TWELVE DECADES OF CONCRETE IN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE PART II

[Music] during the 1920s most of the reinforced concrete used in American architecture was produced in California primarily because it could be easily designed to resist the lateral forces of earthquakes this large volume of work also permitted development of sound methods of mixing and handling concrete and created a breed of expert technicians and supervisors who when they were lured East in the mid 1930s helped to improve Concrete Construction practices all over the country but the new concrete capable of molding and Fabrication into unlimited structural forms did not soon produce a new architecture traditional forms were imposed on concrete but now with greater confidence that details of design and enrichment could be produced integrally with the walls as sharply and as Faithfully as in sculptured stone or glazed tile in 1922-23 Morgan walls and Clemens designed the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles using pre-columbian motifs large panels of deeply ins sized detail were were formed against molds of wood blocks and plaster rough textured to simulate the stone blocks handcarved by Indian Builders hundreds of years ago during the same years in Nashville Tennessee architect Russell e Hart made the plans for an exact duplicate of the Greek Parthenon in reinforced concrete every detail of structure and decoration including double rows of massive fluted columns and the complicated sculpture of the pediment was molded in con conrete what this project lacked in originality it fully made up in scholarship and Ingenuity its successful execution may have reinforced the idea however that concrete was mainly a willing substitute material back in Los Angeles Newton and Murray lightly broke with tradition on their Church of the Precious Blood by using strongly formark walls instead of scoring to simulate large ashler units the low Pier butresses were simply decorating elaborate detail around windows was cast in place as the walls were erected Ralph Adams cram Authority on Gothic and Consulting architect on Grace Cathedral San Francisco pointed out the differences between 20th Century Concrete Gothic and traditional Stone construction both standing and flying buttresses were eliminated from the high Nave walls because they weren't necessary the walls were textured by Bush hammering and the tracery around openings on finals and in Rose Windows was molded in a few weeks instead of carved laboriously over several years by Stone Cutters the widespread California school rebuilding program which followed the Long Beach earthquake in 1933 gave scores of Architects an opportunity to experiment with a so-called International style of architecture then creating wide interest in America for the first time the following school buildings reflect the rapid transition from massive form and overpowering enrichment to severe lines and minimum decoration Union High School Huntington Beach by Allison and Allison was one of the last Monumental schools the great arches of intricate and beautifully executed molded detail would soon seem entirely inappropriate for a school building Ralph pellings Hawthorne School was in the early California style but the walls were simpler details were limited to prominent features such as the bell tower although Marsh Smith and Powell declared their storman school at San Marino was modified Spanish the straight board formed walls with a light spatter coat of stuck hole were pierced with impressionist style grills instead of being hung with brackets and corbels Venice High School by Austin and Ashley replaced three Quake damaged brick buildings with a two-story flat roofed Mass without cornet or overhang molded Dental bands were used at the parit to soften the abrupt roof line strong pilasters were an early method of revealing structural strength on Hollywood High School Marsh Smith and Powell boldly dropped all pretense of transition from wall to roof Corner returns were rounded and the sculpture over the entrance was cast in plaster molds and left with no finished treatment around window areas The Architects used molded spandrels and Edge Trim in modified classic detail a fine example of early contemporary Morgan wals and Clemens who a decade before were masters of eclectic Styles broke all traditions in rebuilding Jefferson High School the rectangular masses with strong vertical and horizontal accents had no familiar decoration window treatment was strong L horizontal and concrete surfaces cast against scored plywood had a fine horizontal readed texture at the time many thought this style cold and forbidding some even called it refrigerator modern the reinforced concrete bar house at desol Germany home base of the great design revolution of the 1920 and early 30s directly influenced the architecture of hundreds of other buildings all over the world the national broadcasting company's Hollywood Studios bear a remarkable resemblance in the grouping of the buildings wall surfaces and even the sign the Austin company designed and built the block of Studios to requirements of NBC Engineers the brave new design revolution in the United States incouraged some Architects to mold Concrete in novel forms William moer cast the structure now a Marine Museum in Aquatic Park San Francisco in the shape of a ship with open decks and a deck house it was well executed by unskilled WPA labor under supervision of expert concrete technicians architectural concrete moved East in the mid-30s bringing with it the now familiar plain walls flat roof rounded corners and glass block fenestration of which the Lacrosse Wisconsin Tribune is typical literally hundreds of small concrete structures were built by WPA labor during the Depression including State Fair buildings in Minnesota a combination City Hall and water tower in town of Lake Wisconsin and an auditorium at Bader Illinois in which a rather brilliant use of parabolic arches was somewhat cluttered by use of unnecessary column decoration new shapes for concrete were remarkably foretold during this period by several bold designs Milton Dyer expressed the plasticity and monolithic continuity of concrete in his design for a coast guard station at Cleveland Ohio a startling departure in hospital planning and a recognized milestone in American architecture was Lake County tuberculosis sanatorium Wan Illinois by William Pera here the functional need of sunshine and fresh air created an aesthetic form which has lost nothing in the last 25 years of the greatest period of change and innovation in American Building design four large semi-elliptic Arch ribs support the thin concrete structure of KH and Jacobs scheme for New York City's asphalt plant built in 1940 the shape of this building conformed closely to the parabolic flow of the conveyor equipment inside a very literal expression of the old Louis Sullivan Maxim that in good architecture form follows function during the early 1940s the famous Zeiss daod do short barrels of thin shell concrete came into use First in such public structures as the sports arena at Hershey Pennsylvania the Hippodrome at Minneapolis and later in Military and civilian airport hangers the Greek Revival style splendidly executed for New State Office Buildings in Montgomery Alabama by WPA labor was balanced off in 1940 by the very original designs of Frank Lloyd Wright for new structures at Florida Southern University built largely by student labor two very different structures completed in the 1940s used concrete in a manner that would become widely popular in the late 1950s and 60s the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda Maryland 20 stories high was enclosed with 400,000 square ft of pre-cast concrete panels in 500 different shapes Paul cret was Consulting architect for the Navy designers bigh house of worship wilmet Illinois was probably the most ambitious architectural concrete undertaking of its time 1919 to 1949 it is a nine-sided concrete frame enclosed by an envelope of intricate molded tracery whose details include the symbols of every known religion architect Louie bouris who studied the form and details of the temple by means of a large and minutely faithful clay model had envisioned a dome of sculptured Stone but the cost of that would have been impossible the late John J early concrete sculptor and Pioneer in pre-c casting methods undertook the project in his Washington DC Studios making moles and templates from full scale drawings detailed on rolls of paper or linen and transferred to blueprints sometimes 100 ft long the scores of oddly shaped pre-cast units all white concrete made with white cement and quartz Aggregates are used inside as well as out the structure defies classification as architecture but it is an outstanding example of the use of concrete in grills screens and sculptured surfaces that would be widely used in the new architecture of the 1950s and [Music] St