This work deals with short to mid span-length light vaults made of reinforced brick masonry.
In many historical and monumental Italian buildings, frescoes or stuccoes of artistic and historical value are present on the lower surface of flat light vaults, made by wooden arches, reeds and plaster.
Warming wood floors, contemporary light fixtures, vaulted ceilings and three glass fireplaces are among the details.
Photographs of stations in those days show great banks of sidewalk vault lights casting natural light onto the platforms directly below; presumably the platforms sent a soft glow to the streets at night, when artificial lighting was used.
This form of the cloister was generally superseded in England by a range of windows, usually unglazed but sometimes, as at Gloucester, provided with glass, lighting a vaulted ambulatory.
Mr. Tarantino said that New York City Transit was working on designs for vault light installations for the mezzanines at the West 110th and West 116th Street stations on the No. 1 Broadway line in Manhattan.
According to Cas Stachelberg, an associate at the preservation consulting firm of Higgins & Quasebarth, vault lights were invented in the 1840's to light ships below deck but were soon adapted for urban use.
Although the station's original vault lights -- glass inserts in concrete slabs that allowed natural light onto the platforms -- will not reappear, John Tarantino, chief architect at New York City Transit, said the agency was working citywide to bring daylight back to the subway experience.
A refrigeration system hummed, vibrating through the vast raw-brick vault, lighted amusingly with chandeliers.
BY that time most of the vault lights had been removed.
