Crystal Palace

crystal palace

1. An exhibition building constructed in large part of iron and glass in Hyde Park, London for the great exhibition of 1851.

2. Any exhibition building similarly constructed.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Crystal Palace

huge museum and concert hall made of iron and glass at Great Exhibition (1851). [Br. Hist.: NCE, 692]

See: Splendor

Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Crystal Palace

 

the main exhibition hall at the Great Exhibition of London, held in 1851 in Hyde Park. The Crystal Palace was designed by the engineer J. Paxton, who made use of his experience in designing greenhouses.

The Crystal Palace introduced into practice the principle of using a metal (iron) frame consisting of identical structural units holding glass panes. Its design had an important effect on the development of the more progressive tendencies in architecture and construction engineering in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1854 the Crystal Palace was moved to Sydenham, and in 1936 it was destroyed by fire.

REFERENCES

Kamm, J. Joseph Paxton and the Crystal Palace. London, 1967.
Hix, J. The Glass House. Cambridge, Mass., 1974.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.