Architectural Record 1908-01-06

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THE
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF ARCHITECTURE
AND THE ALLIED ARTS AND CRAFTS
Volume XXIII
JANUARY— JUNE
I9O8
PUBLISHED BY
THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD CO.
11-15 East 24.TH St., New York
841 Monadnock Building, Chicago

TEE GETTY CENTER
LIBRARY
CONTENTS
OF
THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

VOLUME XXIII
January- June, 1908.
3 PAGE
American School of Correspondence, Chicago, III., The Building of the 55
<4 Architecture, An American. William Herbert 111
I Brooklyn Plaza and the Projected Brooklyn Central Library, The. H. W. Frohne. 97
Building Construction, Shoddiness of American. F. W. Fitzpatrick 52
dff- California, The New University of. Herbert Croly 269
Ceilings in the Galleria Degli Uffizi, Florence, The. Alfredo Melani. 39
A Cincinnati, The Building of. Montgomery Schuyler 337
Competitive Bidding on Building Contracts, The Evil Effects of. Geo. C. Nimmons. 47
Country Home, Decorating and Furnishing the 445
Country House, The Modest 423
Ecolk Des Beaux-Arts and Its Influence On Our Architectural Education 241
A. D. F. Hamlin.
Ecolk Des Beaux-Arts, The : What Its Architectural Teaching Means 367
Paul Cret.
Greek Architects. Contractors and Building Operations. A. L. Frothingham 81
Kitchen and Its Dependent Services, The. Katharine C. Budd 463

Larkin Building in Buffalo, The. Russell Sturgis 3ii
Mariano, Lorenzo Di, An Architectural Sculptor. Alfred H. Gumaer 397
McKinley Monument, The Case of the: The American Architect and the Amer-
ican Public
Memorial Arch, The A National Emblem of Liberty. A. L. Frothingham.
: 5
Montgomery, Ward & Company’s New Warehouse, Chicago • 228
New York City Hall, The. Montgomery Schuyler 387
Notes and Comments 59
Decorating and Furnishing the Home — _
A Painter of Interior Decoration: Charles

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Frederick Naegele The Grant Monument Site, Washington, D. C. The Arab in —
— —
Architecture Skyscraping Up to Date Mechanical Problems of the Six Hundred-
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Foot Building New York’s Park Opportunity Proper Design for Suburbs
Charles River Progress in Boston— Exhibits of Local City Work— Mural Paintings
and Bad Boys— Gleaned From Park Reports— International Housing Congress
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Encyclopedia of Architecture, Carpentry and Building— A New System of Archi-
tectural Composition.
Notes and Comments. Illustrated 136
St. —
Louis School Buildings— Los Angeles and The Billboards Parks for Dubuque
— —
Church in a Theatre Hotel Decoration The Architectural League of America
Establishes Individual Membership.
PAGE
The Parker Building Fire — Municipal Action Necessary — Lake Shore Drive Apart-
ment House, Chicago— Modern Landscape Gardening — Spring Garden Branch,
Carnegie Library, Philadelphia — Borie Building — The Los Angeles Plan — New
Haven’s Awakening — —
Residence of Mr. Henry C. Butcher A Cathedral for
Halifax —Town Planning Suggestions— Municipal Art Society Meeting— Foreign
Thoughts on Town Planning.
Notes and Comments. Illustrated. ... 326
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Twenty-Third Annual Exhibition of the Architectural League of New York How to
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Refresh a Brownstone Front A Colonial Restoration A Beginning of the Hudson's
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West Bank Improvement Progress in Cleveland Prizes for Artistic Work Do- —
mestic Glass — The Foundations of Tall Buildings — Mistaken “Improvement”
Baltimore’s Advance — Improving Small Stations — University Scholarships — A Com-
petition for Low-Cost Dwelling Houses.
An —
Architectural Comparison Lessons from Crosby Hall— Another Boston Vision
— —
Mayor McClellan on City Beauty Playground Progress R. A. Cram on City
Building — Plans for Columbus, Ohio — —
State Fair Plans Discussion of City
— —
Planning New York Art Commission A Departure in Church Decoration Mod- —
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ern Baths and Bath Houses Academy Architecture.
Notes and Comments 303
—
Automobiles and Suburban House Sites An English Paper on Town Planning — Com-
petition for Cottage Houses — —
Plans for Roanoke Wanted Recutting, Not Patches
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Advertisement Protests — A Valuable Publication National Architecture and
Building Exposition.
Paris, Topographical Transformation of,Under Napoleon IN. V. Edw. R. Smith. 21
Philadelphia and a Coming Chance, Architecture in. Huger Elliott 295
Public Service Corporation of Milwaukee, The Building of the 323
Reinforced Concrete, Practical and Ethical Problems of Design in Architec-;
tural Expression in a New Material. H. Toler Booraem 249

St. Louis, Some Business Buildings in 396
Strickland, William, A Pioneer American Architect. Leslie Gilliams 123
Stuyvesant Theatre in New York, The Interior of the New An Intimate Audi-
:
torium. Herbert Croly 223

Suburban Architecture, Our 419
Suburban Home, Treating the Grounds About the. Harold A. Caparn 433
Suburban Houses Illustrated by Plans, Exterior and Interior Views, Recent.... 47 7
Warehouses, Some Recent. Russell Sturgis 373
Wright, The Work of Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright 155
Copyright 1907, by “The Architectural Record Company.” All rights reserved.
Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N. Y., Act of Congress of March 3d, 1879.
Vol. XXIII. No. i. JANUARY, 1908 Whole No. 112
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THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND THE AMERICAN PUBLIC : THE

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CASE OF THE McKINLEY MONUMENT. Illustrated 1
A NATIONAL EMBLEM OF LIBERTY: THE MEMORIAL ARCH 5
Illustrated. A. L. Frothingham.
r
BARON HAUSSMANN AND THE TOPOGRAPHICAL TRANSFORMA-
| TION OF PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON III
Illustrated. Edward R. Smith.
V — 21
THE CEILINGS IN THE GALLERIA DEGLI UFFIZI, FLORENCE . 39

y Illustrated. Alfredo Melani.
THE EVIL EFFECTS OF COMPETITIVE BIDDING ON BUILDING
y CONTRACTS. George C. Nimmons
SHODDINESS OF AMERICAN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.
47
52
v* E. W. Fitzpatrick.
THE BUILDING OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CORRESPOND-
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ENCE, CHICAGO, ILL. Illustrated 55
•••
NOTES AND COMMENTS. Illustrated . 59

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f Decorating and Furnishing the Home— A Painter of
— ~T Interior Decoration: Charles Frederick Naegele—
The Grant Monument Site, Washington, D.
Arab
The 0—
in Architecture— Skyscraping Up to Date-
Mechanical Problems of the Six Hundred Foot
•
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\ Building— New York’s Park Opportunity — Proper
0
Design for Suburbs— Charles River Progress in
Boston— Exhibits of Local City Work —Mural Paint-
ings and Bad Boys— Gleaned From Park Reports—
International Housing Congress— Encyclopedia of
Architecture, Carpentry and Building— A New
System of Archite ctural Composition.
*
PUBLISHED BY
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Vol. XX III JANUARY, 190S. No. 1.
The American Architect and the American

Public
The Case of the McKinley Monument
The American architect surely has this privilege. No matter how much
the right charge American public
to people gaze at his buildings they rarely
opinion with the commission of a pal- think of them as the work of a man or
pable and striking injustice. All mod- a firm, and the poor designer is not
ern American artists suffer somewhat even permitted to scratch his name on
from lack of appreciation but the archi-
;
some corner-stone, so that he who
tect suffers from more than a want of searches may find.
appreciation; he suffers from a gross As already intimated, this particular
wrong. His name is in the minds of grievance of the architect must be care-
the people rarely identified with his fully distinguished from the lack of ap-
work. His professional brethren and a preciation which is visited upon artists
few thousand acquaintances and clients in general. The painter, the sculptor
are in a position to attribute the most and the man of letters may not obtain
important modern American buildings the reputation or the recognition to
to their responsible designers. The vast which they are entitled, but the appre-
mass of business and professional men ciation they receive is within its limits
are in no such position. They no more genuine and emphatic. Any painting
associate a building with its architect which is distinguished at all, is distin-
than they associate a particular suit of guished even by the vulgar, as the work
clothes on the back of a friend with a of a particular man; and its perpetrator
particular tailor. The fact that a cer- is allowed to scrawl his name on the
tain architect designed your building canvas. A

sculptor also can declare on
may be of some interest to you, just as some part of his bronze or marble that
it is of interest to you that your haber- he did it, and the popular recognition
dasher and plumber are competent and that a certain statue has been committed
honest, but it is not supposed to inter- by a certain man is much more general
est anyone else, unless such a person than it is in the case of the architect.
happens to need a new haberdasher. In- As to the playwright, the size of the let-
deed the architect is in a worse position ters upon which his name appears on
in this respect than are many trades- the bill-boards may compare to the size
men, because the latter are permitted to of the letters in which the names of the
advertise their connection with a good managers and the star are printed very
article or piece of work, whereas the much as the Parkhurst Church will com-
former, as a professional man, is denied pare to the tower of the Metropolitan
Copyright, 1907, by “The Architectural Record Company.” All rights reserved.

Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N. Y.. Act ot Congress of March 3d, 1879'
4
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2 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
Building but small as is the lettering,

;
from the position of a tail-ender into
it may be read. The architect alone
still the position of a head-liner; and they
neither signs his work nor has his name can do so by the simple but efficacious
written upon it by the persistent curiosity means of putting his name in the head-
of public opinion. lines. They are under no compulsion to
Of course there can be no doubt that publish the pictures of buildings unless
the general popular interest in archi- their readers are interested therein; but
tecture has largely increased during the if they publish such pictures they should
past fifteen years and there can be no do so in a manner which is fair to the
;
doubt, also, that the architects, individu- men who are responsible for their illus-
ally, have received a share of this aug- trations. They should do the architect
mentation of popular interest. But they the same justice that they do the painter,
have not received anything like a full the playwright or the musician. A pic-
share; and, perhaps, the best indication ture exhibition or a musical perform-
of this fact can be found in the way ance is reviewed even for the daily jour-
they are treated by the popular periodi- nals by men who do nothing else —by
cals. The rise and spread of illustrated professional critics, who are supposed to
journalism has created an enormous de- know their subject and to follow care-
mand, particularly on the part of Sun- fully the work of all contemporary per-
day supplements and the like, for pic- formers. The task of criticism may be
tures of all kinds; and among these pic- well or ill done, but at least it is pre-
tures many photographs appear of con- sumed to be a serious occupation, which
temporary residences, hotels, sky-scrap- deserves the services of an expert. But
ers and other buildings likely to pro- when a new residence or hotel is pub-
voke popular interest. In the accounts lished, any ignorant reporter is supposed
of these buildings the names of the to have the information and the judg-
architects rarely appear. Sometimes at ment sufficient to describe the building;
the end of the article the announcement and such a thing as criticism is, of
will be made that the building cost $5,- course, not even considered. Instead of
000,000, that its builder was the Celestial helping to popularize the architect and
Contracting Co., that its decorator was to bring about the association of his
Henry Blumenpohl, and its architects name with his work, the popular periodi-
Messrs. Fish & Fish; but the architect cals lend the influence of their hypnotic
does not bulk any more conspicuously control over the popular consciousness
in the account of the building than does to the perpetuation of the unjust and be-
the plumber. In the great majority of nighted popular attitude towards archi-
cases his name is not mentioned at all tectural work.
and this practice is followed not merely One of the most flagrant instances of
by daily newspapers, but by periodicals, such injustice done to an architect was
such as Collier’s, who ought to have a the treatment received by Mr. H. V. B.
better understanding of the injustice of Magonigle, when the McKinley Memor-
such an omission. That journal recently ial was dedicated. This dedication took
contained a page full of illustrations of place in the fall, and the ceremonies were
the large hotels recently constructed in attended by a large and representative
New York City; but in none of the leg- body of spectators. The President of
ends accompanying them did the name the United States delivered the address.
of the architect appear. Accounts of the ceremony, together
The attitude of the popular periodi- with illustrations of the memorial, were
cals towards architecture is of the ut- published in all the important daily
most importance, because they, and they journals throughout the country. The
alone, are in a position to accustom pub- whole affair was an impressive public
lic opinion to associate the name of a
tribute, evoked by the affection which
conspicuous building with the name of the late Mr. McKinley aroused and by
its designer. They, and they alone, are the distressing futility of his death at
in a position to convert the architect
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the hands of a crazy assassin. The me-

AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND AMERICAN PUBLIC. 3
morial itself had been paid for largely the gross injustice remains. The monu-
by means of a widespread popular sub- ment designed by Mr. Magonigle is a
scription, and on the day of the dedi- noble and impressive piece of public
cation the eyes of the whole country architecture. It will not merely perpetu-
were fastened upon the ceremonies ate the memory of the late Mr. McKin-
which were taking place at Canton, ley, and testify to the affection which he
Ohio. It would seem as if the man who aroused among his contemporaries, but
had designed this memorial should have it by its simple and sober beauty,
will
received his share of popular attention; actually enhance for future Americans
but so far as one could judge from the the lesson of his life and his death. The
newspaper reports, his name was scarce- architect has in his memorial added
ly mentioned. The address of the Pres- something fine and enduring to the in-
ident of the United States did not con- fluence of the dead statesman, and the
tain a reference to him and not more dedicatory ceremonies should have cele-
than a passing reference to his work. brated, not merely the memory of a man
The newspapers published pictures of who had died in the service of his coun-
the monument, but for the most part try, but also the creation of a work of
they left the identity of its designer to living beauty. The McKinley monu-
the imagination of their readers. The ment not merely a tomb. It is in its
is
writer examined all the published ac- way a temple, which will arouse in the
counts of it which he could find, and bosoms of future Americans an aspira-
the name of Magonigle appeared in so tion as well as a memory and it is one of
;
few instances that their influence was the very few public memorials of which
practically negligible. A man who was such a statement can be made. If Presi-
impressed by the beauty of the monu- dent Roosevelt in his address had en-
ment, and who wished to learn the iden- larged upon this thought instead of
tity of its author, would have had a dif- pounding with his sledge-hammer upon
ficult time in unearthing the informa- the old anvil corporate abuses, he
of
tion. Collier’s gave a certain prominence would have been teaching the public a
to the name of the sculptor of the figure lesson which it needs even more than
of Mr. McKinley, Mr. Niehaus, whose it needs the lesson of reform in respect
share in the effect of the total memor- to the public supervision of incorporated
ial, was as one to one hundred; but it wealth. No doubt the American people
was silent as to the name of the really really want heroic deeds and noble per-
responsible artist. It looked almost as sonalities properly perpetuated, but if so,
if there was a conspiracy on the parr they must be prepared to rear memor-
of the press to deny to the architect the ials which are worthy of the occasion
recognition to which his work had en- or of the man commemorated ;

and
titled him. about the poorest preparation they
Of was no such conspir-
course, there can make for such a consummation is
acy. was ignorance rather than
It the flagrant neglect of the men who are
malice which prompted this gross piece competent to build such memorials.
of injustice. The official speakers and While an artist does not need prizes, he
the representatives of the press, like does need recognition, sympathy and ap-
other good Americans, simply were not preciation, and it is to be hoped that
in the habit of associating the name of future Americans will testify to the en-
the architect with the enduring architec- during beauty of the McKinley Me-
tural monument; and as that name was morial by a contemptuous glance at the
one which is better known to the lovers contemporaries who failed to recognize
of good architecture than it is to the its adequacy to express the principles for
general public, it did not strike them as which it stands and rewarded its de-
important. But explain it as you will, signer with neglect.
THE McKINLEY MONUMENT— PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT delivering his address

AT THE DEDICATION.
Canton, Ohio. H. Van Buren Magonigle, Architect.
Charles H. Niehaus, Sculptor.
(From stereograph copyright 1907 by Underwood and Underwood, New York.)
A National Emblem of Liberty
The Memorial Arch
In a modern city, especially an Ameri- erty. Let it be a monument of but one

can city,would it be possible for us to type, that shall be set up in every State in
point to any one building as the special the Union, and in every large city, in-
emblem of its historic life, its activities, scribed with the dates and circumstances
its liberties as the monumental sign-
;
of their foundation and local glory deco- ;
board of its chartered rights ? In the case rated and surrounded with statues of
of New York would it be the City Hall their great men.
or Tammany Hall, Columbia University The Romans did this very thing, and
or the Stock Exchange? to do it invented the Memorial Arch.
In* our democracy, with its go-as-you- We are like them in our grasp on the
please development, its casual meeting of practical problems of government, our
the problems of the day as they arise, love of law, our passion for equality, our
and its carelessness of posterity, anything ability to combine a conservative im-
of this sort has been more accidental than perialism with local liberties. Let us fol-
deliberately planned. If we can point to low them in adopting the Arch of Lib-
the Boston State House, and to Inde- erty. As with them, let the Arch follow
pendence Hall in Philadelphia, it is not the Llag. We
can certainly spare some
because they were intended to be me- of our surplus to secure permanent rec-
morial monuments when they were built, ords of our national and civic life.
but only on account of the great facts Before showing how the Romans
connected with their subsequent history. carried out this idea, I should say that
Modern thought, especially with us. this special significance of what is com-
seems to have had slim use for symbols monly called the triumphal arch of the
as such, however enthusiastic it mav Romans is a new discovery that I have
grow over patriotic associations. made. This is not the place to prove it.
But does harmonize with the sig-
it It but another proof falling finally
is
nificance of our history and our passion- into its real place, of the high value set
ate patriotism that our grandchildren both upon Roman citizenship and upon
should be obliged to consult musty his- the municipal liberties of each city within
tories, files of grimy newspapers, or other the Roman domains. We
are too apt to
equally perishable, undignified and un- fancy they were swallowed up in
official records, if they want to learn Rome’s imperialism.
about the Charter of Greater New York We must first of all twist ourselves
or the circumstances of the foundation free from familiar thoughts about the
and organization of our other great arch. Our artists and our citizens have
cities? Even worse things might hap- associated it with the memories of dead
pen. Suppose, for a moment, they heroes and presidents, with Washington
should happen upon a file of the New and McKinley, with living leaders, like
York Journal in their search after truth! Dewey, with the countless unnamed vic-
But that would be another story! tims of our great struggles, as in the
Lest we forget. With our inroads of Brooklyn Arch. This association with
foreign millions it is not enough to teach wars and great memories is based on
school children patriotic songs and to such famous models as the arches in
give “fake” examinations in the Con- Rome itself to Titus, Septimius Severus
stitution to illiterate grown-up candi- and Constantine, spectacular examples
dates for citizenship. Let us, then, find of a very small sub-class of apparently
a remedy some record, permanent, un-
:
triumphal arches a mere drop in the
;
impeachable, and for all to see one that

;
bucket compared with the mass of ex-
shall be prominent as the Statue of Lib- amples that have no fundamental con-
;
A NATIONAL EMBLEM OF LIBERTY. 7
nection with wars or persons. It is easy thesis of Hellenism, creations of an art
to see how these particular arches should, that must have seemed to him not only
from their beauty and situation, have uninspired and material, but often gro-
haunted the imaginations of artists and tesquely hideous. The countless images
people throughout Europe, and now in of animal and bird-headed gods, the same
America. But a few examples will show whether carved under the Pharaohs con-
what the arches always really meant to temporary with Abraham or under Cleo-
the Roman citizen that they marked the
:
patra, seemed in their eternal duration
right to be free, rather than the tramp to mock the evanescent beauty of the
of the legions. Hellenic spirit and its present despairing
When more than a century ago, the effort of galvanized life. Was it fact or
Emperor Napoleon sent out his famous fancy that, in the very midst of this
Commission of learned men to study the nightmare, as the imperial procession ad-
antiquities of Egypt, its members in their vanced through Upper Egypt along the
progress up the Nile came upon a sight sluggish Nile, Antinous in an excess of
that puzzled them completely. It was passionate melancholy threw himself into
the ruins of a large city, thoroughly late the stream ? This, at least, is one interpre-
Greek in style, evidently built in Roman tation of the legend. But Hadrian’s spirit
times; so classic in a certain late type turned the suicide into an emblem of
that it seemed as if transported bodily hope and resurrection, by founding this
from the coast of Asia Minor or of Sy- memorial city upon the spot and naming
it after his favorite, whom he
enrolled
ria to be set down on the banks of the
Nile, an oasis in the clear and continu- among the gods of Egypt. The French
ous monotony of Egyptian art, during archaeologists discovered it, hidden in the
its long life of some five thousand years undergrowth.
an almost unbelievable contrast! Hadrian called Greek artists to build
The mystery was solved when it was it, and peopled it with Neo-Hellenes, as
found that this city was Antinoe, built they called themselves, Greeks from At-
by the Emperor Hadrian, in about one tica. Highways were constructed to con-
hundred and thirty A. D., to be the cen- nect the new city with the rest of Egypt,
tre of Greek and Roman culture in Up- and everything done to give it material
per Egypt, as Alexandria was on the_ prosperity. These aliens in Egypt
miss-
seaboard. The legend of its foundation ed none of the accessories to their na-
is poetic. It was named after Hadrian’s tive life and customs. The city was built
favorite, Antonious, that Bithynian youth in broad avenues bordered by hundreds
whose dreamy and placid beauty, some- of high columns. There was a hippo-
what melancholy in its un-alert perfec- drome for athletic games, a theatre for
the great Greek poets, public baths and
tion, was reproduced by all the plays of
his day, and is even familiar gymnasia to train the youth, a temple to
artists of
to us in numerous statues, busts, reliefs the local hero-god, Antinous, whose
and
and gems. Around this picturesque fig- statues crowned memorial columns
ure there clustered one of the latest of decorated the great square on the banks
classic legends. To Hadrian, the ardent of the Nile.
apostle of the revival of Greek culture, It was here that a broad colonnaded
the rebuilder of Athens, the traveller in avenue ended in an arch, which was
all lands, and the enquirer into all things, built with greater care than any other
there was but one real ideal, and the per- part of the city. To fully appreciate the
fect youth, Antinoiis, seemed the ma- architect’s plan one must pass through it
terial incarnation of its rhythmic beauty. and walk as far as the river bank. Then,
When, with Antinous in his train, the facing about, one must have had in Had-
Emperor passed through Egypt, only re- rian’s time, something like the scheme of
cently a hot-bed of sedition, it was not the square of St. Peter’s in Rome, with
its gigantic colonnades reaching
out in
merely a disaffected population that he
saw. On every side he was oppressed their curved lines, like huge tentacles,
by monuments that were the very anti- on either side of the faqade of the church.
But at Antinoe the two wings are in grain fleet did not come in on time from
straight lines, four columns abreast, and the African ports to stock the great gov-
flank a gigantic triple arch preceded by ernment warehouses. It was one of the
a memorial column on either side. These most masterly achievements of the Em-
wings reached as far as the river. We pire that it created here, out of chaos
can fancy that in this beautiful square and sterility, broad regions of advanced
and under these broad shaded colonnades culture; and this was made possible by
the Greek citizens often gathered. It was those colossal Roman works for stor-
probably their political forum ;
in the ing and transmitting water which we
shadow of the arch that proclaimed their ought now to study if we want to under-
origin and civic rights, and did honor stand how to apply such engineering
to the hero from whom they had their feats to our own national problem in the
GERASA (DJE’RASH) — THE COLONY ARCH (SYRIA).
name, as, in their native land, at Patrai, arid regions of the far West which our
the gate of the Market-place was crown- Government is planning to reclaim.
ed with a statue of the city demi-god For nearly two centuries the Roman
and founder. occupation of Africa, beginning at the
Here then, at Antinoe, the architect coast, was pushed steadily southward
who laid out the city planned the arch as cities were being continually founded,
its dominant note and symbol. military camps set, and ever advancing
Without leaving Africa, but passing new lines of frontier watch-towers es-
westward, we enter quite different sur- tablished to hold the new territory, re-
roundings, as militant as those of An- claimed both from the desert and the
tinoe were peaceful. The now sterile nomads. One of the new colonies was
and sandy regions of North Africa, par- Thamugadi, whose ruins are now called
titioned among the modern States of Tu- Timgad, in the foot-hills of the great
nis, Algeria, Tripoli and Morocco, were range of the Aures mountains of South-
under the Roman Empire even more ern Numidia, beyond which the dreaded
uniquely the granary of the world than Moorish raiding tribes were still in un-
our Western states are at the present time. checked possession. Around Timgad
Rome and all Italy starved when the were grouped other cities, Mascula, Ver-
;
IO THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
ecunda, Theveste, all built at about the by the hands of the Third Legion called
same time under the Antonine Emper- ‘Augusta.’ It was dedicated by the im-
ors here, too, was the great permanent
: perial legate Munatius Gallus.” This was
camp at Lambaesis, which contained the the official statement as to the time and
army that defended this region that was circumstances of the foundation, borne
made one of unbounded fertility and de- aloft by a monument as conspicuous in
light. its environment as the Cathedral or
. Timgad, at 3,000 feet above sea level, Town-Hall in a mediaeval city. Placed
where six highways converged, guarded originally on the city’s boundary line,
the main pass across the range and across the main approach, the expansion
served also as starting-point for expedi- of the population soon left it, on a gentle
tions against the Moors. The uncover- rise, guarding the approaches to the
ing of its ruins by the French govern- Forum. It will always be connected with
ment is now being completed and has Trajan’s great work in extending and
PATARA (LYCIA) CITY ARCH.
made of it the Pompeii of Africa. The guarding the southern borderland of

city, except that it is in ruins, is now Rome in Africa, evoking a picture of
practically as it was in the second cen- tremendously fertile and well-directed
tury, with its forum, basilica, theatre, energy.
temples, market-halls, gates. Evidently If the arch of Antinoe was emblematic
it was a considerable centre of culture. of Hadrian’s character and reign, the em-
The most conspicuous and sumptuous bodiment of peace without effort and of
of its monuments, perhaps the most strik- the dreams of a Philhellene; the arch
ing of African arches, is the so-called at Thamugadi built, like the entire city,
“Arch of Trajan,” in reality the memor- by the legionary soldiers, is typical of his
ial arch of the new colony. Stripped of uncle Trajan’s greater and more mascu-
its formulas, the inscription in the attic line energy, conquering by war to rebuild
of this arch said: “The Emperor Trajan, by the constructive methods of a peace
in his fourth year, founded this colony of ensured by armed legions. These legions
Thamugadi, called (after his sister) during the long years of peace were so
‘Marciana,’ and (after him) ‘Traiana taken up with the building of cities,
A NATIONAL EMBLEM OF LIBERTY. II
roads, bridges, aqueducts and other great It was also owing to Trajan’s policy
public works, as to make of the Roman that the Roman grasp upon this territory
armies not the lazy drones that drain the became firm and final, that it was girdled
vitals of modern European nations, but to the East and South with a long line
the best instances of creative energies di- of forts to keep the nomads out. Cities
rected in large bodies for the public and villages then sprang up like mush-
—
good large labor-unions on a purely un- rooms. ruins are still keeping
Their
selfish basis. archaeologists busy, for ever since the
Leaving Africa for a moment, we will Arabs swept over the country in the sev-
pass eastward to the province of Syria, enth century, it has been largely given
bulwark of the empire against the Per- back again to the dwellers in tents, and
sians and Parthians, and inheriting a the land is strewn with dead cities.
ATTALEIA (AD ALIA), ARCH OF HADRIAN (ASIA MINOR).
semi-Hellenic civilization and art that Among these, the one whose ruins are
made her one of Rome’s principal teach- the most important, by the side of the
ers. At her capital, Antioch, the emper- more spectacular sites of Palmyra and
ors often established their headquarters. Baalbek, is Djerash, the ancient Gerasa,
Yet even here Rome showed that she had which grew up under the early Antonine
a mission. On the easternmost border- emperors. The city was fairly complete
land, reaching out toward the Syro- in its ruins until the old materials were
Arabian desert, was a region that had al- recently put to use by a horde of Kurd-
ways been, even more than it is now, ish emigrants sent there by the Turkish
under Turkish misrule, a prey to nomad government. A
race has been going on
tribes,which made any settled civiliza- between them and a group of strenuous
tion impossible, where it had not come German archaeologists, who are excavat-
under the sway of a high-spirited North- ing, measuring and illustrating the build-
Arabian dynasty centered in the rocky ings before they are destroyed. Inter-
fastness of Petra. esting as the ruins in Africa are, certainly
these Syrian cities show a higher artistic plan of picking a single example from
type, the inheritance of centuries. each main province or group of provinces
To the traveller approaching Gerasa in the Roman Empire, we reach Asia
from the north, along the main ancient Minor. Its cities stand quite alone in
highway from Philippopolis, the view of their pride and glory, with a long his-
the ruins is heralded by an enormous tory of self-government and local tradi-
gateway spanning the road by the side tions. Here had been the home of the
of the circus and naumachia, some four Ionians in the beginning of Greece and
:
hundred yards outside the city gate. Here here Greek art and culture had persisted
the people came to see the races, the sea- and flourished in the latter days, long
fights and other sports. It is a triple after Athens and Sparta had been trailed
AOSTA (PIEDMONT), COLONY ARCH OF AUGUSTUS.
archway of enormous size, 82 feet wide, in the dust. Ephesus, Miletus, Rhodes,
but so battered that its height can only Pergamon and many other cities, that
be guessed at. It stands, I believe, on were names to conjure with in earlier
the sacred line dividing the city from the days, still remained leaders, with a swarm
country, the line called pomerium. of others, in commerce, arts and letters,
Though its dedicatory inscription has gaining a new lease of life under the
disappeared with the destruction of its peace-giving shadow of Rome. In con-
attic, the position and isolated majesty trast to the cities of Africa and Syria,
of the arch shows that it probably re- they never felt the most distant menace
cords the city’s foundation and its pos- of war for centuries, except when rival
session of Roman city rights. candidates for the imperial throne, like
Passing northward and following the Septimius Severus and Niger, made of
;
H THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
the country for a brief moment one of taken the opposite side and so obtained
their battle-grounds. Many of them the necessary “pull.” The humiliation of
had enjoyed the privilege of making at Nicaea was officially recognized by the
first separate treaties of alliance with obliteration of the word metropolis in
Rome, when the legions invaded the the two cases where it occurred on the
East, and had been called “friends of city arch doubtless done by imperial or-
;
the Roman people.” With Rome’s wonder. It must have been a bitter and ever-
derful adaptability she left these Greek present reminder to the Nicaeans, this
cities all the liberty compatible with the cut in fhe marble that means so little to
unity of the empire, confident in their us. On the other hand, such gate-arches
loyalty. The prosperity that ensued was as those of Hadrian at Isaura and Atta-
phenomenal. All the old cities seem to leia, give the other side of the political
have been rebuilt on a large scale and the life of Asia Minor, that was more im-
ruins now excavated in Asia Minor have perial and less local in its tendencies
disclosed far more of the Roman than of arches that were proofs of the personal
the Greek period. There may be some care and liberality of the emperors.
wrangling among scholars as to the exact brassing now westward across the Bos-
measure of this municipal freedom and phorous, we leave behind us the spot
as to the respective shares of Rome and where Constantinople was soon to bloom
Hellas in the shaping of the institutions as an expended Byzantium, and to have
of this later Golden Age, but its reality a Colony Arch in the form of its “Golden
stares us obtrusively in the face. Gate,” which was really the triumphal
The city arch that we meet with in the arch par excellence, given to it alone
ruins of several of these wonderful sites among all cities beside Rome. We
can
sometimes bears an inscription that dis- now take a survey of Europe. In Greece,
tinctly reflects this flavor of compara- a few cities flourished moderately under
tive independence, and connects them Rome, and of these none more than Co-
not with a special emperor to whom they rinth, whose Colony Arch has been re-
—
owe their privileges as was the case at cently excavated by our American
Thamugadi—but with their local politi- School too little remains of it to give
:
cal organism and their own province. At us any proof of its artistic merit. That
Patara, for instance, the wording on the old traveller Pausanias mentions it as
arch has this proud simplicity: “The surmounted by the Chariots of Apollo
People of Patara, metropolis of the Ly- and Phaethon. It recorded the rebuild-
cian people.” ing of Corinth by Julius Caesar and
This official proclamation of a city as Augustus that tardy reparation for the
;
capital or metropolis of a province by great historic wrong done a century ear-

means of the arch-inscription, is also lier, when the barbarous Mummius had
shown by an arch at Nicaea, where the destroyed the great Greek city and
inscription sheds an interesting historic cartedaway its artistic treasures as loot
side-light. For centuries Nicaea and Ni- to Rome. The founders of the empire
comedia were the two most important wished to show the world that Rome
cities of Bithynia, once a kingdom, now now repudiated the old policy of brutal-
a Roman province, and there was bitter ity and ignorance, and stood for enlight-
rivalry between the two as to which enment and good government. The Arch
should have the title of its metropolis. of Corinth becomes for this reason a sig-
For a long period Nicaea remained nificant symbol, and marks an epoch in
strongly intrenched in imperial favor, Roman history.
and when her main arch was built under Passing further westward, there are
Antoninus Pius, its inscriptions vaunted two other arches, also of the time of
her as the metropolis. But at some later Augustus, and built at the very begin-
time she took the wrong side in a strug- ning of his empire, on the northernmost
gle between imperial rivals —
the side frontier of Italy, where the highest Alps
of the under dog —and the title went sweep down toward the plains of Pied-
to Nicomedia which had, quite naturally, mont. One of these was at Aosta, the
ARCH.
COLONY
Augustan.)
ARAUSIO),
(Early
(ROMAN
ORANGE
i6 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
finest remaining example of the Roman city and the occupation of this territory
purely military city, built on the model by Rome after agreat victory. It
of a rectangular camp and surrounded marked the point where the jurisdiction
by ramparts. Usually the Roman city of the new city began. More than any
was innocent of fortifications, until the other arch we have given, L expresses
barbarian inroads threatened the heart the purely military side of so many of the
of the empire in its decadence three cen- Roman colonies, set down in the terri-
turies later. But at Aosta the case was tory of the enemy to mark that here
different. When Augustus, following in Rome has placed her seal.
the wake of his great uncle, Julius, laid The temptation is strong to make an
out the lines of his great empire, he excursion across these Alpine passes, at
found at first as substantial troubles this point or along the Riviera, into that
near home as on the far frontiers. Com- fascinating region of Southern Gaul, the
munication with the north, especially earliest of Rome’s important provinces.
with the extensive Danubian provinces For here, the granting of citizenship, es-
and the Gallo-German frontier, depended pecially the so-called Latin rights, first
on the security of the Alpine passes lead- assumed important proportions. Here
ing out of Italy along the whole present grew up a little Italy that was to outlive
line from Venice to Turin. As long as Italy herself as a home of Roman cul-
these keys to Italy were in the hands of ture in the West. The last eloquent
semi-independent tribes of mountaineers, poet of pagan Rome was a Gallic poet
there was no safety. By diplomacy and of the early fifth century who, as he
by tedious mountain warfare, the long leaves it for his own land in melancholy
stretch of highlands was finally pacified. prescience of its approaching ruin, looks
Two arches were built in these moun- upon Province as the refuge from the
tains to celebrate the submission of the barbarians of the North. And in its
tribes to Rome. One was at Susa, at the sunny cities at Arles, Nimes, Orange,
mouth of the “Pas de Suse” to commem- Avignon, Vienne, are many of the finest
orate the creation of a prefecture of the and most colossal works of Roman art,
Alps with its capital at Susa, in charge including those masterly arches of S.
of the local king, transformed into an Remy and Orange, the most beautiful as
imperial prefect. It is an interesting vari- well as earliest to be richly sculptured
ation of the civic arch; and its inscrip- among the Roman arches of the world.
tion gives the names of all the tribes Has not this glimpse of arches in dif-
whose chiefs took the oath of allegiance ferent parts of the empire made it clear
to Rome. that they had a special function and
The second arch was the one just men- were present everywhere? Exactly
tioned at Aosta. The tribes in this region what this function was, not in the opin-
were not to be conciliated. The Roman ion of a modern critic but in the mind
army that forced its way up toward the of the Romans themselves, may be in-
main pass, pitched its camp and fought ferred, but I must make them speak
a battle of extermination on the very more clearly for themselves. Otherwise
spot where Augustus decided immediate- I might be charged with imagining a
ly afterwards to build a military colony charming but airy figment, a civic myth.
peopled with veterans, and to call it af- The evidence, of course, is clearest in
ter himself and the army, Colonva Au- the inscriptions of the arches themselves.
gusta Praetoria. It always fulfilled its It is sometimes expressed in plainest
purpose of keeping the pass open for prose sometimes it is poetic.
;
It was a
Rome and closed to her enemies. Over matter of temperament and environment.
a thousand feet in front of the military North Africa was the home of official-
gate of the city, an arch spanned the dom, of red tape and military directness.
main approach, a sober, solid structure, Its inscriptions often bore one with their
congruous with early Roman art. It titles and their formulas. From one of
was both a triumphal and a civic monu- its arches I cull, quite naturally, the bald-
ment, for it recorded the founding of the est unchallengeable proof of my theory.
7
(EARLY
ARCH
COLONY
REMY,
SAINT
5
! : !
i8 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
In 209 A. D. under Septimius Severus, What were these symbolic works of

a colony was founded at a place called sculpture? Often it was the famous
Vaga, the modern Bedja. From the group of the Roman Wolf suckling the
Emperor it was called Colonia Septimia Twins, placed in the centre over the at-
Vaga. An arch was built, stating this tic. It showed that the city belonged
fact, and dedicating the colony to Septi- to Rome. Trajan placed this group on
mius Severus, to his sons Caracalla and the triumphal gate which he built at
Geta, and his wife, Julia Domna. The Antioch. The same idea was associated
city was founded, the inscription states, with the Roman Sow and her litter.
by the pro-consul Flavius Decimus, who When Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a
“ having founded the colony built the .Roman Colony, this group was set on
arch” (colonia deducta arcum fecit). the city arch. More frequently it was
This is simple enough, but oh the pre-
! some figure especially emblematic of the
amble of red tape about Septimius Sev- city itself; its Genius, its Fortune, the
erus, Pius, Pertinax, Augustus, Arabi- Hero who was its founder, or the god
cus, Adiabenicus, Parthicus, Maximus, who was its protector. So when a few
Pontifex Maximus, etc., etc., with all years ago, Mr. Bent excavated the ruined
his assumed imperial genealogy for six arch of Thasos, one of the few really
generations! We must wade through it Greek arches, he found fallen at its base
all before we reach the kernel of fact. the crowning group of Hercules wres-
The antithesis to such phraseology is tling with the Nemaean lion, emblem of
shown in the poetic simplicity of the so- the city. So at Corinth, Phoebus Apol-
called arch of Hadrian at Athens. Had- lo and Phaethon rode in Chariots of the
rian had ventured to build a new Athens Sun on the Colony arch.
beside the old, in connection with his Around the arch it was quite natural
Pan-Hellenic rivival, and at the very line that the most important records of civic
where the old and the new met he set up life and history should cluster. It was
an arch. As the stranger approached it, surrounded by statues of the great men
the artist supposes the arch to speak to and women of the city, when local adula-
him, telling him what lies before him. If tion did not prefer to replace these by
he comes from the side of old Athens, images of the Emperors and their fami-
the arch says to him in its inscription lies, especially those Emperors who were
“Behold the ancient city, the Athens of founders and benefactors. At Thasos,
Theseus.” If he approaches from the these statues and their inscribed pedes-
opposite side, it says to him : “Behold tals are especially interesting, frcm the
the City of Hadrian, not that of These- prominence given to the local priestesses.
us.” The arch is, therefore, imagined With all our feminine ascendency, we are
to be the official Cicerone, the mouth- far less generous to women in the matter
piece of the genius of the city of public monuments and official recogni-
Upon and around these arches were tion than the Romans of the Empire
sculptures appropriate to such civic Trajan’s arch at Ancona, crowned by
memorials. Here also the inscriptions statues of his wife and sister, as well as
of an African arch give the irrefutable his own, is characteristic. We
would
proof. They are at Cillium, the mod- not even dream of classing Mrs. Cleve-
ern Kasrine, and tell how Manlius Felix, land or Mrs. Roosevelt among the im-
with his customary liberality, made the mortals !
arch of the colony of Cillium together After encircling the whole Mediter-
with the insignia of the colony. When, ranean from the Pillars of Hercules, we
a century and a half later, it was neces- have now gone back to the source, to
sary to restore the arch after some dis- Rome itself and to the time when, un-
;
aster in the time of Constantine, the au- der Caesar and Augustus, Rome first set
thor of this reconstruction says that he herself to govern the world for the sake
repaired the ornaments of liberty and of the governed. It was an idei new
the old insignia of the city connected to the world for other great attempts at
;
with the arch. universal empire by Assyria, Persia and

ARCH OF THE SERGII (COLONY ARCH) AT POLA IN ISTRIA.

(Early Augustan.)
Alexander had recognized local rights cred to the god Janus, who from it faces
and privileges little or not at all. The both ways watches both over the city
;
Romans of the Republic, too, had been and over the Roman armies in the field
in the field for the plunder of nations. that have passed out hoping to return
How did the arch become the material in triumph through this archway, which
emblem of this new altruism, which was has remained open during their absence.
also the most enlightened egoism? Its At its threshold where the city limits and
political meaning harks back to a relig- the rule of Jupiter begin does the gen-
ious origin. The first of all arches in eral, who has been absolute ruler in the
Rome marked the bounds of the sacred field, lay down, on his return, all author-
territory within which Jupiter ruled as ity. Only when, in the midst of bound-
head of the commonwealth. It was sa- less enthusiasm, he is decreed a triumph.
does he prepare throughout long days but not as the emblem -of brute force and
for that glorious time when, preceded conquest. It was given to those privi-
by the spoils and the civil authorities, leged places only that were granted some
and followed by his laurelled troops, he or all of the rights of Roman citizenship.
is allowed to pass through the gateway, So at first, under Augustus, the colony
to be supreme even within the city for arch was seen in but few parts of the
that one day as Jupiter’s viceroy, until Roman domains. It grew slowly in
at the close of his triumph he returns numbers with Claudius, expanded briskly
the god’s sacred sceptre and mantle, under Trajan and the Antonines, riot-
which he has been carrying, into the lap ously after Caracalla, who made citizen-
of the god in his temple on the Capitol. ship universal Whether the city was a
Back into the penumbra of Roman fortress like Aosta, an unprotected mili-
ATHENS, COLONY ARCH OF HADRIAN.
dreamland this picture carries us. The tary colony like Timgad, a purely com-
god in the Arch gave it a real person- mercial colony like Antinoe, or an old
ality in the days of legendary Rome. established Greek city like so many in
This Arch god, Janus, was a witness to Asia Minor, it meant but the one thing,
treaties, a punisher of perjury, the guard- an organic life, a life of orderly freedom
ian of outgoing and incoming citizens, under the aegis of the Roman Common-
the vestibule to all the city gods. Even wealth !
though the practical Romans of the days Finally, when under the new aegis of
of Cicero gave a political twist to many Christianity a new capital was given by
old institutions that were at first strictly Constantine to the Empire at Constanti-
religious, Rome was really so conserva- nople, that city was given its Colony
tive that it is not surprising to find that Arch, its Field of Mars and the privil-
the emblem of this spirit-god of the city ege of the Great Triumph in order to
should be carried everywhere as the Ro- make it Rome’s equal. ThisColony Arch
man power spanned the world, to repre- still exists in the famous Golden Gate, to
sent the image of Rome in its new colo- show how much of ancient Rome Chris-
nies. The arch followed the legions, yes, tianity still retained.
A. L. Frothingham.
Baron Haussmann and the Topographical
Transformation of Paris Under
Napoleon III.
v.
THE PARKS AND ARCHITECTURE.
THE PARKS. artisticcity. In the creation of public
Haussmann claims for Napoleon III parks, Haussmann endeavored to meet
the distinction of having created the all requirements.
public civic park. One does not wish to
THE BO IS DE BOULOGNE.
concede so much without extensive inves-
tigation; but the assertion of the Grand The great royal hunting parks which
Prefet is probably near the truth. Royal lay near the walls of Paris were con-
domain was doubtless always more or venient for his purpose. The chief of
less public by tolerance, or through lack these was the foret de Rouvray (Ro-
of proper protec- boretum) which
tion. About Paris originally extended
itself there was along the eastern
abundant waste bank of the Seine
land which the from the bend op-
people used freely posite Sevres to
although it did not the hamlet of Saint-
belong to them ; Ouen near Saint-
but there was cer- Denis. The people
tainly no organiza- encroached upon
tion of this import- the domain until,
ant branch of civic in the twelfth cen-
construction before tury, it included
Louis-N apole o n little more than its
took up the prob- present area. In
lem. The empire 1319 some pilgrims
was fundamentally built at the south-
democratic and the ern end of the
second emperor tract a church in
was temperament- imitation of one in
ally disposed to Boulogne-sur-Mer,
assume the family and gradually the
traditions. H e forest took the name
wished the common Bois de Boulogne.
people well. He The limits of the
desiredto give them Bois were fixed by
more light, more BARON HAUSSMANN IN 1889. an edict of Louis
air, more com- XIV in 1679.
fort. Haussmann was humanitarian Within and about the park were sev-
also but he was more. He understood
;
eral smaller enclosures the abbey of
;
the genius of the Parisian people. He Longchamps (Longus Campus) founded

knew that their craving for beauty, for by Isabel de France, a sister of Saint-
effect, for display, for magnificence is Louis ;
the chateau, with its park, of
the source of their wealth and power. Madrid, built by Franqois I in 1530; the
Paris is not a commercial city; it is an chateau and park of La Muette at Passy,
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THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE BEFORE THE TRANSFORMATION.

