HOUSE AND GARDEN 
444 
June, 19 n 
Another treatment of a stone wall where the stonework cannot stand on its own merits 
is to give it a very thin coat of stucco. Duhring, Okie & Ziegler, architects 
While we would not choose to employ parge work to such an elab¬ 
orate extent as here, there are excellent opportunities for its 
use in belt courses and inset panels 
are not now particularly concerned with them. When we speak 
of a stucco, or a stuccoed, house we mean that a coat of stucco 
has been applied to the outside walls on a back of concrete, stone, 
brick or wood. In the latter case metal lathing or wire mesh is usu¬ 
ally fastened to the wood and the stucco applied to that. In some 
instances, instead of metal lath, boards are used for a backing, so 
grooved that the stucco may “key” into them and gain a hold. 
As this series, however, 
is meant to be mainly sug¬ 
gestive, and has to do with 
the external appearances 
and the means by which 
desired effects may be se¬ 
cured, let us pass by mat¬ 
ters pertaining to internal 
structure without further 
comment and go at once to 
the question of wall tex¬ 
tures and other visible par¬ 
ticulars. 
It cannot be denied that 
many a concrete house and 
many a stucco house has an 
uncompromising, “plain 
Jane” aspect. They are 
severe and angular and 
raw-looking, and besides 
have a depressing hue. Naturally, one shies at 
them. Structural devices have been so far per¬ 
fected by reinforcement and otherwise as to 
meet nearly every conceivable engineering re¬ 
quirement likely to arise. By skillful manage¬ 
ment, cost of construction has been placed upon 
a reasonable basis. But the bugbear of forbid¬ 
ding angularity, unrelieved by softening de¬ 
tails, still confronts us. The failure of con¬ 
crete construction in domestic architecture to 
win more general favor has so far been largely 
attributable to this shortcoming. “Plain Jane- 
ness” has blocked the way. If mouldings, lin¬ 
tels and belt courses are resorted to, the cost 
for special moulds at once soars, sometimes to 
an altogether prohibitive figure. In domestic 
concrete work the American public demands 
something that shall be practicable and reason¬ 
able in cost and at the same time meet esthetic 
requirements. This subject is much in the 
minds of architects. They are eager for a sat¬ 
isfactory solution and will hail with delight a workable combination 
of utility and artistic worth. Then, truly, concrete construction 
will increase by leaps and bounds. Some architects have reached 
happy solutions of the problems presented them, but they are the 
exceptions. We are indeed in the infancy of concrete architec¬ 
ture, and in stucco work we have scarcely dipped into the rich 
possibilities disclosed by the examples in the Old World. A great 
field of opportunities lies open before our architects, and we may 
trust their ingenuity to make the best and fullest use of them. 
Several sorts of wall texture make possible a degree of variety 
in the appearance of concrete walls. There is the simple rough 
dressing after the forms have been removed, giving a surface that 
someone has facetiously called “a mere inexpressive expansive 
expanse of smooth smears.” The “smooth smears,” though, are 
susceptible of more variation than one might at first suppose, and 
by no means need be inexpressive. The patina of the wall, its 
skin, if you like so to call it, may be “roughed” or “pricked up” 
with a pointed tool made for that purpose. If the “smooth 
smeared” finish of a concrete wall is “pricked up,” while still suf¬ 
ficiently “green,” a regular pattern may be carried out. This plan 
has been resorted 
to in some old Eng¬ 
lish plaster houses. 
The effect is good. 
Another method of 
t r e a tment is to 
An example of sgraffito work—the top coat 
of light plaster is scratched away in parts 
to show the darker color below 
A simpler form of parge work that is more applicable to 
American needs. The rough panels below the upper 
windows are pebble-dashed. Note the ornamental bands 
