Architect & Calligrapher

New Orleans architect-educator Milton G. Scheuermann, Jr. retired from the Tulane School of Architecture (TSA) this spring after 56 years. This month, the Southeastern Architectural Archive opened a new exhibit in his honor. Titled Medieval Louisiana, the exhibit highlights Scheuermann's polyphonic associations.

For many years, Scheuermann taught TSA calligraphy classes, and provided his lettering skills to non-profit and carnival organizations. In 1987, Save Our Cemeteries asked him to create the lettering for John Geiser's "Certificate of Appreciation" (shown above).

Scheuermann's work can also be found at the corner of Canal and Broad Streets, in the iron ornamentation of the former Whitney Bank building (now Family Dollar).

Images above:  Milton Scheuermann, Jr. "Certificate of Appreciation." New Orleans: Save Our Cemeteries, 1987. John Geiser III Papers, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Milton Scheuermann, Jr. Ornamental Iron for Whitney National Bank. Parham & Labouisse, architects. 1964-66. 2650 Canal Street, corner South Broad. Broad Street detail from Google Street view. 2015.

Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

I recently purchased an old copy press of unknown manufacture, possibly made in New England, circa late 1840s- early 1860s. These presses have frequently been adopted by bookbinders and paper-makers, their original function forgotten. Most bankers' offices would have included presses such as these, for they served as a means of copying documents.

Architects had long lamented the need for time-consuming handcopying of documents such as deeds, conveyances and charters. According to the Journal of the Society of Arts, the British architect Christopher Wren took out a patent in the seventeenth century for a polygraph instrument, a device which could write with two pens at one time (Rhodes & Streeter, 16). The duplicate would thus be created simultaneously with the original. Certainly, early polygraph devices informed the creation of the Leroy Lettering Set, discussed in an earlier post.

James Watts, the progenitor of copy presses such as the one represented above, advertised a large press in 1811 for specific use "copying the outlines of plans, sections, and other Architectural and Mechanical Drawings." His device required placing a dampened heavy paper on top of the original large-format drawing; after applying pressure, a transfer/reverse drawing was created. In 1892 Knaffl offered a copying ink comprised of pyrogallic acid, cupric sulfate, ferric chloride, and uranium acetate of "special value to architects and engineers, since, without moistening the original drawing or the copying paper, it yields copies of such sharpness that the finest lines of the original are reproduced. To be sure, the ink is rather expensive, but that is of little importance, since from drawings, buildings, plans, etc. executed with it two or three copies can easily be produced." (Lehner, 95) With Knaffl's architectural ink, no damping was required: drawings and plans executed with the ink were transferred to a sheet of bristol board (heavy, smooth paper) after being placed under a smooth wooden board upon which books were evenly distributed for three to five days.

To read more, see:

Andrew, James. "The Copying of Engineering Drawings and Documents." Transactions of the Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology 53 (1981-82): pp. 1-15.

Lehner, Sigmund. The Manufacture of Ink. Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1892.

Rhodes, Barbara and William W. Streeter. Before Photocopying: The Art & History of Mechanical Copying, 1780-1938: A Book in Two Parts. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1999.

Sugarman, Jane E. "Observations on the Materials and Techniques Used in 19th-Century American Architectural Presentation Drawings." The Book and Paper Group Annual 5 (1986). URL: http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v05/bp05-05.html Viewed 03.02.2009.

Underwood, John. "On the History and Chemistry of Writing, Printing, and Copying Inks, and a New Plan of Taking Manifold Copies of Written and Printed Documents, Maps, Charts, Plans, and Drawings." Journal of the Society of Arts 5 (1857): pp. 7-8.

"Wren's Copying Instrument," Journal of the Society of Arts 47 (1899): p. 886.

Slab Serifs on the West Bank

The New Orleans architectural firm of Curtis and Davis designed the Louisiana Power and Light Building on Algiers Point (completed 1966), which is the first tall structure one encounters when disembarking the ferry.  Built at an estimated cost of $1.1 million, the building is sheathed in panels featuring  intaglio square-ended serifs, repeating the company's initials.  

