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The Guastavino tile arch system is a version of
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonwea ...
(1889)" >
Tile work on Guastavino arches, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - d9ca27663b027769e3b2b9a0a5c8b00e.jpg , Steel I-beams framing the building provide structural support for Guastavino tile arches
File:Laying of Guastavino tile arches along Boylston Street, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - 8ef5540ef15b92dccbea637ebf98e5a6.jpg , Formwork for shallow tile arches along Boylston Street
Rafael Guastavino stands on recently laid tile arch along Boylston Street, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - 29495562be5d91a3030d053e066872e3.jpg , Rafael Guastavino inspecting recently laid tile arch along Boylston Street
File:Guastavino tile arches, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - b4d39d880c2fbc93082bcb183a771277.jpg , Workmen filling in tile vault domed ceilings
Four completed Guastavino tile arches along Boylston Street, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - 42dcce5fd9b22eaceccff602f3c81c19.jpg , Four completed tile domes along Boylston Street
Guastavino tile arches, Dartmouth Street side, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - 05fbfee05d83ecc9d0b32970229408b9.jpg , Tile arches along Dartmouth Street
Guastavino tile arches and buttresses in entrance hall, construction of McKim building. - DPLA - 39549a43550a32ccf558f77b5a6413b3.jpg , Tile arches and buttresses in entrance hall
Guastavino tile arches and column in entrance hall, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - bd3775697380308236af6227b5afc24b.jpg , Closeup of completed tile arches and column in entrance hall
Supporting partitions for floor over completed Guastavino tile vaults, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - 9454bc525f40f943dfad25d25f982924.jpg , Guastavino tile vaults are strong enough to support the flooring above
Underside of Guastavino tile arches comprising basement ceiling, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - 10aea730ab745d5ffe7776dceb446363.jpg , Completed tile domed ceiling in basement
File:Load test for Guastavino tile arches along Boylston Street, construction of the McKim Building - DPLA - 14e2a49af8e0eb6c85077fd5334d9baf.jpg , Load testing of tile arches
Guastavino tile has both structural and aesthetic significance.
Structurally, the timbrel vault was based on traditional vernacular vaulting techniques already very familiar to Mediterranean architects, but not well known in America. Terracotta free-span timbrel vaults were far more economical and structurally resilient than the ancient Roman vaulting alternatives.
Guastavino wrote extensively about his system of "Cohesive Construction". As the name suggests, he believed that these timbrel vaults represented an innovation in structural engineering. The tile system provided solutions that were impossible with traditional masonry arches and vaults. Subsequent research has shown the timbrel vault is simply a masonry vault, much less thick than traditional arches, that produces less horizontal thrust due to its lighter weight. This permits flatter arch profiles, which would produce unacceptable horizontal thrust if constructed in thicker, heavier masonry.
''Our Headquarters''
, Tocci.com. The records and drawings of the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company are preserved by the Department of Drawings & Archives in the
PalacesForThePeople.com
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131223091641/http://palacesforthepeople.com/ , date=2013-12-23 global database of Guastavino sites with photos. Created as a companion to a museum exhibition that traveled to three American museums, 2012-2014.
documenting Guastavino's work in the Boston area. This page provides copies of writings and patents by the Guastavinos as well.
Rafaelguastavino.com:
documenting Guastavino's work in New York City
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (shows method of construction) Tiling Building materials Masonry Structural system Architecture in Spain
The Guastavino tile arch system is a version of Catalan vault
The Catalan vault ( ca, volta catalana), also called thin-tile vault, Catalan turn, Catalan arch, boveda ceiling (Spanish ''bóveda'' 'vault'), or timbrel vault, is a type of low brickwork arch forming a vaulted ceiling that often supports a floo ...
introduced to the United States in 1885 by Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino
Rafael Guastavino Moreno (; March 1, 1842 February 1, 1908) was a Spanish building engineer and builder who immigrated to the United States in 1881; his career for the next three decades was based in New York City.
Based on the Catalan vault, h ...
(1842–1908). It was patented in the United States by Guastavino in 1892.
Description
Guastavino vaulting is a technique for constructing robust, self-supportingarch
An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it.
Arches may be synonymous with vault ...
es and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar to form a thin skin, with the tiles following the curve of the roof as opposed to horizontally (corbelling
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the st ...
), or perpendicular to the curve (as in Roman vaulting). This is known as timbrel vaulting, because of supposed likeness to the skin of a timbrel
The timbrel or tabret (also known as the tof of the ancient Hebrews, the deff of Islam, the adufe of the Moors of Spain) was the principal percussion instrument of the ancient Israelites. It resembled either a frame drum or a modern tambourine. ...
or tambourine. It is also called Catalan vault
The Catalan vault ( ca, volta catalana), also called thin-tile vault, Catalan turn, Catalan arch, boveda ceiling (Spanish ''bóveda'' 'vault'), or timbrel vault, is a type of low brickwork arch forming a vaulted ceiling that often supports a floo ...
ing (though Guastavino did not use this term) and "compression-only thin-tile vaulting".
