Exhibition Open
Guastavino scholars in the United States have created a major traveling exhibition titled "Palaces for the People: Guastavino and America’s Great Public Spaces". An engaging and interactive exhibit is open at the Boston Public Library through February 24, 2013.
The exhibition will travel to the National Building Museumand open to the public March 16, 2013. The exhibition will then be on view at the Museum of the City of New York beginning in early 2014. "Palaces for the People" has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
John Ochsendorf Lecture
John Ochsendorf gives lecture as part of the Boston Public Library 2012-2013 Lowell Lecture Series: Common Ground. Watch...
Construction and Testing Of A Vault
While no english language manuals of timbrel vault construction exist, MIT student Michael Ramage spent a weekend building a small vault of his own. Is a new treatise forthcoming? See a few of his photos, a documentary text and a movie to find out what he learned about the process.
We are pleased, but not at all surprised to announce a triumphant demonstration of structural form where 1/2" of material thickness carried 8 persons. (MORE)
Vault Construction Movie
A movie of the two-day construction process has been added to the site.
It is an Illuminating view of the timbrel vaulting process (MORE)
Second Walking Tour Underfoot
On Friday May 14th, John Ochsendorf, MIT Guastavino project director and Sara Wermiel, of the BSA historical resources committee led a walking tour of three important area Guastavino sites.
The itinerary included Horticultural Hall, First Church of Christ, Scientist and the Forsyth Institute. Additional information is available here. (MORE)
Guastavino's Woburn Factory
In 1906, the Guastavino Company constructed a new factory on a different Woburn site known as Central Square to take over the duties of the initial church facility.
The company had the capacity to mold and press 800 tiles a day and at the time of La Ceramica’s opening work commenced 24 hours a day to fulfill a 150,000 tile order for the Queensborough bridge in New York. This was the basic manufacturing process of the factory.
Construction History Society of America Conference at MIT
The Construction History Society of America (CHSA) hosted a two-day meeting at MIT on November 2-3, 2012. The first day addressed the broad subject of American construction in the 19th and 20th centuries, and Saturday, November 3rd focused entirely on research related to Guastavino vaulting.
The partial archive of presented papers is available HERE.
First Guastavino Vault Rises In The UK
An international team including Guastavino scholars from MIT, masons from Spain and the UK completed two new Guastavino style domes in the shadows of the famous White Cliffs of Dover.
The two 40 foot wide domes complete a small conference center and meeting center for the St. Margaret's Bay Trust called the Pines Calyx. (MORE)
A Breif History of Guastavino.net
Located just across the street from the MIT Ashdown House, the Guastavino research project began as an effort to study several of the buildings in the Boston area by Guastavino. It soon grew to include the more ambitious goal of documenting all the Boston area buildings by the Spanish architect-turned American builder.
The project has thus far been comprised of equal parts archival research, detective work and spreading the word to others about the possibility that a Guastavino vault may be just about anywhere. (MORE)
Mroszczyk Presents Thesis On Boston Public Library And Guastavino
Lisa J. Mroszczyk, an MIT undergraduate senior, has been investigating the R. Guastavino Company's involvement at the Boston Public Library.
Having completed the work, we are pleased to be able to provide the full text here. (MORE)
One Stair At A Time
One of the more amazing aspects of the constructions of Guastavino is timbrel vaulted stair. Boston has at least three of them.
One such project is the Armory of the 1st Corps of Cadets. For more photos, click HERE
Bibliography Added To Site
With many thanks to Santiago Huerta of the Instituto Juan de Hererra in Madrid, we are able to post the most definitive bibliography on the work of Guastavino to date.
This bibliography was published in their 2001 work on the Guastavino Co. (MORE)
