NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Administrative Complex HABS Recording Team. Huntsville, Alabama. June 2012. (L to R) Ryan Pierce, Paul Davidson, Doug Bacon (Summer Architect, Auburn University), Mark Schara and Jobie Hill (Summer Architect, University of Oregon).

This summer, the team of architects are documenting three international style buildings constructed in the early 1960s. The buildings are perhaps best known for their association with the rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, MSFC Director from 1960-70 whose office was located within the complex.

View of Lincoln Statue. Lincoln Memorial, West Potomac Park, Washington, District of Columbia

One of Washington's largest and most well known monuments, the Lincoln Memorial serves as an anchor to the western end of the Mall. The statue of Lincoln on interior is one of the most famous works by noted sculpture Daniel Chester French. The memorial to Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) was constructed s a monumental commemoration of the sixteenth president, who saw the nation through a divisive war and preserved the union.

See the HABS documentation of the Lincoln Memorial in our national collection at: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0472/

Visit the Lincoln Memorial Interactive webpage.
Experience a virtual walk through of the Lincoln Memorial and listen to Park Rangers share their reflections on the memorial and its history. Visit: http://www.nps.gov/featurecontent/ncr/linc/interactive/deploy/index.htm#/introduction

HAER Photographer Jet Lowe photographs a column capital for the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection using a large-format camera.

HABS Team Documents Arlington Cemetery Gate Stones

In 1879, Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General of the U.S, Army, salvaged six columns from the portico of the old War Department building (James Hoban, architect, 1818) adjacent to the White House, which was being demolished for the construction of the new State, War and Navy Building. The columns were brought to Arlington Cemetery where Meigs incorporated them into the design of two gates, the Ord-Weitzel Gate and the Sheridan Gate. The gates, in turn, were demolished in 1971 and the stones dumped in the woods behind the maintenance building at Arlington, where they languished for 40 years. In June 2012, after several years of discussion and planning, the stones were removed and placed in a protected area for conservation and study. On 14-15 August a HABS team, consisting of architects Mark Schara, Paul Davidson, Ryan Pierce, and Jobie Hill (summer hire), together with HABS Historian Gigi Price and HAER Photographer Jet Lowe, undertook field documentation of the stones. It is anticipated that the resulting HABS drawings will aid in the eventual reconstruction of the gates. The project was sponsored by Arlington National Cemetery and by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District.

HABS/HAER/HALS has undertaken several recording projects in Arlington National Cemetery. See the documentation produced in our national collection at the Library of Congress by visiting: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=arlington+Cemetery&fa=displayed%3Asurveys_only&sp=1&co=hh

To see the more pictures of the team documenting Arlington Cemetery Gate Stones, see our Facebook ablum at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.407668662630423.92832.130899723640653&type=1&l=6e2d327f72

HAER Documentation Project:
Blue Ridge Parkway, Between Shenandoah National Park & Great Smoky Mountains, Asheville vicinity, Buncombe, NC (HAER NC-42)

Image: Linn Cove Viaduct.
This is the first precast concrete segmental concrete segmental viaduct to be built with the progressive method in the United States. It contains nearly every type of highway construction within its length. With is super elevation of up to ten degrees and its tight horizontal and spiral curves, it was the most complicated bridge of its type built to that time. Looking south-southwest.

Significance: Blue Ridge Parkway was the first long-distance rural parkway developed by the National Park Service. Its designers adapted parkway development strategies originating in suburban commuter routes and metropolitan park systems and expanded them to a regional scale, creating a scenic motorway linking two of the most prominent eastern national parks. The parkway was conceived as a multiple-purpose corridor that would fulfill a variety of social, recreational, environmental and pragmatic functions. In addition to preserving and showcasing attractive natural scenery, the parkway was designed to display the traditional cultural landscapes of the southern Appalachian highlands, providing visitors with an idealized vision of America's rural heritage. At frequent intervals the parkway borders expand to encompass smaller parks, recreational areas, and historic sites, many of which include picnic areas and/or overnight accommodations. Blue Ridge Parkway's attractive natural and cultural features, its diverse recreational attractions, and its relatively accessible East Coast location have long made it the most heavily visited unit of the National Park System.

See the HAER documentation of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection in the Library of Congress at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.nc0478

Lear more about the Blue Ridge Parkway on the NPS website at http://www.nps.gov/blri/index.htm

View of Annie Kidd, HDP Architect, on Fall Protection Training climbing the Fifth Potomac Crossing. The safety training was in preparation for the HAER Western Maryland Railway Project which began in the Summer of 2009. The HAER project included the recording of several historic bridges, culverts and tunnels.

Project Significance: The westward expansion of the Western Maryland Railway, beginning with the Cumberland Extension, was one of the last new mainlines constructed during the U.S. railroads' period of extensive growth between the Civil War and World War I, and it represents the height of railroad civil engineering at the beginning of the twentieth century. By employing modern materials and steam-powered construction equipment, engineers were able to design and build a railroad that included six major bridges, three tunnels, and extensive earthworks in this section alone to achieve low grades through rugged terrain along the upper Potomac River. While high construction and maintenance costs coupled with changes in the transportation industry ultimately led to the railroad's abandonment, the surviving roadbed and structures continue to bear witness to the sophistication of the era's engineering and construction capabilities, as well as the bold visions of those who underwrote such projects.

See the documentation produced by the HAER team in the nation's largest archive of historic architectural, engineering, and landscape documentation, the HANBS/HAER/HALS Collection at the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/md1890/

See more pictures of the Western Maryland Railway HAER team on our Facebook album at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.131361726927786.22658.130899723640653&type=1&l=35a3144e8f