STATELY COURT BUILDING'S QUAKE REPAIRS NEAR COMPLETION.Byline: Gerald D. Adams San Francisco Examiner The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th Century. History 19th century The beginning of the Examiner is a topic of some controversy. Back in 1905, Sunset Magazine headlined its opening as ``A Post Office That's a Palace.'' The daily San Francisco Call The San Francisco Call was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. The paper was also called The San Francisco Call & Post, the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, and the News-Call Bulletin before being absorbed by the hailed its interior embellishment as second only to the Library of Congress. Its appointments were so luxurious that they demonstrated, wrote architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson Dr. Richard Guy Wilson (b. 1940) is an noted architectural historian and Commonwealth Professor in Architectural History at the University of Virginia. Wilson was born and raised in Los Angeles (residing in a house designed by Rudolph Schindler. He received his B.A. , ``that America had become Europe's immediate successor in the march of civilization.'' Resplendent re·splen·dent adj. Splendid or dazzling in appearance; brilliant. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin resplend public building that it is, the U.S. Courts of Appeal building at Seventh and Mission streets has been closed to the public since the 1989 earthquake. Closed for an $83 million repair and seismic rehabilitation project, the four-story beaux-arts style structure will be feted beginning June 20 in a celebration of its restoration. U.S. Supreme Court justices and President Clinton have been asked to attend the invitation-only opening day. Public tours will take place the same week, said courts spokesman Mark Mendenhall. Once inside, visitors will be treated to a veritable extravaganza of decoration, so rich that Skidmore Owings & Merrill architect Fred Powell calls his supervisory work of the past five years ``a humbling experience.'' Samples of must-see spots Powell pointed out on a recent tour: Vaulted ceilings inlaid in·laid v. Past tense and past participle of inlay. adj. 1. Set into a surface in a decorative pattern: a mahogany dresser with an inlaid teak design. 2. with mosaic tile. A half-block-long hallway lined with white marble columns, arches and artwork. Birdcage-like elevator shafts, their casings wrought in gilded gild 1 tr.v. gild·ed or gilt , gild·ing, gilds 1. To cover with or as if with a thin layer of gold. 2. To give an often deceptively attractive or improved appearance to. 3. bronze. Walls paneled in carved woods. Mosaic murals sparkling with Venetian glass tiles. And, in a jarring contrast to the baroque atmosphere elsewhere in the building, two stark circa-1933 courtrooms decorated with swastika-like ceiling motifs and two gilt eagles that stand stiffly at attention behind the judge's bench. Powell could offer no explanation for the militaristic mil·i·ta·rism n. 1. Glorification of the ideals of a professional military class. 2. Predominance of the armed forces in the administration or policy of the state. 3. style of the courtrooms. Although the project has been billed as a restoration, old-timers will spot one radical change since 1989: The Main Post Office that occupied the ground floor is gone, its space taken over by a law reference library. |
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