What I'm picturing is beams attached to the outside of a brick wall
through the wall to something stable, perhaps a beam, or a tie rod. It
sounds as though its purpose is to hold the brick to an internal
structure. Depending on how the wall was designed to resolve its
loads, its possible that no angle was required.
I can't see it; you better get one of them big city dudes to jump in
here.
-jc
On Apr 9, 2004, at 11:52 AM, Met History wrote:
> In a message dated 4/9/2004 12:44:05 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
> Are they connected to rods? As in Tie Rods?
>
> Are they straps?
> They are just little smudges in the photographs. They seem to most
> closely approximate small lenghts of steel beams, as if bolted through
> the exterior wall to something solid (like the perimeter beams within
> the wall) -- the "length" of the exterior pieces thus "holding in" the
> surrounding curtain wall, and preventing it from bowing out. But,
> upon reflection, that doesn't really happen with a
> shelf-angle-supported curtain wall, does it?
>
> It is possible that the lower (formerly concealed), with these
> reinforcements, was originally a party wall, shared with the
> demolished building. But it does not appear to widen as it goes down,
> and thus appears to be a freestanding element of the 1915 building.
>
> I surmise that the Forrest Myers sculpture was attached to these
> little sections of beam (if that's what they were), or, perhaps, their
> unlying attachment.
>
> Christopher
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