antique carved wooden doors in Montreal

These heavy wooden doors on the campus of McGill University have persevered through Montreal snowstorms and summer humidity for over a century, stalwartly protecting each of these buildings from the elements since their original construction in the 19th century. Even today each set of antique doors remains the principal entrance to each of these three buildings - the Redpath Museum, the Architecture School, and the Redpath Performance Hall, respectively from top to bottom. And each one has its own personality, incorporating motifs ranging from the organic to the neoclassical.

McGill University, Montreal, Quebec.

textured facades in Montreal and Lisbon

Wrinkly stone blocks lend a bark-like texture to a rowhouse in Montreal (top), while pyramidal stone blocks on an old mansion in Lisbon (bottom) give the building a spiky texture and suggest a defensive attitude towards passerby on the street.

Top two pictures: Avenue de l'Esplanade, Montreal, Quebec. Bottom two: Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, Lisbon, Portugal.

holy map on a tile in Istanbul

A crude miniature map of the holy city of Mecca appears on a single tile on the exterior of the Rüstem Pasa Mosque in Istanbul, camouflaged among the jumble of blue-and-white glazed tiles that decorate the front of the building. Click on the picture to see it bigger.

At the center of the map is the black, cube-shaped Kaaba building, the most important structure in the entire pilgrimage city of Mecca because it is believed to have been built by Abraham and his son Ishmael. Surrounding the Kaaba on the map are six tall minarets, a feature that clearly identified the mosque surrounding the Kaaba since it was the only one in the world with that many minarets - that is, until the Ottomans finished building the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul in 1616 and surrounded it with six minarets as well. To distinguish the mosque of the Kaaba as still being the most important in the world, the Ottoman sultan sent his architect to Mecca the same year to construct a seventh minaret around the Kaaba, which means that this tiled map of the holy city likely dates to before the completion of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in 1616. 

Rüstem Pasa Mosque, Hasircilar Çarsisi, Istanbul, Turkey.

collision of dormers on a roof in Montreal

Three dormers collide on the roof of a building in Montreal. For me, the staggered position of the dormers makes this look almost like a family portrait. I also love the camouflage effect that the peeling black paint creates, revealing blotches of older red and even older green paint underneath.

Mont Royal Park, Montreal, Quebec.

cubist details in Prague

Did you know there's such a thing as cubist architecture? Here, cubist details on two buildings in Prague are characterized by triangular indentations, plain geometric surfaces, and tapering masses. Yet, despite the purist inclination of these cubist forms, they still convey an identifiable sense of movement and flex that seems to give each building an energetic personality. The building in the top two pictures was designed by famed proponent of cubist architecture Josef Gocar, and now houses an exhibition of cubist paintings from the Czech Republic.

Top two pictures: Celetná, Prague, Czech Republic. Bottom two: Na Perstyne, Prague, Czech Republic.

rustic tombstone crosses in Montreal

The crosses topping off these tombstones may be carved from stone, but they're made to look as if they were cobbled together from knotty pine logs, or perhaps as if they had sprouted right out of the ground. This rustic style provides quite a contrast with the typically monumental and fanciful architecture of traditional tombstones, which often favor neoclassical elements like fluted columns and ornate cornices over unhewn timber. My favorite is the last one, which is made to look like a wooden cross resting on top of tree-stump pedestal.

Notre-Dame des Neiges Cemetery, Montreal, Quebec.

bougainvillea tunnel in Antalya

With its trunk and branches concealed behind a fence, a flowering bougainvillea plant appears to hover weightlessly above a narrow street in the Kaleiçi district of Antalya, Turkey. The result is a living ceiling over this urban space that provides shelter and fragrance to those passing underneath.

another set of horseshoe arches, in Lisbon

Here's a photo I found while going through some old photos of Lisbon that I think fits in well with yesterday's post on horseshoe arches. These two interlocking arches on the front facade of the old Rossio train station in Lisbon are quite literally horseshoe-shaped. Placa Rossio, Lisbon, Portugal.

horseshoe arches in Montreal, Fes, and Cordoba

These horseshoe arches (a type of arch that curves inward at the bottom) are a curious decorative detail on the balconies of two side-by-side townhouses in Montreal, given the typical association of horseshoe arches with Islamic architecture. Rue Sainte-Famille, Montreal, Quebec.

Less of a surprise, horseshoe arches decorate the entrance to a mosque and an adjacent fountain in the medieval medina of Fes al Bali, Morocco.

In Cordoba, Spain, a sea of striped horseshoe arches fills the worship space of the Great Mosque.