Architectural Concrete Interview with N.W. Overstreet

8/9/2019 Architectural Concrete Interview with N.W. Overstreet

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S/wing illeetillg 1940

AN ARCHITECT REVIEWSWITH ARCHITECTURAL

49

FIVE YEARSCONCRETE

By N W. OVERSTREET*, A. I. A., and A. J. BOASE**

MR. UO,VSE': S,iN ',v,ear,s ag ;> , in ,J,"ebr,uary, t.he term "architec,turalconcrete was comedo SIN years ago this month I started outto compile the data for the first issue of ARClIITECTUJLVL CON CRETE.\Vhen it was put together I found I didn't have a single story outsideof California. J wired here and there but could pick up nothing onthe drawing boards east of the Rockv Mountains,

Only six years have passed and if they never build another build-ing of architectural concrete east of the Rockies, we have enoughstories to run that magazine for four solid years and then have toturn down some of the architects that now send us their materialvoluntarily. \Ve can't say that all of the new buildings in the UnitedStates are of architectural concrete but we can say that we havemade reasonable progress.

During that time there has been one architect who seemed to begetting the "feel" of concrete in buildings a little better than mostof them. That was Mr. N. \V. Overstreet of Jackson, Miss.

Mr. Overstreet is a good old farm boy from the state oflVlissis-sippi. He was born and raised there and went to school through theeighth grade and then, like some of the rest of us, had to quit school.He became a carpenter. Later on, Iwing fired with ambition, hesigned up at what is now Mississippi State College, then known asMississippi A, & M. College and graduated in the regulation timeas an engineer.

lIe made such an outstanding record at that college that he wasgiven a scholarship at the University of Illinois. He attended thearchitectural school there and in clue time was graduated as anarchitect. After graduatiou he was employed in Illinois and in theNorth for three or four years and then moved back to Jackson.established his office there in 1912 and has practiced architecture thereever smce.

There seems to he a difTerence of opinion as to why Mr. (her-street moved hack South. \Vhen I inquired about it some of themsaid it was hecauselVlississippi is the best flshing state in the Union* Architect, Jackson. M'is** Manager. Structura l Bureau. F'CA,


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50 Portland Cement Associationand that lVl r. Overstreet was the best fisherman. He is one of thesefishermen that grabs a rod in one hand and a frying pan in the otherand he cooks them where he gets them. Mr. Overstreet, as a matterof fact, is famous throughout the South for his ability to cook fish.

Be it said to 1\lr. Overstreet's everlasting credit that at least 50per cent of the men practicing architecture today in Louisiana andMississippi have either been under his tutelage or in his employ andthose gentlemen refer to Mr. Overstreet as theDean and look to himfor leadership.

FIe introduced into the South modern and functional architecture,but that doesn't mean that he doesn't know traditional and classicalarchitec ture. As a matter of fact, he has used them both many, many

Mr. Overstreet uses ornamentation sparingly, relying more on line andmass to express his general theme, as illustrated by the Tupelo, Miss.,Elementary School.times in the field. In recent years he has introduced and probablydeveloped architectural concrete further than anv other man in theSouth.

(Mr. 130ase then showed on lantern slides and described brieflythe three following structures, selected from among the many outstanding jobs byl'vIr. Overstreet. Tupelov Vliss., elementary school:Bailey School, Jackson, Miss.: Columbia, High School. AslVI r. Boase completed showing of the slides,Mr. Overstreet cameto the platforrn.)

M R. ( )VERSTREET: When I was notified that I had been selectedI said " I \ 0 , sir, 1 don't want to appear before an audience. I aman architect. I get nerved up.' But I finally agreed to be here.think more of cement since I have seen you fellows, this representa-


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Springtion of intelligent and fine lcJoking men. l wish to goodness l hada cement post and reinforced at that, to hold me while I talk.

MR. BOASE: .Mr. Overstreet, when did you design your firstarchitectural concrete job?

The architectural effects possible by skilful handling of concretemasses are illu strated in the Edward L. Bailey School at Jackson, Miss.

l\I R. OVERSTREET: w-n, lVlr.Boase. about 1934.; \ lR. BOASE: Flow man v have you built since then?MR. OVERSTREET: vVe have built about 20.MR. BOASE: Twenty buildings?


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Portland Cement AssociationNIx ()VERSTREET: School buildings, courthouses, some residences

and some jails.Reinforced concrete of high compressive stress, around 3,600 lb.,has practically revolutionized the design of jail buildings. Before weapplied concrete to jail buildings the cells were lined with tool-proofsteel, which was very expensive, and you know down in Mississippiwe haven 't much money. It is not a question of what you can do in

architecture; it is a question of how economically you can design, savemoney and get your requirements within your appropriation, so weare always figuring some way to save a dollar and give our clientsas much as possible.

