Functional and aesthetically pleasing historic brick buildings – a case study
We recently had the opportunity to take a closer look at one of the classical historic row homes of Capitol Hill, Washington DC. The vast majority of the grand and beautiful row homes of Capitol Hill were built approximately 150 to 120 years ago. At that time, over a one hundred years ago, a great level of craftsmanship and detail was employed and applied to the construction of the exterior building facades. Many of the modern techniques and inventions in material science were not even available at the time, but only with painstaking arduous labor and great attention to detail, these building facades were built with superior quality, even contrast to many of today’s standards.
Historic Brick Buildings In Capitol Hill
The multi-level turrett projects from the corner of the building. This turret is built with a radius that continues to an alternating corbel at the top of the masonry facade and from there the building is topped with a crown mould and slate turret roof. Interestingly, at many of the historical buildings in Capitol hill with rounded walls, the windows and glass were also created with a curvature and radius. The window openings at this turret are built with a horizontal stone sill and horizontal stone header, as opposed to an arch type of opening support, the flat header stone spans the opening with a singular unit of stone instead of individual and multiple pieces of brick or stone masonry units. This type of construction allows for support without the need for an archway. Arches can reduce the overall height of the operable parts of a window, So even though this type of methodology is slightly less historic or classical, it actually has a functional benefit that may outweigh the architectural significance of the alternative.
How Buildings Were Beautified
In the case of this particular facade, it could be argued that the other elements and details in the design sufficiently compensate for the lack of window arches. At the upper levels of the building facade. the horizontal area of basket weave style brick is built into a ribbon or frieze style band that runs below the top floor window sills. This detail adds significant beauty to the front facade of the building, there are several characteristics of this particular element which highlight the advanced craftsmanship in this masonry construction.
So far, most of the elements that we have discussed focus on the use of brick and mortar and sophisticated assemblies. Terracotta inlays, by contrast, bring a different material type to the historic brick facades of Washington DC. These terracotta embellishments look a lot like stone carvings, but they’re actually created with a cast form using a slip similar to the materials of a pressed brick but hydrated to a much higher viscosity. The use of the terracotta became significantly less popular in the mid 19th century, but it’s a very versatile material. Terra cotta can be made into a wide variety of colors. We often see flower pods at the big Box or hardware stores or landscape yards. come in a light red or pink type color.
Terracotta can also be made in a green color which is common on historic clay roofs, particularly found in the mansard roofs of historic neighborhoods in Washington DC, at the top of historic brick facades.
The base of a turret wall is often referred to as a plinth or even sometimes a chemise, borrowing from medieval castle architecture. The foundation of that wall in this case is built with a split face ashlar stone. The base of historic masonry walls is not only made with a different material, in this particular case, but it’s also thicker than the upper portions of the wall. This type of change in thickness doesn’t apply just to stone foundations, even with brick foundations it’s often common to see that the foundation wall will be built with a triple wythe brick construction which translates to roughly 12″ in thickness, by comparison the upper walls will often be built with a double wythe construction which only measures approximately 8″ in total masonry thickness.
Functional and Aesthetically Pleasing Chimney and Fire Escape
The next picture below shows the fire escape at the side of the building. Fire escapes were very uncommon, seldomly used, at the time of the original construction of this building in the late 19th century. The fire escapes, that we often see on multi family buildings in Washington DC, became a requirement for construction above an R4 density in certain configurations and cases, after the great fires which changed or led to the change in the building code across the majority of the United States. The building code though is not consistent and in some places there isn’t even a building code mandated by the local municipalities or the state. Generally, municipalities mandate and enforce the building code often adopted from a centralized company. In the case of Washington DC, although a municipality, it also is a state in itself.
Here, you can see buildings such as this large row building, with several units, which were updated many decades ago to meet the evolving requirements of the building code.
The iron or steel fire escape stair is built around the exterior of the chimney. Often rowhomes have original chimneys that serve only functional purposes, without an aesthetic value. The chimney of this particular building has several ornate details which are not found in the simple rowhomes of Capitol Hill, many of which were built just for working class people at the time.
