Guastavino Vaulting: Palaces for the People

FAIN: GI-50353-11

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA 02139-4307)
John A. Ochsendorf (Project Director: January 2011 to April 2015)

Implementation of a traveling exhibition that examines the work of Spanish immigrant builder Rafael Guastavino, whose innovations transformed American architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Guastavino Vaulting: Palaces for the People will be a multi-formatted project to examine the history and creative contributions of Rafael Guastavino and his family, a Spanish immigrant family of the late 19th century whose adaptations of a traditional Mediterranean construction technique transformed the urban landscape of the United States. The formats will be a web site and a major gallery exhibition, that will travel to the Boston Public Library, the National Building Museum, and the Museum of the City of New York. MIT requests NEH funding of $399,956.