PARICATUBA, Brazil (AP) If Hollywood were to set a psychological thriller in the Amazon rainforest, the haunting Paricatuba Ruins would be the perfect backdrop.

Massive root structures poke through the foundations of the once-stately neo-classical edifice, across the Rio Negro from the jungle metropolis of Manaus, one of the cities set to host World Cup matches.

Tourists arriving for soccer's premier event are unlikely to stumble upon the ruins. There is virtually no signage pointing toward the site. It can be reached only by boat or by car for those who cross a new bridge spanning the Rio Negro and endure an hour-long ride over bumpy dirt roads.

Those living near Paricatuba, however, hope the jungle enshrouded villa will attract the more adventurous travelers among the 52,000 or so foreigners expected to descend Manaus for the matches featuring the U.S., England, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Cameroon, Portugal and Honduras.

Tree trunks braid around crumbling bricks and shards of fancy tile work. Pythons and iguanas make their homes in the carpet of waist-high brush.

It was built in 1898 at the height of the region's rubber boom, which briefly transformed Manaus into one of the richest cities in the world. The sprawling villa was initially intended to house the Italian immigrants who arrived to work in the rubber trade.

The building's decline over the next century mirrored that of Manaus, which after the rubber boom went bust, slipped into a long period of decadence and decay.

After the Italian migration dried up, the villa housed an art school run by French priests. Then it became a penitentiary. Then a leper colony, before simply being abandoned to the tropical elements.

The roof caved in, and the vegetation took over. During mango season, the ground becomes slick with the fruit's rotting pulp. The thud of falling watermelon-sized jackfruits punctuates the eerie silence of the place.

Today, it is open for all who wish to visit. There is no charge to roam the ruins. The cost of a boat or car ride to the spot depends upon the whim of the captain or driver.

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Amazon ruins await adventurous World Cup visitors

GLORIOUS MISHMASH: Mural at the Oriente station.

A whim takes over on the train from the airport. Oriente station looks so bright and fascinating, that it's worth getting out way before the right stop.

The station is awash in coloured tiles. On them, weird, long-necked alien figures play the drums, cartoon pirates swashbuckle and coral polyps dominate space-like starry backgrounds.

The idea to turn a public transport hub into an art gallery came when the stations of the red line were built, just before Lisbon hosted Expo 98. At Oriente, artists from five continents were brought in and given a section of wall to work their magic on. There's a vague maritime theme but it's a gloriously jarring mishmash of styles.

The one constant is the material the works are displayed on. Portugal does tile art like nowhere else and the Metro's commitment to showcasing the best from modern artists offers a counterpoint to the geometric shapes found all over Lisbon.

The difference between tile art in Portugal and that of elsewhere is explained at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo.Elsewhere tiles are used as decoration but in Portugal they're used as a construction material. Entire walls will be covered in the painted azulejos, rather than carefully selected patches. And thus the term azulejo has a much stronger meaning than the rough translation of "tile art".

It also explains why some of the more spectacular pieces in the museum seem to have bits missing. They have been brought to the museum from churches and houses all over the country, and the absent sections are usually where a window or door originally was.

The history of the art form - it was introduced by Arabs in the Middle Ages - and techniques for making the tiles are covered, but it is the in-situ works that are truly spectacular. The museum is inside an old convent complex, and the central church is a masterpiece.

The blue and white azulejos spread across the walls, telling the stories of saints in the way friezes do elsewhere. The detail is worth getting lost in - lions prowl behind St Francis of Assisi, Moses' followers carry sheep over their shoulders.

But until the Metro stations gave azulejos a new lease of life, they were regarded as somewhat dowdy and old-fashioned. Now you can't commute without seeing inventive twists on the old ways. At Cais do Sodre station, giant Alice in Wonderland-esque rabbits seem to race across the tunnel walls.

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Lisbon tile art a glorious sight

Naina re remix hansa tile work

By: Rizwan Ali

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Naina re remix hansa tile work - Video

FITCHBURG Area carpenters say they are outraged that a large corporation like Great Wolf Lodge is being rewarded with a $17 million tax break when some contractors hired by the water park conglomerate to work on its newest resort in New England were allegedly paid in cash and did not carry workers' compensation insurance.

