A "Milwaukee in Stone and Clay" Companion, Part 2: Facing Up to the Facade | The Iron Block (1861)
This new 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: 5.11; pp. 74-76.
Gazing up at a portion of the E. Wisconsin Avenue facade (northern elevation).
For a view of this building in its entirety, and for a discussion of the geology of its modular, cast-iron exterior, see Part 1.
It still amazes me that this gorgeous Venetian Renaissance exterior was manufactured in New York City, that town of some cultural attainments we should probably honor as the Milwaukee of the East.
But when it came to shipping massive iron objects like these modular sections 900 mi (1,448 km) into the still-remote continental interior, without benefit of connecting rail lines or interstate highways, our forebears certainly were no slouches. They always found a way to move building materials anywhere they really wanted them, just as the Romans and Egyptians had before them.
The fact that the site's exterior has been painted should come as no surprise, given its metal's love of combining with free oxygen and rusting when not sealed with a primer or protective oil.
The second most common metallic element in the Earth's crust, iron in geologic settings is most often found in its oxidized state. Examples of this are easy to come by; they include Banded Iron Formations, Lake Superior Brownstones, and Triassic red beds of the American West.
Here, the iron has been cast into a multitude of harmonious architectural elements: Corinthian columns, surfaces mimicking rusticated stone ashlar, fancily festooned arches, lions' heads, and vermiculated panels. We'll take a closer look at some of these conceits in the posts that follow in this series.
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 2: Facing Up to the Facade | The Iron Block (1861)
This new 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: 5.11; pp. 74-76.
Gazing up at a portion of the E. Wisconsin Avenue facade (northern elevation).
For a view of this building in its entirety, and for a discussion of the geology of its modular, cast-iron exterior, see Part 1.
It still amazes me that this gorgeous Venetian Renaissance exterior was manufactured in New York City, that town of some cultural attainments we should probably honor as the Milwaukee of the East.
But when it came to shipping massive iron objects like these modular sections 900 mi (1,448 km) into the still-remote continental interior, without benefit of connecting rail lines or interstate highways, our forebears certainly were no slouches. They always found a way to move building materials anywhere they really wanted them, just as the Romans and Egyptians had before them.
The fact that the site's exterior has been painted should come as no surprise, given its metal's love of combining with free oxygen and rusting when not sealed with a primer or protective oil.
The second most common metallic element in the Earth's crust, iron in geologic settings is most often found in its oxidized state. Examples of this are easy to come by; they include Banded Iron Formations, Lake Superior Brownstones, and Triassic red beds of the American West.
Here, the iron has been cast into a multitude of harmonious architectural elements: Corinthian columns, surfaces mimicking rusticated stone ashlar, fancily festooned arches, lions' heads, and vermiculated panels. We'll take a closer look at some of these conceits in the posts that follow in this series.
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.