These are
unprecedented times and the economic downturn created by the pandemic has
negatively impacted our business in many ways. In response, we have come up
with a rare opportunity for our customers. Our best sellers are available at
wholesale pricing through a crowdfunding model. We will collect orders until we
reach the order threshold of approximately 150 pairs per style, then make your
shoes in batches of 300. At this volume we can keep all of our valuable
shoemakers employed and avoid devastating lay-offs which hurts the shoemaking
heritage in our community. We are grateful for your support and hope you’ll use
this opportunity to help our small family business continue it’s 52 year
tradition while acquiring a pair of handmade shoes worth waiting for. Shoes
ordered here will ship in approximately 8-12 weeks if the order goal is met. If
this timeline does not work for you, you can order from our regular categories
at full price for the earliest delivery.
If you know
us, you know we are a bit obsessed with Maine, with good reason. We have a
bunch of Mainers on staff here at Huckberry who seem to always look back with
admiration, whether it is the amazing scenery, an unexpected surf community, or
the haunting sites of a Stephen King novel. One of our favorite Maine mainstays
is Rancourt & Co., makers of some of the best sneakers and boots you can
find, all handcrafted and built for the long haul. A few years back, we got a
behind-the-scenes look at their operation in Maine and we are back with an
interview with the founder, Kyle Rancourt, in honor of our new exclusive, the
Acadia Chukka.
What was
your first pair of boots?
My first
pair of boots I can remember were these beautiful Chelsea Boots made by an
Italian shoemaker. They were hand-finished and burnished much like we do with
our mimosa calf dress shoes. At the time, my dad was in charge of product
development and design at Allen-Edmonds and he designed these boots for them.
My first pair of boots at Rancourt & Co. was a boat-boot. At the time
(circa 2010) American heritage style was all the rage and boat boots became a
thing. I think they were navy suede with a white deck sole. A bit regrettable
style-wise but hindsight is 20/20.
What shoes
are you wearing right now?
The Bennett
Trainer in Gray.
Where do
you draw your inspiration from when designing new products?
So many
places. A big part of it is utilitarian—comfort, versatility, classic styling.
I also design footwear based on materials that inspire me. I'll find an outsole
or an upper leather that I love then design footwear that works with those
materials. Lastly, I do look around a bit at what some other industry leaders/brands
I admire are doing and also take into consideration what our customers want or
are asking for.
Rancourt's
designs have really started to evolve and grow over the last few years. Can you
tell us about how you maintain and balance classic style but continue to
innovate with new, more modern styles like the Carson sneaker and Bennett
trainer?
Yeah, I think
that's true. It's definitely been an intentional shift as I don't believe we
can grow and thrive in the long term but sticking just to the classics.
However, I come at product development always from the classic or traditional
perspective. The Carson and Bennett sneakers certainly aren't unique to us but
our twist on them is what elevates them and makes them different. I've always
loved the Vans Authentic so I said "How can we make this better and a
"Rancourt" shoe?" We use Horween leather, Vibram soles and put a
molded foam footbed in it so it's even more comfortable. The Bennett is another
example - we took a really traditional runner silhouette and used high-quality
leather for the uppers then put Lactae Hevea soles on the bottom. There are
very few shoemakers using LH soles so that alone sets us apart while retaining
the Rancourt DNA. I also really try not to over-design things. I like minimal
design and a small color palette because our signature shoes are so traditional
and simple I think everything else we do has to fit that mold as well.
Tell us
about the unique style of the Acadia chukka - where does it take inspiration
from?
The Acadia
Chukka comes from an old pattern we had in our archives that I️ changed up a
little bit. Since you can’t get crepe soles made in America anymore I️ sourced
the “caliber” sole from one of our American sole manufacturers. It’s mean to
replicate the classic crepe wedge-style sole. I️ think it’s really versatile -
it can be worn year round and while it’s tough and durable it doesn’t need much
breaking in. It’ll be super comfortable right out of the box.
White
sneakers - dirty or clean?
Clean. One
of the benefits of owning a shoe company is when my white sneakers get dirty I
can just take a new pair.
We know our
Rancourt's are going to last for the long run. But any boot care tips to help?
Two things
that are super easy - get a good horsehair brush and brush them regularly, like
every time you wear them or if they've been sitting around for a few weeks. It
cleans them up gives them a shine if they are made from a "blooming"
leather, like chromexcel, while also keeping particles from working their way
into the break of the leather and degrading it. The second thing is to use cedar
shoe trees in your boots when you're not wearing them. They will help keep the
odor down and help retain the shape of the leather over time.
Best thing
in Maine that you can't get anywhere else?
The
landscape. Maine has the best of everything - big mountains, green forests, and
beautiful beaches. In two hours or less, you can be in the backcountry on a
mountain with no cell service and two hours in the other direction you can be
in Boston or five hours to NYC. Portland, Maine is also a wonderful small city.
I wouldn't give it up for anything.
Before
Covid-19, the tourist industry was the largest employer by sector on the planet,
giving work to one in every 11 people. And when the emergency ends, it will
surely resurge – but should it return in the way it was before? Maybe now,
finally, is a good time to rethink what tourism should be.
Before the
coronavirus outbreak, the number of global tourists was predicted to balloon to
1.8 billion international arrivals a year by 2030. In 1950 that number was at
25 million. That huge increase cuts two ways. Tourism supports jobs, often
bringing vital economic sustenance to historic or remote places. But
over-tourism has a clear downside for the frailest destinations, like Machu
Picchu in Peru, for many historic city centres, like New Orleans or Dubrovnik,
and for the location I know best, Venice. There, 30 million annual visitors
exert enormous demands on the residents, the heritage and the environment,
changing tourism into a corrosive force.
In the
years just before the coronavirus outbreak I spent months in the city of canals
and culture interviewing Venetians about their lives. Invariably, the first
thing they wanted to tell me about was the effects of mass tourism; how, since
the 1990s, it has pushed out residents; how streets and squares can become dangerously
overcrowded; how it has pushed up housing costs and destroyed local shops that
now all cater to sandwich-eating, souvenir-buying tourists and little else; how
it allows overweening sightseers to invade weddings, baptisms and funerals at
its religious places. The social ties Venice once enjoyed, its rhythm of life,
even the vibrant artisanal trades, are now almost a thing of the past.
On top of
all that, the millions of tourists coming to Venice put pressure on the
environment by generating mountains of refuse, through the heavy use of the
vaporetti water ferries and taxis, by over-stressing ancient buildings, and
with the moisture in their collective breath on artworks. The hundreds of
visits from floating resorts – massive cruise ships each with up to 4,000
passengers – add to air pollution and cause erosion of the area’s sensitive
lagoon environment.
