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PART ONE
PRESIDING CHAIRMAN
John Knox Shear
Editor-in-Chief,
Architectural Record
Architectural Design
M R . S H E A :R: This is the conference ~ have been awaiting for a long
time, ever since ~ first heard that it was being planned. T am sure most of
you fee] as r ~0. We have a lot to learn here.
Mr. Richard M. Bennett, our first speaker, is a practicing architect of dis-
tinction and a member of the firm of LoebI, SchIossman 8: Bennett of Chi-
cago. He has taught and written on architecture. Currently he is repre-
senting architecture on a committee advising the State Department on its
foreign building operations. He is a Fellow and former member of the
Board of Directors of the American institute of Architects and has re-
ceived much praise and several awards for his distinguished work in resi-
clential. commercial, religious, and public buildings.
5
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The Aesthetic Demands
of Contemporary Architecture
Upon Masonry
MY FIRST introduction to masonry construc-
tion goes back a long, Tong time in 1ny ~nem-
or~. -\s a very little boy, I watcl~ec) my grand-
fatl~er builcT a brick garage. This even in an
, ,
c' ~ _ _ . . v ~ a
age once place Pliers people still lead barns ancT
stables. 'Garage" was a new word in our
language then. Our garage was quite modern,
too it hac] a flat roof, a poured concrete
~door, and an asymmetric elevation and plan to
accommodate on one side a work bench for
Hi ost continuous mechanical repairs ancT
maintenance. I believe the neighbors thought
this unfamiliar structure extremely ugly. My
grandmother had made no .~r~ n cafe tlo Or retire
sonic ~Tea.-s l:efore, but this oicI Nan
really quit he just helped people build
_ _ j = ~ A .L At_
Richard M. Bennett
Loebl. SchlossmarL & Bennett'
Chicago, III.
for joy instead
building as an
years ago, and
stone, well laid
of wood, and it
. . . . . ~
of money. He llad learned
apprentice, nearly a hundred
he learned to love a piece of
brick, a straight "rained piece
is probably his influence wl~icl~
Is Den~na no being lien today.
J J
And, I alp glad to lee here will: you to carry
on, if I can, his attitude that a brick is more
than a bricl:, a stone more than a stone, a build-
ing more than just a structure when man builds
and selects with tile objectives of beauty and
a sense of rightness wl~icl1 transcend what we
arbitrarily call utilitarian concerns. Allis is
glut the title of 1ny assignment here really
means when it saves "belle Aesthetic Den~ancTs
or Gary ~rcnItecture upon Masonry."
never ,
tilings ' ~' ~ '
7
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That word Aesthetics is a license that allows
for some of the loosest talking and writing men
do, and it is only the realization that ~ cannot
cover the ground thoroughly anyhow that al-
Tows one to fee] no strange in any own simplified,
arbitrary approach.
The dictionary is a good starting point. The
root of our worst aesthetics is "esthesia" which
means the ability to feel. The word aesthetic
itself Scans "sensitive to art and beauty." :[t
connotes cliscrin~ination, judgment-above all,
the rejection of those things which clo not
measure up to certain purely personal stancl-
ards. Son~eLow, this accepted clefinition of
the word "aesthetic" doesn't seem to Nile to
have enough scope for a survey of today's use,
and tomorrow's role, for a great historic buiTd-
ing material.
So, let us get back to the root of things anc!
agree that what we are really after is what a
designer of a building is interested in when he
seeks to negate a building beautiful; or, in other
words, make those who see his buiTclings have
feelings of beauty. The designer is (and per-
haps we are coining a wordy an aesthesiast-
one who makes people have feelings just the
opposite of an anesthetist. Whether the de-
signer's endeavors are judged beautiful often
varies with tinge anct place. Anc! this is the
most important point: different designers see
their goals in different ways; do so with great
conviction; and are supported by able critics
and aestheticians in their differences. The
inevitable result is that today's obviously beau-
tifu] building is son~etin~es ton~orrow's awk-
ward relic, and sometimes toclay's unnoticed
solution is ton~orrow's beloved heirloom.
Today the architectural scene is, as always,
rich with two broach trends classic and ro-
n~antic. Always the classic is cool, impersonal,
clisciplinec] and balanced. Mies van de Robe
is this generation's great classicist classicist
and progressive. For it must always be remem-
bered that his work is original, but within a
8
framework of greatness, for classicism does not
mean sterility. For this audience, his insistence
on nothing less than perfect craftsmanship
widen it conies to masonry, shouIc! not be news
when you ren~en~ber his first training was as a
stonemason. In the City of Chicago, running
bond, seven courses of bricks lengthways and
the next end side to, is aIn~ost stancIarcT. It
was almost startling when Mies used n~eticu-
lous Fiendish bond in his first buildings at
Illinois Institute of Technology. People flail
dismissed, even forgotten, the snore co~n~?li-
catec! brick textures. His reintroduction of
increased bonding was doubly interesting since
his bricks were used, usually, only in curtain
walls. The reason, of course, is that in con-
trast to the running bond the snore over-all,
uniform pattern made a texture that stayed
where it was put within his usual frame of
steel.
