Terra Cotta – Unique Properties - Endless Possibilities
- Skyline Restoration
- 5 days ago
- 7 min read
The Marriage of Earth and Water and Fire
Boston Valley Terra Cotta explores the past, present and future potential of a highly versatile, sustainable, durable and beautiful material.
Terra cotta, Italian for ‘baked earth,’ deriving from the Latin Terra Cocta, is a natural clay-based material dating back to ancient civilizations.
On the morning of March 5, 2026, a three-person team from Boston Valley Terra Cotta, a global manufacturer of custom architectural façade solutions for the restoration, renovation, and new construction industries, presented “The Aesthetics of Terra Cotta” at Skyline Restoration’s headquarters in Long Island City. The program, offered for AIA credit to an audience of Skyline staff and invited restoration professionals, provided an in-depth exploration of the material, its many beneficial properties and its potential. For centuries terra cotta has enabled the creation of distinctive designs that enhance the appearance and functionality of both historic restorations and new construction populating the built environment.
Boston Valley Terra Cotta
Matt Schwartz, sales director of Boston Valley, located in Erie County’s Orchard Park just south of Buffalo, introduced the program noting that the firm launched as a brick manufacturer 135 years ago. In the late 20th century, it shifted into pottery and soon expanded and transformed into a manufacturing facility of architectural terra cotta. Today the company occupies 170,000 square feet and employs approximately 100 including administrators, plant managers, expert craftspeople and master sculptors who research, develop and form materials for large-scale, customized products distributed globally. An in-person or virtual visit to the company’s in-house Design Center is a journey into a museum-like space exhibiting sample panels in styles ranging from highly ornate ‘Baroque-esque’ to Art Deco to contemporary.
Boston Valley’s line of specialized products includes:
· Historical restoration
· TerraClad®, architectural ceramic rainscreen systems
· TerraPreCast®
· Sunshade Louvers – reduce glare without blinds
What Is Terra Cotta?
Terra cotta is a clay-based material born of the marriage of earth and water and a kiln-firing process to ultra-high temperatures. Boston Valley uses domestically sourced clay deposits. The raw material is ground, stored and then wet-batched when ready for use. Once formed, the firing process under high heat sustains the material and gives it longevity. The process is highly sustainable: when the clay pit is no longer viable, it is able to regrow and repopulate in under a year back to its former environmental state.
Benefits of Terra Cotta
· Durable and Long-lasting
· UV Resistant – which translates to zero color fade. Said Schwartz, “It maintains its visual characteristics…The materials will outlast many of us.”
· Lightweight
· Versatile
· Sustainable – Terra cotta fabrication emits far less CO2 than many other materials giving it a reduced carbon footprint during production that is outdone only by such products as wood and straw. Aluminum takes 100 times more energy to convert from its raw to finished state. Further, units that don’t pass quality control can be recycled. Even fired units can be ground up and returned to the clay body.
· Fire resistant – Which leads us to…
Terra Cotta’s Emergence as a Building Material
Terra cotta emerged as a popular building material following the Chicago Fire of 1871 that destroyed over 17,000 buildings stretching 30 city blocks. The massive conflagration was a wake-up call demonstrating the vulnerability of urban areas.
Jared Engle, Boston Valley sales associate who leads the restoration division, explained that from 1871 to 1930, terra cotta, a non-combustible material, enjoyed a boom market in major cities nationwide including San Francisco, Detroit, Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City and many more. The Great Depression impacted much of the industry – until its rediscovery and resurgence in the 1980s.
Some of the best-known iconic structures utilizing terra cotta during the boom years include:
· The Reliance Building in Chicago (1895)
· The Guaranty Building in Buffalo (1896), designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, one of the first tall buildings clad entirely in terra cotta, distinguished by its unparalleled decorative detail.
· The Woolworth Building, (1913) Cass Gilbert’s Gothic design in Tribeca in New York City, utilizing terra cotta top to bottom, demonstrating its malleability.
· Carbide & Carbon Building (1929) in Chicago, designed to symbolize a champagne bottle with green representing glass, gold the foil.
· Eastern Columbia Lofts, an Art Deco building (1930) in Los Angeles, that stands out for its vibrant turquoise and blue.
· Harvard Weld Boathouse in Cambridge (1906-7) whose size and magnificent scale have been restored.
Terra Cotta Glaze vastly expands the spectrum of hues, tints and saturation levels of terra cotta, opening up a remarkably wide color palette and texture variations reaching far beyond the original clay color. Still, the greys and tans of 100s of years ago continue to play a significant role in historic restorations and Boston Valley glaze technicians are unrivalled in their ability to interpret, distinguish and emulate the subtle differences and intricate nuances of these shades. When restoring historic structures, the terra cotta itself is extremely durable, it generally only fails due to poor installation or the backup structure deteriorating.
