New York City and The Six Principles of Design

There was a guy who described the essential symmetry of the human body as being the principal source of proportion in everything in the universe. It was upon Vitruvius’ writing “De Architectura” that Leonardo da Vinci based his Vitruvian Man.

Vitruvius served as an engineer under Julius Caesar during the first Gallic Wars (58-50 BC). According to his treatise, the architecture is an imitation of nature and every structure must exhibit three qualities - stability, utility, beauty, - which require the architects to be equipped with a varied kind of learning and knowledge of many branches (like drawing, geometry, optics, history, philosophy, music, theatre, medicine, law). Moreover, Vitruvius identified the “Six Principles of Design” as order, arrangement, proportion, symmetry, propriety and economy. Among the six principles, proportion interrelates and supports all the other factors in geometrical forms and arithmetical ratios.

Here are some photos I took during my stay in New York last November to illustrate these six principles.

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Wow, @AnGri , the photos that you have published are amazing. I’ve never been to New York, but I in my opinion you were able to capture it’s core. Did you had a nice time there? What was the thing that surprised your the most? If you have time, I would love to hear about your experience. In the meantime, I would like to thank you for this great post and note that I’ll be on the lookout for your future publications. :slight_smile:

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I’m so happy to hear that you liked my post about New York, @KlaudiyaG , thank you! You know, I’ve always dreamt about visiting this city, ever since I was a teen. Finally, last year I got the chance to not only visit it, but even to run the ultimate TCS New York City Marathon. It was better than my dreams, really. I can hardly find words to describe my NY experience, but the thing that surprised me the most was how I felt like I’m at home. During all days I was full with this kind of positive energy, that I’ve had when I was a child. I was feeling pure joy, curiosity and freedom all the time. Honestly, I can’t recall anything quite like this from all my other travelling experiances. I feel privileged and satisfied, because I did manage to visit 9/11 Memorial, The MET, MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, The American Museum of Natural History, Top of the Rock and Empire State Building, Liberty Island, Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, The High Line,as well some food and drink spots in Manhattan (everywhere friendly staff and good quality). And still, running across bridges, through the five boroughs, and finishing in Central Park, while people cheering for me and screaming my name, is my most precious memory from NY. There are tons of pictures I took there, some of them you can see, if you visit my facebook profile (Anna V. Grigorova). At the first opportunity, I’ll share more of my photos and memories here, too.

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Of course I liked it, your post is absolutely brilliant, as well as your reply. I’m actually speechless right now. I don’t even know from where to begin! Probably by saying that it’s wonderful that you had a blast, and how not to, I mean you’ve seen so many wonderful places and apparently experienced so many fantastic emotions over the course of your stay. There’s no way that anyone can forget such a trip or better yet adventure. I’m positive that the marathon was an experience that you will cherish for life, I would, that’s for sure. :slight_smile:

Thank you so much for making my day @AnGri ! Knowing that your childhood dream came true really puts a smile on my face. Talking about childhood dreams, are you planning to fulfill another one any time soon?

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@KlaudiyaG , you are very welcome indeed! Especially with comments like these, that are tempting me to conversate more than I am used to. Yes, you’re completely right, New York City feels like once in a lifetime and I will never forget it. The same, I hope, will be with Connect Live 2019 in San Jose this November and I am extremely curious and eager to meet my fellow Local Guides. Will I meet you there? :slight_smile:

Otherwise, like everybody else, I have to navigate my everyday life with all of its responsibilities, but my aspirations are quite simple - to live a healthy happy life and help others do the same, - so I integrate my daydreaming into my everyday life planning. And I tend not to lag behind the fulfillment of my dreams, despite their abundance :smiley: The big dream, I am chasing at the moment, is to become a Six Star Finisher (to finish all six Abbot marathons: New York, London, Tokyo, Chicago, Berlin and Boston). New York was my first star, next to come is BMW Berlin Marathon in September. I’ll be pleased to know what are you dreaming for? It may be inspirational! :slight_smile:

I hear you and I completely understand what you are saying. As wonderful it is to be able to fulfill all your dreams in this lifetime, everyone has some responsibilities that he/she have to deal with, some towards work, some towards family, etc. And that’s part of this journey that we call life. This is why one of my mottoes in life is “Work hard, play hard”. It’s very suitable don’t you think, @AnGri ? :slight_smile:

About Connect Live 2019, I would like to take this opportunity to offer you my congratulations for being selected. Unfortunately, I won’t have the chance to meet you there, but I’m sure that the other members of our team will make you feel welcomed. This of course doesn’t mean that we won’t meet some other time and place. Hopefully we’ll have this possibility soon somewhere in Europe.

Regarding your question, well, one of my ultimate dreams is to make a trip around the world with a motorcycle. The journey probably won’t happen in the next couple of years, as I’m still not quite ready yet. Like you said, there’s a lot of scheduling and planning that have to be done before I begin this next chapter.

Yours on the other hand sounds like a lot of training and working out. I was training as an athlete when I was much younger, so I know how much dedication, time and devotion this takes. For a marathon is probably even harder, but last year I went to support a friend of mine and when he crossed the finish line he had the biggest smile I’ve seen on his face. I actually just told him about your dream and he was very impressed, just like me. You have our support and note that we have no doubts that one day you are going to become a Six Star Finisher!

Thank you both very much! I’m sure your friend’s finisher smile will suits you too @KlaudiyaG , when you come to ride your motorcycle around the world! You’ve already started your journey by dreaming of it. With the words of Walt Disney, if you can dream it, you can achieve it. This is exactly the same thing as training: it takes dedication, time and devotion. Probably, that’s why I like my long runs: they keep my body fit and strong and give plenty of time to my mind for dreaming. And dreaming opens the door to opportunities. Hope we’ll meet one day to share our experience with working on dreams :slight_smile: Have a nice weekend! :slight_smile:

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