The
population of Venice, more than 170,000 after the second world war, has dropped
steadily to some 52,000 today. Remaining residents still feel fortunate to live
in a city of such beauty, many believing their culture survives despite the
onslaught, but they also grieve at the losses, lose heart, and move away at a
rate of 1,000 a year to homes on the mainland. A Venice without Venetians –
without significant numbers of permanent residents – is predicted for as early
as 2030.
It is no
exaggeration to say that mass tourism – adding to Venice’s existing issues with
mismanagement of the environment, corruption, political stasis and now the
climate emergency – is bringing the community, the lagoon and a fabulous
heritage to within a hair’s breadth of collapse.
Tourism was
a fairly benign source of livelihood for Venice until the world itself took a
step-change some 30 years ago, when a new economics helped bring on cheap air
travel, faster communications and an accelerated globalisation. When management
of the city was handed over to the market with few controls, Venice was turned
into an asset for stripping. Regional changes to Italian laws in the 1990s
unleashed rampant property trading that deepened the effects of mass tourism.
Yet
Venetians believe that they can still save Venice, and many are fighting for it
and demanding that politicians do more. They want them to manage tourist
numbers and pass new laws to govern property sales and rentals and put an end
to the Airbnb-led free-for-all that is pushing residents out. They call for a
focus on long-term accommodation at sustainable costs and more jobs through
economic diversification. They want more environmental measures, especially a
ban on outsized cruise ships, and improved treatment of the lagoon that is
vital to Venice’s life.
This has
come into sharp focus in the months-long Covid-19 breathing space, when the
sudden emptying of the city restored a lost tranquility, along with fish, swans
and cormorants to canals no longer churned by excessive traffic. Most of all,
it ignited the hope that this difficult moment for the world could eventually
offer a turning point.
The need in
Venice, and in so many other destinations, is for a new tourism, one that also
benefits residents – not one organised around speculators, landlords, and
traveller’s demands. We visitors must see tourism less as an unquestionable
entitlement and more as a part of our responsibility to sustain life on Earth.
This must ultimately include limiting tourist numbers.
Tourism
after coronavirus requires a new mindset. Maybe we can’t visit places so
casually; maybe we will need to sacrifice the freedom to drop in at any time
and go anywhere as fast as we can or by whatever means suits us. We need to
accept life – and visiting – at a slower pace.
Beyond that
we need to end our passivity as tourists and see destinations as people’s
homes, not just attractions. We should acquaint ourselves with local conditions
and be ready to refrain from travelling if authorities listen only to monied
interests and fail to foster local livelihoods and protect the local
environment. Greener attitudes will help fragile destinations to live on – and
allow masterpieces such as Venice to survive for generations to come.
• Neal E
Robbins is the author of Venice, an Odyssey: Hope and Anger in the Iconic City,
out in July
An
evocative and fascinating portrait of Venice, Italy-the ultimate city where
there are stories on every street and in every doorway, nook and cranny.
What is it
about Venice? The city empowers creativity, and is a place of art, artisans,
and artistry, with a rich cultural and intellectual history. It's also been
facing major challenges-including a fragile ecosystem, significant depopulation
and political volatility-leading to fears that the city will become an
inauthentic museum for tourists.
Neal
Robbins examines this Italian city, reflecting on the changes he has seen since
he first encountered it in the late 1970s-living with a Venetian family while
he was a high school student-to quite recently, when, after nearly 50 years and
a career as international journalist, he returned to see how the city has
endured and changed.
Drawing on
his journalism background, Robbins brings deep research, curiosity, and keen
insights to his personal experiences of the city, delivering a
multi-dimensional profile of this enchanting place. Taking the reader down the
city's streets, into its churches and cafes, and onboard boats traveling
through its canals and out into its vital lagoon, Robbins shares the city's
history, symbols, politics, and struggles, as well as its sounds, smells,
animals, and many of its remarkable denizens. He draws upon exclusive
interviews with Venetians from all walks of life-artisans, historians, a bank
employee, authors, parents, a psychologist, an oceanographer, a funeral
director, a nobleman and a former pop star-to share multiple personal
interpretations of Venice as it was, as it is and what it can be.
Readers
will come away with a rich understanding and appreciation of Venice's history
and culture, the challenges it faces, and what it shows us all about the
future.
Luxury
Retailer Paul Stuart Reopens Boutiques in Three Cities
NEW YORK,
June 22, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Known for its outstanding tailored clothing
and sportswear collections for men and women, Paul Stuart is thrilled to
announce the reopening of their retail stores in New York, Washington, D.C.,
and Chicago.
Closed
since March due to COVID - 19, the stores and everything inside of them have
been completely sanitized in preparation for the store's reopening. Paul
Stuart, committed to the highest standards of cleanliness and disinfection,
will have protective materials available to all customers who visit our
pristine stores. While the doors are open, sales personnel will continue to
assist shoppers who are not able to visit in person with phone orders,
storefront pickup, free shipping, and hand delivery to a customer's address.
Paulette
Garafalo, CEO of Paul Stuart says, "We couldn't be happier to make this
long-awaited announcement. After closing our stores in March, we are thrilled
to finally be welcoming our many customers back with new summer styles for men
and women that we are confident will inspire. Paul Stuart has emerged from this
crisis with a renewed mission to provide the ultimate in luxury clothing and
service to consumers both in person and on our eCommerce website."
For summer,
Paul Stuart has everything a well-dressed gentleman needs for his travels from
the boardroom to the beach. The customLAB offers extraordinary Made to Measure
tailored clothing, shirts & ties in a new presentation boutique on the main
floor of the New York store. For women, Paul Stuart is excited to announce the
launch of the Paul Stuart Advance collection exclusively in the New York store.
New styles include Italian silk skirts and blouses, lightweight wool sweaters,
and a new Moto style leather jacket. Men's footwear this season completes the
look with elegant suede espadrilles, classic bucks, and traditional loafers.
Paul Stuart
is one of the last remaining clothing retailers of its kind and has an
important position in the history of American fashion. Over the last 80 years
of its existence, the company has survived many difficulties in our nation's
history including wars and financial disruptions. As the company looks ahead to
the future, they are more confident than ever that with their talented team of
designers and their loyal customers, the brand will endure and thrive. Garafalo
says, "We look forward once again, to welcoming everyone back to Paul
Stuart."
About Paul
Stuart:
Headquartered
in New York City, Paul Stuart, Inc. was founded by Ralph Ostrove and named for
his son Paul Stuart Ostrove. The store has remained in its original location
since opening in 1938. The company designs exclusive collections of men's and
women's tailored clothing, sportswear, footwear, and accessories.
