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53-502: The Wainwright Building (also known as the Wainwright State Office Building ) is a 10-story, 41 m (135 ft) terra cotta office building at 709 Chestnut Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri . The Wainwright Building is considered to be one of the first aesthetically fully expressed early skyscrapers . It was designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and built between 1890 and 1891. It

106-447: A "plain business structure" stating: In a utilitarian age like ours it is safe to assume that the real-estate owner and the investor in buildings will continue to erect the class of buildings from which the greatest possible revenue can be obtained with the least possible outlay ... The purpose of erecting buildings other than those required for the shelter of their owners is specifically that of making investments for profit. The building

159-498: A ceramic glaze. Terracotta sculptures in the West were rarely left in their "raw" fired state until the 18th century. Terracotta female figurines were uncovered by archaeologists in excavations of Mohenjo-daro , Pakistan (3000–1500 BCE). Along with phallus-shaped stones, these suggest some sort of fertility cult. The Burney Relief is an outstanding terracotta plaque from Ancient Mesopotamia of about 1950 BCE. In Mesoamerica ,

212-574: A government auction for $ 8 Million. The buyer, Park Equity LLC, is affiliated with Greater St. Louis Inc., an urban development fund. Terra cotta Usage and definitions of the term vary, such as: Glazed architectural terracotta and its unglazed version as exterior surfaces for buildings were used in East Asia for centuries before becoming popular in the West in the 19th century. Architectural terracotta can also refer to decorated ceramic elements such as antefixes and revetments , which had

265-660: A large impact on the appearance of temples and other buildings in the classical architecture of Europe , as well as in the Ancient Near East . This article covers the senses of terracotta as a medium in sculpture, as in the Terracotta Army and Greek terracotta figurines , and architectural decoration. East Asian and European sculpture in porcelain is not covered. Prior to firing, terracotta clays are easy to shape. Shaping techniques include throwing , slip casting as well as others . After drying, it

318-411: A speciality of terracotta temples, with the sculpted decoration from the same material as the main brick construction. Terracotta tiles have also been used extensively for floors since ancient times. The quality of terracotta floor tiles depends on the suitability of the clay, the manufacturing methods (kiln-fired being more durable than sun baked), and whether the terracotta tiles are sealed or not. In

371-400: A symbol. The ornamentation for the building includes a wide frieze below the deep cornice , which expresses the formalized yet naturalistic celery-leaf foliage typical of Sullivan and published in his System of Architectural Ornament , decorated spandrels between the windows on the different floors and an elaborate door surround at the main entrance. "Apart from the slender brick piers,

424-535: A very early date. The famous Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang , 209–210 BCE, was somewhat untypical, and two thousand years ago reliefs were more common, in tombs and elsewhere. Later Buddhist figures were often made in painted and glazed terracotta, with the Yixian glazed pottery luohans , probably of 1150–1250, now in various Western museums, among the most prominent examples. Brick-built tombs from

477-475: Is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in classical architecture , it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture . A horizontal oculus in the center of a dome is also called opaion (from Ancient Greek ὀπαῖον  '(smoke) hole'; pl. : opaia ). An oeil-de-boeuf ( French: [œj.də.bœf] ; English: "bull's eye" ), also œil de bœuf and sometimes anglicized as ox-eye window ,

530-401: Is a limit on the stress that can be imposed on terracotta, and terracotta statues of unsupported standing figures are limited to well under life-size unless extra structural support is added. This is also because large figures are extremely difficult to fire, and surviving examples often show sagging or cracks. The Yixian figures were fired in several pieces, and have iron rods inside to hold

583-412: Is a relatively small elliptical window , typically for an upper storey, and sometimes set in a roof slope as a dormer , or above a door to let in natural light . These are relatively small windows, traditionally oval. The term is increasingly used for circular windows (in which case it could also be called an oculus), but not for holes in domes or ceilings. Windows of this type are commonly found in

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636-610: Is considered the first skyscraper to forgo the normal ornamentation used on skyscrapers at the time. Some architectural elements from the building have been removed in renovations and taken to the Sauget, Illinois storage site of the National Building Arts Center . Upon its initial completion, the Wainwright Building was "popular with the people" and received "favorably" by critics. In 1968,

689-735: Is credited with having rescued the Wainwright Building from a construction project. The neighboring Lincoln Trust building (later known as the Title Guaranty building; designed by Eames and Young , built in 1898 at 706 Chestnut St.) was demolished to make way for the Gateway Mall in 1983. Carolyn Toft, Landmarks Association's executive director, stated that this building "... formed an ensemble with three other late-19th century commercial buildings, including [the Wainwright Building], that could not be equaled anywhere else in