While Mies' preoccupation with the exploi-
tation of steel and glass conies first to Final, it
must never be forgotten that he is really con-
cerned with fine, meticulous cletailing, and the
proper use of materials. Brick, in his vocabu-
lary, takes a proper place with all fine materials,
such as n~arble, bronze, wooLl, aTu~ninun~. A
most don~inant figure in the influence of con-
ten~porary architecture by exan~ple, as well as
a teacher, the trend established by Mies and
his group creates a Pendant for bricks of greater
uniformity and precision, both for size as well
as for color and texture.
It is significant that his students' early design
exercises are based on the brick as a n~oduTe-
and their first houses are designed so that the
length of other materials is detern~ine(1 by a
multiple of existing brick masonry units.
In dran~atic contrast to Mies, and in many
ways stan(ling all alone Frank Lloyd Wright
is, without a doubt, the arch-ro~nantic of our
age. Throughout his long life, he has been
fascinated with expanding the possibilities of
masonry construction. It is hard to think of
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Photo: Eel a Stoller
CHAPEL' MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Eero Saarinen, architect
9
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anyone who has clone more in the way of ex-
perimenting witl1 prefabricated, precast units,
both as structural components anc! as breath-
taking essays in applier] pattern ancI texture.
Ale, of course, leas many followers kilo carry
on these interests. If we try to discover the
principle unclerlying the hancITing of masonry,
as shown in Wright-influencecT work, we'd
fincl, as lie puts it, an interest in the ' nature
of the material" as a total possibility. N\Tith
llinl, masonry is nape pri~nariT,v to work to
voice things up. Stucco; of his plans shows that
in his greatest work, masonry is cTisposec! in the
buiTcling so that one can feet the compressive
forces concentrated in the solicT ~nasonrv;
masses, using ancT expressing other materials
to take tile tensile ancT bencTing forces of the
builcling.
The romanticist is snore apt to be interested
in the incliviclual, unique architectural solution
and the inctiviclual brick uncleri~urnecT, over-
burnecT, oversized, and unclersizecl. All arcLi-
tects, however, ~ believe, will become more and
more interested in the complete wall, one
which uses the sane material inside and out.
Concern with the integrity of tile way tl~e
reality bchinc} tee surface appearance is a real
aesthetic matter ancT very important in the de-
velop~nent of new masonry forms. It is be-
yoncT the scope of this paper to discuss the
merits of modular units, to examine composite
materials clesignec! to be light, to have greater
insulating value, to be of sizes 1nore easily
placect, ant! the like. The exciting possibilities
of masonry elements for sun shades, grilles
and other functional forms; color glazes; all
await further exploitation by designers. All
these present aesthetic problems but their so-
lution lies within Else same principles that Lola
for present ~nasonr,~ uses.
Currently, the trencT in architecture scenes
to lean mostly toward the classic Mies, but T
believe that the inevitable swing of the penciu-
lum towarc! the freer, romantic trencT is not far
18
away;. LeCorbusier's latest church seems to
defy all Isis writings of the last thirty years in
its heavily over-emphasizec] stuccoed ~nasonrv
~ J
walls, bizarre roof and emphatically arbitrary
winclow placement. The straight lines of steel
ancT economically forn~ecl concrete of his theo-
ries are forgotten in his obvious delight in
masses ancT shapes that can most logical!;; be
cliscoverecT in masonry. Such deviation toward
a highly incliviclual solution by one known for
his previous emphasis on a "machine" age can-
not help but exert a strong romantic influence
on many young men.
Two well-publicized projects Philip John-
son's own house ancT Saarinen's M.~.T. Chapel
ancT AucTitorinn~ are nest interesting because
alley both clen~onstrate the two-siclecI interests
of so notary of tociay's architects. The precise
steel-and-glass main structure of Jol~nsons
Lomb is contrasted with his brick, solicI-wallecT
neighboring guest house. In similar vein, Saar-
inen's eggshell-thick plastic-coverecT concrete
cloned with walls of alu~ninu~n and glass is l~al-
ancec: against a cylinder of brick wI~ich en-
closes one of the most inspiring chapels of our
tinge. Much of tile success of the chapel, as
well as some of the interior brickwork beneath
the auclitoriu~n cTome, results frown the search
for ancT selection of bricks Title inherent in-
cTivicluality and variety in size and color, ancT a
mortar color that blencTs the diversity of tl~e
:Lnits into a unity of the whole wall to achieve
a satisfaction oracle snore thrilling because of
its apparently artless subtlety.
The architect as aesthesiast-neater of peo-
ple to feel leas become the concern of Walter
Gropius of late. This early writings were in~port-
ant for Blair pioneer expression of the possibili-
ties ancT inevitableness of machine production
in building anc! its resulting uncompromising
precision. Writing of Lois recent trip to Japan,
one senses a greater affection perhaps for nat-
ural material, and certainly brick is a natural
material and a 1nachine-age product, too. This
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secants to suggest a coining greater interest in
the incliviclual, unique manifestation of vari-
etv,war~nti~, and richness of clepth associated
with natural masonry.
