pilaster

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pilaster

a shallow rectangular column attached to the face of a wall
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Pilaster

A partial pier or column, often with a base, shaft, and capital, that is embedded in a flat wall and projects slightly; may be constructed as a projection of the wall itself.

grouped pilaster

Two or more closely spaced pilasters forming a group, often on one pedestal.
Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

pilaster

[pə′las·tər]
(civil engineering)
A vertical rectangular architectural member that is structurally a pier and architecturally a column.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

pilaster

1. An engaged pier or pillar, often with capital and base.
2. Decorative features that imitate engaged piers but are not supporting structures, as a rectangular or semicircular member used as a simulated pillar in entrances and other door openings and fireplace mantels; often contains a base, shaft, and capital; may be constructed as a projection of the wall itself. (See illustration p. 726.)
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Pilaster

 

a flat upright projection on a wall or pillar; it is rectangular in plan. A pilaster is architecturally treated as a column but usually lacks entasis. Pilasters were widely used in ordered architecture primarily as decorative elements that divided a wall. Sometimes pilasters are load bearing.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
'An entablature above the posts and backrest is carved with a small anahaw leaf with a thorny stalk on the block above the pilasters and a frieze of a coconut frond, a banana leaf and bamboo twigs tied at the center with a ribbon, both on an entirely stippled ground.
The vertical brick pilasters are now more prominent due to the masonry stain applied to the lighter colored brick in-between.
In the spandrels shone two sunflower-like designs and the outer rectangular panels were again filled in with more pilasters, geometrical patterns and phantasmagoric flowers and vines.
Along with their range of decorative and plain niches, beautiful panel mouldings, fireplaces, archers and pilasters, corbels and brackets and columns and pilasters are also available.
Silver pilasters crowned with whimsical Rococo capitals set the stage for University of British Columbia Opera Ensemble's spring offering, Le nozze di Figaro (Mar.
The flanking pilasters are decorated in cage-motif at the top with embellishing lozenges around.
The three cabinet boxes are divided and flanked by four flat, protruding columns, or "pilasters." Make the pilasters using a 3/8-in.
The lightweight moldings, medallions, pilasters, and other decorative enhancements are crafted using aluminum molds, a method that ensures the most consistent part-to-part matching, the maker says.
Most might plump for the 1980s when Post Modernism, Prince Charles and planners, who equated pediments and pilasters with populism, inspired the most hideous buildings in history.
It features a vaulted plaster ceiling underneath a dome and drum, Siena marble pilasters and wainscoting, stained glass windows, and bronze window muntins.
the main hall is an arched entrance with pilasters, ceilings and a tiled floor, in the centre of which is a fountain ...
Features like the flat columns or "fluted Ionic Pilasters" on the HSBC Bank were praised along with several other streets in the town.