Architectural Geology of Indiana, Part 4: Cornered! | Purdue National Bank, West Lafayette (1914)

The lower right-hand corner of the trim surrounding the bank's large set of windows on the northern elevation.

To see this spot in its larger context, go to Part 1 of this series.

This building's designer, Louis Sullivan, was a botany enthusiast of the first order, and no other architect has ever made better use of plant forms than he did.

Some years ago I was lucky enough to get a 1964 facsimile reprinting, in original folio format, of Sullivan's swan-song book, A System of Architectural Ornament, According with a Philosophy of Man's Powers. In it he states that the seed and the germ (plant embryo) contained within it are his primal symbolic element:

"The Germ is the real thing; the seat of identity. Within its delicate mechanism lies the will to power: the function which is to seek and eventually to find its full expression in form."

It certainly sounds as though he'd been reading an eclectic blend of Asa Gray and Friedrich Nietzsche. But whatever its philosophical underpinnings, his ornament characteristically abounds with Plant Kingdom allusions, as is obvious in the American Terra Cotta Company trim shown here.

In some cases, the plant motifs are painstakingly accurate, as with the curled, wonderfully three-dimensional leaves of Red Oak (Quercus rubra). But there also shapes of a much more abstract order. They may possibly be squared-off, stripped-down, long-stalked versions of Holly (Ilex spp.) foliage. These have assumed an elegant geometry all their own, and are surmounted by clusters of spherical, berrylike fruit. Or are those the lieber Meister's power-generating seeds?

At this close range, it's also interesting to note how the glazed surfaces have fared over the decades. In a few places the bisque, the underlying, buff-colored fired clay, seems to be visible. While the glaze coating was formulated with, among other things, ball clays imported from England, the bisque itself originated as Pleistocene Lemont Formation glacial till mined on the American plant property in what is now Crystal Lake, Illinois.

And in this shot we get a really good look at the rough-textured Crawfordsville Brick, derived from shale of the Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) Borden Group. It exhibits quite a range of colors, sometimes even within the confines of a single brick. There are a number of factors that can cause such chromatic variability. These include

- Slight variations in the geochemical makeup of the source shales;

- How close each brick was set to the kiln's heat source;

- How hot the kiln was during each run of bricks;

- Subsequent weathering and soot accumulation, which can be remarkably nonuniform.

I've found one reputable source that states that Crawfordsville Brick was originally a bright and cheerful red tone, and some of that color is indeed evident in this image.

The other photos and descriptions of this series can be found in my Architectural Geology of Indiana album.

Taken in: United States / Indiana / Wabash Township / West Lafayette (show map)

Taken on: August 2, 2006

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Camera: NIKON COOLPIX S4, f/3.5, 1/80 sec, 6.3mm, ISO 50 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	NIKON COOLPIX S4
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	6.3mm
ISO:	50
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
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