Plot long ago' it was con non to hear so-
callecT acivancec] architects ancT critics predict
the encT of out-~noclec] heavy ~nasonr,v. Some of
their criticisms were correct, anc] in steel ancT
concrete frame construction the masonry cur-
tain wall is being usecT less ancT less. AncT this is
reasonable since the nature of the material is
inappropriate. But brick is appropriate, ancT, as
fares one can see aheacT, will always be appro-
priate in many places. As contemporary; design
clevelops, it will be strange if masonry does not
become even snore lovecI as we learn where
it is most appropriate. The greatest mistake of
our time seems to Nile to be the search for the
"all' solution whether it is all glass, all aTu~ni-
nu~, ail steel, or even all brick. A buiTcling can
be co~nparecT to biological construction; ancI,
who wouIcT think of an only all-gristIe, an only
all-fat, or only alI-bone girl?
NYhat cloes this short ancl over-si~nplifiec]
little survey suggest? It seems to Nile the most
important point is that cliEerent architects can
use the saline unit with different objectives. Let
Nile illustrate by comparing architecture with
another art the stage. The great Raclio City;
Music Hall lines up scores of girls, picker! for
similarity of size ancT conformation, made more
alike by identical clothes and wigs, all kicking,
turning, ancT bencling in breathtaking preci-
sion. This is certainly a kind of beauty the
beauty of repeated precision. It is beauty con-
sistent with our news production world. it is
a reassuring kin(l of beauty when we identify
ourselves, too, as kinds of similar cogs in this
terrifying complicated civilization. But, let us
take the chorus of a musical comedy where the
precision may not be so consistent but plot,
choreography, and a more intimate-sized thea-
tre permit looking at separate n~en~bers of the
chorus front tinge to time. Unit becomes less
uniform and we cannot help but see this in-
troduction of variety and contrast achieves an-
other kind of beauty. Then, take Jackie Glea-
son's successful TV presentation-designed
first to show the June Taylor girls' astonishing-
~y precise, disciplined dancing from above,
front, side, and back and, again we 1lave a
precise beauty. But, no small success of his
program is the introduction of one pretty girt
at a tithe to announce one word or phrase,
and at the end to leave the entire cast appear,
one by one, frown behincT the curtain. AncT,
finally, of course, the stage uses people in an-
otl~er way in plays. In a play, the individuals
are unified in an art form in which ideas and
conflicts form the mortar that blends the
sinlulatecT inner characters of the performers
into a beauty beyond surface appearance.
And so it is with masonry. It is susceptible
of being handled in nanny, many cTiRerent
ways, front a mechanically precise wall enclos-
ing a factory, to mosaics, perhaps abstract,
symbolic or even representational- at any rate,
establishing a meaning that transcends the ap-
pearance of the material of which it is co~n-
posed because the relation of each part has
been established be the designer in an order
J
beyond utility.
i J
Beside the designer, there is another iln-
portant person involved in masonry construc-
tion' and that is the craftsman. When one
hears of the disappearance of the craftsman'
re~ne~nber that. as designers demand precision
and absolute uniform bricklaying, they are
turning a Nan into a machine. As men work in
an area in which they can exercise less and less
choice, else result slows less and less person-
ality and pride. Some of you navy recall that
early automobile bodies were decorated with
hand-painte~l, colored stripes. The lack of car-
riage painters led to a search for a cheaper so-
lution. ~ have been told that Scotch tape was
invented as an aid to this work. At any rate,
when Scotch tape or decalcon~anias took over.
11
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the stripes disappearecl. Sin~ilarly, at the time
of the Civil War, ladies' ciresses revelled in ruf-
fles, but when tile sewing machine Inane ruf-
fles economically available to almost everyone,
ruffles, like auto stripes, were no longer desir-
able. Now, ~ ant not suggesting that when that
bricklaying machine is perfected, we will give
up bricks. What ~ awn saying is this from tinge
to time bricklayers should be encourages! with
jobs like the brickwork of Saarinen's M.~.T.
work; and, perhaps, the architect-desianer
should finch a way to let artists and craftsmen,
as long as there still are tonne, have a chance
to express themseZves in a wail.
blow Tong we will have a chance to do such
things is questionable. ~ asker! Henrv Shelled
of Coolidge, Shepley, BulEnch & Abbott, about
the beautiful brick walls one finds in New Eng-
land-some still being built by his firm at Har-
vard. They still take brick very, very seriously
as an art fount and he toIc! nice there is only one
kiln left in this country that snakes hickory-
burned brick which has the color and variety
underlying those perhaps sentimental, yet un-
deniably beautiful, Can~bridge walls. ~ do not
know what the rest of the industry feels about
such production. But, since orders are booker]
a year in advance, there still must be quite a
market for the "oIc! way." We can certainly
hope such production never dies entirely out,
even though the major trend can never reverse
itself far enough to make this a competitive
type of market.
12
If ~ emphasize some of the qualities of n~a-
sonry that are a little out of fashion, it is be-
cause ~ think they will cone back. Not exactly
as they were, but perhaps in essence. The fu-
ture is, in the main, inevitably bound up with
machine production, modular integration, in~-
personal craftsmanship. This direction is initi-
ated by economic forces more than by aesthetic
objectives. It is only when the designer wishes
to express the feeling of the machine age that
machine age products become aesthetic units.
