FECOVAL: Valencian Builders to Welcome New Yorkers

Perhaps it is a coincidence that the direct flight connecting Valencia and New York will bring Americans to Valencia’s beaches on D-Day, June 6^th, or perhaps some Delta Airlines planners had studied their history. Either way, FECOVAL, the Valencian Construction Federation for Public Works, has set up a photographic exhibition about Rafael Guastavino in Valencia Airport’s Departure Lounge to see off and to greet and remind New Yorkers (and Valencians) that this Valencian builder and architect helped shape the face of their city, contributing on an extraordinary scale to the construction of some of their most emblematic buildings.

FECOVAL General Secretary Eduardo Beut told Vibnews that “two basic features have always defined FECOVAL: contractors and Valencians. There could be no better representation of both aspects than Rafael Guastavino and the Guastavino Company. The Federation is thus honoured to be able to collaborate in increasing the exposure of the work of a Valencian who helped to build the new world from the old”.

Guastavino tile is the "Tile Arch System" patented in the US in 1885 by Valencian architect and builder Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908). It is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar to form a thin skin, with the tiles following the curve of the roof as opposed to horizontal (corbelling), or perpendicular to the curve (Roman).

Guastavino was also an architect in his own right, but he is more important for his patented tiling system which appears in a huge number of architecturally important and famous buildings, which derive their flexibly vaulted spaces from his unique vaulting.

He arrived in New York City in 1881 at the age of 40 with his nine year old son. In Spain he'd been an accomplished architect trained in Barcelona and a contemporary of Antoni Gaudí, whose work plays a leading role in New Yorker Woody Allen’s Spanish film ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’.

Guastavino wanted to immigrate to America after architectural plans he submitted to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition earned him a medal of merit in 1876. He believed he could acquire better building materials and more job opportunities there, although at first, he had trouble finding work. His techniques were not well understood in America.

Literally hundreds of other major building projects incorporate the distinctive Tile Arch System. In Chicago, the central nave vaulting of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago used 100,000 Guastavino tiles. In Boston Guastavino tiles are to be found in the Boston Public Library; in New York, in Grand Central Terminal, Grant's Tomb, Carnegie Hall, the U.S. Supreme Court building, the American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West, Congregation Emanu-El of New York, and St. Bartolomew's Episcopal Church on Park Avenue. Guastavino tiles form the domes of St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church (Philadelphia), and in Union Station (Pittsburgh), the vaulting of the carriage turnaround is a Guastavino tile system. In Nebraska they can be seen in the Nebraska State Capitol.

The tiles of the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company were fireproof, laminated tile used for wide arches that created a unique vaulted spatial effect. His fire-resistant construction method was a major selling point, given the great fire that had ravaged Chicago in 1871.

The Guastavinos specialized in constructing self-supporting tile arches that were light, strong, fireproof and economical. Their beautiful thin-shell ceiling tiles grace numerous buildings.

A walking tour of New York's Upper West Side reveals many of Guastavino's works, including the tiles in the Holy Trinity Church, the vehicular entrance to the American Museum of Natural History on Central Park West, and the porte-cochere at the Ansonia. Outside the Upper West Side, other Guastavino works include St. Paul's Chapel on the Columbia University campus, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Western Union Building on Hudson Street, the City Hall subway station, the Grand Central's Oyster Bar, the Church of Notre Dame, the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. Custom House, the Plaza and St. Regis hotels, the Bronx Zoo, Temple Emanu-El, Lenox Hill Hospital, the Cloisters, St. Bartholomew's and St. Vincent Ferrer (the patron saint of Valencia) churches, and the Municipal Building. Many of these structures are among the most famous and distinctive in the country.

In 1900, New York architects Heins & LaFarge hired Guastavino to help create City Hall station, the underground showpiece for the IRT, the first part of the emerging New York City underground. The station closed in 1945 and thereafter became a legendary Manhattan underground relic, a must for fans of urban legends.

Having experienced Ellis Island as an incoming immigrant, in 1917 the younger Guastavino was commissioned to rebuild the ceiling of the Ellis Island Great Hall. The Guastavinos set 28,832 tiles into a self-supporting interlocking 17 metre high ceiling grid so strong that during the restoration project of the 1980s only 17 tiles needed replacing.

Much of Guastavino's output can be found in the north-eastern United States, including 360 works in New York, 100 in Boston, 30 in Pittsburgh, and 20 in Philadelphia. Examples of his work also can be found in ten other countries. His most famous accomplishments include vaults in Grand Central Station, Saint Patrick Cathedral, Saint John the Divine Cathedral, Mount Sinai Hospital, and City Hall Station. Buildings include Grant's Tomb, the Great Hall at Ellis Island, Carnegie Hall, and the chapel at West Point. Other famous projects in other parts of the country include the Nebraska State Capitol and the U.S. Army War College in Washington, D.C.

Guastavino's distinctive architectural stamp is also a strong presence in North Carolina. After working on a commission at the Biltmore Estate, Guastavino discovered the beauties of Piedmont North Carolina and retired to Black Mountain. Along with the St. Lawrence church, the Biltmore House, and the Duke Chapel, famous sites include the Jefferson Standard Building in Greensboro, the Motley Memorial in Chapel Hill, and St. Mary's Catholic Church in Wilmington. But it is the St. Lawrence church that remains perhaps the best-known structure in that state. He is buried in its crypt, which he designed in 1905. Guastavino had decided to work on the church after he tried attending services one morning and was turned away because it was too crowded. He offered his services to help build a much larger church. Construction began in 1905 but was unfinished when Guastavino died in 1908. His son finished the project.

Few structures designed and built by Guastavino alone have been identified. He was responsible for a series of houses with unusual Moresque features on West 78th Street (121-131 known as the "red and whites"), in Manhattan's Upper West Side, which survive. His son Rafael's Mediterranean villa (1912) built entirely of Guastavino tiles, which the company manufactured itself at its factory in Woburn, Massachusetts, still stands on Awixa Avenue, Bay Shore, Long Island.

The records and drawings of the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company are held by the Department of Drawings & Archives in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in New York City.

In all, by 1891 the company created with his son, Rafael Guastavino Jr. (1872-1950) had offices in New York, Boston, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Providence, Rhode Island. They would eventually hold 24 patents. Their company, Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company was incorporated in 1889 and executed its final contract in 1962. Eventually, steel and concrete building methods were deemed more practical than Catalan vaulting, and the firm went out of business in 1962. While Guastavino's techniques produced greater beauty, they could not compete with newer, cheaper building techniques.

So influential were the Guastavinos that one of the city of skyscraper’s most prestigious restaurants today bears their name and their characteristic soaring vaults.

‘Guastavino’s’, an architectural masterpiece and designated New York City interior landmark, is available for banquets, weddings, cocktail receptions, and corporate events. Situated under the 59th Street Bridge (the title itself of a famous song by Simon and Garfunkle, subtitled ‘Feeling Groovy’) with its soaring granite arches and vaulted tiled ceiling.

In addition to the 25,000 square foot interior, Guastavino’s’ also has a private garden.
Guastavino’s is part of D&D London, with properties in London, Paris, Copenhagen and new openings to come in Tokyo, Guastavino's.

Señor Beut of FECOVAL is himself a great fan of New York and frequently visits the windy city on business, making sure to fit in a couple of basketball matches too. In fact this ex-trainer is cited in Pau Gasol’s autobiography as having been the first person to recognise his potential.