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Historical Building Construction

Reviewed by Lester Paul Korzilius 
Approximately 900 words 

Published in Oculus, February 1997 

If you work in a small or medium sized architectural practice in New York, the chances are that alterations, renovations, or adaptations of existing buildings will form a large part of your project workload. This book will be a useful addition to your office library as it describes many of the varieties of structural systems in common use from 1840 to the present day. The author is a New York structural engineer, and all of the examples are New York buildings. The book covers wood frame on masonry bearing walls, cast iron construction, bearing wall, cage frame, and skeleton frame systems, and brick arch, terra cotta arch, draped mesh concrete, reinforced concrete, metal deck, and composite floor systems. Older curtain wall systems are briefly discussed. Even if you have considerable experience with older buildings, you will still find relevant new information in this book.

From 1840 through the 1880s, wood framing supported by exterior masonry bearing walls was the most common type of construction for both commercial and residential buildings. Older joists were not designed for deflection and are shallower than would be common practice today. The resulting bouncy floor is common in many rowhouses built in the 1880s. Beam and girder connections were mortise and tenon joints prior to 1890, and these joints are often over-stressed. The exterior walls of these buildings sometimes bow because they are not properly restrained. This mostly appears parallel to the joists when the building is wider than twenty feet, or on facades that have many windows.

A cage frame building has a wrought iron or steel frame independent of exterior walls. Exterior masonry walls are self-supporting the full height of the building, and are tied to the frame. The Ansonia on Broadway, and many apartment houses from the 1890=s and early 1900=s on the upper east and west sides of New York have this type of construction. The exterior wall increases in thickness nearer to the ground, and this thickness (originally only 4" less than bearing wall buildings), can fool many architects into believing that it is a bearing wall building. The cage frame relies on the exterior masonry wall for wind bracing. Care must be taken when removing portions of this wall, for example when enlarging a storefront.

A skeleton frame carries all floors, and supports the exterior wall on its wrought iron or steel frame, typically at every floor. This is the framing type used in highrise buildings today. The first skeleton frame appeared in New York in 1889. The New York City building code was slow to accept change, and amazingly required that exterior masonry walls increase in thickness nearer to the ground. Early skeleton frame buildings did not use expansion or relieving joints on the exterior walls. As a result, the exterior masonry inadvertently took loading due to sway of the frame, and providing significant stiffness. Another problem detail from this time was the placement of columns and spandrel beams relative to the external wall. Often the face of steel (when not encased in concrete) was only covered on the exterior by one 4" wythe of brick. This allowed water to penetrate and corrode the wrought iron or steel, despite the use of asphaltic coatings. There are instances where the metal has rusted through and the spandrel beams were supported by only the exterior infill walls.

With the advent of stricter building codes for fireproof construction, the two most popular fireproof floor systems were terra cotta tile arches on steel framing, and draped mesh concrete slabs on steel framing. Tile arches were most common from 1880 to 1920, and draped mesh concrete slabs from 1920 to W.W.II.

Terra cotta tile arches were individual sections approximately 12" deep placed between steel or wrought iron beams four to six feet on centers. The terra cotta sections would span by flat arch action between the beams. Cinder concrete was used as a topping to get a level floor. The book has many excellent diagrams illustrating the wide variety of terra cotta arch systems. Care must be taken in modifying these floors, as the terra cotta arch must span from beam to beam. Slab penetrations may require the removal of the entire length of arch. Also, mechanical attachments (for ceilings, ductwork, etc.), should not be made into the terra cotta, as this can destroy the arch. Attachments should be made directly to the floor beams, or existing hangers reused if possible.

Draped mesh concrete slabs have a wire mesh that spans between steel floor beams five to seven feet on center. The wire mesh acts alone in catenary action to support the span. Concrete is used only to obtain a level floor, and to encase the floor beams for fire protection. With this system the concrete is not stressed, and therefore concrete quality control is not as important.

Many excellent drawings illustrate this book. While curtainwalls are covered, they are not covered in detail. Particularly with early masonry curtainwalls the author could have given more information with regards the anchoring and attachment methods and materials then in use. The development of structural steel is well covered, but the development of reinforced concrete is lacking. Current practice in New York uses all concrete frames and slabs for residential buildings and steel frame and composite decks for commercial projects. A timeline for the shift of steel to all concrete for residential buildings would have been helpful to practicing architects. 

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