More and snore designers are gladly accepting
mechanical results as the expression of our
time still only tide Early Machine Age. Ma-
chines are what we make then we can control
masonry construction so that even some of the
unique qualities now associated only with old,
[land-fashioned masonry units shouIc] not, and
need not, be lost.
As we press forward with new ideas, sound
answers to economic necessities, exploit excit-
ing new possibilities, let us not entirely forget
certain old beauties-for, as someone has saicl,
and T wish ~ knew who the wise man was
"He who does not know history will be con-
de~nnec} to repeat it."
Even as Mies re-established Flemish bone]
in a steel frame and Eero Saarinen reaffirmed
the incon~parable beauty of the natural color
variety in a brick wall under a daring concrete
Tonne, we can expect still more new discoveries,
and re-discoveries, in the richness of man's in-
exhaustibly great buiTcling material- masonry.
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Photo: Ezra Stoller
JEWISH CHAPEL, INTERFAITH CENTER, BRANDIEIS UNIVERSITY' WALTHAM' MASS.
Harrison & Abramovitz' architects
13
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Colors and Textures
in Masonry
1~ R . S H E ~ R: Our second speaker of this
session is Mr. Joseph P. Moo,e. He has, ~
think, come a long way around. He has grad-
uate degrees fro no Catholic University of
America and from Columbia University in
Fine Arts and ArcheoZogy. Until 1945 he
~ T :~IGHT be noted at the outset that a great
clear of color is being usecT in architecture to-
ciay and some texture. We can even agree that
color is used with a proper recognition of its
ps~;ehological importance. But we must distin-
guisI~ clearly between colored architecture and
the use of color in architecture. We must also
distinguish between texture in materials and
texture through materials.
Joseph P. Moore
Moore Liz Co., Inc.,
Stamford, Conn.
taught fine arts and archeology in colleges.
Since then he has been an advertising and
public relations executive.
He has been particularly interested in an
area close to your hearts, marble and natural
stone.
It would seen to nice that we may have for-
gotten how to relate our architecture to our-
seIves in point of seaTe. Giant masses of color
or texture which may help produce a handsome
rendering of a builcling, or which may afforc]
some pleasure when seen from miles away, may
have no effectiveness whatever when seen from
tile immediate area surrounding the builcling.
The kind of color in design or texture in design
15
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this style is an understanding of the texture
natural to n~aterials, and a still greater knowI-
edge of the refinement which can be acco~n-
plislled by posing one material against another,
combining many materials in the sane ex-
pression.
Texture is to design what timbre is to tone,
wisest personality is to performance, what cIar-
ity is to color. Neglect the one, and you may
destroy the otter.
iNow, for a n~o~nent, let us look at color.
Most of us know enough color theory to use it
understandably. Or if we have forgotten, a
visors treatise like Birren's "New Horizons in
Color" will quickly bring us up to date. The
problem is less one of knowledge than of ini-
tiative; it is a matter of courage rather than
culture. For today's architecture is almost col-
oriess, ancT the few exciting exceptions which
quickly come to mind only en~pLasize the
point. Nearly a generation ago, Ralph Adams
Crane could write, "The complete Toss of color
out of architecture is one of tee curious phe-
nomena of the Renaissance, casting its drab
shadow in lengthening lines and ever-increas-
ing gIoon~ over the art of building in modern
tildes."
These words are a sac commentary on the
courage of Mr. Crane hin~self, and because
they night have been written by any architect
today, their might also be a sad commentary
on the courage of all contemporary architec-
ture.
For who else is to blame? iNot the people for
whom you build if you are building for them.
They want color! Nor the materials available
to you. They have color! Masonry materials
most of all.
So let us admit that color and texture are as
necessary as form and function. The big ques-
tion is, can they properly be acquired througl
the use of masonry ~naterials~.
Before answering that question, however,
let us Canine certain requirements of con
18
temporary building which immediately seem
to limit the use of masonry materials. The
modern trend towards lightweight, thin wall
construction night seem at first glance almost
to preclude a consideration of such heavy ma-
terials as marble, stone, and brick until we real-
ize that new developments in the use of these
materials and new techniques for wall con-
struction have made these materials perfectly
adaptable to even our latest trends. You will
be apprised of these by subsequent speakers
before this conference is ended. NVe might
remember here that building size and purpose
dictate minimum limits of weight; and there
seems to be little doubt that brick, stone, and
n~arble, when used intelligently, can be kept
within these limits.
Another important factor Night be cost,
until we realize that the cost of materials might
have been a problem at times in the past and
it may be again, but today it really is not. Most
of our great buildings of the past decade couIcT
leave been built for much less than they actu-
ally cost. There were sufficient funds available
to choose expensive materials and expensive
modes of construction. Some part of these
funds Night 1lave been devoted to craftsman-
ship on much less expensive basic materials
with no :Lcl1 happier results. No, cost is not real-
ly a propylene. It is frequently only an excuse.
What other limiting factors are there? None
that ~ can think of except the backwardness of
tile masonry industries which 1lave failed to
maintain the interest of the architect or de-
signer. And a lack of enterprise among these
last.
