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Arches & Openings
Tiles and Towers
Welcome to Overbrook's
first historical on-line tour of our
campus. There are
hyperlinks set up throughout the document. These links will take you to a
graphic of the
architectural element and also tell you where you can find them on campus.
The hyperlink
pages do have graphic images that may take a few seconds to load.
Thank you for
visiting.
The oldest
buildings on the campus of Overbrook School for the Blind
are some of the
rarest and most exceptional examples of Spanish Renaissance Architecture
on the east coast
of the United States. So impressive was this design that the United States
Government
invited the school and the architect, Walter Cope of the firm Cope and
Stewardson to show
the plans at the Paris Exposition of 1900.
The striking mass
of the complex is best seen from the cloister
courtyard where the red mission tiles shed roof descends to
protect the
arcaded cloisters.
The use of stucco and strong color gives
brilliant contrasts to
the area. The semi-circular arches are repeated in
windows, doorways
and the cloister arcade.
A unique feature
of the style is the low relief
carvings high
lighting arches, columns, cornices and parapets. These carvings are
especially lovely
in the cloister gardens. The central part of the main building is entered
through an
arcaded entry porch flanked by two symbolic bell towers.
The facade reflects other detailing typical of the
Spanish
Renaissance in the pilaster and arched portal and curvilinear gable.
This entry opens
into a short passage way that gives way to an immense rotunda capped by a
shallow dome.
The gracefulness of the interior balconies, stairways and beautifully
carved balustrades
carry the eye upward to the colorful stained glass dome.
A current exhibit
of photographs at the school shows the repetitive use
of some design
elements in later buildings to maintain the cohesiveness of the campus.
While on campus,
we encourage you to view the exhibit and to locate the design elements
discussed above.
Many
thanks, Edith
Willoughby,Archivist
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