742-522: Is placed in a kiln or, more traditionally, in a pit covered with combustible material, then fired . The typical firing temperature is around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), though it may be as low as 600 °C (1,112 °F) in historic and archaeological examples. During this process, the iron oxides in the body reacts with oxygen, often resulting in the reddish colour known as terracotta . However, color can vary widely, including shades of yellow, orange, buff, red, pink, grey or brown. A final method

795-487: Is seasonal, reaching its peak during the harvest festival, when new pottery and votive idols are required. During the rest of the year, the makers rely on agriculture or some other means of income. The designs are often redundant as crafters apply similar reliefs and techniques for different subjects. Customers suggest subjects and uses for each piece. To sustain the legacy, the Indian Government has established

848-614: Is to carve fired bricks or other terracotta shapes. This technique is less common, but examples can be found in the architecture of Bengal on Hindu temples and mosques. Terracotta is not watertight , but its porousness decreases when the body is surface-burnished before firing. Glazes can used to decrease permeability and hence increase watertightness. Unglazed terracotta is suitable for use below ground to carry pressurized water (an archaic use), for garden pots and irrigation or building decoration in many environments, and for oil containers, oil lamps, or ovens. Most other uses require

901-661: The Aphrodite Heyl ; the Romans too made great numbers of small figurines, which were often used in a religious context as cult statues or temple decorations. Etruscan art often used terracotta in preference to stone even for larger statues, such as the near life-size Apollo of Veii and the Sarcophagus of the Spouses . Campana reliefs are Ancient Roman terracotta reliefs , originally mostly used to make friezes for

954-564: The Gupta period and the centuries immediately following it. Several vigorous local popular traditions of terracotta folk sculpture remain active today, such as the Bankura horses . Precolonial West African sculpture also made extensive use of terracotta. The regions most recognized for producing terracotta art in that part of the world include the Nok culture of central and north-central Nigeria ,

1007-544: The Han dynasty were often finished on the interior wall with bricks decorated on one face; the techniques included molded reliefs. Later tombs contained many figures of protective spirits and animals and servants for the afterlife, including the famous horses of the Tang dynasty ; as an arbitrary matter of terminology these tend not to be referred to as terracottas. European medieval art made little use of terracotta sculpture, until

1060-518: The Ife - Benin cultural axis in western and southern Nigeria (also noted for its exceptionally naturalistic sculpture), and the Igbo culture area of eastern Nigeria, which excelled in terracotta pottery. These related, but separate, traditions also gave birth to elaborate schools of bronze and brass sculpture in the area. Chinese sculpture made great use of terracotta, with and without glazing and color, from

1113-612: The Sanskriti Museum of Indian Terracotta in New Delhi . The initiative encourages ongoing work in this medium through displays terracotta from different sub-continent regions and periods. In 2010, the India Post Service issued a stamp commemorating the craft which shows a terracotta doll from the craft museum. Oeil-de-boeuf An oculus (from Latin oculus  'eye'; pl. : oculi )

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1166-720: The 10th century. In Constantinople 's Myrelaion Church (c. 920), there are two oculi above the stringcourse on both lateral facades. Early examples of the oculus in Renaissance architecture can be seen in Florence Cathedral , in the nave clerestory and topping the crowns of the arcade arches. Since the revival of dome construction beginning in the Italian Renaissance , open oculi have been replaced by light-transmitting cupolas and other round windows, openings, and skylights . They can be seen in

1219-400: The 19th century, the possibilities of terracotta decoration for buildings were again appreciated by architects, often using thicker pieces of terracotta and styled surfaces. The American architect Louis Sullivan is well known for his elaborate glazed terracotta ornamentation, designs that would have been impossible to execute in any other medium. Terracotta and tile were used extensively in

1272-541: The Roman Emperors adorning Hampton Court Palace , by Giovanni da Maiano , 1521, were another example of Italian work in England. They were originally painted but this has now been lost from weathering. In the 18th-century unglazed terracotta, which had long been used for preliminary clay models or maquettes that were then fired, became fashionable as a material for small sculptures including portrait busts. It

1325-453: The Romans and is seen nowhere else in the country. Contemporary centres for terracotta figurines include West Bengal , Bihar , Jharkhand , Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu . In Bishnupur , West Bengal, the terracotta pattern–panels on the temples are known for their intricate details. The Bankura Horse is also very famous and belongs to the Bengal school of terracotta. Madhya Pradesh is one of

1378-494: The Wainwright as "a building with a strong, vigorously articulated base supporting a screen that constitutes a vivid image of powerful upward movement." The base contained retail stores that required wide glazed openings; Sullivan's ornament made the supporting piers read as pillars. Above it the semi-public nature of offices up a single flight of stairs are expressed as broad windows in the curtain wall . A cornice separates

