I recently finished reviewing Douglas Murphy‘s debut book The Architecture of Failure (2012). For whatever reason, the review took me much longer than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, I am extremely pleased with the result and have submitted it in the hope it might be published somewhere soon.

As a way of disburdening myself of its unbearable weight, in light of its completion, I’m including a gallery that features some of the more impressive photographs and renderings I was able to find of Paxton’s original Crystal Palace at Hyde Park (1851). Of course, it is important to make this specification given the widespread confusion surrounding it and a subsequent (heavily altered) iteration of the Palace after the bulk of its materials were relocated to Sydenham, only now with an arched transept running cruciform along it, bisecting the front vault.

For any Russian readers who might follow my blog, I will leave you with an abbreviated version of Dostoevskii’s literary treatment of the subject in Notes from Underground:

Вы верите в хрустальное здание, навеки нерушимое, то есть в такое, которому нельзя будет ни языка украдкой выставить, ни кукиша в кармане показать. Ну, а я, может быть, потому-то и боюсь этого здания, что оно хрустальное и навеки нерушимое и что нельзя будет даже и украдкой языка ему выставить.

Вот видите ли: если вместо дворца будет курятник и пойдет дождь, я, может быть, и влезу в курятник, чтоб не замочиться, но все-таки курятника не приму за дворец из благодарности, что он меня от дождя сохранил. Вы смеетесь, вы даже говорите, что в этом случае курятник и хоромы — все равно. Да, — отвечаю я, — если б надо было жить только для того, чтоб не замочиться.

Image gallery

Rendering of the interior of Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace at Hyde Park

Color rendering of the interior of Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace at Hyde Park

Black and white rendering of the interior to Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace at Hyde Park

Figure 3: Photograph of the interior of Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace at Hyde Park

Photograph of the interior of Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace at Hyde Park

Photograph of Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace at Hyde Park

Photograph of the exterior of Paxton’s 1851 Crystal Palace at Hyde Park

Sketch of the interior of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park (1851)

Sketch of the exterior of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park under construction (1851)

Color sketch of the interior of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park (1851)

Sketch of the interior of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park (1851)

Color sketch of the interior of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park (1851)

Color sketch of the interior of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park (1851)

Sketch of the interior of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park (1851)

Sketch of the interior of the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park (1851)