Additional
Paul Stuart locations can be found in Chicago on East Oak Street and in
Washington, D.C.'s CityCenter. The company operates additional stores in more
than 50 locations throughout Japan. Paul Stuart is privately held by Mitsui
& Co., LTD company of Japan.
SOURCE Paul Stuart
Paul Stuart
is a men's and women's clothing brand founded in 1938 in New York City by
haberdasher Ralph Ostrove, who named the company after his son, Paul Stuart
Ostrove. The company has four standalone boutiques in the US, and two in Japan.
Since 2012 it has been owned by Mitsui. The Paul Stuart logo is Dink Stover
sitting on the Yale fence. Paul Stuart has been described as a blend of “Savile
Row, Connecticut living and the concrete canyons of New York.” Its creative
director is Ralph Auriemma.
History
The company
was helmed by the legendary merchant and CEO Clifford Grodd from 1958 until his
death in 2010. The retailer remained a privately-held family business until
December 2012, when it was sold to its long-time Japanese partners, Mitsui.
In fall
2007, Paul Stuart launched its Phineas Cole range, which is clothing with a
slimmer silhouette. Paulette Garafalo, formerly of Brooks Brothers and Hickey
Freeman, became CEO of Paul Stuart on June 14, 2016, marking the first time someone
unrelated to the Ostrove family led the company. In 2019 the company began
offering a lower-priced made-to-measure service branded as customLAB, and a
luxury MTM jeans service branded as denimBAR. In 2019 the company celebrated
the redesign of its omnichannel e-commerce website with home delivery via
vintage Packard automobile.
Ralph
Ostrove, founder and chairman of the board of Paul Stuart Inc., the men's
clothing store at Madison Avenue and 45th Street, died Tuesday at North Shore
University Hospital in Manhasset, L.I., after a brief illness. He was 83 years
old and lived in Flushing, Queens.
As the son
of a leading retailer of men's clothing in New York, he made the Paul Stuart
store one of the city's most popular outlets for men's clothing in what is
regarded as the subdued classic or understated traditional style.
Mr. Ostrove
was the son of Harry Ostrove, who founded the Broadstreet's chain of stores,
which were discontinued several years ago. Ralph Ostrove, who eventually became
president of Broadstreet's, left the company in 1937. In 1938 he founded Paul
Stuart Inc., named for his son, Paul Stuart Ostrove, who is now vice president
of the company.
In addition
to his son, who lives in Roslyn, L.I., Mr. Ostrove is survived by his wife,
Jean; a daughter, Barbara Grodd of Rye, N.Y.; a sister, Ruth Meltsner of
Flushing, and five grandchildren.
Cliff Grodd, Paul Stuart Legend, Dies of Cancer
Clifford Grodd, the driving force and ceo of Paul
Stuart, died after a long battle with cancer.
By Jean E.
Palmieri and David Lipke and Brenner Thomas on May 26, 2010
Clifford
Grodd, the driving force and chief executive officer of Paul Stuart who ran the
upscale specialty store for nearly 60 years, died Tuesday at his New York City
home after a long battle with cancer. He was 86.
Due to his
illness, Grodd, a men’s wear icon and top-notch merchant, had been unable to
come to the store for the past 18 months, but nevertheless called in several
times a day to check on the business.
This story
first appeared in the May 26, 2010 issue of WWD.
In his
honor, the store will be closed Thursday, the day memorial services are
scheduled to be held at 1:30 p.m. at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home at
Madison Avenue and 81st Street in Manhattan.
“We will
close for the day in respect for his memory and great contribution to the
industry,” said Sandy Neiman, Paul Stuart’s director of marketing.
Born in New
Haven, Conn., and educated at the University of Connecticut, Grodd served as an
Air Force gunner during World War II and was shot down over Hungary, captured
and put into solitary confinement by the Germans. At the end of the war, he was
awarded a Purple Heart.
Paul
Stuart, a 60,000-square-foot fixture on Madison Avenue and 45th Street, was
founded by Ralph Ostrove and his cousin Norman in 1938. Ralph Ostrove named the
store after his son, Paul Stuart Ostrove. Grodd, who had completed an executive
training program at the G. Fox department store in Hartford, Conn., joined Paul
Stuart circa 1951 after marrying Ostrove’s daughter, Barbara.
Ostrove was
in declining health and wanted to retire, so he asked Grodd to buy out his
share of the company, which he did. The Paul Stuart logo features a fictional
character sitting on a fence at Yale, according to Grodd’s account.
Grodd once
described his aesthetic to DNR, WWD’s former sibling publication, this way:
“We’ve constantly striven to be as upscale as possible within the milieu of our
particular type of clothing, which is quite cosmopolitan in image. It’s still
soft and not exaggerated, easy to wear, hopefully subtle, understated and
flattering.”
Paul Stuart
became known for its adherence to a soft shoulder look in tailoring. The
company claimed to be the first American retailer to bring side vents to the
States, as well as the three-button suit.
All of the
merchandise at Paul Stuart bears the retailer’s brand. The company designs its
own product and also alters other product it buys in the market to tailor it to
the Paul Stuart aesthetic. Earlier in its life, the store carried outside
brands, such as Gant, Corbin and Southwick, but Grodd believed Paul Stuart
could distinguish itself from competitors by offering its own branded
merchandise.
“I wasn’t
interested in competing with designers or brands who put their names in other
places. I felt that if we didn’t know our customer better than someone sitting
1,000 miles away, then we didn’t belong in the same business,” he said.
A Chicago
store, which opened in 1995, now occupies a town house on East Oak Street. The
company also operates licensed units in Japan and South Korea.
“I’ve known
Cliff my entire career. He was instrumental to building one of the most
respected brands. He was a great leader in our industry, an incredible person
and a true friend,” said Ralph Lauren.
Over the
years, Grodd helped dress celebrities including Cary Grant (“I had to
personally take care of him at the Plaza,” said Grodd), Fred Astaire, Frank
Sinatra, Paul Newman (“when he lived in Fresh Meadows”), Mel Brooks, David
McCullough, David Halberstam and Philip Roth. “They look good because they’re
comfortable and distinguished. And it’s natural, not staid,” noted Grodd.
He was
known to exercise regularly early in the morning at the Yale Club and be among
the first to arrive at work at the store, striding into his second-floor
office. His exacting standards led employees to joke at times that “Grodd is in
the details.”
In 2007,
Grodd introduced a younger label to his stores, called Phineas Cole. Meant to
appeal to a more trend-conscious consumer in his 30s, it was the company’s
first subbrand and was based on the fictitious “errant nephew” of Paul Stuart,
according to Grodd.
“We’re all
saddened by his death,” Neiman said. “The man was a master retailer. He was a
great inspiration and a leader in men’s wear and the business.”