TRANSFORMATION OF PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON III. 23
THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE AFTER THE TRANSFORMATION.

transformed by the Regent in the eigh- the two types, the large formality of the
teenth century, and the delicious little truly French park of Versailles was set
chateau and park of Bagatelle near aside, and the realistic charm of the Eng-
Neuilly built in 1779, and afterwards lish park at the Petit Trianon was
the property of Sir Richard Wallace. adopted. This was the only choice pos-
July 8, 1852, the Bois de Boulogne sible at the time; but it seems rather to
was ceded to the city of Paris. At this be regretted. Time has brought about
moment it was arranged like other hunt- a better sense of proportion in such mat-
ing forests; Fontainbleau, Saint-Ger- ters. We feel now that both types are
main or Marly with long
;
straight roads good in their way, and may be used sep-
running quite through the domain, hav- arately, side by side, or blended in var-
ing at their intersection the conventional ious proportions.
“ronds points.” As, for a civic park, this The work of transforming the Bois de
arrangement was inconvenient; its entire Boulogne was begun before the advent
reconstruction was necessary. of Haussmann and was at first placed in
The design of parks on classic lines, charge of a Dutch “Jardinier pay-
following the traditions of antiquity sagiste” named Vare assisted by the
and the practice of the Renaissance and architect Hittorff. As they proved in-
Baroque periods in Italy, had been car- adequate, in November, 1854, Hauss-
ried to its complete development by Le mann called an old associate, Jean-
Notre in the superb series of gardens Charles-Adolphe Alphand from Bor-
which culminates in the vast ensemble of deaux, to take charge of the work.
Versailles. Versailles is the largest and Alphand was born in 1817 at Grenoble,
finest expression of breadth and symme- and was educated in Paris at the Lycee
try in design ;
and, as such, accorded Charlemange, the Ecole poly technique
perfectly with the temperament of the and the Ecole des Ponts at Chaussees.
time of Louis XIV. In the period which In 1843 he was sent to Bordeaux where
followed, to the contemporaries of Wat- he rendered most valuable service in
teau, Boucher and the court of Louis the reconstruction of the harbor and
XV, its extreme dignity became burden- quais. He became intimately associated
some. They called for less of art and with Haussmann after the latter’s ap-
more of nature more delicacy, more
;
pointment as Prefet de la Gironde in
surprise, more charm. For a lighter type 1852. Alphand was placed in charge of
they turned to England. the Promenades and Plantations of Paris
England also had developed the for- and controlled the externals of the city
mal garden, but the temperament of her until 1892. He had charge of the forti-
people had never quite accepted it. The fications of Paris in 1870, and was the
love of simple nature is too deeply rooted genius of the exhibitions of 1867, 1878
in their temperament. The reaction and 1889. He was the ablest of all the
came in the early eighteenth century un- capable men whom Haussmann attached
der the leadership of a clever gardener to himself in the Transformation of
named Lancelot Brown (“Capability Paris.
Brown,” 1715-1787), who abandoned the In 1855 the plain of Longchamp was
old symmetry, and showed much skill added to the area of the Bois, carrying
in adapting the forms of his work to it to the river;
and the reconstruction
natural conditions. Brown founded an of the park was completed in 1858.
excellent school of designers and estab- The creation of a great park at this
lished the type of the “English Garden” moment did not consist exclusively in
which found its way into every country the arrangement of levels, of lines of
in Europe. Many “jardins anglais” roads and masses of forest and water. It
were created in France; the most im- was quite as much concerned with the
portant of course being that of the Petit character of the plantations themselves.
Trianon. The flora available in the time of Le
In the creation of the Parks of Paris, Notre was simple. The old gardens de-
the choice was made definitely between pended much upon gravel and grass,
fountains and other architectural and itary establishment. The Bois de Vin-
sculptural decorations. Alphand found cennes was the property of the sovereign
a much larger field of selection and in- or the state until July 24, i860, when
creased the range himself greatly. He Napoleon III ceded the tract to the city
exhausted the resources of commerce to of Paris. He had begun its improve-
discover and bring to Paris every tree ment two years earlier.
and plant in the wide world which could The design of the Bois de Vincennes
be used for his purpose. does not differ essentially from that of
In the Bois de Boulogne Alphand es- the Bois de Boulogne. It is a “jardin
tablished the type which has been loyally anglais” thoroughly. In its use it is
followed in the development of all mod- more of a play-ground and less of a
ern cities. We
have numberless imita- promenade.
tions in America; some of which, thanks THE PARC DE MONCEAUX.
to our abundant virgin resources and
the genius of the Olmsted School are The Parc de Monceaux was created in
really more interesting than their 1778 by Philippe d’Orleans, the father
Parisian model. Central Park is a good of Louis-Philippe. It was designed by
deal battered and bedraggled now; but Carmontelle as an English garden, ex-
twenty-five years ago this beautiful cept in the neighborhood of the chateau
play-ground had a delicacy and refine- where the arrangement was formal. In
ment which even the Bois de Boulogne i860 in course of the improvements
lacks. connected with the Boulevard Males-
herbes a part of the old park was trans-
THE BOIS DE VINCENNES.
ferred to the city of Paris, and laid out
The Bois de Vincennes bears the same in its present form as a “jardin anglais.”
relation to the Bois de Boulogne as the The Parc de Monceaux is a jewel in
Place de la Nation bears to the Place de itskind; but it seems a pity that its de-
l’Etoile. It is the play-ground of the signers did not treat it in a more formal
working people of Paris. manner, with some suggestion of the

In the Gallo-Roman period civiliza- classic French style. Alphand had his
tionextended along the water-courses, limitations certainly.
and the country between was largely BUTTES-CHAUMONT (CALVUS MONS,
forest. As cultivation increased the for- BALD MOUNTAIN).
est centers became separated and, in
;
one way or another, drifted into the con- This name was given quite early to
trol of the crown. The largest of these a rough gypsum hill which stood a little
near Paris was the so-called Lauchonia to the northeast of the second line of
Sylva to the eastward, which extended boulevards, and which was, in the Mid-
as far as Melun near Fontainebleau. Af- dle Ages also called Montfaucon, and
ter the death of Childeric II in 673 this carried the public gallows. It was a
forest was divided into three, which be- common dump of the city of Paris for
came the Bois de Bondy, the Bois de many centuries. On the addition of the
Livry and the Bois de Vincennes (Sylva Zone Suburbaine in i860 a part of the
Vilcenna). Philippe-Auguste built the region was transformed into a public
Chateau de Vincennes in 1183 to contain park. The peculiar character of the
animals presented to him by Henry II Buttes-Chaumont is due to the fact that
of England. When it became clear that the rock had been quarried in a most
the residence and business of royalty re- irregular way, leaving lofty projections
quired a large establishment in the neigh- and deep depressions. The English type
borhood of Paris, Mazarin determined was here peculiarly appropriate.
upon its location at Vincennes, and drew MONTSOURIS.
up an elaborate scheme which was, how-
ever superseded by the Versailles en- The littlepark of Montsouris was
semble. In the reign of Louis-Philippe built in the extreme southeastern part of
Vincennes became more especially a mil- the city to balance the Buttes-Chaumont.
CARMONTELLE.
BY
DESIGNED
AS
MONCEAUX,
DE
PARC
ALPHAND.
BY
REMODELED
AS
MONCEAUX,
DE
PARC
THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE. The Avenue de TObservatoire shows

In the reign of Louis XV Gabriel gave in a fine way the effect of sculpture in
to the Place de la Concorde a form
a street. The great fountain placed
which should have been final. With its by Carpeaux in the Avenue de l’Obser-
vatoire in 1873 is its point of culmina-
quiet equestrian statue, the eight pavil-
tion.
lions with the statues of cities, and their
connecting balustrades and a series of
;
SQUARES AND PLACES.
sunken parterres, binding the ensemble Haussmann and Alphand created or
together, the old Place de Louis XV remodelled all the smaller breathing
was extremely beautiful. Unfortunate- places of the city, and all on essentially
ly the statue was destroyed in the Revo- the same scheme. The winding paths,
lution and in 1836, the fine open center the picturesque bunches of trees, shrubs
was filled up by the obelisk of Luxor and and flowers, familiar in the Bois de Bou-
two monumental fountains designed by logne and the Avenue de lTmperatrice
the inevitable Plittorff. The pressure of reappear in each of them. That seemed
traffic forced Haussmann, to his great inevitable at the time. If they were re-
regret, to fill up the sunken parterres. constructed now the classic French type
The Place de la Concorde is still fine, would doubtless reappear.
but by no means as fine as Gabriel in- THE VOIRE.
tended that it should be.
THE CHAMPS ELYSEES. Haussmann did not invent the modern
street; that was donein the seventeenth
August20, 1828, the park of the century; but he gave it a final and def-
Champs Elysees was ceded to the city of inite form. We have printed several of
Paris. In 1765 the region had been the profile sections in our illustrations.
roughly laid out by the Surindendant Each of the fine new streets was de-
Marigny. The reconstruction of the signed in this way, and the type varied
Champs Elysees having been determined in a regular manner from a simple ar-
in 1858, Haussmann completed the re- rangement of roadway and sidewalks
arrangement in 1859 and presented it to like the Rue de Rivoli to the Boulevard
the Emperor as a “surprise” on his re- de Tltalie with its seven rows of trees
turn from the Italian campaign. and complication of roadways and prom-
enades.
THE LUXEMBOURG ENSEMBLE AND
THE AVENUE DE L’OBSERVATOIRE. Haussmann’s scheme provided for ne-
cessities beforehand. There are places
The Luxembourg palace dates from for things beneath a Parisian street. The
the reign of Louis XIII. It is one of those perpetual obstructions of an American
fortunate coincidences which have done city are unknown in Paris.
so much for the plan of Paris, that the
meridian of the city should pass very
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SECOND
nearly in line with the main axis of the
EMPIRE.
building and over a low hill to the south- The architectural history of Paris is
ward, where Claude Perrault placed the so long and so rich; there are so many
Observatoire in 1667. The opportunity fine periods of culmination that our at-
for a great avenue connecting the exten- tention is held by the earlier periods. We
sive grounds of the Luxembourg with are accustomed to assume that all the
the Observatoire was clearly perceived good work is old work. We
are sur-
by the people of Paris, the administra- prised to find, on looking over a period
tion and Haussmann, who built the pres- so late as the Second Empire, how fine,
ent street in 1867. At the same time he voluminous and important it really is.
remodelled but did not improve the old A list of the architects employed during
garden which had been laid out by De the period presents many notable names,
Brosse. The construction of the Boule- a list of buildings presents many splen-
vard de Saint-Michel and Rue de Me- did monuments. Haussmann was deeply
dicis limited the ensemble on the east. interested in all this work and much of
. TRANSFORMATION OF PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON III.
TRANSFORMATION.
OF
PROCESS
IN
BUTTES-CHAUMONT
DES
PARC
:

3e Circonscription; 5e et 6e arrondissements dits,
it was done under his immediate direc- du Panthdon et du Luxembourg; Architecte, Charles
tion. Gamier; Inspecteurs, Dejean et Gribout.
4e Circonscription: 7e et 8e arrondissements, dits
The most valuable contribution which du Palais Bourbon et de 1’Elysee; Architecte,
Uchard; Inspecteurs, Salleron et Barbier.
he made to the architectural develop- 5e Circonscription: 9e et lOe arrondissements, dits
ment of the city of Paris was in the or- de i’Opera et de 1’Encios Saint-Laurent; Architecte,
Gilbert (Jeune) Inspecteurs, Tougard et Devrey.
:
ganization of the office of the municipal 6e Circonscription: lie et 12e arrondissements, dits
architects. de Popincourt et de Reuilly; Architecte, Gancel; In-
specteurs, Higouet et Flament.
It had always been the custom to em- 7e Circonscription: 13e et 14e arrondissements, dits
des Gobelins et de l’Observatoire; Architecte, Vau-
ploy good men on the public works of dremer; Inspecteurs, Chat et Dubel.
Paris, but when Haussmann appeared 8e Circonscription: 15e et 16e arrondissements, dits
de Vaugirard et de Passy; Architecte, Godeboeuf;
in 1853 he found this important matter Inspecteurs, Roger et Bouwens.
9e Circonscription: 17e et 18e arondissements, dits
loosely arranged. The Service of En- de Batignolles et de Butte-Montmartre; Architecte,
gineers was in much better order. Archi- Lebouteux; Inspecteurs, Raveau et Mesnager.
lOe Circonscription; 19e et 20e arrondissements,
tects were simply summoned by the pre- dits des Buttes-Chaumont et de Menilmontant: Arch-
itecte, Janvier; Inspecteur, Aldrophe.
fet for special service, and dismissed af-
ter its completion, receiving an honor- Some of the best men of the day and
arium proportioned to the amount of some of the largest personalities in the
money spent. He created a corps of history of French architecture appear
public architects recruited from the best in this list. Others were employed on
graduates of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, important monuments not included in
which is such a monumental contrast to the regular “service.” Let us consider
the manner in which this branch of the some of these men and the work which
public service is arranged in our Ameri- they did under the Second Empire.
can cities that we can do no better than Victor Baltard, Architecte-Directeur,
to give his scheme in detail as it is pub- was the son of a distinguished engraver
lished over his name in the Encyclopedic and architect, Louis-Pierre Baltard, who
d’ Architecture for July/ i860. With the held the office of Inspecteur General of
list of offices we will give the names of
the public works of Paris from 1837 to
his death in 1846. Baltard fils won the
the men appointed by Haussmann to fill
them Grand Prix in 1833. In 1849 lie was
DIRECTION DU SERVICE. placed in charge of the more important
Architecte-direeteur Baltard.
;
religious and educational buildings of
Inspecteurs et architectes ordinaires; Pellieux et
Peron. the city. From 1850 to 1854 he was as-
Inspecteur dessinateur: Alfred Leroux.
sociated with Viollet-le-Duc and Lassus
ARCHITECTES EN CHEF. in the preservation of diocesan buildings,
le division: Gilbert aine, membre de 1’Institut.
Casernes, corps de garde et postes de police, prisons, and in 1852 built the Halles Centrales
maisons de repression de Saint-Denis, maisons His
d’arret, fourri&re, dgpot de mendicity de Villers-
with the assistance of Callet fils.
Clotterets, morgue, prefecture de police, halles et first design, which was heavy and aca-
marches, entrepdt des vins, grenier de reserve,
douane, abattoirs. demic, did not satisfy the Emperor and
Inspecteur dessinateur: Lacome. Haussmann, who insisted upon following
2e division: Louis- Joseph Due. Lycees et col-
leges, Sorbonne, Eicole de Droit, Ecole de Medicine, the type established in the railway sta-
Ecoles et asiles, Palais de Justice, Institut EugSne
Napoleon. tions. This discussion resulted in the
Inspecteur dessinateur; Train. present effective and convenient struc-
3e division: Bailly. Mairies et justices de paix et
postes y attenant, Bourse et Tribunal de Com- ture. After 1854 he had entire charge
merce, barri&res et bailments d’oetroi, bureau de He built the
p6age, cimetiSres. of the Hotel de Ville.
Inspecteurs dessinateurs: Hermand et Villain. church of Saint-Augustin (1860-1871),
4e division: Ballu. Eglises, temples, presbyteres.
Inspector dessinateur; Alfred Leroux. and published several important works
CONTROLEURS. on architecture. It is to the credit of
Controleur en Chef: Edouard Renaud. Haussmann that he recognized the great
Controleurs ordinaires; Garlin, Lerat et Rateau.
ability of Baltard and supported him
ORGANIZATION DU SERVICE PAR CIRCON-
loyally in his high position, although
SCRIPTION.
le Circonscription le et 2e arrondissements, dits
:
their temperaments were antagonistic
du Louvre et de la Bourse; Architecte, Huillard; and their personal relations always
Inspecteurs, Varcolier et Moreau.
2e Circonscription: 3e et 4e arrondissements, dits slightly strained.
du Temple et de l’Hotel de Ville; Architecte, Calliat; among the
Inspecteurs, Lemaitre et Gentilhomme. Perhaps the largest figure
Second Empire was CONCLUSION.

architects of the
Louis- Joseph Due., architecte en chef of In our study of the Great Trans-
the Second Division of the Service formation we have held closely to the
d’Architecture; a pupil of Percier and plastic side of the work; the dressing of
second Grand Prix winner in 1825. In the plan and the decoration of the city.
1834 he succeeded Alavoine as architect For the best of this, for the larger lines
of the Colonne de Juillet, and in 1840 of conception, Haussmann is responsible.
was placed in charge of the vast recon- This side of his life interested him great-
struction undertaken at the Palais de ly, but it did not entirely absorb his at-
Justice, which included the conservation tention. All the requirements of his
of the historical portions of the palace, great city called for faithful considera-
and the new additions the faqade on the tion and received it.
;
Cour du Mai, the Cour de Cassation and In nearly all matters relating to the
the great faqade in the Rue de Harlay, proper organization of civic affairs,
finished in 1868. As a recognition of his Plaussmann was not only a pioneer, but
fine achievement. Due received the spe- the most eminent master. Compared
cial Grand Prix de l’Architecture which with his accomplishment that of any
was given by the Emperor in 1869. In other one person is insignificant. His
1866 he replaced Gisors at the Institut. system of sewers is as fine in their way
Charles Gamier, Grand Prix, 1848, as the streets above them. He for the
figures as architect of the 3e circonscrip- first time brought pure water to Paris
tion in the Service d’Architecture. He from distant sources. He completely re-

was obliged to leave this office to take modelled the cemeteries, adding vast
charge of the construction of the Opera, tracts to the land available for this ser-
which he won by competition in 1861. vice. Gas was introduced before the
Garnier’s Opera is the best known and time of Haussmann, but the adaptation
most characteristic of the monuments of to the improved city was entirely his
the Second Empire. work.
Theodore Ballu, architect en chef of Perhaps the one phase of his task
the 4e Division in the Service d’Archi- which touched Haussmann most deeply
tecture, won the Grand Prix in 1840. In was the financial, and it is precisely here
1893 he succeeded Gau as architect of that he is most criticized. He used
the church of Sainte-Clotilde, which he freely the city’s credit, thus forcing fu-
finished in 1857. He restored the Tour ture generations to bear the burden as
de Saint-Jacques (1854) and built the well as to enjoy the benefit. He rested
new tower of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois with the utmost confidence upon his prin-
(1858-1863). In association with De- ciple of Depenses Productives, which
perthes, Ballu rebuilt the Hotel de Ville means simply that the money spent made
after its destruction by the Commune. a better city, and the better city was a
Antoine-Nicolas-Louis Bailly, archi- greater producer of wealth ;
which is
tecte en chef of the 3e Division in the perfectly true. The new Paris has more
Service d’Architecture, was a pupil of than fulfilled Haussmann’s expectations.
Duban. Haussmann and the Emperor When the opposition to the empire
were much pleased by his design for the forced Haussmann’s resignation in 1869,
Tribunal de Commerce, which supplied just before the war, his work was prac-
a fine point of interest to the vista of tically complete. What remained to be
the Boulevard de Sebastopol. done was easily accomplished by lesser
It is not necessary to carry these men.
notices further. Anyone familiar with The Transformation of Paris followed
the history of modern Parisian architec- immediately after the construction of the
ture will recognize the importance of great French railways. For twenty years
certain personalities if we mention their violent disturbance of values was the
names: Davioud, Renaud, Hittorff, rule and not the exception. The specu-
Ginain, Godeboeuf, the two Gilberts, lative opportunities for those in the lead
Calliat. were incalculable. Many took advan-
TRANSFORMATION OF PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON III.
33
FOUNTAIN.
CARPEUX’S
AND
L’OBSERVATOIRE
DE
AVENUE
France.
Paris,
6
Paris, France. SQUARE LOUIS XVI.
Paris, France. SQUARE SAINT JACQUES.

TRANSFORMATION OF PARIS UNDER NAPOLEON III.
Paris, France. SAINTE CLOTILDE.

E’LEVATION.
SIDE
OPERA
GARNIER’S
France.
Paris,
HARLAY.
DE
RUE
THE
IN
FACADE
JUSTICE—
DE
PALAIS
DUC’S
France.
Paris,
tage of this. Women about the court, and his pensions as senator and prefect.
clever Americans and other foreigners His pensions disappeared with the em-
assisted in the making and losing of for- pire, and his estates proved unproduc-
tunes. Zola’s “la Curree” is a true pic- tive; so that it was necessary for him
ture undoubtedly but
;
Haussmann’s “soutenir journellement la lutte pour la
heart was the pure heart of a man of vie bien rude a quatrevingt ans passes.”
;
•genius, and hands were clean. He was

his “Je conserve,” he says, “du fruit de tant
ambitious certainly. He endeavored to d’efforts, que l’honneur d’avoir bien servi
secure high recognition for his office; mon pays dans une poste aussi dificile
he was courteously merciless in forcing qu’ elevee.” “Que la mort me frappe de-
^duller men, from the Emperor down, to bout, ainsi que tant d’hommes de la forte
take the pace of his relentless imagina- generation a laquelle j’appartiens, c’est
tion but through it all he was the single
;
rna seule ambition desormais. Je sortirai,
minded French bourgeois whose wants dans tous les cas, de ce monde, sinon la
were few and whose favorite mode of tete haute, comme jadis, de ma vie pub-
life was quiet and simple. lique du moins le coeur ferme, et quant
;
Haussmann did not take sufficient in- aux choses du ciel, plein d’esperance de
terest in the accumulation of wealth to la misericordieuse justice du Tres Haut.”
provide sufficiently for his old age. He Edward R. Smith,
left the Hotel de Ville in 1869 depend- Reference Librarian, Avery Architec-
ing upon his wife’s estate in the Gironde tural Library, Columbia University.
COLUMBUS MEDAL.
C. F. Naegele, Artist.
The Ceilings in the Galleria Degli Uflizi,
Florence
The attention of visitors who are not the interior of an art gallery as it is done
artists to the Galleria degli Uffizi, in there.
Florence, is generally spent on the pic- Yet these galleries are much admired,
tures and the other objects exhibited in and are justly celebrated, but not for
the galleries. Seldom does the average their suitability for exhibition purposes.
visitor take any particular notice of the In fact, one might say, if any part of the
interior decoration of the various exhibi- building is particularly ill-suited for ex-
DECORATIVE CEILING OF THE UFFIZI GALLERIES.

Florence, Italy.
tion rooms. At the Uffizi, the entrance hibition purposes, it is the corridor which
galleries or corridors (in which there is occupies the perimeter of the well-known
such a profusion of light) attract the gallery. But it must be mentioned that
artistnot only by their contents, but also this building was not originally intended
because of themselves. One might con- for an art gallery, having been designed
tend that their conspicuous beauty is a by Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I. de Me-
drawback to the proper exhibition of the dici, to serve as administrative, judicial
works of art to be seen within, and that and archival offices for the government
no one to-day would think of decorating of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
:
Bearing in mind this fact in judging the Giulio Romano, and Taddeo Zuccaro?
Uffizi as exhibition galleries for painting These names in the art world
illustrious
and sculpture, we must admit that they of that period form but a very small part
form a fairly convenient background for of the glorious legion who so largely
the purpose. contributed to embellish Italian buildings
I have remarked that these galleries with their works of painting and sculp-
are in themselves remarkable pieces of ture. There is besides a large number of
interior decoration, consisting of a spe- other artists whose work is important
cies of ornamental paintings which are enough to stir in us a certain amount of
1
known as “grottesche,” from the brushes interest and curiosity. If we doubt the
of prominent Italian painters. The existence of this large class of important
“grottesche” is a form of decoration artists, the ceilings of these same Uffizi
which the Italians are much to blame in galleries will convince us of their exist-
DBCORATIVE CEILING OF THE UFFIZI GALLERIES.

Florence, Italy.
slighting, especially these admirable ex- ence. In fact, the corridors of the Uffizi
amples in the Uffizi. Galleries interest artists almost as nuch
We who form only a
artists therefore, as the famous “Loggie Vaticane.” An
relatively small part of the visitors to English with whom I recently
artist
these galleries, shall direct our admira- visited the Uffizi expressed himself as
tion to these paintings on their ceilings, being particularly struck with the vivac-
remarking at the same time that the ity of the brushes that created suci an
“grottesche” do not compare unfavor- accumulation of beauty, and fresh, n.erry
ably with the best Italian work of that and fanciful motives in the realn of
kind, from Rome to Venice, and from decorative art. I was asked to account
Genoa to Gaprarola, by the great artists for the name “grottesche” being given
of the “Cinquecento.” Which one of us to those paintings which employ such a
does not recall the names of Giovanni da variety of queer decorative forms
Udine, Pierin del Vaga, Bernardino temples, cartoons, flower motives, fig-
Poccetti (called “delle Grottesche”), ures and so on. The question was a very
reasonable one, and might very properly
grottesche are whimsical figures or scenes such
as are found in the old crypts or grottos of Italy. have been asked by any artist, especially
CEILINGS IN GALLERIA DEGLI UFFIZI, FLORENCE. 41
not an Italian. I shall undertake to reply “Morto da Feltre,” Vasari says, “re-
briefly herein. produced the ‘grottesche’ more like the
Let us first consult Vasari, the well- ancient way of painting them than did any
known biographer of Italian artists, and other artist of his time,” and Feltrim,
at once writer, architect and painter, who with Giovanni da Udine, did much to
also planned the “Galleria degli Uffizi,” give them their easy and flowing form.
in which are found these remarkable Vasari makes special mention of the dif-
“grottesche.” He says “The ‘grot- : ferent forms in the decorative painting
tesche’ are a kind of licentious and ridic- of the “grottesche,” of which he says m
ulous paintings, much used by artists in the Life of Giovanni da Udine “The
:
the ornamentation of recesses, and are ornamentations of slender stucco forms

composed of infinite drolleries and incon- are alternated with variously colored
gruities he who succeeded in being the
;
spaces, representing beautiful and mys-

Florence, Italy.
queerest in imagining them was con- terious tales,” thus contradicting what
sidered the cleverest.” Thus does Vas- he says above. In his “Vite,” he ob-
ari explain and severely judge them. He serves indifferently that Raphael and
mentions them in the life of Morto da Giovanni da Udine were enthusiasts of
Feltre
2
—
(1474 1522+), and of Andrea the “grottesche.”
di Cosimo Feltrini. We may therefore be permitted to
conclude, according to Vasari, that the
2 As to the existence of Morto da Feltre, or Pietro
Luzza, called Zaroto, there is some uncertainty. “grottesche” were seen by some painters
There is mentioned in some document a painter,
Lorenzo Luzzo da Feltre, called Zaroto or Zarotto, of the 1 6th century, and by certain dis-
who may be Morto da Feltre. Concerning this ciples of Raphael, in the interiors of
Morto ("morto” means in Italian, “dead”— he was
so called on account of the paleness of his face), Roman grottos. From these grottos
a love story is narrated. In spite of his nickname
and paleness, Morto da Feltre seems to have
his
they were repainted, imitated, in vari-
won the love of the sweetheart of one Giorgione or ous parts of the Eternal City, and,
Zorzi da Castelfranco, who died of a broken heart
as a result. Other documents say that Giorgione being imitated from models that orig-
died in Venice in 1510, after an attack of the
plague. This account does not, however preclude inated in the grottos, they were called
the possibility of Morto da Feltre’s existence. “grottesche.”
Let me explain this question of the apartments of the Borgias at the Vati-
grottos more accurately. The grottos can. Schmarsow thus lessens the mu-
of which Vasari speaks are the “Terme tation of Morto da Feltre, or whoever
di Tito” (Baths of Titus), namely, the he was, but does not solve the mystery
underground and accessible portion in which is wrapped the Helleniitic
which corresponds to about the center painting which gave rise to the “giot-
of the southern side of what formed the tesche” of the Cinquecento. Here is
pre-existing “Domus Aurea” of Nero. a mystery indeed ! There must hive
It might be inferred that the pupils of existed in Rome numerous examples of
Raphael had the entrances to the grottos such paintings at the time when Bruiel-
walled up, to prevent its being known lesco and Donatello explored the city in
that they copied from ancient models in quest of art treasures; and the copyng
painting such a work as the “Loggie di them was one of the triumphs of chs-

Florence, Italy.
Raffaello.” But this it is ridiculous to sical architecture. The same may be

assume, as the “grottesche” belong to said about the origin of the “giot-
the tree of Hellenistic painting; they tesche,” which, after being at first
are a plagiarism, sometimes an ampli- copied literally, kept pace with the cobrs
fication and variation of the Hellenistic and stuccos of the time. Accordingly,
theme. 3 we find some Italian painters who ware
Schmarsow ridicules Vasari’s ver- also plasterers, such as Giovanni da
sion of the “grottesche” by demonstrat- Udine (1487-1564) in Rome, and, ac-
ing that Bernardino Pintoriccio ( 1454- cording to Vasari, Pierin del Viga
1513), a disciple of Raphael, was the (1499-1547), aided by Silvio Cosmi
first to use it in his work in 1492 in the (about 1495-1540), who worked as a
3 0ne should be particular to distinguish between
plasterer at Genoa or at Fassolo a
Hellenic or Greek and Hellenistic. The Greek town which deserves more attention
style is that of Phidas, of Ictinus and of Callicra-
tus, while the Hellenistic period is the style of the from artists visiting Italy. Giovanni da
Alexandrian epoch, and is also sometimes called Udine worked also as a plasterer at the
“ Alessandrino. ”
CEILINGS IN GALLERIA DEGLI UFFIZI, FLORENCE.
43
Laurenziana Library in Florence, but, Giulio Romano, Giovanni da Udine and

unfortunately, this work is no longer in Pierin del Vaga. This confusion of
existence, nor are the stuccos by the authorship it was which caused the name
same master in the palace of Giovan- “raffaellesche.” It assumed that
battista dall’Aquila in Rome, at the end Raphael had created the style of deco-
of the Borgo Nuovo, near the Piazza S. ration of which we are speaking, and
Pietro. which Vasari, as we said above, judged
The “grottesche” are also sometimes with severity, as well as illogically, as
called “raffaellesche,” or paintings after other Italian artists before him had done.
the school of Raphael Sanzio. This pre- Vitruvius, the celebrated essayist and
sumption that Raphael created a similar contemporary of Augustus, found no
style of decoration to the “grottesche” is propriety in applying to an architecture

Florence, Italy.
not so, and should be corrected. If of stone the small temples which form
Raphael really painted in this style he the base of the decoration that the 16th
did so like many other painters of century called a “grottesche,” and which
his time, drawing his inspiration from Rome the ancient knew in the epoch of
the ancient Latin source. It has been the Empire. This want of correspond-
supposed that Raphael was the author 01 ence between the architecture and the
the famous Loggie del Vaticano, a piece decoration irritated Vitruvius, who like-
of unrivalled decoration, in which the wise had little use for the profuse and
gospel of the “grottesche” is, so to speak, licentious figureswhich never had ex-
disclosed. But it has now been estab- istence in Nature as they were de-
lished beyond a doubt that Raphael picted in the “grottesche.” The decora-
never touched brush to this masterpiece, tion had a wide application, notwith-
which was entirely the work of his standing the harsh criticism of Vitru-
pupils, foremost among whom stand vius, and the strictures of Vasari and
Vitruvius, eminent men though they herewith give but a very faint idea of he
were, do not merit the approbation of polychromatic effect of the figuratve
modern students. and ornamental images depicted. Tlnse
Every art has its own peculiar mode images are attributed to the well-knovn
of expression, and the “grottesche” painter Bernardino Barbatelli, caled
employs small temples with supports Pocetti, who was the principal mas:er
as slender as the stem of a flower, of the “grottesche” in Florence. Plais-
little satyrs and sphinxes that do not ible as this theory may sound, these
offend the sesthetic sense, because they decorations are, in fact, the compodte
are motives of expression in another work of various painters of different
form and in another material, in distinc- epochs, e. g., Mario Butteri (who did
tion to the forms of stone architecture. his best work around 1567), Alessancro

Florence, Italy.
Moreover, the figures that are repre- Pieroni (who was prominent about
sented are not supposed to be copied 1588), Lodovico Buti (who reached he
from nature. Decorative art must be height of his career in 1590), Fnn-
based on freeness of imagination ;
it cesco Bizzelli (1556-1612), and prob-
must put together such combinations of ably Alessandro Allori, called Bronziio.
light and shade and color as will be All these men are known to have worfed
pleasing to the eye, and, accomplishing on the figure portions of the medallions
this result, decorative art mav be called and cartoons. The oldest portion of he
successful. ceilings dates from 1581, which dite
Going back now to the ceilings of the can be read in the first corridor.
Uffizi, we can surely say that the There are three corridors all told, two
masters who painted them achieved a de- very long ones running parallel aid
cided success; it must, however, be ex- joined by a shorter one. The long coin-
plained that the photographs reproduced dors are of more recent date, belongng
CEILINGS IN GALLERIA DEGLI UFFIZI, FLORENCE.
45
to the period of Ferdinand II. (1578- parent in the black and white com-
1637), an d were finished about 1658 by positions, in which the lack of color
Luigi Ulivelli and others. About a cen- emphasizes the lack of unity. One
tury later (1762) a fire broke out in the might criticize, and justly, the frivolity
Uffizi, destroying a considerable part of of some of the decorative subjects; the
its painted ceilings, together with some fancy is sometimes carried to an extreme
busts, portraits, ancient statues, and a of exaggeration, where moderation
sketch by Michelangelo. This unlucky would have been more appropriate.
event necessitated restoration and re- Should the reader be of this mind, he
building, which included the repainting should, however, remember that the
of some of the ceilings. The subjects, energetic coloring and the meditated
be it remarked, are not entirely drawn harmony of the color masses emphasize
from the imagination, for we find among the exuberance of the lines. Decorative

Florence, Italy.
them many historical and allegorical painting relies in a special manner upon
scenes and figures that awake inter- the color composition, which impresses
esting memories of Florentine events. through its large masses and often serves
We meet figures and events in the lives to correct faulty drawing. The outlines
of the de Medici family, who ruled of the masses are then merely expedients
Florence at that time. The careful tending to give a more solid base to the
•examination and study of the “grot- composition as a whole.
tesche” in the Uffizi is most instructive to The ceiling decorations of the Uffizi
the artist who must rejoice at the fecund- cannot be pointed out as models of
ity with which those brushes were used sobriety, for the epoch during which they
;and their marvelous agility. He may were executed was one of riotous fancy
gain from them an almost inexhaustible and license. After the middle of the
supply of ideas and historical knowl- 16th century Italian art tends to the
edge. There is noticeable here and Barocco, and the ceilings before us are
there a certain lack of unity in the also interesting, because they show how
ornamental subjects which is most ap- the “grottesche” were painted in Flor-
THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
ence when the Barocco style was begin- painted the ceilings of the Uffizi, at the
ning to make itself proceeded
felt. It same time express their respect for the
imperturbably on the road of the most Barocco and the Roccocco styles, so
fiery fancy ever experienced in Italian much sneered at and unjustly blamed in
art, and numbered among its most robust Italy and abroad when it came forth
exponents such artists as Lorenzo Ber- with its impetuosity of passion and its
nini (1598-1680) and the graceful Roc- inexhaustible vein of fancy.
cocco. Therefore, the brushes that Alfredo Melani.
DETAIL OF CEILING DECORATION IN THE UFFIZI GALLERIE’3.

Florence, Italy.
The Evil Effects of Competitive Bidding on
Building Contracts*
I do not know of anything- more im- contract, I will discuss the competitive
portant in connection with the erection bid contract, because it is the one gen-
of a building than the contract. Our erally used. Nearly all of the discussion
interests all center in this document and which follows applies as well to sep-
by its terms we assume obligations arate contracts as to a general contract,
which bind us all together for the ac- but for the sake of brevity, the applica-
complishment of a common purpose. tion is made only to a general contract.
There is perhaps no one who has a bet- In considering, then, this important
ter opportunity than an architect to ob- subject, I desire to direct your attention
serve how well a contract accomplishes to several leading questions concerning
the purpose for which it was made. I, our system of letting contracts.
therefore, propose to discuss briefly the Does our present system of letting
modern building contract and the effect contracts by competitive bids result in
which competitive bidding has upon it. securing for the owner the lowest ob-
We have seen in our time the greatest tainable cost for a building, consistent
advancement in building construction, in with good workmanship? On the sur-
some respects that the world has ever face of this proposition, it would appear
known. With the advent of the new that an owner always did get his build-
building material, structural steel, and ing at the lowest possible cost, or some-
its accessories, the invention of the ele- times below that by competitive bids. I
vator, and the various things that have suppose that most of you can cite at least
made this great progress possible, the one instance where you have suffered
problem of erecting a building has be- loss on a building through unfortunate
come one of great magnitude and re- circumstances over which you had no
sponsibility. Yet, with all this advance- control, or through some other cause.
ment in construction, little or no im- Each time, however, that a contractor
provement in the contract has come, or loses money on a job, makes him more
of the method of letting the contract, conservative on the next building and
notwithstanding the fact that a contract makes him realize how full of risk and
nowadays may involve immense sums of hazard a contractor’s bid is. Conse-
money and great difficulties and prob- quently, the amounts allowed in an es-
lems of construction. Some contracts timate for contingencies are much larger
not only involve the execution of work than they would be if there were not
in a manner never done before, and with so much risk of financial loss. It is un-
which no experience has been had, and doubtedly also the case that the various
again some not only require great feats profits of sub-contractors and material
of construction in an almost inconceiv- men vary greatly in proportion and
ably short space of time, but they may amount. It sometimes happens that the
also be accompanied by unusual danger contractor will lose money and many of
and even loss of life. With all of this his sub-contractors make more than the
to contend with, we make use of an old average profits on the same job, and if
system of letting our contracts, which, one contractor or general contractor
in my opinion, may be questioned and loses money, it does not follow that the
discussed with profit. building was built for less than the real
Of the three kinds of building con- cost that is, the actual cost, plus a rea-
;
tracts, the percentage contract, the fixed- sonable profit for all contractors. In
profit contract and the competitive bid compiling the sub-bids which a con-
tractor is required to get before making
Paper read at the Annual Meeting of the Esti-
mators’ Club at Chicago, by Mr. George C. Nim- up his own bid, I do not believe that it
mons, of the firm Nimmons & Fellows, architects.
ever happens that any one contractor
ever succeeds in getting all of the low- of a city, is at times a matter entiiely
est sub-bids that may have been offered problematical as to cost and here again
on a particular building, nor does he a contingency item must be added.
succeed in getting them even if he gets The extensive builders’ equipment,
the contract. As a result of our pres- needed for a modern building, cannot
ent system of letting contracts, there is sometimes be closely calculated as to
scarcely a contractor who has not at cost, on account of new and complicated
some time in his experience been obliged forms of construction, which often oc-
to exercise the most rigid and severe cur in the construction of a buildng.
economy, to the great displeasure and These, and other causes of uncertainty
disapproval of his sub-contractors, who in the cost of building construction, are
were in no way responsible for his sign- usually allowed for by the contractoi in
ing a contract in which both he and they his bid at a cost greater than what tiey
were subjected to loss. This has natural- actually amount to in the construciion
ly brought about a condition in which of the building.
most of the sub-contractors and material The taking of competitive bids is a
men have their particular friends and complex and intricate process. The
favorites, to whom their lowest prices theory of a sealed proposal is beautful
only are given. and the practice of it originally nay
The bidding on a large building in- have been ideal. But now, a sealed pro-
volves the securing of prices on different posal is based on prices and information
products and materials from a great that may come from a hundred diffeient
many sources. It may extend from the sources and the proposition is entrely
manufacturer down through the hands different from what it must have teen
of many intermediate dealers, to the originally. The complications that nay
origin of the raw material. It may in- arise, the opportunities that may occur
volve hundreds of people. All of these for loss for some and immodest profits
dealers and sub-contractors are obliged for others, are very great. The Aery
to expend thousands of dollars yearly in nature of our system nowadays invites
taking off quantities and making figures and encourages the opposite of that for
on plans from which they do not get which it was intended, and I firmly be-
a dollar in return. The amount of use- lieve that the result of competitive rid-
less work done yearly in this country in ding, as a basis on which to let a con-
that way must be an astonishing item, tract,does not, as a rule, result in secur-
if it could be computed. The result of ing the lowest possible cost for a biild-
it all is, that the contractor and dealer ing.
add to their bids the expense of all this The undue financial risk and hazard
wasted labor and the owner pays for it. connected with signing the average
Here is a great waste going on con- building contract are harmful influetces
stantly which increases the cost of build- which make themselves felt all throigh
ing by reason of our system of com- the operation of erecting a building. Of
petitive bids. course, it is not denied that there is risk
The amounts added to bids for con- or chance in every business transacton.
tingencies are very considerable. Con- Risk cannot be done away with in bidd-
tractors must of necessity safe-guard ing contracts, but it is very evident f-om
themselves in their bids, not only against the results of our method of letting con-
troubles which may not occur with ma- tracts and from the great difference in
terials, but also against labor troubles, the amounts of the bids, that an undue
which are sometimes very expensive. amount of risk is taken with the aver-
The uncertainty at times of prompt de- age building contract. The contracors
livery of materials by railroads, when themselves do not agree with any ac-
time the essence of the contract, often
is curacy as to what the cost of a building
makes the purchase of expensive stock is. The bids often vary several tines
material a necessity. The lack of space the amount of the contractor’s pnfit.
to handle material in the congested part The minute a contractor signs a contact
;
EVIL EFFECTS OF COMPETITIVE BIDDING. 49
for an important building, he assumes have time to consider that a brick skill-
a responsibility far greater than the fully bonded at some critical place,
merchant or manufacturer does in his might add years of endurance to a wall,
business. believe the risk of a con-
I or that a nail driven on a slant might
far greater
tractor. for financial loss is hold a piece of lumber far longer in
than was ever intended by that genius place, or that a bit of paint added in
who first said “Competition is the Life some concealed place might make a
of Trade.” Competition in building is piece of metal last twice as long? Why
not that kind of competition; it is really is it that the good, old-fashioned ways
speculation, and sometimes on account of bonding brick, such as our forefathers
of the complication and difficulties of learned in England, have given way to
our modern construction, it is far more the modern way of throwing brick into
hazardous than buying margins on the a wall, which often goes with hollow
Board of Trade. It is a gamble, pure spaces and weak places in it, in spite of
and simple.When you think of it, and the most rigid inspection? Why
is it
when you consider that the building in- that the old-time method of mortising
dustry was the first made use of by man, and doweling timber, which went to
to build his shelter and home, and when make up the strong and rigid frame-
you think that the building industry is work of our houses, has given way to
the most important one of civilization, the modern system of so-called balloon
it does seem to be a great wrong that framing, where there is hardly a mortise
we, by the use of an antiquated system or tenon to be found? What is it that
of competition, should make of this is influencing our methods of construc-
noble calling a gamble and speculation. tion, and in some respects making them
There is no calling on earth that better far inferior to the old-time ways? There
deserves its reward than the building in- is an influence from some pernicious
dustry. Under our present system, a cause doing this. It is not that our trades-
contractor, as a rule, is selected, first of men are incapable; it is beyond ques-
all, on a basis of the lowest bid. Con- tion, traceable largely back to one cause,
sideration of a man’s integrity, his abil- and that caitse is competitive bidding.
ity or character, have very little to do Competitive bidding allows no time un-
with it, if there is any great difference der the contract for improvement in
between the bids. With the architect craftsmanship. All the skill, and all the
present to police the job and see that art of the workmen are devoted to one
nothing is missed, the owner is usually and. only one end and that is speed
willing to fight it out along these lines. speed at the expense of endurance or
It is greatly to be regretted that this merit, or art in the work.
state of affairs exists, but it seems to be Anothereffect of our present system
the only natural outcome of our system. to be considered is the bearing which
When a contractor secures a contract it has on the relation between architect
under these conditions, his responsibil- and contractor. Under our uniform
ity is very great, and on this account, contract the architect acts as the agent
his anxiety naturally has the effect of of the owner and is supposed to furnish
shaping his methods of procedure, all the contractor in the plans and specifica-
to one purpose. This has an evil in- tions a complete guide from which to
fluence on the work and on all those con- erect the building. The architect has
nected with the construction of tihe conceived the building in his mind and
building. The effect of this unhealthful drawn out this conception on paper, so
condition of affairs tends to preclude that others may be able to translate the
any thought of the permanency and ex- mental image into stone, or brick, or
cellence of the work, beyond that re- other material. The contractor and his
quired in the contract. It extends to all workmen are supposed to be co-workers
the workmen and discourages thoughts with the architect, working ^11 together
or ambitions of good craftsmanship on for the good of the building; first, to
their part. Who
among the tradesmen fortify it against time, its worst enemy;
7
;
to build it economically, so as to make comparatively new problem of letting a

it best serve the purpose for which it contract for a reinforced concrete build-
was created; and to make it beautiful as ing. This new kind of structure, may
a whole and in every part, so that it be successfully built, with a reasor.able
may take its proper place in the world degree of safety, provided that it is
as a welcome addition to the buildings properly designed, and carefully and
of its time. conscientiously constructed. Yet if any
The architect, the contractor and all one of the many important parts of this
his men, should naturally be drawn building is slighted, or if the contractor,
closely together in a sympathetic bond of or even one of his workmen, undertake
common endeavor, just as they used to to apply any money-saving economies,
be in olden times, when they made those or rush-methods of the ordinary build-
beautiful carvings and did that ex- ing, the inevitable penalty is avful.
quisite workmanship, which we have The builder or the workman is liable to
never since equalled. answer for it with his life. Here is a
If characteristics of our people
the new feature in the problem, that will
have been truly reflected in the nature surely receive a hearing at the letting of
of our architecture, then our buildings the contract. It will soon become evi-
must be distinctly marked with evident to the public, if it is not already
dences of the strenuous and economic so, that competition only on the Iasi's
commercial spirit of the times. Our of cost cannot with safety be entertained
greatest structures are not those dedi- for a concrete building. Those steiling
cated to religion, art, or science, but to qualities of character in a builder on
commerce. The greatest of all is the which so much depends for the excel-
office building. Yet, if the signs of the lence of the work, will receive a new
times are read correctly, things are al- and higher appreciation. A
builder’s
ready changing and will change more ability, his integrity, his loyalty, his
in the future. As men acquire wealth skill, his aptitude for his work, will
and reach the stage of competency in again be put at a premium as these cual-
their fortunes, they are beginning again ities used to be in olden times. When I
to that financial supremacy and
realize refer to the concrete building, I hare in
commerce are not the only objects of mind not only the concrete builling
human existence. They are awakening familiar to us with the ordinary slat, or
to the fact that there are in the world floor beam construction, but those von-
other things of great intrinsic value be- derful constructions in Europe where
sides money. There is surely coming a astonishing things are done with [con-
time when you, the builders, and we, the crete, both structural and ornameital.
architects, will have an opportunity to These great problems will undoubledly
create an architecture which shall at come to us, and then the contractor will
least be devoid of the narrow influences be called upon to execute the most dif-
of our times. ficult work that has ever been attemjted.
In conclusion, I wish to make a few His ability and his skill will ther be
suggestions as to the cure for the evil even in greater demand than they are
effects of competitive bidding. I realize, now, and the best man will no longer be
I hope, as much as any one, the great selected by competition on price. How-
difficulties in the way of making any ever, this instance of the concrete build-
radical change in a custom so long es- ing was given in this connection mlv
tablished, as competitive bidding. How- to showthat the character of this vork
ever, I believe that this system, which is such, and the danger of acciden: so
may have been all right in its day, has great, that an owner and, therefore, the
worn itself out. I believe that it is a public will find that competitive bidding
misfit on our present day conditions is not a safe way to let the contract for
that our modern problems of construc- a concrete building.
tion will in time force it out of existence. In considering the remedy for the
To illustrate this, I wish to refer to the evil effects of competitive bids on con-
EVIL EFFECTS OF COMPETITIVE BIDDING. 5r
tracts, it evident that a very radical