Slab serifs are frequently referred to as Egyptians, for many of these distinctive letterforms first emerged in conjunction with the nineteenth-century Egyptomania that followed the Napoleonic conquest. Egyptians were heavily utilized by newspapers and advertisers, as they were considered highly readable and boldly noticeable forms.  Their sturdy shapes were the stuff of wood-type job printing, which required large and durable display letters for posters. See the typophile discussion on the subject here.

If you want to know more about wood type in America, there is a museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, devoted to the subject. Dedicated to the preservation, study, production, and printing of wood type, the Hamilton Wood Type Museum retains an enormous collection of wood type specimens, including the forms we associate with classic WANTED posters.  

More connections between the histories of architecture and typography may be gleaned from the Southeastern Architectural Archive's current exhibition on the subject.

Image above:  Detail of photograph.  Frank Lotz Miller, photographer. Curtis & Davis, architects. Louisiana Power and Light Building Exterior Panel, Algiers Point, West Bank, New Orleans, LA. Completed 1966. Curtis Davis Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

ARCHITEXT Opening Event

The Southeastern Architectural Archive has recently installed a new exhibition, Architext: The Unity of Architecture and Typography, co-curated by Keli Rylance and Kevin Williams.

This exhibition covers a wide range of architectural letter forms, from the Renaissance and its introduction of classically-derived alphabets in the service of architecture and typography to the mid-twentieth century's attempts at a universal alphabet. Letters devised by Albrecht Dürer, Geoffroy Tory, Johann-David Steingruber and Berthold Wolpe are included, as are the lettering designs of New Orleans architects Moise Goldstein, William Nolan, Douglass Freret, Albert Wolf, Herbert Benson and George Riehl.

The opening has been scheduled for Friday, December 19^th from 6:30-8:30 pm and will feature presentations by graphic designer Tom Varisco and architect Milton Scheuermann.

7:00 pm Tom Varisco will discuss his new publication Signs of New Orleans

Tom Varisco is sole proprietor and creative director of Tom Varisco Designs, an award-winning design studio in New Orleans. Varisco is the recipient of the first “Fellow Award” by the New Orleans chapter of the AIGA and an Adjunct Professor in the Visual Arts Department at Loyola University. His book Spoiled, a photographic record of the refrigerators discarded after Hurricane Katrina, became a local best seller and was selected one of the top 50 design books by AIGA in 2006. Copies of Signs of New Orleans will be available for purchase.

7:45 pm Milton Scheuermann will discuss architectural lettering practices and education

Milton Scheuermann is an architect, architectural historian, calligrapher, magician and musician. The former campus architect for Dillard University and an Adjunct Professor in the Tulane School of Architecture, Scheuermann is the author of Perspective Drawing for Architects. In 2009, he will celebrate his fiftieth anniversary as an architecture professor.

Location: Southeastern Architectural Archive
300 Jones Hall (3^rd Floor)/6801 Freret Street/Tulane University

ARCHITEXT Exhibition

The Southeastern Architectural Archive has recently installed a new exhibition, Architext: The Unity of Architecture and Typography, co-curated by Keli Rylance and Kevin Williams.

This exhibition covers a wide range of architectural letter forms, from the Renaissance and its introduction of classically-derived alphabets in the service of architecture and typography to the mid-twentieth century's attempts at a universal alphabet. Letters devised by Albrecht Durer, Geoffroy Tory, Johann-David Steingruber and Berthold Wolpe are included, as are the lettering designs of New Orleans architects Moise Goldstein, William Nolan, Douglass Freret, Albert Wolf, Herbert Benson and George Riehl.

Exhibition closes 8 May 2009.

Architectural Lettering & Pop Culture

What does architecture have in common with Wonder Woman?

In the 1930s, the Keuffel and Esser Company (also known as K & E) of New York developed an architectural lettering kit called the Leroy Lettering Set. It was designed to assist architects and engineers in producing uniform, precise lettering that was intended to be no less legible when reproduced in blueprints and other formats. The earliest sets included xylonite templates, scribers and nickel silver/stainless steel lettering pens. To look at some of the company's catalogs, including images of the set shown below, click here.

