Museums

From Boston to Los Angeles, from New York City to Chicago to Dallas, museums are either planning, building, or wrapping up wholesale expansion programs. These programs already have radically altered facades and floor plans or are expected to do so in the not-too-distant future.

In New York City alone, six major institutions have spread up and out into the air space and neighborhoods around them or are preparing to do so.

The reasons for this confluence of activity are complex, but one factor is a consideration everywhere - space. With collections expanding, with the needs and functions of museums changing, empty space has become a very precious commodity.

Probably nowhere in the country is this more true than at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has needed additional space for decades and which received its last significant facelift ten years ago. Because of the space crunch, the Art Museum has become increasingly cautious in considering acquisitions and donations of art, in some cases passing up opportunities to strengthen its collections.

Deaccessing - or selling off - works of art has taken on new importance because of the museum's space problems. And increasingly, curators have been forced to juggle gallery space, rotating one masterpiece into public view while another is sent to storage.

Despite the clear need for additional gallery and storage space, however," the museum has no plan, no plan to break out of its envelope in the next fifteen years," according to Philadelphia Museum of Art's president.

博物馆

从波士顿到洛杉机，从纽约到芝加哥、到达拉斯，所有的博物馆或者正在筹划、建造或者正在完成大规模的扩建计划。这些计划或者已经根本性地改变了博物馆门面与展厅的设 计，或者预期在不久的将来会这样做。

单单在纽约市，六个主要机构或者已经向空中和周围扩展，或者正准备这样做。大家一致行动的原因是复杂多样的，但其中的一个因素是普遍 考虑的空间问题。

随着收藏品的增多，也随着博物馆的需要和功能的变化，空间已经变成 了一项非常珍贵的商品。在我国，也许没有任何其他地方比费城艺术博物馆更符合这个事实。

这个博物馆几十年来一直需要额外的空间，十年前进行了最后一次重大的翻新。由于空间紧缺，该艺术博物馆在考虑购买与受赠艺术品已越来越谨慎，有时甚至放弃增强艺术收藏的机会。由于博物馆的空间问题，将艺术品脱手或者说卖掉已经有了新的重要意义。博物馆馆长们被迫巧妙轮换利用陈列馆的空间，轮流着把一些艺术杰作向公众展出，而把另一些送 入存储室中。虽然对额外的陈列室和存储室空间需要很明显，但据费城艺术博物馆经理讲："博物馆还没有在未来十五年打破这个束缚的计划。"

Skyscrapers and Environment

In the late 1960's, many people in North America turned their attention to environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widely criticized. Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in a city often overburdens public transportation and parking lot capacities.

Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120, 000 kilowatts-enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day.

Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or gain)through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times that through a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen the strain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of skyscrapers have begun to use double-glazed panels of glass, and reflective glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise the temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.

Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city's sanitation facilities, too. If fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would alone generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year-as much as a city the size of Stanford, Connecticut , which has a population of more than 109, 000.

摩天大楼与环境

60 年代后期，许多北美人把注意力转向了环境问题，那些崭新的玻璃钢摩天大楼受到 了广泛的批评。生态学家指出，城市中密集的高层建筑经常给公共交通与停车场的承载能 力造成过重的负担。

摩天大楼还是电能的过度消费者与浪费者。最近的某一年，纽约市摩天写字楼 1，700 万英尺办公面积的增加使电能的最高日需求量提高了 120，000 千瓦。这些电能足以供纽约的整个奥尔巴尼市使用一天。

玻璃表面的摩天大楼特别地浪费。通过半英寸的平板玻璃墙壁损失(或增加)的热量是典型的加入绝缘板的石墙所允许的热量损失(或 增加)的十倍以上。为了减轻取暖设备或空调设备的压力，摩天大楼的建造者们已经开始使用双面上釉的玻璃镶板和涂上了金色或银色反光薄膜的反光玻璃，来减少强光照射和热量的增加；但是，镜面的摩天大楼会提高周围空气的温度并会对附近的建筑物产生影响。

摩天大楼也对城市的卫生设施造成了沉重的压力。单单纽约市的二个世界贸易中心大楼如果完全被占满的话，每年就会产生 2，250，000 加仑的污水。这相当于康涅狄格州的斯坦福市这样大的城市一年所产生的污水量，而康州的斯坦福市拥有 109，000 人口。

Collectibles

Collectibles have been a part of almost every culture since ancient times. Whereas some objects have been collected for their usefulness, others have been selected for their aesthetic beauty alone. In the United States, the kinds of collectibles currently popular range from traditional objects such as stamps, coins, rare books, and art to more recent items of interest like dolls, bottles, baseball cards, and comic books.

Interest in collectibles has increased enormously during the past decade, in part because some collectibles have demonstrated their value as investments. Especially during cycles of high inflation, investors try to purchase tangibles that will at least retain their current market values. In general, the most traditional collectibles will be sought because they have preserved their value over the years, there is an organized auction market for them, and they are most easily sold in the event that cash is needed. Some examples of the most stable collectibles are old masters, Chinese ceramics, stamps, coins, rare books, antique jewelry, silver, porcelain, art by well-known artists, autographs, and period furniture. Other items of more recent interest include old photograph records, old magazines, post cards, baseball cards, art glass, dolls, classic cars, old bottles, and comic books. These relatively new kinds of collectibles may actually appreciate faster as short-term investments, but may not hold their value as long-term investments. Once a collectible has had its initial play, it appreciates at a fairly steady rate, supported by an increasing number of enthusiastic collectors competing for the limited supply of collectibles that become increasingly more difficult to locate.

收藏品

从古代开始，收藏品就是文化的一部分。 一些物品因它们的有用性被收藏，而另一些 则纯粹因为它们的美被收藏。 在美国，当今流行的收藏品种类从传统物件，如邮票、硬币、 珍本书籍、艺术品，到更近期一些的有趣的东西，如布娃娃、瓶子、垒球卡、连环漫画册。

对收藏品的兴趣在过去十年中大大地增长，部分原因是一些收藏品显示出了它们的投资价值，尤其在高通货膨胀时期，投资者尽量购买那些至少会保持他们现有市场价值的有形资 产。 一般来说，最传统的收藏品受青睐，因为它们多年后仍保持其价值。它们拥有完善的 拍卖市场，在需要现金的时候最容易被卖掉。一些最稳当的收藏品是古老的画作、中国陶器、邮票、硬币、珍本书籍、古代珠宝、银器、瓷器、著名艺术家的作品、亲笔签名和有时代特征的家具。其它更近期的物品有旧唱片、旧杂志、明信片、垒球卡片、彩色玻璃、布 娃娃、早期汽车、古瓶和连环画册。 作为短期投资这些相对说来较新颖的收藏品的确可能更快地增值，但作为长期投资则可能不能保值。一旦一件收藏品有了它第一次交易，它便以一个相当稳定的比率增值，这个增值率受到越来越多的热情的收藏者的支持，他们为有限的而且越来越难找到的收藏品而竞争。