is given merely as a suggestion, with the
change must be made if any great good hope that some of you, who are better
is to result. To suggest a scheme which qualified than I, will some day start the
would in itself be radical and at the movement for a reform, which is so
same time effective, is a very difficult much needed in this part of our work.
problem, and it is likely that if an im- The outline of my suggestion for a
provement comes, and I surely think it system of letting contracts, is as fol-
will, that it will come about gradually. lows :
It is necessary, first of all, to educate ist. To establish some way of deter-

the mind of the public and to bring it mining the absolute cost of a building.
to understand that there are a great 2d. To have the estimate of the quan-
many defects and evil results in build- tity of material and labor made by some
ing operations from our present system. one independent of the contractor.
I believe the difficulty would be largely 3d. To have you, gentlemen, the esti-
overcome, if the problem of determining mators, set up offices of your own, as
the real cost of a building, beyond ques- the English Quantity Surveyors have
tion of a doubt, could be worked out. done, but estimate not alone the quan-
The fact that contractors’ bids for the tity of material as they do, but the
erection of every
building differ so quantity of labor as well you to receive
;
widely in amounts is a feature which has your pay as they do, by getting a per-
made the public regard the estimate for centage on the cost of buildings, and to
every building with suspicion. I unbe appointed as the estimator for a
derstand that in England where the esti- building by the owner or architect.
mator, called a “Quantity Surveyor,” 4th. The contractors to agree upon,
who is independent of the contractors, as their profit, a reasonable and proper
takes off the quantities of materials, that percentage, on the cost of buildings,
the bids of contractors, based on these and to execute a contract as they do now
estimates do not differ nearly as much by hiring all labor and buying all ma-
in amount as do the American bids. I terial. Each sub-contractor in the
am informed that there is very little various building trades to take his work
difference indeed between the bids of on a regular percentage of the cost of
English contractors, as based on these the building; either separate contracts,
estimates furnished by the “Quantity or a general contract to be let for the
Surveyor.” I do not believe that there building, according to the wishes of the
is a single owner about to erect a build- owner.
ing who would not be willing and glad 5th. A definite fixed sum as the cost
to enter into a contract with any good for the building and of each part of the
contractor, and pay him a reasonable work as estimated by the independent
profit on all work done, if the owner estimator to be agreed upon by the
could be assured, beyond a doubt, of owner and contractor or contractors as
the real cost of the building. On the the proper cost for the building, or the
other hand, I do not believe that there several parts thereof. This sum or sums
is a single contractor who would not to made a part of the contract, or con-
be glad to undertake any ordinary contracts. in executing the work, the
If,
tract, provided he was assured also of amount of labor or material, or both,
a reasonable profit. I believe firmly exceeds in cost the amount or amounts
that these are the facts, and if they are, named in the contract, this excess of
the problem would seem one of getting cost to be borne equally by the owner and
these two parties together on the proper the contractor, or contractors. If the
basis. cost of labor and material is less than
Following out this line of thought, I that agreed on in the contract, the
have taken the liberty of outlining a money so saved should be equally di-
system which I believe would meet the vided between the owner and con-
requirements in a general way. How- tractor or contractors.
ever, I wish it understood that this is George C. Nnmnons.
Shoddiness of American Building
Construction
Wedeplore the really cruel, unneces- companies have awakened to the fact
sary, immoral waste of property by fire, that big returns followed by tremendous
•and we have much to say about the low losses, mere magnitude of business, do
standard of work executed by our me- not always spell profit and are beginning
chanics generally, the never-ending re- to make commensurately low rates on
pairs we have to make to our buildings well-built, fireproof buildings, while
and their all too rapid deterioration; in- raising the average rate on deficient con-
deed, some of us complain anent some struction. At the same time, little by
of the new fashions of construction that little we have succeeded in getting our
actually permit of buildings collapsing cities to likewise raise the standard of
even while they are in process of erec- exaction to the point where the too de-
tion. Various reasons are advanced for spicably inferior is either not permitted
these deplorable conditions, but it seems at all or relegated to the outlying dis-
likely that, thoroughly sifted, we could tricts. Andthe result is that our people,
reduce and charge them all to the one who have grown so used to “shoddy,”
sin of shoddiness. actually feel that they have a grievance
Shoddy construction, like most other against both laws and insurance compa-
sins, is serious in itself, but still more so nies, that their rights are being assailed
in its effects and what might, flippantly in that they are no longer permitted to
but expressively, be termed its “side is- build everywhere and anywhere the same
sues.” One of its most important con- poorly constructed buildings in which
trolling factors is the desire of some they formerly indulged.
builders to make undue profits; these The average layman sins in this re-
men have encouraged and still encour- spect through one part cunning, two
age slovenly, incomplete, shabby work parts hope that he will escape the natural
on the part of their employees therein — result of flimsy construction and ninety-
lies the profit —these
get into the habit seven parts ignorance. The man against
of doing that kind of work, the contagion whom these remarks are particularly di-
spreads and today, as a nation, while we rected is the “speculative-builder,” the
are noted for our ability to do many one who knows well enough how things
excellent things, the general character of should be done but who deliberately and
our labor measures up to a deplorably with malice aforethought slurs and
low standard. More than that, the shod- skimps and skins a building to the ut-
diness that intially was injected into our most of his sometimes really splendid
buildings for illegal, immoral reasons, ability, for the purpose of increasing his
has left its marks on our laws as well profit. He is the gentleman who builds
as upon the “yielding of our labor ;” at a house with two by six joists in the
some time or another it was winked at flooring, culled boards three inches apart
by the authorities or permitted under too for sheathing, paper of inferior quality
lenient and lax regulations, until it ac- and without laps, green pine finish, and
tually became the gauge by which all the other etceteras of a “skinned”
all things were measured. Digest house, and paints the whole thing in most
the building laws of any of our cities alluring colors —
mixed largely with coal-
and see how really apologetic we become oil and guaranteed to last at least two
in demanding and insisting upon work —
months- lavs some sickly sod on top of
that so palpably for the absolute bene-
is broken brick, plaster dust and the rest
fit of all and is so clearly the only thing of the building debris doing duty as a
to do, but which is of but little higher lawn, and then inserts glowing advertise-
grade than the indifferent. Insurance ments in the papers cunningly calculated
!
SHODDINESS OF AMERICAN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION.

53
to catch the unwary; and alas, before their own occupancy, not merely for sale.
many days does actually hook his prey I have in mind a house that I passed a
and land him into a very net if not a day or so ago. A huge four or five-
slough of despond. story affair of stone and terra cotta,
I see much of that gentleman’s work ornate in the extreme, pretentious and
in every city throughout the country, but * bearing every external appearance of
perhaps a little more of it right here in being a veritable palace, a house that
Washington than anywhere else. Few one should judge would cost anywhere
people here ever think of building a from $75,000 to $100,000. It is on the
home. One person that they are afraid of crest of the Sixteenth Street Hill in
is the architect, and perhaps not with- Washington, D. C., near the “Hender-
out reason. “Extras” and delays are son Castle,” and I am told it is to be oc-
rather effective bugaboos that have been cupied by the French Embassy. Every
held up to them. So they prefer to buy external indication would point to its be-
a house, already finished, which they ing tended for a permanent and stately
can see and know all about in the flesh domicile. It will probably house valuable
rather than merely on paper, and they diplomatic lives, archives of interna-
dicker and deal with the speculator and tional importance, bric-a-brac, furniture
lo, he flourishes, groweth fat and rideth and other plunder of great cost, and
in automobiles. They do not build homes presents every reason for being well-
here, dainty, comfortable little detached built. I was curious enough to step in-
houses, but great rows in tens and fif- side to see what system of construction
teens and twenties, of dark, ill-con- was being used. I stopped but a mo-
structed, tawdrily finished boxes, verit- ment, long enough, however, to note
able fire-traps, or in mild terms, rottenly thatthere were wooden floor joists,
built city
houses. The poor beguiled wooden roof construction, wooden lath-
wretch who gets into one and who has ing, wood, wood and more of it. The
paid over his hard-earned shekels soon pretentious exterior was in reality but
finds that the chief charm of its plumb- the whited surface of a dismal sepul-
ing system is that the bath-room is en- chre, a fire-trap of the most deceptive
tirely tiled in white and “looks good.” nature, a monument to the assininity of
The real plumbing is as shabbily done the owners and the culpable negligence
as the none too strict or over-rigidly en- of the architect
forced regulations permit; the next win- People say that the architects are not
ter after occupancy he finds that his fur- to blame, that their authority is not to
nace too small and that the pipes are
is be compared to that of a doctor.
on the outside walls; and his troubles do
A
doctor diagnoses the ailment of his
not begin then but continue. His insur- patient and “orders” him to do thus and
ance rates are distressingly high, his re- so. Most men will obediently follow
pair bills enormous and he curses the directions, believing that life or death
day that he first thought of buying a depends upon that obedience. Not so
house. with the architect. He is not hired to
For my part were I anathematically order his client; he is his willing, ob-
inclined I should heap coals of fire upon sequious and ever-obedient servant.
the head of every “speculative-builder,” Granted. Generally he is even so afraid
or at least upon most of them, yea would that the aforesaid client will get away
I even legislate them out of their ne- from him that he will put the cellar on
farious trade. the roof of the house and the attic in
The incomprehensible thing to me is, the basement. But if the architect,
why do architects who make some pre- through his own poor management of
tence of being somebody permit their affairs, has brought himself to that piti-
clients, however foolishly inclined the ful state of servitude, he should still have
latter may be, to adopt the methods and sufficient professional pride and man-
manners of the aforesaid individual in liness, he can not “order” his client,
if
erecting homes and other buildings for at least to labor with him and point out
the inevitable advantages of building the larger places will for years have to
well rather than shoddily. “Shoddy” suffer for the building sins of their pro-
has such a hold upon our people, our genitors, the sin of shoddiness. More-
architects, our laws, that to get them all over, even in some fairly large cities
out of the habit, so to speak, we must building regulations are in a primitive
absolutely use force added to persuasion. state. Regulation of building laws is
At different times I have advocated a the business of the cities, but the state is
sliding scale of taxation, the maximum an interested party and the city is but
tax upon imperfect, dangerous build- the child of the state.
ings, requiring the maximum of protec- Some states have already taken up
tion, and the minimum upon those struc- seriously the matter of better building
tures sensibly built and presenting the laws fire marshals have been appointed
;
less vulnerability to fire and other at- and given certain duties and authority.
tacks, and costing the community the But more is wanted, not alone mord
minimum for protection. Likewise have states to make this first step, but these
I besought the insurance people who that have made it to go farther, to en-
have their own constituents’ best inter- act laws, minimum building require-
ests at heart, to raise their rates on ments, to which all cities will eventually
flimsy construction to a prohibitive be obliged to conform. Let each city do
point. Some good has already been done, as much more toward this end as its own
though much yet remains to be accom- good sense may dictate, but the sUte
plished. But I am here again today in should decree the maximum amount of
an appeal to the architects those who — shoddiness that it will tolerate, and tie
think, those who are earnest, and have lower that maximum is placed the better
—
some public spirit to join, to co-operate, it will be for the state and for the dry.
to really work with some vim in an en- The International Society of Build-
deavor to get the states to unite in ing Commissioners, of which society I
passing adequate and uniform laws have the honor of being an officer, has
clearly defining the minimum of excel- made a stirring appeal on behalf of su:h
lence permitted in any construction, in legislation to the governor, the legs-
city, town or hamlet within the state’s lators and the press of every state in tie
borders. This is not a substitute plan Union, and we are hard at work in tie
for sliding taxation nor is it suggested preparation of a uniform code of build-
because the insurance companies, though ing laws for presentation simultaneously
they have raised their rates on poor to all the legislatures at their next cou-
building, have not made them high vening.
enough to bar or to prevent new fire- I bespeakthis journal’s and the archi-
traps being erected. It is an adjunct to tects’ co-operation and hearty, effecti/e
both of these means of securing the de- work on behalf of a higher standard
sired end. of building construction, not only far
cities there is, at
Outside of the large our large public or business structures,
present, regulation of buildings by
little but for the smaller and less importait
law ;
anyone may build anything he buildings of which our residences, apart-
wishes. The village of today is perhaps ment houses and suburban homes form
the city of tomorrow and the citizens of no small part.
F. W. Fitzpatrick.
The Building of the American School of
Correspondence
The building of the American School signed an edifice which somehow looks
of Correspondence, illustrations
of business-like without ceasing to be col-
which are published herewith, is a not- legiate, and their success in achieving
able addition to the group of interesting this result has been partly due to the
business structures which the Archi- spacious site on which the building stands.
tectural Record has been publishing of This site faces on three streets, and has
late years, and its interest is due both to moreover an abundance of light and air
the excellence of its handling and to in its rear. Each of the three faqades
the more than usually happy conditions has features of special interest, but they
under which it was erected. As a gen- are bound together by an uncompro-
eral rule important business structures mising integrity of treatment. The core
occupy restricted sites on crowded thor- of the design consists of a bold tower-
oughfares, and the architect has to sub- like projection, containing one addi-
mit to many conditions which make tional story, whereby the entrance on
his work at the best a compromise. But the main facade is emphasized. All of
a school of correspondence, as its name the building to the right of this tower,
indicates, bears much the same relation whether on the main or on the side
to an ordinary business concern as a street, is subjected to a similar treat-
mail-order house does to a department ment, which is different from that part
store. Its business is transacted largely of the building to the left of the tower,
by mail, and consequently it can avoid chiefly because of the treatment of the
the necessity of building on very ex- fourth story. To the left the fourth
pensive land in the heart of the city. It story recedes and is lighted by dormers,
requires practically an office building, whereas to the right it is carried through
covering a large floor space in a respec- and terminates in a parapet. This ar-
table but not necessarily a very central rangement is obviously dictated by the
neighborhood, and its large floor space different uses to which the different
can be obtained by the use of a spacious parts of the floor are put; but it is as
site rather than by the erection of a successful from the architectural as it
many-storied structure. It is necessary, is presumably from the practical stand-
of course, that its offices should be very point. The building obtains a balance
well lighted, as in an ordinary office which could hardly be achieved by some
building, but the interior requirements formally symmetrical arrangement, and
as to the size of the rooms are of a if the effect does not wholly satisfy the
very varying nature, which permits and eye, it makes a strong appeal to a candid
calls for certain unusual variations in architectural intelligence. In another
the design. Furthermore, inasmuch as matter, also, have the designers been
a school of correspondence is a peda- very successful. They have been
gogic as well as a business enterprise, obliged to supply an abundance of win-
it is appropriate that the building dows, which have very little solid wall
should express its affiliations with in- space on their three faqades, and the ef-
stitutions of learning. Propriety does fect of which was hard to reconcile with
does not demand a design which is rig- the solid strength of the tower. This
idly utilitarian in character. On the discrepancy has, however, been measur-
contrary, such a building will the better ably removed by the buttresses, which
fulfill its purpose, provided its architec- have been run up on the several faces
ture evokes associations with one of the of the building as high as the second
several collegiate styles of the past. story. These buttresses add enormous-
The building of the American School ly to the consistency of the design, while
of Correspondence, designed by Messrs. at the same time they intensify the col-
Pond & Pond, admirably fulfills all these legiate suggestion, which was already
conditions. The architects have de- fixed by the central tower.
CORRESPONDENCE.
QF
SCHOOL
AMERICA^
the
of
BVILDING
NEW
THE
THE BUILDING OF AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CORRESPONDENCE.
57
THE NEW BUILDING OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CORRESPONDENCE— FRONT.
THE NEW BUILDING OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CORRESPONDENCE— SIDE VIEW.

Chicago, 111. Pond & Pond, Architects.
NOTES ^COMMENTS
The success of the This architect has made himself the inti-
suburban house, espe- mate friend
DECORATING cially its interior, de-
of his clients and has faithfully
reflected in their homes what this inti-
AND pends in large measure mate personal contact has revealed to him.
FURNISHING upon the proper co-op- Each client is for him an individual case
THE HOME eration of theowner which he solves according to its circum-
with the architect. The stances, the solution being based always on
owner is much more personal knowledge of his clients’ likes and
prone to consider himself as qualified to dis- dislikes, their social position and all the other
pense with the services of the architect when elements that enter into the making of the
the subject is the decorating and furnishing home. Possessed of this information, he is
of his rooms than he is in matters of design really in a position to say that he knows
which pertain to the exterior. This is only what his clients want. The rest depends
natural. How many of one’s friends can entirely upon his own capacity and resource-
one name who will not be very sure not fulness as a designer.
only that they know exactly what they It is Mr. Wallis’ theory that at least one
want in the decorating and furnishing of room in the suburban house should have its
their homes, but who are as ready to as- basis on some historic style or period. On
sume that they know how to get what they this room, he believes, the designer should
want. No one is so ready to acknowledge lavish his most conscientious study, not
disappointment and dissatisfaction with the slavishly to reproduce some historical exam-
work of an architect who has been willing ple which seems applicable to the case in
to assume that his client is really able to hand, but to interpret the characteristics
direct the decorating and furnishing of his of the style in which he is working. In
or her home as the man or woman who has thus rendering architecture he is not an ar-
had the experience. But even after such an chaeologist who reproduces, but an architect
experience the majority of owners do not who creates on a given basis under new con-
realize the cause of their misfortune. They ditions, modifying his basis when the con-
cannot be made to understand that had they tions demand it. The variety of Mr. Wallis’
co-operated with the architect and allowed interiors shows how well his style theory
him to perform the function for which he works in practice. The reader will note in
is qualified, and not they, they would un- those rooms how the characteristics of each
doubtedly be the architect’s strongest cham- style have been brought out by the color
pions, instead of his decryers. The benefit of the materials as well as by the simplicity
of such a relation between architect and or ornateness of the design, as the case may
client twofold,
is the client is satis- be. The confidence of client in architect is
fied andthe architect has the satisfac- shown in these interiors, especially by the fact
tion of having done his work well that the architect was not only designer and
and of making of his client a friend and a decorator, but was consulted in the selection
business asset. Houses which have been Re- of the furnishings which help in no unimpor-
signed and decorated under such conditions tant part to produce the total effect. It should
never fail to evoke general admiration. It be mentioned also that cost which is generally
is such a group of which we illustrate the supposed to be in proportion to the effect
following interiors. These houses, except desired stands in no such relation in the
one which is at Orange, are situated design of these rooms, some of the best in
in Montclair, New Jersey, a town of design being the most economical financially.
some sixteen thousand inhabitants, which is The paramount consideration was of archi-
reached by a half hour’s train ride from New tectural propriety, and in many cases it
York. They are all the work of Frank E. was the strictest adherence to the archi-
Wallis, a New York architect, whose prac- tectural requirements of the case that,
tice is largely confined not only to subur- brought about by the owner’s confidence in
ban houses, but to the town of Montclair, the architect, not only secured the desired
where his work is well known to the towns- effect, but secured it at an actual saving in
people. dollars and cents.
Architect.
Wallis,
E.
F.
ROOM.
Patzig.)
DINING
A.
by
FLEMISH
(Photo
J.
N.
Montclair,
Architect.
Wallis,
E.
F.
ROOM.
Patzig.)
DINING
A.
by
(Photo
DUTCH
J.
N.
Montclair,
K A
W Ph
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 65
Architect.
Wallis,
E.
F.
LIBRARY. Patzig.)
A.
by
FLEMISH
(Photo
-
Architect.
Wallis,
E.
F.
CONDITIONS.
THE
TO
ADAPTED
ADMIRABLY
Patzig.)
ARE
A.
by
DETAILS
(Photo
GREEK
WHICH
IN
ROOM
LIVING
J,
N.
Orange,
The interior decora- upon to paint. For the background of his

CHARLES tion of Mr. F. S. Flow- ideal heads and even for his portraits, Mr.
FREDERICK er’s residence, 612 Fifth Naegele often uses wood of different kinds,
NAEGELE avenue, New York, calls which he treats with a varnish. This simple
A PAINTER OF attention to the dec- process has proved to be very decorative and
INTERIOR orative work of brings out in the wood certain atmospheric
DECORATION Charles Frederick Nae- qualities, whose presence in that material
gele, an artist, who has have not been suspected by artists.
hitherto been known chiefly as a successful Mr. Naegele also paints landscapes of fine
portrait painter. The great sense for color tonal quality and it is this versatility which
which characterizes his portrait work and his accounts for his success as a decorative
feeling for the beauty of form qualify him in painter and decorator. Whenever he paints
a high degree for decorative painting of an a panel, a frieze, or a decorative picture he
architectural character. undertakes to harmonize it with the room,
We on page 38 a model for a
illustrate or vice versa. His “Ring of Youth,” a paint-
medal, designed by Mr. Naegele in 1902, ing in a bedroom of Mr. Flower’s house, re-
to commemorate the four hundredth an- ferred to above, illustrates admirably the
niversary of the discovery of America. qualities which characterize his work. There
In the center of the medal is carved the is a charming happy youthfulness in the
head of Columbus, and as the artist could picture, a grace and harmony conducive to a
obtain no authentic likeness of the great feeling of repose and joy. It is also to be
navigator, the head is made to express his commented that Mr. Naegele is a man of a
reputed characteristics and genius. It is shaped philosophical turn of mind and that there
to show his imaginative or intuitive qualities; is frequently to be found hidden in his paint-
the forehead indicates the qualities of a man ings a symbolism where the observer least
who can command and control others, while expects it. “The Ring of Youth,” for in-
the perceptive qualities are also indicated. stance, appeals to the higher senses and
The sensitive mouth and chin show still an- seems to express the eternal youth which
other characteristic of the great discoverer. exists in all whose minds and souls are open
The central coin bearing the head is sur- to a higher life. A critical observer will
rounded by wavy lines indicating the ocean, at once realize that the impression is not
while sea monsters and the ships Santa one of naked figures. True, they are partly
Maria, Pinta and Nina are also to be seen. nude, but not naked, and are characterized
The rudders are all turned in, as if to go by a chastity far from prudery. This dec-
to an unknown land, of which only Columbus orative frieze goes around all four walls of
knew. The late St. Gaudens said
Augustus the room. One fragment, the largest, covers
that this was one of the best commemora- the width of a wall, which is uninterrupted
tive medals he had ever seen, especially for by any doors, windows, or mantel. It shows
its symbolic qualities. dancing nymphs, who form a ring. The
Among Mr. Naegele’s ideal figure paintings figures are approximately life size and there
the best known is “Divinity of Motherhood,” is much swing and grace in the lines. There
a work which was awarded a gold medal at is a special charm in another fragment dec-
Boston in 1900 and sold for $3,000. In these orating one of the smaller walls and placed
ideal heads, the painter shows his peculiar over a door, thus forming a panel by itself
style more emphatically than in his portraits; (Fig. 4). The figures and the landscape
here his brush is restrained neither by the are here much smaller. The picture repre-
features nor by the client’s preferences. sents a procession passing in the distance.
The great charm in these ideal compositions On a hill may be seen a temple to which the
is not the charm of sensuous, passionate offerings to the victor are being carried. One
womanhood; it is the charm of untouched of the nymphs, who has large, graceful
girlhood or of true motherhood which he so wings, “to wing her steps,” half flies ahead
strongly, yet delicately portrays. It is the of the others. She is followed by a group
inner life, the life of the soul which is depict- playing a hymn of victory on antique musical
ed in the eyes, in the expression of the face mstruments. A little girl leads the way be-
and often even in the hands. Sometimes fore the conqueror, a peaceful, gentle hero
he may go too far as regards minute ex- who has placed his dear one on the horse
ecution, but this is due to the desires of which he leads himself. In the distance
his sitters. He never strives after a photo- follow other nymphs carrying garlands of
graphic likeness, but penetrates into the flowers. The picture very much suggests
mind and character of the person he is called Claude Lorraine, only it shows a more mod-
FIG. 1. THE RING OF YOUTH.

(Published by permission
ern technique. This section of the frieze choose the same scale of values in decora-
is the most beautiful part of the ring and tion, and also in clothing, we receive the
would form a very decorative painting by most harmonious impression. Mr. Naegele
itself. True to Naegele’s ideal of maidenhood has selected a carpet of dark peacock
are two girls shown in Fig. 7, who are watch- blue for room. The walls are of a
this
ing the passing procession. The heads are trifle lightershade and the frieze is like-
nearly life size and the bodies are partly hid- wise harmonized to the same dark blue,
den in roses. The girls appear to be standing which is repeated in the landscape. The
in a bower of roses. Garlands of roses also other colors used in the frieze are all in har-
form the connecting links of the frieze all mony with this blue. The ceiling is plain and
around the walls. of a light color. The furniture is in dark
The coloring of Mr. Naegele’s compositions mahogany. The room should soothe the
is governed by scientific rules. Blue, red and most irritated nerves.
yellow are the primary colors which form a The room opposite to that just described
harmony of grays. Green is produced by mix- is a green room. Mr. Naegele believes with
ing yellow and blue; purple by mixing blue the occultists regarding the influence of color
and red; orange by mixing yellow and red, and the methods of using it. This room
the secondary colors. To these laws of color is the room for thought. The tone of the
harmony Mr. Naegele is true, as well in his green is soft. It is repeated in the frieze,
painting as in the decoration of rooms, such showing a sea with a wide endless horizon,
as we illustrate. For him the ground colors and dunes, forming wavy lines, where cedars
are the chords on which the melody is based. end shore oaks grow. The coloring harmon-
The frieze “The Ring of Youth,” for ex- izes with the green ground-tint and is kept
ample, decorates a room which is intended in pinks, delicate purples and greens. The
as a place of rest for a man overburdened impression conveyed is one of a vast in-
with work and nervous strain. The prevail- finity and there is nothing in the room to
ing tone of the room is a soft peacock blue. attract the material senses, because the de-
Nature is, on the whole, a safe model to signer intends it to be symbolic of intellec-
follow. The dark color of the earth, the tual life. It is calculated to lead the thoughts
middle tints of the mountains and trees onward, without distracting them by ma-
and the light tints of the sky produce a re- terial objects.
freshing and restful impression, and if we A more cheerful character was desired by
the young mistress of the house for her to be ennobled by an environment which shall
room, hence a light blue was selected. Thus be not only opulent but harmonious. While
ihe purpose of the room, the individuality the wealthy have frequently been too ma-
of the owner and the harmony of color have terialistic to care for the refining influences
all been observed in the decorations of the of art, others have been too poor even to
house. The artist has carried this so far as be able to realize what they have been
to take into consideration the impression missing.
produced on a person standing in the halls To the latter also Mr. Naegele is trying to
and looking into the rooms. The halls are bring art and beauty, and he has worked
kept in dark red, symbolic of the earth, and out a novel plan of art exhibitions to estab-
on looking into the peacock blue room, the lish museums, which shall be owned by the
keynote of which is yellow, one gets the im- public. The P'lan is intended chiefly for small
pression of a harmonious chord. Looking in towns which have hitherto been without any-
the opposite direction, into the green room, thing to develop the artistic instinct. Last
one again gets the impression of a symphony. winter Mr. Naegele arranged in Watertown,
Not only is it difficult sometimes to carry N. Y., an exhibition of paintings by the best
out a harmonious scale of color in accord- New York artists, at the same time holding
ance with the practical needs of a house, but lectures to acquaint the inhabitants with
the wishes of the owners also make it almost the principles of art. An entrance fee of ten
impossible. In many cases they will in- cents was charged, which also entitled the
troduce notes which destroy all harmony and holder of the ticket to a vote for his favorite
shew an utter lack of artistic understand- picture. The pictures receiving the most
ing. Hard whites are brought into a room of votes were purchased by the money taken
soft, dark tints, “to cheer it up”; trifles in at the door and formed the nucleus for a
of bric-a-brac are placed where nothing public gallery. At the universal desire of the
should distract the attention from the main Watertownites, the first exhibition was soon
scheme of decoration. Because Mr. Naegele’s followed by a second, last winter, and this
theories are based on artistic and scientific winter there will be similar exhibits, not only
laws he usually succeeds in bringing con- in Watertown, but in several other small
flicting desires into harmony. cities. The Federation of Women’s Clubs is
He is filled with enthusiasm to carry the planning a State Art Institute and some
beautiful into the lives of all. The rich are prominent members of that organization have
FIG. 2. THE BLUE ROOM IN MR. F. S. FLOWER’S RESIDENCE.
FIG. 3. THE BLUE ROOM IN MR. F. S. FLOWER’S RESIDENCE-

VIEW SHOWING “THE RING OF YOUTH.”
012 Fifth Avenue, New York. Chas. F. Naegele, Artist.
Artist.
Naegele,
RESIDENCE.
F.
Chas.
FLOWER’S
S.
F.
MR.
IN
DECORATION
VICTOR—
RETURNING
A
TO
York.
OFFERING
New
AN
4.
Avenue,
FIG.
Fifth
612
FIG. 5. DETAIL OF FRIEZE IN GREEN ROOM— MR. F. S. FLOWER’S RESIDENCE.

approached Mr. Naegele for assistance to “From the moment of the Arab’s first ap-
establish elsewhere exhibitions similar to pearance on the world’s stage we are con-
those in Watertown. All of which promises scious of a new force acting on human af-
a more thorough appreciation in the future fairs. The old stock of warring ideals which
of art in the United States. throughout the East and West, among the
C. R. attackers and defenders of classicalism, had
given rise to fluctuations of regular recur-
“Arab architecture is rence and similar character, was with the
the best presentment of coming of the Arab suddenly modified by the
THE. ARAB Arab character that re- addition of a hitherto unknown ingredient,
mains to us,” says L. the effect of which was instantaneous. As a
IN
March Phillips in a re- dash of petroleum stimulates an unwilling
ARCHITECTURE cent issue of the Con- fire, so the Arab ardor fanned to a blaze
temporary Review. “No the general conflagration which was consum-
evidence can
historical ing the old order of things. Destruction, the
furnish forth to the understanding a like- clearing of the ground for a new growth,
ness of the man so expressive as this ar- was the main purpose of that age, and as a
chitecture offers to the eye. In its eager destructive agent the Arab was without a
inventiveness, in the capricious changes, com- peer. That terrific energy of his, so furious-
plications and inflections of its designs, in ly rapid in its progress, so irresistible in its
its impulsive energy, and above all, its in- attack, so blasting in its effects, is compar-
herent weakness and instability, there is de- able only to the light and glancing motions
picted in this style, if we would but coolly of tongues of flame. But yet, on the other
and rationally examine it, a visible repre- hand, if the Arab energy is like fire, swift
sentation of the Arab as we know him in and irresistible, it is like fire, fickle. In all
history, or as he is to be met with to-day affairs of whatever kind, in which the Arab
in the flesh in those deserts to which the has been concerned, fickleness, equally with
progress of more stable races has once again energy, plays its part. One is constantly
relegated him. The stamp and impress taken reminded, in dealing with him, or noting his
of him by these eccentric arches and pur- behavior in history, of the lack in him of
poseless entanglements of tracery are the that faculty of solid reason which lends such
stamp and impress which he gave to all his unmistakable coherence and continuity to
undertakings. His impetuous, yet ill-sus- the designs of the Western nations.”
tained campaigns have this character; his “But if this is a true reading of the Arab
so-called civilization, so imposing, yet so fu- in war, it will be true of him in other things
gitive, has it; all his thoughtful and in- also. And so I think it is. His whole civil-
tellectual achievements, informed with vague ization may be taken as a further illustra-
visions and transcendental guesses, have it; tion of it. If that civilization rose and ex-
above all the man himself, full of fiery, short- panded with the rapidity of all Arab designs,
lived and contradictory impulses, is the in- its abrupt and entire disappearance was not
carnation of it.” less characteristic.”
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
73
FIG. 6. DETAIL OF FRIEZE IN GREEN ROOM— MR. F. S. FLOWER’S RESIDENCE.

Since the publication occasion demands it; and we assume that
THE, GRANT 0 f the Washington Park due consideration was given to this ques-
MONUMENT Commission’s plans for tion in the case of the location of the Grant
the future development monument, and that the trees under discus-
S I TE -
of the capital on an sion were found by some competent authority

WASHINGTON, aesthetic basis, there to be unworthy of the labor involved to move
D. C. has appeared, from time them. We can understand and sympathize
to time, strong opposi- with the aversion to a change on the part
tion to their execution. This opposition has of those who planted them and have watched
emanated either from certain representatives them grow to maturity. It is a misfor-
of the people who are still in that state of tune not only to these individuals, but to the
blissful ignorance which Mr. Speaker Cannon City, that no guiding hand pointed out their
so characteristically voiced when he de- proper location, in accord with a general
manded to know what an architect is, or, scheme for the whole extent of the Mall, in
if that, that certain individuals have cre- the lack of which separate and unrelated
ated a situation in which their motives are plantings have been dotted in it; these plant-
open to a highly unfavorable construction. ings having in each case their main axis
The latest development of the opposition cen- crossing that of the Mall.
ters on the placing of the Grant Memorial “We are in favor of the location of public
in regard to which the local Chapter of the buildings on the south side of Pennsylvania
Institute of American Architects passed on avenue, which is a part of the plan as recom-
Nov. 1, 1907, the following resolution: mended by the Park Commission. de- We
“In view of the recent publicly expressed plore the fact that this Commission has not
comments upon the proposed location of the the legal standing to which its plans and its
‘Grant Memorial’ adverse to the site, and membership entitle it, and we regret that
condemning the destruction of trees, and a this primal recognitionhas not been given.
general denunciation of the whole plan of “To us, however, the dominating need is
which the location of this monument is a that the laying out of the roadways, parks,
part, it seems proper for a local association etc., and the location
of the public buildings,
of men practicing a profession involving the statues, etc., be made in accordance
shall
study and decision of similar problems, to with a coherent and complete plan; coherent
express their opinion in regard to this in that it shall provide for the proper and
criticism, and to point out what they deem to seemly relations of the parts, one to the
be misconceptions of the dominating plan, other; complete in that it shall provide for
and inaccuracies regarding some of the de- the various needs present or anticipated
all of
tails. for the Capital city of a nation, promising
“Weare in hearty accord with all efforts the future that we look forward to for our
to preserve trees, both in the parks and own.
streets, and will render all aid in our power “This city is fortunate in having been born
to avert the destruction of any of them. We by such a plan, which has been reviewed by a
suggest, however, that records will show commission composed of men whose quali-
that trees can be moved with safety when fications cannot be successfully challenged,
74
mmm
FIG. 7. FRAGMENT OF FRIEZE, “THE’ RING OF YOUTH”— MR. F. S. FLOWER’S

RESIDENCE.
and they have recommended its readoption. War as the representative of the Govern-
No other plan similarly considered has been ment on the Grant Memorial Commission in
presented. charge of the work of its erection.”

“Therefore, resolved, That the Washington
Chapter of the American Institute of Archi- The year 1907, though
equal its
tects endorses most heartily the wisdom of it failed to
the Park Commission in adhering to the predecessor in the num-

original plan of L’Enfant as endorsed by
SKYSCRAPING her or cost of new build-
Washington and Jefferson, and in extending up TO DATE, ings constructed, marks
its principles in their plans for the greater the breaking through of
Washington. another stratum of
“That this chapter considers the vista ether by the forty-odd-
treatment of the Mall, as contemplated by story skyscraper. One might almost say two
them, a return to first principles, and by new atmospheric strata have been pene-
far the most logical, effective and monumen- trated as we pass from the four-hundred-foot
tal treatment yet suggested, and that a monster, without transition, to one of over
strict adherence to their give
plans will six hundred feet in height. To complete the
to the American people the possibilities for picture there is missing only the air-ship
the most beautiful capital in the world. to “honk-honk” them aside, but this defi-
“We affirm that, proceeding under a fixed ciency of our imagination can readily supply
plan, the amount of expenditure involved to theaccompaniment of the pneumatic rivet-
is less than would be required in proceeding ing machine which is heard on high in pierc-
as has been the custom, without co-ordina- ing warning.
tion of the units or the co-operation of those As cities have developed, their skyline has
controlling them. been broken at first by the devout with the
“We are confident that the necessity for spires of their churches, and later by the
the adoption of a comprehensive plan will ambitious of commerce. To this develop-
be generally recognized, and would call at- ment has been added another stage, for now
tion to the fact that when adopted, the first we possess genuine tower architecture as an
step towards its fulfillment shall be the advertising feature on a rental basis. When-
planting of trees in their allotted places, ever we have completed an extensive struc-
for while roadways and buildings may be ture we have endeavored to force it a little
constructed as needed, trees are the planting beyond and above in order to distinguish it
of one generation for the enjoyment of their among the mass of its fellows, hence the
successors. Madison Square Garden and Chicago Audi-
“Resolved, That this expression of our torium Towers, both distinctive parts of their
views be sent to the Honorable Secretary of respective structures. But now we get to a
point where the tower is practically the whole

nVr
branch of building construction now pro-
thing. The modest heights of the Singer and ceeds from a corps of specialists with ade-
Metropolitan Life Buildings lost their iden- quate equipment to execute as well as design
tity in the mass of other similarly modest foundations to support the most gigantic su-
structures,but their development skyward perstructures. Fortunately rock bottom is
will be difficult to surpass, for to rival it
on not beyond human reach on Manhattan Isl-
the lower end of Manhattan Island would and and the stability of the building is bib-
necessitate the tearing down of many costly lically assured. And if our present develop-
buildings. But it is unsafe to prognosticate, ment continues we shall have to go still
in view of recent wrecking operations in that higher to gratify our ambitions, outreaching
territory. the Tower of Babel, but without its disas-
In many cases the lofty buildings are pro- trous consequences.
tected and isolated by their own surrounding
property, but already in the case of the Sin- As the park develop-
ger Building the growth of the huge City In- ment idea grows in the
vesting Company’s Building has amalga- NEW YORK’S minds of the American
mated itself with it, and as the white trim- people, it would be well
mings of the Singer Tower accords fairly
PARK
to realize that within
well with that of its aspiring neighbor, the OPPORTUNITY a short radius of the
composite architecture is not without attrac- heart of busy New
tion, especially when viewed from a North York there lies a region
River ferryboat. In fact, for appearance wild and romantic of unsurpassed possibility
sake, the architect of the Investing Building of use. This region occupies the top of the
might have dispensed with a broken skyline Palisades running north from Fort Lee and
for the Singer Tower supplies this gratis for reaching to a point opposite Irvington, a dis-
all time. tance of nearly fifteen miles. Its protection
The growth of a great city skyward may from the invasion of the suburbanite it owes
be unattractive to those who see no inspira- to its inaccessibility, though it is already be-
tion in the new problems which it involves, coming in its southern portion a growing
or unreasonable to those who disapprove of collection of domiciles. In all the cities vis-
it for economic reasons, but when one be- ited by the writer, there has appeared to
holds these dark grey monsters at dusk, him no such possibility as the top of this fa-
studded with a myriad of incandescent lights, mous cliff overlooking an equally renowned
the effect is one of mystery and might, which river. The neighborhoods of Boston, Chicago,
is strictly of this generation. Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit
boast, each in its way, of a series of reser-
The advent of the six vations, beautified alike by Nature and the
MECHANICAL hundred foot building hand of man; but in those cities there is no
PROBLEMS has called into being such place or possibility like this. For miles
OF THE an important readjust- there stretches this hill, a cliff washed by the
SIX-HUNDRED ment of the mechanical Hudson on the east, with a slope over a beau-
FOOT transit problem for tiful country to westward. At the southern end
BUILDING skyscrapers. The re- a road runs up a long hill from Fort Lee, then
sult is a new type northward. For a good distance this road
of elevator called “the traction,” with power is in good condition, and there are many
machinery located above the shaft instead cliff-top dwellers along its way, and even a
in its accustomed place in the cellar. To little hamlet where some prominent in the
create ample safety devices for the cars of art-world have availed themselves of this
such a system, is a serious problem. The natural opportunity; but compared with the
possible precipitation of a carload of pas- number of city folk who will some day be
sengers from a six-hundred-foot height is forced out by the growth of trade and land
not a pleasant theme for contemplation. It values, these are but a handful. As the
is only fair to say, however, that the num- tract in two
lies states, which for some
ber of passengers carried in them daily is time have been co-operating in acquiring
not large, and it may consequently be as- land for park purposes, it would seem wise
serted that contractors supplying such in- if a national acquirement of ownership could
stallations are of the highest reliability. be consummated. Of course, the Niagara
Another development which has been reservation is all that New York could de-
brought about in building construction by mand, but as the bulk of the territory lies
the very tall building is a scientific treat- in New Jersey, and as there is practically no
ment of foundations. The prosecution of this surrounding population in that state to
create a “local feeling,” a government own- ground. By these means that variety which
ership would seem wise. comes of fitness is invited on the part of the
The view is especially fine from the upper architect, who has now enough of in-
little
portion at a point about opposite Hastings, spiration and finds it difficult to be rid of
where a jutting polygonical column of rock monotony where there are nothing but in-
allows an unobstructed view up and down terminable straight streets, with few pieces
the river. Here five hundred feet above the from which a building may be seen from a
surface of the water, one can look entirely distance.” Whatever may be thought of
over the country opposite and across the present conditions, architects certainly would
Long Island Sound to the ridge running be glad to be given sites more favorable to
along Long Island. A prominent architect effectiveness, and the following suggestions
of skyscrapers once visiting this place said give immediate practicalness to this wish:
that he was more impressed with the sense “There is no reason why the extension of
of height here than he was at the top of the towns, now being forced by rapid transit,
Eifel Tower in Paris, and attributed this to should not be along streets ordered with ref-
the absence of artificial barriers, for here erence to the natural features of the ground;
one is able to look down the sheer rise o’ why they should not be made sightly in the
rock to the tree tops below. A trolley line character of their houses, as well as sanitary
along its ridge would make this region visit- and comfortable; why parks should not be
able and permit a remarkable view of the provided, street trees planted and properly
lower Hudson, far superior to that ob- cared for, as well as private gardens, large
tained in the course of a ride upon or small, as the case may be. That these
the river itself. The winter view is very things should be effected by comprehensively
beautiful when the snow-clad country lies and artistically devised plans, to be made as
stretched in its white raiment with the ice- soon as practicable, is of the utmost impor-
bound river as its border. At the northern tance, as will be admitted when it is recalled
terminus of the cliff is the widening of the that no end of depressing ugliness and in-
river known as the Tappan Zee, dear to the calculable expense has resulted in the past
heart of Washington Irving, and here ends from lack of such enlightened forethought.
one of the most remarkable trips that any .... Now, when people living thirty
city in this country can permit its denizens miles away from their business are about as
to enjoy, for such a wilderness and outlook near it, so far as time is concerned, as they
combined is a strange result of inaccessibil- were a few years ago when five miles away,
commuter. thereis no economy in crowding them into
ity to the daily
narrow and ill-ventilated streets, and it is
A summer number of the

