Glazed architectural terra-cotta

Last updated
Elmslea Chambers in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia - built in 1933, it was one of the first buildings in Australia to use coloured polychrome terracotta in its facade which features a fine relief of birds, flowers, leaves and typical Art Deco sunbursts under the windows. GoulburnElmsleaChambers 001.jpg
Elmslea Chambers in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia - built in 1933, it was one of the first buildings in Australia to use coloured polychrome terracotta in its façade which features a fine relief of birds, flowers, leaves and typical Art Deco sunbursts under the windows.
Polychrome glazed capital, circa 1915. Randalls Lost NYC collection Glazed terra cotta architectural capital.jpg
Polychrome glazed capital, circa 1915. Randalls Lost NYC collection
White glazed Sullivanesque, circa 1925. Randalls Lost NYC collection Sullivanesque.jpg
White glazed Sullivanesque, circa 1925. Randalls Lost NYC collection

Glazed architectural terra cotta is a ceramic masonry building material used as a decorative skin. It featured widely in the 'terracotta revival' [1] from the 1880s until the 1930s.

Contents

It was used in the UK, United States, Canada and Australia and is still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments. It is the glazed version of architectural terracotta; the material in both its glazed and unglazed versions is sturdy and relatively inexpensive, and can be molded into richly ornamented detail. Glazed terra-cotta played a significant role in architectural styles such as the Chicago School and Beaux-Arts architecture.

History

Gloucester Road station, Piccadilly line, with the sang de boeuf glazed tiles used on many London Underground station buildings. Gloucester Road stn former Piccadilly building look north.JPG
Gloucester Road station, Piccadilly line, with the sang de boeuf glazed tiles used on many London Underground station buildings.

The material, also known in Great Britain as faience and sometimes referred to as "architectural ceramics" in the USA was closely associated with the work of Cass Gilbert, Louis Sullivan, and Daniel H. Burnham, among other architects. Buildings incorporating glazed terra-cotta include the Woolworth Building in New York City and the Wrigley Building in Chicago.

Glazed architectural terra-cotta offered a modular, varied and relatively inexpensive approach to wall and floor construction. It was particularly adaptable to vigorous and rich ornamental detailing. It was created by Luca della Robbia (1400–1482), and was used in most of his works.

Terra-cotta is an enriched molded clay brick or block. It was usually hollow cast in blocks which were open in the back, with internal stiffeners called webbing, substantially strengthening the hollow blocks with minimal weight increase. The blocks were finished with a glaze, with a clay wash or an aqueous solution of metal salts, before firing.

Late 19th-century advertising for the material promoted the durable, impervious and adaptable nature of glazed architectural terra-cotta. It could accommodate subtle nuances of modeling, texture and color. Compared with stone, it was easier to handle, quickly set and lower cost. The cost of producing the blocks, when compared to carving stone, was a considerable saving, especially when casts were used in a modular fashion—that is, used repeatedly. It never needed paint, and periodic washings restored its appearance.

Usage

Variations in the color and pattern of the glaze could make it look like granite or limestone; this flexibility helped make it attractive for architects.

Four major types of terra-cotta were widely used [2]

  1. Brownstone was the earliest type. A dark red or brown block which was not necessarily glazed, it was used as imitation sandstone, brick or with real brownstone and associated with the architectural styles of Richard Upjohn, James Renwick Jr., H. H. Richardson.
  2. Fireproof was developed as a direct result of the growth of the high rise building in America. Cheap, light and fireproof, the rough-finished hollow blocks were ideally suited to span the I-beam members in floor, wall and ceiling construction. Certain varieties are still in production today.
  3. Veneer was developed during the 1930s and is still used today. Unlike traditional architectural terra-cotta, ceramic veneer is not hollow cast. It is a veneer of glazed ceramic tile which is ribbed on the back like bathroom tile and usually attached to a grid of metal ties which have been anchored to the building.
  4. Glazed architectural terra-cotta was the most complex building material developed. The hollow units were hand cast in molds or carved in clay and heavily glazed, then fired. This is the terra-cotta associated with the architecture of Cass Gilbert, Louis Sullivan and Daniel H. Burnham.

