Christopher,
Try contacting Mike Meehan : http://www.brownstonequarry.com/operations.htm
. Let us know what you find.
Best,
Leland
From: The listserv where the buildings do the talking
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Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 9:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] brownstone technology
Ken, a wonderfully thoughtful post, as usual. My responses interlineally,
and trimmed For The Greater Good Of The Republic Of Icors.
In a message dated 2/28/2010 8:21:37 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
On 2/27/2010 9:58 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
I realize that, in addition to not knowing how babies are made, I don't
really know much about the production and delivery of brownstone. Were
pieces cut and shipped? Or did raw stone come to the site, and cut there?
Same for the ashar. If cut off site, surely that means extensive drawings
were made - but no one has located a single drawing for brownstone rowhouses
in nyc which details individual stones. How about steam carving, how did
that affect things? Were the lightly incised lines of the neo-Grec a
result of powered carving tools, succeeding hand carving of the older
Italianate scrolled brackets?
the fabrication usually occurs fairly close to the quarry.
Of course. What interests me is how did Paddy Developer, wantin four houses
on 100' front lot on East 61st Street, communicate to the Portland (CT)
quarries his exact desires? This would include, say, Italianate vs.
neo-Grec, and parlor floor heights 8 feet vs. 9 feet vs. 10 feet (vs. other
floor heights of 7 feet and 8 feet) and stoop-on-left vs. stoop-on-right and
all the other variables of this otherwise fairly standardized product.
Did Paddy, for instance, just say "four houses, 4 stories and basement,
parlor floor 9 feet, give me some of that cool rockfaced stuff for the
basement level, but with a slightly hammered edge around each block"? Or
did he/his architect prepare detailed drawings and Wagon-Fedex them up to
Portland? If the latter, it is very, very curious that no such drawings,
which must have been copious, survive. I have seen a number of drawings
for 1870s rowhouses at the Department of Buildings, but they are the
roughest sketches, some literally just shaky outlines of the rooms. It may
be, as you intimate, that it was the quarry which produced the detailed
drawings (with basic site specs from the constructor).
if the brownstone is ashlar or rubble.
I realize I have to inspect more closely the typical ashlar units on a
sample of brownstone facades. They are worked, certainly, on the face and
sides. But are they also finished on the back? Somehow I seem to recall
seeing them rocky on the back, but that doesn't make sense, because they
would slide them like bread, with uniform obverse and reverse, even though
the back did not need to be smooth.
I don't know what steam carving is... the upgrade in technology from hand
fabrication would be compressed air driven chisels if that is what you mean.
It means I don't know what I am talking about, but thank you for not
mentioning that. But certainly at some point technology emerged to permit
mechanical aids in carving production, more versatile that just planers or
saws. And I am curious about what those aids were, and their limitations -
e.g. they could do the flat Eastlake-style carving on neo-Grec houses (the
light incised detail) but could they do the undercutting of the typical
Italianate leafy scrolled bracket? If not, does that explain in some way
either the advent of the powered equipment, or the disappearance of the
typical Italianate detail.
I have found a fairly good amount on quarrying, but nothing dispositive on
specialties like carving, and nothing on client-quarry communication. Not
to mention the hole Toilet Relocation Problem.
My surmise is that the brownstone ashlar was fabricated to standardized
sizes, possibly only standardized by each fabrication operation, meaning
that one fabrication shop may make their stone a different size than their
neighbor. There may have been field cutting to trim standardized sizes to
fit,
Indeed, and you remind me to observe, on rowhouses, where the ashlar blocks
are sized so that, when the run meets a window opening, they do or do not
need cutting out. If they are on top of their game, they just lay them up
and pop the windows in, without inside trimming. On the other hand, the
varying heights of the floors mitigates against such a system, at least in
perfection, since the floor heights may vary. It goes without saying that,
for a typical row of brownstones, the "running bond" of the actual stones
bridges and continues across the property line of each house.
Thus a facade would not need much more in drawings than lines of the plane
and fenestrations -- and for the most part, and considering that the masons
would have done a few facades and be used to the work, the elevation
drawings with pencil scratches would probably do.
See above.
We get down to the ornament.
Men - they're only after one thing.
so if there are drawings they would likely be at the fabrication shop.
Great minds think alike.
.Who in the NYC environment would have an interest to go chase after the now
deceased brownstone quarries and the more obscure fabricators associated
with them and seek out the paperwork?
Sonny, I just got a call this week from a student who is doing her masters
thesis on the white glazed brick apartment house.
in blocks to Mexico for fabrication as it would be cheaper, including the
cost of transport, to have a pre-NAFTA Mexican workforce shape the
individual stones to size,
I am waiting, just waiting, for them to hire some $1/hour Pakistani to write
the Streetscapes column. Could be done, easily. Might get some of them
off the whole Jihad thing, though.
c
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