ATLANTIC TERRA COTTA | A Revival of Lombard Romanesque APRIL, 1927 VOLUME'IX = -MOMXX-VIL NUMBER |Darlington, pleading for the fon of the new church es a con- bution to the art of the city, said: “New York City has many beautiful homes, but it has few truly beautiful office buildings and churches. The dic- tates of economy and practicality seem to be responsible for this. ‘The unim- aginative are only concerned with im- mediate service. Yet in our homes we solve the problem, why not in our of- fices and places of worship? “american architects are not given a fair chance. Our universities are | turning out fine, far-visioned design- ‘era who have had access to the world's | store of architectural knowledge, but | they aro handicapped by lack of im- agination on the part of those invest- ing large capital in buildings, offices, big apartment houses and churches. “Builders seem content with plain, unattractive window boxes. ‘True, these serve a. purpose—but only one purpose, ‘They are hives to work in and. smaller boxes to exist in. ‘The apartments, our homes, we can bear tity within ‘with the aid bf the interior decorator. Tut our churches must be built with the spirit of beauty if they are to personify it.” ‘The Rev. Dr. Henry Darlington, Rector of the Church of The Heavenly Rest, at Fifth Avenue and 89th Street, New York, in a recent speech expressed the clergymen’s point of view on church architecture. We take the liberty of quoting a part of his speech as reported by The New York Times.ATLANTIC TERRA COTTA PRINTED MONTHLY FOR ARCHITECTS New York City's Terra Cotta Line Atlantic Terra Cotta Company 19 West 44th Street, New York Atlanta Terra Cotta Company Atlanta, Georgia ‘onsreht Hr, by AUantie Terr Cotta Oompny. New YorkPlate I—Atlantie Terra Cotta Cleveland, Ohio Euclid Ave ¢ Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio Wari & Works, Architects Devavir & Darn, Bulders The entire exterior is Atlantic Terra Cotta. ‘The church shows the beauty of Atlantic ‘Terra Cotta used with sincerityATLANTIC TERRA COTTA Vou. 1X Avnit, 1927 No.1 A Revival of Lombard Romanesque ‘The Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio Wau & Warns, Architects Duvavur a Derren, Bullders TLANTIC TERRA COTTA is used with the utmost sincerity in The Euclid Avenue ely Baptist Church. By designing excl for Terra Cotta and taking advantage of its dividual properties, the Architects achieved an interesting and extremely beautiful result. Sincer- ity is the key note, ‘The building expresses Terra Cotta in every line ‘The entire facade is Atlantic Terra Cotta, Not 1 single brick is used on the exterior, and, exeept for the two-foot base course of granite, there is not an ounce of stone. ‘The modeling shows the fuent flexibility of a plastic material; the brilliant colors of the mod- ‘led detail are characteristic of polychrome Terra Cotta; the color of the pla individual Terra Cotta color; the texture is typical of Terra Cotta. Four different shades of flashed buff are used for the ashlar fields, and the normal variation of each shade is accented and turned to advantage. ‘The color, almost burnt sienna in tone, was frankly inspired by Mr. Weeks’ boyhood memory loaves of home-made bread, ‘The irregu- larity and faint overglaze are faithfully repro- duced. ‘The texture walls of cert was developed by roughening the surfaces and “waving” the edges of every ashlar piece, entirely by hand. The wide, deeply raked Joints are important textural factors, and of {greatest importance are the ashlar blocks of vary- ing size and their effective arrangement. With the exception of the heroie figures of John the Baptist and Roger Williams, all of the modeling is colored in br sereen over the m are used, including gold, and there are from four to five colors in the ornament of the other mod- led features jeling was executed by the Atlantic iant colors, For the n entrance more than ten colors drawings and sketches. Mr. Walker Atlantic plant and outlined the general treatment ‘wanted in the ornament before the modeling was started. Mr. J. Byers Hays, Designer and mem- Der of the architectural firm, spent twelve days at the Atlantic Studio while the models were pre- pared, to insure the archaic touch of the Twelfth Century. Final models were approved by photo- graphs. Lombard Romanesque permits individus its detail and many of the modeled di ‘ough keeping with the Romanesque order, and the plastic character of Terra Cotta modeling is main- tained throughout. ‘The following quotation from an article in “Cleveland Topies” by Romer Shawhan, A.1-A., ion of the architecture: “Tt seems to have remained for a Cleveland firm of architects to employ, in the Euclid Avenue Baptist Chureh, the first ‘all polychrome ‘Terra Cotta’ church design in this country. As far as known by the writer, itis the most elaborate at- tempt ever made in the use of polychrome Terra Cotta in architecture. This church is an adapta- tion of Lombard Romanesque, a style which cov- is a very complete deseriPlate IT—Atlantic Terra Cotta Teveland, O) Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio Preliminary sketch by J. Baas Have, Designer rm of Wanscen & Wenxs, drehitecte Mr. Hays’ sketch shows the church as it will fnally appear when th pleted. The tower will rise to a height of one hundred and seves‘ers a period including mainly the eleventh and ‘twelfth centuries. ‘The Province of Lombardy, in Northern Italy, situated as it was on the princi pal trade routes between the East and the West, resulted in a prosperous civilization strongly in- fluenced by Byzantine art and culture, yet, char- acterized by a marked departure from classi precedent, Added to this were ideas and decors tive forms brought down by the Northern in- vaders. ‘This, then, was the style on which the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church was based. “After considerable research and investigatio of available building materials, the architects de- cided to make the Special bricks of Terra Cotta were made by the same manufacturer who furnished the polychrome ‘ornament for the exterior. “In the faeade are incorporated various cal symbols and quotations, reaching a climax at the main entrance gable which is flanked on the north and south by heroie figures of John the Bap- tist and Roger Williams. The entrance arch un- der this gable is forty-three feet high and en- closes, about the doorway = beautiful polychro- matic Terra Cotta sereen in which are scores of symbolic animals, flowers and devices associated with the early history of the Christian religion, “Along 18th Street, a two-storied arcade ex- tends from the southern end of the property to the tower. This areade houses the rector's studies, executive offices and certain of the smaller class- rooms of the Sunday School department. “Behind the arcade rises the body of the church nave, parallel to the street. The tower, which, when completed will rise to a height of one hun- dred and seventy-five feet, gives access to the unday School building, to be completed later. At present only two stories of the Sunday School hhaye been built but it is designed to carry five additional stories, “We have heard many encouraging comments on the Baptist Church from people outside this office. You should share in these for your wonderful co- operation, and I hope that before long we can get together again. . . A letter to the Atlantic Com- pany from the Architects ofce.Plate TI—Allantie Terra Cotta Cleveland, Ohio Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio Waren & Wanxs, Architects "The Attantie ‘Ter colors are used Shadows of the a Cotta sercen over the main entrance is 9 stvikingly beautiful feature. ‘Ten uding brilliant gold. The rosettes of the sflt are gold luminous even in the (in the left Background ean be seen the upper part of the tweaty-story heatre Building, entirely of AUlantle Terra Cotta)Atlantic Terra Cotta Cleveland, Ohio Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio ‘Waucen & Winxs, Architects The hackground of the screen is x soft crimson, two shades of varied warm buff are prominent, find the other colors are gold, blue, green, two shades of yellow, black, gray, red) and creat ‘The bam columns have light Blue crudely end sparingly applied in the fates" and background of the ornament. In the sereen the gold Is strongert at the top where the shadow is deepest ‘and gradually decreases tn area until It disappears entirely at the base