Select readings 7b and 7c (Note: reading 7a is available either as a poor-quality pdf version through the library course reserve, or directly as an html version at: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jo24/comments/brick.html and http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jo24/comments/stone.html.

Due: March 3, 2003

7a. Jonathan Ochshorn, "Brick in 20th-Century Architecture," and "Stone in 20th-Century Architecture," Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture

1. The potential of using masonry materials as "veneer" covering a more pragmatic structural framing or bearing wall system has been explored at least as far back as classical Rome. Discuss James Stirling's use of stone veneer in Cornell's Performing Arts Center in terms of expression and tectonics.

7b. Jacques Heyman, The Stone Skeleton

1. Of the three major structural criteria (strength, stiffness, and stability), which is the most important in the design of masonry structures?

2. Instead of asking about loads, allowable stresses, or margins of safety, what did ancient designers of masonry structures look at to ensure adequate stability, strength, and stiffness?

3. Is cracking in a masonry structure a sign of failure or incipient collapse?

4. Are scale models useful or not useful to check a structure's a) stabilty; b) strength?

7c. Robert Mark, "Quintessential High Gothic: Amiens Cathedral and Medieval Engineering," Experiments in Gothic Structure

1. What is the structural purpose of the pinnacles at Amiens?

2. What is the structural purpose of the upper tier of flying buttresses?