Shedding Light on Treasured Vaults 8 October 2010, by Peter Dizikes

Shedding light on treasured vaults 8 October 2010, By Peter Dizikes

In 1881, a Spanish builder named Rafael interested in how their vaults stand up and how they Guastavino immigrated to the United States with built them. That's the magic at the very heart of the no job, no family awaiting him and no grasp of story." English. He did possess one valuable piece of knowledge, however: Guastavino had learned a From Barcelona to Boston technique, unknown in the United States, for building large structures, such as decorative As an architect in Spain, Rafael Guastavino learned arched ceilings, that were both lightweight and a centuries-old regional building technique, using fantastically sturdy. interlocking layers of thin brick tiles held together with mortar to make large, curving interior features Within a few decades, the family firm Guastavino such as domes, vaults, arches and spiral founded had helped design and construct many of staircases. These structures could be built cheaply America's most famous civic monuments: the and were fireproof. arrival hall at Ellis Island, New York's Grand Central Terminal and its old Penn Station, the Several years after Guastavino moved to America, Boston Public Library, the Biltmore estate in North hoping to better his financial prospects, he was Carolina and the National Museum of Natural asked to build the interiors of the Boston Public History in Washington, among others. Library. The attention Guastavino received for the landmark library led to other important Yet even though famous architects frequently commissions, even after he died in 1908 (his son, employed Guastavino and his son - who eventually also Rafael, took over the firm). Guastavino family took over the family business - the family's works include several majestic train terminals, state contributions were rarely noted. Millions of capitols, interiors of Harvard's Widener Library and Americans have walked through Guastavino-built more than 200 structures woven into the stations, libraries and museums without having the architectural fabric of New York City. slightest idea who was responsible for their grand, soaring interiors. "The Guastavinos not only built their vaults, they designed them," says Ochsendorf. "Architects John Ochsendorf, an associate professor of … would send them drawings with a blank building technology in MIT's School of Architecture space saying, 'Guastavino here,' and the and Planning, would like to restore the Guastavino Guastavino company would design the form and family to its rightful place in architectural history. the decorative patterns and colors." Ochsendorf's new book, Guastavino Vaulting: The Art of Structural Tile, published this month by The Guastavino influence finally declined after Princeton University Press, is a richly illustrated 1930, when the lean, straight-line architecture of survey of the clan's achievements, with a twist. A the International Style began replacing the opulent trained engineer, Ochsendorf also explains how Beaux-Arts fashion that allowed room for curvilinear such improbably thin arches could be so strong flourishes. In the 1960s, scholars rediscovered and durable. No Guastavino building has ever Guastavino buildings (which are almost always collapsed. unmarked as such) and noted their stylistic links to Spain; Ochsendorf's book synthesizes research "This one family of immigrants built many major from Europe and America. American monuments," says Ochsendorf. "Yet we're trying to rescue them from anonymity so we "It's a very important work that brings back a major, can celebrate and understand their achievements. major contribution to American architecture and As a structural engineer, I'm fundamentally construction," says Richard Guy Wilson, chair of

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the Department of Architectural History at the Studying Guastavino structures is no idle University of Virginia. "You can go virtually fascination for Ochsendorf, who teaches classes on anywhere in the United States and find the masonry construction and has built Guastavino- Guastavino system in use." influenced structures. These include South Africa's award-winning Mapungubwe National Park Finding the right form Interpretive Center, a sprawling structure with domes made from local soil tiles. In this vein, the Ochsendorf also explains how the Guastavino Guastavino buildings "form a living tradition," he structures have resisted gravity's pull, even though says, inspiring architects and engineers to they employ brittle materials in large, curved incorporate locally available, low-cost materials. constructions. "The fundamental character of masonry is that it is very strong in compression but "It's part of our responsibility as engineers to study very weak in tension," says Ochsendorf. That is, our own history," says Ochsendorf. "To appreciate compression is a pressing force, so bricks stacked where we are as a profession today, we need to atop one another can form a strong structure. But understand who our heroes are and why their tension is a stretching force, so an arch or dome works are great." made up of bricks is vulnerable; it must resist forces pulling the pieces apart. The gradual, This story is republished courtesy of MIT News shallow curves of a typical Guastavino ceiling help (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that distribute forces across the ceiling, compressing covers news about MIT research, innovation and the tiles laterally into one another and limiting teaching. tension.

The elder Guastavino, Ochsendorf notes, Provided by Massachusetts Institute of perpetuated the mystique that he possessed secret Technology construction techniques. The Guastavinos opened their own tile factory in Woburn, Mass., and held numerous patents, enhancing the idea that they had a unique building recipe. But Ochsendorf argues that the Guastavino secret was not in the substance or interlocking patterns of their tiles, but the form of their structures. "The strength of these Guastavino structures depends on their shape, not the strength of their material," says Ochsendorf.

Consider the Boston Public Library's interiors, which were built with bricks that Guastavino did not choose, and feature eight different brickwork patterns. If Guastavino's success depended on materials or brickwork designs, those interiors might be suspect, but they can sustain a floor load over three times the library's current demands.

"Overall, the Guastavino company really found good forms for compression that allow for significant long spans to be built," says Ochsendorf. "And they developed this to the point where you scratch your head and say, 'I'm not sure how that stands up.'"

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