Listening test: The Chrysler Building

In today's listening activity we are going to find out information about one of the most iconic buildings in New York, the Chrysler Building.


Choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence.

source: Speak Up Italy

1. The Chrysler Building
A. was not taller than the Eiffel Tower.
B. was once the tallest building in the world.
C. was taller than the Empire State Building.

2. Frankie J Campione
A. designed the Chrysler Building.
B. has offices in the Chrysler Building.
C. is a futuristic architect.

3. For Frankie J Campione the Chrysler Building
A. inspired the automobile industry in the 1920’s and 30’s.
B. is a symbol of American industrialism.
C. preserves the idea of speed and excitement.

4. The Chrysler Building
A. is much more appreciated today than when it was built.
B. represented the 1930s tendency that buildings looked like the industry they were built for.
C. was well liked when it was built.

5. Charles Weiss
A. is an architect.
B. is still working.
C. lives in the Chrysler Building.

6. Charles Weiss says
A. he’s lived in Japan.
B. people identify New York with the Chrysler Building.
C. the Chrysler Building looks like a ship.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Chrysler Building, a landmark on the New York skyline. At the time of its opening in 1930, it overtook the Eiffel Tower as the world's tallest building, only to be overtaken by a New York rival, the Empire State Building, the following year.
The Chrysler Building, which was designed by maverick architect William Van Alen, was also striking for its futuristic structure. In order to find out how it had withstood the test of time, SPEAK UP went there and met with Frankie J Campione, whose Create Architecture Planning & Design company is based in impressive offices at the top of the tower:
I think after 75 years the building doesn't necessarily preserve the idea of speed and excitement, but it preserves the idea of American industry. The building was designed as the headquarters for Chrysler and throughout the building there are images that are prevalent that show inspiration from the automobile industry from the late 1920s and early 1930s. The building remains that same sort of icon that speaks to American industry: not so much speed and excitement, but American industrialism.
The Chrysler Building was considered ridiculous and discredited when it was first built because it was a folly, it was, by terms we now use, ‘entertainment architecture’. That is something that's new to architecture in the past 20 years. Back in the late 20s and early 30s, buildings did not necessarily resemble the industry that they were built for. However, by today's standards, it was considered very foresightful and ahead of its times.
The top of this skyscraper also houses the splendid offices of Charles Weiss, a 78-year-old dentist who has no plans to retire. We asked him why New Yorkers were so fond of the Chrysler Building:
You look at this tower at night when it's lit up and it's just so different and so beautiful, it's like a rocket shooting into the sky but, as much as New Yorkers like it — and it really is the icon building in New York City— all the years, there's just nothing like it. Overseas, it is New York City. I've been to Japan over 62 times, I've been all over the world teaching, you know, implant dentistry every time I pass a travel bureau, in any country, and they're saying "Go to New York," there's a picture of the Chrysler Building. It's the most famous building around the world: the Chrysler Building means New York to a whole lot of people.

KEY: 
1B 2B 3B 4A 5B 6B

Glass dome eco house in The Arctic Circle

A Norwegian family have built a  glass dome around their off-grid house in the Arctic Circle.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 How much does the glass dome cost?
2 How many individual glass panels does the dome have?
3 How do Benjamin and Ingrid get their food?
4 Where does the family live?
5 Where did Benjamin and Ingrid grow up?
6 Why do they want to live that way?

When I look back at our creation now, I get a deep sense of gratitude and joy. 
We were inspired by the hundreds of natural buildings around the world. It’s in our own and everybody else’s interest to protect, support and love the planet that sustains us.
As part of their quest for sustainable living, Benjamin and Ingrid built this incredible glass dome house for £340,000 in the Arctic Circle.
We started building the dome in 2012. We built for one and a half years before we moved in.
The huge dome is made of 360 individual glass panels and stands 7 and a half meters high and 15 meters across. Designed to withstand winds of over 31mps, it can also take the weight of the Arctic snowfall.
It provides shelter from the Arctic climate and we need less energy to heat the house.
We grow some of our own food and we collect wild herbs and plants in nature. We don’t buy much stuff.
It gives us a longer and warmer growing season. We have a water treatment system where all the water we use circulates in tanks and this pumps out into the green house, where plants and sand filter and clean the water and also takes nutrients from it.
At the centre of the dome is the family’s living quarters.
We wanted a house that made, is made of natural materials, that does not pollute the air inside and has organic shapes, that is pleasant to live in.
The inside of the house is made of cob, which is a mix of sand, clay and straw. We also use timber.
Both Benjamin and Ingrid were raised on the island and they’re now looking for their four children to follow the same path.
Our three oldest children, they were very much a part of the building process and they helped us build the walls of their own rooms. And they love the house and they say that they never want to move, they want to grow old here with us. We want to live sustainably and eco-friendly because the other alternative isn’t sustainable. We worked so hard in the process of building it and it’s, it was well worth it.

Key:
1 £340,000.
2 360.
3 They buy some but grow their own food.
4 At the centre of the dome.
5 On the island.
6 They want to live sustainably and eco-friendly.