obviously to the interest of property-owners
North American Review con- to insist that their values shall not be de-
PROPER tained a little article on “De- pressed because somebody, a dozen or a
DESIGN signas Applied to Cities.” hundred years ago, devised a plan that offi-
cials are not willing to change. That the
FOR In its somewhat brief com-
pass it was necessarily gen- proper ordering of streets in places not built
SUBURBS eral; but a portion of it may
up is, next to rapid transit itself, the most
be summarized for the sake pressing need in present urban conditions
of the final suggestion: “The fact is that the
cannot be questioned, and the fact that such
ordering is to the present and future interest
underlying principle of structural beauty in
the ground-plan of a city must rest on util- of everyone concerned —
and everyone is con-
ity. The root of it all is as old as the primi- —
cerned should be kept in view, or muca of
the benefit of rapid transit will for the pres-
tive town, or tun, of the progenitors of the
ent be lost.”
English people in their German birthplace.
Dwellings were built around a tree or a hill
which was used as the town meeting-place, Now that the Charles
the whole being surrounded by a common or River improvement in Bos-
neutral ground and ditch, which was to be-
CHARLES ton is rapidly taking shape,
come later the wall, and, when that was RIVER and one stage after another
razed, the boulevard, as in Paris, in Vienna, PROGRESS of the great undertaking is
and other old towns of Europe.” That is to completed, and with accom-
IN BOSTON plishment there come new
say, the authors explain, the thing which is
desirable in the ground-plan of a city is that plans of greater splendor, it
“simple element of design which forms cen- is interesting and not a little encouraging to
ters, with streets radiating from them, and recall the improvement’s history. The
fits them in all cases to irregularities of the embankment was one of the earliest, if not
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
77
indeed the first, feature proposed for the new tographs would have mainly to do with work
park system a generation ago. But the under construction, and if these were regu-
scheme has been very slow in realization. larly taken at intervals of a month they
Though “the Charlesbank” with its play- would offer to the taxpayers interesting evi-
grounds was followed by the improvements dence of the degree of progress in city work.
on the Cambridge shore, and this by the Short descriptions should accompany the ex-
metropolitan park improvements, and now hibits and the whole, if accessible, would be
the latter by the dam and causeway with its not only of much interest and instruction to
locks, yet even today the broad, parklike
drive along the Boston side of the river is
—
the citizens affected but to strangers de-
sirous of knowing what a city is doing, and
only a dream. Still the conservative houses of valuable suggestiveness to officials, pro-
of Beacon street turn haughty backs on the fessional men, contractors and builders from
nouveau river plan. But curiously enough, other cities. The exhibit would not only
a main source of the opposition to elaborate tend to keep the citizen in more intimate
improvement lies in a condition precisely the touch with his city, but it would probably
reverse of that which appears. The resi- increase his public spirit and pride in it and
dents in the Beacon street houses have tend to make him more amenable to appeals
learned to love the water view and in turn- for money. “Municipal Journal” discussing
ing their backs to it they are really taking the matter, imagines the case of the city
the position of frightened mothers protecting waterworks. seems probable,” the paper
“It
the offspring who hide behind their skirts. says, “that the average citizen could have
if
Dining room, library, and my lady’s chamber placed attractively before him photographs,
are at the back of many a house that stands say, of a filtration plant, the pumps which
with hypercritical front to Beacon street; raise the water and the reservoir into which
and the late opposition to a broadening and it is discharged, with the cost of construct-
embellishing of the drive is based, not on ing and operating these, the figures setting
the indifference of the householders, but on forth briefly the relation between such costs
their great concern lest something may be and the consumption, he would then be more
done to shut off their water view. Yet little impressed by the appeals of the water de-
by little the improvement marches on; little partment for less waste of water, realizing
by little “the Beacon street folk” have that he does not create water simply by
yielded their points, and though there is no opening a faucet as a magician plucks money
them injustice, and it would
disposition to do from the air, but that expenditures of fuel,
not be like New
England to make so radical labor, and enormous construction costs were
an improvement suddenly and quickly, still necessary to bring the water to the faucet.
the work is progressing. The earliest sug- A photograph of a nearly empty impounding
gested park feature promises still to be the reservoir, in a dry season, might be more
last accomplished, but when done to be the impressive than any newspaper notice cau-
most architectural, most splendid, and in- tioning care in the use of water.”
dividual of all.
Very interesting work,
A suggestion — originally MURAL from both the artistic and
made, we believe, by Comp- sociological point of view, is
j
troller Metz of New York, * PAINTINGS the mural decoration which
or and occasionally commented AND is going into the Juvenile
LOCAL upon and added to since by
BAD BOYS Court at Chicago. Krehbiel
various persons deserves to
CITY WORK be pushed along. It is that
has in hand the decoration
for the court room itself.
municipalities would do well Allen C. Philbrick is responsible for the pan-
to conduct, as a sort of bureau of informa- els that form a deep frieze around the wait-
tion for their citizens, a small permanent ex- ing room, the more advanced condition of
hibition that should be up to date in its ex- his work making possible an appreciation of
hibit of current municipal undertakings. It his scheme. There are no allegories of crime
is pointed out that the expense need amount and justice and punishment, that would prob-
to very little, as it could be appropriately ably fail of significance to the tremblingly
housed in a room of the city hall or would waiting lads. On the contrary the first
be sufficiently instructive to be given space panel shows boys playing baseball in a field,
in the public library. Such an exhibit would with other youngsters having lunch under a
consist largely of photographs and drawings tree —
their kind teacher present, by way of
— the mainly architectural, such as
latter showing that they have not skipped school.
plans for new schools and fire and police The second panel shows a regiment march-
department buildings, bridges, etc. The pho- ing through an afternoon city street with
the crowd cheering. The significance is not term of years, the park policy has been pro-
quite as clear. Perhaps it pictures the joys gressive, generous and foresighted. Neither
that wait upon soldierly obedience. A third one would consider its system complete if it
panel shows a summer evening on the Lake were adequate only for the city of today; in
Shore esplanade at Chicago, and a descrip- both the park ideal is high. The statements
tion says, “Purple twilight, moonlit waters, therefore are significant as showing that
the sweet curves of the shore, repeated in there really is an attainable end to the park
the broad steps of the paved beach, make as rainbow; that it is not only conceivable but
fine a setting as any of Alma-Tadema’s actually true that at last, without bank-
classic terraces,” and the “groups of lightly ruptcy or inconvenience, a city richly blessed
clad mothers and children, or dimly seen lov- by nature with park possibilities may acquire
ers” might belong, one percieves, to more ro- all the appropriate park sites that are needed
mantic times and places than to Chicago in to give to it a well rounded system adequate
1907. But that is one of the triumphs of to the many and varied demands, local and
—
art to show us the romance around us. The general, made nowadays on the parks. The
panels are twelve feet long by four or five event is a notable development in American
high and a blue strip illustrating Lake Michi- park history, a milestone in our municipal
gan makes a continuous back-ground uniting progress. There are some other items of in-
them all. The color scheme graduates from terest in the park reports. In Wilkes-Barre
it has been estimated that the local deposits
the noontide brilliancy of the ball field to the
afternoon light of the street parade and so under the park are sufficient to purchase and
“to the nocturnes in violets, blue and white.” beautifully develop a new park of much
The whole conception seems to be a happy larger dimensions. In Cambridge the Wash-
one, naturally appealing to the boys in its ington elm is reported, after expert examina-
subjects, cheerful in the thoughts to which it tion, to be in excellent condition; and the
gives rise, wholesome in the state of mind it disfiguring iron bands have been removed,
creates and the aspirations which it stimu- inch rods with nuts and washers serving
lates. It subtly expresses the purpose for now to keep the limbs from spreading.
which a juvenile court exists, and it is well
In the discussions that
to find in the decoration of a structure the
spirit of the institution for which it is raised.
marked the eighth Interna-
INTER- tional Housing Congress,
When that spirit is artistically expressed in
strictly American symbolism we have a na- NATIONAL held in London in the sum-
tive art. HOUSING mer, there was a good deal
which was of interest to
CONGRESS architects. The full reports
In the recent reports is-
of the Congress have only
by municipal park
GLEANED sued boards an interestingly sig- recently been coming to this country, with
FROM nificant statement now and returning delegates and in special publica-
then appears and reappears. tions, for the proceedings were not fully re-
PARK ported in the press. A point which much en-
may glibly say that it
REPORTS One isn’t true, and is never gaged the attention of the Congress was bet-
likely to be; but it is made ter inspection. The president referred to this
in his address as one of the matters on which
by authority, and by men who have studied
all the delegates were agreed. In defining
and thoroughly know the local situation. It
the requirement he said, “Systematic and
is that the park system is complete, or prac-
tically so. For instance, the report of the complete inspection of dwellings independent
of local and monetary interests, as opposed
Cambridge commissioners to the city council
to those of the public health, and careful
for the year 1900, said, “Cambridge needs no
registration of each dwelling, giving the size,
further park extensions, other than a park
rent, number of rooms, light and air space,
development of the Fresh Pond section”;
and the superintendent of the Minneapolis and providing a minimum cubic air space
parks, reporting to his commissioners, is per room are essential to the maintenance
of decent housing conditions. The renova-
quoted as declaring the Minneapolis park
tion or destruction of unhealthy areas or
system “as complete as it can be made,”
slums is necessary in many places.” On
needing only some further development of
the latter point, he stated that during the
the beauty and usefulness of the present
Neither Cambridge nor Minneapolis last forty years English municipalities have
tracts.
They are “built 20,506 dwellings, with 56,949 rooms,
is standing still in population.
—
good types one East, one West; one com- at an expenditure not exceeding the cost of
two modern battleships, £6,000,000 having
paratively large, the other relatively small.
They are both cities in which, through a been expended by the authorities in slum
—

buying and £4,000,000 in building new dwell- work before us, but the new features which
ings.” Two of the national housing inspec- the American Correspondence School Ency-
tors of the Dutch government told of the clopedia introduces, make it a very welcome
supervision exercised in that country under addition to the only works through which it
the law of 1901. This requires the central is possible to spread a greater amount of
government to supervise not only the build- popular knowledge on the science and art
ing of new houses, and the alteration, re- of the architect and the building constructor.
building and maintenance of houses, but Its influence is potent to instill a knowledge
also the degree of crowding. They announced of the fundamental principles of good design
that under this law upwards of S00 houses and to foster an appreciation of all that is
had been condemned. Furthermore ‘‘town admirable in architecture. The books, which
extension plans have to be approved by the are of some three hundred odd pages each,
Central Public Health Service, under whose are profusely and attractively illustrated, and
authority the inspectors operate, for all this feature in itself makes them an im-
towns with a population of over 10,000 or provement on similar encyclopedias which we
whose population increases very rapidly have seen. If the illustrations are sometimes
unless exempted by special provision.” The not as well chosen as they should be, or
Secretary of the Congress, who is also Sec- inserted to add cheer to a particularly dry
retary of the National Housing Committee part of the subject, one feels, at least, that
of England, suggested three possible lines of the effect which has been obtained, justifies
action to do away with the “slum cottage,” the means. These illustrations, many of
which, he thought, is only a little better which are half-tone reproductions of con-
than the slum barracks. These proceedings temporary American domestic and commer-
are: (1) The raising of the minimum re- cial architecture, are, in themselves, a very
quired in the by-laws that prescribe the interesting and representative series in which
width of roads and space at the rear of a some of the best recent suburban houses of
dwelling. (2) The adoption of the German the West find a place.
method of town planning. (3) The granting The purely mechanical subjects of struc-
to town and district councils of the power ture and equipment are treated in great de-
to prescribe the maximum number of houses tail. There are chapters on the heating,
per acre to be built on land in certain zones ventilating, plumbing, electrical, hardware,
under their administration. An object of plastering and painting trades; and carpen-
this is to provide gardens. The general tone
try, masonry, structural steel and reinforced
of all the discussion is said to have been
concrete constructions, also receive ample
very elevated, intelligent and reasonable; space with numerous practical problems.
and the work of the Congress appears to be An instructive and valuable bibliography
of a character which should especially ap-
prefaces each of the ten volumes.
peal to those architects interested in human-
itarian work.
It is pleasant in these
A handsomely manu- A NEW days of the rechauffe
ENCYCLOPEDIA factured work in ten SYSTEM OF in literature, when, out-
OF volumes, half morocco, side the full flow of
ARCHITECTURE, is the new Encyclopedia ARCHb fiction, books are most-
CARPENTRY of Architecture, Carpen- TECTURAL ly fact-records, scien-
AND try and Building just COMPOSITION tific, biographical or
published by the Ameri- otherwise, to encounter
BUILDING
can School of Corre- such a work as that of Mr. John Beverley
spondence of Chicago. The word encyclope- Robinson, which he calls A
New System of
dia is, indeed, expressive of these books, which Architectural Composition. Whatever may
embrace the various and complex subjects in- be the merits or demerits in the execution
volved in designing and constructing build- of this book, the conception as a whole is
ings. Their matter is equally suitable for original. Architectural works are limited in
student or master, being intended, however, their scope to either the purely historical or
chiefly for the “man on the job.” The thor- the purely mechanical. Volumes we have in-
oughly practical nature of the matter pre- numerable, cataloguing and describing the
sented is due largely to the incorporation in buildings of this, that and the other period
the work of the best papers by pupils of the or country, monographs on church, stable or
School. house, all filled with the concrete facts, views
The idea of an American encyclopedia of of buildings from a utilitarian, picturesque,
Architecture and Building Construction is or historical point of view; and, on the other
not, of course, original in the case of the hand, there are treatises on the engineering
8o THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
of architecture, treatises which confine them- cation, an advantage because the unsated
selves to the strength of materials, the con- intelligence forthwith sets out upon a tour
struction of trussed roofs and other me- of original thought, adducing further ex-
chanical problems. The few books that have amples to support or contradict the views
been written upon the esthetic side of expressed.
building have been confined almost entirely Another happy generalization is embodied
to the criticism of individual buildings. in the chapter on Proportion, in which the
But in Mr. Robinson’s book we have author's views are not wholly novel, but
something quite new, a systematizing of explain and render practical matters which
principles that have been known to architects have hiterto lain in the dark.
and used by them from time immemorial. It is to be regretted that the book is not
These principles of design he classifies in the more adequately illustrated. The cuts have
shape of formulae for the reference and been reduced, evidently from motives of
guidance of the designer who, unaided, might economy, to a minimum, often too much to
go astray in their application to his daily illustrate clearly the points explained in the
work. Each rule or principle that he lays text. The somewhat of a misno-
title, too, is
down seems incontrovertible, and to express mer. A NewSystem of Architectural Com-

well the accepted ideas of the best designers. position gives an impression that the work
Especially interesting is the chapter on Sim- is intended to introduce a new style of de-
ilarity, which it is shown how important
in sign, whereas nothing is farther from the
an element of beauty in an architectural de- facts; a New System of Teaching Architec-
sign is the similarity of its component parts, tural Composition or Rules for Architectural
as of a round dome with rounded arches, or Composition, would better have conveyed the
of a bulbous dome with arches of reflex book’s scope. The illustrations are taken
curvature. from all styles and periods, with no idea
But by far the most daring thing that the in the author’s mind of originating a new
book attempts is the classification of all style. And it is this catholicity of taste and
buildings into half a score of types. Here judgment which
fairness of is especially to
the author himself seems hardly aware of be commended.
his audacity, for the whole matter is dis-
posed of in a page of type, with no attempt NOTA BENE.
at excusing or explaining such an unparal- Not desiring to remain indefinitely at the
leled flight —of fancy— we had almost said,
foot of the; geography class, to which the
were it the fancy in this case
not that “Globe,” New York, recently relegated the
expresses the facts so well that we are forced Architectural Record, we would say that we
to admit to ourselves the validity of the have again consulted our atlas and found
classification. A like brevity and straight- that Lake Geneva really is in Wisconsin and
forwardness characterizes the work through- not in Illinois, as it was printed under some
out, the most sweeping statements of general illustrations of Mr. Howard Shaw’s recent
esthetic truths being laid down with the
ut-
work in the December issue.
most nonchalance, as if they were as much
matters of course as the self-evident axioms
Mr. Lewis H. Bacon informs us that he
of geometry; as indeed they seem when
the
them for us. This extreme was not the architect of Mr. J. W. Mitchell’s
author states
house at Manchester, Mass., which we pub-
conciseness of statement is both a disad-
vantage and an advantage a disadvantage — lished in the November issue. We desire
which arouses demands herewith to correct the error and give credit
in that the interest it
gratifi- to its author, Mr. Willard M. Bacon.
a fuller treatment of detail for its
' . , '
Copyright 1908, by “ The Architectural Record Company,” All rights reserved.

Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N. Y., Act of Congress of March 3, 1879,
VOL. XXIII. No. 2. FEBRUARY, 1908. Whole No. 113 j
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GREEK ARCHITECTS. CONTRACTORS AND BUILDING OPERATIONS 81
I.— Illustrated. A. L. Prothingham.
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Avdjitrctural ftcc«iri>
Vol. XXIII FEBRUARY, 1908. No. 2.
Greek Architects
Greek architecture is very close to us: the methods of construction, the ma-
yet Greek architects seem remote and terials, implements and instruments in
shadowy, in strong contrast with our use in Greek lands.
ideas about Greek sculptors. vividly We It is by no means impossible to answer
associate Phidias with the Parthenon most of these questions, with the help of
sculptures, Polyclitus with his well-poised Greek literature and inscriptions and ;
athletes, Praxiteles, with his “Faun” and the lack of any attempt to do it has led
“Hermes,” and to each man we attribute to the present article, which aims at giv-
a distinct style. But how many of us can ing to American architects as intimate a
say that the Athenian Propylaea evoked view as possible of their Greek confreres
the name, far less the style, of Mnescicles both as men and as artists.
the Parthenon that of Ictinus the Mau- ;
soleum of Halicarnassus that of Pythius ? THE SEVEN GREAT ARCHITECTS.

Only a few specialists know that the The Greeks themselves had a clear
authorship of many more of the greatest conception of the personality and prom-
works of Greek architecture is an ascer- inence of their architects-. In the Alex-
tained fact we know who built such
: —
andrian age shortly before the Christ-
theatres as those at Syracuse and Epi- ian era —
when everything famous went
daurus, such temples as those of Samos, in groups of seven, there were seven
Ephesus, Delphi, Olympia, Delos, Argos, greatest Greek architects in the opinion
Phigalea, Tegea, Eleusis, Priene. of the day, as reported by Varro, as well
These great names should be on the as seven wonders of the world. These
list of those whom the world delights to seven were selected from all of Greek
honor. But, you may object, of what use history and were: Daedalus, Chersiph-
is it to know their names unless we can ron, Ictinus, Menecrates, Philon, Archi-
go further and learn something of their medes and Dinocrates. Of these we are
personality and style how they solved ;
familiar with all but one from other his-
the architectural problems of their day toric sources. Daedalus represents the
and what relation these problems bear to mythical, oriental stage of the hero-arch-
those of our own day; what their educa- itect, the primitve Pelasgic style of im-
tion and social condition were; whether mense irregular stone masonry with dec-
they were interested in theory as well as oration in colored stucco or fresco, as
practice whether and how they made
;
well as in metal. His supposed master-
architectural drawings and models made ;
piece, the palace of Minos- in Crete, so
estimates and drew up specifications and famous under the name of the Labyrinth,
contracts; what were their relations to has now been excavated in all its sumptu-
their clients, public and private, to the ousness as the most magnificent proof of
contractors and builders, and to the the advanced civilization of the Greeks
workmen. Connected with these are the before the Trojan war (c. 2000 B. C.).
less personal questions of building laws, The second on the list, Chersiphron,
Copyright, 1908, by 1
The Architectural Record Company.” All rights reserved.
Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N. Y. Act of Congress of March
;
3d, 1879.
4
built (vi. the national tem-

cent. B. C.) the leader of the Attic School in the
ple of the Ionian Greeks, Diana of Ephe- Praxitelean Age, in both religious and
sus, with contributions from all the Greek civil architecture, building the great Ar-
cities of Asia Minor. This is the great- senal, completing the temple of Eleusis
est if not the earliest example of the and building its portico. He was the
archaic Ionic style, when wood and terra apostle of the new practical utilitarian-
cotta were being abandoned for stone, ism which heralded the union between
and entirely new canons of proportion architecture and engineering, so charac-
and decoration were invented. His work teristic of the last centuries of Greek art.
was probably epoch-making. The sixth architect, Dinocrates, was
.A °>)
EPHESUS, TEMPLE OF DIANA.

Fourth Century B. C., Design of Paeonius for Fragments of Sixth Century B. C. Design of
carved lower drum of columns. Chersiphron (?) for Carved Lower Drums
of Columns.
There is no corresponding architect on the favorite of Alexander the Great, and

this list to be the standard-bearer of early the builder of Alexandria. His magnifi-
Doric, as we see it in Sicily and South cent plans for city construction on a level
Italy, but the next name is that of Icti- formed the basis of most succeeding
nus, with his masterpieces, the Parthenon work on a large scale, such as was shown
and the temples of Eleusis and Phigalea. in the founding of the great city of An-
He typifies the perfection of Attic Doric tioch under the Seleucid Kings. He
and the highest achievements of the next seems to have developed the earlier ideas
era, that of Pericles (middle v. cent.). of Hippodamos in planning a well-bal-
Ofthe fourth, Menecrates, we know anced and monumental city, with wide
nothing, but Philon, fifth on the list, was and regular streets, and with public
;
GREEK ARCHITECTS. 83
buildings at the right intervals and sites. of their hands without the aid of letters,
Finally, in Archimedes, the seventh, have been unable to obtain recognition
we have the highest product of the mech- for their work; and on the other hand
anical and mathematical genius in archi- those who have relied entirely on liter-
tecture as distinct from the aesthetic, a ary discussions and labors have had the
peculiarity of Greek art just before the reputation of pursuing a shadow rather
Roman conquest, when engineering be- than the reality. ...
No one should
came so prominent a factor. The recent therefore pretend to be an architect who
discovery of one of his lost works in has not made himself proficient in both
Constantinople is now explaining his theory and practice. He should
. . .
genius to us. have literary attainments in order to aid

These seven men, therefore, selected his memory by copious notes. He should
by the Greeks themselves, represent the be a skillful draughtsman, so that he may
main periods and phases of Greek archi- portray graphically the work to be exe-
tecture from the beginning to the age of cuted versed in geometry, which is so
:
Augustus. A number of others might great a help to architecture, for example

be added, who were of equal prominence. in teaching the use of the circle, level and
Such men were better known and more square, and in expressing the norms and
highly esteemed than the contemporary directions of lines also acquainted with
;
sculptors and painters, if we except a few optics, so as to obtain proper effects of

men of the decadence, like Zeuxis and light in different sides of his buildings
Apelles. This high position is granted to a good arithmetician, so as to calculate
them clearly for three reasons. The edu- exactly the cost of buildings, work out
cation of an architect was necessarily the ratios of measurements and difficult
more thorough and varied than that of a questions of symmetry by the methods of
sculptor or painter, as we shall see. Then, geometry. He must also be acquainted
in the economy of the Greek states, the with history, in order to be able to give
architect took an important and neces- a satisfactory explanation, for instance,
sary part, directing the work of other of the decorative work so often used in
artists. And, most important of all, the buildings. ... A tincture of philoso-
sculptors and painters worked with their phic study is necessary to keep him from
own hands and so lost caste, while the meanness or covetousness, and to give
architect, planning, but not doing any him a love of good faithful work, dignity
manual labor, stood on a higher social of bearing and a care for his good fame.
level. He was a gentleman, practicing a He must have studied physics on account
liberal art they were mere mercenary
: of the numerous questions he is called
craftsmen. upon to decide, for example, in connec-
tion with aqueducts. Musical knowledge
VITRUVIUS ON AN ARCHITECT’S EDUCA-
is necessary . .as in the case of the
.
TION.
acoustics of theatres, where bronze vases
The Greek idea of the science of archi- must be placed under the seats according
tecture and of the knowledge required of to certain mathematical rules, so as to
an architect is best given by Vitruvius in concentrate and give out musical sounds
his Handbook of Architecture, written according to harmonic law. . . . Medi-
early in the reign of Augustus, but large- cine will teach the peculiarities of the
ly copied from earlier Greek authors, different climates, the healthy or un-
both in ideas and material. healthy qualities of air and location, and
“Architecture,” he says, “is a science the use of water. A
good acquaintance
compounded of a variety of disciplinary with law is necessary to decide questions
studies and many kinds of information, of party-walls, roof-outline, sewage,
by means of which all the works of art lighting and drainage and all other ques-
produced by the other arts can be judged. tions that must be settled by the architect
It is acquired by practice and theory. before beginning a building, lest after the
. . .The architects who have tried
. work is done, he leave food for law-
to reach perfection merely by the work suits to the owner and lest he be a prey
to lawyers, lessees or contractors. . . . were either permanently attached to

Even astrology is useful for a knowledge great sanctuaries, such as Delphi, Olym-
of the points of the compass ... of equi- pia or Eleusis, where there was nearly al-
nox and solstice and astral movements.” ways something to be done in the way of
Such a variety of requirements, Vitru- construction or repair or they received
;
vius adds, while it involves a broad, lib- special appointment as supervising arch-
eral education before one can begin to itects for a given job, such as the build-
specialize, implies a knowledge merely of ing of a theatre, temple or harbor. Final-
the principles of these branches except ly there were the slaves, in the service
in their application to architecture. “An of the state or of wealthy individuals,
architect,” he says, “must have the who often hired them out.
theory of all these branches the practice
;
Quite naturally the independent archi-
only of his own.” tects had the higher position and emolu-
ments. The superintending architects at
PROFESSIONAL AND SOCIAL STANDING. Athens were paid as little as $6.50 per
This picture may seem overdrawn and prytany, doubtless because the work took
an unrealizable ideal, but Greek sources only part of their time. On the other
supply evidence to show that it is fairly hand a very honorable position was that
representative of the profession at its of city architect, quite common in the
best. In fact, Vitruvius in his late day period just before and after Alexander,
has lost sight of many characteristics of when a single architect or sometimes
the finer training of the Greek golden three were given complete charge of the
age, in the sciences of perspective, optics repairs and new structures throughout
and proportions. An architect of this the city.
type can hardly have been a common pro- Another point. “It is extremely prob-
duct, but one of the fine flowers of Greek able,” says a French writer, “that the
culture. Plato himself mentions the pro- Greek cities, when preparing for any-
fession as open to the citizens of his thing so —
important, religiously, politi-
ideal state to whom he forbids the occu- cally, and commercially, —as the founda-
pations of the artisan and the tradesman. tion of their colonies, added a number
To express in dollars and cents the dif- of architects to the secular and religious
ferent value set upon his services as com- leaders of the expedition.” Plato’s de-
pared to those of the artisan there comes scription of his ideal city in twelve quar-
a Platonic dialogue, which contrasts the ters (as at Thurium) and with carefully
value of masons, who were worth only located public buildings, makes this al-
five or sixmines (= 500 or 600 drachmas most certain. The three cities laid out
= c. $100 to $120), with that of archi- by Hippodamus, the planning of Alex-
andria by Dinocrates, of Priene by Py-
tects, who, as slaves, were worth about
twenty times as much (10,000 drachmas thius, and of Antioch by Xenaeus —
all
= c. $2,000) ,
“for,” he adds, “architects but the first during the age of Alexander
—are instances of the power given to a
are scarce throughout Greece.” On the
other hand, the accounts of certain na- single architect. Earlier still we hear
tional sanctuaries show that architects of a group of architects called from Paes-
sometimes received hardly more than day tum in Campania, where they had pre-
laborers, and that for these men of minor sumably been building one or more of the
importance there was a sliding scale of temples we still admire, to build the city
wages varing from two to four drach- of Velia, which was made one of the most
mas per day (c. 40 to 80 cents), for beautiful Greek cities of South Italy.
long engagements. Strabo in his travels attributed the
There were, in fact, many sorts. Some order and beauty of public buildings in
practiced independently and were either certain cities to the administration of all
themselves always on the move, or sent such matters by city architects. Speak-
about drawings, models and specifications. ing of Rhodes, he says “As at Massalia
:
Others occupied salaried positions and and Cyzicus, so here particularly every-
belonged to the class of officials. They thing relating to architects ... is ad-
ministered with extreme care.” Of Cyzi- statue in his left hand, and in his right a
cus, he says “There are three architects
: huge vase, into which shall be collected
to whom is entrusted the care of the all the streams of the mountain, which
public edifices and engines.” will thence pour into the sea.” Alexan-
Perhaps an anecdote about Dinocrates der’s fancy wastickled at the picture, and
will illustrate the high position often though the wild scheme was never at-
reached. This architect set out from tempted, it accomplished its purpose, for
Macedonia to join Alexander’s army, Alexander kept Dinocrates, made him his
hoping to gain the royal favor. He came favorite architect and decorator until the
provided with letters of introduction to time of his death, giving him the general
men of rank about the King’s person, direction of the planning and building of
but, though they received him kindly, and Alexandria, by which future architecture
made him many promises, they put off was so strongly influenced.
presenting him to the King until, tired
of waiting, Dinocrates took the matter TRAINING.
into his own hands. He was tall, of How did the Greek architect obtain his
agreeable countenance and dignified ap- education? We will suppose that he has
pearance. Relying on these natural ad- had what corresponds to the undergrad-
MILETUS, CAPITAL OP TEMPLE OP APOLLO: DESIGN OP PAEONIUS.
vantages he put off his ordinary cloth- uate course in our colleges and has mas-
ing, anointed himself with oil, crowned tered what Vitruvius calls the principles
himself with a poplar wreath, slung a of the subjects required for preparatory
lion’s skin over his left shoulder, and work, which was, substantially, the edu-
carrying a heavy club, sallied forth to cation of a typical young Greek gentle-
the royal tribunal at an hour when he man of the intellectual type. At the same
knew Alexander was dispensing justice. time it often happened that the profes-
His sensational appearance as a Her- sion was selected for him and that he
cules drew such a crowd that Alex- began specializing at a much earlier age.
ander’s attention was attracted and he Plato in his Laivs (BK. I) recommends
ordered the “freak” to be brought before a sort of kindergarten method to fathers
him. who intend their boys to become archi-
“Who are you,” he inquired. tects, advising that they be supplied with
“A Macedonian architect,” replied miniature tools and set to building chil-
Dinocrates, “ready to suggest schemes dren’s houses. There are numerous cases
and designs worthy of your royal re- of boys educated by their fathers in the
nown. I propose to shape Mt. Athos into same profession.
a statue of a man holding a spacious There appear not to have been any
:
public art schools or academies, where ARCHITECTURAL LITERATURE AND CITY

the various branches were taught simul- PLANS.
taneously: nor were there any publicly- Evidently a library was part of the
salaried teachers. The technical teaching preliminary equipment, for Socrates says,
was neither collective nor public. The in one of the dialogues :“In what em-
student frequented famous independent ployment do you intend to excel, O Eu-
teachers who were at the head of large thedemus, that you collect so many
ateliers or offices, or had private courses books? Is it architecture? For this art
studied physics with a Democritus, per- you will find no little knowledge neces-
spective with an Anaxagoras, proportions sary!” Sometimes the literary and theo-
with a Nexaris, mechanics with an Arch- retical element was developed to excess.
imedes. Theodoras of Samos, when he A striking example of this was Hippoda-
was called to Sparta to build the temple mus of Miletus, who lived at Athens in
MILETUS, BASE OF COLUMN OF TEMPLE OF APOLLO: DESIGN OF PAEONIUS.
of Athens, as early as the VI. cent. B.C., the brilliant period of the fifth century.
opened a school of architecture in Sparta. He was an influential sophist and littera-
The custom of famous architects to em- teur, famous for his purely disinterested
body in monographs or text-books their labors in city affairs. Apparently dis-
special theories and information, and the gusted by the irregular and squalid
illustration of their masterpieces, assist- streets of Athens and other Greek cities
ed in the work of teaching. The system as contrasted with the superb public struc-
of apprenticeship was common in the tures that had been rising under Pericles
architectural as well as in the other trades and his contemporaries, like oases in
and arts among the Greeks. But it never slums, he conceived a scheme for laying
took the form of organized labor. There out cities throughout Hellas, a scheme
were no guilds or unions with the three which was, for its day, quite comparable
classes of masters, journeymen and ap- to Nero’s for the reconstruction of Rome,
prentices that became the rule since Ro- Baron Haussmann’s for that of Paris, or
man times. the present piano regolatore for Rome,
though it could not fully be carried out prominent architects whenever they pro-
except in newly-founded cities. free A duced a work in which their architectural
hand was given him to lay out the Pira- ideas were consummately embodied. At
eus, where some of his scheme has come a very early date (VI. cent.) Theodorus
to light, and his reputation throughout of Samos wrote on the famous temple
Greek lands became such that he was of Hera at Samos, the rival of the tem-
asked to draw up the plans for the new ple of Ephesus, which he had built with
cities of Rhodes and Thurium. Rhoecus and Chersiphron wrote, in col-
;
Regularity of plan, with streets diverg- laboration with his son, Metagenes, a
ing from the market-place a division
;
treatise on their temple of Diana at Eph-
into twelve quarters, with geometric ac- esus. The influence of these, the two
curacy, and at the same time a due re- greatest temples of their day, must have
gard for orientations and the breaking been immeasurably increased by these
of prevalent winds by street angles, were monographs.
some of the characteristics of Hippoda- Although not one of them has been
mus’ scheme, and of its imitations in preserved, it is evident from hints and
later Greek times. While suited to level extracts that these descriptions had both
sites it was a comparative failure when a theoretical and a practical part. The
applied to those built, like Priene, in architect explained the theories and
Asia Minor, on steep mountain slopes, norms which he has sought to embody,
or about a hill, for it made little allow- as well as any peculiarities or novelties of
ance for natural configuration and re- execution. Chersiphron, for example, de-
quired elaborate terraces and cuts. It tailed his new mechanical devices for
was the architecture of the pedant. Evi- transporting heavy columns and epistyle
dently the popularity of Hippodamus was blocks from the quarry to the works, and
enormously increased by literary propa- his method for hoisting them into posi-
ganda and he probably required the as- tion. As this architect was one of the
sistance of a large office force of prac- leaders in the movement to substitute
tical architects. stone for wood and terra cotta in temple
In the next century, also at Athens, construction, he was evidently obliged to
we find a brilliant and far better-balanced face some of the problems that had arisen
union of literary and artistic talent, in in consequence, assisted, possibly, by
Philon of Eleusis, an accomplished ora- knowledge of Egyptian methods.
tor and writer, but, unlike Hippodamus, LITERARY AESTHETIC POLEMICS.
primarily a practical architect and engi-
Later architects, especially those of
neer. His fame rests on the construction
the fourth century B. C., living at a time
of the great arsenal at the Piraeus and of
when practical difficulties had been al-
the colonnade of the sanctuary at Eleusis.
ready long since overcome, laid more
Valerius Maximus says of him “Athens :
stress in their writings upon norms of

is proud of its arsenal and well it may
proportion, novelties of plan, discussions
be, for it is admirable. Philon, its archi-
of style, and questions of refinement con-
tect, gave an account of his work in full
nected with the mathematico-optical
theatre, and the most cultured audience
studies that played so important a role
in the world applauded him as much for
in developed Greek architecture since
his eloquence as for his architectural
early in the fifth century. Schools and
genius.”
parties developed and discussion ran
All trace of this arsenal was supposed
high. War raged between the Doric and
to be lost, but the original specifications
the Ionic camps. Philon and Silenus de-
by Philon have recently been recovered,
fended Doric against the increasing Ionic
drawn up with amazingly minute atten-
inroads. Argelius, Pythius and Hermo-
tion to detail.
genes, prominent Ionic partisans, at-
ARCHITECTS* MONOGRAPHS. tempted to prove that the Doric order
Such monographs as this address by was totally unsuited to temple architec-
Philon, referred to by Valerius Maximus, ture.
were commonly written and circulated by Meanwhile, less controversial and
more descriptive monographs had been the frequent calling of these master
quite frequent. Ictinus, with the co- architects to distant regions. Nothing is
operation of Carpio, had described the more striking than the broad geographi-
Parthenon, and this should be sufficient cal radius covered by some of them. In
to silence those who would attribute any the sixth century B. C. the island of Sa-
of its architectural beauties to Phidias. mos supplied architects not only to King
Pythius, who built in the Alexandrian Croesus of Lydia, then at the head of an
age the mausoleum of Halicarnassus and empire in Asia Minor, but also to the
the city of Priene, wrote on both sub- other great Oriental power, Persia, as
jects. In his monograph on the temple well as to the Ionian cities and to Greece
of Athens at Priene, the most exquisite proper. Its leading artists at that time
Ionic temple after the Erechtheion, he were Rhoecus, Theodorus and Man-
probably gave his reasons for omitting drocles.
the frieze both here and in the other Pri- This Theodorus, for instance, was
enian temples, an omission so puzzling called toSparta to build the Hall of
to the modern architects who have stud- Public Assembly and to open a school of
ied the magnificent ruins of Priene. architecture. There was an interchange,
In the same way most important nov- for Eupalinus, the best engineer of his
elties appear to have been ventilated in day, was called from Megara to Samos
literary form either by their inventors to build the earliest known canal-aque-
or their pupils. For instance, Argelius duct, so much admired by Herodotus.
wrote on the new Corinthian order, so The islands at this time were still the
finely embodied in the temple of Athena teachers of the mainland. For example,
Alea at Tegea, by Scopas. Hermogenes, Chersiphron went from Crete to Ephesus
a great architectural reformer shortly to build the temple of Diana, and Byzes
before Alexander, supported in his writ- from Naxos to Delphi to help build the
ings his two most important innovations, temple of Apollo. This constant flow
namely ( i ) the pseudo-dipteral arrange-
:
between Asia Minor, the islands, and
ment of temples, by which he secured Greece proper continued in the following
more space around the cella, and, (2) period. A wholesale migration was that
the eustyle proportions in which the in- of 220 B. C., when King Ptolemy Philo-
ter-columniations were 2^4 diameters in pator sent a hundred architects and
place of the too-close systyle (2 diam.) sculptors to rebuild the city of Rhodes,
or the too-wide diastyle (3 diam.) types. which had been partly destroyed by an
This statement of Vitruvius has been earthquake.
verified by the German excavations at
the temple of Artemis at Magnesia on ARTISTIC VERSATILITY.
the Maeander built by Hermogenes. It There is no doubt that, especially be-
was actually found to be a pseudo-dip- fore the fourth century, these leading
teros, and a refinement unnoted by Vitru- architects were responsible not only for
vius was that the two central columns on the construction but in great part also for
each faqade were spaced wider than the the selection and arrangement of the in-
rest. ternal and external decoration of a build-
ing, whether painted or carved. Modern
TRAVEL.
writers have often doubted that Ictinus
The importance of this ability of had any share in determining the decora-
Greek architects to express their ideas tive scheme of the Parthenon. But Vit-
in literary form can hardly be exagge- ruvius cites the Caryatidae of the Erech-
rated and is probably responsible for the theion as examples of such decoration,
rapid and wide spread of certain general the meaning and origin of which the
ideas and forms, through the multiplica- architect must be able to explain.
tion of manuscripts and drawings and the There were fairly numerous cases, in
enthusiasm of pupils returning to differ- fact, where the architect did not merely
ent parts of the Hellenic world from the plan the temple sculptures, but seems to
school of the master. One result was have designed them. Polyclitus, who
AND
ARCHITECT
YOUNGER,
THE
POLYCLITUS
C.)
BY B.
(360-350
(RESTORED)
SCULPTOR
AESCULAPIUS
OF
THOLOS
)
Epidaure
OR
Lechat,
SHRINE
et
Defrasse
EPIDAUROS,
(From
built themost perfect of theatres at Epi- heaviest responsibility were the cities of
daurus, and Scopas, author of the most Asia Minor and elsewhere, in which, as
symmetrical temple in the Pelopennesus, I have already said, the care of building
that of Athena Alea at Tegea, were even was placed entirely in charge of one or
more famous as sculptors than as archi- more city architects. What this involved
tects. Many others practiced both arts and how it was sometimes regulated is
Theodoras of Samos, Bupalos of Chios, shown by what Vitruvius calls an ancient
Gitiadas of Sparta, and Callimachus, the law of the city of Ephesus, “that when
supposed inventor of the Corinthian cap- an architect was charged with the erec-
ital. When the versatility of the artists tion of a public building he was asked
of the Middle Ages and the Early Ren- to calculate the cost, and having handed
aissance is remembered, there is nothing in his estimate to the magistrate, his
remarkable in this many-sidedness of the property was held as security until the
Greeks. work was completed. Then, if the cost
tallied with the estimate, the architect was
CITY ARCHITECTS AND CONTRACTORS.
recompensed by public decrees and hon-
The next question to be answered is, ors. If, however, the cost exceeded the
how did architects, so educated and with estimates by not over 25 per cent., this
go about to do their
this public position, amount was taken from the public funds,
work ? Howwere they engaged and without imposing any penalty on the
paid? Under what conditions did they architect (neither was there any expres-
work ? sion of public gratitude). But if the ex-
The first important point is that there cess of expenditure should be over 25
was no hard and fast line drawn between per cent, that amount was taken from the
architects, contractors and builders. The architect’s own property.” “Would to
term “architect,” which in Greek means God,” says Vitruvius, “that we Romans
literally chief artisan, head artist, was had such a law !”
elastic, and made to include whoever The sums involved in such public
had general charge of the work of dif- works were often considerable, notwith-
ferent kinds on a building, whether he standing the low price of labor and the
drew up his own plans, or superintended fact that the materials were supplied free
the carrying out of another artist’s plans, by the state. The cost of the Propylaea
it is probable that the young architect at Athens was set at 2,012 talents, or
was usually satisfied with the position of about $2,500,000, and it was completed in
clerk of the works, under the chief archi- five years, according to Heliodorus. The
tect, or of contractor and builder of some handling of this money was not left to
section of a structure, for it was seldom the architect in charge, but usually to a
that the work was given out to a single finance committee. In the case of a
contractor. building of moderate cost and plain style,
Of course, when there were several like the Arsenal of the Piraeus, the cost
contractors it would be impossible to at- was surprisingly small, only about $12,-
tribute the design to any of them. And 000 being set aside for it each year on
as this is true in most cases it follows the city budget, over a period of less than
that the architect who designed a great fifteen years.
building in Greece was hardly ever also
the contractor for it. This kept the dig-
METHODS OF PAYMENT AND WORK.
nity of the profession higher. The Greeks had three methods in the
Conditions varied so radically in differ- erection of buildings ( 1 ) contract work
:
ent parts of the Greek world, and at dif- (2) piece work, and (3) day labor. It
ferent periods, that no general statement is not always possible to distinguish be-
would apply. I can only give examples tween the first and the second of these
of the different methods. methods because contracts were often so
The states where the architect was sub-divided as to come under the cate-
given the greatest freedom as well as the gory of piece-work.
PUBLIC CONTRACTS.
In work done by day-labor, each work-
man received his orders and his pay di- We know nothing of private contracts
rectly from the state or corporation. and of the relations of architects to pri-
This was the favorite early method, dur- vate clients, because such contracts were
ing the sixth and fifth centuries, for
-
drawn up on destructible materials and
buildings that required careful and art- have not survived probably some will
;
istic execution, for in this case individual come to light among Egyptian papyri,
workmen could be carefully selected and which have already given several of Ro-
made responsible for the perfection of man date. But all public contracts after
their work. having been so drafted and signed were
Contract work, which was first intro- inscribed on slabs and set up in a public
duced for the commoner grade of con- place; and a number of these have been
struction, such as city walls, invaded the recovered, giving every detail of this
EPIDAUROS, CAPITAL OF THE THOLOS, BY POLYCLITUS.
higher spheres of architecture during the part of Greek public law. This permanent
fourth century, in ever increasing pro- and public form was necessary owing to
portions, but even to the end it did not the strict accounting required of the of-
entirely drive out the earlier method. ficial put in charge of such work by the
So far as we know contractors did not people and the danger of accusation of
intervene in the building of the Parthe- fraud in handling the public money. The
non, and all payments were made di- trial of Pericles for purloining some of
rectly to individual artisans. It was the the gold supplied for the ivory and gold
same Erechtheion except for the
at the statue of Athena is merely one of the
encaustic work, which was done by spe- indications of this need of public knowl-
cial contract. Later, in the fourth cen- edge of all the details of such transact-
tury B. C., about two-thirds of the work ions. By the side of these inscribed
was by piece-work or day-labor and one- contracts was always a second series of
third by contract. inscribed documents, namely the detail-
—
ed itemized accounts, year by year, of the for the handing in of bids, which must
finance committee, which included the be made in person.
above building expenses. Competitive Bidding. —There was no
Building contracts in their complete attempt made to the bidding to
limit
form usually consisted of four sections: local contractors. In fact every induce-
(i) the popular decree or -fiat ordering ment was offered that might attract the
the work; (2) the specifications; (3) the competition of foreigners except at;
legal clauses that were to govern the Athens, where only natives were allow-
work; (4) the text of the contract to be ed to compete. Foreign contractors were
signed. I shall take up each of these given special privileges their traveling
:
four sections in turn and interweave the expenses were sometimes paid they were ;
story of the various stages preceding the allowed to sue the adjudicator of bids
actual commencement of work. After for fraudulent decisions; they were ex-
that I shall describe the operation of empted from all taxes and from the right
building in its various phases. of seizure for debt.
Building Decree and Finance Com- Assigning Contract. The bidding —
mittee. — First, as to the decision to took place in the presence of the local
build. In democratic states, such as magistrates and of the committee in
Athens, Phocis and Locris, this was done charge and the whole work, or each sec-
;
by direct decree of the whole people; in tion of it that was put up separately, was
democratic or aristocratic states, such as awarded to the lowest bidder, taking into
Sparta, by order of the magistrates; in account not merely pecuniary, but other
tyrannies by the oligarth; in the case of considerations, such as the period of time
the large national sanctuaries, such as set for the completion, or offers to take
Olympia and Delphi, by their governing a lease of the building for a term of
corporations, —
for example, by the Am- years in lieu of cash payment.
phictyonic Council at Delphi. Precautions were taken to guard the
We are, of course, more familiar with interests of the state, especially against
the method by popular decree, as here the pooling of contractors’ interests or
the details were made a matter of public attempts at monopoly. Contractors were
record. When the decree was passed, often not allowed to have partners, or at
appropriating the funds and ordering the most a single partner. In other cases no
work, it included a clause appointing a contractor was allowed to undertake more
committee of superintendence, whose than one job.
members are diversely called epistates, Were Contractors Architects?
naopoioi or epimeletai. This Committee The status of the contractors must now
to be renewable each year and responsi- be understood. Were they usually quali-
ble directly to the people for the financ- fied architects or not, as well as builders ?
ing of the enterprise. An architect was There appears to have been no absolute
also chosen by popular vote either as a rule. Although, as we shall see, build-
member or an adjunct of this committee ing contracts were sometimes assumed by
to be responsible to it and to the people amateurs, either as a form of generosity
for the technical perfection of the build- to the public or as a speculation, the
ing. great majority of contractors seem to
The committee and its architect, fol- have been architects of minor repute as
lowing the instructions of the decree, well as practical builders. Some should
now drew up the specifications, form of even be classified among the best archi-
contract and estimate of cost. This docu- tects, aswas Callicrates, who contracted
ment was submitted to the popular as- for the building of the entire Long Wall
sembly and voted, as a supplement to the of Athens as was also Ictinus’s practical
;
previous decree, and was then made pub- partner in the construction of the Par-
lic, both by placards on the public monu- thenon.
ments of the city itself and of other In the later rebuilding of the Athen-
cities and by the announcement of her- ian walls, when as many as ten differ-
alds in the market place. A date is named ent contractors are put on the job, they
are called “architects” in the original It is well known that Philon alone was
specifications. Sometimes when two or responsible for the plan and received all
more men are associated in a contract it the credit, and yet the inscription giving
is possible that, as in the present day, the the contract begins: “Specifications for
HALICARNASSUS, MAUSOLEUM, DESIGNED BY PYTHIUS AND SATYROS (IV. CENT. B. C.)