1431-402: The baking time, the colour differed from red to light orange. The Satavahanas used two different moulds- one for the front and the other for the back and kept a piece of clay in each mould and joined them together, making some artefacts hollow from within. Some Satavahana terracotta artefacts also seem to have a thin strip of clay joining the two moulds. This technique may have been imported from

1484-569: The building was designated as a National Historic Landmark and in 1972 it was named a city landmark. The Wainwright building was initially rescued from demolition by the National Trust for Historic Preservation when the Trust took an option on the structure. Later, it was acquired by Missouri as part of a state office complex and the St. Louis Landmarks Association, in one of its early victories,

1537-409: The country. Saving the Wainwright was important, but how much more important it would have been to save the entire group." Architect John D. Randall led an extensive letter-writing campaign to the governor and other noted officials; the campaign resulted in the restoration of the building as a state office building instead of its demolition. The building housed state offices until it was sold in 2024 at

1590-598: The dome of the Pantheon, Rome . Open to the weather, it allows rain and air to enter and fall to the floor, where it is carried away through drains. Though the opening looks small, it actually has a diameter of 8.7 m (29 feet), allowing it to light the building. The oculus was widely used in the architecture of the Byzantine Empire . It was applied to buildings in Syria in the 5th and 6th centuries and again in

1643-463: The fingers, allows the artist to take a more free and flexible approach. Small details that might be impractical to carve in stone, of hair or costume for example, can easily be accomplished in terracotta, and drapery can sometimes be made up of thin sheets of clay that make it much easier to achieve a realistic effect. Reusable mold-making techniques may be used for production of many identical pieces. Compared to marble sculpture and other stonework,

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1696-418: The finished product is far lighter and may be further painted and glazed to produce objects with color or durable simulations of metal patina. Robust durable works for outdoor use require greater thickness and so will be heavier, with more care needed in the drying of the unfinished piece to prevent cracking as the material shrinks. Structural considerations are similar to those required for stone sculpture; there

1749-459: The glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line." His 1896 article cited his Wainwright Building as an example. Despite the classical column concept, the building's design was deliberately modern , featuring none of the neoclassical style that Sullivan held in contempt. Historian Carl W. Condit described

1802-663: The grand architecture of Baroque France . The term is also applied to similar round windows, such as those found in Georgian architecture in Great Britain, and later Greek Revival and Colonial Revival styles in North America, so that must be considered part of the usage. The term initially applied to horizontal elliptical windows, but is also used for vertical ones. The spread is not limited to ecclesiastical architecture. This type of window can also be found in

1855-599: The great majority of Olmec figurines were in terracotta. Many ushabti mortuary statuettes were also made of terracotta in Ancient Egypt . The Ancient Greeks ' Tanagra figurines were mass-produced mold-cast and fired terracotta figurines, that seem to have been widely affordable in the Hellenistic period , and often purely decorative in function. They were part of a wide range of Greek terracotta figurines , which included larger and higher-quality works such as

1908-519: The late 14th century, when it became used in advanced International Gothic workshops in parts of Germany. The Virgin illustrated at the start of the article from Bohemia is the unique example known from there. A few decades later, there was a revival in the Italian Renaissance , inspired by excavated classical terracottas as well as the German examples, which gradually spread to the rest of Europe. In Florence , Luca della Robbia (1399/1400–1482)

1961-521: The late Romanesque period in the area of secular architecture in the castles of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 to 1250, ( Castel del Monte , Palazzo San Gervasio , on the donjon in the castle of Lucera, etc.), later also in Renaissance palaces and villas and in the Baroque. The oculus was used in Ancient Roman architecture , one of the finest examples being that in

2014-413: The material to be glazed, such as tableware, sanitary piping, or building decorations built for freezing environments. Terracotta will also ring if lightly struck, as long as it is not cracked. Painted ( polychrome ) terracotta is typically first covered with a thin coat of gesso , then painted. It is widely used, but only suitable for indoor positions and much less durable than fired colors in or under

2067-510: The most famous is The Abduction of Hippodameia depicting the Greek mythological scene of a centaur kidnapping Hippodameia on her wedding day. Terracotta tiles have a long history in many parts of the world. Many ancient and traditional roofing styles included more elaborate sculptural elements than the plain roof tiles , such as Chinese Imperial roof decoration and the antefix of western classical architecture . In India West Bengal made

