6×9, 2×12, even 1×16 these all got their start from those original 3×6 rectangles underground in new York’s subways. Today you’ll find any number of different size and shape rectangles as people look for more variety. Commonly between 1/4” and 3/8” thick they can and have been used in innumerable ways from tub surrounds, to backsplashes to actual subways. These little rectangles are the major building blocks for millions of bathrooms around the world. The most common form of subway tile that we all know almost instantly is the traditional 3×6 white field tiles. Below I’ll mention the most common sizes that you’ll find. The sizes of subway tile can vary greatly and many manufacturers have their own custom sizes that others don’t. I’m talking the Legos here, but subway tile is just as flexible in the tile sense in that the design you can create from it are really left up to the limits of your own imagination. A dragon, a pirate ship, or my kid’s favorites a race car. You can build almost anything from that box of goodies. Think of a box of subway tile like a box of Legos. One of the most useful things about subway tile is their flexibility and utility. Expect to see more creative designs, colors and patterns, but the basic rectangular shape of the subway tile still reigns supreme. Is subway tile out of style today? Hardly! Subway tile has been one of the most resilient trends in tile design for well over a century and forecasters see no stopping to its dominance. The tile was considered to be exceptionally sanitary because of the ease of cleaning and its pencil thin grout lines. In the early days of the subway citizens admired the state of the art trains and designs so much that it wasn’t long before subway tile began appearing in bathrooms, kitchens, and utility rooms around around the area before spreading into a full fledged design craze in the 1920s with the advent of the “sanitary craze” when people believed that dirt carried disease and having easy to clean white surfaces could keep them safer from disease. Heins and LaFarge knew what materials would stand up well to heavy-duty cleaning and scrubbing they worked with the ceramic-producing firms Grueby Faience Company of Boston and Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati to create the tiles.Įven though Heins and LaFarge only designed a few early stations from 1901 to 1906 the architects like Squire Vickers who followed them as designer of the city’s subway stations from 1906 to 1942 followed their initial design aesthetic using mosaic tiles for for the station names with decorative borders and arts and craft motifs. To accomplish this they created the distinctive 3″ x 6″ glaze white rectangles we’re all so familiar with today. Heins and Christopher Grant La Farge who designed the first subway stations for the IRT line including the showpiece station at City Hall. To do this they turned to architects George C. City Hall Subway Station prior to opening in 1904
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