(Restoration by Oldfield, Archaeologia, LIV.)
business end is attended to by one, the the Stone Arsenal for marine stores of
end by the other. This seems to
artistic Euthydomos, son of Demetrius of Me-
have been the case with the famous Ar- lite, and Philon, son of Exekestes of
senal at the Piraeus, already referred to. Eleusis.” This Euthydomos was either
—
the business contractor or a moneyed as- height, the whole being dressed by the
sociate. level. The foundations shall be extended
Specifications, the Piraeus Arse- so as to support the columns, to a dis-
nal. The next point to consider is the tance of 15 ft. from the walls. There shall
specifications. A model of its kind is that be 35 columns in each row, which shall
of the Piraeus Arsenal. I shall give a be arranged so as to leave a passage for
translation of part of it. people through the centre of the Arsenal.
“An Arsenal shall be built in Zeia for The width of this (aisle) between the
ARSENAL OF PHILO AT THE PIRAEUS (PORT OF ATHENS).

(Restored from Philo’s specifications (IV. Cent. B. C.) by Dorpfeld (Athen Mittheil. VIII.)
naval tackle, beginning near the Propy- (two rows of) columns shall be 20 ft.
laeum, which leads from the market The of the foundation shall
thickness
place. The length shall be four plethra be 21 ft., and the stones shall be laid in
(400 ft.), the breadth 50 ft. or 55 ft., in- headers and stretchers. The walls and
cluding the walls. The ground of the columns shall be of stone of Akte (i. e. }
site shall be cut down 3 ft. where it is Piraeus limestone). A
directing-course
highest and levelled off in the other shall be laid for the walls 3 ft. broad
parts. On this area the course masonry y
and 1 2 thick, each stone of which shall
of the foundations shall be laid to an even be 4 ft. long, except the corner stones,
which shall measure 4 )4 ft. Over the epistyle beams on either side shall be
centre of this directing-course shall be eighteen. Cross beams shall be placed
laid an upright course of blocks 4 ft. upon the columns across the middle pas-
long, 2,y2 ft. and one digit wide and 3 sage, of the same thickness and height.
ft. high. The length of the corner blocks Rafters shall be set up i)4 ft- broad and
shall correspond with the measure of i)4 ft- and two digits high. . Un-. .
the triglyphs. der each a kingpost 3 ft. long and 1 )4 ft.

“Two doorways shall be left open, at thick shall rest on the cross-beams, to
either end of the Arsenal, each 9 ft. wide. which the rafters shall be braced by ties.
Each shall be divided in the centre by a “Upon (the rafters) shall be placed
pier 2 ft. wide and 10 ft. deep, and the long timbers 10 digits thick, 3 palms and
door jambs shall be carried back as far 3 digits wide and i)4 ft- apart. Upon
as the first columns. these shall be placed (cross-wise) cov-
“Above the upright course, (i. e., the ering planks a half ft. wide, 2 digits
base) the walls shall be built of blocks thick and 4 digits apart. Upon these
4 ft. long and 2)4 ft. thick. The corner (planks) shall be placed strips (to sup-
blocks shall correspond with the propor- port the tiles) 1 digit thick and 6 wide,
tions of the triglyphs, and the height of which shall be fastened with iron nails.
the blocks shall be 7^2 ft. “This (roof frame) shall be covered
“The height of the walls above the up- with a (preservative) coat and shall then
right course shall be 27 ft., including the be tiled with Corinthian tiles fitted close-
triglyph ( —
frieze) under the cornice. ly together.
The height of the doorways shall be 15 )4 “That there may be ventilation in the
ft. The lintels shall be of Pentelic mar- Arsenal, when the courses of the walls
ble, 12 ft. long, two courses in height are laid (spaces) shall be left open at
and of the same thickness as the walls. the joints of the blocks wherever the ar-
The doorposts shall be of Pentelic or chitect shall direct.
Hymettic marble, and the sills of Hy- “All these things shall be carried out
mettic marble. Over the lintels there by the contractors in accordance with
shall be a cornice projecting 1)4 ft. the specifications, following out the
“There shall be windows all around, measurements and the models which the
in every wall, opposite each intercolumni- architect shall provide; and they shall
ation, and at each end three. They shall deliver each detail of the work within
be 3 ft. high and 2 ft. wide. Each win- the time to which they shall have agreed
dow shall have a close-fitting bronze in the contract.”
shutter, The units of measurement here men-
“Uponthe wall there shall be a cor- tioned are 4 digits =
1 palm 4 palms =
nice all around, and
(at each end) a 1 foot 1 foot
;
= ;
0,308 met. These spe-

pediment surmounted by a pediment-cor- cifications do not mention the decorations
nice. or details of capitals, cornices, frieze,
“The columns shall be set upon a stylo- etc., nor the number and dimensions of
bate on the same level as the directing the triglyphs, which we know, from the
course (of the walls). The thickness inventories, to have been painted. This
of this stylobate shall be i)4 ft., its width part of the work was probably covered
3 ft., and the length of each block 4 ft. by another and later specification differ-
The lower diameter of each column shall ent from the constructor’s specification,
be 2)4 ft., and their height, including and possibly this part of the work was
30 ft. Each column shall have
capitals, done not by contract at all, but by day’s
seven drums, 4 ft. high, except the low- work, as at the Erechtheion, under the
est, which shallmeasure 5 ft. The capi- architect’s daily direction. As we shall
tals of the columns shall be of Pentelic see, all whether
details, in relief or in
marble. The epistyle shall be of wood, color, were executed in situ after the
and be fastened upon the columns.
shall construction was completed, in all Greek
It shall be 2)4 ft. wide and not more structures.
than 2)4 ft- high, and the number of A. L. Frothingham.
(To be continued.)
BIRD’S BYE VIEW OP BROOKLYN PLAZA AS PROJECTED.
Raymond P. Almirall, Architect.
The Brooklyn Plaza and the Projected

Brooklyn Central Library
THE PLAZA. ceived some noteworthy architectural
The dedication of the recently com- embellishments under the programme of
pleted portion of the Brooklyn Institute the Park Department. The Eastern
of Arts and Sciences calls attention to Parkway is, in fact, the most important
a section of Greater New York which thoroughfare in the Prospect Park re-
holds promise of being one of the most gion, and leads to the Plaza at opposite
impressive and important points of the sides of the Memorial Arch. The re-
metropolis. It must be recalled that in cent acquisition by the city of a site for
the fall of 1895, under the administration the new Central Library on the Plaza,
of Charles A. Schieren, then Mayor of between the Parkway and Flatbush
the City of Brooklyn, ground was avenue, extending back to the continua-
broken for the Institute, and that on tion of Underhill avenue between these
December 14 of the same year the thoroughfares, has suggested to Mr. Ray-
Mayor laid its cornerstone. Now, after mond F. Almirall, who was selected to
a lapse of more than a decade, another submit a design for this building, the
section of the extensive design of larger problem of the appropriate archi-
Messrs. McKim, Mead & White has tectural treatment of the whole Plaza
been completed, largely through the to make of it a monumental area, and
public spirit and interest of the citizens to provide for placing on its perimeter
of Brooklyn, for the city has contributed buildings which will permanently assure
generously of its money for the realiza- its character.
tion of the project. The Brooklyn In- The architect has, accordingly, pro-
stitute occupies a prominent position on vided for such a project, the drawings
the Eastern Parkway, one of the city’s which we illustrate herewith. It would
finest thoroughfares, near its intersection be interesting, for purposes of compari-
with the Plaza marking the entrance to son, to have before one a bird’s-eye view
Prospect Park, which has recently re- of the present condition of the Brook-
5
"
> fsK.ITCW ;
;
AortiKenm
E /-\&t L LI SMEnEMToi-rH.
•-
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Plaza .
ttxr&wxi f, AuruRALL
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PLAN OF BROOKLYN PLAZA, SHOWING SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS.

Brooklyn, New York City. Raymond F. Almirall, Architect.
THE BROOKLYN PLAZA AND CENTRAL LIBRARY. 99
lyn Plaza ;
but perhaps such a view improvement than actually exist; but to
would be a discouragement as well as the citizen who merely a passerby, the
is
a help, for, while it would reveal possi- possibilities would appear largely as lost
bilities of improvement, it would also opportunities, and would, in conse-
show how this centre of exceptional quence, tend to decrease his interest in
PLAN OF THE PLACE DE L’ETOILE, PARIS,
natural beauty has been neglected and the undertaking. While the chances
slighted, and that in its immediate vicin- are large for improving the Plaza from
ity may be found the most inappropriate a practical, as well as from an artistic
architectural environment. To a student point of view, we are compelled to
of civic aesthetics, the surroundings make our admissions by saying that cer-
would present no greater obstacles to tain fundamental difficulties or infelici-
IOO THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
ties are involved in the problem. Chief the arch is the whole thing, proclaim-
among these is the position of the arch, ing its colossal proportions in contrast
which presents the extraordinary spec- to the low extensive mansions disposed
tacle of serving as the monumental en- around the circumference of its circle.
trance to Prospect Park, without being In the Brooklyn Plaza the arch will be
such, either in practice or in appearance. of secondary importance, being ex-
If it is contended that the arch is not ceeded in scale by the projected library
artistically intended as the entrance to mentioned above, and by its suggested
the Park, its position is equally awk- counterpart— the Zoological Museum.
ward. Its orientation placing it almost Besides the buildings which would, in
on the axis of the Park drive presup- the event of improvement, be erected on
poses that it leads from something be- the remainder of the curve would more
fore the Park. Such would seem the than likely further detract, by their size,
logical reason for choosing for a war- from the arch’s importance. Thus in
rior’s monument the arch as more suited time its discordant effect would become
NEARER PERSPECTIVE VIEW FROM THE FLATBUSH AVENUE SIDE, SHOWING THE
EFFECT OF THE’ BUILDING WHEN THE DOME IS INVISIBLE.
to express its purpose than a column or less and less as its relative importance
an obelisk. But no street or avenue decreases.
extends through the arch on the con-
;
Another fundamental difficulty with
trary, the vista is closed at present, and the Brooklyn Plaza, both in its present
must remain so in any modifications of state and as Mr. Almirall remodels it,
topography that could readily be made. isthe lack of very ample means of car-
Clearly, the arch is an impediment to ing for the large traffic that must ulti-
the harmonious architectural treatment mately centre at this point. The road
of the Plaza. It must be accepted and which winds around the curve of the
made the most of by decreasing its im- Plaza is very little wider ( except in
portance. It must be acknowledged, front of the arch) than some of the
therefore, that the Plaza possesses no avenues which run into it. Most of the
artistic centre, and can never hope to area of the Plazais given up to pedes-
be as effective, for instance, as the trian ways and architectural embellish-

Place de l’Etoile in Paris, which has ments in connection with the central
such a centre and of which we repro- feature — the electric fountain. No doubt
duce a drawing. There is, however, this arrangement provides a very at-
another fundamental difference between tractive feature for the public, but in
these two plazas. In the Paris place view of the proximity of Prospect Park
LIBRARY.
CENTRAL
BROOKLYN
PLAZA,
THE
PROM
VIEW
DISTANT
VIEW OF THE GREAT ENTRANCE VESTIBULE ON THE FIRST FLOOR, LOOKING

TOWARDS THE’ GRAND STAIRCASE. BROOKLYN CENTRAL LIBRARY.
it would seem unwise if it interferes account it would seem a questionable

at all with the proper handling of the act to close to vehicular traffic the direct
traffic, to provide for which should be entrance between the arch and the Park,
a leading consideration. The reader as shown in Mr. Almirall’s plan. Car-
should note how the traffic problem has riages from and to the Park would have
been solved in the Place de l’Etoile, re- either to make their way in a round-
ferred to above. The roadway of the about manner or they would be compelled
place has been made considerably wider to cross the car lines at points where
than any of the avenues which intersect congestion would ultimately be bound to
it, and the area in the centre has been occur. Pedestrians to and from the park
reduced until it is only just large would likewise be compelled to cross
enough to be a sufficient aesthetic base carriage and car traffic at its busiest
for the arch itself. The remainder of point, or else take a more indirect
the area has been disposed around the course.
outside of the roadway, so that great The objections which we raise above
LONGITUDINAL SECTION. BROOKLYN CENTRAL LIBRARY.

crowds may comfortably circulate would perhaps have little or no imme-

around and obtain an excellent view of diate force were the scheme carried out
the arch and everything that is going as it stands but it is for the future that
;
on in the circle. This arrangement of such improvements must provide, and

the promenade on the outside of the failing in amply providing for the con-
road, instead of on the inside, has the ditions when the region in the Prospect
added merit of providing for the build- Park section shall be thickly populated,
ings around the circle a magnificent the suggested embellishment of the
setting. It must be admitted, however, Plaza is not a satisfactory solution of
that as there are no car lines running the problem. The possibilities exist for
around the Place de l’Etoile its traffic making of point a civic centre
this
problem is simpler of solution than that worthy of a great city of the future, but
in Brooklyn, especially in providing rea- these possibilities have not been realized
sonably distinct lines of communication in the scheme before us, which, although
for pedestrians, cars and vehicles. In it is undoubtedly monumental in char-
the Brooklyn Plaza these lines of com- acter, does not fully satisfy the require-
munication often cross, and on that ments of future use.
Architect.
Almirall,
F.
Plan.
Raymond
Floor
Second
or
Main
LIBRARY.
CENTRAL
BROOKLYN
Plan.
Floor
Ground
City.
York
New
Brooklyn,
Architect.
Almirall,
F.
Plan.
Raymond
Floor
Third
LIBRARY.
CENTRAL
BROOKLYN
Plan.
Floor
First
City.
York
New
Brooklyn,
CENTRAL
BROOKLYN
ELEVATION.
AVENUE
UNDERHILL
io8 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
THE BROOKLYN CENTRAL LIBRARY. long sides of the quadrilateral. The

If the design which has been prepared one on the Eastern Parkway contains
for the trustees of the Brooklyn Public the accommodations required by the ad-
Library by the same architect is ac- ministration of the institution; that on
cepted, that borough will soon possess Flatbush avenue provides for the vari-
a main library of which any city might ous public reading and study rooms
well be proud. Whatever shortcomings and the third wing on the rear contains
the Plaza plan itself may contain have the book stacks. All these departments
been more than counterbalanced in the are not only directly accessible from the
design for the new Central Library. Its —
two large central halls the reference
position at the head of the openest part —
and delivery rooms' but they are easily
of the Plaza is a commanding and un- reached from the main entrance on the
rivaled one, and the manner in which the Plaza. Attention must be called to the
architect has adapted his plan on the remarkable way in which the shape of
irregular quadilateral site to the large the site lends itself to the distribution
requirements of the building is worthy of these parts, providing precisely the
of the most serious study and the high- relative amount of area which they re-
est appreciation. The accommodations quire. Thus the greater length of the
provide for a most complete library, to Flatbush avenue wing marks it for the
house about two millions and a half of main public departments, while the
books. The entire building covers ap- shorter one on the Parkway amply takes
proximately 100,000 square feet, of care of the accommodations demanded
which about 13,000 are occupied by two by the working departments of the li-
large open courts and four small ones, brary. Similarly, the Plaza side, being
leaving a ground-floor area of between the shortest of all, is plainly marked for
75,000 and 80,000 square feet. The to- the main entrance, while the great stack
tal floorarea provided, not including the room is appropriately placed in the rear,
main and storage stacks, is about 270,- away from the public vestibule, but di-
000 square feet, or about six acres. This rectly connected with the main distribu-
allowance of area, it is estimated, makes tion rooms on the basement and second
generous provision for specific require- floors in the centre, the administration
ments, without any attempt at mere wing on one side and the reading and
size, the plan being so disposed as to study rooms on the other.
admit readily of extension if at some While these general excellences of
future time the needs of the institution plan disposition may be pointed out, it
should outgrow its present ample ac- will also be admitted that there are
commodations. Such extension could some, perhaps minor, matters of design
be effected at the rear by bridging over which it is not possible so unqualifiedly
Underhill avenue, as the architect to commend. For instance, there seems
points out, and utilizing a part of the no very good reason why the great
site which is at present occupied by the stack room should be lighted by a series
reservoir that must inevitably give way of openings which are hardly more than
in the event of other provision for the slits in the wall. These openings the
borough’s water supply, which has re- architect has alternated, presumably for
cently been under discussion. appearance, at every fourth window by
The plan may be said to recognize, in a pier the width of two book stacks and
the functional requirements of the li- a passage. The resulting external treat-
brary, three distinct departments of ment is very effective, it is true. But
activity which are separately connected would it not be preferable to have the
with a central body containing two large book stacks better lighted, even if large
halls of some 11,000 square feet each, windows would not seem to the designer
covered by an externally prominent so ‘emblematic of the arrangement and
domical roof. These three separate de- function of the room behind them?’ Un-
partments of activity occupy the three der the present circumstances, it would
wings which run parallel to the three be necessary to depend very largely on
artificial lighting for ready access to the embellishment can be made equally as
books not very near the windows. good as its plan disposition.
The parti of the plan cannot be We must expect the importance of the
called otherwise than simple and obvi- plan in architecture will continue for
ous, but it is this simplicity and obvi- some time to be very much underesti-
ousness in architecture which is one of mated by the outsider. Until the
the surest signs of serious and successful architect is allowed a fairer share of
study. Like the masterpiece of a great recognition as the responsible creator of
artist, a simple architectural solution what should of right be the most popu-
looks so incredibly easy of accomplish- lar of arts, the average citizen will re-
ment that it would be impossible to con- gard his performances as more or less
vince a layman to the contrary without superfluous and extravagant, basing his
explaining to him the mental processes opinion always on secondary and un-
that had to be performed to attain the important features of the architect’s
finaland self-evident simplicity which work, which have long been held up to
isno more characteristic of a great piece him as the essence of architectural art.
of architecture than of an equally re- To return to the immediate subject in
nowned painting or sculpture, marking hand, the foregoing must not be inter-
them alike as exceptional artistic per- preted as an apology for the form which
formances. has been given to the exterior and in-
To those who are not architects, it terior of the Brooklyn Central Library
may seem unnecessary and wrong to design. The intention is to lay empha-
pay much attention to a mere plan. It sis on the fact that in viewing the draw-
will perhaps seem to them that as the ings which we publish it is of far greater
building under discussion is very much importance for the reader to remark in
in the nature of a public monument, the the plan the clever sequence of the main
paramount consideration should be of reading rooms, which has enabled the
“architecture,” monumental effect and architect to dispense with the customary
the like. As a matter of fact, the dis- corridors, which would greatly reduce
cussion is of architecture and monu- light and area, than to regard with ap-
mentality, but all good architecture is proval or disapproval the decorative
referable to the plan from which any treatment of the entrance vestibule, with
real merit must ultimately come. In the its grand staircase or the colonnade of
designs for a monumental building of the the main faqade, which are merely the
magnitude of that before us, the matters embodiment of the emotional elements
which it is most important to consider of the problem. These features are not
lie in the plan, and if this meets the re- the essential phases of the design, and
quirements of use in an economical, are not in any sense to be regarded as
efficient and effective manner, the char- fixed and definite, as are the conditions
acter of the external or internal garb of planning which suggest them. They
may, as a rule, be suitably modified, if are subject to further study and elabora-
necessary, to meet conditions of envi- tion or simplification without producing
ronment and cost. Proceeding, how- upon the basis of the building any radi-
ever, from what is unfortunately the cal modification. It is not the aim of
popular notion of architecture, mere the architect, in making a design, to
grandiose appearance, it is impossible to state these matters of detail accurately,
arrive at a good solution of the prob- and as he necessarily intends them to
lem and produce something which could appear in the finished structure. The
be worthy of the name architecture. In study that would be required to depict
short, the conception of a building is faithfully the appearance of the building
inseparable from its plan, in which it in its final adjustment of columns, pil-
must express itself first and last, and asters, mouldings and carving would
that being good there is every reason not only involve an enormous amount of
to believe that its faqades and interior labor, but would be equally undesirable,
no THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
as the slightest change in the disposition each other at their unequal angles is to
of the plan might make it necessary to be remarked in that view. Another no-
repeat from the beginning all this labor, ticeable feature, and one which adds
whereas the necessary parings and ad- considerably to the building’s monumem-
justments in plan which are involved in tal character, is the long, unbroken cor-
the subsequent closer and detailed study nice lines of the wings. The rusticated
of features and details are in the nature base, too, helps in producing the general
of development and cause no great up- effect of strength and propriety which
heaval in the underlying structure of the the design possesses.
design. The drawings which Mr. Almirall has
The general external treatment of the prepared are as elaborate and well pre-
design which has been provided for the sented as any of which we have a recol-
Brooklyn Central Library is pleasing and lection. The programme from which
simple. The problem of the silhouette the architect worked is the labor of Mr.
has been well handled. Obviously, the Frank P. Hill, the Chief Librarian of
point from which most spectators will the Brooklyn Public Library, and is one
see the new library will be from the of the most complete and exhaustive
Plaza and on the Flatbush avenue side documents of the kind, embodying not
of the same. The problem to be solved, only Mr. Hill’s experience of library
then, was to produce a sky line which operation, but that of many leading li-
should be equally effective with or with- brarians elsewhere, who were consulted
out the large central mass. Great prom- as to the actual working of their build-
inence has accordingly been given to the ings. To
this combined experience is
upper part of the great entrance vesti- also to be added the co-operation of the
bule, which, upon nearer view, forms architect and of Professor Hamlin,
an effective termination against the sky. of Columbia University, whom the trus-
The large domical roof performs a simi- tees of the Brooklyn Public Library em-
lar office when the building is viewed ployed as consulting architcet to give ex-
from a more distant point in the Plaza. pert advice on the design provided.
It is, of course, difficult to avoid the im- The problem confronting the architect
pression that the great dome has been was therefore subject to three condi-
deposited, as it were, in the courtyard tions the programme, the site provided
:
between the wings, but, in the present by the city, and the environment of this
case, this feature’s importance, architec- site. Of these conditions, which were
turally, has been sufficiently reduced to not without their difficulties, the designer
minimize such an impression. has, by virtue of the solution which he
On the Flatbush avenue and Parkway presents, acquitted himself with honor.
elevations there seems to be no reason He has achieved a design which the
in the plan for treating the ends towards trustees of the Brooklyn Public Librarv
the Plaza with a prominent projection, have done well to accept, subject, of
and denying such terminations at the course, to further study and elaboration.
ends of these faqades. Next to the And the citizens not only of the borough,
great entrance feature on the Plaza, but of the greater city, should now
the most pleasing faqade treatment is lend their influence to an end that will
to be noticed on the rear or Underhill give them at the same time a splendid
avenue faqade. The clever manner in educational centre and a worthy public
which the wings have been joined to monument. H. W. Frohne.
An American Architecture
The lot of the writer school or perhaps a power-house. The
of architectural criticisms ancient emblems used in decoration,
must necessarily be a hard which had a definite and literal meaning
one, so long as the princi- in their own day, serve still to dress our
ples governing the design- buildings, and we still express our naval
ing of buildings are so dif- prowess in monuments ornamented with
ferently understood and the prows of Roman galleys, just as
interpreted by those mak- forty years ago our sculptors dressed the
ing the designs. Yankee bust of Abraham Lincoln in a
To demand a literal ad- toga to show that he was a statesman.
herence to truthful ex- It is instructive to look back on the
pression of function from progress in sculpture in the last forty
one who
has attempted to years* as shown in the case of Lincoln
faithfully reproduce a and the toga, and to realize that our
building or type of build- architecture is still largely in the “toga”
ing of a by-gone age, stage.
which in its original state So long as our architects continue to
was erected to house some declare themselves exponents of definite
utterly different function, foreign styles or methods — French, Ital-
ismanifestly to demand the ian, English, German, ancient or modern
impossible and condemn the whole thing —
•
and persist in an effort to graft these
from the first and while it is ob-
;
styles onto building conditions which
viously true that no building can be are, and in the nature of things must
really great, architecturally, unless it be essentially modern and American,
does truthfully express its function, still just so long our architecture will be
the process of the evolution of styles is neither definitely foreign nor definitely
so gradual, and so much excellent effort American and the critic must content
;
is expended in this very effort to weld himself with admitting first of all the
the old and the new, often with results theory of evolution of styles, and next
ingenious and charming, that to con- the premise of the designer that his par-
demn utterly because an illusion is cre- ticular style is right. After these admis-
ated instead of a fact declared, would be sions he may hold the designer to his
not only unjust but would practically own premise and judge him accordingly.
do away with the occupation of the But so long as logic is ignored or dis-
writer of criticisms. For it is true that carded in the first instance it cannot be
a vast majority, indeed, all but a small well demanded if the business of writing
minority of our architects are actively architectural critiques is to continue, and
engaged in this very exercise, the crea- perhaps it is not too much to hope that
tion of architectural illusions; illusions just as our sculptors have found in
of foreign lands and climates almost, in- methods of directness and truth a nota-
deed, to be classed as “scene painting” ble modern expression for their art, so
in solid materials. the art of architecture, with no thought
Within a single city block in almost for style’ may find in the simple expres-
any city in the country it is not unusual sion of the great changes in modern life,
to find examples of the architecture of modern building materials and methods
England, France, Italy, Germany and of of construction, a vital expression.
various periods of each. The Greek or There would seem to be a better way.
Roman temple serves indiscriminately The theory of the evolution of styles,
as the model for a church, a library, a as generally stated, is that our style is
1 12 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
copied from another preceding it, and is

so modified by differing conditions of
climate, custom and function that it
eventually achieves an individuality of
its own that is recognized as a style.
This is all very well, but is it not true
that the copying is unconscious? Is it
not true that the designer simply used
the forms and methods that he knew
and devoted his best attention to the
solving of his local functional problems,
thereby creating new forms and meth-
ods? Certainly we know that the forms
of architecture always have followed the
functions, that the changes have been as
great in form as they have in custom or
method.
Weknow that the discovery or inven-
tion of the principle of the arch com-
pletely altered the form and style of
buildings. Weknow that the changes
in style occurred sometimes swiftly,
sometimes infinitesimally through ages
exactly keeping pace with the changes
in the people, their customs and the cli-
mate in which they live. It is not rea-
sonable, then, to suppose that these
changes in architectural form were sim-
ply due to an unconscious evolution in
the minds of the builders striving to
house their needs? Did they not simply
use the forms they knew and create new
ones as new needs arose? The Gothic
builders followed the Romans, but they
did not, even in Italy, follow the Roman
forms, and probably they did not con-
sciously abandon them. There had been
a great change in mind and custom, and
it was faithfully expressed in form and
method of construction.
We are today undergoing great and
rapid changes in mind and custom, and
while our methods of construction
have kept pace, the architectural forms
have not. To-day the old system of pil-
ing stone upon stone, with inert weight
as the bonding fibre in the tissue of the
building, is largely superseded by the
use of steel ties, beams and struts.
Buildings no longer stand on the ground
by sheer weight, but are rooted and tied
deep in the ground as is a tree and they
have assumed the same fibrous quality in
ADDITION TO CHICAGO ATHLETIC CLUB, construction, if not in form. In form
CHICAGO, ILL. they are still the same. Elaborately our
Richard E. Schmidt. Garden& Martin. Archts.
1 14
architects strive to make the old, meagre when the process of evolution is an un-
handful of shapes and devices cover and conscious one. Would it not be better
hide the new big structural methods, but to accept the new facts and methods as
these new methods cannot be hidden, glorious opportunities and let them as-
because they represent changes in our sert themselves in new and glorious
civilization. And the twenty-story sky- forms? Piers, lintels- arches, tie-rods,
scraper, standing on its puny stone- walls, roofs, windows, materials, tex-
THE CHAPIN & GORE BUILDING. DETAIL OF LOWER STORIES.

Chicago, 111. Richard E. Schmidt, Architect.
column sham of its

legs, advertises the tures and colors are not peculiarities of
system of design, because the winds any style or styles, but are common to
would so obviously topple it over if it all styles, those of the past and those of
were not fibrous, and its stone columns the future. Balance, proportion, rhythm,
would so obviously burst and crush to poise, are elements of all design, and
pieces if they were really stone, as they we have the record of the history of
pretend. art to teach us what they mean. Every
The trouble with our architecture is, new problem in building teems with
we are trying to evolve it consciously, suggestions for its solution, and when
AN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE. 115
our designers approach the new prob- The new building for Montgomery
lems boldly and serenely, with a full Ward & Co., which is rapidly approach-
knowledge of how the designers of the ing completion on the Chicago lake
past achieved their great successes- and front, is a good example of the demands
with courage to try and do likewise we made upon the resourcefulness of the
may begin to look forward to a day modern architect. It is essentially
when our successes may also be great. a new type. In the first place, it
In the illustrations here published of is huge, having a ground area of 147,000
some of the works of Richard E. square feet- and a total floor area of
Schmidt, and of the firm of Richard E. 1,323,000 square feet. It has a length of
Schmidt, Garden & Martin, there is evi- 731 feet and a greatest depth of 275 feet,
THE BROOKS CASINO

Chicago, 111. Richard E. Schmidt, Garden & Martin, Architects.
dence of a definite attempt at something reduced by the irregularity of the lot to

of this sort, an attempt to express the 153 feet on Chicago avenue. Its vast ex-
function of the different buildings and tent and its immense bulk towering as
more particularly there is a sincerity in well as spreading are unrelieved by
the use of materials in expressing the courts, either external or internal. In
structural facts that is a step toward the fact, it is a huge aggregation of storage
fulfilment of the hope just expressed. lofts,nine stories high, a repetition of
While they are not buildings of the units of a monotony truly appalling.
first importance, they are fairly repre- Next, it is entirely of reinforced con-
sentative of the variety of work that crete construction —
foundations, col-
comes to the average architect’s office. umns, floors and walls all of concrete,
n6 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
even to the exterior. And’ finally, it is by functional, structural and economical

a strictly commercial proposition. Built needs, and it only remained for the de-
to house a great commercial establish- signer of this structure to give to die
ment with the strictest economy, it is form and materials so dictated such
not intended to be an architectural mon- architectural expression as he could.
ument. It will be noticed that these Obviously, the thing to be expressed
Chicago, 111. FIGURES IN MAJESTIC BAR.
qualifications are functional, structural firstwas the commercial entity of a huge

and economical, uninfluenced by any enterprise, in itself giving to the struc-
consideration for architectural display or ture the stamp of a new and modern type
effect. Indeed, beyond a natural desire of building. Next, the fact of a new
for an effect of stability and order, one and modern system of construction —
might say that in this building archi- plasticconstruction, moulded together
tectural expression was not wanted. The in a practically liquid state into a great
materials and dimensions are dictated homogeneous whole ;
not piled together
AN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE.
Architects.
Martin,
&
Garden
Schmidt,
E.
Richard
n8 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
THE SCHOENHOFEN BREWERY.

Stli and Canalport Streets. Chicago, 111. Richard E. Schmidt, Architect.
piece upon piece in the masonry way, compared to the systems of construction
but molded together and interlaced of ages past. It is apparent that in a
with the fibres of steel- which give to new type of building and with new
this material, concrete, the tensile quality materials, such as we have described, no
which makes possible a new and modern adaptation of the old forms of architec-
APARTMENT HOUSE,
Chicago, 111. Richard E. Schmidt, Garden & Martin, Architects.
system of construction, as new and as ture can have any meaning if we care
modern as the steel skeleton was in the anything for truth in the expression of
day of its first invention. function and structure.
We speak of the newness of reinforced On walls of such vast expanse cor-
concrete construction not as a thing new nices are futile; friezes, architraves and
in this building', but as new in our day balustrades are ridiculous. The great
divisions of the building are the hori- drip moulding on the lower edge of a
zontal ones, the floors. Vertical divi- unit wall which in itself spans from pier
sions do not exist except as fire walls, to pier.
which are made light and in a sense tem- The design of this building will repre-
porary, so that their location may be sent more nearly, perhaps than any of the
changed at will. Lines of structural others shown the methods of design dis-
columns and piers go through from wall cussed above. If it is not in itself beau-
to wall and from floor to floor with in- tiful or graceful, it is at least logical,
evitable regularity. The windows are as and tells a plain, unvarnished tale. The
large as may be and of a height which plain, unvarnished ugliness of the prob-
makes them practically twice as wide as lem is set forth with a candor and adroit-
they are high. These are all structural ness which almost, if not quite, saves
and functional demands. In the design the solution from damnation, and gives
the floor divisions are most strongly hope, at least, that the system of design
marked ;
the sills and lintels, the under fairer, happier conditions will pro-
only projections on the wall, project duce something happier and not
fairer,
only enough to shed water. There is less truthful. The
other buildings illus-
no cornice; a small flush coping, placed trated herewith show, in a greater or less
in the unbroken wall surface above the degree the same qualities as the building
topmost windows, fulfils in this building described. The Chicago Athletic Club
the demand for unification of parts building, in Madison street, is chiefly
which a cornice ordinarily supplies. The noticeable for the precision with which
horizontal story division is accentuated the club spirit is expressed in the design,
by the filling in with brick of the spaces something more private than a hotel, and
between the sills and lintels of the win- none the less residential. It is also re-
dows. These brick bands are of a dark markable, structurally, in that, although
reddish brown color, and with the small 48 feet in width, it has no interior col-
terra-cotta bands and panels of the same umns, each floor spanning from wall to
color inlaid in the piers form the only wall. This would not be interesting
contrast with the gray cement surface of except for the height of the building and
the exterior walls. the consequent problems of wind brac-
These bands and panels take the place ing. The building forms an addition
of the usual mouldings and string to the old structure on Michigan avenue,
courses which, in a building of more and the necessity of having the ban-
varied form, would fulfil the purpose of queting hall on the eight floor, so that it
unifying the parts and giving to the is on the same level with the kitchen,
whole, besides its sheer dimension and which is in the old building, has intro-
endless repetition, the quality of big- duced a story nearly twice as high as
ness, which architecturally represents the other stories practically in the mid-
the commercial greatness of the insti- dle of the building. An
interesting ar-
tution. In the first and second stories rangement of fenestration is the result,
there is a change of function. These and its success is attributable largely to
floors are given up to the execu- the freedom of handling and the plastic
tive and working departments of the quality of the design.
business, and are distinguished from the The Chapin & Gore building, in
storage floors above by a greater height Adams street,has been reviewed before
and by being grouped together with in these columns, but in this connection
piers running through both stories. it not out of place to call attention
is
Broadly, this is the meaning of the de- to as another case of rigid adherence in
it
sign. It states the facts with perfect design to functional demands. The piers
candor; of repetition and order it makes and walls are of masonry construction,
rhythm from monotony it draws repose,
;
the lintels only being of fireproofed steel.
and always in its forms it is plastic. It The walls over openings are in all cases
is not the lintel which spans the open- designed as self-carrying members, the
—
ing it is the wall the lintel is but a
;
lintel courses being merely decorative
Architects.
Martin,
&
Garden
Schmidt,
E.
Richard
HOSPITAL.
REESE
MICHAEL
THE
Chicago.
Groveland,
and
Street
29tti
or not more than drip mouldings. This for band concerts. It is 80 feet in front-
seems to us clearly declare the en-
to age by somewhat more in depth, and is
cased steel support, and also to have the spanned from wall to wall by steel
trusses which carry the roof. It was
merit of truth, as no flat arch or appar-
ent surface lintel of masonry could. The desired to have the ceiling comparatively
entrances are of solid granite blocks, low for musical reasons. A
concrete
including the lintels which carry the roof and ceiling was therefore combined,
piers above. It is a curious condition of suspended from the trusses, following a
affairs that in looking at them we are so curved line dropping to the eaves on
accustomed to expect a sham that we each side of the building. This fact, is
cannot believe that these fine stones are clearly shown and used in the exterior
anything more than thin slabs veneering as one of the principal motives of the
a steel lintel within. It is worth notic- design. A cantilever concrete balcony
ing that on this building the masonry around the outside walls necessitates the
and the skeleton construction are clearly division of the windows, and gives the
and frankly differentiated in every case. building the appearance of having two
The curious treatment of the second stories.
and third stories results from the fact In all of these buildings there was in
that these floors are used as storerooms each case a clear demand for a treatment
for the shop below, and require large new and modern. They are interesting
wall spaces and small windows, while for the frankness with which this de-
the upper stories, with large glass areas, mand has been met. In the remaining
are lofts built for renting purposes. illustrations we have examples of origi-
The Schoenhofen warehouse, which nality, only less marked because less
has also been illustrated in these col- imperative. The handling of different
umns, is again printed in order to call materials has been the basis for the
invention of new forms. Let the
attention to the same expression of con-
cealed steel lintels and masonry walls, reader, for instance, study with care the
and also to show where a complete illustration of the Majestic Bar. In the
structure the small
change of function has received a com- front of this
pletely different treatment without dis- faqade is practically one sheet of

turbing the unity of the design as a delicately modeled cast bronze. The
This is shown in the view of inside of this room is handled
whole.
broadly Cipolin
Swiss marble,
the street faqade, in which the back part in
.
of the building has a group of high win- with logical recognition of its mag-
dows lighting a boiler room- over which nificent veining, and the purpose of the
is a plain broad wall, concealing sus- room is humorously handled in the
pended coal bunkers. Above this wall sculptured decorations, where the dance
is a group of smaller windows, which is represented in the large relief panel
light and ventilate the coal piles. The and different varieties of vinous exhilar-
front of the building is occupied as a ation in the six marble busts disposed
warehouse, with regular stories. along the bar screen.
The Brooks Casino is an auditorium William Herbert.
A Pioneer American Architect
Upto the beginning of this century, this land. The first principles of the art
with, perhaps, the single exception of are unknown, and there exists scarcely a
Charles Bullfinch, the first native pro- model among us sufficiently chaste to
fessional architect, the professional archi- give an idea of them.”
tects in this country, at least those Six years after Jefferson wrote the
worthy of the name, were of foreign above sentence a boy was born in Phila-
WILLIAM STRICKLAND, ARCHITECT.

( 1787 - 1854 .)
birth and education, and even Bullfinch, delphia, who, if he did not come as a
it is was educated abroad.

to be noted, reformer, was, at least, destined in later
American architects were slow in devel- years to achieve a proud place by good
oping, and Thomas Jefferson, himself an work in the architectural annals of his
amateur architect of no mean ability, day and, coming at a time when Amer-
;
writes in his notes on the State of Vir- ican-born architects with talent or merit
ginia, 1781: “The Genius of architecture were few indeed, the career of William
seems to have shed its maledictions over Strickland, who, during his time, was
very generally recognized as the leading of this country to make a departure from
native architect in America, should be the Colonial methods of house bui.ding
of considerable interest. Yet the present and designs which had prevailed from
age of progressive architecture has so the beginning; but in his drawings he
far, in many respects, gone ahead of followed, usually, the methods of his
Strickland that his designs and works foreign-born predecessors in the pro-
have become to an extent obsolete and fession.
his career has now been well-nigh for- Perhaps the particular reason wh/ the
gotten, only occasionally to be recalled life of Strickland is of interest in our
in a casual manner in connection with day is because he was probably the first
some of the buildings which he designed, American born and educated architect to
and which will stand and at times assert demonstrate that it was not necessary
their beauty and prominence to the at- for his countrymen, when contemplating
THE U. S. CUSTOM HOUSE.

Philadelphia, Pa. William Stricklaad, Architect.
tention of those who have occasion to the erection of important structures, to

come in contact with them. employ foreign talent to carry out their
William Strickland was a self-made ideas, and that Thomas Jefferson’s evil
man, and, as his career shows, he must forebodings regarding the school of
have possessed considerable genius, as American architecture were soon to be
he acquired in his own land enough set aside by a race of native architects,
architectural training to design build- of which Strickland was the forerunner.
ings of considerable extent and power, William Strickland commenced his
and to apply the forms of the pure career at a most interesting period in
classic order without committing glar- the history of American architecture,
ing solecisms. about the time when the Colonial meth-
It cannot be said of him that he was ods were fast giving way tc a revival,
the founder of any new or distinct largely of the classic or pure Grecian
school of American architecture, al- style of architecture, brought about by
though he was among the first architects Thomas Jefferson.
A PIONEER AMERICAN ARCHITECT. 125
From all accounts, it appears that many years it was the pride and admi-
Strickland’s first inclinations were not ration of every Philadelphian, and was
towards architecture as a profession, as used not only for a meeting-place of the
at first he seemed to prefer the painter’s Masonic fraternity, but also as a hall
brush and the tool of the engraver. He where fairs and many other entertain-
studied art and architecture in Phila- ments were held. The use of gas as an
delphia, under Benjamin Latrobe, an illuminating power in public buildings
Englishman, who was an artist as well in Philadelphia was first tried success-
as an architect; and first set up in busi- fully in Masonic Hall.
ness for himself as a landscape painter. On the 9th of March, 1819, a fire,
He soon acquired the art of engraving caused by a defective flue, broke out in
his pictures, many of his plates being Masonic Hall, and in an hour after the
% fffy
i
f
# jkM
j||
THE U. S. MINT.
(Lately demolished and replaced by a new and larger structure on Spring Garden Street.)
Philadelphia, Pa. William Strickland, Architect.
printed in the “Portfolio,” a magazine firstalarm the flames were roaring and
published in the Quaker City in 1814, triumphing with vindictive fury within
1815 and 1816. In view of the late date of the walls of William Strickland’s maiden
the publication of some of his engravings, architectural effort. In an hour or more
Strickland, even after he had abandoned the beautiful steeple had fallen, and by
painting as a profession for that of three o’clock the next morning the only
architecture, must still have indulged in memorials of the late Masonic edifice
his favorite pursuit as a pastime, as his were the blackened walls, fitfully re-
first important architectural work was vealed by the light of burning embers.
executed and finished as early as 1809, The destruction of this building, which
when the cornerstone of the Masonic was during its day probably the most
Temple was laid. important piece of architecture in Phil-
The style of this structure was Gothic. adelphia, made a great impression on the
The building was crowned with a steeple minds of the citizens, and a large litho-
and a spire of reputed beauty. For graph, picturing the burning of the
126 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD,
1 *” ;r r
tjO
THE OLD MASONIC TEMPLE.
(From a rare print.)

building was shortly after published steps, making the Parthenon fourteen
and had an extensive sale. The illus- feetwider and sixty-six feet seven inches
tration accompanying this article, and longer than the Custom House. But, as
copied from this lithograph, which is the Parthenon has only three steps,
now quite rare and eagerly sought after while the Custom House has thirteen,
by collectors of such material, furnishes extending thirteen feet on each front,
a very fair idea of the general appear- the length of the buildings, respectively,
ance of the Masonic Hall. including the steps, would be consid-
After executing his commission from erably varied, the length of the Cus-
the Masons, Mr. Strickland’s next, and tom House from the outer step being
probably most important work in Phil- one hundred and seven feet, and that of
adelphia, wasthe United States Bank the Parthenon two hundred and thirty-
building, Chestnut street, between
in six feet nine inches. However, the
Third and. Fourth, now the Custom double row of columns of the portico,
1 '! i. 1 Cak M
r,m m wWipr \
m....
T~ r
-
s
-A i-llli
i
1 -it* LjlJ ‘1\

.1 I 1 i IHi 1
THE U. S. NAVAL ASYLUM.

House, which, after an existence of over and the flanking colonnades of the Par-
fifty years, is to-day acknowledged to thenon, requires so much space that the
be one of the attractive buildings in actual dimensions of the interior of the
Philadelphia. In general appearance it two buildings are much more nearly
resembles the Parthenon, although in equal than their proportions would in-
general dimensions it is smaller than dicate.
the latter building. Their respective The principal apparent differences to
proportions are the Parthenon, one hun-
: the casual observer in the exterior of
dred and one feet one inch in front, ex- the Custom House and the Parthenon
cluding the steps, and two hundred and are that the Parthenon has a colonnade
twenty-seven feet in length, excluding on the flanks which is wanting in the
the steps; while the Custom House has Custom House, perhaps on account of
a frontage of eighty-seven feet, exclud- the extra expense that it would have
ing the steps, and is one hundred and entailed. Another difference is the ab-
sixty-one feet in length, excluding the sence of the second row of columns on
the portico. These colonnades of the square windows were above them. The
Parthenon are very rare in Greek roof stood gable fashion, rising above
architecture, as many Greeks doubted the third story. A niche near the apex
their artistic advantage, claiming that contained a fine statue in wood repre-
they had a tendency to complicate senting Commerce and carved by Wil-
the simplicity
of the style. There are liam Rush, the first American sculptor.
eight fluted columns, each twenty-seven The principal stories of the building
feet high by four feet six inches in diam- were of brick, while large warehouses
eter, supporting the portico of the front were built back of the main structure for
entrance, and the same number on the storage purposes. The building stood
rear facade of the building. back from the street a distance of forty
INDEPENDENCE HALL.
Philadelphia, Pa. (Remodeled by Strickland in 1828.)
A curious item in connection with Mr. or fifty feet. On Second Street, and pro-
Strickland and the Philadelphia Custom tected by an iron gate, there was a heavy
House is that he not only designed the brick archway, with a wide passage in
present structure, but also the first Fed- the center for drays and carts. Small
eral building used for a Custom House entrances for pedestrians were on either
in Philadelphia. This building was side. From these entrances extended on
opened on the 12th of July, 1819. It either side of the archway a low wall,
was without architectural pretensions, surmounted by iron palings. The en-
.apparently, being a plain building, three trance in front of the building was by
stories in height, the front of the first a central doorway, which led to the main
story of marble. The second story was business room in the second story. In
lighted by arched windows. Small this building the business of the Phila-
A PIONEER AMERICAN ARCHITECT.
delphia Custom House was

carried on was erected in the summer of 1815. It
until 1845,when, the United States Bank was built of brick, three stories in height,
having failed, the Federal government
-
and contained one good-sized room on

purchased its building, which has since each floor. Although unpretentious in
been in use as a custom house. appearance, and lacking any architec-
In 1815, about the time that Mr. tural embellishments, this old building,
Strickland was commissioned by the which is still standing but sadly altered
government to design the first custom and in a dilapidated condition to the
ST. PAUL’S CHURCH.

house in Philadelphia, he also received a rear of a court running off Arch street,
commission from the managers of the between Front and Second streets, is
Academy of Natural Sciences, now one interesting for two reasons. Firstly, be-
of the foremost institutions of its kind cause it was the original home of the
in the world, to
prepare plans for a hall. Academy Natural Sciences, and
of
The collection belonging to the Acad- serves, by comparison with the magnifi-
emy having by that time outgrown its cent building at Nineteenth and Race
quarters in rooms on North Second streets, which is now occupied by the
street. Mr. Strickland’s drawings called Academy, to illustrate the growth and
for an exceedingly plain building, which progress of this institution and, sec-
;
7
1
3o
ondly, as a specimen of Mr. Strickland’s 1824, Mr. Strickland took his place as
early and most unpretentious architec- one of the foremost of America’s archi-
tural efforts. tects. and the number of commissions
Judging from the great majority of which he received must have been ex-
his works, it is evident, that Mr. Strick- ceedingly gratifying to him.
THE OLD CHESTNUT STREET THEATRE.

