Tuscan Columns From Roman Architecture

Tuscan Columns From Roman Architecture The Tuscan column - plain, without carvings and ornaments - represents one of the five orders of classical architecture and is a defining detail of todays Neoclassical style building. Tuscan is one of the oldest and most simple architectural form practiced in ancient Italy. In the United States, the column named after the Tuscany region of Italy is one of the most popular column types to hold up American front porches. From the bottom up, any column consists of a base, a shaft, and a capital. The Tuscan column has a very simple base upon which sets a very simple shaft. The shaft is usually plain and not fluted or grooved. The shaft is slender, with proportions similar to a Greek Ionic column. At the top of the shaft is a very simple, round capital. The Tuscan column has no carvings or other ornamentation. Fast Facts: Tuscan Column Shaft is slender and smooth, without flutes or groovesBase is simpleCapital is round with unornamented bandsAlso known as Tuscany column, Roman Doric, and Carpenter Doric Tuscan and Doric Columns Compared A Roman Tuscan column resembles a Doric column from ancient Greece. Both column styles are simple, without carvings or ornaments. However, a Tuscan column is traditionally more slender than a Doric column. A Doric column is stocky and usually without a base. Also, the shaft of a Tuscan column is usually smooth, while a Doric column usually has flutes (grooves). Tuscan columns, also known as Tuscany columns, are sometimes called Roman Doric, or Carpenter Doric because of the similarities. Origins of the Tuscan Order Historians debate when the Tuscan Order emerged. Some say that Tuscan was a primitive style that came before the famous Greek Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. But other historians say that the Classical Greek Orders came first, and that Italian builders adapted Greek ideas to develop a Roman Doric style that evolved into the Tuscan Order. Buildings With Tuscan Columns Boone Hall Plantation, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. John Moore/Getty Images (cropped) Considered strong and masculine, Tuscan columns originally were often used for utilitarian and military buildings. In his Treatise on Architecture, the Italian architect Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554) called the Tuscan order suitable to fortified places, such as city gates, fortresses, castles, treasuries, or where artillery and ammunition are kept, prisons, seaports and other similar structures used in war. In the United States, many antebellum plantation homes were adorned with Tuscan columns, as the Greek Revival style suited the authority demanded of the masters house. Tuscan columns projected a nos include Boone Hall in South Carolina, the Rosalie Mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, Houmas House plantation near New Orleans, Louisiana, and the 1861 Gaineswood plantation house in Demopolis, Alabama. The Long Branch Estate in Millwood, Virginia was built in the Federal style in 1813, but when porticos and columns were added around 1845, the house style became Classical (or Greek) Revival. Why? The columns, Tuscan in the North and Ionic columns in the South, are features of Classical architecture. Franklin D. Roosevelts Little White House, Warm Springs, Georgia. Bettmann/Getty Images (cropped) In the 20th century, builders in the United States adopted the uncomplicated Tuscan form for wood-framed Gothic Revival, Georgian Colonial Revival, Neoclassical, and Classical Revival homes. With simple, easy-to-construct columns, simple homes could become regal. Residential examples abound throughout the U.S. In 1932, the future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt built a home in Warm Springs, Georgia, hoping to find a cure for his polio by swimming in the warm waters of the south. FDR chose a classical approach to his Little White House, with a pediment being sustained by the strength of the Tuscan columns. Tuscan Columns on Shingled Cottage. Compassionate Eye Foundation/Getty Images Adding a portico with columns, even simple columns, can add grandeur to a home - and affect the entire style. Even the informality of shingle siding can be transformed by a simple white column. The Tuscan column is seen throughout the world in residential architecture. Carpenters could easily shave and shape long wooden pieces to desired heights. Today, manufacturers produce all types of columns from all types of materials. If you live in a historic district, however, the type of column and how its made is very important when repairs are necessary. Although the homeowner can achieve the Tuscan look with a polymer plastic column, historic preservationists encourage replacing rotted wooden columns with new wooden columns. It could be worse - remember that Tuscan columns used to be carved from marble stone, a replacement that no historic commission would enforce. Columned Porches in Salem, Massachusetts. Jackie Craven Slender and unornamented, Tuscan columns are perfect to support the height of multi-story front porches. By painting them the same color as the molding, rails, and trim, the columns become integrated into the design of a New England home. Tuscan columns can be found on many front porches across the U.S. A colonnade, or a series of columns, is often made up of Tuscan columns. The simplicity of its individual design creates a majesty when many columns are evenly spaced in rows. The colonnade at Saint Peters Square in Vatican City is a well-known example of Tuscan columns. Likewise, sections of the colonnade walkways on the Lawn of Thomas Jeffersons University of Virginia also represent the Tuscan Order. Colonnade at the University of Virginia. Jay Paul/Getty Images The Tuscan column may be Italian in origin, but Americans have embraced the architecture as their own - in large part, thanks to Americas gentleman architect, Thomas Jefferson.

