[log in to unmask] wrote:
> In a message dated 2/14/2004 10:07:05 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> This gets curiouser and curiouser, A CAST IRON building??? Only in
> NYC!!!!! Ruth
>
> *Not in the least "only in New York." There were -- and are-- cast
> iron buildings all over...the world. And lots of 'em in New York.*
> **
> *At least, I'm pretty sure there were CI buildings all over the world,
> since they were prefabricated in (relatively) small parts and thus
> easy to ship. I know they had them all over the US, including some in
> SF that must've been shipped around The Horn in the 1850's, so I
> should think they were shipped to New Zealand, Australia and all sorts
> of other places (Hawaii, I think, too) starting in the 1850's.
> Probably even... Vermont!!*
> **
> *Margot Gayle *
/Cast-Iron Architecture in America, The Significance of James Bogardus/,
Margot Gayle and Carol Gayle, W.W. Norton & Co., NY, 1998. ISBN
0-393-73015-8. Includes bibliographical references and index. 272 p
My first encounter with skeleton structures was a plastic building set
consisting of interlocking beams, columns, and very thin infill
patterns. The concept of modular construction is one that many of us
have been raised with, whereas at one time the idea of building with
interchangeable lightweight metal units, sized to fit together in a
variety of patterns, was a wholly new revelation. Understanding where
this link occurs, manifested in the built environment by practical
necessity, connects the modernity of International Style into the
historic preservation movement.
Several years ago I found myself involved in the business of repainting
cast-iron facades in the Soho Cast Iron District in New York City and
became intrigued to know more of the history of cast-iron architecture.
Until I received this book, which I ordered from Amazon.com, I had to
remain satisfied with a crude photocopy of an article by James Marston
Fitch describing the mystery of the Laing Stores. The façade of the
Laing Stores (erected in 1849 and the second of Bogardus’s façade
commissions) was dismantled in 1971, carefully stored with the intent of
future restoration, and in 1974 were carted off by someone
not-in-the-know like so many old steam radiators to be sold for scrap
iron. This has engendered a small degree of paranoia with experienced
preservationists and it has always been of value to me, as a
preservation contractor, to know whereof the sentiment is derived. For
whatever reason I have also been wondering for several years what goods
were sold in the Laing Stores. This book provides the answer.
James Bogardus (1800-1874) was a nineteenth-century American inventor,
machinist, architect, engineer, manufacturer, and builder in a time,
unlike our own, where an individual could do almost anything industrious
and put a good name to it afterward. His inventions included the
eccentric mill, the self-supporting cast iron façade, and, with
construction of the McCullough Shot & Lead Company shot tower of
nonstructural brick wall panels entirely supported by an iron frame to a
height of 217 feet in 1855, he anticipated the skeletal steel-framework
of our urban environment. At the time this structure was the tallest in
Manhattan.
I find it curious that the modern skyscraper was born of the necessity
of the armaments industry. There is something else I had been wondering
about -- the function of a shot tower is that lead is passed through a
sieve at the top, falls a distance where it becomes spherical, and then
plunges into a bath of cold water where it hardens. The necessity of the
structure of a shot tower is to be tall, economical to build, and to not
allow lead to not be blown around by gusting winds.
Bogardus, in an age where mechanical invention was the new wave, was a
practical and ambitious entrepreneurial builder seeking profitable
income. It is ironic to consider that if he were alive today he might
not have any particular interest to looking into the past or especial
concern for preservation of the historic fabric that he was building for
us then.
“As for his customers, they probably were not concerned with
architectural revolution or looking into the future. They wanted
structures that accomplished the task at hand. Bogardus’s buildings did
so. And that was that.”
The above is about as speculative as this book gets -- there is a lot of
factual information, dated and attributed thoroughly, that represents a
great amount of admirable research. Unlike many books full of facts
derived from historical records, this book is readable, the authors have
a smooth and patient prose style, and I recommend the reading to anyone
with a serious curiosity about cast-iron architecture, particularly if
they are the owners of one of these beautiful facades. For those readers
not familiar with the streets and buildings of New York City I advise
keeping a street map and an AIA guide nearby (duly noted in the
bibliography). I read the book on the subway, the dead time between
business meetings, and was pleased to recognize a few of the buildings
when emerging above ground. The author sticks to the task at hand and
does not wander very far into concurrent events, therefore a timeline of
American history or a short history of New York City would assist the
casual reader in imagining a familiar context. The year 1855 in which
Bogardus’s first shot tower was built marks the publication of Walt
Whitman’s /Leaves of Grass/, and the building of the first oil refinery
in Pittsburgh.
Though the majority of Bogardus’s work was in New York City he built
cast-iron structures in several other locations including Chicago,
Philadelphia, Albany, Charleston, Washington DC, Baltimore, San
Francisco, Santo Domingo (a lighthouse), and Havana. From 1848 to 1862
Bogardus built 43 structures, with five of them now remaining standing
where you can go see them for yourself, four in New York City and one,
the Iron Clad Building, in Cooperstown, NY.
Margot Gayle, a founder of the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture, is an
authority on cast-iron architecture and has been a major inspiration
behind the historic preservation movement in New York City. She recently
celebrated her 90^th birthday, and deserves as thoroughly researched a
biography as she has provided us for Bogardus.
][< (review for APT Communique)
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To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
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