(From a photograph taken in 1858.)
land was an ardent admirer of Greek On the 2d of March, 1829, a resolu-

architecture, as the majority of the im- tion was passed by Congress making a
portant buildings designed by him ad- liberal provisionfor the purchase of a
here closely to that classical style. suitable lot to erect a new mint
on which
After the completion of the Bank in Philadelphia. In pursuance of this
of the United States building, in resolution, a plot of ground on the
northwest corner of Chestnut and Ju- garded as a model of architectural pro-

niper streets, extending northward to priety, hardly to be surpassed in times
Olive street, one hundred and fifty feet to come but the natural increase of
;
front by one hundred and four feet business as the country enlarged in the
deep, was purchased. Mr. Strickland past fifty years had necessitated several
was employed to prepare a design for enlargements and architectural changes
the building to be erected upon this which were not to its advantage. It was
property. He planned an edifice, employ- recently demolished, and a new and
ing the Ionic order, taken from the cele- much more spacious mint building on
brated temple of Ilyssus, near Athens, Spring Garden street replaces it.
designing a portico of sixty feet front- Another government commission which
age, with six pillars of the Ionic order Mr. Strickland satisfactorily executed
THE ARCH STREET THEATRE BEFORE ALTERATIONS.

(From an old print.)
on the north and south fronts; the front was for the United States Naval Asy-
was one hundred and twenty-three feet, lum, on Gray’s Ferry Road, in Philadel-
and the building carried of that width phia, which was commenced in 1827.
from street to street one hundred and The and is constructed
edifice faces east,
ninety-three feet, including therein two of grayish-white marble, with a granite
porticos, each twenty-seven feet hi basement. It is three hundred and eighty
depth, making a building space one hun- feet in length, and consists of a centre,
dred and twenty-three feet wide by one with a high, broad flight of marble steps
hundred and thirty-nine feet deep, leav- and imposing abutments and a marble
ing small open spaces on the east and colonnade and pediments. The wings
west. The form of the building was a are symmetrical and terminate in pavil-
quadrant, with an open court fifty-five ions, or transverse buildings, at each
by eighty-four feet in the centre. end, furnished with broad covered ve-
This building, when finished, was re- randas on each of the two main floors.
The building was first occupied in the pears to have paid but little attention up
latter part of 1832, but was not finished to this time, but any one who has seen
until 1848. Independence Hall cannot but agree
In 1828, when the city councils of that the alterations which were made in
Philadelphia determined to restore his- it under Strickland’s direction follow out
toric Independence Hall, Mr. Strickland closely and harmonize well with the
THE BLICKLY ALMSHOUSE.

was invited to direct his attention ideas of its colonial builders. The prin-
towards the preparation of plans for cipal feature of the restoration appears
that purpose. The first plans which he to have been the rebuilding of the spire,
prepared were not satisfactory to coun- which had been taken down, and putting
cils, and he was compelled to modify a clock and bell therein, thus restoring
them. Colonial architecture was one the building to something like its ap-
branch of his profession to which he appearance in 1776.
-
A PIONEER AMERICAN ARCHITECT.

133
As a church architect, Mr. Strickland were day the two leading theatres
in his
was much sought after, and some of the
handsomest and most attractive old-time
in Philadelphia —
the old Chestnut Street
Theatre, which was pulled down in 1854,
churches in Philadelphia fifty years ago and the Arch Street Theatre, which is
were of planning.
his Unfortunately, still in existence, although much altered
the majority of these sacred edifices have in appearance and now unused.
been taken down only two churches de-
; Although the Chestnut Street Theatre
signed by Mr. Strickland still stand was generally admired, there was some
in Philadelphia- —
St. Paul’s Protestant criticismupon the design of the front,
Episcopal Church, on Third street, near and one local poet, in referring to it,
W alnut, a very good example of this wrote as follows
THE MERCHANTS’ EXCHANGE' NOW KNOWN AS THE STOCK EXCHANGE.

line of his work; and St. Stephen’s, on “Its columns Corinthian, in Italy sculptured,
Tenth street, near Chestnut.
Attest how the arts ’mongst ourselves have
St. Ste- been cultured,
phen’s is a much more ornate building Fluted off and got up without flaw or disaster.
than St. Paul’s, which adheres closely to What a shame they omitted to flute the
pilaster!
the Colonial style, while St. Stephen’s, Their arrangement is neat and supporting—
which was altered from another build- but, rot it! —
ing, is of Gothic design.
A pediment only, the builder forgot it!”
Its cornerstone
was laid on the 30th of May, 1822. From this poetical efifusion it is to be
As an architect of theatres, as well judged that the architecture of the old
as a designer for buildings dedicated to Chestnut was in Mr. Strickland’s favor-
church purposes, Mr. Strickland was ite line — Greek.
equally in demand. He designed what The Arch Street Theatre was opened
about 1828. When finished it was re- commodation. The cornerstone of this
garded as distinctly in advance of building was laid on the 22d of Feb-
the theatre architecture then in vogue. ruary, 1832, and it was opened for busi-
The front was of marble. A screen of ness early in 1834, and is at present the
columns projected nearly to the line of Stock Exchange. It is built of Penn-
the street supporting a Doric frieze, and sylvania marble, and is in the shape
flanked by marble wings. The latter of a parallelogram, having a frontage of
opened to the staircase and to the pit, ninety-five feet on Third street and a
which was reached by a descent from depth of a hundred and fourteen feet on
the street. In the face of the building, Walnut street, and is one of the most
above the line of the second story, was unique and original of Strickland’s
built a huge marble block, out of which, buildings. There is a semicircular at-
several years after the house was tachment in the rear with a radius of
opened, the sculptor Grevelot cut, in thirty-six feet, which makes the total
alto-relief, a figure of Apollo. In 1863 length, from front to rear, one hundred
extensive alterations were made in the and fifty feet. The semicircular portion
front of the theatre. Nothing remains is embellished with a portico of eight
of it to-day except the figure of Corinthian columns and antae. A cir-
Apollo, which was placed in a promi- cular lantern rises forty feet above, and
nent position in the front of the build- is pierced with windows and orna-
ing, above the line of the third story. mented. The building was of striking
When the city of Philadelphia pur- appearance the photograph which we
;
chased two hundred acres of land on the reproduce herewith was taken after
west side of the Schuylkill River, for needful alterations had been made.
the purpose of erecting thereon an alms- Mr. Strickland died in 1854, while
house for the city poor, Mr. Strickland engaged in superintending the construc-
was called upon to submit a design for tion of the State House at Nashville,
the buildings. He planned four distinct Tenn. By a vote of the Legislature of
structures, disposed at right angles with that State, a tomb was prepared for his
each other and enclosing an interior remains in the splendid edifice which he
space of seven hundred by five hundred was constructing, and there his body
feet. The men’s almshouse fronts the was deposited. On a slab in the tomb is
southeast. The main building contains this inscription : “William Strickland,
a portico ninety feet in front, supported architect of this building, born at Phila-
by eight columns, five feet in diameter delphia, 1787; died at Nashville, April
at the base and thirty feet in height, on 7. 1854.”
the Tuscan order of architecture, built Strickland’s last great architectural
of brick and rough cast. The building effort was, in style, not a departure from
is flanked by two wings, each two hun- his favorite Greek architecture. It is a
dred feet in length, the portico being white marble building, with high Greek
elevated on a high flight of steps rising porches supported by eight Corinthian
before the basement story to those of columns at each end. In the centre of
the upper story, and thus giving to this either side smaller porches, supported
group of buildings a commanding ap- by six Corinthian columns each, have
pearance. The almshouse was first oc- been placed. The building is crowned
cupied about the year 1835. with a small tower, which is capped with
The necessity felt by the Philadelphia a circular lantern, pierced with windows
merchants for some common point of and ornamented. This lantern is much
meeting, where they could talk over the same in appearance as the one which
matters pertaining to their business, and rises above the Stock Exchange in Phil-
arrange for purchases and sales, re- adelphia.
sulted, after a company had been formed The State House at Nashville stands
known as the “Philadelphia Merchants’ on a high eminence, some little distance
Exchange Company,” in their giving back from the street. It is approached
Air. Strickland an order to prepare plans along pretty walks, laid out through
for a suitable structure for their ac- grounds well cultivated with trees and
work was commenced in 1829, and was

flowers, which add greatly to the attrac-
tiveness of the building, forming a back- an engineering feat of considerable
ground for it of living green that tends magnitude.
to heighten the whiteness of the marble Besides being an artist, architect and
of which it is built, and to present the engineer, Mr. Strickland was also the
building in strong contrast to its sur- author of several pamphlets among
;
roundings. To architects of the present them may be mentioned “Triangulation

day, this old-fashioned structure, if ex- of the Entrance into Delaware Bay,”
amined closely, would probably be “Reports on Canals and Railways”
found to possess many glaring crudities; (1826), and, together with Gill and
THE STATE HOUSE,

Nashville, Tenn. William Strickland, Architect.
but, as a specimen of the work of a na- Campbell, “Public Works of the United
tive American architect of fifty odd years States” (1841).
ago, it can hardly be regarded in any This is a glimpse of the life story of
other light than as a very creditable William Strickland, whose corner in the
piece of work for the period in which history of architecture in America has
it was designed and planned. Mr. been much neglected of late years, al-
Strickland was one of the first American though he appears to have been the first
architects and engineers to turn his at- American architect, born and educated,
tention to the construction of railroads, who succeeded in winning for himself a
going abroad to study the best systems renown which made him the equal of
in vogue on the Continent. On his re- some of the leading foreign architects
turn he built the Delaware breakwater of his age.
for the United States government. This E. Leslie Gilliams.
Architect,
Ittner,
B.
w.
COLLEGE.
TEACHERS
COTE BRILLIANTE SCHOOL,
St. Louis, Mo. W. B. Ittner, Architect.
NOTES ©COMMENTS There is a growing While waiving any intention of discussing

suspicion among archi- the requirements of school houses,
special
ST. LOUIS tects that the building we may point out that there is one fact
of St. Louis, in several about them, one element in the problem,
SCHOOL departments, deserves which compels attention, for it forces itself
BUILDINGS more attention outside upon the notice even of the beholder of the
of St. Louis than it has exteriors. That is the need for light, for
thus far received. Mr. more light, for all the light. In fact, this
Ittner, the architect of the St. Louis schools, is also the, or at least a, primary require-
has lately been publishing a series of illus- ment of the skyscraper. The invention of
trations of the school buildings erected from the skeleton construction has in the sky-
his designs which confirms this suspicion scraper enabled this requirement to be met
as to those edifices. His description is far more satisfactorily than it ever could
illustrated with plans and sections and de- have been met if the architects had been
tails which should be very useful to archi- confined to an actual masonry construction.
tects engaged upon similar tasks elsewhere. But in fact if architects were confined to
But the photographs of the exteriors make an actual masonry construction there would
a most favorable impression upon disin- have been no skyscrapers at all. So much
terested lovers of architecture whose only space would have been absorbed in the
care respecting the school buildings of St. actual thickness of the necessary walls that
Louis is that they should be worth looking inordinate altitudes would have lost their
at. Even visitors to the Louisiana Pur- economical excuse for existence. Ten
chase Exposition, unless they happened to stories, it appears, would have been the
be specialists, did not pay as much atten- maximum that would have been attained
tion to the ordinary and unexpositional if the steel frame had not come in to sup-
architecture of the city as it deserved. More- plement the skyscraper as the other factor
over, some of the most interesting and of the tall building. The steel frame en-
typical of the school buildings had not at ables even a lofty tower to be constructed
that time been erected. So that the accom- as a sash frame. The school buildings of
panying illustrations of the school archi- St. Louis are no more skyscrapers than
tecture of St. Louis will, to many if not to those which have been erected under Mr.
most of our readers, have the attraction of Snyder’s administration in New York. Not
novelty in addition to their intrinsic at- so much, for three stories appears to be the
tractions. maximum in St. Louis school building.
Architect.
Ittner,
B.
W.
SCHOOL.
WYMAN
Mo.
Louis,
St.
Architect.
Ittner,
B.
W.
SCHOOL.
CLARK
Mo.
Louis,
St.
Architect.
Ittner,
B.
W.
SCHOOL.
HEMPSTEAD
Mo.
Louis,
St.
ST. LOUIS SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
whereas New York school building goes a wall and sturdy pier, from the general want
story or two higher. But Mr. Ittner’s of massiveness. Nobody would think of
schools bear a family resemblance to those imputing this want of massiveness to the
of Mr. Snyder, a family resemblance due, designer as a fault. In each case his work
one may suppose, not to imitation but to a signifies that he is keenly alive to it, and
L4.FAYETTE SCHOOL— ENTRANCE.

compliance each case with the same set

in would be only too glad to help it if he could.
of requirements.
practical And in each Being compelled to build a sash frame he
case the first of these requirements being honestly builds a sash frame and does not
abundant light, the architecture suffers attempt to “palliate or deny” the skeleton
from it, suffers from the want of unbroken character of his architecture. But it re-
mains true that a building all sash frame can afford to limit yourself to three. Simi-
cannot be as welcome a work of architecture larly two are more eligible than three. Look
as a building in which the openings are for example at our illustration, the Teach-
visibly and emphatically framed in their ers’ College. It is not, we admit, one of
enclosing masonry. the most fortunate of the designs of its
In the respect to which we have referred, author, being not only without a skyline,
the respect of their comparative lowness. but having also the air of a building to
mckinlby high school— detail of entrance' tower, st. louis, mo.

the school buildings of St. Louis enjoy a which the roof has not yet been added rather
great architectural advantage over those of than of a building which was designed to
New York, an advantage apparently due to be complete without a visible roof. How
the lower degree of congestion and the con- much more effective in this respect is the
sequent lower cost of land. Three stories of McKinley High School, in which the ab-
school house are architecturally as well as sence of a simple roof is cleverly compen-
practically more eligible than four, if you sated by the framed arcades of the parapet.
ST. LOUIS SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 143
Apart from the central pavilion containing School, the Cote Brilliante School differ con-
the entrance the Teachers’ College is but siderably among themselves, although all
a bald factory, upon the appearance of which variants of a single essential scheme. But
it might be supposed that the designer had they all have the advantage over the
never wasted a thought. And the effect of Teachers’ College of a lowness which em-
the entrance pavilion is in great part lost phasizes their horizontal expansion, and it
by the lack of a more vigorous projection, is in this that their common architectural
advantage mainly consists. It consists also
and also, as the photograph of the detail
HEMPSTEAD SCHOOL— ENTRANCE. ST. LOUIS, MO.

W. B. Ittner, Architect
St. Louis, Mo.
shows, by the lack of some little flank of in the fact that each of them has a visible
curtain wall before the occurrence of the roof, and that the visibility of the roof en-
sash frame. But after all a main explana- ables and almost compels a greater va-
tion of its want of effect in comparison with riety and interest of outline than would
others of the series is its greater height in otherwise be attainable. One has with some
proportion to its expanse. The Shepard of them, and notably with the Clark School,
School, the Clark School, the Hemstead again to deplore, as in the Teachers’ Col-
lege, the lack of a more decided projection ing an excess of voids over solids, and not
of the central pavilion. But in all four one seeming to have been designed under pres-
has to acknowledge the existence of a com- sure to produce a sash frame.
position,and in the treatment of the termi- Another great and indeed inestimable ad-
nal gables of the Hemstead, and of the vantage the St. Louis schools enjoy over
whole frontage of the Cote Brilliante, which those of New York doubtless proceeds from
seems upon the whole the most successful of the same cause of the less exigent demand
FRANZ SIGEL SCHOOL— ENTRANCE.

the four, an extremely taking composition, for space or the more abundant supply of
with the comparative lowness always count- it. The Western official architect cannot
ing for much in the attractiveness of the only afford to build lower than the New
front. In the two cases last named, in- York official architect, he can also afford
deed, the architect seems to have succeeded himself the luxury of enough ground round
in circumventing even his primary require- about his school house to give it a suitable
ment, his broad and low casements not giv- frame and setting, and to give the building
Ei
itself a detachment which is particularly these photographs with the pictures of one’s
desirable, architecturally and practically, own local school houses that every New
for a school building. The New York school Yorker can see in his mind’s eye to be as-
has be pushed forward to the actual
to sured what a great advantage this is. It
“building line” at the edge of the sidewalk. makes less explicable the timidity of the St.
BLOW SCHOOL— ENTRANCE.

St Louis, Mo. W. B. Ittner, Architect.
Indeed, one equally admires and marvels at Louis architect in not projecting his en-
the liberality of St. Louis in this respect. trance pavilions vigorously enough to give
The foreground is not even a playground. them their due architectural effect, in those
Its careful planting and well kept terraces instances in which he has failed to do so.
show that. It is only necessary to compare For, after all, the one picturesque feature
8
which the Procrustean and imposed plan of often be signalized and made architecturally
a school house leaves architects free to cre- effective. The projected room of the Patrick
ate is precisely this. “They have their exits Henry School, with its ingenious and struc-
and their entrances,” and with them the tural employment of brickwork, or that
possibility of effectively relieving, even a box over the entrance of the Lafayette School,
SHEPARD SCHOOL.
St. Loui3, Mo. W. B. Ittner, Architect.
of sash frames, if such a box they are with itscorbelled balcony, affords a good
doomed by their conditions to produce. But illustration of the manner in which the
it will be seen that the St. Louis official monotony of a long front can be relieved
architect has found or made other chances. while the effectiveness of its extent is re-
The principal’s room, one would say, may tained. And the entrances are almost in-
variably treated appropriately and well, arranged according to streets, and on each
equally well in a great variety of styles. card a neatly made diagram shows the ex-
For one cannot say that the architect seems act location of the board. Other full data
to be more or less at home in the collegiate is added. In this connection it may be re-
Gothic of the entrance to the Wyman, the marked that Los Angeles is unique, prob-
Hemstead or the McKinley, the “cottage ably, among American cities in a prohibition
Gothic” of that to the Shepard or the Emer- of electric signs across the sidewalk. The
son, the Jacobean garden fronts of the gain in the dignity of the city’s night as-
Blow, the Cote Brilliante or the Teachers’ pect is really surprising. The prohibition
College, the Renaisance of the Franz Sigel arose out of the citizens’ pride in their
or the Eliot, or the Colonial of the Clay. It ornate and very costly system of lighting
will be agreed that it is a very interesting the business streets.
collection of photographs and indicates an
exemplary treatment of school houses, on the The report on the im-
part of taxpayers and municipal officials as provement possibilities
well as of the actual designer. of Dubuque, Iowa, re-
PARKS
cently obtained from
The Los Angeles bill- FOR Charles Mulford Rob-
board ordinance has DUBUQUE inson, was secured by
LOS ANGELES been a S° od deal writ ~ a joint committee rep-
AND THE ten about and, as it resentative of the
proves, with much of Commercial Club, the Federated Women’s
BILLBOARDS error and exaggeration. Club and the Trade and Labor Congress.
Even here it was Unanimity of interest on the part of the
stated, on the strength community was thus assured. The report
of a widely printed note, that the billboard had to do mainly with the park needs of the
tax in Los Angeles was bringing $52,000 a city. These are great because, endowed
year to the city. The “City Billboard In- with a singularly picturesque location on
spector” sends word that it will yield about bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, the
a tenth of that sum. The billboard ordi- town’s park possessions consist of only a
nance, of which he submits a copy, pro- couple quares, each a block in extent,
of
hibits any board “more than ten feet in and such character as any town on the
of
height above the surface of the ground,” prairie might have. Dubuque, in fact, is
advertising signs painted on buildings, how- one of the very few cities of its size in the
ever, being excepted. It requires written United States that has not even a park
application, with full particulars, for all ex- commission. The report, which went into
cept the small boards, and then a permit the local possibilities of a park system, and
from the Board of Police Commissioners. the need for it, with a good deal of thorough-
No billboard, other than those attached to ness, aroused so much popular interest that
buildings, shall be within twenty feet of a commission is now about to be secured.
the line of any street or other public place.
Persons, firms or corporations desiring to The new Auditorium
carry on the business of bill posting or sign at Los Angeles — its
advertising are required to pay a license CHURCH completion about a year
fee of $50 for the first quarter or unexpired ago almost removes it
balance thereof; and those already carrying
IN A from the catalogue of
it on pay a quarterly license tax of “one- THEATER “new” structures in
quarter of a cent per square foot of the thatfast changing
superficial area” maintained by them ad- — city —
one of the most
is
vertisers of real estate being exempt in mak- beautiful and notable in the United States.
ing announcements as to real property. The Indeed, the tourist, entering by the broad
tax seems to have had little or no restrain- marble foyer that circles it, and taking a
ing effect on the billboard business, for the balcony seat at the side commanding a view
city has at least as many as other cities of the whole house, is likely to think of
of its size. It has possibly resulted in the Paris rather than of America, and with a
painting of rather more than the usual num- shock realizes that the West really has
ber of signs on buildings. But the office “grown up.” For a month in the autumn,
records at least are very interesting. They grand opera held the boards every week
are arranged in a card catalogue, each of —
day night as it did last year too and the —
the several bill posting firms which do busi- months when the program is not grand
ness in Los Angeles being represented by a opera, it is something else, less dignified.
card of different color. These cards are then —
But regularly whatever the ballets or
other frivolities of the week when Sun- — in the shuffle. Still, one day a week it as-
days roll around the big auditorium is serts itself within, congregations filling most
thronged again, morning and evening. For of the 3,000 seats at two services, and a
above all else, the auditorium is the home prayer meeting sanctifying the smaller
of Rev. Dr. Robert J. Burdette’s Temple auditorium with its thousand and fifty
Baptist Church, and as such it is a re- seats. The service is dignified, and when
markably interesting ecclesiastical struc- the notes of the big organ accompany a
ture. Outwardly, it is not churchly. With couple of thousand voices on a familiar
its nine or ten many windowed stories, its hymn, there is an effect that may well
PATRICK HENRY SCHOOL— ENTRANCE.

—
nearly square area 165 by 175 feet it is — make the straying grand opera goer sit up
more like a commercial structure, or, in the and take notice.
ornateness of its fagade, a hotel. The broad The auditorium was built primarily, it is
and conspicuous marquise is suggestive of said, for the church, mainly by the pastor’s
a theatre; and there are in fact three large wife, but no one can help the feeling that
auditoriums under the one roof, and 150 office the church is in the theatre, and not the
rooms, besides committee rooms and various —
theatre in the church the better feeling of
other apartments, so that, being all of these the two to have, no doubt. Dr. Burdette,
other things which it suggests, it is not who is a plain little man, is “discovered”
strange that modern ecclesiasticism is lost in the glare of the footlights to be at “right
Architect.
Ittner,
B.
W.
SCHOOL.
EMERSON
Mo.
Louis,
St.
THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD
center, ensconced in a massive gilt and chorus choir is seated on tiers of seats, may
brocade chair, such as DeWolf Hopper be of wood; but if it is, it was slid in for
would have graced in a royal role, and the the occasion. The Sunday the writer was
very hassock that you would expect, of gilt there the organ offertory was the Inter-
St. Louis, Mo. COTE BRILLIANTE SCHOOL— ENTRANCE W B. Ittner, Architect.
and brocade, is under his feet. The stage is mezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana —quite as
set for a church scene, even to stained glass if, at a moment when Dr. Burdette was not
windows at the rear, but you know it is all looking, it had dropped down from the ceil-
canvas. The Gothic rail behind which the ing a relic of the night before.
—
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
Of all the poor and Herald Isabel McDougal has contributed a

weak names that have description of the decorations of the new
been given to great banquet hall. It is a vast and gorgeous
HOTEL hostelries that of Chi- Louis XVI. apartment, with a “ceiling
DE C ORATION cago’s Auditorium An- strongly reminiscent of the Hotel de Ville
nex is probably the of Paris.” This ceiling consists of five
worst. And now the panels set in massive gold moldings, each
big Annex is itself panel containing a painting by William D.
getting a big annex to which there seems Leftwich Dodge, relating to the story of
to be no proper title except Auditorium An- Eurydice. Cupids lean over a balustrade
St. Louis, Mo. CLAY SCHOOL— ENTRANCE. W. B. Ittner, Architect.
nex Addition. It is again a case, judging at opposite ends, and in the center “boldly
from descriptions and reckoning of costs, foreshortened gods and goddesses” drape
of filia pulchrior, and one wonders — with themselves over floating clouds. The ribs
this fact thrust prominently before one of the ceiling extend down to a gallery
whether after all the whole scheme may not which, with a rail of gilt ironwork runs
be a Chicago device for imparting an an- around the entire hall. To the gallery open
cestral atmosphere to a new hotel. The four arched doorways in ornate gilded mold-
traveler is presented a group picture of ings. The wall space between the doors is
three generations. To the Chicago Record- lavishly ornamented with molded garlands
and blue medallions on which float deli- smaller but ornate adjoining salon, and be-
cately white figures in flying veils and yond that the stately Tudor Hall.
draperies. There is a statue at each corner It has seemed worth while to note with
of the hall, and over the doors in high re- some detail these decorations, accepting this
lief are groups of piping shepherds and new hotel as a type of many that have lately
BBSS
IpMi
- -a ^
WYMAN SCHOOL— ENTRANCE.

listening nymphs. To all of this one must been constructed, offering a type of decora-
add huge chandeliers, draperies of old rose tion with examples of which in hostelry, —
velvet, glittering side lights and many mir- club, apartment house and restaurant New —
rors. If it “looks like money,” it also —
we York is simply bursting. The old song, “I
—
are told looks like art, which is a none too dreamed that I dwelt in marble halls,” evi-
common combination. Then there is the dently expresses a common yearning of man,
or more frequently of womankind. Only ing world. It is not alone in the gilded East
now, for a comparatively moderate con- of golden America —
in New York, Phila-
sideration, one actually can dwell for a space delphia, Boston, and Washington. Dirty
in a mahogany chamber, with marble bath- London, gay Paris, modern Berlin, the Swiss
room, and Louis XVI. halls of splen- have something of the sort. The
resorts, all
/
Louis, Mo.
TEACHERS’ COLLEGE' —ENTRANCE.
St. W. B. Ittner, Architect.
dor, and such countless numbers do so dwell hotel described is Chicago; but a new
in
as enrich the builders and proprietors.
to hotel in Omaha differs only in size. San
One is tempted to venture an essay on the Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle wherever —
historical, psychological and artistic aspects the trail of the tourist leads, chateau or
of the situation. It certainly is something palace has arisen. And the curious, even
new. And it has spread all over the travel- the pitiful thing about it is that they are all
just alike. It would seem as if the style ner, those principles of mechanics under-
must certainly affect our domestic architec- lying the design of reinforced concrete, to
ture, unless its complete lack of domestic present the results of all available tests that
feeling saves us. It is so palpably public, may aid in establishing coefficients and
or semi-public, that perhaps the travel- working stresses, and to give such illustra-
ing multitudes who are unimaginative do tive material from actual designs as may be
not associate the splendor with their needed to make clear the principles involved.
own homes. To most of them, be it This program has been carried out remark-
noted, train time is the Cinderella stroke ably well. We
have gone carefully through
of twelve, when all the gaudiness drops the work and have no hesitation in recom-
away. But they have had their dream, mending it, especially to the busy man who
have bought their souvenir postals, and wants to get quickly at well digested “re-
have paid their bills, and maybe they can sults.” The architect will be particularly
come again. Meanwhile, it is encouraging to pleased with the analytical treatment of the
observe that there are enough intelligent arch with diagrams, and the other tables
persons, who are becoming satiated with a and diagrams that are brought together in
sameness of gilt and rose, to create a Chapter IV. The book is well printed, the
profitable demand com-
for the thoroughly diagrams are carefully made with thor-
and even cosy big hotel.
fortable, individual, oughly legible lettering (a merit frequently
That is beginning to give to American lacking), and is provided with an index
architects a new opportunity, which is in- which we think could have been expanded
teresting and really worth while. somewhat with advantage.
THE, It will spe-

be of
ARCHITECT. cial interestarchi- to By the death last

tects and architectural summer
URAL LEAGUE Augustus
of
OF AMERICA draftsmen to learn that SAINT Saint Gaudens America

the Architectural GAUDENS lost one of her great-
ESTABLISHES League America has
INDIVIDUAL
of
BY ROYAL est sculptors and the
established an Individ- world one of its finest
MEMBERSHIP Membership for
CORTISSOZ*
ual artistic minds. So
persons who are not members of the various distinguished a figure
clubs of the League but who are interested in contemporary art was deserving of
in the study and promotion of Architecture prompt and fitting commemoration, and the
and the allied arts and professions. object of this notice is to call attention to
Such persons will be entitled to member- the delicate treatment which he has received
ship in the League with all the privileges at the hands of Mr. Royal Cortissoz, the art
pertaining thereto, except voting at the an- critic who can justly claim a knowledge of
nual convention. They may participate in the man, having enjoyed for many years an
all conventions with the privilege of the intimate friendship with the great sculptor.
floor. “Saint Gaudens was,” says Cortissoz, “not
They are also eligible to compete for the only our greatest sculptor, but the first to
Traveling Scholarship offered by the League, break with the old epoch of insipid ideas
and for Fellowships offered by several uni- and hidebound academic notions of style,
versities. giving the art a new lease of life, and fixing
Further information and applications for a new standard.” The book as a whole is
membership can be secured by communicat- a commendable piece of critical and bio-
ing with H. S. McAllister, Permanent Sec- graphical prose.
retary, No. 729 15th Street, N. W., Washing- The twenty-four illustrations in photo-
ton, D. C. gravure are fine, being the first attempt to
bring together a complete series of Saint
The interest that now Gaudens’ work. In appearance the book is
exists in the engineer- an attractive tall quarto handsomely printed.
REINFORCED ing and architectural
professions in regard
CONCRETE. to reinforced concrete The house of Mr. Edward L. Swift, at Lake
CONSTRUCTION* construction gives to Geneva, Wisconsin, which appeared in the
this volume, in an un- December issue, is to be attributed to Messrs.
usual degree, the value Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge and Mr. H. V. D.
of timeliness. The authors say that they have Shaw as associated architects, and not solely
endeavored to cover, in a systematic man- to the latter, as printed in that issue.
Principles of Reinforced Concrete Construction, Saint Gaudens. By Royal Cortissoz.

Augustus
by F. E. Turneaure and E. R. Maurer, published Illustrated Houghton, Mifflin and Company,
by John Wiley & Sons, New York, and Chapman &
Hall, Limited, London. Boston and New York. 1907.
Copyright, 1908, by ‘The Architectural Record Company.” All rights reserved.
Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N Y. ;
Act of Congress of March 3d, 1879.
Vol. XXIII. No. 3. MARCH, 1908. Whole No. 114
•pV© N ;
- *T E v' N : f '%
Page
IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE: THE WORK OF FRANK LLOYD
WRIGHT. Frank Lloyd Wright 155

Illustrated.
AN INTIMATE AUDITORIUM THE INTERIOR OF THE NEW STUY-

:
VESANT THEATRE IN NEW YORK 223

Illustrated. Arthur C. David.
MONTGOMERY, WARD & COMPANY’S NEW WAREHOUSE, CHICAGO 228

Schmidt, Garden & Martin, Architects.
NOTES AND COMMENTS , 229

The Parker Building Fire — Municipal Action
Necessary—Lake Shore Drive Apartment House,
Chicago—Modern Landscape Gardening— Spring
Garden Branch, Carnegie Library, Philadelphia—
Borie Building — The Los Angeles Plan New —
Haven’s Awakening— Residence of Mr. Henry C.
Butcher— A Cathedral for Halifax—Town Plan-
ning Suggestions— Municipal Art — Public Building
Sites —Municipal Art Society Meeting - Foreign
Thoughts on Town Planning.
PUBLISHED BY
Genl'.^Mgr.? }H- W. Desmond Secretary, F. T. Miller
Telephone, 4430 Madison Square
CENTS
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JOdjitrctural
Vol. XXIII MARCH, 1908. No. 3.
In the Cause of Architecture

The reader of architectural discourses encounters with increasing frequency discussions
on American Architecture, Indigenous Architecture. These are generally to the effect that in
order to establish a vital architecture in the United States, it is necessary for the architect
to sever his literal connection with past performances, to shape his forms to requirements
and in a manner consistent with beauty of form as found in Nature, both animate and in-
animate. Articles in this strain have appeared, from time to time, in this and in other
architectural journals, and have been in most cases too vague in their diction to be well
understood, either by the lay reader or the architect.
The sentiment for an American architecture first made itself felt in Chicago twenty years
ago. Its earliest manifestation is the acknowledged solution of the tall office building
problem. An original phase of that early movement is now presented, in the following arti-
cle and illustrations, the work of Mr. Prank Lloyd Wright.
—Editors of THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
Radical though it be, the work here il- tile,so suggestive, so helpful aesthetically
lustrated is dedicated to a cause conserv- for the architect as a comprehension of
ative in the best sense of the word. At no natural law. As Nature is never right for
point does it involve denial of the ele- a picture so is she never right for the
mental law and order inherent in all architect —
that is, not ready-made. Nev-
great architecture rather, is it a declar-
;
ertheless, she has a practical school be-
ation of love for the spirit of that law neath her more obvious forms in which
and order, and a reverential recognition a sense of proportion may be cultivated,
of the elements that made its ancient let- when Vignola and Vitruvius fail as they
ter in its time vital and beautiful. must always fail. It is there that he may
Primarily, Nature furnished the mate- develop that sense of reality that trans-
rials for architectural motifs out of lated to his own field in terms of his own
which the architectural forms as we work will lift him far above the realistic
know them to-day have been developed, in his art; there he will be inspired by
and, although our practice for centuries sentiment that will never degenerate to
has been for the most part to turn from sentimentality and he will learn to draw
her, seeking inspiration in books and ad- with a surer hand the every-perplexing
hering slavishly to dead formulae, her line between the curious and the beauti-
wealth of suggestion is inexhaustible her ;
ful.
riches greater than any man’s desire. I A sense of the organic is indispensable
know with what suspicion the man is re- to an architect
where can he develop it
;
garded who refers matters of fine art so surely as in this school? A knowledge
back to Nature. I know that it is usually of the relations of form and function lies
an ill-advised return that is attempted, at the root of his practice where else can ;
for Nature in external, obvious aspect is he find the pertinent object lessons Na-
the usually accepted sense of the term ture so readily furnishes ? Where can he
and the nature that is reached. But given study the differentiations of form that
inherent vision there is no source so fer- go to determine character as he can
Copyright, 1908, by '‘The Architectural Record Company.” All rights reserved.
4
:
study them in the trees? Where can “New School of the Middle West” is be-
that sense of inevitableness characteris- ginning to be talked about and perhaps
tic of a work of art be quickened as it some day it is to be. For why not the
may be by intercourse with nature in this same “Life” and blood in architecture
sense ? that is the essence of all true art ?
Japanese art knows this school more In 1894, with this text from Carlyle
intimately than that of any people. In at the top of the page
—
“The Ideal
common use in their language there are is within thyself, thy condition is but the
many words like the word “edaburi,” stuff thou art to shape that same Ideal
which, translated as near as may be, out of” I — formulated the following
means the formative arrangement of the “propositions.” I set them down here
branches of a tree. Wehave no such much as they were written then, al-
word in English, we are not yet suffi- though in the light of experience they
ciently civilized to think in such terms, might be stated more completely and
but the architect must not only learn to succinctly.
think in such terms but he must learn in I.- — Simplicity and Repose are qualities
this school to fashion his vocabulary for that measure the true value of any
himself and furnish it in a comprehensive work of art.
way with useful words as significant as But simplicity is not in itself an end
this one. nor is it a matter of the side of a barn

For seven years it was my good for- but rather an entity with a graceful
tune to be the understudy of a great beauty in its integrity from which dis-
teacher and a great architect, to my mind cord, and all that is meaningless, has
—
the greatest of his time Mr. Louis H. been eliminated. A wild flower is truly
Sullivan. simple. Therefore
Principles are not invented, they are 1. A building should contain as few
not evolved by one man or one age, but rooms as will meet the conditions
Mr. Sullivan’s perception and practice of which give it rise and under which we
them amounted to a revelation at a time live, and which the architect should
when they were commercially inexpedient strive continually to simplify; then the
and but lost to sight in current prac-
all ensemble of the rooms should be care-
tice. The fine art sense of the profession fully considered that comfort and util-
was at that time practically dead; only ity may go hand in hand with beauty.
glimmerings were perceptible in the work Beside the entry and necessary work
of Richardson and of Root. rooms there need be but three rooms
Adler and Sullivan had little time to on the ground floor of any house, liv-
design residences. The few that were ing room, dining room and kitchen,
unavoidable fell to my lot outside of of- with the possible addition of a “social
fice hours. So largely, it remained for office” really there need be but one
;
me to carry into the field of domestic room, the living room with require-
architecture the battle they had begun in ments otherwise sequestered from it
commercial building. During the early or screened within it by means of archi-
years of my own practice I found this tectural contrivances.
lonesome work. Sympathizers of any 2. Openings should occur as integral
kind were then few and they were not features of the structure and form, if
found among the architects. I well re- possible, its natural ornamentation.
member how “the message” burned with- 3. An excessive love of detail has
in me, how I longed for comradeship un- ruined more fine things from the stand-
til I began to know the younger men and point of fine art or fine living than any
how welcome was Robert Spencer, and one human shortcoming — it is hope-
then Myron Hunt, and Dwight Perkins, lessly vulgar. Too many houses, when
Arthur Heun, George Dean and Hugh they are not little stage settings or
Garden. Inspiring days they were, I am scene paintings, are mere notion stores,
sure, for us all. Of late we have been bazaars or junk-shops. Decoration is
too busv to see one another often, but the dangerous unless you understand it
IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE. 157
thoroughly and are satisfied that it V. — Bring out the nature of the mate-
means something good in the scheme rials, let theirnature intimately into your
as a whole, for the present you are scheme. Strip the wood of varnish and
usually better off without it. Merely let it alone —
stain it. Develop the nat-
that it “looks rich” is no justification ural texture of the plastering and stain
for the use of ornament. it. Reveal the nature of the wood, plas-
4. Appliances or fixtures as such are ter, brick or stone in your designs ; they
undesirable. Assimilate them together are all by nature friendly and beautiful.
with all appurtenances into the design No treatment can be really a matter of
of the structure. fine art when these natural characteristics
5. Pictures deface walls oftener than are, or their nature is, outraged or neg-
they decorate them. Pictures should lected.
be decorative and incorporated in the VI. —Ahouse that has character stands
general scheme as decoration. a good chance of growing more valuable
6. The most truly satisfactory apart- as it grows older while a house in the
ments are those in which most or all of prevailing mode, whatever that mode
the furniture is built in as a part of the may be, is soon out of fashion, stale and
original scheme considering the whole unprofitable.
as an integral unit. Buildings like people must first be sin-
II. — There should be as many kinds cere, must be true and then withal as
(styles) of houses as there are kinds gracious and lovable as may be.
(styles) of people and as many differen- Above all, integrity. The machine is
tiations as there are different individuals. the normal tool of our civilization, give
A man who has individuality (and what it work that it can do well —
nothing is of
man lacks it?) has a right to its expres- greater importance. To do this will be to
sion in his own environment. formulate new industrial ideals, sadly
III. —A building should appear to grow needed.
These propositions are chiefly interest-
easily from its site and be shaped to har-
monize with its surroundings if Nature is ing because for some strange reason they
manifest there, and if not try to make it were novel when formulated in the face
as quiet, substantial and organic as She of conditions hostile to them and because
the ideals they phrase have been prac-
would have been were the opportunity
tically embodied in the buildings that
Hers.*
We of the Middle West are living on were built to live up to them. The build-
the prairie. The prairie has a beauty of its
ings of recent years have not only been
true to them, but are in many cases a
own and we should recognize and accen-
further development of the simple propo-
tuate this natural beauty, its quiet level.
sitions so positively stated then.
Hence, gently sloping roofs, low propor-
tions, quiet sky lines, suppressed heavy-
Happily, these ideals are more com-
set chimneys and sheltering overhangs,
monplace now. Then the sky lines of our
low terraces and out-reaching walls se- domestic architecture were fantastic
abortions, tortured by features that dis-
questering private gardens.
—
IV. Colors require the same conven- rupted the distorted roof surfaces from
which attenuated chimneys like lean fin-
tionalizing process to make them fit to
gers threatened the sky; the invariably
live with that natural forms do so go to
;
tall interiors were cut up into box-like

the woods and fields for color schemes.
Use the soft, warm, optimistic tones of compartments, the more boxes the finer
earths and autumn leaves in preference
the house and “Architecture” chiefly
;
consisted in healing over the edges of the

to the pessimistic blues, purples or cold
curious collection of holes that had to be
greens and grays of the ribbon counter;
cut in the walls for light and air and to
they are more wholesome and better
permit the occupant to get in or out.
adapted in most cases to good decoration.
These interiors were always slaughtered
*In this I had in mind the barren town lots with the butt and slash of the old plinth
devoid of tree or natural incident, town houses
and board walks only in evidence. and corner block trim, of dubious origin,
and finally smothered with horrible mil- the conventionalization as a solution and
linery. an artistic expression of a specific prob-
That individuality in a building was lem within these limitations has been
possible for each home maker, or desir- handled. The types are largely a matter
able, seemed at that time to rise to the of personal taste and may have much or
dignity of an idea. Even cultured men little to do with the American architec-
and women care so little for the spiritual ture for which we hope.
integrity of their environment; except in From the beginning of my practice the
rare cases they are not touched, they sim- question uppermost in my mind has been
ply do not care for the matter so long as not “what style” but “what is style?” and
their dwellings are fashionable or as good it is my belief that the chief value of the
as those of their neighbors and keep them work illustrated here will be found in the
dry and warm. A
structure has no more fact that if in the face of our present day
meaning to them aesthetically than has conditions any given type may be treated
the stable to the horse. And this came to independently and imbued with the qual-
me in the early years as a definite dis- ity of style, then a truly noble architec-
couragement. There are exceptions, and ture is a definite possibility, so soon as
I found them chiefly among American Americans really demand it of the archi-
men of business with unspoiled instincts tects of the rising generation.
and untainted ideals. A
man of this type I do not believe we will ever again
usually has the faculty of judging for have the uniformity of type which has
himself. He has rather liked the “idea” characterized the so-called great “styles.”
and much of the encouragement this Conditions have changed our ideal is
;
work receives comes straight from him Democracy, the highest possible expres-
because the “common sense” of the thing sion of the individual as a unit not incon-
appeals to him. While the “cultured” are sistent with a harmonious whole. The
still content with their small chateaux, average of human intelligence rises stead-
Colonial wedding cakes, English affecta- ily,
and as the individual unit grows
tions or French millinery, he prefers a more and more to be trusted we will have
poor thing but his own. He errs on the an architecture with richer variety in
side of character, at least, and when the unity than has ever arisen before but the
;
test of time has tried his country’s de- forms must be born out of our changed
velopment architecturally, he will have conditions, they must be true forms,
contributed his quota, small enough in otherwise the best that tradition has to
the final outcome though it be he will ;
offer is only an inglorious masquerade,
be regarded as a true conservator. devoid of vital significance or true spir-
In the hope that some day America itual value.
may live her own life in her own build- The trials of the early days were many
ings, in her own way, that is, that we and at this distance picturesque. Work-
may make the best of what we have for men seldom like to think, especially if
what it honestly is or may become, I have there is financial risk entailed at your
;
endeavored in this work to establish a peril do you disturb their established pro-
harmonious relationship between ground cesses mental or technical. To do any-
plan and elevation of these buildings, thing in an unusual, even if in a better
considering the one as a solution and the and simpler way, is to complicate the sit-
other an expression of the conditions of uation at once. Simple things at that
a problem of which the whole is a pro- time in any industrial field were nowhere
ject. I have tried to establish an or- at hand. A piece of wood without a
ganic integrity to begin with, forming the moulding was an anomaly a plain wood-
;
basis for the subsequent working out of en slat instead of a turned baluster a
a significant grammatical expression and joke; the omission of the merchantable
making the whole, as nearly as I could, “grille” a crime plain fabrics for hang-
;
consistent. ings or floor covering were nowhere to

What quality of style the buildings may be found in stock.
possess isdue to the artistry with which To become the recognized enemy of
the established industrial order was no house for his money as any of his neigh-
light matter, for soon whenever a set of bors, with something in the home in-
my drawings was presented to a Chi- trinsically valuable besides, which will
cago mill-man for figures he would will- not be out of fashion in one lifetime,
ingly enough unroll it, read the archi- and which contributes steadily to his dig-
tect’s name, shake his head and return it nity and his pleasure as an individual.
with the remark that he was “not hunting It would not be useful to dwell further
for trouble” sagacious owners and gen-

