Browse Items (10 total)

The silhouettes of Oscar Niemeyer’s public architecture create the horizon of this Brasilia sunset photographed by Chet Smolski in 1974. Niemeyer’s distinctly shaped buildings are a symbol of Brasilia. Note the top of the Catedral de Brasilia…

This east facing view of Brasilia was photographed from the TV Tower. This photograph illustrates the layout of the city, which was planned in the shape of a bird. At the center of the photograph is the National Congress Building, with it’s twin…

This 1969 map of Brasilia show’s the bird-like shape of the city as designed by Lucia Costa. He was hired by President Juscelino Kubitschek to design the city in what had previously been a waste land with scarce water, animals, plants or people.

From the Catedral de Brasilia, this photograph looks west toward the National Congress Building. In the foreground is one of the statues, distinctly modernist that line the entry to the Catedral. Both the Catedral de Brasilia and the National…

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the National Congress Building is a masterpiece among the many of his works in the Brazilian modernist style. This unique layout separates the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies into two separate semi-speherical…

This photograph looks west on Brasilia’s Monumental Axis under the overpasses of the North and South Roads, where the bus and subway terminals are located. Smolski notes on the slide the choice to install roundabouts rather than traffic signals.

Brasilia is a planned city that has been both criticized as a failed utopia acclaimed as a masterpiece of modernist architecture. The city is mapped out into sections forming the shape of a bird or airplane. This photograph is taken in one of…

This photograph faces south east across Brasilia’s Monumental Access. The photograph was taken from the TV Tower. Prominent in the left middle ground is the Praça dos Aposentados, a housing complex for retired persons. Just behind that is the…

This south facing view of Brasilia looks across the ‘wings’ of the city into the planned residential neighborhoods. The modernist architecture, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, dominates the city. In the foreground of the photograph is a subway station…

Looking west down Brasilia’s Monumental Axis Smolski capture’s an array of modernist architecture. Of note, to the left is Correios, the national headquarters for Brazil’s postal service. Prominent in the center right of the photograph is Brasilia’s…