Glazed Architectural Terra-cotta Website Links For
Glazed
 

Information About

Glazed Architectural Terra-cotta




Glazed architectural terra-cotta is a Ceramic Masonry Building Material popular in the United States from the late 19th Century until the 1930s , and still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments. It is the Glaze d version of Architectural Terra-cotta ; 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 Style s such as the Chicago School and Beaux-Arts Architecture .

The material, also known in Great Britain as faience and sometimes referred to as "architectural ceramics", 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 . It is also used in the open-air Bridgemarket under the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge .

Variations in the color and pattern of the glaze made it possible for buildings constructed with the material to look like they were finished with granite or limestone; this flexibility was part of the reason the material was so attractive to architects at the time.


USE IN CANADA

Although glazed terra-cotta was much more common in the U.S., 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 U.S. or England.


USE IN GREAT BRITAIN

From around 1890 the use of unglazed terra-cotta lost ground to the glazed version - faience, and glazed brick - which were comparatively easy to clean and were not blackened by city smoke.


SEE ALSO



FURTHER READING

''Brick - A World History'', James W P Campbell & Will Pryce, 2003, ISBN 0-500-34195-8


EXTERNAL LINKS AND SOURCES