A "Milwaukee in Stone and Clay" Companion, Part 7: White on White | Eastern Gallery, Quadracci Pavilion, Milwaukee Art Museum (2001)
(Last Updated on February 15, 2025)
This series complements my recently published guidebook, Milwaukee in Stone and Clay: A Guide to the Cream City's Architectural Geology. Henceforth I'll just call it MSC.
The MSC section and page references for the building featured here: 5.40; pp. 113-116.
Looking from Windhover Hall down the Pavilion's easternmost long corridor.
The supernatural whiteness of this museum interior is due to its Carrara Marble flooring and to the painted, asymmetrical arches made of concrete that was set in custom-made wooden molds.
The Carrara takes a very high-gloss shine, and that attribute is obvious here. This famous stone, used since ancient Roman times, hails from the Apuan Alps of northern Italy. It began as a Jurassic-period limestone that was metamorphosed into true marble during pulses of mountain-building in the Oligocene and Miocene epochs.
The concrete is a geologically derived building material, too. A mixture of cement, water, and aggregate (sand or larger rock particles), its primary chemical component is lime—calcium oxide and hydroxide produced by the burning of the calcium carbonate contained in limestone and dolostone. When the lime-containing cement is mixed with water, an exothermic (heat-releasing) reaction is produced, and a new, moldable substance resembling limestone or conglomerate comes into being.
This site and many others in Milwaukee County are discussed at greater length in Milwaukee in Stone and Clay (NIU Imprint of Cornell University Press).
The other photos and discussions in this series can be found in my "Milwaukee in Stone and Clay" Companion album. Also, while you're at it, check out my Architectural Geology of Milwaukee album, too. It contains quite a few photos and descriptions of Cream City sites highlighted in other series of mine.
A "Milwaukee in Stone and Clay" Companion, Part 7: White on White | Eastern Gallery, Quadracci Pavilion, Milwaukee Art Museum (2001)
(Last Updated on February 15, 2025)
This series complements my recently published guidebook, Milwaukee in Stone and Clay: A Guide to the Cream City's Architectural Geology. Henceforth I'll just call it MSC.
The MSC section and page references for the building featured here: 5.40; pp. 113-116.
Looking from Windhover Hall down the Pavilion's easternmost long corridor.
The supernatural whiteness of this museum interior is due to its Carrara Marble flooring and to the painted, asymmetrical arches made of concrete that was set in custom-made wooden molds.
The Carrara takes a very high-gloss shine, and that attribute is obvious here. This famous stone, used since ancient Roman times, hails from the Apuan Alps of northern Italy. It began as a Jurassic-period limestone that was metamorphosed into true marble during pulses of mountain-building in the Oligocene and Miocene epochs.
The concrete is a geologically derived building material, too. A mixture of cement, water, and aggregate (sand or larger rock particles), its primary chemical component is lime—calcium oxide and hydroxide produced by the burning of the calcium carbonate contained in limestone and dolostone. When the lime-containing cement is mixed with water, an exothermic (heat-releasing) reaction is produced, and a new, moldable substance resembling limestone or conglomerate comes into being.
This site and many others in Milwaukee County are discussed at greater length in Milwaukee in Stone and Clay (NIU Imprint of Cornell University Press).
The other photos and discussions in this series can be found in my "Milwaukee in Stone and Clay" Companion album. Also, while you're at it, check out my Architectural Geology of Milwaukee album, too. It contains quite a few photos and descriptions of Cream City sites highlighted in other series of mine.