Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 March 1

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 1

History of 80 waterfront blvd. Island Park NY

Before Bridgewater ( which is what it is now ) it has also been SPRATS and WAREHOUSE but what I don’t see anywhere on the internet is when it was called CHANNEL 80. And what I REALLY WOULD LOVE TO SEE is the boat that they had moored at the club which took you into the channel for dancing and drinking on the boat. Any information or photos about CHANNEL 80 Is what I am interested in. Thank you in advance. Kim — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kimferrara (talk • contribs) 14:38, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

If you want to know during what years the different businesses used this property, you should probably go to the city planning or property records department, and pull up old real-estate maps and records on various types of permits (though business licenses would be issued by the state). The back files of your local newspaper might also have information. AnonMoos (talk) 18:36, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

(Wiki article is Island Park, New York - info collected here could be added to it.)

New York Times, 1987: "Channel 80, next to the Long Beach bridge on Reynolds Channel, draws both the singles crowd and families for Sunday brunch. The Lady 80, a motor yacht docked outside the restaurant, features dancing and drinking for summer patrons who often arrive by private plane or moor their boats in Reynolds Channel."

Billboard, 1980: "Channell80, located on the Waterway between Island Park and Long Beach, is cherished by area discophiles as being 'the Hampsons of Nassau county.' The club owns a boat docking area adjacent to its free-standing building, and merges the glamor of boating life with the flashy stylishness of disco dancing and elegant dining. There is also an extensive boardwalk area, in addition to the club's two-level, multi-tiered room, which offers music and a light show, a bar and a floating dance floor. However, at $10 per person, the club's admission fee is considered steep for the area. ... Channel 80 is owned by entrepreneur Paul Basile, who runs a string of successful Long Island clubs..." 70.67.193.176 (talk) 19:36, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

Cross-shaped building

Crossing (architecture) covers the part of a cruciform church where the arms meet the body of the church. Is there a comparable term for non-ecclesiastical buildings? I'm writing an article about such a building (image) and want to refer to the central spot, but I don't know what to call it. Nyttend backup (talk) 19:18, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

Groin vault maybe? --Jayron32 19:20, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

Probably not, though, now that I look at it. I think crossing is just fine; the Wikipedia article seems to say it only applies to Christian Church architecture, but I don't see why it needs to be; it isn't referring to a specifically ecclesiastical concept. Lots of architecture terms are specific to religious structures, because they have or refer to religious purposes (like, for example, a baptistry), but "the space created by the intersection of two axes" doesn't seem particularly like one of them. --Jayron32 19:26, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

Agreed, and the "arms" together are called a transept, which our article says is "a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the edifice". 13:00, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

And a reference for a non-ecclesiastical example is in a description of The Crystal Palace in London: "Over the crossings of the end transepts are, one at each end, squat octagonal towers, surmounted by large gilt ball-and-spike finials". The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 24 (1873), p. 389. I have added this to our article. Alansplodge (talk) 17:46, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

"Crossing" also has the general meaning of an intersection where lines and other things cross. So, I even found it applied to Juan O'Gorman's T-shaped buildings in Mexico City:

"Most plans were axially symmetrical and shaped like short-Ts. O'Gorman positioned administrative offices at the crossing, arranged classrooms in the long wings, and grouped bathrooms and water systems in the short wing that extended perpendicularly from the crossing." (my bolding) (Kathryn E O Rourke, Modern Architecture in Mexico City: History, Representation, and the Shaping of a Capital, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017, ISBN 9780822981626).

The architecture dictionaries and glossaries I checked limited "crossing"'s definition to churches though. Maybe someone at Wiki-Project Architecture could say or find more ... ---Sluzzelin talk 01:54, 3 March 2019 (UTC)