviation. According to a report, this satisfied Mayman's dream to become a "real life Ironman" (which is a bit odd, because I'm pretty sure Elon Musk already called dibs on that).

In any case, the videos are really fun and the technology is obviously quite interesting, with a lot of possible applications. The articl...

130 years ago today, the Statue of Liberty first arrived in New York

2015-06-17T13:29:00-04:00

According to legend, the Statue of Liberty came to sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi as a vision: sailing into New York Harbor in 1870, the French artist suddenly imaged the persona of liberty welcoming him. He sketched out his idea and immediately began pitching it... It was 130 years ago today, on June 17, 1885, that the ship and its precious cargo reached New York—and another year before reassembly was complete and the finished product could be unveiled.

Future cities of the past

2015-04-29T18:17:00-04:00

But supplementing that aesthetic of “the future” sketched in imaginary edifice, the full SF vision of the future city is a mosaic, constructed from fragments of the cities that we recognize, including symbols that are decidedly from the past. [...] If SF functions by taking the world we know and altering it with a constructed future fantasy, the Statue of Liberty serves as the junction point, the axis where the speculative fantasy begins and ends.