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Peace symbol screen block

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Mid-Century Modern627 of 2903Who made this 1950 General Motors "Previews of Progress" Booklet
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    Posted 7 years ago

    artfoot
    (367 items)

    At the back of my yard, under an orange tree that is always dropping leaves, is this solitary peace symbol pre-cast concrete block. These turn up every once in a while, usually in back yards, remnants of hippie era book shelves. That's how I got this one some twenty years ago.

    Curiosity leads us in diverse directions - let me tell you what I have found out about these pieces of concrete. First - what they are. Called screen blocks or breeze blocks in the trade, they have been and are currently made in a wide variety of patterns. The size of the block pictured, called a 12" Square, is actually 11 5/8" on the sides and 3 5/8" thick. They have a number of architectural uses from ornamentation to, as the names imply, ventilated privacy walls. Currently there are many manufacturers of pre-cast concrete screen blocks. None that I could find are currently offering a Peace Symbol block and access to vintage product catalogs has, so far, been fruitless.

    Concrete screen blocks were often used in Mid-Century architecture. An image search will show a multitude of on-site installations. What I didn't find were any installations using these Peace Symbol blocks. It seems unlikely that these were only sold to hippies building bookcases so I'm asking if anyone out there knows of a place where these were used architecturally. I would love to see a picture.

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    Comments

    1. ho2cultcha ho2cultcha, 7 years ago
      i LOVE these! i've been searching for one for years with no luck yet. thanks for sharing!
    2. Vynil33rpm Vynil33rpm, 3 years ago
      4 years ago ,,,hey Artfoot

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