Here in the United Sates it's July 4 - the 235th birthday of our young nation. It is still a rather terrible economic time here, an era when it's almost insanely popular to criticize the federal government.
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But this is also a holiday to celebrate our federal government's historic good taste in architecture. The country is filled with federal buildings that add to the ambience of many a downtown. They're not all gems. But this one, in particular, in downtown Sacramento, makes my day each morning I trek past it on the way into the California EPA building.
This is the city's federal post office, stately in its park-like setting, a great old 1933 building now listed on the Register of Historic Places. Any government that could build like this is something worth celebrating today. I turn again to Dan Flynn's 2000 "Inside Guide to Sacramento" for a description:
"This building's blend of Neo-Classical and Renaissance architecture, suggesting government strength and stability, must have been a reassuring sight in a city wracked by the Great Depression. Gladding, McBean & Co. provided the terra cotta ornamentation, as well as the simulated granite veneer above the first floor. The exterior lion heads appear to be roaring at the lion heads facing from the library across the street. The long lobby features shiny terrazo floors and a gilded, coffered ceiling."
Here are some more scenes that look especially soothing in the soft daily sunlight of 7:30 a.m.
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