The possibilities are inherently different from those created by paint and other coatings that simply mix colors, as a terra cotta glaze is born of its chemical composition. Glaze is created by layering mostly inorganic materials mixed with water, sprayed directly onto the dry clay surface and then fired, hardened in a kiln to a vitreous glass layer finish, applied by hand with a spray gun.
Said Schwartz, “Glaze is a unique combination of material science and artistry…It can range from a muted, natural shade in historic buildings to vibrant reds, blues, greens and everything in-between… All elements create a conversation that forms something unique… There is incredible variation from basic solid to bespoke textures.”
The capabilities of glaze enable historic and contemporary elements to appear “made,” not “manufactured.”
TerraClad®
Boston Valley Sales Representative Gerard Gaudio explained “through-body color, [is] the practice of adding pigments to the clay body for an integral coloration throughout the entire panel.”
He noted that the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Triangle Park shows differing shades according to the angle of the sun, yet the through-body color remains intact. The same is true of Seton Hall University Science and Technology Center in South Orange, New Jersey.
“Terra cotta, alone or in combination with other materials, bounces and reflects light in different patterns along the façade,” said Gaudio.
As for texture, tactile and visual layers can be achieved by applying physical surface textures and various glaze applications. Surface textures can be incorporated directly into the extrusion die or through post-manipulation. Glaze applications include dotted, speckled, pulse, crystalline, layered, even a look that mimics leather.
Other qualities achieved are:
· Sheen – Which ranges from ultra-matte to satin to high gloss.
· Translucency – This adds richness and complexity and varies from opaque to translucent to transparent depending on the amount and diffusion of light passing through the glaze.
· Movement – Glazes land differently on flat vs. ridged panels. A glaze can pool at the bottom of a curved panel or collect in ridges.
“Material science and artistry come together to create something from a remarkable, organic, varied material,” said Schwartz.
Production Methods
There are four main production methods:
· Hand pressed – The oldest method, hand-pressing is largely done as it was a century ago, now augmented by technology. Models and molds are created for each unique style and clay is hand-packed in the mold to a uniform wall thickness. Released from the mold, sculptors finish the units by hand. Molds produce about 10 units and are recycled after use.
· Slip cast – A wet slip is poured into a plaster mold. Clay is kept in a liquid state. This is best applied to extraordinarily ornate structures and units that require undercutting. Here too, the molds are recycled.
· Extrusion – Clay is fed through an auger then into an extrusion die, and pressed through a bolted on steel die. Following the project, dies are eventually recycled.
· RAM Press – Positive and negative steel dies are created in the desired form, then hydraulic presses with the force of 100 tons are used, molding the clay onto the unit.
Examples of buildings using all four methods include 168 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago and The Fitzroy at 514 West 24th Street in New York City.
What’s Next?
Now in its tenth year, BVTC has presented annual Architectural Ceramic Assemblies Workshops (ACAWs) in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture and the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning to offer innovative building solution opportunities.
“The functional aesthetics of terra cotta explores the re-emergence of a versatile material with almost limitless possibilities – it has the staying power of 1000s of years,” said Schwartz.
The Potential of Terra Cotta - Prototype Research Projects
· The Behnisch Architekten team, based in Stuttgart, Germany, included Transsolar, Knippers Helbig and TriPyramid. The team tested the thermal performance of glazed terra cotta versus standard CMU. Following a simulated 10-minute rain event, the terra cotta remained 20 degrees cooler than the control masonry wall even three hours later.
· A Touzet Studio of Miami and Thornton Tomasetti of New York City team research project fabricated a geometric profile to test rainwater drainage systems by bringing a route to vegetation.
· Rios in Los Angeles and ARUP, a multinational firm, formed a Living Wall to create a habitat for plants and bee colonies.
· COOKFOX Architects of New York City and Buro Happold, a global firm based in the UK, created a Living Façade, a habitat for bees as well as avian life by having roosting points for birds to perch and live and self-watering planters as an ecological niche in the building envelope.
Schwartz concluded the presentation saying that he was glad to provide a “glimpse into the world of terra cotta and its aesthetic – the potential of architectural terra cotta.”
He thanked Skyline Restoration, “our design and installation partner” and its President Spiro Markatos.
Markatos thanked Boston Valley for their participation saying, “We were excited to host Boston Valley Terra Cotta and A/E professionals for a compelling presentation exploring the evolution of terra cotta across nearly 150 years of industry leadership. Combined with the forward-thinking vision of their new management team, their commitment to innovation is setting a new standard and reinvigorating the industry.”
See the entire presentation below.
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