For jail building construction, using concrete of 3,600-lb. compressive s trength and putting in steel rods, with tool-proof steel rodsin small detention windows, that leaves only the cell doors to befabricated with tool-proof steel. [don' t know whether you fellowsknow or not, what a job it would be to go through 3,600-lb. concrete,get to these steel rods, break them and continue going on through.In my estimation, it is better than tool steel and certainly it is awhole lot cheaper. \Ve have built about seven jails.

MR. BOASE: You told me one time that those buildings cost mthe neighborhood of $2,000,000 and one of our boys figured up thatif each architect in the United States had used each vear as muchconcrete as you have, the production of cement would have to beincreased about one-third to take care of the architects alone.Mr. Overstreet. architects are always talking about an architec

tural medium. As I get that thing it is a material with which theycan express their thoughts in the exterior of the building. In otherwords, as I sec it an architect is somewhat of an artist. He says, "Ithink I see" and then he builds a building and he wants me to seewhat he is thinking. Is that a correct definition of an architecturalmedium?

MR. ()VI-:RSTREET: Yes, sir, it is, but a building must be fireproof,termite-proof, structurally SCJll11d and still be beautiful. Concretelends itself to all of these requirements.

MR. I\oAsE: Then Mr. Overstreet, would you say that archi tura lconcrete is a good mediumMR. ()VERSTREET: 1 will have to admit that before all these folkshere.lVIR. BO,\SE: Now Mr. Overstreet, people have been used to stoneand brick and terra cotta through the centuries. I t always seemedto me when we started out to advertise architectural concrete that


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S3we had a little problem here because we had to make the laymanrealize that a building could be built out of concrete. Therefore, wecarried some ads in such magazines as Time, 13l1sillCSS ~ V c c k andFortunc. IJo you think that those ads helped you overcome the hurdlewith your clients?

MR. ()VERSTREET: \Vithout a doubt! These ads of vours in thepapers of national circulation have helped greatly. \Vhen readers seea picture of a building they seem to be interested in the architectureand if you have one that is appealing in your advertisement natural lythey are att racted.

I f the building is of concrete they are going to investigate andfind out about it. 'fake for instance, a little ultra-modern type resi-dence that we built for Chester Underwood which cost about $30.000and which :,ou advertised. \Ve have had letters from all over theUnited States for that plan, and even from Hawaii and SouthAmerica. I t is surprising to me what those ads do.

VVe started constructing our buildings with reinforced concretefootings, and we built our walls up just above grade of concrete.Then for our larger buildings for brick construction we developedthe steel rein forced concrete frame, then filled the panels and veneeredit with brick.

Today we believe we need not fill in those panels with tile orhrick and then face them with stone or brick when concrete lendsitself so admirably to a finish on a building and certainly gives morestrength.

NIL BO,\SE: Mr. Overstreet, if I understand it rightly there arcabout 20,000 architects in the United States. I have always contendedthat they are the greatest material salesmen in the country. I suspectthat when a client comes to you, you have to do considerable sellingtel him to accept concrete for an exterior.

A Iter you have sold him that idea and after you have constructedthat building, is he satisfied with his buy?

NIR. ()VERSTREET: Oh yes. At first we did have some difficultyin selling concrete. At that time it was called monolithic concrete. Thad an interesting experience with the Bailey Junior IIigh School.There was no trouble selling the board of trustees or the schoolboard. with the exception of one member. \Vhen we decided onconcrete the brick manu facturer and the bricklayers' union and thelabor paper put out the story that monolithic concrete was some kindof a special construction that Overstreet was interested in and probably getting something out of and would need some foreign bunch


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54 Portland Cement Associationof fellows tCI come in and build. Thev didn 't know what it was. \Vehad to put out a lot of in formation to counteract their efforts.In building of architectural concrete, we made a better showingin the employment of carpenters and couuuon laborers than we couldhave on a brick building.

.\ t Columbia on a school job, the board of trustees was sold onconcrete, but the miyor and board of aldermen weren't , so that jobwhich amounted to about $130,000 had to be bid in both matcrial-.and concrete won by about $15,000. All jobs so far have demon-strated the cconornv of concrete.

