Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ............... Traditional Building Materials Used in Buffalo, NY

Masonry

Includes all stone products, all brick products and all concrete block units, including decorative and customized blocks.

Ashlar


Ashlar brick
(rock-faced brick): A brick whose face has been hacked to resemble roughly hacked stone

Ashlar masonry: Smooth square or rectangular stones laid with mortar in horizontal courses

Broken rangework masonry: Stone masonry laid in horizontal courses of different heights, any one course of which may be broken into two or more courses

Course

Coursed masonry: Masonry construction in which the stones are laid in regular courses, not irregularly as in rough or random stonework

Coursed rubble: A rubble wall having approximately level beds at intervals to continuous level courses

Cyclopean masonry: Often found in ancient cultures, characterized by huge irregular stones laid without mortar and without any form of coursing. (In Greek mythology, the Cyclopes were the three one-eyed Titans who forged thunderbolts for Zeus, or were the race of one-eyed giants descended from the Titans.)


Dressed stone: Stone that has been worked to desired shape

Facing: An ornamental or protective layer

Quarry-faced: Squared blocks with rough surfaces that look as if they just came out of the ground, squared off only for the joints; usually used in massive work (e.g., Onondaga limestone foundations in older Buffalo houses).   Having a face left as it comes from the quarry and not smoothed with the chisel or point; - said of stones.

Pebble dash (pebble wall masonry)

Quoin


Random Ashlar: Ashlar masonry where stones appear to be laid without a drawn pattern, although the pattern may be repeated

Rubble masonry: Very irregular stone, used primarily on the construction of foundations and walls where the irregular quality is desirable

Rusticated masonry: Coursed stone in which each block is separated by deep joints. The surface is usually very rough.

Vermiculated


Photos and their arrangement © 2002 Chuck LaChiusa
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