Guastavino tile is found in some of the most prominent Beaux-Arts structures in New York and Massachusetts, as well as in major buildings across the United States. In New York City, these include the Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant and the remnants of the Della Robbia Bar at the former Vanderbilt Hotel at 4 Park Avenue
4 Park Avenue (formerly known as the Vanderbilt Hotel) is a 22-story building in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Warren and Wetmore, the structure was built for Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt and opened in 191 ...
. It is also found in some non-Beaux-Arts structures such as the crossing of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
Construction
The Guastavino terracotta tiles are standardized, less than an inch (25 mm) thick, and about by across. They are usually set in three herringbone-pattern courses with a sandwich of thin layers of Portland cement. Unlike heavier stone construction, these tile domes could be built withoutcentering
Centring, centre, centering"Centering 2, Centring 2" def. 1. Whitney, William Dwight, and Benjamin E. Smith. ''The Century dictionary and cyclopedia''. vol. 2. New York: Century Co., 1901. p. 885., or center is a type of formwork: the temporary str ...
. Supporting formwork was still required for structural arches which established a framework for the ceiling. The large openings framed by the support arches were then filled in with thin Guastavino tiles fabricated into domed surfaces. Each ceiling tile was cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
ed out over the open space, relying only on the quick-drying cements developed by the company. Akoustolith Akoustolith is a porous ceramic material resembling stone. Akoustolith was a patented product of a collaboration between Rafael Guastavino Jr. (the son of Rafael Guastavino) and Harvard professor Wallace Sabine over a period of years starting in 19 ...
, a special sound-absorbing tile, was one of several trade names used by Guastavino.
Significance
Guastavino tile has both structural and aesthetic significance.
Structurally, the timbrel vault was based on traditional vernacular vaulting techniques already very familiar to Mediterranean architects, but not well known in America. Terracotta free-span timbrel vaults were far more economical and structurally resilient than the ancient Roman vaulting alternatives.
Guastavino wrote extensively about his system of "Cohesive Construction". As the name suggests, he believed that these timbrel vaults represented an innovation in structural engineering. The tile system provided solutions that were impossible with traditional masonry arches and vaults. Subsequent research has shown the timbrel vault is simply a masonry vault, much less thick than traditional arches, that produces less horizontal thrust due to its lighter weight. This permits flatter arch profiles, which would produce unacceptable horizontal thrust if constructed in thicker, heavier masonry.
Exhibitions
In 2012, a group of students under supervision ofMIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
professor John Ochsendorf
John Ochsendorf (born May 22, 1974) is an American educator, structural engineer, and historian of construction; he is a professor in the Department of Architecture and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts In ...
built a full-scale reproduction of a small Guastavino vault. The resulting structure was exhibited, as well as a time lapse video
Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus ...
documenting the construction process.
Ochsendorf also curated ''Palaces for the People'', an exhibition featuring the history and legacy of Guastavino which was premiered in September 2012 at the Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonwea ...
, Rafael Guastavino's first major architectural work in America. The exhibition then traveled to the National Building Museum in Washington DC, and an expanded version later appeared at the Museum of the City of New York
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
. Ochsendorf, a winner of the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant", also wrote the book-length color-illustrated monograph ''Guastavino Vaulting: The Art of Structural Tile'', and an online exhibition coordinated with the traveling exhibits.
In addition, Ochsendorf directs the Guastavino Project at MIT, which researches and maintains the Guastavino.net online archive of related materials.
Archival sources
The Guastavino company was headquartered inWoburn, Massachusetts
Woburn ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,876 at the 2020 census. Woburn is located north of Boston. Woburn uses Massachusetts' mayor-council form of government, in which an elected mayor is ...
, in a building of their own design which still stands., Tocci.com. The records and drawings of the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company are preserved by the Department of Drawings & Archives in the
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is a library located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the New York City. It is the largest architecture library in the world. Serving Columbia's Graduate Scho ...
at Columbia University in New York City.
See also
*Glazed architectural terra-cotta
Glazed architectural terra cotta is a ceramic masonry building material used as a decorative skin. It was popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s, and is still one of the most common building materials found in ...
* List of architectural vaults
The following is a list of arched structures known in architecture as vaults.
* Annular vault – A Barrel vault springing from two concentric walls.
* Aynalı vault – Turkish vault made by cutting a monastery vault's upper part in a horizont ...
* First Church of Christ, Scientist (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
* Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge
The Queensboro Bridge, officially named the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City. Completed in 1909, it connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with the Upper East ...
* Basilica of St. Lawrence, Asheville
The Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence the Deacon & Martyr is a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The church was designed and built in 1905 by Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino along ...
* Biltmore Estate
Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), the main residence, is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 a ...
* Grant's Tomb
Grant's Tomb, officially the General Grant National Memorial, is the final resting place of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States, and his wife, Julia Grant. It is a classical domed mausoleum in the Morningside Heights, Manhattan ...
* Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant
Notes
Further reading
*External links
PalacesForThePeople.com
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131223091641/http://palacesforthepeople.com/ , date=2013-12-23 global database of Guastavino sites with photos. Created as a companion to a museum exhibition that traveled to three American museums, 2012-2014.
documenting Guastavino's work in the Boston area. This page provides copies of writings and patents by the Guastavinos as well.
Rafaelguastavino.com:
documenting Guastavino's work in New York City
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (shows method of construction) Tiling Building materials Masonry Structural system Architecture in Spain