This South American City Becomes the Architecture Capital of the World

The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro is now the World Capital of Architecture by 2020, thanks to UNESCO. It is the first time the group ever gave a distinction as important as this. In a press release they posted on their website, Rio will be the center for debates on the perspectives of cultural heritage, culture, architecture and urban planning. It will also be the host for the World Congress of Architects which happens every three years.

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The city breeds an exciting mixture of historical and cutting edge architecture. From places like the Santiago Calatrava’s Museum of tomorrow, Parque Lage, Old Cathedral, Oscar Niemeyer’s Niteroi Museum of Contemporary Art and Christian de Portzamparc’s Cidade das Artes is a testament of its diversity in structure and design.

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The Niteroi Museum is probably the best building to represent the Rio’s innovative capabilities. With it’s bright red and distinctive saucer-shaped walkway resembling a UFO and a cliff-side location, it tops the list of must-see places for travelers around the globe. Today, the structure has hosted major events like fashion shows for luxury brands like Luis Vuitton which made it more prominent in the eyes of the world.

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Rio De Janeiro produced not only great buildings but also builders like world-renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer, one of the fathers of the 20th-century modernism. The city is truly a gift to the world and a deserving recipient of UNESCO’s World Capital of Architecture.

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I In the Golden Age of Plane Travel, people dressed up when boarding a plane. Commercial flights back in the 1950s and 1960s were so luxurious that men wore suits and ladies wore expensive dresses and jewelry. Passengers were offered lavish meals, lots of legroom, and even cigars for smoking.

II Plane tickets cost a lot in the Golden Age. A TWA brochure from 1955 indicated the price for a round-trip ticket from Chicago to Phoenix to be $138 or about $1,200 in today's money. A return flight from Sydney to London would cost five times as much as it does today.

III Meals served during flights included lobster, baskets of fruit, fresh vegetables, whole hams, and prime ribs. These were served on expensive china. Passengers could drink alcohol to their hearts' content. Champagne, cocktails, and other alcoholic beverages like Scotch were served in real glassware. There were no restrictions on how much alcohol they could intake. Several planes even had fully-equipped bars.

IV Flights back in the day took longer because of multiple stops. In 1935, the journey on Qantas from Brisbane to Singapore took around two weeks. Up to 43 stops had to be made for this flight. In 1947, the Qantas introduced the Kangaroo Route from Sydney to London. This journey took four days, stopping at several cities and even having two overnight stays. A flight from Los Angeles to New York took more than 12 hours.

V Cigars, cigarettes, and pipes were allowed. Passengers could smoke on-board to pass the time since in-flight entertainment was limited to reading a newspaper, a book, or writing a postcard. Several years later, a law was passed prohibiting smoking on domestic flights. It was in the year 2000 when a law required all flights entering and exiting the U.S. to be smoke-free.

VI Claiming your baggage took a lot longer because conveyor belts were not yet present. Skycaps would organize everyone's luggage by hand on a counter first. Passengers would then point to their suitcases one by one. The waiting time could become ridiculous since there was no luggage limit back then, hence more bags to organize.

This South American City Becomes the Architecture Capital of the World

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