GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURAL
Terms   COR - CUR

• CORBEL A kind of bracket composed of a single projecting block, or of several graduated projecting courses of masonry, providing a ledge.

• CORNICE The uppermost portion of an entablature; often used to indicate the projecting horizontal element (to shed rainwater and for decoration) at the top of a building, or a similar feature (often in plaster) at the top of the wall of a room.

• COUNTERSCARP In military architecture, the outer wall of a ditch.

• COURSE A single horizontal row of brick, stone, or other walling material.

• COVE A concave moulding or recess, usually where a ceiling adjoins a wall.

• CRENELLATED See battlement.

• CRENELLATION A regular series of gaps in the low wall at the edge of a roof.

• CRÈPI A lime plaster used as a coating on stone buildings, particularly in New France, to protect the wall and the mortar joints from the weather.

• CRESTING A decorative rail, or a row of finials, or another feature at the top of a building, often along the ridge of the roof.

• CROCKET An upwardly projecting repeated decorative element, often along spires and gables in Gothic Re-vival architecture.

• CUPOLA A feature at the top of a roof, usually dome-shaped and opened up by windows or columns.

• CURTAIN In military architecture, a wall.

• CURTAIN WALL An exterior wall that is fastened to a frame and protects the building from the weather; it has no structural function, and supports only, its own weight.