http://ladyholiday.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Guaranty-Building-Louis-Sullivan.jpg
A good example of a cornice paying the bills, and an excellent detail of a functional way to protect the facade from the elements.
LT in NH
Leland Torrence Enterprises and The Guild
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From: The listserv where the buildings do the talking [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Heidi Harendza
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2014 6:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [BP] What, exactly, is a cornice for?
I'm with Cuyler on this one. I think cornices mostly evolve from the Greek architectural tradition, not so much for a functional reason as a proportional one. Early architects and pattern book designers pulled much of their stylistic inspiration and use of proportion from the classical tradition, and many of their drawings illustrate a tremendous consciousness of the proportions of the elements on classical temples. We see the three-part idea of base-field-cap in the interior treatments of walls (baseboard-wall-cornice: wainscot-wall-cornice) as well as the exterior.
-Heidi
On Feb 23, 2014, at 12:57 AM, Cuyler Page <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Would love to see Irene's slide show. While there may be an ancient history of the cornice for weather control in moist climates or in places such as Greece with enough wealth to play with "beauty", surely the urban versions from the last century or two have more to do with the human art of perception and persuasion.
The absolutely brilliant book "Facades" by Bill Cunningham makes a powerful point about the linked relationship in any era between contemporary architectural style and clothing style. For the grand era of urban cornices in NYC, look at photos of the people on the streets. Everyone wore a hat, usually with a brim, to top off their persona.
"Facades" traces two hundred years of style with a photo for a style on each page. It was photographed using examples in NYC with a single model being the human throughout. She is stunning as she portrays and illuminates the clothing and architectural styles of the passing decades.
The theory really holds up. In modern times, think the appearance of the Swatch Watch quickly followed by the multi-patterned sports jackets with different fabrics on pockets and bisected coloring of sleeves, all shockingly new and coincident with the rise of Post Modern collaging of building facades.
Cornice = Hat = Appearance for communication and inspiration. Rain and weather will be dealt with in any structure as totally secondary topics of necessity. Form Before Function got all mixed up and lost during the World Wars, and our post-war architectural professors didn't learn about it so couldn't teach it. We usually learned about Form Follows Function without also learning about or respecting the other approach.
That is not to say that cornices do not protect what is below them from a certain amount of weather, but that really they are now more like our eyebrows in function. They do a certain amount of protective work for the eyes and probably evolved first for that purpose, but are now much more important as communicators.
cp in bc
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