The New England Regional Council of Carpenters is asking Greg Bialecki, secretary of the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, to rescind approval of the 20-year tax increment financing deal that was awarded to the company after the violations were discovered.

The new resort in Fitchburg is slated to open June 5.

The company, which owns and operates a dozen family resorts in the U.S. and Canada under the Great Wolf Lodge brand, features specialty restaurants, arcades, spas, fitness rooms and children's activity areas, in addition to water parks, at each resort.

Hundreds of people attended a Great Wolf jobs fair in March. The company was looking to fill 500 positions; roughly half are full-time openings.

In an April 16 letter to Mr. Bialecki, New England Regional Council of Carpenters secretary-treasurer Mark Erlich implored him to look into the matter.

On March 26, Great Wolf Lodge of New England was approved for $16.4 million in local tax relief and $680,000 in investment tax credits. Three months earlier, the Department of Industrial Accidents issued eight stop-work orders to eight contractors working on the project for not having Massachusetts workers' compensation insurance, according to DIA documents.

The stop-work orders automatically place the contractors on the DIA's debarment list, Mr. Erlich said, and allegedly make the company ineligible for TIF approval.

In Great Wolf's application for the TIF, the company agreed it would not knowingly hire subcontractors or other third parties that did not have workers' compensation insurance, and the company affirmed it had not hired subcontractors within the past five years that had been debarred by a government agency.

Great Wolf did not inform the state Economic Assistance Coordinating Council of the stop-work orders before the council's meeting to approve the TIF, Mr. Erlich said.

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Carpenters' union fumes over Great Wolf

Updated: Tuesday, May 20 2014, 09:11 PM CDT

The Hawaiian Falls opening in Pflugerville has been delayed until June 6. But the drilling, tile work and just about everything else needed to finish the water park continues.

While crews work round the clock visitors will have to wait a few more weeks to get a sky high view of Pflugerville.

"With all the inclement weather, we are a little bit delayed," says General Manager Evan Barnett.

Construction came to a halt a few times over the last few months. At one point, rain caused a muddy mess -- making it impossible for construction crews to work.

Barnett says, "We had a lot of ice days and the last few rains put us behind, a few days taking us out of the memorial equation."

The good news, the park will be open in time for summer vacation and stay open longer.

"We are super thankful for our season pass holder base and because of that Hawaiian Falls always want to do the right thing and what we plan on doing right now is extending the season on the back end and letting them enjoy the facility past Labor Day weekend," says Barnett

Which gives you a few more weeks to enjoy the attractions.

"We're working around the clock and we want to make sure the number one priority is safety and our customer experience is going to be maintained," says Barnett.

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New Pflugerville Water Park Opening Delayed

Past and Present Woodwork trinidad and tobago tile work
Past and Present Woodwork was founded in June 2000. We build custom made furniture and specialize in custom made beds.

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Past and Present Woodwork trinidad and tobago tile work - Video

In the great crush of commuting, New Yorkers don't always have time to stop and appreciate the art of the subway system, one of the world's largest. The detailed mosaic tile work that serves to identify each station is rarely celebrated. Here to change that is freelance art director Adam Chang. On the website NY Train Project, he highlights the beauty of New York City's subway signage in all its grimy, piss-stained glory.

Chang's goal is to catalogue the signs of every MTA subway station, organized on the site by each different line. Each station has a factoid, like when it opened, what long-forgotten features it once had or what film or music video it has appeared in--for instance, the 23rd Street 2 train station gets destroyed in the 1998 version of Godzilla.

"One day while waiting for the 6 train at the Bleecker stop, I began to notice the intricate details of the carefully placed tiles in the station sign. Which led me to noticing other station signs and how they were all different, infused with the personality of the neighborhood," Chang explains on the site. "I decided that I wanted to share this with others by creating an online gallery of subways stations in NYC, starting with Manhattan."

So far, Chang has covered 118 stations, largely in Manhattan, riding the train for a total of 20 hours.

See more from the NY Train Project.

