I thought the big money was in the asthetically pleasing, ever present,
"Jersey barrier" which seems to have migrated north and now graces our
roadsides in Vermont in ever increasing numbers.  I just wish some of your
"graffiti artists" would migrate with them to make them more colorful.  I
love the "graffiti" that they paint and get angry whenever I see a program
on TV about how they are persecuted by folks in the city.  These people are
real artists and do what they can to make things like dull train cars and
plywood temporary walls more attractive.  There, that's my rant for the
day, week, month, whatever.  Ruth





At 1:47 PM -0500 1/28/03, Ken Follett wrote:
Has something  happened to the cast stone industry, or is it just in New York?



A lot has happened to the cast stone industry... mostly it is driven by who
pays for it (the market) and what those who pay want done in respect of how
much they want to pay. There is an industry association and they do
technical research and issue publications and hold conferences.

The big money in cast stone (concrete castings) though I think is in
concrete pipe. Concrete pipe leads to capital that can in turn be invested
in aesthetic work, and so often you have firms that actually know a lot
about concrete pipe who decide to venture into aesthetic work as a market
niche. They may know about concrete pipe, but they know less about
aesthetics, and when they venture into histo presto they may know even
less. If you look at the surface area of a concrete pipe you may notice
that it is not exactly exciting stuff.
--
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Westminster, VT

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