2120-599: The most prominent production centres of terracotta art today. The tribes of the Bastar have a rich tradition. They make intricate designs and statues of animals and birds. Hand-painted clay and terracotta products are produced in Gujarat . The Aiyanar cult in Tamil Nadu is associated with life-size terracotta statues. Traditional terracotta sculptures, mainly religious, also continue to be made. The demand for this craft

2173-410: The only solids of the wall surface are the spandrel panels between the windows. ... . They have rich decorative patterns in low relief, varying in design and scale with each story." The frieze is pierced by unobtrusive bull's-eye windows that light the top-story floor, originally containing water tanks and elevator machinery. The building includes embellishments of terra cotta , a building material that

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2226-463: The outside of buildings, as a cheaper substitute for stone. Indian sculpture made heavy use of terracotta from as early as the Indus Valley civilization (with stone and metal sculpture being rather rare), and in more sophisticated areas had largely abandoned modeling for using molds by the 1st century BCE. This allows relatively large figures, nearly up to life-size, to be made, especially in

2279-424: The reputation of the material. By about 1930, the widespread use of concrete and Modernist architecture largely ended the use of terracotta in architecture. As compared to bronze sculpture , terracotta uses a far simpler and quicker process for creating the finished work with much lower material costs. The easier task of modelling, typically with a limited range of knives and wooden shaping tools, but mainly using

2332-414: The second floor from the grid of identical windows of the screen wall, where each window is "a cell in a honeycomb, nothing more". The building's windows and horizontals were inset slightly behind columns and piers, as part of a "vertical aesthetic" to create what Sullivan called "a proud and soaring thing." This perception has since been criticized as the skyscraper was designed to make money, not to serve as

2385-574: The structure together. Terracotta has been a medium for art since the Harappan civilization, although techniques used differed in each time period. In the Mauryan times, they were mainly figures of mother goddesses, indicating a fertility cult. Moulds were used for the face, whereas the body was hand-modelled. In the Shungan times, a single mould was used to make the entire figure and depending upon

2438-442: The top floor was for water tanks and building machinery. Aesthetically, the Wainwright Building exemplifies Sullivan's theories about the tall building, which included a tripartite (three-part) composition (base-shaft-attic) based on the structure of the classical column, and his desire to emphasize the height of the building. He wrote: "[The skyscraper] must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it

2491-427: The town buildings of Victorian Birmingham , England. Terracotta was marketed as a miracle material, largely impervious to the elements. Terracotta, however, can be damaged by water penetration, exposure, or failure through faulty design or installation. An excessive faith in the durability of the material led to shortcuts in design and execution, coupled with a belief that the material did not require maintenance, tainted

2544-484: Was a sculptor who founded a family dynasty specializing in glazed and painted terracotta, especially large roundels which were used to decorate the exterior of churches and other buildings. These used the same techniques as contemporary maiolica and other tin-glazed pottery . Other sculptors included Pietro Torrigiano (1472–1528), who produced statues, and in England busts of the Tudor royal family. The unglazed busts of

2597-406: Was gaining popularity at the time of construction. One of Sullivan's primary concerns was the development of an architectural symbolism consisting of simple geometric, structural forms and organic ornamentation. The Wainwright Building where he juxtaposed the objective-tectonic and the subjective-organic was the first demonstration of this symbolism. Unlike Sullivan, Adler described the building as

2650-533: Was listed by an episode of the PBS series 10 That Changed America as one of "10 Buildings That Changed America" because it was "the first skyscraper that truly looked the part" with Sullivan being dubbed the "Father of Skyscrapers." The Wainwright building was commissioned by Ellis Wainwright, a St. Louis brewer . Wainwright needed office space to manage the St Louis Brewers Association. It

2703-598: Was much easier to work than carved materials, and allowed a more spontaneous approach by the artist. Claude Michel (1738–1814), known as Clodion , was an influential pioneer in France . John Michael Rysbrack (1694–1770), a Flemish portrait sculptor working in England, sold his terracotta modelli for larger works in stone, and produced busts only in terracotta. In the next century the French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse made many terracotta pieces, but possibly

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2756-517: Was named for local brewer , building contractor , and financier Ellis Wainwright . The building, listed as a landmark both locally and nationally, is described as "a highly influential prototype of the modern office building" by the National Register of Historic Places . Architect Frank Lloyd Wright called the Wainwright Building "the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as Architecture ." In May 2013 it

2809-572: Was the second major commission for a tall building won by the Adler & Sullivan firm, which had grown to international prominence after the creation of the ten-story Auditorium Building in Chicago (designed in 1886 and completed in 1889). As designed, the first floor of the Wainwright Building was intended for street-accessible shops, with the second floor filled with easily accessible public offices. The higher floors were for "honeycomb" offices, while

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