> -----Original Message-----
> From: Met History
> Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 6:52 AM
> 
> 
> Has something  happened to the cast stone industry, or is it 
> just in New York?

From my point of view, it is everywhere, and certainly not restricted to
cast stone. See any number of ]<en's tracts bemoaning the loss of
craftsmanship. Any of these treatments are pretty much nearly lost to
the ages. Concrete work especially has lost any semblance of art. It
seems that no one cares anymore. Boo hoo hoo.

The drive to standardization and economization strike me as the death
knell. These trends are what drove down the demand for craftsmen. See
any number of Ruskin's tracts railing against the loss of craftsmanship.

Now the client doesn't even know they can have it different if they wish
to pay for it. Of course, none wish to pay for it, so it's pain they
don't feel. Our society has anesthetized itself.

We have an addition going up on the 1920s school in one of our historic
districts; it is composed of rough-textured wire cut dark earth tone
craftsman-style brick with cast concrete window sills, inset cast
concrete lozenges, and concrete parapet. The sample cast concrete sills
and lozenges in the mock-up panel are a good color match, but the
texture is simply not there. The original has a sand surface texture,
the sample is smooth as a baby's bottom [can I say that here?]. Same
with the mortar, which is very gritty and textural in the original, and
smooth bag cement in the sample. I jokingly told the jobsite supervisor
that if we could just beat the sills with a chain, we could antique them
better to match the originals. 

I think he's under a lot of stress on this job. After I left, he
immediately called the design architect and told him that I wanted the
sills beat up.

I want something beat up over this, but not the sills. There's a lost
art to getting them the right patina...administering beatings with
chains is not it.

_____________________________________________________
Dan Becker,  Exec. Dir.    "Conformists die, but
Raleigh Historic            heretics live on forever"
Districts Commission               -- Elbert Hubbard
[log in to unmask]  
919/890-3678

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