Carefully designed and well executed curved facade of the auditoriumof the Edward L. Bailey School.I\ow we are building on a $350,000 school program at Vicksburg.on which we went through the same condition as at Columbia. Theresults were the same. I hope I don't have to draw any more doublesets of plans to demonstrate to these folks that concrete is cheaperbecause it CClStS me monev. [don' t make anv money as it is.MR. l\O,\SE: That has been a condition all over the country, but[ think it is a matter of pioneering and we can't expect to pioneerin a thing without meeting these obstacles. l have a feeling' thatthe resistance is breaking down.You know,Mr. Overstreet. when we started to advertise this

stuffT went through all textbooks they use in various architectural


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Spring Meeting 1940 5Sschools and 1 couldn't find a thing writ ten on architectural concrete.As a result, we got up the architectural concrete data sheets.Flavethey been of any use to you? 1)0 you use them?[VI R. ()VERSTREET: Oh yes, they have been very valuable. 'y'ouknow the architect who practices his profession hasn't much time todo research work. I hope that you will continue to develop andput your findings ou record for architects and engineers.

JYlILBoASE: Some architects sa v that it costs the architect moreto design in architectural concrete than it does m some other medium.Does that check with your experience

lVIR. OVERSTREET: Well, it may, for this reason: \Vhen yclU gointo architectural concrete it is necessary to design in reinforced con-crete and that requires engineering skill and architects on other mate-rials can design without this same skill. This is applicable to the smallarchitect withont engineering know ledge. So some architects mayhesitate to go into architectural concrete because it requires engineer-ing ability. If you develop simple methods and details c)f construc-tion for the architects' use the design problem is greatly simplified.

lYlR.BoASE: [ take that to heart fully. [know just what vouare talking about.

IVl1'. Overstreet. when we first started out to put this stuff across,the cement industry wasn' t willing to trust the run of mine contractorthat you meet up with east of the Rocky:V10untains who has alwaysdon structural work. Thev could build the frame of a buildingwhere it could be covered up, but here is a job where the finishedproduct comes directly from the form.

This industry felt that it couldn't afford to let this materialbe man-bundled and it hired several men from California, none ofwhom had less than fifteen years' experience, as superintendents onthis kind of construction. Have vou had occasion to use those menand how have they functioned for you?

MR. ()VERSTREET: Contractors at the beginning were skeptical 0 ffi.guring on architectural concrete buildings. They were afraid ofthem. But now, because of the help 0 f your superintendents, thecontractors have become interested in this type of work and theyha ve taken a pride in it and you ought to see those superintendentsget on the job. They are getting results and giving satisfactioneverywhere.

MR. 1>'OASE :lYl1'. Overstreet, when we started, 1 had hopes thatif we could get contractors that could do architectural concrete andusc the care that is necessary to get the finish they want, that when


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Portland Cement Association.they got onto an ordinary structural job such as a retaining wall orframe of a building, the care they had learned on architecturalconcrete would follow through. Have you had occasion to notice anytendency to that?

NJR. OVERSTREET: Oh yes, that is true,MR. I"oAsE: Do you think you are getting better structural work

too because of that experience?MR. ()VERSTREET: I have that feeling.

Long windows, curved returns, massive entrances, all care fu lly com-posed, attest to the designer's skill and knowledge of concrete. Columbia,Miss., High School.

MR. BOASE : 'Nell. we have some troubles with architectural con-crete. \Ve know that one of the things that some architects complainabout is a lack of uni formity of color on the face of a building.

Some architects want that. 1 find that a few architects will say"\Vell. that gives spirit to the thing: it life to that wall." Whatdo you think about that?

J\IR. ()vEHsrREET: I remember when we used to use face brick.that we wanted all the brick the same color. About the time I startedout the trend was to see how much variation we could make in thesebrick and how rough they could be. A play of shadow on the surfacein the sunlight made the surface interesting, and the same thingwould apply to concrete. A variation in the shade of color makes thesurface more interesting than if it was all one shade.


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Spring iVIeeiing 19j() 57That is applied everywhere you look, l.n your stone buildings

around here you will notice a variation of color and also of texture,lt is uni versally so, and of cou rse the same thing applies to concretesurfaces,

lVIR, 13CL\SE: Now the other disease is that of cracking-,IvIR, ()VERS'l'REET: You are not bringing that up?MR, BC)AsE:Yes sir, ] want to trot it ont here. 1.et's be honest

even though we may get fired.I think the Long 13each earthquake proved pretty definitely that

cracks do not mean a thing structurally. [don' t think they weakenedthose walls one bit. VVhat about the cracking from the architecturalpoint of view?

