Hearst Castle

Built as the building for the College of Mine- a college which taught some relatively unique majors, the Hearst Memorial Mining Building was designed to have a different character compare to other colleges. With this in mind, it can be observed that some interesting expressions were specifically and intentionally crafted under the drawing pens of John Galen Howard and the outcome is worthy to be discussed and investigated. At the very first, the idea of emphasising the speciality of mining could be observed in John Galen Howard’s choice of building material: granite. Recalling the primitivity and forces are the major representatives of the characters of mining, the features of granite (strong and natural) made it a nice candidate to present…

Graham had a good-sized crowd but it wasn’t the size that he had wanted (Graham, 1997). But one night before the event, the place was crawling with reporters and photographers. When Graham asked what was happening, one reporter answered, “You’ve just been kissed by William Randolph Hearst” (Wooten, 2001, p. 8). Of course Graham had heard of the famous newspaper owner, Hearst, but he had never met him or even talked to him. Graham did not know the exact reason why Hearst decided to tell his…

It is debatable whether siege warfare became as important as it was due to the presence of the defensive monstrosities that were castles or if it was siege warfare that led to the advancement of castles, but siege warfare is a key focus regardless. When analyzing medieval warfare, some historians make the mistake of ignoring siege engines or warfare and instead choose to focus their inquiry on knights or horses . Knights on horseback had a minor impact on siege warfare, which was the leading…

Tall stone walls, numerous holes located throughout the property, crumbling bricks, narrow hallways, small stairwells. These are just some of the features of the crumbling medieval castles that still stand today. Yet, only a few hundred years ago, these castles were the homes of the wealthy and a shield for the low-lights in society. The bigger and stronger the castle, the more wealth was shown, and the better protected the people of the village were. A successful medieval European castle would…

The Castel Medieval castles were built to be as defensive as possible. Every part of them was designed to make sure that the castle was as strong as it could be, and could hold out against sieges - which could sometimes last months. The Outer Curtain Wall The ‘curtain wall’ was a stone wall which wrapped around the outside of a castle. This wall was the main layer of defense, and it was very strong - for example, the curtain wall of Caerphilly Castle in Wales was more than 2 meters (that’s more…

and castles that date back to Medieval times scattered all over the beautiful countryside. Most of the castles found in Ireland were built using stone. Many of them date back to the 1100's. The Irish started building castles after the Normans invaded the country. There were castles built all over Ireland's beautiful countryside. Many of them now lie in ruins. There are others that have been restored. Many of the castles are open to the public. The Bunratty Castle was built in the 15th…

early as 300BC. The Traction Trebuchet required a large group people to pull on a heavy rope in order to launch the projectile. The trebuchet didn’t reach Europe till the early dark ages around 500 AD. during this time the trebuchet went through very significant changes, the most important of which being the replacement of the troop of men pulling on a rope in order to launch the projectile, with a large fixed counterbalance weight. Thought the fixed weight was a significant improvement from the…

servants, specialists, and tradesmen that lived in the castle also. They also considered the location of the castle, to make sure it's in a good city but also that it's architecture will help put it in a good position to defend itself. The reason the architecture was so important was because the main objective was making the castle as defensive as possible. There is an obvious connection between medieval castles and cities, for both relied on well-built fortifications to withstand attack and…

Castles were constantly being changed. They had to change defences so it could be could be as defensive as possible. It had to be defensive enough to survive a siege which could go on for months. They did not only change defence such as walls and weapons but they also changed what was inside because the first castle only trained knights but they upgraded it so now it has a chapel, living rooms and the king and queen can own a castle. Why did castle designs Change? They had to change the designs…

Castles Needed a good defence system and design because they were a kingdom main for defence against invasion. (eventually, however weapons overpowered their once mighty walls.) The Middle Ages, a period of History that ran from the year 590 to 1500 ce, it could of be known for famous landmarks, like castles. It was someone's home but if someone wanted to invade the castle they would of must go through heavy defence. There were moats, High walls, Flanking towers and gateway defences that would…