Design At Different Scales

Rain Noe gives a nice summary of cast-iron vault lights here: Urban Design Observation: Why SoHo Has 19th Century Glass Sidewalks and Stoops.

Noe is approaching vault lights from an industrial design perspective, which is obviously different from my background. The nice thing about design discussions is that one perspective isn’t necessarily more right than another: just because I see vault lights as elements in a large-scale building system doesn’t mean that a discussion of their industrial design is invalid.

Two related thoughts… First, Noe points out “Note the raised nubs at the interstices between the glass, which provide traction in rain.” Iron and glass are not exactly the best traction surfaces when wet, but those little bumps keep vault lights walkable in the rain. That’s much more the industrial design end of things than architecture or structure and worthy of note specifically because that lesson has still not been learned. It never fails to astonish me when paving materials are used that become slick when wet. Is rain a surprise?

Second, you can buy replacement lenses for your vault lights. For example, go here ( https://blenko.com/architectural-glass/ ) and scroll down to “Custom Pavers: Rounds used in sidewalk restorations.” So, these beautiful pieces of 150-year-old design can be kept functioning.