Neiman
stressed that since Grodd’s illness, Michael Ostrove, senior vice president,
had been running the business on a daily basis. He will now be elevated to
president and will continue to run the store.
The
industry mourned Grodd’s passing, recalling him as a tough, determined retailer
— one who understood his customer but stuck to his convictions. Famously, Grodd
retained the store’s private label focus and refused to let designer names
eclipse the prestige of Paul Stuart even after men’s wear became a
brand-oriented business.
“His legacy
is that you can operate a business and stick to your principles,” Wilkes
Bashford said. “He stuck to his guns no matter what was happening in the
business.”
“He was
very independent,” said Jack Mitchell. “He constantly wanted to improve his own
label.”
Others view
Grodd’s legacy in his aesthetic. “If he saw a fabric or silhouette he liked, he
went with it strong. There was never any halfway,” said designer Joseph Abboud,
who met Grodd when he was a young man working for Louis Boston. “He always told
me, ‘Joey, you’ll be a good designer because you worked retail.’ He knew that,
for a designer, the retail floor is where the battle is won and lost.”
Bill
Roberti, former ceo of Brooks Brothers and now with Alvarez & Marsal, said,
“Cliff was a consummate gentleman. He had wonderful vision and great style. He
was a true icon in the men’s business and will surely be sorely missed by his
employees and customers.”
Landing
Paul Stuart continued to be a prestigious account for the vendor community.
“For that Wall Street elegant guy, that store was among the best,” said Arnold
Silverstone, president of Samuelsohn, which makes private label tailored
clothing for the retailer. “Selling to them was and is a big deal for a
vendor.”
Bartolomé
Esteban Murillo’s original work (left) and two attempts at restoring it.
Botched
restoration of an Elias Garcia Martinez fresco on the walls of the Santuario de
Misericordia de Borja church in Zaragoza, Spain. Photograph: Centro de Estudios
Borjanos/EPA
Experts call for regulation after latest botched
art restoration in Spain
Immaculate Conception painting by Murillo reportedly
cleaned by furniture restorer
Conservation
experts in Spain have called for a tightening of the laws covering restoration
work after a copy of a famous painting by the baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban
Murillo became the latest in a long line of artworks to suffer a damaging and
disfiguring repair.
A private
art collector in Valencia was reportedly charged €1,200 by a furniture restorer
to have the picture of the Immaculate Conception cleaned. However, the job did
not go as planned and the face of the Virgin Mary was left unrecognisable
despite two attempts to restore it to its original state.
The case
has inevitably resulted in comparisons with the infamous “Monkey Christ”
incident eight years ago, when a devout parishioner’s attempt to restore a
painting of the scourged Christ on the wall of a church on the outskirts of the
north-eastern Spanish town of Borja made headlines around the world.
Parallels
have also been drawn with the botched restoration of a 16th-century polychrome
statue of Saint George and the dragon in northern Spain that left the warrior
saint resembling Tintin or a Playmobil figure.
Fernando
Carrera, a professor at the Galician School for the Conservation and
Restoration of Cultural Heritage, said such cases highlighted the need for work
to be carried out only by properly trained restorers.
“I don’t
think this guy – or these people – should be referred to as restorers,” Carrera
told the Guardian. “Let’s be honest: they’re bodgers who botch things up. They
destroy things.”
Carrera, a
former president of Spain’s Professional Association of Restorers and
Conservators (Acre), said the law currently allowed people to engage in
restoration projects even if they lacked the necessary skills. “Can you imagine
just anyone being allowed to operate on other people? Or someone being allowed
to sell medicine without a pharmacist’s licence? Or someone who’s not an
architect being allowed to put up a building?”
While
restorers were “far less important than doctors”, he added, the sector sill
needed to be strictly regulated for the sake of Spain’s cultural history. “We
see this kind of thing time and time again and yet it keeps on happening.
“Paradoxically,
it shows just how important professional restorers are. We need to invest in
our heritage, but even before we talk about money, we need to make sure that
the people who undertake this kind of work have been trained in it.”
María
Borja, one of Acre’s vice-presidents, also said incidents such as the Murillo
mishap were “unfortunately far more common than you might think”. Speaking to
Europa Press, which broke news of the Murillo repair, she added: “We only find
out about them when people report them to the press or on social media, but
there are numerous situation when works are undertaken by people who aren’t
trained.”
Non-professional
interventions, Borja added, “mean that artworks suffer and the damage can be
irreversible”.
Carrera
said Spain had a huge amount of cultural and historical heritage because of all
the different groups that have passed through the country over the centuries,
leaving behind their marks and monuments.
Another
part of the problem, he added, was that “some politicians just don’t give a
toss about heritage”, meaning that Spain did not have the financial resources
to safeguard all the treasures of its past. “We need to focus society’s
attention on this so that it chooses representatives who put heritage on the
agenda,” he said.
“It doesn’t
have to be at the very top because it’s obviously not like healthcare or
employment – there are many more important things. But this is our
history.”
The local
television star and fashion influencer Bianca de la Garza’s Lucky Gal
Productions may have seen its luck run out.
Alden Shoe
Co., a family-owned footwear maker in Middleborough, has filed a civil lawsuit
in Suffolk Superior Court alleging that its former vice president and chief
financial officer, Richard Hajjar, embezzled $27 million from the company and
funneled $15 million of it into the TV and fashion businesses of de la Garza, a
former news anchor who runs a beauty business under the name BDG Enterprises.
Bianca, Lucky Gal, and BDG were all named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The company
also sued Hajjar in Plymouth Superior Court to recover the $27 million,
allegedly stolen from 2011 to 2019.
According to
the court filings, Hajjar bought a $1.1 million New York City co-op apartment
for de la Garza using money stolen from the company and purchased other
extravagant gifts, including a Mercedes-Benz, diamond jewelry, and designer
handbags and clothing. The court has approved the company’s seizure of Hajjar’s
assets held in seven banks and financial services companies, excluding his
pension.
No criminal
charges have been filed.
De la
Garza, Hajjar, and attorneys for Alden Shoe had not as of Monday evening
responded to e-mails and phone messages from the Globe seeking comment.
De la
Garza, a Milton native and Emerson College graduate, was a longtime host and
news anchor at WCVB-TV (Channel 5) before starting her own media company in
2014.
The court
documents indicate that Alden, a New England footwear stalwart founded in 1884,
hired Hajjar in 1987. According to the filings, Hajjar’s father had been the
CPA for the father of the company’s current president, Arthur S. Tarlow Jr.,
and Hajjar’s two brothers worked for the company. Trust ran deep between the
two families.
Hajjar, a
“trusted advisor” to the Tarlow family, eventually rose to vice president and
corporate secretary, a member of the board of directors, and chief financial
officer. Until he was dismissed in 2019, Hajjar was handling “most day-to-day
financial matters at Alden," a filing states.