So, for tile monument, let us forget any rea-
sons why these materials cannot be usecI, but
instead focus our attention on possibilities
which emphasize why they shouIcl be used.
Let us start with brick. Here is a material
which has not really changed its form for many
years. It is true that there are slight variations
in size and shape which might make one bricl:
OCR for page 19
cTiEerent frown another. But a brick wall is es-
sentially the sense from one buiTcling to an-
other. As a utilitarian builcTing product, it can
property; define mass; and because it is avaiT-
able in a wicle variety of colors and color con~-
positions, it can acid a new clin~ension through
color. It also provides texture, but tee snore
con non coursing of bricks is so familiar to us
that, for practical purposes, the feeling for
tc~turc can be lost.
Yet brick has Lucia snore than a utilitarian
v alue. It can provide great beauty and is co~n-
pletel~; aclaptable to almost any scale. Tile
slicles you will see later on sT~ouIcl prove beyond
cloubt tint bricl: is properly a design n~ediu~n
witty exciting possibilities which leave not yet
been probecT.
If you are fa~niTiar with tile 300-foot mosaic
ANTI in tile school at ViTTingby, Sweden, taken
you leave in Zinc] a Dipole galIcry of composi-
tions Silica can provide any imaginative arcT~i-
tect witty a magnificent point of departure.
In taxis country, we leave not been so aciven-
tureso~e, but we leave multiple examples of
imaginative brick setting, tile execution of
which fibrous less of a burden on the brick set-
tcr than it cloes on the architect or (resigner.
Brick can be architectonic; it can be scuIp-
turesque; it can even be musical when set by
tile hancTs of a gifted craftsman. Its potential
is limited only by the limits of your in~agina-
tion. Create the clemancl, provicle the incen-
tive, anc: the craftsmen will be there or will
soon develop. Architecture will be better for it,
ant! we who must live with your architecture
Bill live better because of it.
What about stone? Here you have an almost
li~nitTess palette of color and texture waiting
for the more courageous of you to exhibit.
As with brick, you may think of Stone as
being all of a kincI. You navy think you know
its scope, its possibilities, its limits. But when
you realize that there is no well-clefined color
recognizable to us which cloes not have its
counterpart in natural stone, anc] that these
stones are readily available in almost limitless
quantity: everywhere in the country, ancT that
they; are aciaptable to aIn~ost any size or sllape,
then you wit! realize that here is an aIn~ost per-
fect material for enhancing any buiTciing.
Once again the possibilities of stone are lin~-
itecT only by your imagination. If your vision is
circumscribed by what you have seen in the
past, you may think that stone is cTrab, ancT feet
forced to go far afield in search of new n~ate-
rials. And this is one burclen which you cannot
throw back on tile aIreacly sagging shouIclers of
the stone producer or fabricator. He has the
n~aterial, magnificent in color anc] texture, ancI
he leas the equipment for satisfying your needs.
You roust provicle the imagination ancT the in-
centive for experiment. Do this, ancT tI~ere will
be opened for you a scope in design reaching
far beyond your wilclest creams.
So with marble. The more than 750 varieties
now available, running the full gannet of the
rainbow in color, with inherent decorative
schemes in ever:, conceivable size ancT scale
ancT pattern, oder a challenge to every architect
who is worth his salt. AncT you might keep in
mind that the problem of permanent finish
which wit] False all these n~arbles available for
exterior use is even now being stucTied anc!
solved.
Once again the potential of marble is li~ll-
itec3 onIv; by your insemination. If you think
only of size ancT shape and position as you have
known it in the past, you will be worlking in tile
iclio~n of the past. Sonnetizes the simple expe-
dient of turning tile stab, as was clone on tile
Fraternal Orcler of Eagles BuilcTing in Atlanta,
Georgia, can change this exquisite but still
con non material into one of startling new
beauty;.
The material is essentially finer than any-
thing you can snake by machine. It is much
snore adaptable to your designs than most oth-
er materials. :it has a permanent beauty which
19
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neither 1leat nor cold, biting sun or melting n aterials, beautiful in tllenlselves, beautiful
rain can destroy. It is a pliable yet permanent when used together. They are proper building
mould for your concept. It will do you justice. materials. They have possibilities for beauty in
So we have a group of fundamentally sound expression which are truly limitless.
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Modular Design
With Masonry
M R S H E ~ R Our next speaker is most cer-
[ainZy known to most everyone in the buiZcling
industry. Sir. Ralph Wa7lker is a Past President
Ralph Walker
Voorhees, Walker, Smith & Smith
New York, N. Y.
Traveling Scholar. He belongs to many profes
sionaZ and art organizations and is an Acad
emician of the National Academy of Design.
Of the American :[nstitute oJ' Architects and a He is also an honorary member of the Royal
member of its New York Chapter. He is a Institute of British Architects, several other
member of the Class of 191 1 of Massachuetts foreign architectural societies, and a Vice Presi
,Institute of TecihnoZogy and was a Rotch dent of the International Union of Architects.
