NPR: New exhibition highlights Guastavino family’s architectural work in public spaces

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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NPR had a great story on Monday about a new exhibition up at the National Building Museum that features the work of the Guastavino family in America. The Guastavino’s did the work on the amazing dome inside the Basilica of St. Lawrence in downtown Asheville. From NPR:

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.

…

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.

Slideshow here.