According
to the documents, Hajjar’s relationship with de la Garza began around 2012,
while she was an anchor at WCVB. The two became friends and vacationed
together, and Hajjar lavished gifts on her worth “hundreds of thousands of
dollars,” according to the documents.
Only in
October 2019 did the company learn that Hajjar’s opulent offerings had been paid
for with money embezzled from the company’s bank accounts, a filing states.
After a forensic accounting investigation, the company concluded that Hajjar
had stolen $27 million since 2011.
The alleged
theft came to light after Tarlow, the company’s president, approached Hajjar
about moving funds from a company bank account into family trusts. At the time,
the company account should have had more than $10 million in it, the filings
state, but Hajjar dodged the request and “after repeated delays and follow-up
requests” assured Tarlow the funds would be wired between the accounts.
Then Hajjar
stopped showing up for work. He told Tarlow, by text message, that he wasn’t
feeling well.
When the
wire transfer didn’t go through, Hajjar allegedly stopped responding to
Tarlow’s texts.
Tarlow
immediately went to his Santander bank branch, where he learned $10 million in
retained earnings was missing from the account, the filing alleges.
Soon after,
Tarlow realized that Hajjar had, without his knowledge or authorization,
“opened and completely drawn down a line of credit” worth $8 million at Bank of
America, the documents say.
In all, the
forensic review found that Hajjar took $27 million from Alden’s bank accounts,
including $3.7 million that he took by writing out checks to himself, the
filings allege.
In several
instances, Hajjar allegedly transferred tens of millions of dollars from the
company’s active bank accounts into another trust account that the company
owned, but which was dormant. Hajjar had himself named a trustee of that
account, then used it to transfer at least $24 million, using those funds to
secretly “write more checks to himself and pay exorbitant personal credit card bills,”
according to the court documents.
The filing
also alleges that $15 million was funneled through that dormant account to de
la Garza and her company Lucky Gal Productions, including over $1.6 million
transferred directly to de la Garza’s personal bank accounts from 2015 to 2019.
And in 2016, Hajjar used stolen funds to pay for both the deposit and closing
costs on de la Garza’s New York City co-op, court documents allege.
Hajjar’s
company-funded gifts to de la Garza, the filings state, included “a
Mercedes-Benz, a $60,000 diamond bracelet, a $158,000 diamond ring, diamond
earrings, designer handbags, designer clothing, and other luxury goods.”
He also
gave his personal American Express card to a personal shopper at Neiman Marcus,
where de la Garza “freely purchased” hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
merchandise each month, the filing alleges, and Hajjar paid off those credit
card bills using money from Alden.
But Hajjar
didn’t stop at lavishing gifts on de la Garza; he also allegedly transferred at
least $11.5 million directly into the bank accounts for Lucky Gal Productions.
The couple
signed paperwork establishing a “Production Financing Agreement” in 2014, the
year de la Garza left her job as an anchor at WCVB’s “EyeOpener."
According to the agreement, Hajjar committed to paying at least $3.3 million
for the production of a new series but “when or even whether” he could recover
the money was up to the “sole control and discretion of Lucky Gal,” the filing
states.
In a 2018
interview in Forbes, de la Garza discussed her decision to leave the anchor
desk and start Lucky Gal Productions. “So, I went ahead, and I started my
company . . . and I launched a show," she said. "I raised all the
money, got all the distribution.”
De la
Garza’s late-night show, “Bianca Unanchored,” launched in January 2015,
eventually got national distribution, airing on seven CBS-owned stations in
major markets such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Baltimore. The
show went off the air in January of the following year.
The filing
alleges that Lucky Gal had “few or no assets” at the time the production
agreement was signed and “did not generate a profit" during the airing of
de la Garza’s series.
“Mr. Hajjar
has never recouped or recovered any of the money that he transferred to Lucky
Gal,” the court documents state, and alleges that “[s]ince its foundation,
Lucky Gal has never been profitable.”
But Hajjar
committed additional millions of dollars to help keep Lucky Gal productions
afloat and, in all, transferred at least $12.3 million to Lucky Gal and its
beneficiaries from 2015 to 2019, the documents state.
Attorneys
for the footwear company filed a letter in November demanding that de la Garza immediately
return all of the allegedly misappropriated funds. They estimated she had
received more than $2.7 million in 2019 alone, including a $230,000 wire
transfer in October, the month Hajjar stopped responding to Tarlow’s texts.
According
to the court filings, de la Garza’s attorney responded to the letter, saying
that she would place all remaining funds from Hajjar into a client trust
account. But she has yet to return any funds.
In the suit
against Hajjar, Alden’s attorneys said he had expressed a willingness to
cooperate and had “never denied” that he had stolen millions. But Hajjar has
returned less than $3 million in assets to the company, transferring back
$214,000 in cash, approximately $20,000 in jewelry, $195,000 through the sale
of gold coins, and $175,000 from the sale of vehicles, according to the
filings. And Hajjar is willing to pay back an additional “$100,000 from the
further sale of gold coins."
Mark
Shanahan and John Ellement of the Globe staff contributed reporting.
Richard
Hajjar and Bianca de la Garza
Bianca de
la Garza is firing back — at the media
Facing a
$15 million lawsuit, the former WCVB anchor has hired a lawyer known for
representing President Donald Trump and threatening to sue news outlets.
Facing a
multi-million dollar lawsuit, Bianca de la Garza is getting some help from a
high-powered lawyer known for representing President Donald Trump and suing the
website Gawker out of existence.
Charles
Harder, the well-known media lawyer representing de la Garza and her companies,
sent letters Wednesday threatening to sue at least two media outlets for
purportedly misstating aspects of the lawsuit against the former WCVB anchor.
Alden Shoe
Company is suing de la Garza for $15 million that lawyers say was stolen from
the longtime Massachusetts-based company by its former chief financial officer,
who was friends with and developed a romantic interest in the TV host. The
civil lawsuit — which says much of the money was used to lavish de la Garza
with gifts and fund her short-lived late-night show — was filed earlier this
month in Suffolk County Superior Court and first reported on publicly this
week.
Harder’s
letters do not address the central premise of the lawsuit.
However,
they do take issue with several “false and defamatory statements” in at least
two articles about the suit and demand a correction and apology from the San
Francisco Chronicle and Esquire, “among other publications,” according to an
email from Harder late Wednesday night. Boston Globe Media Partners, which
includes Boston.com, received a similar letter regarding an article that ran in
The Boston Globe.
In the
letters, Harder takes issues with statements — both in an Associated Press
article published by the Chronicle and a short Esquire blog post — that suggest
de la Garza engaged in criminal embezzlement.
