Decorative elements that define masonry style
Especially here in Washington DC, there are many highly ornate and decorated historic masonry buildings. It’s not completely rare, in the rest of the world, but we have a concentration of these buildings. It’s also not just the grand federal buildings that are highly ornate. These elements of ornamentation and decoration are found even on the historic row homes here in Washington DC. Today we’re looking at an example where a particular set of ornamentations has deteriorated from the face of the masonry substrate. This shows that some of these plaster and or cement type decorations are adhered and not cast into the greater portions of the monolithic stone and or precast works in the building facade.
We show a facade cement, likely precast, concrete facade, in the picture below. We’re not sure of the year of construction, but it is likely circa the early part of the 20th century. This particular building is built with an art deco type architectural style.
It’s not some big secret that’s being revealed, it’s not always expected that large decorative elements are built or carved directly into the side of the building. Most people understand or assume that these elements, although they’re installed in a way that looks like it’s permanent, it is still through an installation process that they are individually installed onto the facade. These particular round elements are like medallions or plaques except they’re large. When you think of a plaque, you might think of something that you would typically find on a wall, mounted to explain or display something.
These elements are similar, they’re round like medallions, and larger. They may have all been used at one time to display a typical design pattern, or used to mark the particular insignia of the building’s usage. Today they are just flush, without any particular adornment or detail. If you look closely though, you may notice that the tops of the walls below the frieze detail are decorated with a chevron pattern. Chevron patterns like this have been used in architecture going all the way back to ancient times.
A closer view of one follows below for reference. The round medallion stands away from the face of the adjacent cementitious freeze by about 1.5 inched. There are half cylinder fluted round elements at both sides of the medallion which create an architectural frieze.
The art deco architectural style came from Europe and was initially met with ambivalence in the United States. The style began to become a bit popular in Hollywood, first, then spread. People thought of it as a symbol of optimism and prosperity of the time. The history of the architecture of the United States was extremely influenced by economics. The political / economic systems are hard to separate from architecture, really.
After the beginning of the Great Depression in the late 1920s buildings of this Art Deco style continued to be made, here and there. Expect the quantity and scale were nothing like the architectural and economic booms of the earlier years of the 1920s. After the Great depression, America headed into World War II and architecture changed as well. It was a time of austerity for the wealthy, and a more extreme time of severity for the working and working poor classes of the United States.
Again, we are now headed into a similar situation now. This time, though, a groundswell of resources and productivity, coupled with a new deal that invests in the underpinnings of our working class won’t be there to swing the pendulum back.
When you look closely at this particular column capital. You can see that the medallion has fallen or been removed from the side of the building. You can see that the area of stone work behind the area of the medallion is largely free of cement adhesive. It looks like those elements stuck to the medallion when the medallion came loose. We generally expect a surface with this kind of intentional damage at both the back of the medallion and also at the face of the column capital.
These areas where there are small carvings into the face of the cement provide a key or area for the adhesive or mortar to have an area to grip in more than just two dimensions. It also provides additional surface area. A two-dimensional surface, by comparison, has much less surface area as well, then almost any type of three dimensional surface of the same area of size.
A closer view follows in the next picture.
A very close view follows in the final picture below. Here you can see how these pock areas which were carved with a hammer and chisel into the face of the concrete provide a greater surface area and a key for additional bondability.
We can Help
Our company focuses on historic restoration more than modern building upkeep, maintenance, and construction, but our company understands both types of construction very well and a full picture well-rounded approach is needed in any niche in the construction industry. Although we focus on historic restoration, repointing, tuckpointing and historic brick repair, our company also has technical knowledge and competencies in the areas of modern and contemporary construction as well as we become one of the leaders in that area of the market today. Understanding both historic and modern or contemporary construction is useful because both aspects help understand the challenges and potential solutions for challenges in building science and construction.
We can help with a variety of historic masonry restoration needs and upkeep, from modest tuckpointing and or repointing to complicated and extensive historic masonry restoration. Infinity Design Solutions is a historic restoration specialist contractor specializing in both historic masonry restoration such as tuckpointing our repointing, and brick repair. If you have questions about the architectural details or facade of your historic building in Washington DC, reach out and say hello and if we can help we’ll be glad to assist you. You can email us or call us on the telephone at the following link: contact us here.