Use in the United States

The American Terra Cotta Corporation, founded in 1881, [3] operated for eighty-five years in the little town of Terra Cotta in the heart of Illinois dairy country (near Crystal Lake, Illinois). The company fabricated architectural terra cotta for more than 8,000 buildings throughout the U.S. and Canada. It was the last exclusive manufacturer of architectural terra cotta by the time it ceased production in 1966. From its founding, in time to rebuild the fire-ravished city of Chicago, until its closing, it was the major producer of architectural glazed terra cotta in North America.

Guastavino tile was used in many places, including the Bridgemarket under the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge.

Illinois examples

[4] [5] [6]

Use in Canada

Although glazed terra-cotta was much more common in the US, it was used in central Canada starting around 1900, on many of the area's first skyscrapers. The glazed terra-cotta used in central Canada was usually imported from the US or England.

Use in Great Britain

Burmantofts faience in the Great Hall of the University of Leeds Leeds University Great Hall Staircase March 2017 01.jpg
Burmantofts faience in the Great Hall of the University of Leeds

From around 1880 unglazed terra-cotta was supplanted by the glazed version - faience, and glazed brick - which were easily cleaned, and not blackened by city smoke. A prominent producer was Burmantofts Pottery in Leeds, which also exported to Paris and Montreal. [7]

Use in Australia

Faience was popularised in Melbourne in the 1920s by architects such as Harry Norris. One of the leading commercial architects of the time in the city, Norris was strongly influenced by trends in American architecture and used faience on projects such as the Nicholas Building and the Kellow Falkiner Showrooms (a 1928 car showroom) in South Yarra. [8] In Sydney, it featured on notable buildings such as BMA House, designed by Joseph Charles Fowell. Australian-made tiles were available from Wunderlich Tiles, a company founded by London-born Frederick Wunderlich. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terracotta</span> Clay-based earthenware used for sculpture

Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta, is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware objects of certain types, as set out below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guastavino tile</span> Thin ornaments for a type of low brickwork vault

The Guastavino tile arch system is a version of Catalan vault introduced to the United States in 1885 by Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). It was patented in the United States by Guastavino in 1892.

Mather Tower is a Neo-Gothic, terra cotta-clad high-rise structure in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located at 75 East Wacker Drive in the downtown "loop" area, adjacent to the Chicago River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pui Tak Center</span> Building in Chicago, United States

The Pui Tak Center, formerly known as the On Leong Merchants Association Building, is a building located in Chicago's Chinatown. Designed by architects Christian S. Michaelsen and Sigurd A. Rognstad, the building was built for the On Leong Merchants Association and opened in 1928. The Association used it as an immigrant assistance center, and the building was informally referred to as Chinatown's "city hall". In 1988, the FBI and Chicago Police raided the building as part of a racketeering investigation. The US federal government seized the building that same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heins & LaFarge</span> American architectural firm

Heins & LaFarge was a New York City–based architectural firm founded by Philadelphia-born architect George Lewis Heins (1860–1907) and Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938), the eldest son of the artist John La Farge. They were the architects for the original Romanesque-Byzantine east end and crossing of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, and for the original Astor Court buildings of the Bronx Zoo, which formed a complete ensemble reflecting the aesthetic of the City Beautiful movement. Heins & LaFarge provided the architecture and details for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the first precursor to the New York City Subway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teco pottery</span>

The American Terracotta Tile and Ceramic Company was founded in 1881; originally as Spring Valley Tile Works; in Terra Cotta, Illinois, between Crystal Lake, Illinois and McHenry, Illinois near Chicago by William Day Gates. It became the country's first manufactury of architectural terracotta in 1889. The production consisted of drain tile, brick, chimney tops, finials, urns, and other economically fireproof building materials. Gates used the facilities to experiment with clays and glazes in an effort to design a line of art pottery which led to the introduction of Teco Pottery. American Terra Cotta's records are housed at the University of Minnesota and include original architectural drawings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architectural terracotta</span> Fired clay construction material

Architectural terracotta refers to a fired mixture of clay and water that can be used in a non-structural, semi-structural, or structural capacity on the exterior or interior of a building. Terracotta is an ancient building material that translates from Latin as "baked earth". Some architectural terracotta is stronger than stoneware. It can be unglazed, painted, slip glazed, or glazed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burmantofts Pottery</span> Pottery and ceramics manufacturer

Burmantofts Pottery was the common trading name of a manufacturer of ceramic pipes and construction materials, named after the Burmantofts district of Leeds, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architectural sculpture in the United States</span>

Architectural sculpture is a general categorization used to describe items used for the decoration of buildings and structures. In the United States, the term encompasses both sculpture that is attached to a building and free-standing pieces that are a part of an architects design.