Tokyo’s station master

Although the Tokyo Olympics are almost four years off, the stationmaster at the city's landmark train station already seems to be running his own kind of marathon every day.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions.



1 How many trains run through Tokyo station every weekday?
2 What Japanese saying does Takashi Etoh say?
3 What do his employees call him?
4 Why does he bow when he enters or exits the station?
5 Why does he sing Happy Birthday to his employees?
6 What happened to the station in 1980?
7 Which two worlds can be seen on both sides of the station?
8 Why does the station master show people the rubbish he picks up?

It’s home to Japan’s super-sleek shinkansen, or bullet train, and is a stop for nearly two million passengers riding 3,700 trains every weekday. This is Tokyo Station. And at the center of this universe, clad in white, is the station master. Like his trains, Takashi Etoh keeps a tight schedule.
We raced around trying to keep up with him. It’s vital for me to check on things with my own eyes, he said.
Let’s make it nice and tidy, he instructed a cleaner. On the platform he told another worker, Don’t catch cold!
You seem to really love your job.
I do! Etoh agreed. Adding, well, after my wife! But I’ve been with trains longer.
Does your wife ever get jealous?
No, he said. We have a saying in Japan: It’s good to have a husband who’s healthy and absent!
This station, really, is his second family. His employees call him Oyakata, Japanese for parent.
At the start of his day we found Etoh doing calligraphy, painting the character ‘en’, which means connection, his favorite word.
From cradle to grave, we encounter millions of people, he said. The few we share our workplace with are precious. And get this, he bows whenever he enters or exits the station.
It mentally prepares you for customers, Etoh told us, and shows them appreciation.
We watched as he saluted trains, stopped for a quick picture, and monitored the cleaners who turn around these trains in seven-minutes flat. And no, this video is not sped up.
He has almost 500 employees; he says he considers them his kids, and one of the most important parts of each day is about to happen: He serenades each and every employee on their birthday.
It creates a connection, he said. Everyone’s birthday is that person’s most special day.
The station itself, built in 1914, recently celebrated its 100th birthday. It’s lucky to be standing.
In the 1980s it came within a hair’s breath of being demolished.
Azby Brown, an architecture professor and New Orleans native has lived in Tokyo for 30 years.
You would not think this is the same station; it’s sort of schizophrenic.
Brown showed us how one side of the newly-renovated station is modern. The other is more traditional and faces Japan’s Imperial Palace.
It was really a symbol of the Japanese empire. It has this grandiose, classical, kind of dignified appearance. The other side was really like the backside of the city. It was always a little dustier and just more business-like.
You have the super-modern on one side meeting the almost old-fashioned on the other.
Definitely old-fashioned. And yet when this building was built, this was the peak of modernism.
Today, it boasts a labyrinth of shops, its own hotel and bar, even a signature Tokyo Station cocktail.  And it’s remarkably clean, save for some wrappers Etoh snatched up, and a little dust he noticed behind a computer.
We watched you go around and pick up the trash, at one point you went down, you picked up a piece of trash and you showed it to people nearby. Why?
I’m trying to set an example, he told us. Tokyo is the gateway to Japan. For the Olympics, we’ll have visitors from 200 countries. We can’t speak the same language, but we can show a spanking-clean station.
Sipping one of those Tokyo Station cocktails, we toasted to the whole idea of this place [And to connections] making a connection.

Key:
1 3,700
2 It’s good to have a husband who’s healthy and absent.
3 Parent
4 It prepares him for customers and shows them appreciation.
5 To create a connection because everyone’s birthday is that person’s most special day.
6 It was almost demolished.
7 Traditional, old-fashioned Japan vs modern Japan
8 To set an example.

Extensive listening: New town

250 years ago, Edinburgh launched a competition to design a 'New Town' for the Scottish capital. The city desperately needed an upgrade - it was overcrowded, filthy and crumbling.  With Scotland a partner in the new United Kingdom, it needed a capital to be proud of.

At the same time, Edinburgh was seen as the intellectual capital of Europe - with Adam Smith, David Hume and other figures of the 'Scottish Enlightenment' creating an explosion of creative ideas that would change the world.

The winning plan by James Craig was a masterpiece of Georgian city planning that reflected these Enlightenment ideas. This BBC film tells the story of how the plan was made real - becoming the most ambitious building project in Britain, and transforming Edinburgh into the most perfect Georgian city on Earth.

Zaha Hadid -A look back at her work

Dame Zaha Hadid, one of the world's leading architects, died at the age of 65 early this year. She was born in Iraq, but called the UK home for 40 years. She designed some of the world's most innovative buildings, including the Guangzhou Opera House in China, and the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 What are some of the adjectives that can be applied to Zaha Hadid's buildings?
2 When and where did Zaha train as an architect? 
3 What ability did Zaha have that made her emerge as an innovative architect?
4 What shapes has Zaha devised?
5 What building did she devise for the 2012 Olympics?
6 What reputation did Zaha have?


