Treasured vaults
In 1881, a Spanish builder named Rafael Guastavino immigrated to the United States with no job, no family awaiting him and no grasp of English. He did possess one valuable piece of knowledge, however: Guastavino had learned a technique, unknown in the United States, for building large structures, such as decorative arched ceilings, that were both lightweight and fantastically sturdy.Within a few decades, the family firm Guastavino founded had helped design and construct many of America’s most famous civic monuments: the arrival hall at Ellis Island, New York’s Grand Central Terminal and its old Penn Station, the Boston Public Library, the Biltmore estate in North Carolina and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, among others. Yet even though famous architects frequently employed Guastavino and his son — who eventually took over the family business — the family’s contributions were rarely noted. Millions of Americans have walked through Guastavino-built...