National Academies Press: OpenBook

Modern Masonry: Natural Stone and Clay Products (1956)

Chapter: Introduction to Conference

« Previous: Welcome to Conference
Suggested Citation:"Introduction to Conference." National Research Council. 1956. Modern Masonry: Natural Stone and Clay Products. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9551.
×
Page 3
Suggested Citation:"Introduction to Conference." National Research Council. 1956. Modern Masonry: Natural Stone and Clay Products. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9551.
×
Page 4
Suggested Citation:"Introduction to Conference." National Research Council. 1956. Modern Masonry: Natural Stone and Clay Products. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9551.
×
Page 5
Suggested Citation:"Introduction to Conference." National Research Council. 1956. Modern Masonry: Natural Stone and Clay Products. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9551.
×
Page 6

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

Intro~inclion lo Conference GENTLEMEN into this buiic;ling cone the great and small of American business. :E ant sure that you are here today on business. Songs of our finest idealists are businessmen; some of our greatest poets are businessmen. ~ do not mean that they are writing poetry or talking icleals. They are expressing their icleals in brick and mortar. The businessman who puts up a beautiful building must have something of the poet in his soul. The businessman who erects a model factory and thus sets the pace for others to follow must have something of the idealist in G. E. Silling C. E. Silling and Associates. Charleston, W. Va. customers how to use it must have the spirit of the teacher. Some of the finest, the most wholesome, the most beautiful expressions of n~oclern times are inspired by businessmen as a matter of business. :[ am told that many years ago our archi tectural society in New York sent out no tices stating that a panel of architects woul(1 speak at its next ([inner meeting with its sub ject title, ''Tile Greatest Single Need of the Architectural Profession." The hooch of reservations was amazing; the O ~ ~buzz of anticipation great, indeed. At the ap his makeup. The businessman who pioneers pointe(1 hour the panel of architects arose in with a new labor-saving device and teaches his (1ignity and saicl, "The greatest single need of 3

the architectural profession is a first-cIass crack filler," sat down, the meeting was ended and there was unanimous agreement. Some months ago ~ attended a meeting of the Research Institute here in Washington on metal panel curtain wall construction. The learned gentlemen discussed infiltration, insu- lation, condensation, thermal induction and finally canoe around to deduction. If ~ under- stood the implications correctly, they join with the architects in the search for a first-cIass crack filler. There was one item of profit for the masonry people that came out of that meeting and the variety of metal pane! publicity that preceded and followed it. The metal pane] men have scared the daylights out of you people and you are here to search yourselves. It is about time. You were the first on the scene and you have had the advantage of antiquity even before recorded tinge. Also, you have had the advan- tage of modular measure. In seeking to gain all, some of you have to lose your own recalcitrance. Post-war produc- tion and consumption has developed into a kind of industrial and economic revolution; new products, new processes, new materials, mechanization, automation, the thrust that comes from the electronic brain, carbide-type cutting tools, new high heat, heavy stress met- als, chemistry and physics that bring artificial fibers and amazing plastics, not to mention atomic energy, and unbelievably fast transpor- tation. These developments multiply into the many changes we witness. For example, the farmer has become a mechanized chemist and part-time economist interested in a variety of things. Somehow all these separate elements must be studied in their social impact on the community as a whole. In this welter of change and inflation the problem of providing facili- ties the client can pay for seems to be one of 4 the main pressures behind the invention of new products or new ways of using old prod- ucts. Architects' engineers, contractors, materials manufacturers, and suppliers presently enjoy the intimacies of a shot-gun wedding. They study the technologies primarily in order to survive. It is this climate that encourages us to meet with the Building Research Institute to- day. The Building Research Institute's confer- ences are always objective and try to do three things: ~ ~ ~ Tell what is new; (2) analyze ex- isting problems; and (3) suggest things that need to be done' including research. The speakers on this panel are divided into two groups. One group is made up primarily of technical men and research men from the masonry industry itself. We can expect them to be prejudiced in favor of masonry. The other group is made up of outstanding architects, en- gineers and building authorities, both profane and bureaucratic, or more politely, from indus- try and government. They have not been se- lected because they are dedicated to the use of masonry, but because they have had broad ex- perience with it, endows know they will be ob- jective and forthright in their discussions. To introduce your first session chairman ~ will now read front the closing verse on art by Huberty Junius, whoever he is: "The devil simply sat and grinned As he always has since the first man sinned; "For lee knows he will always have a part When three men sit and tall: of art." John Knox Shear is a provocative devil, gracious in an insidious kind of way' incisive and informative. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Architectural Record; a competent archi- tect in his own right; a good fellow, and my good friend. He will preside ant] introduce the three panelists who will sit with you and talk of architectural design.

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

Next: I. Architectural Design »
Modern Masonry: Natural Stone and Clay Products Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!