The chimney is built with a thickened wall, to create a load path to support the heavy hearths at each floor level and the chimney above the roof. The close up photo below shows the corbelled brick courses used to create a jog in the plane of the wall, allowing for support where needed without wasting space and weight where it wasn’t needed, and all the while this detail adds to the ornate beauty of the building.
As you can see when viewing the entirety of the chimney, the details of the chimney transform it into something more than just a functional element for the utility and heating of the building. It’s actually an aesthetically complimentary element which adds architectural value to the building and the building facade. These are the types of details which make this building stand out.
Segmented Arch Windows
The next picture below shows one of the many windows of the building. These particular low level building windows had a segmented arch. Segmented arches are similar to Roman arches in a way, but more like a hybrid between a Roman arch and a flat header. Roman arches are self supporting but a segmented arch, by comparison, cannot support themselves and instead use a wood timber to support the load of the arch, from inside the cavity of the wall behind the exterior brick.
These particular headers are built with a much higher level of craftsmanship than is typically found because not only are the jack arches made with actual squint bricks they also have a segmented arch which highlights highlights the craftsmanship by adding curvature the header allows for a commonly found wood decorative window top below the segmented arch.
To properly maintain, repair, and care for these historic buildings, a knowledge, interest and understanding of historic building principles is required. Here in Washington DC, historic masonry buildings are extremely expensive and the amount of financial loss caused by improper repointing and low quality construction is staggering. However, in addition to the direct financial value of the property, there is also a cultural loss when historic buildings are damaged. By comparison, consider neighboring poor cities, when historic buildings are damaged, it’s not just the loss of value to the property owner, there’s also a loss to all inhabitants and visitors of a city, present and future, who care about architecture, history, and culture.
How to Maintain A Historic Building In Washington DC
We encourage all of our clients, and all readers of this article and to our blog in general, to prioritize the historic built environment of Washington DC and neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, and Georgetown and become educated on on the difference between proper historic preservation versus improper work which leads to significant damage to the historic fabric of a building.
From a conservation and preservation perspective, several approaches can be taken to improve conditions related to deteriorated historic brick masonry. Primarily, lime mortar brick joints and low temperature fired soft red clay bricks should be inspected and checked on a routine maintenance schedule, either seasonally or at least annually. If brick masonry is kept in good condition, the life of embedded wood elements can be significantly extended. Hire a professional contractor which specializes, understands and appreciates historic construction elements and buildings.
In this article we talked about the terminology and concepts of historic masonry restoration, follow the links below for more related information from the IDS website:
- Binders in mortars and concrete
- Brick burns
- Butter joint
- Capillary action
- Cantilever
- Cementitious siding
- Cheek wall, masonry — Draft
- Chemical testing
- Code, building — Draft
- Cold joint
- Cold weather masonry work — Draft
- Damp proof course
- Downspout
- Electrical distribution panel — Draft
- Fenestration
- Ferrous metals
- Great Chicago Fire
- Green bricks
- Gutter, roof
- Lime mortar
- Lintel
- Load path
- Oriel window
- Oxidation
- Parapet coping
- Plug, clay
- Pressed bricks
- Raking, of mortar joints
- Raggle, aka reglet
- Rectilinear
- Roman bricks
- Roman arches
- Roof eave
- Roof termination
- Row buildings and row homes
-
- Rubbed bricks
- Rubble stone masonry
- Sand, Builder’s
- Sedimentary rock
- Scratch coat
- Sprung arch
-
- Squint bricks,
- Strike, or striking of mortar
- Tapestry bricks
- Tooth-in, interlocking masonry connections
- Vitreous
- Water diversion systems
- Zipper-joint
These concepts are part of the fundamentals of historic masonry restoration, tuckpointing, and brick repair.
The links in the list above will take you to other articles with more information on defects, failures, preservation and repair of historic masonry. You can learn a lot more on our blog. Feel free to check it out. If you have questions about the historic masonry of your building in Washington DC, contact us or fill out the webform below and drop us a line. We will be in touch if we can help.