ANYBODY can design a building-in fact the
average architect is continually hampered in
taste by amateur clients who know nave than
he does; but it does take expert knowlecige of
In these days one is aIn~ost ten~pte(1 to say:
"Masonry wails are obsolete! Metal cIadding
glass n~icarta anything as long as it is pane]
construction." Masonry! Who brought up this
how to put things together to achieve finally a subject anyway? Only an old fogey conic! be in
continually satisfying result. To hazard a gen- terested in such old-fashioned things as brick,
eraTity-the jointing of a material is more ins- stone or marble or granite. They are materials
portent than the material itself. to give a superficial quality in interiors, surface
21
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materials to negate a Seagram BuiTciing, for ex-
a~nple, even more an example of conspicuous
waste; perhaps Italian travertine on the floor
or one of the ~nociern fried egg mosaics, but for
construction they are certainly passe. The sum-
~ner students in any office tell Nile they are no
'onger per~nittecT to use them on their school
probes. After all, don't all the kuclos ancT
the prizes, the masterpiece articles in "For-
tune" accIai~n the pane] construction as the
only ~noclern construction, and procIain~ talc
men who use then as "form makers?"
Perhaps it's any acivanced years which lecT to
nay being aspect to talk about ~nasonr;;. My
wife often makes a sage remark. kite were lis-
tening to WOR's "Studio X" ancT size said:
"That's a goocT record, although oIcl; you gen-
erally expect o:IcT recorcis-to be cracked." After
fifty years of architectural thinking this remark
night well Apply to one. ~ wonder, however,
whether those other snore modern records, now
so often replayed, nary not be crackecl, also. So
with no apologies for being an oIcT fogey, rec-
orcT grooved, and crackocI, ~ reiterate: `'! saicI
it, I said it, ~ said it fifty years, fifty;, fifty, ~
saic] it fifty years ago; masonry of all kinds is
still a very clesirable method of construction
with many virtues ancT some faults." Certainly
if you want long endurance and reasonable
maintenance costs, as well as initial senate cap-
ital investment, the masonry wall still shows
to advantage. It strikes one as an amazing an-
achronisn~ that this machine age panel wall
must be washed painfully and completely by
Land to maintain even a fair appearance. But
we were to talk of the modular advantages of
masonry construction.
\Ve have been taught lately that structural
n~oduZar construction is extremely econon~ical,
that if you can achieve a stanciarcT bay in which
the tenant requirements may be adjustect, even
with some con~pron~ise, the final builcling costs
will reflect the rewards of stanciarclization. Tn
one sense this is true except that aesthetically
22
tee harsh cell-liLe appearance acLievecI, the
uniforn~it~; we see in all buiTcling types, may lee
causing finaTiy a loss of fine architectural char-
acter which other tinges have achieved. ~ ant
not too incliner] to accept the structure as the
only cTetern~ining factor; after aTi, it is tl~e
cheapest part of the buiTcling. ~ continue in an
attempt to finch a tenant to use the n~oclule, ancT
so far our clients, being what they are, are also
adverse to the "all Took alike" characteristics
of mass production. ~ leave founcT that ~noclular
construction cloes not mean necessarily that
design costs are an;; spoiler. In fact in building
conditions as they now exist :E fincI that snore
ancT snore ~ must design the buiTcling co~nplete-
Ty on paper. There are, because of the com-
pleteness of design, real economies in the
buiTcling itself ancI, while no paper clesign is
ever complete. tile on-the-job acJjust~nents can
be ~nini~ni%ecT.
If ~ anal, return for a ~no~nent to stanciarcI-
ization of parts. ~ think we are too apt to be
content witl1 a small range of dimensions. We
are content, for example, with 12"~17" or
17"~24" ceiling acoustic materials, ancT Shy"
or 17"~17" so-called resilient floor tiles. These
acceptances are really at variance with the un-
clerlying principle of the 4" module. Tile 1nan-
ufacturer leas too rigidly set his jigs but after
all n~onotonv; is a matter of a taste.
~ want to speak of two masonry buildings
which our office designe(l on the nodular
basis: One an once building for the General
Foods Corporation at White Plains, :New
York; the other the beginning of a Research
Center for IBi\] at Poughkeepsie. Tl~e Duncan
use nodule is, of course, cliderent in each case,
and in the latter there were parts of the builcI-
ing so diverse in character that the use of a
nodule of an;; kind night have causer] difficul-
ties. in both cases two sizes of brick were used:
a sneakier one for face brick averaging five
courses of running bond, the back-up brick
averaging four bricks to Else exterior five. At
OCR for page 23
IBM RESEARCH CENTER'
IBID we used the larger modular brick for pat-
tern interest on the end walls and attic. Both
buildings have very fine masonry walls, and
generally are conceded so. In one case the
general builder used a "juniper" in supplying
labor to lay the brick; in the other the builder
himself did tile whole job. in both cases the
builders, heretofore unprepared for modular
work, said at the beginning of the project the
wall would cost much snore. The ''lumper''
however made a reasonable price for the labor
because lee recognized in~mecliately that there
were only a few different areas that he hac! to
figure in relation to the walls, Lamely, all the
panels between the windows were alike, all
the spandrels were similar and each corner was
the sane. So all the masons had to do was to
see that tl~e vertical measurements were n~ain-
tainecl an(l that joint alignment was precise.
