11.4.10

Reverse Ogee

One book I wish I had with me here in Beirut is the Grove Dictionary of Architecture, because it gives comprehensive treatment to all kinds of arches and provides vocabulary to specifically identify virtually anything. But I don't have it, so I'm stuck with the internet. These funny little arches are called 'reverse ogee'. Wikipedia only discusses the ogee arch and has nothing more than a picture of the reverse ogee.

6 comments:

  1. I love this picture - and now I feel like printing out Wiki's basic table of arches and going arch spotting all round town! Great stuff.
    Georgia @ gingerbeirut.

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  2. I'm convinced that Beirut is a treasure chest of photographs waiting to happen!

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  3. I love your blog. I visit every-so-often and every time find it fascinating!

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  4. I love the reverse in this image, and the age and beauty. It is a delight to visit Beirut through your eyes .... a place I have never visited.

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  5. Golly, now I am confused. I am finding it hard to equate your image with the wiki diagrams. I cannot see, from wiki, how the reverse ogee relates to the ogee. I do like you photograph of it though. I guess that goes without saying now. I like how the water has stained one part ...

    I knew there was a Groves for music, but not for architecture. I think I will put my eyes in for arches in my own backyard and see what I find. Nothing as ornately beautiful as you have, but in its own way, I guess.

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  6. Thanks for all the nice comments, everyone.

    I'll try to describe the difference between the Ogee and the Reverse Ogee. If you divide this post's arch into symmetrical halves, and then look just at the left half, the Reverse Ogee looks vaguely s-shaped.

    Looking at the Ogee, the left half of it is a backward s-shape.

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