Title: The Characteristics Of Concrete For Architectural Use

Author(s): John J. Earley

Publication: Journal Proceedings

Volume: 35

Issue: 4

Appears on pages(s): 385-389

Keywords: none

DOI: 10.14359/8500

Date: 4/1/1939

Abstract:
Monolithic reinforced concrete, without a well designed and well executed surface treatment, does not even suggest the otentialities of color and texture which concrete a ords. ff It is a mistake to think of concrete as a cheap material, or to impose on it the conventions frozen by other masonry materials. There is more difficulty in competing with the cheapest cut stone than with any better grade of material or workmanship. Concrete offers the best, economically, when the architectural requirements of form and color are most difficult. Such requirements take full advantage of the characteristics of reinforced concrete. The full development of concrete as an architectural medium is not solely in the hands of the concrete industry. The industry must add a sense of architectural beauty, scale, form, decoration and a sense of propriety. A reinforced concrete building may be successfully placed in forms made of thin, precast reinforced concrete slabs made by trained architec-tural craftsmen.