Many in the comic book industry quickly adopted Leroy lettering. Wonder Woman of the 1940s, the Golden Age of American comics, employed Leroy, as did the EC Comics (Entertainment Comics) edited by Al Feldstein (born 1925) in the 1950s.

[Images above: Scenes from Wonder Woman #25 (1947); Leroy Lettering Sets Brochure, 1937]

Building by the Letters III: Lettering

Doug Patt's Two-Part Architectural Lettering Series on youtube.
Viewed 26 October 2008.

Building by the Letters II

Buildings that appeal to typographers: Japan's The Fukutake House, an art gallery space, which was featured in Business Week 25.05.2007.

Typographer Catherine Griffiths had this to say about the house:

"[It] was a well-executed design that harmonized typography and architecture with a feeling for space, scale, material, and form."

The design group FLAME, Inc. created the signage for the Fukutake House, which received a 2007 D&AD Award in its Typography/Graphic Design Category, given by the non-profit organization annually as reward for "outstanding creativity, mould-breaking thinking and the highest standard of design and innovation."

The D&AD Awards 2009 are now available for submission entries. They also offer awards in the category of Environmental Design. Click here for more information.

[Above: Fukutake House, press release photographs by Kozo Takayama, D&AD Awards 2007. URL: http://www.dandad.org/awards2007/entry.asp?entry_id=26915. Viewed 21 October 2008].

Steingruber's Alphabet

Johann David Steingruber's Architectural Alphabet, published in 1773, is a compendium of imaginative building designs that correlate to the letters of the alphabet. Steingruber (1702-87) was the son of a master mason who became a surveyor and later a Principal Architect of the Board of Works under the Margrave Friedrich Carl Alexander. His attempt to reconcile the alphabet with building configurations was not an anomaly; his contemporary Anton Glonner developed a Jesuit college and church plan based on the Order's monogram "IHS" and a French architect named Thomas Gobert (1625-90) wrote a manuscript entitled Traitté d’Architecture dedié à Louix XIV which included building plans that spelled out "LOVIS LE GRAND" ("Louis the Great"). The Italian Antonio Basoli (1774-1848) followed suit with his Alfabeto Pittorico (1839) which was reprinted in 1998 by Ravensburger, with translations of Basoli’s text into German and English, and with additional commentary and notes by Joseph Kiermeier-Debre and Fritz Franz Vogel.

Steingruber's Architectural Alphabet will be on display in the Southeastern Architectural Archive beginning in November, through the courtesy of Rachel Lambert Mellon, the noted landscape/gardening historian and landscape designer whose work on the White House's Rose Garden during the Kennedy Administration and the White House's East Garden/Jacqueline Kennedy Garden under the Johnson Administration brought national attention. Her publication The White House Gardens: A History and Pictorial Record resides in the Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, located in the SEAA, and was the gift of New Orleans landscape architect William S. Wiedorn (1896-1988).

The Southeastern Architectural Archive is home to the William S. Wiedorn Collection.


Header Image: Johann David Steingruber (1702-1787) , The "S" Page from his book, titled Architectonisches Alphabet: bestehend aus dreyssig Rissen, wovon jeder Buchstab nach seiner kenntlichen Anlage auf eine ansehnliche und geräumige fürstliche Wohnung, dann auf alle Religionen, Schloss-Capellen und ein Buchstab gänzlich zu einen Closter, übrigens aber der mehreste Theil nach teutscher Landes-Art mit Einheiz-Stätte auf Oefen und nur Theils mit Camins eingerichtet ... : zu welchen auch die Façaden mit merklich abwechslender Architectur aufgezogen find : ueber diss sind noch zwanzig Plans auf Kayserlich, Königlich, Chur- und anderer hoher Fürsten Namen, Risse auf aleiche Art mit aller Geflissenheit und distincter Architectur dergestalten auf einen Bogen aufgezogen, dass solche eingeschlagen mit denen vorstehenden in einen Format gebunden werden können (Schwabach: Gedruckt Mizler, 1773). Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon, Oak Spring Garden Library, Upperville, Virginia.