Thus holding the vertical measurement paid
off. The normal measurement creep in build-
ing eonstruetion was reduced to a minimum.
The stairs were all alike, the radiator enclosure
fitted without adjustment and l~orizontally,
POUGHKEEPSIE' N. Y.
floors and ceilings were finished with rernark-
able speed. These by-products are of course
usual in modular design but the general builder
is loath to permit then to operate in cost anal-
yses. He will Sunlit an increased efficacy but
will not put any dollar and cent gains against
it in the budget.
The General Foods Building was designed
to meet local requirements of the zoning, plan-
ning and fine arts con~nissions, and was par-
ticullarly difficult because of the hilly terrain.
Yet, as i: said, the masonry labor contractor
was content with the savings he made. It was
the first job Oldish he had ever clone in whirls
there were no clipped bricks.
The window wall that is the conventional
wall, as opposed to the panel wall, is one for
which T have a high regard in that, quite con-
trary to amateur illumination engineers, it does
reduce glare and also greatly diminishes the
thermal problems, resulting in a low first cost
for refrigeration, and of course extremely low
operation costs. You may be interested to
know that we do not have to cool these build
23
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~ : : ~ a: :~ ~ ~ :~ ~ ~ : ~
GENERAL FOODS CORPORATION OFFICE BUILDING, WHITE PLAINS' N. Y.
ings on a sunny winter day;. Tllere are no
human heat losses carried to poorly insulated
walls in there-such as you find at General
Motors, for example. The walls are purposely
thick so as to remove as much of the glass
area front the sun as possible. The clepth the
brick reveals therefore also has to be consid-
ered in Nodular relationship.
These are the brick sizes which have been
used by one each one is definitely nodular in
.
c Dimension:
Face Brick 15/8" ~ 35/~" X 75/8"
15/~" ~ 35/8" ~ 115/8"
Modular bunko for back up
31/2 X 31/2 X 71/2
i: have never attempted to work out a n~od
24
alar pattern on standard size bricT;. I believe.
however, that in general where the buildings
are of great size special Nodular brick are nec-
essary.
~ have been interested in limestone and
marble buildings here are materials which can
be readily cut to any size consistent with
quarry facilities and the desire to have the
stone used on its natural bed. With materials
already flexible in comn~on practice the 4"
Nodule loses some of its importance as a part
of the exterior design but it still remains i~n-
portant in relation to the Nodular interior
ain~ensions, and of course the most important
of all is that the floor heights and external
nodular dimensions should flow together
OCR for page 25
intimately. The ability to plan a floor and a
ceiling so that all parts fit quickly and without
the cutting of materials is son~ething yet to
be wholly attained. because most building
laws require ~nasonr;; walls about shafts, stair-
ways, and so forth, ancT some difficulty is still
founc:l in achieving a Ocular result. (We
need, and research men are already developing,
thin sheet plastics to cover fragile insulation
walls, eliminating plaster and paint, and songs
clay soon we will, ~ ant sure, achieve another
fireproof glue Vesicles cement. ~ Even tllen,
however, on a well-plannecT floor the naodular
pattern can be maintained for 995 of the area.
The ~noclular exterior wall, as ~ have indicatecT,
gives definite area patterns which are within a
ciailv work output.
The stone masonry wall conies in modern
practice to resen~ble the panel wall of metal
anc! glass in that tee units are large and thin
in wall thickness. At tee Belgian Embassy the
unit is a piece of stone 4' ~ 4' and 4" thick,
tied into a concrete structural wall 6" thick
The wall unit is approximately 12' ~ 12' into
AFL-CIO BUILDING' WASHINGTON D. C.
which a modular window is placed frown the
rear. The resulting wall thickness is relatively
thin for a n~asonr,v wall but the reveal on the
interior is increased by tile need of space for
the duct work accompanying air conditioning.
But the plainness of exterior walls is not a
matter of great economic monument for ~ have
seen more floor space wasted bv badIv coor
J J
dinated cores and their relationship to the
whole floor, and this economy, perhaps cle-
sirable in the city, does not exist on large coun-
try plots.
TO relative costs of all wall sections are still
based on that of 17" brick walls with a normal
window anc] when you add in extra costs for
Eating an(1 cooling, the extra n~an-llour tinge
needec! to keep large glass areas respectable,
the brick wall still maintains even Title its
greater thickness a relative cheapness.
~ find a resistance to nodular design among
the craftsmen, and especially so in our office
where we leave men in our employ who leave
been there longer than some of the partners.
live have developed techniques of our own,
and with the accompanying inertia that home
grown products develop we, who believe
thoroughly in the system, must exert constant
pressure to go on with the iclea. As 1[ said be-
fore, if the work (resigned is constantly chang-
ing in the sizes of the l~un~an use module there
is little design economy, and you tend to fin(1
that even when it falls within the 4" module
possibility the little fractions seem to develop.
:[ have been interested in talking with foreign
| architects concerning modular design and fin(1
| that even Moliere 10 cm. is accepted, the mo:l-
ular idea is often associated with the resulting
I sizes in panels rather than with the basic
I module. There has been a very learned dis-
course in England on the relation of growth
patterns in numbers to modular construction,
but T think that even the simplest of these
would unnecessarily complicate the use of a
modular system.