MR. ()VERSTREET: ' [hat is a weakness of monolithic construction,not from an architectural standpoint of view-owe don't care aboutthe cracks-but it is the layman that we arc trying to sell these concrete buildings to. All that propaganda that the bricklayers and thebrick manufacturers put out about a cracked building-s-my goodness,that Bailey Junior lligh School has cracked all to pieces. [heardit everywhere 1 went for a long time. Then the government acceptedthe building as satisfactory.

l don't suppose: we have designed a single building but thathas had a few cracks in it and these cracks usually come in beforewe accept the building, but when 1 sell a concrete job I have thatthoroughly understood with mv clients. [ say "Now these cracksare gomg to come into the building so if you accept architecturalconcrete 1 want you to be assured that we will have cracks becausethere is nothing that we have done yet to eliminate them."

But 1 feel that we are going to eliminate cracks by future development and when we do that we have done a big job. [believe thatArt Boase will devise some scheme or do some experimental workwhere it can be done. I was showing him large spaces in connectionwith this Bailey Junior Fligh School where from an engineeringstandpoint you would expect these cracks but we didn't have themat all. In some minor place they would show up-and 1 think yourAssociation ought to do everything possible from an experimentalstandpoint to eliminate cracks. Cracking is the only thing againstarchitectural concrete.\lVe have got to develop something to eliminate cracks or fill thecracks after they come in the concrete because cracking is the onlything in the world against concrete.

MR. I30AsE: Mr. Overstreet. we have tried unsuccessfully to hire


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50 Portland Cement AssociationDr. Westergaard, Dr. Tirnotshenks and two or three other elasticians,to try to solve the problem of cracks in walls. At the present timeand for two years we have had an investigation going on by meansof models at M.LT. which is just now beginning to show someresults and I feel with you. that we are going to lick the crack and Iwould rather prevent it than repair it.

The massive and strong handling of the beautiful entrance to theColumbia, Miss., High School gives a feeling of safety and strength.lVIR. ()VERSTREET: For instance. here at the Columbia School.

just want to bring this out-s-that building was built during January,February andlYlarch. ()f course. you know we don't have rnuchfreezing weather down there. \Ve did have some this year. but thereis onlv one crack in that Colnmbia School and that is on the frontright below a window. It appeared in three days. The thing to dois to study these buildings over periods and analyze them.


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Spring AI eeiing 1940 59lVIR. l\()ASE: Mr. (lverstreet, at the present time we have 50

buildings under regular periodic observation.Assuming that the Byzantine type of architecture was developed

to take advantage of terra cotta and the (;othic was invented totake advantage of a certain stone, do you think that concrete isapplicable to any style of architecture?

Don't you think it is going to come down to a question of dollarsand cents in the final analysis?

MR. OVERSTREET: Concrete is going to be applied to the moderntype of architecture and 1 think the modern type of architecture iscreated in America for the American style. It is simple and from autility standpoint, very applicable. The Classic will be passe.

MR. BOASE: M r. Overstreet, it was very gracious of you to comehere and give these gentlemen the benefit of your views. Theyaren't architects: neither am I and sometimes it gives us an entirelydifferent slant if the man who is producing the material gets theviewpoint of the man who uses it. Thank you very much, sir .

CUAIR1\L\N lVlcARDLE continued further: Thank you, Mr. Over-

street. It was very nice of you to come here and tell us what anarchitect thinks of architectural concrete.

Wherever there is transportation there is use for cement. Airtransportation has been developing over a period of 25 or 30 yearsand it is getting to a point where even large numbers of men can bemoved quickly to almost any spot. '[he development of landing fielrlsfor air transportation, both commercial and military, is a tremendousproblem.

Our next subject is "Airport Facilities fc)rF'resent and FutureRequirements" and we arc indebted to or A. IL IVIClVlullen, chiefof the Airport Section of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, for taking'time from his heavy duties to come here and tell us something aboutthe present and future requirements of airports.

IVlcMullen has been associated with air transportation for aquarter of a century. lIe was state director of aviation in Floridaand during the three years he was there built 70 new airports andrecondit ioned 35 others. His present work qualifies him to tell us ofthe present and future requirements better than anyone I know of .It will be a pleasure to hear Major McMullen.


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PORTLAND CEMENT ASSOCIATION

THE WALDORF.ASTORIA - NEW YORKMAY 13 , 14 and 15 , 1940

CHICAGO , I L L .

NO . 1

PROCEEDINGS OF THESPRING MEETING, 1940

YOLo XXXIX

33 WEST GRAND AYENUE

Architectural Concrete Interview with N.W. Overstreet

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