While the
lawsuit says that de la Garza ““knew or should have known” that the funds she
received from former Alden CFO Richard Hajjar were stolen, no criminal charges
have been filed. Alden is also separately suing Hajjar to recover $27 million
in allegedly stolen funds in Plymouth County Superior Court.
Harder’s
letter to the Esquire also disputes the notion that de la Garza was “in a
relationship” with Hajjar, as was written in the post.
“They are
not and have never been in a romantic relationship of any kind,” Harder wrote.
And the
letter disputes the notion that Hajjar “funneled” any of the $15 million into
de la Garza’s beauty product business, BDG Beauty.
“BDG
received no such funds,” Harder wrote.
According
to the lawsuit, most of the money went to de la Garza’s production company,
Lucky Gal. However, the lawsuit also says that she “commingled” the assets of
Lucky Gal with her personal assets and other business pursuits, including BDG
Beauty. As of Thursday afternoon, Harder had yet to respond to an email asking
whether his team disputes the latter claim.
He also did
not immediately say how many “other publications” were sent letters Wednesday,
which threaten potential legal action if the “complete fabrications” are not
corrected by Thursday night. It also demanded an apology for each of the
highlighted statements within the same 24-hour timespan.
“Failure to
do so will leave our clients with no alternative but to consider instituting
immediate legal proceedings against you,” the letters say. “Should that occur,
my clients would pursue all available causes of action and seek all available
legal remedies to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
Representatives
for Hearst, which owns both the Chronicle and Esquire, did not immediately
respond to requests for comment.
Harder, whose
office is based in Los Angeles, has made a name for himself threatening to sue
media outlets — and, at times, doing so successfully. In 2016, he won a
high-profile invasion of privacy case that led to the bankruptcy of Gawker
Media and the demise of its flagship website. Harder has since represented
Trump and his campaign in a variety of lawsuits, both real and threatened,
against major news organizations — as well as against the porn actress known as
Stormy Daniels, who says she had an affair with the president.
According
to public records, the Trump campaign has paid Harder’s firm nearly $2.9
million this election cycle
HISTORY OF
ALDEN SHOE COMPANY
The Alden
Shoe Company was founded in 1884 by Charles H. Alden in Middleborough,
Massachusetts.
It is
difficult to imagine just how active and important the shoe industry was in
Massachusetts so long ago. Early New England shoemaking was a trade based upon
one craftsman making a pair a day in one room cottages (called "ten
footers"). Beginning in 1850 a series of inventions led to mechanized
stitching and lasting operations and the birth of New England shoe industry
followed rapidly. The productivity gains over the traditional shoemaker were on
the order of 500 - 700%, yet the new methods also led to an extraordinary
improvement in both quality and consistency. The explosive growth of the shoe
industry in eastern Massachusetts at the turn of the century was impressive.
Numerous companies were being started, and demand soared as product made its
way west and south on newly expanded rail routes. Charles Alden's factory
prospered, adding children's shoes to their offering of men's shoes and custom
boots.
By 1933, at
Charles Alden's retirement, operations moved to Brockton, Massachusetts and
joined with the Old Colony factory. The Great Depression took a toll on
countless shoe companies in New England. Although production demand increased
during World War II, by the late 40's renewed consumer demand had fueled the
search for manufacturing regions offering lower labor costs. Over the remainder
of the century attrition would take hold as manufacturers looked farther and
farther away in search of low cost labor and materials to meet the insatiable
demand in the U.S.A. for low cost, mass-market consumer footwear.
Most of the
companies who remained in New England could not compete in the demanding
post-war economy. Yet Alden prospered by relying not on lower quality
mass-markets but on high quality dress shoes, and excelling in specialties such
as orthopedic and medical footwear. It was a period of growth and intensive
development at Alden, especially in the design of comfortable, orthopedically
correct lasts. In 1970 a new factory was constructed in Middleborough,
Massachusetts where production continues today.
Alden is now the only original New England
shoe and bootmaker remaining of the hundreds who began so long ago. Still a
family owned business, still carrying forward a tradition of quality
genuine-welted shoemaking that is exceptional in every way.
Kristen
Stewart is set to star as Diana, Princess of Wales, in a new drama from Pablo
Larraín, the acclaimed Chilean director of Jackie.
The film,
called Spencer, will follow Diana over one weekend when she decided her
marriage to Prince Charles wasn’t working. The film is scripted by Steven
Knight, whose credits range from Peaky Blinders to Eastern Promises. Spencer
will be shopped to buyers at this year’s virtual Cannes market with production
set to begin in early 2021.
“We all
grew up, at least I did in my generation, reading and understanding what a
fairy tale is,” Larraín said to Deadline. “Usually, the prince comes and finds
the princess, invites her to become his wife and eventually she becomes queen.
That is the fairy tale. When someone decides not to be the queen, and says, I’d
rather go and be myself, it’s a big big decision, a fairy tale upside down …
that is the heart of the movie.”
Larraín,
whose films also include Neruda and The Club, has said that Stewart is a
perfect choice because of her mixture of mystery and fragility. “I think she’s
going to do something stunning and intriguing at the same time,” he added. “She
is this force of nature.”
Jackie, Larraín’s
unconventional biopic of Jackie Onassis, met with positive reviews in 2016 and
an Oscar nomination for its star, Natalie Portman.
Since
graduating from the Twilight franchise, Stewart has garnered acclaim for
smaller films such as Personal Shopper and Clouds of Sils Maria while
experiencing box office disappointments with bigger projects such as Charlie’s
Angels and Underwater. She will be seen next in the queer Christmas comedy
Happiest Season.
The story
of Diana was previously brought to the screen by the Downfall director Oliver
Hirschbiegel in 2013 with Naomi Watts in the lead role. The Guardian’s Peter
Bradshaw called it “car crash cinema” while the Mirror’s David Edwards wrote
that “Wesley Snipes in a blonde wig would be more convincing”.
Ancient
Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek
architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from
Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often
considered one body of classical architecture. Roman architecture flourished in
the Roman Republic and even more so under the Empire, when the great majority
of surviving buildings were constructed. It used new materials, particularly
Roman concrete, and newer technologies such as the arch and the dome to make
buildings that were typically strong and well-engineered. Large numbers remain
in some form across the empire, sometimes complete and still in use to this
day.
Roman
architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in
509 BC to about the 4th century AD, after which it becomes reclassified as Late
Antique or Byzantine architecture. Almost no substantial examples survive from
before about 100 BC, and most of the major survivals are from the later empire,
after about 100 AD. Roman architectural style continued to influence building
in the former empire for many centuries, and the style used in Western Europe
beginning about 1000 is called Romanesque architecture to reflect this
dependence on basic Roman forms.