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Discussion
M R. TOHN KNOX SIIEAR ~ Presiding Chair-
man): T have a question here of my own
that ~ wouic3 like to direct to any one of the
three speakers. It needs a little bit of a base. ~or ..
will furnish thwart. ~ think we all love masonry.
r think we have an inherent affinity for it, but
~ think there is a large ancT growing group of
architects who have identified the fact that
this love of masonry is associated with its qual
it; of pcr~nanence, massiveness, a certain
earthbouncT quality that it has. of association
with clepth, anc! so on.
As our buiTclings have risen higher ancT high-
er, anc] we have built more ancT snore of the
tall structures, ~ think there is some concern oat
the part of these people that the traclitionaT
patterns of masonry, and :E refer to textures
both inherent in the materials then~seIves anc]
blow the question. Do you, Mr. Walker'
Mr. Bennett, Mr. Moore, whoever wants to,
grab this one, fee] this industry must concern
used warn or is concerning itself enough with
new textures which may be associated witty tile
new thinner uses of the material?
TM R . W ~ ~ ~ ~ R: ~ heard recently that tile
masonry group, ~ forget whether it is tile clay
products group. has been studying this prob-
len~ of getting a thin masonry, almost pile--
like surface, backed up with fiber glass insula--
tion ancT backed by another surface on the
inside, in other words, carrying along the sand-
wich iclea. T think the time is bound to confer
~ see no reason why it shouIc] not.
M R . S H E A R: We do hear of things going
forward in that direction. ~ know we will hear
the textures produced by the joints, will no some fairly startling things this afternoon. At
longer be in Larn~ony with our knowledge of the saline tinge ~ gathered from both your rc-
the din~inishing mass of material. marks and Mr. Bennett's that you yourselves
27
OCR for page 28
are not particularly disturbed by the associa-
tion of overtones with newer uses.
MR. BENNETT: It seems to me that the
greatest thing that the industry which supplies
the materials can do is to inform the archi-
tects front time to time just how things are
macle and what the possibilities are. T don't
believe the purveyors of materials are respon-
sible for the final result of how it is used. It
is a netter of education, that the arcUi-~itects
be given the opportunity. After all, when you
get the credit you get it when it is good, and
the blame if it is bad.
M R . S H E ~ R: Mr. Moore, here is a question
for you frown Mr. Howard T. Fisher. You say
everyone is in favor of texture. How do you
reconcile this with the classic trends stressed
be; Mr. Bennett.
M R . ~ O O R E: Perhaps it is a difference in
the meaning of the word "everyone," when
you talk about a classic trend. By that ~ under-
stanc] you mean the rather severe group of
people who use classic
M R . F ~ s ~ E R: Mr. Bennett, ~ thought,
made an explanation of the two trends in
architecture, and ~ wonder if you could relate
the texture that you felt every-body was in
favor of
M R . M o o R E: The word "texture" is basic
to any concept of visual measure. ~ may not
have had tinge to distinguish between textures
and material.
M ~ . TV A ~ ~ E R: T disagree wholly with
Dick Bennett's definition of cIassicisn~, when
you come to Took back through the classic
forms in architecture. The Parthenon is an ex-
an~ple. You would even come down to probably
Salisbury as a very classic type of architecture
without getting into Roman or Greek architec-
ture. CIassicisn~ has never meant to me the
stripping down of the fullness of an object. T
think the modern world is using this word in
28
a very; bad sense, like the Communists are
using the word, ''democracy.'' The modern
architect or philosopher is misusing tile word
"classic" in relationship to buildings that are
stripped down without anything except a few
curves. 1[ don't think the are classic; 1: thinly
Cloy are n~eagre.
M R . S ~ E A R: Mr. Bennett, do LOU want to
take that up? T Dave a question for you. This
one asks: Your mention of L,eCorbusier~s
chapel calls to mind his early interest in paint-
ing, that is, in else art of painting. Do you see
as notch opportunity of integration of art and
building in masonry construction as in Norm
plastic forms of material construction?
M ~ . B E N N E T T: It seems to one the answer
to that question is taxis: The designer, the arcl~-
itect, tee person who may be doing a piece of
sculpture, no matter what the material is the
snore limitation the better the possibility for
integration of art and building is always there.
M R . S H E ~ R: Air. [Moore, this question
concerns the propylene of preserving the original
colors of marble in weather and temperature
entrances. What are your specific recon~-
mendations?
1~: R . M o o R E: T nest tell you that ~ awn not
a marble Nan. T don't know the material as
well as some of the people who will speak to
you later. T think many of the marble materials
which you have been thinking of specifically
for interiors of the building will be available
in a few years for the exterior. That should
open up a whole new array of design possibil-
ities which have not been available before.
How soon that will be done is not within my
province at the Inon~ent. But T think it is in
the offing.
M ~ . S ~ E A R: YOU think some details of
that will be discussed?
M R . M 0 0 R E: T ant sure it will be discussed,
either to deny everything :t 1lave been saying or
to admit what I have been saying is possible.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
masonry construction
