Ah, the column. Perhaps no other architectural feature characterizes the facade of a building or home to the extent a column does. With their massive heights and great structural capacities, columns create spacious porticoes that establish a certain prestige. And in their ability to both divide space geometrically and frame the features beyond, they help evoke a classical beauty.

Decorative Columns. Manufactured by Synthetic Stone Inc.

I’m speaking here of the Greek and Roman variety - soaring heights, symmetrical elements, and a framing strategy that suggests a certain power and mystery of the building’s interior yet unifies the features so they remain comprehensible. Perhaps a brief catalog of famed structures will elucidate: the Greek Parthenon, the Roman Forum, Spain’s El Escorial, Italy’s Doge’s Palace, D.C.’s White House, Lincoln Memorial, Capitol, Supreme Court Building, etc. Each of these structures aspires to a kind of tempered awe - the sort of restrained beauty appropriate to housing great men and women engaged in great and weighty pursuits: conquering the Gauls, for instance, or attempting to balance the budget…

The Column made front page news last week when Barack Obama elected to use a stage set that featured stately columns in the Greek revival style. Notwithstanding the derision of the right-wing press, nor the increased susceptibility to charges of “elitism” that the columns drew, the set was meant to evoke DC’s Greek Revival style, especially the Lincoln Memorial where MLK delivered his famed “I Have a Dream Speech” on August 28, 1963. But amid all the hoopla over Obama’s columns, one reporter dryly deconstructed, “turns out they weren’t made of marble after all, just laminated plywood and drywall.” Ah well, as with most things political, the truth is mere illusion.

Perhaps Obama could have achieved a touch more authenticity had he consulted with Synthetic Stone, Inc. As an antidote to the great weight, expense, time commitment, and unreliability of concrete columns (marble and limestone being long since off the list, unless you’re one of the seven Emirates of Dubai or domestic royalty like Michael Jordan), Synthetic Stone offers Decorative Columns - and this means all three parts of the traditional member: Capital, Pillar, and Base - made of resin and crushed stone. The advantages over concrete? Many and varied, of course: load bearing and structural (no interior steel column required); footer not needed; lightweight; can be installed by two carpenters in one hour (in contrast to concrete which takes a full day and requires a mason); one-piece construction (again vs. concrete, which is in “stacks” of three to four foot pieces and thus has mortared joints); porosity resists mold and fungus; chips and cracks easy to repair, and the list goes on. Last but not least, Synthetic Stone’s Columns come in several styles. Depending on which classical era you’d like to evoke, you can choose from Scamozzi, Temple of the Winds, Roman Cornithian, Tuscan, or Roman Ionic. With such a diverse line-up, there’s probably even one for John McCain.