The Romans
only began to achieve significant originality in architecture around the
beginning of the Imperial period, after they had combined aspects of their
original Etruscan architecture with others taken from Greece, including most
elements of the style we now call classical architecture. They moved from
trabeated construction mostly based on columns and lintels to one based on
massive walls, punctuated by arches, and later domes, both of which greatly
developed under the Romans. The classical orders now became largely decorative
rather than structural, except in colonnades. Stylistic developments included
the Tuscan and Composite orders; the first being a shortened, simplified variant
on the Doric order and the Composite being a tall order with the floral
decoration of the Corinthian and the scrolls of the Ionic. The period from
roughly 40 BC to about 230 AD saw most of the greatest achievements, before the
Crisis of the Third Century and later troubles reduced the wealth and
organizing power of the central government.
The Romans
produced massive public buildings and works of civil engineering, and were
responsible for significant developments in housing and public hygiene, for
example their public and private baths and latrines, under-floor heating in the
form of the hypocaust, mica glazing (examples in Ostia Antica), and piped hot
and cold water (examples in Pompeii and Ostia)
Despite the
technical developments of the Romans, which took their buildings far away from
the basic Greek conception where columns were needed to support heavy beams and
roofs, they were very reluctant to abandon the classical orders in formal
public buildings, even though these had become essentially decorative[citation
needed]. However, they did not feel entirely restricted by Greek aesthetic
concerns and treated the orders with considerable freedom.
Innovation
started in the 3rd or 2nd century BC with the development of Roman concrete as
a readily available adjunct to, or substitute for, stone and brick. More daring
buildings soon followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches and domes.
The freedom of concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a row of purely
decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller-scale
architecture, concrete's strength freed the floor plan from rectangular cells
to a more free-flowing environment.
Factors
such as wealth and high population densities in cities forced the ancient
Romans to discover new architectural solutions of their own. The use of vaults
and arches, together with a sound knowledge of building materials, enabled them
to achieve unprecedented successes in the construction of imposing
infrastructure for public use. Examples include the aqueducts of Rome, the
Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, the basilicas and Colosseum.
These were reproduced at a smaller scale in most important towns and cities in
the Empire. Some surviving structures are almost complete, such as the town
walls of Lugo in Hispania Tarraconensis, now northern Spain. The administrative
structure and wealth of the empire made possible very large projects even in
locations remote from the main centers, as did the use of slave labor, both
skilled and unskilled.
Especially
under the empire, architecture often served a political function, demonstrating
the power of the Roman state in general, and of specific individuals
responsible for building. Roman architecture perhaps reached its peak in the
reign of Hadrian, whose many achievements include rebuilding the Pantheon in
its current form and leaving his mark on the landscape of northern Britain with
Hadrian's Wall.
Origins
While
borrowing much from the preceding Etruscan architecture, such as the use of
hydraulics and the construction of arches, Roman prestige architecture remained
firmly under the spell of Ancient Greek architecture and the classical orders.This
came initially from Magna Graecia, the Greek colonies in southern Italy, and
indirectly from Greek influence on the Etruscans, but after the Roman conquest
of Greece directly from the best classical and Hellenistic examples in the
Greek world. The influence is evident in many ways; for example, in the
introduction and use of the triclinium in Roman villas as a place and manner of
dining. Roman builders employed Greeks in many capacities, especially in the
great boom in construction in the early Empire.
Roman
Architectural Revolution
The Roman
Architectural Revolution, also known as the Concrete Revolution, was the
widespread use in Roman architecture of the previously little-used
architectural forms of the arch, vault, and dome. For the first time in
history, their potential was fully exploited in the construction of a wide
range of civil engineering structures, public buildings, and military
facilities. These included amphitheatres, aqueducts, baths, bridges, circuses,
dams, domes, harbours, temples, and theatres.
A crucial
factor in this development, which saw a trend toward monumental architecture,
was the invention of Roman concrete (opus caementicium), which led to the
liberation of shapes from the dictates of the traditional materials of stone
and brick.
These
enabled the building of the many aqueducts throughout the empire, such as the
Aqueduct of Segovia, the Pont du Gard, and the eleven aqueducts of Rome. The
same concepts produced numerous bridges, some of which are still in daily use,
for example the Puente Romano at Mérida in Spain, and the Pont Julien and the
bridge at Vaison-la-Romaine, both in Provence, France.
The dome
permitted construction of vaulted ceilings without crossbeams and made possible
large covered public space such as public baths and basilicas, such as
Hadrian's Pantheon, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, all in
Rome.
The Romans
first adopted the arch from the Etruscans and implemented it in their own
building. The use of arches that spring directly from the tops of columns was a
Roman development, seen from the 1st century AD, that was very widely adopted
in medieval Western, Byzantine and Islamic architecture.
Domes
The Romans
were the first builders in the history of architecture to realize the potential
of domes for the creation of large and well-defined interior spaces.[8] Domes
were introduced in a number of Roman building types such as temples, thermae,
palaces, mausolea and later also churches. Half-domes also became a favoured
architectural element and were adopted as apses in Christian sacred
architecture.
Monumental
domes began to appear in the 1st century BC in Rome and the provinces around
the Mediterranean Sea. Along with vaults, they gradually replaced the
traditional post and lintel construction which makes use of the column and
architrave. The construction of domes was greatly facilitated by the invention
of concrete, a process which has been termed the Roman Architectural
Revolution.[9] Their enormous dimensions remained unsurpassed until the
introduction of structural steel frames in the late 19th century (see List of
the world's largest domes).
Influence
on later architecture
Roman
architecture supplied the basic vocabulary of Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque
architecture, and spread across Christian Europe well beyond the old frontiers
of the empire, to Ireland and Scandinavia for example. In the East, Byzantine
architecture developed new styles of churches, but most other buildings
remained very close to Late Roman forms. The same can be said in turn of
Islamic architecture, where Roman forms long continued, especially in private
buildings such as houses and the Turkish bath, and civil engineering such as
fortifications and bridges.
In Europe
the Italian Renaissance saw a conscious revival of correct classical styles,
initially purely based on Roman examples. Vitruvius was respectfully
reinterpreted by a series of architectural writers, and the Tuscan and
Composite orders formalized for the first time, to give five rather than three
orders. After the flamboyance of Baroque architecture, the Neoclassical
architecture of the 18th century revived purer versions of classical style, and
for the first time added direct influence from the Greek world.
Numerous
local classical styles developed, such as Palladian architecture, Georgian architecture
and Regency architecture in the English-speaking world, Federal architecture in
the United States, and later Stripped Classicism and PWA Moderne.
