The Bryant - 301-319 Columbus Avenue

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^ That's an insult to this building, which is so much more pleasant up close and in person than the MO.
 
I don't know, I walk by that building all the time and feel like the surface detailing looks cheap.
 
kennedy said:
Timid, mostly. Contextual, absolutely. And here something contextual looks much better than something bold would have. Give it a decade to age, and the concrete and brick won't look so fake or new.



Lurker, the detailed stonework seen in prewar cities across America has disappeared, in my mind, not because of a lack in money, but a lack in talent. There simply aren't as many super talented craftsman today, and the ones who would be able to create the kind of detail that was common then, would be exorbitantly expensive. It's the same reason that newly constructed mansions aren't as finely detailed as say, the Breakers in Newport.
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Making molds for mass casting of cast stone or concrete isn't very difficult. During the depression lots of cheap buildings were lovingly ornamented with cheap cast concrete repeatedly cast from stamped steel molds. Neither is carving with machine tools. The advent of computer assisted and automated manufacturing makes these industrial processes cheaper, more precise, and easier to execute than anyone could have dreamed a century ago. In a slightly different vein, all the lovely millwork seen in Victorian mansions for the most part was mass produced in factories, bought from catalogs or warehouses much like, Home Depot today, and installed by labor not as skilled as people think.

Ornament isn't as expensive or labor intensive as people think. It's just a major taboo in the industry and many architects aren't terribly familiar with the so called 'traditional building industry' to the point of being to shop for the best prices. You'd be really surprised to find some items selling for hundreds of dollars from one supplier can be found for tens of dollars with the same exact manufacture.
 
kz1000ps said:
^ That's an insult to this building, which is so much more pleasant up close and in person than the MO.
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I'm not meaning my comment as an insult to the building, it's just that the massing is very similar to the Mandarin (both around ~8 stories, brick, with slight setback at the top), but judging from the pics, the detailing is better on the Mandarin IMO. The cornices before each setback on this building look especially cheap. It's a shame that they won't improve them before opening, right now they have no decoration whatsoever on them, it's just a piece of concrete sticking out.
 
$200 artificial ruby covered stencil pattern plate (essentially what super market checkout scanner surfaces are made of)
+
2 clamps
+
One worker
+
Bucket lift
+
Sandblasting equipment
+
2 Hours
=
Pattern etched precast concrete which looks much better than it does now.

Will that happen? No
 
Lurker said:
Making molds for mass casting of cast stone or concrete isn't very difficult.

Ornament isn't as expensive or labor intensive as people think. It's just a major taboo in the industry and many architects aren't terribly familiar with the so called 'traditional building industry' ...
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^ What he said.
 
Looks to be done. Is it a compliment to say that I started walking past it before noticing that I was at my photography destination?

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This car is legally parked.
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Looks to be done. Is it a compliment to say that I started walking past it before noticing that I was at my photography destination?
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Means it's boring.

The two garage openings side by side: yuck.
 
If we're gonna do patternbook historicism (for a new City Hall, or anything else), can we please move on from Bulfinch to H.H. Richardson?
 
Haha, imagine trying to replicate that stonework today. I think even Prince Charles would have trouble paying for it.

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^ At least we can name a developer who might be willing to try.
 
To do that work today it would either be CNC carved stone, or the most cost effective means would be to do cast stone or concrete in reusable resin formwork.
 
What? We can't just head to local Masonic Hall and hire a few guys?

On a more serious note:
I wonder how much it would cost to hire some of the last few remaining stone masons/artisans to do work like that on a large scale.
 
Is it strange to anyone that I look at Lyman Hall (and the rest of Richardson's earthy, asymmetrical work) as the great-grandfather of our sadly maligned City Hall? In Richardson and Frank Furness, I find the seeds of both Organic Architecture and Brutalism.
 
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