;
upon difficulties encountered, for it is the
eral contractors tried cutting out the common story of simple progression
name, but in vain, his perspicacity was everywhere in any field I merely wish to
;
rat-like, he had come to know “the look trace here the “motif” behind the types.
of the thing.” So, in addition to the spe- A study of the illustrations will show that
cialpreparation in any case necessary for the buildings presented fall readily into
every little matter of construction and three groups having a family resem-
finishing, special detail drawings were blance the low-pitched hip roofs, heaped
;
necessary merely to show the things to be together in pyramidal fashion, or present-

ing quiet, unbroken skylines the low
left off or not done, and not only studied ;
designs for every part had to be made but roofs with simple pediments countering
quantity surveys and schedules of mill on long ridges; and those topped with a
work furnished the contractors beside. simple slab. Of the first type, the
This, in a year or two, brought the archi- Winslow, Henderson, Willits, Thomas,
tect face to face with the fact that the fee Heurtley, Heath, Cheney, Martin, Little,
for his service “established” by the Amer- Gridley, Millard, Tomek, Coonley and
ican Institute of Architects was intended Westcott houses, the Hillside Home
for something stock and shop, for it School and the Pettit Memorial Chapel
would not even pay for the bare drawings are typical. Of the second type the
necessary for conscientious work. Bradley, Hickox, Davenport and Dana
The relation of the architect to the eco- houses are typical. Of the third, Atelier
nomic and industrial movement of his for Richard Bock, Unity Church, the
time, in any fine art sense, is still an af- concrete house of the Ladies’ Home
fair so sadly out of joint that no one may Journal and other designs in process of
easily reconcile it. All agree that some- execution. The Larkin Building is a
thing has gone wrong and except the simple, dignified utterance of a plain,
utilitarian type with sheer brick walls and
architect be a plain factory magnate, who
has reduced his art to a philosophy of old simple stone copings. The studio is
clothes and sells misfit or made-over- merely an early experiment in “articula-
ready-to-wear garments with commercial tion.”
aplomb and social distinction, he cannot Photographs do not adequately present
succeed on the present basis established these subjects. A
building has a presence
by common So, in addition to
practice. as has a person that defies the photog-
a situation already complicated for them, rapher, and the color so necessary to the
a necessarily increased fee stared in the complete expression of the form is neces-
face the clients who dared. But some did sarily lacking, but it will be noticed that
dare, as the illustrations prove. allthe structures stand upon their foun-
The struggle then was and still is to dations to the eye as well as physically.
make “good architecture,” “good busi- There is good, substantial preparation at
ness.” It is perhaps significant that in the ground for all the buildings and it is
the beginning it was very difficult to se- the first grammatical expression of all the
cure a building loan on any terms upon types. This preparation, or watertable, is
one of these houses, now it is easy to se- to these buildings what the stylobate was
cure a better loan than ordinary but how
;
to the ancient Greek temple. To gain it,
was necessary to reverse estab-

the
far success has attended this ambition the it
owners of these buildings alone can tes- lished practice of setting the supports of
tify. Their trials have been many, but the building to the outside of the wall and
each, I think, feels that he has as much to set them to the inside, so as to leave
i6o THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
the necessary support for the outer base. innovation but ‘‘those swinging win-
This was natural enough and good dows,” and when told that they were in
enough construction but many an owner the nature of the proposition and that
was disturbed by private information they must take them or leave the rest,
from the practical contractor to the effect they frequently employed “the other fel-
that he would have his whole house in the low” to give them something “near,”
cellar if he submitted to it. This was at with the “practical” windows dear to
the time a marked innovation though the their hearts.
most natural thing in the world and to With the grammar so far established,
me, to this day, indispensable. came an expression pure and simple, even
With this innovation established, one classic in atmosphere, using that much-
horizontal stripe of raw material, the abused word in its best sense; implying,
foundation wall above ground, was elimi- that is, a certain sweet reasonableness of
nated and the complete grammar of type form and outline naturally dignified.
one made possible. A simple, unbroken I have observed that Nature usually
wall surface from foot to level of second perfects her forms the individuality
; o"f
story sill was thus secured, a change of the attribute is seldom sacrified; that is,
material occuring at that point to fornj deformed or mutilated by co-operative
the simple frieze that characterizes the parts. She rarely says a thing and tries
earlier buildings. Even this was fre- to take it back at the same time. She
quently omitted as in the Francis apart- would not sanction the “classic” pro-
ments and many other buildings and the ceeding of, say, establishing an “order,”
wall was let alone from base to cornice or a colonnade, then building walls between
eaves. the columns of the order reducing them
“Dress reform houses” they were to pilasters,thereafter cutting holes in
remember, by the charitably dis-
called, I the wall and pasting on cornices with
posed. What others called them will more around them, with the
pilasters
hardly bear repetition. result that every form is outraged, the
As the wall surfaces were thus simpli- whole an abominable mutilation, as is
fied and emphasized the matter of fenes- most of the the architecture of the Re-
tration became exceedingly difficult and naissance wherein style corrodes style
more than ever important, and often I and all the forms are stultified.
used to gloat over the beautiful buildings In laying out the ground plans for
I could build if only it were unnecessary even the more insignificant of these
to cut holes in them; but the holes were buildings a simple axial law and order
managed at first frankly as in the Wins- and the ordered spacing upon a system of
low house and later as elementary con- certain structural units definitely estab-
stituents ofthe structure grouped in lished for each structure in accord with
rhythmical fashion, so that all the light its scheme of practical construction and
and air and prospect the most rabid aesthetic proportion, is practiced as an
clinet could wish would not be too much expedient to simplify the technical diffi-
from an artistic standpoint; and of this culties of execution, and, although the
achievement I am proud. The groups are symmetry may not be obvious always the
managed, too, whenever required, so that balance is usually maintained. The plans
overhanging eaves do not shade them, al- are as a rule much more articulate than
though the walls are still protected from is the school product of the Beaux Arts.
the weather. Soon the poetry-crushing The individuality of the various functions
characteristics of the guillotine window, of the various features is more highly de-
which was then firmly rooted, became ap- veloped all the forms are complete in
;
parent and, single-handed I waged a de- themselves and frequently do duty at the
termined battle for casements swinging same time from within and without as
out, although it was necessary to have decorative attributes of the whole. This
special hardware made for them as there tendency to greater individuality of the
was none to be had this side of England. parts emphasized by more and more com-
Clients would come ready to accept any plete articulation will be seen in the plans
for Unity Church, the cottage for Eliza- rhythmic arrangement of straight lines
beth Stone at Glencoe and the Avery and squares made as cunning as possible
Coonly house in process of construction so long as the result is quiet. The aim is
at Riverside, Illinois. Moreover, these that the designs shall make the best of
ground plans are merely the actual pro- the technical contrivances that produce
jection of a carefully considered whole. them.
The “architecture” is not “thrown up” as In the main the ornamentation is
an artistic exercise, a matter of elevation wrought in the warp and woof of the
the best
It is constitutional in
from a preconceived ground plan. The structure.
schemes are conceived in three dimen- sense and conception of the
is felt in the
sions as organic entities, let the pictur- ground plan. To elucidate this element
esque perspective fall how it will. While in composition would mean a long story
a sense of the incidental perspectives the and perhaps a tedious one though to me
design will develop is always present, I it is the most fascinating phase of the
have great faith that if the thing is right- work, involving the true poetry of con-
ly put together in true organic sense with ception.
proportions actually right the picturesque The differentiation of a single, certain
will take care of itself. No man ever simple form characterizes the expression
built a building worthy the name of of one building. Quite a different form
architecture who fashioned it in perspec- may serve for another, but from one
tive sketch to his taste and then fudged basic idea all the formal elements of de-
the plan to suit. Such methods produce sign are in each case derived and held
mere scene-painting. A perspective may well together in scale and character. The
form chosen may flare outward, opening
be a proof but it is no nurture.
As to the mass values of the buildings flower-like to the sky as in the Thomas
the aesthetic principles outlined in propo- house another, droop to accentuate artis-
;
sition III will account in a measure for tically the weight of the masses another ;
their character. be non-committal or abruptly emphatic,

In the matter of decoration the ten- or its grammar may be deduced from
dency has been to indulge it less and less, some plant form that has appealed to me,
in many cases merely providing certain as certain properties in line and form of
architectural preparation for natural foli- the sumach were used in the Lawrence
age or flowers, as it is managed in say, house at Springfield; but in every case
the entrance to the Lawrence house at the motif is adhered to throughout so
Springfield. This use of natural foliage that it is not too much to say that each
and flowers for decoration is carried to building aesthetically is cut from one
quite an extent in all the designs and, al- piece of goods and consistently hangs
though the buildings are complete with- together with an integrity impossible
out this effloresence, they may be said to otherwise.
blossom with the season. What architec- In a fine art sense these designs have
tural decoration the buildings carry is not grown as natural plants grow, the indi-
only conventionalized to the point where viduality of each is integral and as com-
it is quiet and stays as a sure
foil for the plete as skill, time, strength and circum-
nature forms from which it is derived stances would permit.
and with which it must intimately asso- The method in itself does not of neces-
ciate, but it is always of the surface, sity produce a beautiful building, but it
never on it. does provide a framework as a basis

The windows usually are provided which has an organic integrity, suscepti-
with characteristic straight line patterns ble to the architect’s imagination and at
absolutely in the flat and usually severe. once opening to him Nature’s wealth of
The nature of the glass is taken into ac- artistic suggestion, ensuring him a guid-
count in these designs as is also the metal ing principle within which he can never
bar used in their construction, and most be wholly false, out of tune, or. lacking
of them are treated as metal “grilles” in rational motif. The subtleties, the
shifting blending harmonies, the ca-
with glass inserted forming a simple
dences, the nuances are a matter of his and this furnishes the common ground
own nature, his own susceptibilities and upon which client and architect may
faculties.
come together. Then, if the architect is
But self denial
is imposed upon the what he ought to be, with his ready tech-
architect a far greater extent than
to nique he conscientiously works for the
upon any other member of the fine art client, idealizes his client’s character and
family. The temptation to sweeten work, his client’s tastes and makes him feel that
to make each detail in itself lovable and the building is his as it really is to such
expressive is always great; but that the an extent that he can truly say that he
whole may be truly eloquent of its ulti- would rather have his own house than
mate function restraint is imperative. To any other he has ever seen. Is a portrait,
let individual elements arise and shine
at say by Sargent, any less a revelation of
the expense of final repose is for the the character of the subject because it
architect, a betrayal of trust for buildings bears his stamp and is easily recognized
are the background or framework for the by any one as a Sargent ? Does one lose
human life within their walls and a foil his individuality wheninterpreted
it is
for the nature efflorescence without. So sympathetically by one of his own race
architecture is the most complete of con- and time who can know him and his
ventionalizations and of all the arts the needs intimately and idealize them; or
most subjective except music. does he gain it only by having adopted
Music may be for the architect ever or adapted to his condition a ready-made
and always a sympathetic friend whose historic style which is the fruit of a seed-
counsels, precepts and patterns even are time other than his, whatever that style
available to him and from which he need may be ?
not fear to draw. But the arts are to- The present industrial condition is con-
day all cursed by literature; artists at- stantly studied in the practical applica-
tempt to make literature even of music, tion of these architectural ideals and the
usually of painting and sculpture and treatment simplified and arranged to fit
doubtless would of architecture also, modern processes and to utilize to the
were the art not moribund but whenever ; best advantage the work of the machine.
it is done the soul of the thing
dies and The furniture takes the clean cut,
we have not art but something far less straight-line forms that the machine can
for which the true artist can have neither render far better than would be possible
affection nor respect. by hand.
. .
Certain facilities, too, of the
Contrary to the usual supposition this machine, which it would be interesting
manner of working out a theme is more to enlarge upon, are taken advantage of
flexible than any working out in a fixed, and the nature of the materials is usu-
historic style can ever be, and the indi- ally revealed in the process.
viduality of those concerned may receive Nor the atmosphere of the result in
is
more adequate treatment within legiti- its new and hard. In most
completeness
mate limitations. This matter of indi- of the interiors there will be found a
viduality puzzles many they suspect that
; quiet, a simple dignity that we imagine
the individuality of the owner and occu- is only to be found in the “old” and it
is
pant of a building is sacrificed to that of due to the underlying organic harmony,
the architect who imposes his own upon to the each in all and the all in each
Jones, Brown and Smith alike. An throughout. This is the modern oppor-
architect worthy of the name has an in-
dividuality,
tunity. —to make of a building, together
it is true ;
his work will and with its equipment, appurtenances and
should reflect it, and his buildings will all environment, an entity which shall con-
bear a family resemblance one to an- stitute a complete work of art, and a
other. Theindividuality of an owner is work of art more valuable to society as a
first manifestin his choice of his archi- whole than has before existed because
tect, the individual to whom he entrusts discordant conditions endured for centur-
his characterization. He sympathizes ies are smoothed away; everyday life
with his work; its expression suits him here finds an expression germane to its
; ;
daily existence an idealization of the

;
an idea that the ornamentation of a build-
common need sure to be uplifting and ing should be constitutional, a matter of
helpful in the same sense that pure air to the nature of the structure beginning
breathe is better than air poisoned with with the ground plan. In the buildings
noxious gases. themselves, in the sense of the whole,
An artist's limitations are his best there is lacking neither richness nor inci-
friends. The machine is here to stay. It dent but their qualities are secured not
is the forerunner of the democracy that by applied decoration, they are found in
is our dearest hope. There is no more the fashioning of the whole, in which
important work before the architect now color, too, plays as significant a part as it
that to use this normal tool of civilization does in an old Japanese wood block print.
to the best advantage instead of prostitut- Second because, as before stated, build-
;
ing it as he has hitherto done in repro- ings perform their highest function in
ducing with murderous ubiquity forms relation to human life within and the nat-
born of other times and other conditions ural efflorescence without and to develop ;
and which it can only serve to destroy. and maintain the harmony of a true
* * * * * * chord between them making of the build-
The exteriors of these structures will ing in this sense a sure foil for life, broad
receive less ready recognition perhaps simple surfaces and highly conventional-
than the interiors and because they are ized forms are inevitable. These ideals
the result of a radically different concep- take the buildings out of school and
tion as to what should constitute a build- marry them to the ground make them ;
ing. We
have formed a habit of mind intimate expressions or revelations of the
concerning architecture to which the ex- exteriors individualize them regardless
;
pression of most of these exteriors must of preconceived notions of style. I have

be a shock, at first more or less disagree- tried to make their grammar perfect in
able, and the more so as the habit of mind its way and to give their forms and pro-
is more narrowly fixed by so called clas- portions an integrity that will bear study,
sic training. Simplicity is not in itself although few of them can be intelli-
an end; it is a means to an end. Our gently studied apart from their environ-
aesthetics are dyspeptic from incontinent ment. So, what might be termed the
indulgence in “Frenchite” pastry. We democratic character of the exteriors is
crave ornament for the sake of ornament their first undefined offence the lack, —
cover up our faults of design with orna- wholly, of what the professional critic
mental sensualities that were a long time would deem architecture in fact, most ;
ago sensuous ornament. We

will do well of the critic’s architecture has* been left
unwholesome and unholy
to distrust this out.
craving and look to the simple line; to There is always a synthetic basis for
the clean though living form and quiet the features of the various structures,
color for a time, until the true signifi- and consequently a constantly accumu-
cance of these things has dawned for us lating residue of formulae, which be-
once more. The old structural forms comes more and more useful but I do ;
which up to the present time, have spelled not pretend to say that the perception or
“architecture” are decayed. Their life conception of them was not at first intui-
went from them long ago and new con- tive, or that those that lie yet beyond will
ditions industrially, steel and concrete not be grasped in the same intuitive way
and terra cotta in particular, are prophe- but, after all, architecture is a scientific
sying a more plastic art wherein as the art, and the thinking basis will ever be
flesh is to our bones so will the covering for the architect his surety, the final
be to the structure, but more truly and court in which his imagination sifts his
beautifully expressive than ever. But feelings. . . .
that is a long story. This reticence in the The few draughtsmen so far associ-
matter of ornamentation is characteristic ated with this work have been taken
of these structures and for at least two into the draughting room, in every case
reasons first, they are the expression of
;
almost wholly unformed, many of them
—
with no particular previous training, most seriously in that regard, were in-
and patiently nursed for years in the evitably those who had least.
atmosphere of the work itself, until, Manyelements of Mr. Sullivan’s per-
saturated by intimate association, at an sonality in his art —
what might be called
impressionable age, with its motifs and his mannerisms —
naturally enough clung
phases, they have become helpful. To to my work in the early years, and may
develop the sympathetic grasp of detail be readily traced by the casual observer;
that is necessary before this point is but for me one real proof of the virtue
reached has proved usually a matter of inherent in this work will lie in the
years, with little advantage on the side fact that some of the young men and
of the college-trained understudy. These women who have given themselves up
young people have found their way to to me so faithfully these past years will
me through natural sympathy with the some day contribute rounded individu-
work, and have become loyal assistants. alities of their own, and forms of their
The members, so far, all told here and own devising to the new school.
elsewhere, of our little university of This year I assign to each a project
fourteen years’ standing are Marion
: that has been carefully conceived in my
Mahony, a capable assistant for eleven own mind, which he accepts as a specific
years; William Drummond, for seven work. He follows its subsequent devel-
years; Francis Byrne, five years; Isabel opment through all its phases in draw-
Roberts, five years George Willis, four
;
ing room and field, meeting with the
years; Walter Griffin, four years; An- client himself on occasion, gaining an
drew Willatzen, three years ;
Harry all-round development impossible other-
Robinson, two years Charles E. White,
;
wise, and insuring an enthusiasm and a
Jr., one year; Erwin Barglebaugh and grasp of detail decidedly to the best in-
Robert Hardin, each one year Albert ;
terest of the client. These privileges in
McArthur, entering. the hands of selfishly ambitious or over-
Others have been attracted by what confident assistants would soon wreck
seemed to them to be the novelty of the such a system; but I can say that among
work, staying only long enough to ac- my own boys it has already proved a
quire a smattering of form, then depart- moderate success, with every prospect of
ing to sell a superficial proficiency else- being continued as a settled policy in
where. Still others shortly develop a future.
mastery of the subject, discovering that Nevertheless, I believe that only when
it is all just as they would have done it, one individual forms the concept of the
anyway, and, chafing at the unkind fate various projects and also determines the
that forestalled them in its practice, re- character of every detail in the sum
solve to blaze a trail for themselves total, even to the size and shape of the
without further loss of time. It is urged pieces of glass in the windows, the ar-
against the more loyal that they are sac- rangement and profile of the most in-
rificing their individuality to that which significant of the architectural members,
has dominated this work but it is too
;
will that unity be secured which is the
soon to impeach a single understudy on soul of the individual work of art. This
this basis, for, although they will in- means that fewer buildings should be
evitably repeat for years the methods, entrusted to one architect. His output
forms and habit of thought, even the will of necessity be relatively small
mannerisms of the present work, if small, that is, as compared to the volume
there is virtue in the principles behind of work turned out in any one of fifty
it that virtue will stay with them “successful offices” in America. I be-
through the preliminary stages of their lieve there is no middle course worth
own practice until their own individuali- considering in the light of the best fu-
ties truly develop independently. I have ture of American architecture. With no
noticed that those who have made the more propriety can an architect leave
most fuss about their “individuality” in the details touching the form of his con-
early stages, those who took themselves cept to assistants, no matter how sym-
;
;
pathetic and capable they may be, than but shall further find whatever is lovely
can a painter entrust the painting in of or of good repute in method or process,
the details of his picture to a pupil for ;
and idealize it with the cleanest, most
an architect who would do individual virile stroke I can imagine. As under-
work must have a technique well devel- standing and appreciation of life ma-
oped and peculiar to himself, which, if tures and deepens, this work shall
he is fertile, is still growing with his prophesy and idealize the character of
growth. To keep everything “in place” the individual it is fashioned to serve
requires constant care and study in mat- more intimately, no matter how inex-
ters that the old-school practitioner pensive the result must finally be. It
would scorn to touch. . . . shall become in its atmosphere as pure
—
As for the future the work shall and elevating in its humble way as the
grow more truly simple more expres-
;
trees and flowers are in their perfectly
sive with fewer lines, fewer forms more ;
appointed way, for only so can archi-
articulate with less labor more plastic
;
tecture be worthy its high rank as a fine
more fluent, although more coherent art, or the architect discharge the obli-
more organic. It shall grow not only to —
gation he assumes to the public imposed
fit more perfectly the methods and proc- upon him by the nature of his own pro-
esses that are called upon to produce it, fession.
Frank Lloyd Wright.
EXHIBIT OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AT THE CHICAGO ARCHITECTURAL CLUB, 1908.

Buffalo, N. Y. THE’ LARKIN BUILDING.
The Larkin Building is one of a large group of factory buildings situated in the factory
district of Buffalo. It was built to house the commercial engine of the Larkin Company in
light, wholesome, well-ventilated quarters. The smoke, noise and dirt incident to the locality
made it imperative that all exterior surfaces be self cleaning and the interior be created
independently of this environment. The building is a simple working out of certain utilitarian
conditions, its exterior a simple cliff of brick whose only “ornamental” feature is the ex-
terior expression of the central aisle, fashioned by means of the sculptured piers at either
end of the main block. The machinery of the various appurtenance systems, pipe shafts in-
cidental thereto, the heating and ventilating air in-takes, and the stairways which serve also
as fire escapes, are quartered in plan and placed outside the main building at the four outer
corners, so that the entire area might be free for working purposes. These stair chambers
are top-lighted. The interior of the main building thus forms a single large room in which
the main floors are galleries open to a large central court, which is also lighted from above.
All the windows of the various stories or “galleries” are seven feet above the floor, the
space beneath being utilized for steel filing cabinets. The window sash are double, and the
building practically sealed to dirt, odor and noise, fresh air being taken high above the ground
in shafts extending above the roof surfaces. The interior is executed throughout in vitreous,
IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE. 1 67
Buffalo, N. Y. THE LARKIN BUILDING.
cream-colored brick, with floor and trimmings of “magnesite” of the same color. The various
features of this trim were all formed within the building itself by means of
simple wooden
molds, in most cases being worked directly in place. So the decorative forms were necessarily
simple, particularly so as this material becomes very hot while setting and expands
slightly
in the process. The furnishings and fittings are all of steel and were designed with the
structure. The entrance vestibules, from either street and the main lobby, together with the
toiletaccommodations and rest rooms for employees, are all located in an annex which inter-
cepts the light from the main office as little as possible. The fifth floor is given to a
restaurant for employees, with conservatories in mezzanines over kitchen and bakery at either
end, opening in turn to the main roof, all of which together constitutes the only
recreation
ground available for employees. The structure, which is completely fireproof, together with
itsmodern heating, ventilating and appurtenance system, but exclusive of metal fixtures and
more than the average high class fireproof factory building— 18 cts.
furnishings, cost but little
per cubic foot. Here again most of the critic’s “architecture” has been left out. Therefore
the work may have the same claim to consideration as a “work of art as an ocean liner, a
locomotive or a battleship.
LARKIN BUILDING— FOURTH STORY GALLERY.
LARKIN BUILDING— OFFICERS’ DESKS— FLOOR OF MAIN COURT. .
Buffalo, N. Y.
Buffalo, N. Y. LARKIN BUILDING— CENTRAL COURT.
LARKIN BUILDING— METAL FURNITURE CLOSED TO ADMIT OF EASY CLEANING.
Buffalo, N. Y. LARKIN BUILDING— METAL FURNITURE READY FOR USE.

FLOOR.
GALLERY
TYPICAL
BUILDING—
LARKIN
CENTRAL.
TELEPHONE
AND
BUREAU
INFORMATION
BUILDING—
Y.
N.
Buffalo,
LARKIN
Buffalo, N. Y. THE' LARKIN BUILDING— HOUSING AN INDUSTRY.
Springfield, 111. HOUSE OF MRS. S. L. DANA.

General exterior view shown above. Interior of gallery, library beneath.
A house designed to accommodate the art collection of its owner and for entertaining exten-
sively, somewhat elaborately worked out in detail. Fixtures and furnishings designed
with the structure.
HOUSE OP MRS. S. L. DANA— VIEW PROM FOURTH STREET.
DANA HOUSE—DETAIL OP MAIN ENTRANCE, SHOWING VISTA INTO LIVING HALL.

DANA HOUSE— GENERAL VIEW FROM CORNER.
DANA HOUSE— FIREPLACE ALCOVE AT END OF GALLERY. BALCONY ABOVE.

DANA HOUSE—DINING ROOM.

LIBRARY.
AND
GALLERY
HOUSE—
DANA
IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE.
Kankakee, 111. HICKOX HOUSE.
BREAKFAST NOOK IN THE DANA HOUSE.

ROOM.
LIVING
HOUSE—
BRADLEY
HARLEY
B.
111.
Kankakee,
Kankakee, 111. B. HARLEY BRADLEY HOUSE—PLASTERED EXTERIOR.
B. HARLEY BRADLEY HOUSE— LIVING ROOM FIREPLACE.

P. A. BEACHEY HOUSE, OAK PARK, ILL.— BRICK, PLASTER AND TIMBER EXTERIOR.
DINING ROOM OF BRADLEY HOUSE.

living
from
steps
by
reached
EXTERIOR.
TILE
AND
STONE
BRICK,
HOUSE—
WINSLOW
H.
W.
111.
Forest,
River
- m
Oak Park, 111.

Mmmgm
THOMAS HOUSE.
..
m
Basement entirely above ground. Ground floor entrance to living rooms on first floor,
bed rooms above.
ARTHUR HEURTLEY HOUSE.

Same type as Thomas House, with living rooms, kitchen and family bed rooms on main floor.
Two guest rooms and bath, children’s playroom and servants’ room on ground floor.
living
to
story.
entrance upper
in
floor
rooms
Ground
Bed
ground.
prairie.
above
damp
low,
entirely
for
Basement
Designed
roof.
floor.
tile
first
walls, on
rooms
Plastered
MRS. E. L. MARTIN’S HOUSE.

Oak Park, 111.
A plastered house. The horizontal members utilized as protections for the plastered walls.
The eaves, plastic in form, suited to the method of construction.
F. F. TOMEK HOUSE— SHOWING CANTILEVER ROOF OVER TERRACES.

6
all
The
covered
case
$5,500.
are
this
In
about
windows
cost
the
requirements.
Total
beneath
simple
plastered.
walls
various
side
are
The
meet
eaves
to
of
below.
HOUSE. build
underside
been
laundry
GLASNER
and
have
and
frieze
A. room
number
W.
The
a
THE servants’
ravine.
which
battens.
of with
picturesque
inserted
dwelling, floor,
one a
with
of
wooden
on
edge
are
of jointed
the
porch
type
on
boards
the
site
characteristic
and
111. its
undressed
fits
rooms
Glencoe.
A
whole
with
the
U
MRS. E. L. MARTIN’S HOUSE.

Oak Park, 111.
Showing porch managed as a semi-detached pavilion. A practical solution of the “porch problem.”
GARDEN.
ENCLOSED
AND
STABLE
HOUSE,
HOUSE—
CLARK
ROBERT
111.
Peoria,
IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE. I9i
General View.
Detail of exterior of assembly room.
THE HILLSIDE HOME SCHOOL— SANDSTONE’ AND SOLID OAK TIMBER CONSTRUCTION.
Hillside, Wis.
MR. WALTER S. GERTS’ SUMMER LODGE.

Birch Brook, Mich.
MR. CHARLES S. ROSS’ SUMMER COTTAGE.

Lake Delavan, Wis.
HILLSIDE HOME SCHOOL— INTERIOR VIEW.
SUMMER COTTAGE— MRS. GEO. E. GERTS.

Birch Brook, Mich.
roof.
tile
Red
HOUSE.
trimmings.
HEATH
cement
R.
W.
with
brick
Red
Y.
N.
Buffalo,
MR. W. W. WILLITS’ HOUSE— DETAIL.
Highland Park, 111. MR. W. W. WILLITS’ HOUSE.

Living rooms within the terrace.
View from south.
MRS. HELEN W. HUSSER, BUENA PARK, CHICAGO.

S.M. B. Hunt House, La Grange, 111. Plan and two views of a typical, moderate cost house
of the ordinary basement and two-story type with plastered exterior and undressed wood trim.
The main floor is treated as a single room with separate working department, and has been
reduced to the simplest terms consistent with reasonable comfort and privacy. The house
—
has a trunk room opening from the stair landing four bed rooms and bath on the second
story, store room and laundry in basement. Total cost about $6,000.00 complete.
S. M. B. HUNT HOUSE— FIRST FLOOR PLAN.

La Grange, 111.
VIEW.
GENERAL
HOUSE—
MARTIN
D.
D.
Y.
N.
Buffalo,
Atrxi ?4
iJVi/IQ ’ QOOVti
- office
•
. -miTaim
3cc.rto-r7oocsi>
ttQtommwm
-VC5T1 DULY
»
POECM
'
-
CAEEIAGp FwCfl
CGtlOEPVATOEY
• • \PTAEJLE
-
-pAGWerv
-B>] CYCLE?
-
’LAVATOEY
’ •
PEPPOLA
D. D. MARTIN HOUSE— PLAN.

Buffalo, N. Y.
conservatory.
of
Details
HOUSE.
MARTIN
D.
D.
conservatory.
toward
Looking
Y.
N.
Buffalo,
D. D. MARTIN HOUSE— HE’AT AND LIGHT UNIT.

Reference to the general plan of the Martin house will show certain free standing groups
of piers, of which the above is an illustration. In the central chamber formed by the piers
the radiators are located, and the lighting fixtures are concentrated upon the piers themselves.
Bookcases swinging outward are placed below between the piers; the open spaces above are
utilized as cabinets, and from these the heat passes into the rooms. Fresh air is let into the
central chamber through openings between the piers and the bookcases. The radiators and
the appurtenance systems are thus made an artistic feature of the architecture.
(See page 45.) The Martin house is fireproof, the walls are of brick, floors of reinforced
concrete overlaid with ceramic mosaic, roofs tiled. The vitreous brick used in the exterior
walls is worked with bronzed joints into the walls and piers of the interior. The brick on
these interior surfaces is used in a decorative sense as a mosaic. The woodwork throughout is
of fumed white oak. A pergola connects the house with a conservatory, which in turn is con-
nected by means of a covered way with the stable.
Buffalo, N. Y. D. D. MARTIN HOUSE.

Detail in conservatory.
Buffalo, N. Y. D. D. MARTIN HOUSE.

Detail of library, bay and terrace.
Conservatory and stable.
D. D. MARTIN HOUSE.
Buffalo, N. Y.
Pergola and conservatory and entrance. Stone bird houses.
BROWNE’S BOOK STORE— DETAIL OF INTERIOR.

Fine Arts Building, Chicago.
Oak Park. 111. RESIDENCE OF MR. H. H. CHENEY.

A one-story brick house set within terraces and small gardens, enclosed by brick walls.
LIBRARY OF MR. WRIGHT’S OAK PARK OFFICE.

STUDY FOR DINING ROOM OF THE DANA HOUSE.

Springfield, 111.
To avoid distortion in rendering, the side wall has been shown cut away. The decorative
frieze around the room is treated with the Shumac, Golden Rod and Purple Aster that
characterize our roadsides in September.
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PLAN.
FLOOR
MAIN
CHURCH—
UNITY
FOR
BUILDING
III.
Park.
Oak
CHURCH.
UNITY
FOR
BUILDING
STUDY—
PERSPECTIVE
III.
Park,
QaK
—
INEXPENSIVE CONCRETE HOUSE DESIGNED FOR THE LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL

PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION SAME AS IN BUILDING FOR UNITY CHURCH.
BUILDING FOR UNITY CHURCH IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION.

Oak Park. Ill,
ATELIER.
BOCK’S
W.
RICHARD
MR.
217
MR. W. S. GERTS’ HOUSE".

Glencoe, 111.
Racine, Wis. THE THOMAS P. HARDY PIOUSE.

Situated on the bank of Lake Michigan. The street front is opposite to the view here given.
2l8 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD,
THE ELIZABETH STONE HOUSE.

Glencoe, 111.
HOUSE FOR MR. B. J. WESTCOTT.

Springfield, Ohio.
A simple treatment of the same problem as the Coonley house at Riverside, 111. Living room
at center; dining room on one side and sleeping rooms on the other; service wing
extending from the rear of the living room.
-
S'-'
A ;pi * C
"
•-*- - -
1
rt
-
r -
J c*
RESIDENCE OF MR. A. COONLEY.

Riverside, 111.
A one-story house designed for the prairie, but with the basement entirely above ground,
similar to Thomas, Heurtley and Tomek houses. All rooms, except entrance hall and play
room, are on one floor. Each separate function in the house is treated for and by itself, with
light and air on three sides, and grouped together as a harmonious whole. The living room is
the pivot of the arrangement, with entrance, play room and terraces below, level with the
ground, forming the main unit of the design. The dining room forms another unit. The
kitchen and servants’ quarters are in an independent wing. Family sleeping rooms form still
another unit, and the guest rooms a pendant wing. Stable and gardener s cottage are grouped
together and informally connected by a covered way which terminates in the gardener’s
verandah. An arbor crosses the garden to the rear, terminating in the service entrance.
The stables, stable yards and gardens are enclosed by plastered walls.
8
RESIDENCE FOR MR. GEORGE M. MILLARD, HIGHLAND PARK, ILL.

Exterior of undressed wood throughout. The second story contains five bed rooms and two bath
rooms. Man’s room, laundry and store rooms in basement. This house is one of a type
ranging in cost from seven to eight thousand dollars, complete.
RESIDENCE' OF MR. B. J. WESTCOTT.

Springfield, Ohio.
“FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL.”

A DECORATIVE FIGURE IN CREAM WHITE TE'RRA COTTA, DESIGNED FOR THE HALL-
WAY OF THE DANA HOUSE.
Richard W. Bock, Sculptor.
THE NEW BUILDING OF THE CHICAGO ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION.
Michigan Ave., Chicago. Barnett, Haynes & Barnett, Architects.
—
An Intimate Auditorium
The Interior of the New Stuyvesant Theatre in New York
New York has not been very fortun- of a satisfactory play house, and the
nate in the appearance of its theatres. designers of the new Stuyvesant audi-
Their design has not, as a rule, been torium have not left us in any doubt as
confined to the better half of the archi- to their idea of what the interior of a
tectural profession, and a visit to the theatre ought to be. It appears that
majority of metropolitan play houses is they were not trying to make a play
a positive distress to a man whose mood house at all, in any sense, which would
is somewhat influenced by the architec- distinguish a theatre from a private
tural interest of his surroundings. With dwelling. The Stuyvesant Theatre is
one or two exceptions they are wholly “not a mere auditorium,” they explain
lacking in architectural substance. A in their official description, “a space in
number of them have been decorated which a number of unrelated human
with more or less propriety and taste; units should be gathered by the mere
but scarcely any serious and sincere chance that each had paid the price of
attempt has yet been made to convert a a ticket of admission; but a living room
theatrical auditorium, as it emerges in a high sense of that sometimes com-
from the hands of the builder, into a
beautiful and appropriate architectural
—
monplace phrase a room wrapped in
the atmospheric intimacy of which the
interior. spectator would feel not so much that
The writer was, consequently, filled he was in a public place, as in a private
with pleasant anticipations when the house to which he had been personally
auditorium of Mr. David Belasco’s new invited.” According to this announce-
Stuyvesant Theatre was proclaimed to ment, Mr. David Belasco is, as it were,
be much the most beautiful in New at home in the Stuyvesant Theatre. A
York. Almost everybody present at its card of invitation is issued each morn-
introduction to the public was enthu- ing in the newspapers to everybody liv-
siastic in its approval. People talked ing in New York, Brooklyn, Long
much about the warmth and cosiness of Island City, Jersey City, Hoboken and
this interior, of its subdued lights, its the remotest suburbs which invites them
pleasant tones and its harmonious deco- all, at a small expense, to visit him that
rations. Afair sample of this ap- evening in the living room of the Stuy-
proval appeared in “Collier’s Weekly,’’ —
vesant Theatre the word living room
whose dramatic critic, Mr. Arthur being understood to mean a very high
Ruhl, particularly liked the shal- sense of that sometimes commonplace
low auditorium, the “lights veiled in phrase. Then Mr. Belasco will greet
tinted glass, whose color is borrowed them, wrap them in a transparent veil of
from the decorations against which they atmospheric intimacy and shield them
are placed the soothing color scheme
; from the vulgar publicity of a mere
in which the whole interior is floated auditorium.
amber, golden brown, dusty gray, orange One night last winter I decided to ac-
and faded green blues.” And Mr. Ruhl cept Mr. Belasco’s invitation, even
declares that the Stuyvesant Theatre though I were obliged to pay two dol-
realizes more perfectly than it had ever larsand a half for the pleasure of an
been realized before in New York introduction into the living room of my
the “dream” of a satisfactory play host. Neither did I regret the expense.
house. I was not, indeed, received personally
An emphatic critical statement of this by Mr. Belasco in the living room of
kind at once suggests an inquiry as to the theatre, but I was greeted on every
the character and appearance in general side by the most salient evidences of
my host’s personality. Neither the play, I, too, was helping to make the interior
the performance nor the apartment could of the Stuyvesant Theatre a living room
be attributed to any other manager. in the highest sense of that sometimes
There was no trace of Mr. Frohman commonplace phrase. Mr. Belasco was
about the interior domestic arrange- furnishing the room, and I was help-
ments, nor of Mr. Savage, nor of Mr. ing to furnish the living. The room,
Erlanger. The atmosphere belonged that is, did not become a living room
STUYVESANT THEATRE AUDITORIUM— VIEW FROM THE STAGE.

West 44th New York.
St., Showing Decorations by Everett Shinn.
emphatically and inexorably 'to Mr. Be- until I and a few other human and sub-
lasco but it occurred to me almost in
;
urban units had taken our seats in the
the same breath that, intimate though dim domestic light but once we had
;
it was, the atmosphere did not belong arrived, the propriety of the phrase
exclusively to him. I realized that I was transcended all commonplaces. The
in a small way contributing to the suc- living which Mr. Belasco was making
cess of this charming domestic scene. out of the room was more than domes-
—
AN INTIMATE AUDITORIUM. 225
tic. It was regal. It was melodramatic. with flamboyant decorations and fairly
It was, in a word, theatrical. blushing at the cheapness of its own
As I sat in my chair that night, en- gilded extravagance. But this inference
joying Mr. Belasco’s hospitality, I could would be a palpable mistake. yellowA
not but marvel at the inevitability of this theatre would, it is true, be a candid
peculiar manifestation of theatrical do- and sincere expression of the yellow
mesticity. My host had been predes- drama; but the one thing that the yel-
tined from the cradle to build a theatre low playwright and manager must nec-
which was not to look like what it was, essarily avoid is candor and sincerity
but which was to seem to be precisely of any kind. He cannot afford to give
what it was not; and he was predestined himself away. He and all his creations
also to be eminently successful in this must always pretend to be something
task. The erection of such a play house which really they are not. Mr. Belasco
may be figured as the symbolic expres- has traveled far beyond the melodra-
sion of his theatrical career. For many matic innocence of painting his villain
years he had been writing and produc- black, or of expressing violent emotion
ing plays, which, however different they in big type and in the same way he has
;
were in source and subject, were all traveled far beyond the innocence of
stamped by one common characteristic confessing that a theatre ought to be a
—an utter lack of reality and sincerity. theatre. It must not be a theatre. It
These plays did not merely belong to must rather be a private house, because
the theatre. They belonged to nothing if it were frankly a theatre he would be
but the theatre. ITe has been the master missing the kind of an opportunity of
mechanic of the contemporary American which he was born to take advantage
stage and he has become supremely
; an opportunity of fooling his audience.
clever in the difficult art of working So he announces in his programme that
powerfully on the feelings of his audi- his auditorium is a living room and he ;
ences. No doubt he could not be so has made it look as much like a living
successful in working up the feelings of —
room as he can which means, of course,
other people, unless he had first taken that it would be a peculiarly distressing
the precaution of pumping up his own place for the residence of a person of
feelings. I can almost imagine Mr. taste.
Belasco himself weeping over the inci- I am aware that very few units of
dents in his plays, which are carefully American humanity will share this opin-
calculated to make his guests weep, just ion. Mr. Belasco was born not only to
as a drunkard will weep over his fan- fool himself and other people, but to
cied wrongs or sweat in the enuncia- fool them most successfully. His audi-
tion of his proud convictions. But he torium is precisely the kind of room
remains none the less a theatrical car- which the ordinary human unit would
penter and painter, who momentarily take to be a most artistic living room,
confuses his powders and paints with just as the ordinary human unit takes
flesh and blood. Upon his stage nothing the machine-made effects of his plays
is ever said or done except for theatrical for manifestations of genuine feeling.
effect. Mr. Belasco is the great pur- I have so often seen his audiences shud-
veyor of a refined version of the yellow der or weep over some theatrical tour
drama and when he came to provide
; de force which, to the judicious, could
the yellow drama with a habitation, it only be profoundly irritating, and in
was inevitable that he should build some the same wav his audiences are plainly
such theatre as the Stuyvesant. delighted with his dim lights, his
No doubt some of my readers will fail dusty grays and his faded green blues.
to follow the connection between the yel- But this, of course, is merely to admit
low drama and a domesticated theatre. what has already been most emphati-
They will rather infer that the proper cally asserted. Mr. Belasco knows his
habitation of the yellow drama would business. He is pastmaster in the art
—
be a yellow theatre a theatre such as of theatrical fakery, and it is precisely
Mr. Hammerstein builds, overloaded because he is so successful that his au-
DECORATIVE FRIEZE DESIGNED BY MR. EVERETT SHINN FOR THE
ditorium becomes a living room in the it should be designed and decorated

highest sense of that sometimes com- with this condition and function con-
monplace phrase. In these hard times stantly in mind.
we must all envy a man such a bewitch- The Stuyvesant interior has been elab-
ing room in which to live. To the orately decorated from a false and de-
senses it may seem to be painted in dusty ceptive standpoint, and it betrays not
grays and faded green blues ;
but to the slightest evidence of sincere and ap-
the mind’s eye it will be plastered inches propriate architectural design. The
thick with the richest gold. architecture of the room is concealed as
The Stuyvesant Theatre is, then, much as possible behind a mask of dim
about as far as possible from fulfilling lights, of color schemes and of uphol-
the “dream” of a satisfactory play stery; but wherever it shows through it
house. It belongs to the numerous is as frivolous and trivial in its interior
group of American architectural hy- as it is in its exterior. The structure,

brid. As a domesticated theatre it the shape, the fundamental proportions
must take its place beside the villas and the salient lines of the room have
which look like palaces, the living been totally ignored in its treatment.
rooms which look like banquet halls, The architectural detail is either com-
and the libraries which look like mauso- monplace or vulgar. The whole interior
leums. As long as such a confusion of is as much of a stage setting as are any
ideas is permitted we shall never have of the rooms at which the spectators
satisfactory play houses. A theatre look across the footlights but it is a
;
must, be first of all, a theatre. It must stage setting which is inappropriate for
be precisely what Mr. Belasco has its purpose. The convention which
sought to avoid. It must frankly con- leads architects to pitch the decorative
fess and express the fact that it is an scheme of a theatre or a ball room in a
auditorium, in which anybody can sit high key is entirely justifiable. The
who has the money to buy a ticket, and effect of such a room should be bright
which should be as different in appear- and gay. It should be abundantly
ance from a living room as it is in func- lighted, and its walls should be so deco-
tion. Nobody lives in a theatre except rated as to constitute an effective back-
managers and actors, and they only in ground for handsome gowns. The
the sense that a business man lives in Stuyvesant interior is so dimly lighted
his office. Theatres are public places that one can scarcely recognize a friend
in which people go to be amused, and across the room, and one cannot read
AN INTIMATE AUDITORIUM. 227
PROSCENIUM ARCH IN THE STUYVESANT THEATRE.
the programme without a strainupon Shinn’s decorations look as if they

the eyes. Its dusty grays and faded would be charming, provided they could
green blues make all gowns look very be sufficiently seen and it is very
;
much alike. too dimly lighted even