[H/T: It's Nice That]

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A Guide To All Of NYC's Subway Signs

3 BR 2.5 BA Waldorf Home on Corner Lot
Located in the Wakefield Neighborhood of St. Charles in Waldorf Maryland, this pristine home has an open foyer w/gleaming hardwood floors. Bright kitchen, tile work, cabinets, dining bar w/...

By: Southern Maryland Real Estate Network

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3 BR 2.5 BA Waldorf Home on Corner Lot - Video

As construction crews work to erect sound walls along La Caada segments of the 210 Foothill Freeway, one locally known artist is in the process of creating an art piece that will grace a portion of the finished project.

Miriam Balcazar, a ceramics teacher for the Community Center of La Caada Flintridge, was commissioned by a design company working with the city's Public Works Department to create a 90-foot-long tile mosaic to be installed at the Curran Street sound wall.

The scene depicts various aspects of Foothills life, from hiking and biking to dog walking and horseback riding. The art piece will embellish an overlap in two sound walls through which pedestrians pass, making it the largest piece of public art in La Caada, according to Public Works Director Edward Hitti.

"The mosaic reflects residents' activities along the trail system in the city," Hitti said. "It is a creative element (intended) to soften the height of the 16-foot-tall wall in the city right-of-way."

Hitti has estimated the sound walls will be completed around late October, with the art installation to begin sometime after that.

This isn't Balcazar's first public project she created the cheerful mosaic in the Community Center's own sign although the artist admits she's never tackled a project of this magnitude.

"I've done other murals and projects, but never this size," she said.

In preparation for the massive tile installation, Balcazar has been breaking and sorting Italian tile pieces by shape, working in the studio of her Valley Glen home.

Once she has a well-fitting piece, she sticks it onto an adhesive-backed foam board cut to the exact shape and size of an individual figure. When a figure has been laid out, the tiled foam board goes into a stack of completed figures that will remain in her home studio until the wall is ready for tiling.

"When I break tiles, I think, 'This part is going to be perfect that the piece of the hat for one person,'" Balcazar said. "I just fill in the lines and once it's done, I put it on the pile. I have a pile of people and animals. They're waiting we're all waiting."

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Mosaic for 210 Freeway sound walls will be La Caada's largest art installation

You will find them inside office buildings, libraries and train stations; the tile vaults, domes and arches which act as skeletons holding up massive American landmarks. It was a Spanish immigrant father and his son who built these feats of engineering in world landmarks such as Ellis Island, New York's Grand Central Station and five U.S. state capitol buildings. Yet this immigrant family's place in history was largely forgotten, until now.

The works of Rafael Guastavino and his son Rafael, Jr. are the subject of an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. The father-son team built over 1,000 projects nationwide; the museum focuses on 250 commissioned works built by the family.

The vaulted ceiling of the Ellis Island Registry Room is the work of Rafael Guastavino, Jr. He and his father, Rafael Guastavino Sr., are the subject of an exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.

This is a great American story, said John Ochsendorf, a civil engineering professor at MIT and the exhibit's director. The works showcase the essential skills immigrants like the Guastavinos have brought to the country, he explained in an interview.

No one could predict when [Guastavino] arrived to New York in 1881 that by the time of his death 27 years later he would be responsible for all of these incredible buildings, Ochsendorf said.

It is also a reminder that buildings and parks contain the living culture and history of our towns and cities. Rafael Guastavino arrived at a time when New York was booming with factories and businesses. Years later, his son Rafael Jr. would build the long-arched ceilings of the Registry Room at Ellis Island, which welcomed millions of immigrants to America.

The golden age of manufacturing created many opportunities for the Guastavino family. Today, tourists from around the world can see the father and son's vaulted ceilings at New York City landmarks such as the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal, the Bronx Zoo, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Carnegie Hall and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in upper Manhattan.

While the Spanish immigrant family is being recognized centuries later for their mastery of complex and beautiful structures, the reality is that like many immigrants, they had to use their skills to overcome setbacks and adversity.

Rafael Guastavino, Sr.

Guastavino did not come to this country to build vaults, said Ochsendorf. He wanted to succeed as an architect. But after many failures, he discovered that the [vaulting] skills that he carried in his back pocket were much more desirable to many American architects.

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Immigrant success in stone?