Man made Texture in Washington DC

We stayed at the Watergate hotel, famous for it’s curves and these points, of course, it’s famous for other things, but I’m taking architecture here.1960’s design, the contrast is wonderful when you zoom in.Zooming in is great for seeing materials and texture, on an old church.The new African American museum.Skylight and courtyard at the Portrait gallery. Shadows are a great part of texture.Gate and bricks in Georgetown. People don’t do this kind of metal work anymore.Or this.An old lock on the C&O canal in Georgetown, old brick and wood. More on the canal later.I’m embarrassed to say, I didn’t notice this incredible marble booking in the lobby of the Watergate Hotel until we were leaving.I thought that because of the expense, this style of working with marble went out in the 30’s with the depression. Now I know why it took five years to renovate the hotel.So, what is booking you ask? (clearly, you haven’t been on one of my downtown tours). Notice the diamond shape. Four squares of marble,  the top two are mirror images as are the bottom two. In order to achieve that, you need to study the marble carefully, then slice it very thin so that you can flip one of the pieces and get a mirror image. In this case, they had to then find another vein in the marble that would be a close enough match to create the diamond.

Go back and look at the first image, in that case, they cut the marble four times to create the design.  I can’t tell you how much I love that someone took the time, effort and expense to bring back booked marble.Another favorite texture of mine is stained glass, of which there is plenty in the National Cathedral.So these griffins-gargoyles don’t come close to those on the Cathedral, but they are a nice whimsical touch over a store front in Alexandria.

Next, I’ll share nature’s textures.