Balustrade: by this name is meant the continuity of one or several spans of balusters, separated by pedestals constructed of marble, stone, iron or wood, held by the height of supports. See Support.

Stone or marble balustrades serve two purposes in the building: one to support the terraces that separate the unequal heights of the ground, in a park, in courtyards, or in gardens; the other to take the place of a balcony or support hollowed on each floor of a building or to serve as a capstone when the attics are not visible, as in the Bourbon Palace in Paris, in the Versailles Palace and elsewhere; this decoration should not be used when the need or usage requires attics despite the example that is seen in the Luxembourg palace.

The height of the first balustrades has no other restriction than being proportionate to that of the elbow or supporting height; that of the secondary ones must have in general, the quarter plus a sixth of the order which supports them; that is, the height of the entablature plus a sixth part. They are ordinarily composed of three main parts; that is, a base, a trunk, and a shelf; these three parts together must be divided into nine of which four will be given to the base, four to the trunk and one to the shelf: but as this height of balustrade held externally to the quarter plus a sixth, would often be too high to serve as a support on the side of the apartments or upper terraces of a building then the floor of the inner stories can be raised to the height of the base, within 2 or 3 inches.

Balustrades are often used as attic or damping on the upper floors of a building, and balusters are not introduced, since they are only to be used when there are hollowed spaces in the building; such as the crossings, doors, and pillars. There are sometimes buildings which have no noticeable openings; then we must remove the balusters in these balustrades , to give them a character of solidity that responds to the rest of the design: but when we use them, we must avoid putting more than eleven in one span, or less than five, in spite of the example of the castle of Clagny, where we see in some places only two, and sometimes one; which marks an openly small space seen on a large building face of a light design; and the example of the water tower of the Palais-Royal in Paris, of a rustic character, where we see, on the contrary, spans of up to 14; which is a lack of appropriateness. This makes me advance as a precept that balustrades should be more or less ornamented, according to the character of the building which receives them, or which they accompany; that is to say, that their profiles must reflect the rustic, solid, medium, delicate, and composed genre, like the balusters. See Baluster, and its profiles according to the five orders, in our Architecture Plates [First part, plate IX] .