The American Architect Vol. CXIV Wednesday, August 21, 1918 Number 2226
DUKE ESTATE, SOMERVILLE, N. J.
Concrete has been used extensively in the improvement of many private estates. It fits in well in combination
with rubble masonry, or in fact with any other type.
Concrete as a Medium of Artistic Expression
By H. Colin Campbell, Director Editorial Bureau, Portland Cement Association
ART in architecture has been attained through many mediums. Among these is concrete, which perhaps permits wider range of expression in its field of use than any other single material that may be compared with it. It lends itself to decorative effects principally because of its plastic nature before hardened, and the limit of ornament or artistic expression that concrete will gratify is governed entirely by the good taste and ingenuity of the architect and actual worker with the material. The natural soft gray tones of straight concrete blend pleasantly with all outdoors. Almost any expanse of lawn forms a suitable setting for the swimming pool, pergola, and such lawn furniture as benches, flower vases and sundials. The added touch given by the landscape architect in planting or clumping trees and shrubbery finishes the setting. Entranceways to the home grounds, lamp posts and balustrades, porches, lintels over doorways and windows and panels in walls are concrete details or fixtures that can in
no other way be made so satisfactorily unless it be with sculptured stone. Here concrete is given greater preference, because the modeling or molding of concrete is a shorter route than sculpture.
Concrete, while plastic, takes the shape or form of any mold in which placed to harden, so skill in using concrete depends largely upon the individuality displayed in making the molds or forms in which it is cast and in giving the object so cast the proper setting or a suitable place in the harmony of the whole design. Attempts made to express the artistic with concrete have sometimes resulted only in condemnation of the material. But this condemnation has been unjust because the attempt was not made by one who appreciated its possibilities, someone who did not know the true limitations or applications of concrete in its possible decorative or ornamental uses. We can find monstrosities anywhere expressed through the medium of almost any building material that one could name. Wood, stone, brick, tile and steel have all
Copyright, 1918, The Architectural & Building Press (Inc.)
DUKE ESTATE, SOMERVILLE, N. J.
Concrete has been used extensively in the improvement of many private estates. It fits in well in combination
with rubble masonry, or in fact with any other type.
Concrete as a Medium of Artistic Expression
By H. Colin Campbell, Director Editorial Bureau, Portland Cement Association
ART in architecture has been attained through many mediums. Among these is concrete, which perhaps permits wider range of expression in its field of use than any other single material that may be compared with it. It lends itself to decorative effects principally because of its plastic nature before hardened, and the limit of ornament or artistic expression that concrete will gratify is governed entirely by the good taste and ingenuity of the architect and actual worker with the material. The natural soft gray tones of straight concrete blend pleasantly with all outdoors. Almost any expanse of lawn forms a suitable setting for the swimming pool, pergola, and such lawn furniture as benches, flower vases and sundials. The added touch given by the landscape architect in planting or clumping trees and shrubbery finishes the setting. Entranceways to the home grounds, lamp posts and balustrades, porches, lintels over doorways and windows and panels in walls are concrete details or fixtures that can in
no other way be made so satisfactorily unless it be with sculptured stone. Here concrete is given greater preference, because the modeling or molding of concrete is a shorter route than sculpture.
Concrete, while plastic, takes the shape or form of any mold in which placed to harden, so skill in using concrete depends largely upon the individuality displayed in making the molds or forms in which it is cast and in giving the object so cast the proper setting or a suitable place in the harmony of the whole design. Attempts made to express the artistic with concrete have sometimes resulted only in condemnation of the material. But this condemnation has been unjust because the attempt was not made by one who appreciated its possibilities, someone who did not know the true limitations or applications of concrete in its possible decorative or ornamental uses. We can find monstrosities anywhere expressed through the medium of almost any building material that one could name. Wood, stone, brick, tile and steel have all
Copyright, 1918, The Architectural & Building Press (Inc.)