Roman
influences may be found around us today, in banks, government buildings, great
houses, and even small houses, perhaps in the form of a porch with Doric
columns and a pediment or in a fireplace or a mosaic shower floor derived from
a Roman original, often from Pompeii or Herculaneum. The mighty pillars, domes
and arches of Rome echo in the New World too, where in Washington, D.C. stand
the Capitol building, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and other
government buildings. All across the US the seats of regional government were
normally built in the grand traditions of Rome, with vast flights of stone
steps sweeping up to towering pillared porticoes, with huge domes gilded or
decorated inside with the same or similar themes that were popular in Rome.
In Britain,
a similar enthusiasm has seen the construction of thousands of neoclassical
buildings over the last five centuries, both civic and domestic, and many of
the grandest country houses and mansions are purely Classical in style, an
obvious example being Buckingham Palace.
Materials
Marble is
not found especially close to Rome, and was only rarely used there before
Augustus, who famously boasted that he had found Rome made of brick and left it
made of marble, though this was mainly as a facing for brick or concrete. The
Temple of Hercules Victor of the late 2nd century BC is the earliest surviving
exception in Rome. From Augustus' reign the quarries at Carrara were
extensively developed for the capital, and other sources around the empire
exploited, especially the prestigious Greek marbles like Parian. Travertine
limestone was found much closer, around Tivoli, and was used from the end of
the Republic; the Colosseum is mainly built of this stone, which has good
load-bearing capacity, with a brick core. Other more or less local stones were
used around the empire.
The Romans
were extremely fond of luxury imported coloured marbles with fancy veining, and
the interiors of the most important buildings were very often faced with slabs
of these, which have usually now been removed even where the building survives.
Imports from Greece for this purpose began in the 2nd century BC.
Roman brick
The Romans
made fired clay bricks from about the beginning of the Empire, replacing
earlier sun-dried mud-brick. Roman brick was almost invariably of a lesser
height than modern brick, but was made in a variety of different shapes and
sizes.[16] Shapes included square, rectangular, triangular and round, and the
largest bricks found have measured over three feet in length.[17] Ancient Roman
bricks had a general size of 1½ Roman feet by 1 Roman foot, but common
variations up to 15 inches existed. Other brick sizes in ancient Rome included
24" x 12" x 4", and 15" x 8" x 10". Ancient Roman
bricks found in France measured 8" x 8" x 3". The Constantine
Basilica in Trier is constructed from Roman bricks 15" square by 1½"
thick.There is often little obvious difference (particularly when only
fragments survive) between Roman bricks used for walls on the one hand, and
tiles used for roofing or flooring on the other, so archaeologists sometimes
prefer to employ the generic term ceramic building material (or CBM).
The Romans
perfected brick-making during the first century of their empire and used it
ubiquitously, in public and private construction alike. The Romans took their
brickmaking skills everywhere they went, introducing the craft to the local
populations. The Roman legions, which operated their own kilns, introduced
bricks to many parts of the empire; bricks are often stamped with the mark of
the legion that supervised their production. The use of bricks in southern and
western Germany, for example, can be traced back to traditions already
described by the Roman architect Vitruvius. In the British Isles, the
introduction of Roman brick by the ancient Romans was followed by a 600–700
year gap in major brick production.
Roman
concrete
Concrete
quickly supplanted brick as the primary building material,[citation needed] and
more daring buildings soon followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches
and domes rather than dense lines of columns suspending flat architraves. The
freedom of concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a row of purely
decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller-scale architecture,
concrete's strength freed the floor plan from [Rectangle|rectangular]] cells to
a more free-flowing environment. Most of these developments are described by
Vitruvius, writing in the first century BC in his work De architectura.
Although
concrete had been used on a minor scale in Mesopotamia, Roman architects
perfected Roman concrete and used it in buildings where it could stand on its
own and support a great deal of weight. The first use of concrete by the Romans
was in the town of Cosa sometime after 273 BC. Ancient Roman concrete was a
mixture of lime mortar, aggregate, pozzolana, water, and stones, and was
stronger than previously-used concretes. The ancient builders placed these
ingredients in wooden frames where they hardened and bonded to a facing of
stones or (more frequently) bricks. The aggregates used were often much larger
than in modern concrete, amounting to rubble.
When the
framework was removed, the new wall was very strong, with a rough surface of
bricks or stones. This surface could be smoothed and faced with an attractive
stucco or thin panels of marble or other coloured stones called a
"revetment". Concrete construction proved to be more flexible and
less costly than building solid stone buildings. The materials were readily
available and not difficult to transport. The wooden frames could be used more
than once, allowing builders to work quickly and efficiently. Concrete is
arguably the Roman contribution most relevant to modern architecture.
City design
The ancient
Romans employed regular orthogonal structures on which they molded their
colonies They probably were inspired by Greek and Hellenic examples, as well as
by regularly planned cities that were built by the Etruscans in Italy. (see
Marzabotto)
The Romans
used a consolidated scheme for city planning, developed for military defense
and civil convenience. The basic plan consisted of a central forum with city
services, surrounded by a compact, rectilinear grid of streets, and wrapped in
a wall for defense. To reduce travel times, two diagonal streets crossed the
square grid, passing through the central square. A river usually flowed through
the city, providing water, transport, and sewage disposal. Hundreds of towns
and cities were built by the Romans throughout their empire. Many European
towns, such as Turin, preserve the remains of these schemes, which show the
very logical way the Romans designed their cities. They would lay out the streets
at right angles, in the form of a square grid. All roads were equal in width
and length, except for two, which were slightly wider than the others. One of
these ran east–west, the other, north–south, and they intersected in the middle
to form the center of the grid. All roads were made of carefully fitted flag
stones and filled in with smaller, hard-packed rocks and pebbles. Bridges were
constructed where needed. Each square marked off by four roads was called an
insula, the Roman equivalent of a modern city block.
Each insula
was 80 yards (73 m) square, with the land within it divided. As the city
developed, each insula would eventually be filled with buildings of various
shapes and sizes and crisscrossed with back roads and alleys. Most insulae were
given to the first settlers of a Roman city, but each person had to pay to
construct his own house.
The city
was surrounded by a wall to protect it from invaders and to mark the city
limits. Areas outside city limits were left open as farmland. At the end of
each main road was a large gateway with watchtowers. A portcullis covered the
opening when the city was under siege, and additional watchtowers were
constructed along the city walls. An aqueduct was built outside the city walls.
The
development of Greek and Roman urbanization is relatively well-known, as there
are relatively many written sources, and there has been much attention to the
subject, since the Romans and Greeks are generally regarded as the main
ancestors of modern Western culture. It should not be forgotten, though, that
the Etruscans had many considerable towns and there were also other cultures
with more or less urban settlements in Europe, primarily of Celtic origin.[
