Guastavino tile
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Guastavino tile is the "Tile Arch System" patented in the US in 1885 by Valencian (Spanish) architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). It is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches 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), 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 or tambourine, or "Catalan vaulting". Guastavino tile is found in some of New York’s most prominent Beaux-Arts landmarks and in major buildings across the United States.
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[edit] Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company
Guastavino was also an architect in his own right, but he is more important for his patented tiling system which appears in a huge number of architecturally important and famous buildings, which derive their flexibly vaulted spaces from his unique vaulting. But fame did not come to him, because he served as a contractor, not the principal architect, of these projects.
He came to New York City from Barcelona in 1881 at the age of 40 with his nine year old son. In Spain he'd been an accomplished architect trained in Barcelona and a contemporary of Antoni Gaudi. In the US his first major commission, in McKim, Mead, and White's Boston Public Library (1889), made him known to every major architect on the East Coast.
He and his son (who shares his name) would eventually hold 24 patents. Their company, Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, run by father then son, was incorporated in 1889 and executed its final contract in 1962.
The Guastavino terra cotta tiles are standardized, less than an inch thick, and approximately 6 inches (150 mm) by 12 inches (300 mm) 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 without centering. Each tile was cantilevered out over the open space, relying only on the quick drying cements developed by the company. Akoustolith was one of several trade names used by Guastavino.
In 1900, New York architects Heins & LaFarge hired Guastavino to help construct City Hall station, the underground showpiece for the IRT, the first part of the then-new New York City subway. The station, although elegant, was never convenient or popular, and after it closed in 1945 it became a legendary abandoned Manhattan underground relic, the secret of subway buffs and urban spelunkers.
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Literally hundreds of other major building projects incorporate the distinctive Tile Arch System. In Chicago, the central nave vaulting of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago uses 100,000 Guastavino tiles. In Boston Guastavino tiles are to be found in the Boston Public Library; in New York, in Grand Central Terminal, Grant's Tomb, Carnegie Hall, the American Museum of Natural History, Congregation Emanu-El of New York, and St. Bartolomew's Episcopal Church on Park Avenue; and in Washington, DC in the U.S. Supreme Court building and the National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall. Guastavino tiles form the domes of St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church (Philadelphia), and in Union Station (Pittsburgh), the vaulting of the carriage turnaround is a Guastavino tile system. In Nebraska they are to be seen in the Nebraska State Capitol.
Having experienced Ellis Island as an incoming immigrant, in 1917 the younger Guastavino was commissioned to rebuild the ceiling of the Ellis Island Great Hall. The Guastavinos set 28,832 tiles into a self-supporting interlocking 56-foot (17 m)-high ceiling grid so durable and strong that during the restoration project of the 1980s, as many sources repeat the story, only 17 of those tiles needed replacing.
The largest dome created by the Guastavino Company was over the central crossing for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York: it is 100 ft (30 m) in diameter and 160 feet (49 m) high. This dome was intended to be a temporary structure, to be replaced by a high central tower. In 2009 this "temporary" fix had its 100th birthday. Guastavino received this contract in large part because of the much lower price he could quote due to the fact that his system served as its own scaffolding. However, this was an extreme test of his system. The masons had to work from above, each day adding a few rows of tiles, and standing on the previous day's work to progress. At the edges, many layers of tile were laid, and the dome thins as it rises towards the center.
[edit] Guastavino as architect
Few structures designed and built by Guastavino alone have been identified. He was responsible for a series of rowhouses with unusual Moresque features on West 78th Street (121-131 known as the "red and whites"), in Manhattan's Upper West Side, which survive. His son Rafael's Mediterranean villa (1912) built entirely of Guastavino tiles, still stands on Awixa Avenue, Bay Shore, Long Island [1].
[edit] Retirement in North Carolina
After working on a commission at the Biltmore Estate, Guastavino retired to Black Mountain. In North Carolina his work is found in Duke Chapel in Durham, the Jefferson Standard Building in Greensboro, the Motley Memorial in Chapel Hill and St. Mary's Catholic Church in Wilmington. He is buried in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Lawrence, Asheville, which he designed in 1905.
[edit] Archival sources
The records and drawings of the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company are held by the Department of Drawings & Archives in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in New York City.
[edit] 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 thinner masonry vault that produces horizontal thrust also, simply to a lesser degree due to its lighter weight.[2]
[edit] See also
- Catalan vault
- Glazed architectural terra-cotta
- First Church of Christ, Scientist (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Guastavino tile |
- Guastavino.net: documenting Guastavino's work in the Boston area. This page provides copies of writings and patents by the Guastavinos as well.
- Collection of articles about the Guastavinos
- "Rafael Guastavino, architect and builder"
- Rafaelguastavino.com: documenting Guastavino's work in New York City
- shows method of construction
- "Structural Assessment of Guastavino Domes via Updated Finite Element Models and Nondestructive Testing
- Vertical Access, LLC Experts in inspection and evaluation of Guastavino Tile.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Penataquit Point History
- ^ Salvador Tarrago, Guastavino Co. (1885-1962): Catalogue of Works in Catalonia and America (ISBN 84-88258-65-8)