Dame Zaha designed buildings that could look as fluid as mercury while  appearing as light as a leaf. Sumptuous parabolic shapes became a trademark of her architecture aesthetic, leading to her being called the Queen of the curve. Her creations were always eye-catching, often jaw-dropping and sometimes controversial.
People forgot what you can do with a modern work. You know, where was an obsession with the star system, a vernacular, post-modern, so the idea of new was almost alien.
Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad and studied maths at university before moving to London in the 70s to train as an architect. She set up her own practise shortly afterwards, then found there were no takers for her avant-garde ideas.
I was a woman, I did strange stuff, I think it all together intertwined but… There definitely has been and still remains… it’s much better now, there’s a definite stigma to… about the woman thing.
It was this cubist-inspired building in Germany that proved to be her big breakthrough. Soon her ability to mix old school craft skills with revolutionary new computer programmes saw her emerge as one of the most exciting and innovative architects of her generation.
I think she has added an enormous amount of language to architecture. She's devised shapes that we never thought we could do and never thought that any architect could do. And that is something, you know. There's a lot of architecture that's sort of variant on the architectures that’s come before but she did shapes that gob-smacked you.
Her visual flamboyance proved popular abroad but less so in the UK, her adoptive home, where she really only made her mark on the public consciousness with her Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics.
To be accepted as an architect and I think it’s… I'm not sure it’s fully done, not here, not in this country. I'm still considered to be on the margin, you know, despite all these things. And I don't mind being on the edge, actually. It's a good place to be.
She had a reputation for being short-tempered and difficult, while some of her buildings were criticised for being impractical and overblown. There is no doubt she was uncompromising, a characteristic that allowed her to overcome prejudice and scepticism to design some truly remarkable buildings which received multiple awards.
Dame Zaha Hadid was a trailblazing visionary. She leaves behind an extraordinary body of work to be marvelled at by generations.

Key:
1 eye-catching, often jaw-dropping and sometimes controversial
2 London in the 70's 
3 her ability to mix old school craft skills with revolutionary new computer programmes
4  shapes that we never thought we could do (and never thought that any architect could do)
5 the Aquatics Centre 
6 a reputation for being short-tempered and difficult, and she was uncompromising

Reading test: Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the 'insert the sentence' kind of task. To do so, we are going to read the BBC article Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold.

Read the text and fill in the blanks with the corresponding sentence A-J. There are two sentences you do not need to use. 0 is an example.

Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold

An iconic building shaped (0) … in Newark, Ohio, home to a basket-making company, is to be sold. Nicknamed the "Big Basket," and belonging to the home decor Longaberger Company, the building is looking for a buyer. Employees (1) … the seven-storey basket building are being moved to another location in Ohio.
It opened in 1997 and once housed 500 employees of the company, the Columbus Dispatch reports. Now, the company is facing (2) … . The last employees working in the building are moving out this week.
"The Big Basket is like the St Louis Arch," Jim Klein, a former Longaberger president, told the newspaper.  He wants (3) … on the National Register of Historic Places. "It's a really important part of south-eastern Ohio history."
The building's shape was the company's founder's idea, the Dispatch reports. It cost $30 million (£22.5 million) to build. Dave Longaberger had a very specific idea for the building, the Dispatch reports, and would not settle on a design (4) … to make it look exactly like one of the company's baskets.
A Facebook group titled "Preserving the Longaberger 'Big Basket' as a National Treasure" has 1,683 members. Mr Klein keeps members updated on his mission to have the Big Basket registered on the National Register in the group. "Wish we could all donate enough $ to buy the big basket and turn it into a museum. I realise this isn't feasible at all, but (5) …," one member writes.
Not everyone at Longaberger is sad to be leaving the basket, though. Brenton Baker, director of marketing and communications for the company, told the Ohio Advocate that the office they are moving to is more convenient and they look forward to (6) … .
"It is not a sad thing we are leaving," Mr Baker told the newspaper. "People keep saying they feel sad for the employees. Don't feel sad for us. I cannot wait for next week. For me, next week (7) … . For the people on the outside, it's probably not that way."

A - be located in more modern premises
B - being closer to their colleagues
C - can't come fast enough
D - hard economic times
E - if it was possible
F - like a basket 0 Example
G - to get the building
H - until architects agreed
I - who work inside
J - wishful thinking

KEY:
1I 2D 3G 4H 5J 6B 7C

Talking point: Buildings

This week's talking point is buildings. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

Have you seen these buildings before?
What countries do you think they are in?
What do you think they were built as?
What do you think of each building? You can use some of these adjectives: imposing, nondescript, graceful, innovative, tasteless, dated, out of place, stunning

Triumph Palace

The Crooked House

Torre Velasca

Museo Sumaya

Talk about the most impressive building or monument you have ever seen. You are going to tell your partner about it. Choose from the list below the things you want to talk about.
Which city and which country is it in?
When did you first see it?
What is it called?
Why was it built originally?
What is it used for?
Is it modern or old?
Do you know who designed it?
What do you most like about it?
How does it affect the environment?
Is it a popular tourist attraction?

Interaction
There is a derelict warehouse in your community that was built in the early 20th century. You are a member of the local council and you have to help make a decision about how the warehouse or the land itself could be repurposed. Consider the following factors:
The needs of your community
Demolition and rebuilding
The benefits of a new, iconic building
A high-profile architect
Your community’s architectural heritage
The warehouse’s architectural features