Definition and Examples of the Interrobang

Definition and Examples of the Interrobang The interrobang (in-TER-eh-bang) is a  nonstandard mark of punctuation in the form of a question mark superimposed on an exclamation point (sometimes appearing as ?!), used to end a rhetorical question or a simultaneous question and exclamation. A blend  of the words  interrogation  and  bang, interrobang is an old printer’s term for the exclamation mark. Though editor Martin K. Speckter is generally credited with the marks invention in 1962 (its name was suggested by a reader of Speckters magazine,  Type Talks), a version of the interrobang had already been used for decades in the speech balloons of comic strips. Mac McGrew has characterized the interrobang as the first new punctuation mark to have been introduced in three hundred years and the only one invented by an American (American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century, 1993). However, the mark is rarely used, and it hardly ever appears in formal writing. Examples and Observations James Harbeck Whats up with English punctuations?! Usually we have a glut, but for certain situations, we dont have a mark?! Say what?! –Where Is the Interrobang?!  Songs of Love and Grammar. Lulu, 2012 Martin K. Speckter To this day, we don’t know exactly what Columbus had in mind when he shouted ‘Land, ho.’ Most historians insist that he cried, ‘Land, ho!’ but there are others who claim it was really ‘Land ho?’ Chances are the intrepid Discoverer was both excited and doubtful, but neither at that time did we, nor even yet, do we, have a point which clearly combines and melds interrogation with exclamation. –Making a New Point, or How About That . . .. Type Talks, March-April, 1962 New York Times From 1956 to 1969, Mr. Speckter was president of Martin K. Speckter Associates Inc... In 1962, Mr. Speckter developed the interrobang, since recognized by several dictionaries and some type and typewriter companies. The mark is said to be the typographical equivalent of a grimace or a shrug of the shoulders. It applied solely to the rhetorical, Mr. Speckter said, when a writer wished to convey incredulity. For example, the interrobang would be used in an expression like this: You call that a hat?! – Martin Spekter obituary: Martin K. Speckter, 73, Creator of Interrobang. The New York Times, February 16, 1988 Keith Houston [F]everish interest in Martin Speckters invention followed the release of Remingtons interrobang key [on typewriters in the 1960s]... Unfortunately, the interrobangs status as a cause cà ©là ¨bre during the late 1960s and early 1970s proved ephemeral, and its popularity reached a plateau even as Remington Rands interrobang key let the average typist make use of it. A creation of the advertising world- and considered by some an unnecessary one at that- the interrobang faced resistance in literary and academic spheres and was beset by more prosaic technical difficulties at almost every turn... [A] combination of factorsthe six-year delay in getting the new character from composition to printing; the sheer inertia of punctuation practice; doubt as to the grammatical need for a new symbol- sent the interrobang to an early grave. By the early 1970s it had largely fallen out of use, and the chance for its widespread acceptance seemed to have been missed. Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks. Norton, 2013 Liz Stinson In  many ways one could say that the interrobang has now been superseded by the emoticon, which makes similar use of glyph combinations in order to add emphasis and feeling to the sentence that precedes it. –The Secret History of the Hashtag, Slash, and Interrobang. Wired, October 21, 2015 William Zinnser According to its sponsors, the [interrobang] is getting support from typographers who recommend it for its ability to express the incredibility of modern life. Well, I certainly agree that modern life is incredible. Most of us, in fact, now go through our days in a state of Really?!- if not Are you kidding?! Still, I seriously doubt if we are going to solve the problem by creating new punctuation marks. That only clutters up a language more... Besides, let in one mans interrobang and you let in every nut who is trying to express the incredibility of modern life. –For Clear Expression: Try Words. Life, November 15, 1968