Glazed architectural terra-cotta

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Elmslea Chambers in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia - built in 1933, it was one of the first buildings in Australia to use coloured polychrome terracotta in its façade which features a fine relief of birds, flowers, leaves and typical Art Deco sunbursts under the windows.

Glazed architectural terra-cotta is a ceramic masonry building material popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s, and still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments. It is the glazed version of architectural terra-cotta; the material in both its glazed and unglazed versions is sturdy and relatively inexpensive, and can be molded into richly ornamented detail. Glazed terra-cotta played a significant role in architectural styles such as the Chicago School and Beaux-Arts architecture.

The material, also known in Great Britain as faience and sometimes referred to as "architectural ceramics", was closely associated with the work of Cass Gilbert, Louis Sullivan, and Daniel H. Burnham, among other architects. Buildings incorporating glazed terra-cotta include the Woolworth Building in New York City and the Wrigley Building in Chicago. It is also used in the open-air Bridgemarket under the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge.

Variations in the color and pattern of the glaze made it possible for buildings constructed with the material to look like they were finished with granite or limestone; this flexibility was part of the reason the material was so attractive to architects at the time.

1 Use in Canada
2 Use in Great Britain
3 See also
4 Further reading
5 External links and sources

[edit] Use in Canada

Although glazed terra-cotta was much more common in the U.S., it was used in central Canada starting around 1900, on many of the area's first skyscrapers. The glazed terra-cotta used in central Canada was usually imported from the U.S. or England.

[edit] Use in Great Britain

From around 1890 the use of unglazed terra-cotta lost ground to the glazed version - faience, and glazed brick - which were comparatively easy to clean and were not blackened by city smoke.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

Brick - A World History, James W P Campbell & Will Pryce, 2003, ISBN 0-500-34195-8

[edit] External links and sources

The Tile Heritage Foundation, "...a nonprofit charitable organization, ...dedicated to promoting an awareness and appreciation of ceramic surfaces in the United States".
The Preservation of Historic Glazed Architectural Terra-Cotta, from a National Park Service website
Ottawa's Former Bowles Lunch, a January 2002 article from the Heritage Ottawa website
Renovation of Bridgemarket under the Queensboro Bridge, from the website of the architects involved in the project