The exhibition Palaces for the People: Guastavino and America’s Great Public Spaces is an impressive display. Photographs, diagrams, drawings and scale models show the beauty and breadth of the work of the Guastavino family — some one-thousand vaults and domes and ceilings in 40 states.
One of the most gorgeous examples of Guastavino skill was for the very first subway line in New York City. MIT professor John Ochsendorf, who curated the Building Museum exhibit, says the City Hall Station featured chandeliers and skylights, and green, tan and cream-colored tile work in intricate patterns — “the Mona Lisa of subway stations,” someone once observed.
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What Rafael and Rafael Guastavino did — yes, dad and son had the same first name — was to take Old World building techniques they’d learned in Barcelona in the 1800s and update them for the New World. They were like master masons transported here from the Gothic era, men who knew how to build the correct shapes to make their spaces stand up and stay incredibly durable, strong and long-lasting.
Their techniques and their talents were used by leading architects of their day.
Press release about the museum exhibition on the Guastavinos here.
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Guastavino’s work can be found in several areas of Biltmore House. The Vestibule (the photo in the slide show) is only one of several areas in the house where Guastavino Tile was used.
Vanderbilt was responsible for bringing Guastavino to the area. He actually retired in Black Mountain.
If you click through to the slideshow, there’s also Guastavino vaulting at the Biltmore, in the entryway and possibly other places.