Terra Cotta is a clay-based ceramic material, and objects made in it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foster Building</span> United States historic place

The Foster Building, originally the Hotel Foster, is located on State Street in Schenectady, New York, United States. It is a commercial building in the Beaux-Arts architectural style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grueby Faience Company</span> American ceramics company (1894–1920)

The Grueby Faience Company, founded in 1894, was an American ceramics company that produced distinctive American art pottery vases and tiles during America's Arts and Crafts Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Structural clay tile</span> Class of building block

Structural clay tile describes a category of burned-clay building materials used to construct roofing, walls, and flooring for structural and non-structural purposes, especially in fireproofing applications. Also called building tile, structural terra cotta, hollow tile, saltillo tile, and clay block, the material is an extruded clay shape with substantial depth that allows it to be laid in the same manner as other clay or concrete masonry. In North America it was chiefly used during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reaching peak popularity at the turn of the century and declining around the 1950s. Structural clay tile grew in popularity in the end of the nineteenth-century because it could be constructed faster, was lighter, and required simpler flat falsework than earlier brick vaulting construction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Marriott Blashfield</span> English property developer and mosaic floor and ornamental terracotta manufacturer

John Marriott Blashfield (1811–1882) was a property developer and mosaic floor and ornamental terracotta manufacturer. He originally worked for the cement makers Wyatt, Parker and & Co in Millwall, but moved the business to Stamford in Lincolnshire in 1858, when it was renamed The Stamford Terracotta Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceramic art</span> Decorative objects made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery

Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramic art can be created by one person or by a group, in a pottery or a ceramic factory with a group designing and manufacturing the artware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American art pottery</span>

American art pottery refers to aesthetically distinctive hand-made ceramics in earthenware and stoneware from the period 1870-1950s. Ranging from tall vases to tiles, the work features original designs, simplified shapes, and experimental glazes and painting techniques. Stylistically, most of this work is affiliated with the modernizing Arts and Crafts (1880-1910), Art Nouveau (1890–1910), or Art Deco (1920s) movements, and also European art pottery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMA House, Sydney</span> Heritage-listed building in Sydney, Australia

AMA House, Sydney or the Australian Medical Association House, Sydney is a heritage-listed former medical office and library and now commercial offices located at 135–137 Macquarie Street in the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Fowell & McConnel and built from 1929 to 1930 by Messrs Hutcherson Bros. It was formerly known as BMA House or the British Medical Association House. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ely Walker Lofts</span> United States historic place

Ely Walker Lofts is a building located at 1520 Washington Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri.

The New York Architectural Terra-Cotta Company was a manufacturer of architectural terracotta based in Queens, New York, U.S.

James Taylor (1839–1898) was an English-born ceramicist who is considered "the father of the American architectural terra cotta industry."

References

  1. "The Terracotta revival: building innovation and the image of the industrial city in Britain and North America". Choice Reviews Online. 32 (3): 32–1338-32-1338. 1994-11-01. doi:10.5860/choice.32-1338. ISSN   0009-4978.
  2. George A. Berry III with Sharon S. Darling (2003). Common Clay - A History of American Terra Cotta Corporation 1881-1966. Crystal Lake, Illinois: TCR Corp. ISBN   0-9747738-0-8.
  3. "George A. Berry III Obituary". Sun Times. 2010-04-24. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  4. "Chicago Landmarks | Historic Resources Survey". Webapps.cityofchicago.org. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
    • Schmitt, Ronald A. (2002). Sullivanesque: URBAN ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENTATION. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. pp. 238, 239, 240. ISBN   978-0-252-02726-0.
  5. City Council Minutes, Evanston, IL. August 16, 2004
  6. Pevsner Architectural Guides - Leeds, Susan Wrathwell, 2005, ISBN   0-300-10736-6
  7. "Former Kellow Falkiner Showrooms (Heritage Listed Location)". On My Doorstep. 2005-10-07. Archived from the original on 2013-04-30. Retrieved 2013-05-01.
  8. "Booklets (2), 'Architectural Terra Cotta and Faience', Wunderlich Limited, Redfern, New South Wales,... - Version details - Trove". Trove.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 2013-05-01.

Further reading