Terra-Cotta Skyline: New York's Architectural Ornament

Terra-Cotta Skyline: New York's Architectural Ornament by Tunick, Susan. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781568981055.

Any city walker knows the delight that a flash of colorful ornament can bestow on an otherwise gray promenade. More often than not, these glazed splashes of color are made of terra cotta, which for more than 100 years has been an integral -- but largely unknown -- part of Americas architectural legacy. Beginning in the nineteenth century, peaking in the Art Deco period, and enjoying a renaissance today, terra cotta has been used to ornament facades, rooflines, doors, and windows and create many of the most famous and fanciful architectural reliefs. Terra-Cotta Skyline presents the history, manufacture, and art of architectural terra cotta through documents, drawings, archival photographs, and brilliant new color images commissioned exclusively for this book. Also included is a catalog of 200 extant terra-cotta buildings in New York, as well as directories of terra-cotta manufacturers and preservation organizations.