It is much to be hoped that this painter will
for a living room, except, perhaps, a have a chance, with the assistance of
living room, if there are any such, some sympathetic and intelligent archi-
which is used exclusively for tete-a tect, tocontinue this kind of work in
tetes. A room as dimly lighted as this living rooms which are not temples of
should be either a church or a tomb; theatrical art. But Mr. Shinn’s pretty
and Mr. Belasco would do well to adornments do not prevent the lady
change the official description of the from being a fraud; and like all frauds,
Stuyvesant interior and call it a temple she will in the long run prove to be
of theatrical art. tedious. Mr.Belasco, as usual, has
Be it understood that the Stuyvesant been too clever and too ingenious in his
interior may be an inappropriate and theatrical mechanics. he had at-
If
pretentious sham, and yet may still have tempted to carry off pretence of a
his
certain attractive qualities. It may be domesticated theatre with a smaller pa-
compared to a woman, whose languish- rade of colored lights and dusty grays
ing coquetries are both irritating and and faded blues it might have been al-
obnoxious, without for that reason be- lowed to pass. The old Lyceum Theatre
ing wholly ineffective. It is undoubtedly on Fourth avenue, for instance was
possessed of a specious charm, which decorated from the same erroneous
prevails with the majority of human point of view; but it was not tedious or
units, partly because it is specious, irritating, because the scheme of deco-
and partly because it is novel. Inas- ration and lighting was handled with-
much as nine New York theatres out out affectation and exaggeration. But
of ten expose in the most brazen way when the Stuyvesant interior loses its
charms which might better be con- novelty it will lose most of its charm,
cealed, it is not surprising that people even for the ordinary human unit; and
confuse the coquettish prudery of the while this fact will not prevent it from
Stuyvesant interior with the modesty of being a living room in the highest sense
virtue. Moreover, it should be added of that sometimes commonplace phrase,
that the lady wears upon her person it may at least prevent it from being
certain gems, whose value is not considered a temple of any kind of art.
in the least counterfeit. Mr. Everett Arthur David.
A PORTION OP THE DESIGN FOR MONTGOMERY, WARD & CO.’S NEW WAREHOUSE,
NOW NEARING COMPLETION.
Chicago, 111. Schmidt, Garden & Martin, Architects.
The longest side of this building is over 800 feet in length.
NOTES ^COMMENTS
The engineers and fire there that danger lurks; but where those tall
THE experts who have ex- buildings are constructed as are the best in
PARKER amined the Parker New York, with every particle of the steel
Building in New York, frame thoroughly protected from fire by hol-
BUILDING the scene of the latest low tile or other adequate protection, and
FIRE fatal fire, have com- where the stories are isolated one from the
pleted their report to other by enclosed elevator and stair shafts,
the Fire and Building and where the external openings are pro-
Departments and other organizations. It tected by metal sash and wire glass, there
appears that the building was of the num- exists not the slightest danger of any such
erous class called by courtesy “fireproof.” disastrous fire, for, whatever the contents
These structures are, no doubt, non-com- of the building, fire originating upon any
bustible, but offer little protection to their one story cannot possibly extend beyond that
contents and are damageable all the way floor. A well-built thirty-story skyscraper
from 5 per cent, to 90 per cent, of their cost is as safe against fire as would be thirty one-
value. Such buildings form a class abso- story absolutely fireproof buildings in a row.
lutely distinct and different from the big But this lesson should not be without its
skyscrapers of New York and the really fire- effects. It should certainly tend to lessen
proof buildings of the first class. the opposition that exists in most of our
Its outer walls are of stone, brick and cities against more stringent building regu-
terra cotta, its skeleton of cast-iron columns lations and their strictest enforcement. If left
and steel beams and the floor filling of fire- to their own devices there are probably as
proof hollow tile. But the steel beams and many people willing, to-day, to exercise the
girders were unprotected by tile in their “economies” practiced in the Parker Build-
most vulnerable parts, the lower flanges; ing as there were at the time it was built
the elevator shafts and stairways opened ten years ago. It is imperative that the
into every story; iron shutters of an inferior cities should compel really fireproof con-
order protected only some of the windows; struction, and further that in the second
the water supply permitted the firemen to class and in old buildings similar to the
reach to only the fifth floor. The building Parker adequate provision should be made
was put up for light office purposes, but was in the way of enclosing shafts and protect-
occupied as a manufacturing plant and
'
ing windows and supplying sufficient water,

loaded with machinery and filled with com- hose and alarms to make the recurrence of
bustible materials; most of the partitions such a calamity impossible under ordinary
were built upon the wooden sleepers in the conditions.
concrete filling of the floors. The Are vir-
tually had to burn itself out unchecked. Yet The partial destruc-
it was not a total collapse and, its materials tion of this so-called
being incombustible, it was essentially a MUNICIPAL fireproof buildinginNew
fire of the contents and it was kept within York, and the complete
the building in which it originated. With
ACTION annihilation of its con-
the water pressure as it was, had that Are NECESSARY tents, again centre at-
been in some of the old-fashioned, all-ex- tention upon the fact
posed steel and wooden-joisted buildings it that people are con-
might have been the beginning of a colossal stantly being misled as to the true nature
conflagration. of the buildings they occupy. The construc-
Some alarmists see in this Are a danger tional defect in the Parker Building was not
to the great skyscrapers of our larger cities. apparently one of the actual safety of the
Where any of these have been built by skeleton, the quality and quantity of metal
architects and engineers not competent to —
composing its sections but rather of the
do really fireproof work and in cities whose putting together and the protection against
building codes permit such unscientific put- fire of those members. The inadequate fire
ting together of however good materials, protection of its framing alone should have
—
NOTES 'AND COMMENTS. 231

excluded it from the class of commercial between the men who demand that art shall
structures that can fairly be rated as fire- simulate nature and the men who demand
proof. It is in the elastic interpretation of that nature shall submit to art. In which
the word “fireproof” that a serious danger category, by the way, should we place
lurks for the tenant. Wehave seen steel- Japanese gardening? It is at once so in-
beamed, wood-joisted construction called tensely naturalistic and so intensely artificial,
“fireproof”; likewise wood framed sheds cov- and it is yet a more popular art than any
ered with galvanized iron. And it is common European mode of gardening. Of what other
for owners of buildings to obtain tenants army in theworld could it be told that a
under these false pretenses, criminal mis- brigade with a week’s enforced idleness on
representations. The mere fact that hollow its hands has set itself to reproduce
a “land-
tile or concrete is used for the floor arches, scape garden” of its own country in a
leaving steel beams and girders and struc- strange land? Yet this is what a Japanese
tural parts exposed, does not constitute fire- brigade is reported to have done on a Man-
proof construction. churian plain, a new and original version of
most necessary that our civic authori-
It is
“super flumina Babylonis.”
tiesshould be urged to take some action Repton (1752-1818) was by no means a
that the building departments issue a license pioneer in the informal garden. In truth,
to and virtually label all buildings of first- the natural romanticism of which
class construction, that is, those in which Gothic
architecture is in its kind the most
all the elements of fireproof construction impres-
sive expression, died almost equally
have been incorporated, buildings deemed hard in
France and in England. Nobody who studies
secure by those authorities. Buildings of the great French chateaux of the
only semi-public nature should also be Loire can
help seeing that the Italianization, or
labeled and classified. And it should be classicization, was imposed upon them by
made a heavily punishable offense for any royal caprice, and that the root of the
owner or agent to term his building and ad- matter is almost always, in the great
vertise it for public occupancy as belonging to chateaux, the vernacular architecture
a class to which it has not been certified by of
craftsmanship, not the imported and
the building department. That would effect- im-
posed architecture of formula. In England
ually put a stop to “constructive lying” and thesame resistance occurred, and was much
make owners sail under their true colors, more stubborn, thanks to the fact that no
and, incidentally, add to public safety and Tudor monarch took such an interest
a real appreciation of what is and what is in
architecture as did Francis I. His con-
not “fireproof” construction. temporary, Henry VIII., had much mor^ im-
portant things to think about, to wit, what
may be called his own “modus vivendi,”
It seems odd that and let English architecture go on its own
there should be a battle picturesque degeneration with a minimum
MODERN of the styles in land- official interference in the direction
of Itali-
scape gardening, and anization, and with that little so ill-as-
LANDSCAPE that the hands of the similated or incorporated that the Jacobean
GARDENING *
gentle horticulturists architecture, contemporary with an almost
should yearn to tear completely classicized Ludovican architect-
each other’s eyes. But, ure in France remained incorrigibly roman-
after all, such a conflict is not only a tic, or, in the old English sense of
the word,
corollary of the battle of the styles of archi- “humorous.” Our Repton’s distinction be-
tecture. It is a necessity of the case, so tween Gothic and classic is incomplete, when
long as the adjectives “classic” and “ro- he calls the one vertical and the other hori-
mantic” continue to connote radical differ- zontal. But his specific characterization is
ences, as we see that they do. The “formal unimpeachable when he says of “the large
garden” and the “jardin anglais” respond to houses built in Queen Elizabeth’s reign,
differences which assert themselves in every where Grecian columns are introduced”:
mode of artistic expression, differences “nevertheless, we always consider them as
personal and differences “ethnic” which Gothic buildings.” It is curious to look
transcend European civilization, differences over again, in this sense, perhaps the
earliest English treatise on landscape
*The Art of Landscape Gardening. By Humnhry gardening, no other than Bacon’s essay “Of
Repton, Esq. Including his “Sketches and Hints
on Landscape Gardening,” and “Theory and Prac- Gardens.” Bacon was the child of his age,
tice of Landscape Gardening.” Edited by John and his age was the Renaissance. He set
Nolen, A. M., Member of the American Society of
Landscape Architects. Boston and New York: more store by the Latin of his own works,
Houghton, Mifflin and Company. MDCCCCVII. which is forgotten, than by the English,
Architects.
Medary,
&
Field
LIBRARY.
CARNEGIE
BRANCH,
GARDEN
SPRING
Pa.
Philadelphia,
Architect.
Eyre,
Wilson
BUILDING.
BOEIE
Pa.
Philadelphia,
Sts.,
Chestnut
and
Third
which bids fair to be remembered as long as practitioners of landscape gardening, a term
anything in the language is remembered. which some of them will learn with sur-
The revival of learning and the consequences prise owes its very origin to Repton.
in its train were the great facts of the age, The radical notion of Repton and his nat-
and there is no reason to doubt that Bacon, uralistic school is the application to land-
so far as he had any architectural predilec- scape gardening of the maxim “ars celqre
tions, entirely approved of the tendency to artem.” They apply it, and indeed it is ap-
the “revived classic” in that art also. But plicable, with an intensity unknown in any
the ideal mansion that Bacon sketched in other art. For all other works of art at
words in his essay “On Building,” though least appear as artificial, whereas it is the
he says nothing in it about “style,” was a highest success the landscape gardener
of
piece of Elizabethan which, even in its to have his work passfor that of nature,
two loggias, we should nevertheless as Rep- and, as Johnson says about the “writer who
ton has it, “consider as a Gothic build- obtains his full purpose,” to “lose himself in
ing.” And when Bacon came to lay out his his own lustre.” “The perfection of land-
ideal garden of thirty acres, with six acres scape gardening,” Repton lays it down, “de-
out of the thirty devoted to the “heath or pends on a concealment of those operations
desert,” which is to say wilderness, it is as of art by which nature is embellished.”
clear that what he had in his mind was the Clearly, this does away with the formal or,
“jardin anglais,” the “informal garden." as Repton calls it, the “geometric” garden-
Not that Repton was a bigoted “infor- ing of which the spectator is never for a
malist.” He takes pains to assure us in moment suffered to forget that what he is
words that he was not. He takes still more admiring is art and man’s device. But
and more successful pains to give us that Repton by no means lays this down with-
assurance in his works. His words are: “I out qualification. He has “frequently ad-
do not profess to follow either Le Notre or vised the most perfect symmetry in those
Brown, but, selecting beauties from the style small flower gardens which are generally
of each, to adopt so much of the grandeur placed in front of a greenhouse, or orangery,
of the former as may accord with a palace, in some inner part of the grounds, where,
and so much of the grace of the latter as being secluded from the general scenery, they
may call forth the charms of natural land- become a kind of episode to the great and
scape.” That would be a first rate motto more conspicuous parts of the place.” “Sym-
for a modern landscape gardener and would metry is also allowable, and indeed neces-
tend to inspire confidence among his intel- sary, at or near the front of a regular
ligent clients. Especially if they knew that building; because, where that displays
“Brown” was that “Capability” Brown correspondent parts, if the lines in contact
(1715-1783) who, in the middle of the eigh- do not correspond, the house itself will ap-
teenth century, was the favorite and fash- pear twisted and awry.” Again: “There are
ionable maker of English “places” for the situations in which the ancient style of gar-
British nobility and gentry. Repton was dening is very properly preserved; witness
his successor and exceeded him in fashion- the academic groves and classic walks in
ableness, insomuch that, though he never our universities; and I should doubt the taste
received any public or royal orders, his pres- of any improver who could despise the con-
ent editor, Mr. Nolen, estimates his pro- gruity, the utility, the order and the sym-
fessional opportunities as not inferior to metry of the small garden at Trinity Col-
those of Le Notre himself. That is a lege, Oxford, because the clipped hedges and
great deal to say when one recalls Versailles straight walks would not look well in a
alone. But Repton, in the great “seats” of picture.”
the English nobility dealt with as large ex- But these exceptions by no means invali-
panses, and was little more limited in the —
date the rule the rule that landscape gar-
article of expense. Two hundred “places” dening should look natural and that the
of all kinds, from rural or suburban cot- work of man should appear to be the work
tages to great parks, attested, and some of of nature. The fullest confession of faith
the greatest among them continue to at- the book contains is perhaps this:
test, the skill with which he worked out in The perfection of landscape gardening consists in
First, it must dis-
land and wood and water the theories which the four following requisites:
play the natural beauties and hide the natural de-
he sets forth in the two books, originally fects of every situation. Secondly, it should give
sumptuous costly and now become
and the appearance of extent and freedom by carefully
disguising or hiding the boundary. Thirdly, it must
costlier still their rarity, of which the
by studiously conceal every interference of art, how-
gist is given in the single volume of mod- ever expensive, by which the scenery is improved,
making the whole appear the production of nature
erate price now under notice. It is a great
only: and, fourthly, all objects of mere convenience
service that is thus done to the modern or comfort, if incapable of being made ornamental,
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 2 35
or of becoming proper parts of the general scenery,

must be removed or concealed. railroads. (2) A beautiful educational, or
“cultural” center, in which library and art
That will be accepted as a clear enough
gallery are placed on a hill, with a fine fore-
creed of naturalistic or informal landscape
court leading up to them. On the latter the
gardening. The greater part of the volume
new auditorium and some churches face.
is devoted to showing how the author ap-
plied it in actual “places,” from such lordly
(3) A civic or grouping of public
center,
buildings, in which court house, post office
domains as Welbeck or Thoresby to his own
and city hall are brought together. (4) A
little roadside cottage in Essex. The in- park scheme around the old mission and on
quiry is facilitated by his practice of keep-
the historic hillside back of it. The report
ing a “red book” for every place with which
met with general approval.
he was intrusted, in which he set down his
prescriptions and his reasons, illustrating
them by an ingenious device of his own, It is interesting
which he called “slides,” from which, by
enough
record theto
raising a flap, the beholder could contrast

NEW municipal
art develop-
HAVEN’S ments in the newer
the actual state of the place with its pro-
cities; but it is just a
posed or expected state, and find the evi- AWAKENING little more interesting
dence of things not seen. The chief interest
to observe the expres-
of the book lies in this inquiry, for the pur-
sion of this new spirit
suit of which, however, it will be necessary
of American progress in the older communi-
to resort to the book itself, since it cannot
ties. That New England is very vigorously
be carried on without the help of the illustra-
taking up the matter of town and city plan-
tions. With that help, it will commend ning was shown by a recent note in this de-
itself not only to the professional landscape
partment. Among the cities named as illus-
gardener, but to every reader interested in
trating the fact was New Haven, and in that
landscape gardening either on its own ac-
staid old town, standing for so much in early
count or in subordination to or association
history, the recent developments have been
with architecture.
very interesting. On November 29 there was
dedicated on the “Green,” close to the Old
The report on the im- Pump, a marble fountain, provided by the
provement of Los An- bequest of a citizen. The juxtaposition of
THE geles, submitted a few the old and the new utility dramatically
LOS ANGELES weeks ago to the mayor, illustrates the change in conditions and the
the city council and the rise of new urban ideals. The fountain was
PLAN municipal art commis- designed by Professor Weir, of the Yale
sion by Mr. Robinson, school of fine arts, but it is significant, per-
was divided into three haps, that he went back to Athens for his
main parts.
gestions for
The first contained general sug-
work in various portions of the
—
model to the Choragic monument of Lysi-
crates near the Acropolis. He changed it, in
was devoted
city; the second to four large making the base a little higher. The placing
improvement schemes planned for the busi- of the fountain on the Green is significant
ness district; the third outlined a boulevard of a wish gradually formed, but now widely
system connecting all the parks and leading shared in New Haven, that this beautiful
to Pasadena and the sea. The report, which old town center may be made a civic center,
is very long, lays great stress on developing
which in architecture shall have a harmony
in the Los Angeles plan more invitation to and beauty commensurate with its present
life out-of-doors, on getting away from the
arboreal picturesqueness. Ernest M. A. Ma-
Eastern and Middle West idea in the city’s chado, a New Haven architect who has since
street plotting and getting rather the effect died, made a drawing for a group of court
of a European capital. There is no copying, house, hall of records, and library, that
but a planning to suit the superb climate, should have these qualities together with
the tourist life, and that spaciousness which appropriateness of style. The plan was
one expects to find in California, where never authoritatively adopted; but now
everything is big and generous. The im- $300,000 has been provided for a library, by
provement schemes which are of most inter- the gift of a woman loyal to New Haven;
est here, have to do (1) with a Union Sta- a state law requires a safer housing of the
tion and its approach. A mile long avenue, records,and a committee has been appointed
200 feet wide, terminating in a plaza in front to considera new court house. Other civic
of the station, is planned by Mr. Robinson. problems were pressing for artistic solution,
This scheme the City Council and Chamber
of Commerce have since taken up with the
—
and as earlier in Springfield — there rose a
man to meet the emergency and lead public
9
DINING ROOM.
RESIDENCE OF MR. HENRY C. BUTCHER— DIVING HALL.

22d and Locust Streets, Philadelphia, Pa.
—
opinion. In a strong two-page letter in the village improvement societies and park
newspapers last summer, George Dudley Sey- superintendents to direct their attention to
mour appealed to his fellow citizens. By the preparation of such a plan rather than
popular subscription, $10,000 has since been to expend all their efforts and money on a
raised, and F. L. Olmsted and Cass Gilbert small area or other minor improvements at
have gone to work to make a plan for New haphazard, or upon general clearing-up oper-
Haven. ations, street lighting, and the like, that
should be executed by the town officers,
The new wave of ca- through their regular appropriations.” There
thedral building con- is need of emphasizing the latter point. He
A continued: “There is now a rapid trend
tinues in evidence, sig-
CATHEDRAL nificant and locally toward the ideal I have outlined, not only
FOR momentous as each new in cities, but in many small towns. My own
project must be. The experience is that with such plans and pub-
HALIFAX lic interest, the whole aspect of a community
latest decision to be re-
ported is that of the will be transformed in from five to eight
Protestant Episcopal diocese of Nova Scotia, jears. There must, of course, be a leader
to erect a cathedral in Halifax. The plans in the movement, however, who is big
have been adopted and the money is reported enough to grasp the whole conception and
to be coming in quite rapidly. It is notable persistent enough to hold fast against criti-
that the bishop, in making his appeal, says: cism until it is well under way. It always
“One of the chief seaports of America should, means self-sacrificing effort on the part of
like Liverpool and New York, be marked by the few, as does any advanced movement
the presence of a cathedral, so that, coming for the general welfare, but the results and
from one country to another, the first thing the ultimate general approval of those whose
to catch the eye of the traveler will be that opinions are of value, will well repay this
which speaks of the continuity of the effort. I believe it is not necessary, how-
Church.’’ This is quite the spirit of ancient ever, to place the work on a sentimental
—
Catholicism the spirit that built cathedrals. ground, for almost invariably the execution
The architects are Cram, Goodhue and Fer- of a well considered plan leads to increases
guson. Their task has been the designing in land values that make it a good propo-
of a cathedral that shall cost a very definite sition.”
and modest sum $175,000 for the chancel,
In connection with
the crossing, and three bays of the nave,
which is all that will be undertaken at pres- the recent exhibition of
ent. Consequently, only the simplest mate- the Architectural Club
MUNICIPAL of Pittsburg —
of which
rials are used, and nothing which is not es-
sential is included. The ceiling is to be ART a feature was the plan
frankly of wood, stained dark; but so de- of a proposed civic cen-
signed that vaulting can later be substituted. ter —
the Art Club and
For the lower aisles and ambulatories, how- the Pittsburg Chapter
ever, either arched vaults or slabs of ma- of the American Institute of Architects
sonry are to be used. The roof is to be of united to secure from Frederic C. Howe a
slate, probably of the “graduated” type, lecture on municipal art. The fact that a
which these architects have championed. lecture on this subject was called for in
Throughout, the effort has been to have all Pittsburg, and that it was given by one
the materials honest and appropriate. The known as a leading authority on taxes and
extreme width of the building at the tran- municipal government, rather than as an
septs is to be eighty feet; the extreme length art enthusiast, justify some investigation as
255 feet, and the height of the central tower to what was said. It turns out that Mr.
Howe really is a civic art enthusiast, and
Warren H. Manning, that his address was a convincing appeal.
of Boston, in an ad- He is optimistic as to the future, and fro-m
TOWN dress before the Con- his own particular bias. He said: “In the
gress of Horticultur- last half dozen years a change has taken
PLANNING place in American cities, a change that is
ists in Jamestown a
SUGGESTIONS few weeks ago, had almost revolutionary. It is so marked that
muchto say about the it seems to me to indicate that the American
advisability of securing city is going to be the best governed city in

a comprehensive town plan. As usual, plain the world. There are a good many mani-
good sense characterized his statements. “I festations of that, and I won’t say the chief
conceive it,” he said, “to be the duty of of them is the interest in art, but it is one
—

of the manifestations. It is a great mani- ness interests, its whole usefulness would
festation for this reason: there is no com- probably be jeopardized. On the other hand,
mercial, no ulterior, no material motive that
should inspire men to take an interest in
to obtain a good —
or at least, not a bad
design for a public building inadequately
municipal art. It must be inspired by some- placed, is only to make the best of a poor
thing else. It is really awakened by a love situation; and if the function of the com-
and interest in the city. the best pos-And mission is to give us good examples of civic
sible evidence that the American people are art, the site of the public structure is as
taking an interest in their cities and are vital a consideration as are its style and or-
going to make their cities something worth nament. It would seem that municipal art
while, the fact that all over this land
is commissions might at least be called upon,
municipal art societies have sprung up, art and even required, to advise on the location
commissions, and little groups of men who of public structures. It is best, perhaps, that
grow in volume and power
until they make the determination of the site should remain
public opinion respond to their will.”“De- with the department to which the building
mocracy,” he added further on, “is seeking —
will belong police, fire, educational, council-
to express itself again in fine monuments manic, or whatever it may be; but that the
indicative of the belief of the people in them- official representatives and defenders of the
selves. During the great religious centuries community’s public art ideals should have
they sought to typify their religious beliefs as certain and respectful a hearing as do
in beautiful Gothic cathedrals, their spires property and purely commercial interests.
running heavenward; so to-day democracy, There can be no doubt that such a change
the democratic spirit, is going to embody its would do much to foster the grouping of
ideals and belief in itself in fine public struc- public buildings and the development of local
tures, in beautified cities, in parks and ave-
nues.” In telling the inevitable story of the
civic centers —
both of these being results
that are desired by architects, by civic stu-
Cleveland Group plan, he said: “Finally, dents and social workers; and that it would
one hard-headed Scotchman got up,” at the — do much in an educational way, awakening
public meeting called to consider the mat-
ter— “and said he had thought it over, and
in the public a sense of the nearness and
persistent practicalness of the problems of
had figured out that it would cost about ten civic art.
cents more per head per annum for thirty or
forty years to do the thing right than it Circulars have been
would to do it wrong.” mean,” Mr.
“I do not
EXHIBITION issued for the seventh
Howe said, “that that argument won the annual exhibition of the
day”; but we may be sure it had an influence. OF MUNICIPAL
Municipal Art Society
The calculation is worth remembering. ART SOCIETY of New York, to be held,
OF NEW YORK through the courtesy of
President Robert W. the National Arts Club,
de Forest, of New in their galleries, 119
PUBLIC York’s Municipal Art East 19th Street. The exhibition will take
BUILDING Commission, has sug- place from March 4 to 27 inclusive. All
_ __ _ „ gested that such a com- exhibits must be received by February 29.
SITF S
mission ought to have Circulars of information, tags for exhibits,
something to say about cards of admission, etc., may be had on ap-
the location of public plication to the secretary of the Municipal
structures as well as about their architect- Art Society of New York, 119 East 19t'h
ural character. He enforces his argument Street.
with various illustrations of cases in which The Exhibition Committee is composed of
much greater effectiveness might easily have Francis Newton, chairman; H. Van Buren
been secured at the cost of some artistic Magonigle and William Ordway Partridge.
forethought, but at no added cost in money.
In this note the argument is not needed, for Some foreign ideas
to architects the suggestion speaks for it- have come to hand on
FOREIGN
self and with a force which makes it comprehensive planning
applicable to all cities as well as to
THOUGHTS ON for towns. There has
New York. Yet practical difficulties pre- TOWN been established in
perceive at once that if an art commission London
PLANNING lately the Chel-
sent themselves, and one can perceive s e a
Embellishment
at once that if an art commission be- and it has
Association,
came entangled, as it instantly would, in employed Professor Geddes, who has al-
a vortex of conflicting real estate and busi- ready done valuable work for Edinburgh and
240
THE architectural record.
Dundee, to make plans for it. At this writ- marks, is abundantly evident in the case of
ing the plans, if yet completed, have
not a single large estate; and “the same thing
applies in a much greater degree to a whole
been made public; but it is stated that they
express the professor’s idea that such town, which is really only a large estate
partially developed.”
schemes should represent a natural and log-
ical evolution from the past and present of
the district planned for, and that economic Under the above cap-
and social conditions should have at least as tion the Tee Square
much weight as do aesthetic. In an inter- Club of Philadelphia
view with him, published in the Oxford AMERICAN publishes a large vol-
“Tribune,” he calls attention to what can ume
of 160 pages of at-
be done at once, by voluntary effort, to
in- COMPETITIONS tractive half-tone plates
crease the beauty of existing plots. He said,
asphalt
showing 49 competitive
for example, that “in Dundee the designs of seven im-
near the walls around one of the elementary portant competitions of the year that were
school playgrounds had been broken up
at
and exhibited at the club's galleries. The build-
his suggestion, and a border of flowers
ings represented are the Soldiers’ Memorial
shrubs put in its place. Throughout the for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, of
summer the children had not done three which Messrs. Palmer & Hornbostel were the
pennyworth of damage to the plants, and
successful competitors; the D., L. & W. R.R.
the appearance of the playground had been
Station, Scranton, Pa., which was awarded
immeasurably improved.” The other and
to Mr. Kenneth M. Murchison; the Union
more pretentious contribution to the discus- Theological Seminary, New York City,
sion is a leaflet, issued in Birmingham, by
Messrs. Allen & Collens being the architects
John Nettlefold, Chairman of the Birming-
selected; the State Educational Buildings,
ham Housing Committee, on “Slum Reform Albany, N. Y., in which Messrs. Palmer &
and Town Planning.” “A town plan,” says Hornbostel again figure as the star per-
Mr. Nettlefold, “settles the direction, width
formers; the building for the International
and nature of the proposed streets, the situa-
Bureau of American Republics, Washington,
tion of open spaces, and in some cases
(in
D. C., which Messrs. Albert Kelsey and
Europe) defines the class of buildings to be
Paul P. Cret have been selected to execute;
erected in particular districts.” In speaking
on the Connecticut State Library and Supreme
for narrow roadways with broad parking,
he Court Building, Hartford, Conn., of which
the streets given up to laborers’ houses,
the first prize went to Messrs. Donn Barber
made a novel but good point in saying that
the cost of the and A. T. Hapgood; and lastly the Central
the resulting reduction in
Building for the Y. M. C. A. of Philadelphia,
street construction must tend economically,
rein which Mr. Horace Trumbauer is the suc-
as such streets cease to be a novelty, to
cessful competitor. These drawings are re-
duce considerably the rents of the abutting
—
houses less gross rent giving an equal net
produced of such a size that the lettering on
plans is generally legible and the various
return. As to advantages in having a town-
land- drawings of a design are carefully given at
plan, he notes as one the protection of
“As things are the same scale, a useful procedure which is
owners from one another.
his generally neglected in publication. Carefully
to-day, one landowner sometimes ruins
edited programs giving the information
neighbor’s estate.” But a great gain, he
requisiteto a thorough understanding and
thinks, is economic. “Heavy rates are con-
study of the designs, precede the illustra-
stantly levied for street widenings, and other
improvements, such as slum clearances and tions.
U nder town This book of the Tee Square Club’s marks
the provision of open spaces.
planning, this expenditure would be largely
an important step in the direction of
avoided by the exercise of foresight.” A American architectural scholastic emanci-
pation. not our purpose to con-
careful compilation of data on this subject
It is
vey the idea that the book before us
seems, he says, to establish the fact that in
chronicles an American Architecture, but
the last ten years, “not less than £30,000,000”
that the general character of the work
have been expended for such improvements,
that would have been saved had there been suggests an attempt at some sort of free-
town-planning. In his own committee, he dom of opinion and less artistic servitude
says, 2,105 unsanitary houses have been dealt
than we can recollect seeing grouped to-
with in the last five years. Of this number gether under one cover Avithout particular
selection— and the work all of one year and
635 had to be absolutely demolished, and
twelve acres of land transformed into open covering a comparatively restricted area.
The volume should be for American
spaces. Yet he thinks that during this period
architects a valuable record of current
Birmingham has perhaps done proportion-
ately rather less than other cities. The ad-
American architectural tendencies artistic
vantage of a comprehensive plan, he re- and utilitarian.
^
Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N Y. Act of Congress of March 3d 1879.
;
Vol. XXIII. No. 4- APRIL, 1908. Whole No 115
•'
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THE ECOLE DES BEAUX - ARTS AND ITS INFLUENCE ON OUR
ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION ?41
A. D. F. Hamlin.
ARCHITECTURAL EXPRESSION IN A NEW MATERIAL PRACTICAL
:
* AND ETHICAL PROBLEMS OF DESIGN IN REINFORCED CON-

CRETE 249
*
H. Toler Booraem.
Illustrated.
THE NEW
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Illustrated. Herbert Croly.
*•;
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Illustrated. Russell Sturgis. , * u- .
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NOTES AND COMMENTS. Illustrated. 326
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Vol. XXIII APRIL,, 1908. No. 4.
The Influence of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts

On Our Architectural Education
This article is the second of a series beginning in the issue of November, 1907, and
dealing with the influence which the Paris School of Fine Arts has exerted in the United
States. The author is Professor Hamlin, Executive Head of the School of Architecture
at Columbia University in New York. While Mr. J. Stewart Barney, author of the first
article, treats his subject from the standpoint of a practicing architect, and in its direct
influence on American architecture, the author of the present article assumes a scholastic
position which his experience as a teacher of architectural subjects and as a director of
architectural instruction qualifies him eminently to assume.
Many of our architect-readers will, no doubt, fall in with Professor Hamlin’s ideas
and sympathize with his attitude, while as many more will hold other views. We trust
that all our readers, not only the architects, will take some measure of interest in a
subject the object lessons of which are ever before the public. Editors. —
It is now somewhat over fifty years opinions of an old-time Beaux-Arts stu-
since the late Richard M. Hunt entered dent (1878-81), whose active life for
the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the first twenty-five years has been chiefly de-
of the long line of American students of voted to this problem as a teacher of
architecture who have sought the dis- architecture, may be of some interest to
cipline and inspiration proffered by that readers of the Architectural Record.
hospitable institution. For a half-cen-
tury the stream of American students I.
into the Ecole has continued in increas- So far as the past is concerned, the
ing numbers, and through them the Paris debt of American architecture to the
school has become a potent influence on French school is incontestable. During
American architecture. Whether this the Civil War, and the ten years
has been, on the whole, a salutary influ- each preceding and following it,
ence in the past, is so now, or will be our architecture was floundering in
in the future, are questions which are the lowest depths of tastelessness
being asked with increasing frequency and artistic poverty. There were
and receiving divers answers from dif- few educated architects the popu- ;
ferent sources. The first of these three lar standards were almost grotesquely
questions is chiefly historical; the sec- inartistic, and
really fine architecture
ond demands a critical estimate of con- was nearly as impossible to execute as
temporary tendencies the third is a very ;
unlikely to be appreciated. few brave A
practical and personal question for many souls were, however, striving, in the
a parent and many a student, for it in- face of these conditions, to raise the
volves the problem of the most desirable standards of public taste and of
architectural education and of the dis- the profession, by the quality of their
posal of several of the most critical years own work as well as by their training
of a young man’s life. Perhaps the of young men in their offices, whom
Copyright, 1908, by !,
Tei Architectural Record Company.” All rights reserved.
Rutered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N Y., Act of Congress of March 3d, 1819.
4
they fired with the enthusiasm of their indirect influence of the Paris school that
we have emerged from the shadows of
own zeal. Three names stand foremost
in this roll of honor R. M. Hunt, H. H.
:
those dark ages, and that our architec-
Richardson and W. R. Ware; and all ture has taken on a character of straight-
three drew from Paris a large part of forward design and rational and often
their inspiration; Mr. Hunt and Mr. artistic planning and composition, un-
Richardson for the educational work known thirty years ago.

they carried on in their offices, as well as During this period there was very
for* their professional achievements in little direct copying or imitation of
practice; Mr. Ware for the organization French models. The foreign influence
of the earliest American school of arch- was felt less in the types and details of
itecture in the Massachusetts Institute American buildings than in a new spirit,
of Technology in Boston A Until the new standards and ideals. It would be
beginning of the great art revival which difficult to name a building of Mr.
dates from 1876, these three were like Hunt’s which betrays any notable anal-
“voices crying in the wilderness,” but in ogies toEcole types. Even his fine
the following years their labors began to neo-grec Lenox Library is a strongly
and they became acknowl- individual design. Mr. Richardson
bear fruit,
By abandoned Renaissance motifs for the
edged leaders in the movement.
1880 there were constantly a dozen or Romanesque very early in his career.
fifteen Americans in the Ecole at Paris; But as the number of Paris-trained
and draftsmen increased
there were in our own country three architects
schools of with a fourth
architecture, and as the constantly swelling tide
about to be opened in Columbia Univer- of travel to Europe and the multipli-
sity scores of American students re- cation of periodicals and illustrations
;
turned from Paris were practicing for made our people more and more familiar
themselves or helping to build up the with the foreign masterpieces of archi-
was inevitable that the
reputation of great offices in which they tecture, it
worked. the schools, Paris-trained

In all Parisian influence should extend itself
men were in demand as instructors, and to the details, and perceptibly modify the
an entirely new standard and style of types of our public architecture. More-
over, the Ecole had furnished the model
.
draftsmanship and design were being

established in the profession. upon which all our American schools
The contribution of Paris to our arch- were shaping the teaching of design, and
itecture during this period was three- in a majority of cases for the last twenty
fold: It supplied a professional train- years and more the instructors in design
ing at that time unattainable elsewhere; in these schools have been Paris-trained
it gave us new standards of
draftsman- men, and in many instances Frenchmen.
ship; and it taught our architects new When we add to these influences that of
ideas of monumental planning and com- the many ateliers in widely separated
position. It is hard now to realize the cities, organized under the auspices of
poverty of ideals formerly prevailing the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects,

even in the offices, the general lack of during the last fourteen years, we see
broad and monumental conceptions, both an array of agencies for disseminating
in the planning and in the interior com- French ideas and methods which abun-
position of our buildings, to say noth- dantly explains their present vogue.
ing of the poor and flimsy construction II.
then tolerated and of the uninspired.
Whether influence is at present

mechanical draftsmanship with which this
the architects’ designs were presented. salutary or the reverse is our second
It is almost wholly due to the direct
and question. How
far is it based on solid
merit and how far on superficial appear-
Professor Ware was not himself a student in the ances and fictitious excellences? And
Beaux-Arts, but he was a pupil of Hunt’s and based
his organization of the Boston school largely
on the do the merits of the French system out-
model of the Ecole, which he was familiar with weigh its defects? It must be borne
and had visited in 1865-’66.
THE INFLUENCE of the EC ole des beaux- arts.
243
in mind that the teaching of the Paris dent’s eyes to the artistic factors and
school has not always been uniform and
possibilities ofthe problem. It accus-
unchanging, either in its controlling toms him to thinking of the building as
ideas or its details. Art in France has an artistic unit, as primarily and always
been too vital to resist the influences a work of art, an object of artistic design
of progress or even of prevailing fash- in plan, composition and detail.
ions. But it has always rested upon a It is, no doubt, these qualities in
the
solid basis of accumulated experience
Paris teaching which have most attract-
and tradition which has grown up since ed American students. The atmosphere
the founding of the school under Louis
_
American city life is not artistic.
XIV. This solid structure of crystal- Utility and cost are dominant considera-
lized experience has seemed to many
tions in nearly all public enterprises. The
too inert for real efficiency, and its ten- whole pressure of our feverish material
dency has, no doubt, always been toward activity tends to crush out the vital
conservatism. For this very reason, spark of imagination, and to relegate
while its methods and details have varied beauty to the lowest place among the
from time to time, it has on the whole factors of design witness the lack of
;
successfully resisted the vagaries, fads decorative sculpture and of imaginative
and novelties which so often tempt the mural decoration in our architecture gen-
educator from the safer paths of dis- erally. In the Paris school the Ameri-
cipline into wastefuland unhappy exper- can student breathes a different atmos-
iments. Originality and innovation be- phere, aesthetically exhilarating and illu-
long to the designer’s maturity the dis-
; minating. When he returns, the ma-
cipline most needed by the student is terial considerations impose themselves
in the
fundamentals of architectural upon him as before, but they weigh less
conception and expression; and the tra- heavily upon him. If he has really profited
ditions of the Paris school have always by his sojourn abroad, imagination and a
tended to curb his eccentricities and to more highly artistic taste will assert
teach him to do well and thoroughly the themselves in all his future work.
accepted and established thing. This is Incidental, moreover, to this discipline
the function of the “plan type” and the are other factors of great importance.
“parti type” of so many of the familiar The French have a peculiar skill in the
problems given out. the fundamental sort of suggestive criticism which the
importance of the plan is always insisted student needs a quick perception both of
;
upon composition is exalted above de-

; faults and merits, an incisive manner of
tail the presentation or “rendering” is
; statement, which are very stimulating.
according to well-developed principles The atelier traditions of mutual help be-
and traditions. The student is made to tween the younger and older students
study and re-study his design in all its are valued by every one who has come
aspects, to draw and re-draw, constantly under them, at least in his younger days.
—
revising the design plan, section and
elevation being carried along more or
Equally valuable surely is the environ-
ment of the student, surrounded as he
less together through all these revisions. is by notable monuments of
architecture
In the daily criticism of the fellow-stu- and galleries filled with the masterpieces
dents as well as the occasional criticisms of all the ages. The whole city is a
of the patron, it is primarily the artistic museum, and within a few hours’ ride
considerations that are emphasized. It is are hundreds of superb buildings, an-
a somewhat conventional system and cient, mediaeval and modern. The treas-
tradition, but a very salutary discipline ures of Rome and Italy, the cathedrals of
for the youngster. It has the qualities England and the picturesque monuments
of its defects; it is not “practical” but of Spain and of Germany, may be visit-
artistic in its aims and spirit. It does ed at the cost of a trip like that from
not encourage the study of mechanical New York to Buffalo or Chicago. The
and utilitarian details; that is perhaps unconscious education of the Old World
its weakness. But it does open the stu- environment is as important, often, as
the conscious training of the atelier. ing wholly new types for which the tra-
These combined advantages quite suffice ditionalFrench architecture has no an-
to explain the popularity of the Ecole alogues and can furnish little suggestion
with American students; while the fa- —at least little that is really appropriate.
cility and ready resource in draftsman- Now if the hosts of returning Ecole
men had been always able to distinguish
ship and often in design, which they
between what fundamental and what
there acquire, accounts for the demand
is
superficial their Parisian experi-

in
which always exists in the offices for is
their services. ences, there would be less question of the

But conditions change, and it has now value of their training as a preparation
for American practice. But it would
become a pertinent question whether
what these young men have thus gained seem that many of them have been daz-
abroad is really what is most needed zled with a false glamour, or bewitched
here. Is the influence they bring to by the artistic jargon and cant of the
bear upon our current architecture ateliers, into glorifying the superficial
wholly an advantage? The answer is and the external, and forgetting the
not as easy as was that to the first ques- eternal and fundamental principles which
tion of the three we have propounded. give whatever is valuable to their foreign
In the first place, there are now training. Confused and bewildered by
in the United States five or six large the lack of correspondence between the
and important schools of architec- ideals of the atelier and the conditions
ture and three or four others in which here confront them, such men
the second rank, besides a con- have with little discrimination un-
upon their operations and
siderable number of departments giving loaded
in technical office buildings, their houses and
architectural instruction,
the stock forms
schools and other institutions. To these and
chapels stables,
must be added not only the very exten- of the atelier. And the often uned-
ucated youths whose cleverness with
sive work in design conducted by the
Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, but pen and brush has won them men-
and medals in Beaux-Arts
innumerable evening classes in various tions
cities. There has thus grown up in this competitions in our own cities, have imi-
country a vast apparatus for the teach- tated and sometimes surpassed the for-
ing of architecture to all grades and eign-trained men in the adoption of the
classes of students, from the office boy French architectural vernacular for the
to the advanced post-graduate. There is buildings they have designed, “Car-
no danger of such a dearth of draftsmen, touche architecture” has become a by-
possessed of at least an elementary train- word in New York. And the very clev-
ing, as existed twenty-five years ago, nor erness of presentation, the technical skill
is Paris any longer the one
place in the of draftsmanship, the facility with which
world where a really efficient and ar- these forms are used, help the vogue of
tistictraining can be had. Moreover, this mistaken art among the uncritical,
our architecture has undergone an ex- while they discredit at the same time
—
traordinary evolution almost a revolu- such elements as are really sound in the
tion —
since the Centennial of 1876; in- training of these young men, among
deed, since the Columbian Fair at Chi- those who, with truer taste discern the
cago. It has advanced along two lines, hollowness of this architectural trickery.
that of monumental planning and com- Moreover, there has been, whether
position, thanks largely to the earlier in- justly or not, but unmistakably growing,
fluences of the Paris school and school- among the older men, including many
men and that of scientific construction, who gratefully acknowledge the value of
their own Paris studies, a feeling that
;
as a result of wholly native American

initiative. Thus we have been outgrow- the Ecole is no longer wholly true to the
ing’the need of absolute reliance on best of its old traditions. are noWe
Parisian inspiration on the one hand, doubt naturally laudatores temporis acti,
while on the other we have been develop- or it may be, on the other hand, that the
:
THE INFLUENCE OF THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS. 245
Ecole training seems to us less sound

now than it used to be, not because the
for the dipldme —
that crowning honor
which looms so large in the estimation
old ways were better in Paris than now, of many young Americans. In France
but because the new ways are better here the dipldme has official significance and
than they once were. We try to take a prestige; it is a passport to government
detached view in judging both the old employ, and its value both in a business
and the new alike in Paris and in the way and socially is very great. It has,
United States, and we believe that the of course, no such significance here, and
Ecole draftsmanship is to-day less thor- the prestige of the postscription Dipldme
ough, -less careful and studied than it par le gouvernement is with us variable
once was, and that the pursuit of the new and problematic. It costs the American
has to some extent diverted the Ecole student four six years of study
to
from the pursuit of the beautiful. This in Paris. he has already taken a
If
may be a transition to better things four years’ course in an American school
which shall be both new and beautiful, of architecture, it means that he has de-
but even if it so be, the present state of voted two or three years of his time in
—
the Ecole training; its spirit and its Paris merely to repeating what he has
—
standards seem to us to-day less fitted to already gone over in the American
train the young American’s taste and school and that, of the remaining two
;
artistic habits for the special problems or three years the greater part is devoted
of his professional career than was for- to the study of methods of con-
merly the case. Our own schools do the struction and practice wholly for-
work more efficiently and fittingly in al- eign to our systems, and the rest
most all Certainly in all
particulars. to advanced work in design which
that relates to construction and practice, constitutes the only really valuable
as well as to the history and theory of part of the whole long program. And
the art, the teaching in our leading even this advanced work in design might
schools is fully equal if not superior to have been carried on in the American
that of the Ecole. I say this with full school. All the larger schools of this
recognition of the fact that Julien Gua- country are perfectly well equipped for
det, the author of the famous treatise on such post-graduate work in design, and
the Theory of Architecture, still lectures teach it in the judgment of many quite
at the Beaux-Arts. Feeble as he is, in as well as it is done in Paris.*
his advanced years, his discourses on the
fundamental principles are stimulating III.
and suggestive but for American stu-

; Coming, then, to the third and last
dents what he has to say of the planning of our questions, that as to the future
of theatres and libraries, hospitals and value of the French influence and train-
schools and churches, is either so far ing, my own convictions have been by
removed from American ideas and prac- recent experience greatly strengthened
tice or so far behind them as to be a on the following propositions
detriment rather than an advantage to First, that so far as actual professional
the American. training is concerned the American
The same is, in the judgment of many schools are doing, and will in the future
thoughtful men, true of the entire course continue to do, better and more efficient
This last statement will, I fear, be condemned have been no prejudice against the Paris men
as rank heresy by the thick-and-thin advocates of or their work. Yet in every instance the jury has
study in Paris. But certain recent experiences are pronounced that work disappointing in quality,
valid evidence in its support. For some years past both as to design and presentation, and has ranked
graduate and advanced non-graduate students regis- it on the average below the work of the students in
tered in the Columbia University school have been New York. It will be interesting to note whether
doing their work in design in Paris ateliers, upon the continuance of this international experiment
programs sent out by the Columbia Committee on further confirms the verdict of the juries referred
Design, and have sent their work back to be judged to. I do not care to attach too much importance to
by the same juries which pass upon the work of the these results, but I think they tend to disprove t'he
Morningside Heights students. These juries are superstition, founded upon conditions that have
composed of the heads or associate directors of the passed away, that the teaching of design in Paris is
three Columbia ateliers with from one to three so greatly superior to our own as to be worth the
“outside” architects from downtown offices. In sacrifice of four or five precious years of the stu-
every case, so far as I know, every member of the dent’s life after graduation from the American
jury has been a Beaux-Arts man, so that there could school.
— —
work for Americans than

the Paris atelier work on advanced problems fol-
school is doing or can do in
that re-all lowed by one or two years of European
lates to the history, theory, science and travel and study —
including if possible a
practice of the profession. Why
should full year in Italy or in Italy and Greece
they not? They have adopted from the provide a far broader, safer and more
French school all that has been found profitable discipline than the same length
in its methods to be best fitted for Ameri- of time devoted to study in the Ecole,
can conditions they have added to these
;
whether for the dipldme or not, with
the accumulated results of American ex- merely incidental short sight-seeing and
perience and the best of American sketching trips between the problems. In
methods they are officered by teachers
;
two years, perhaps even in one, an
thoroughly trained and full of devotion American graduate can get all that is
and enthusiasm they are for the most best worth while in the Parisian training
'part
;
admirably housed and equipped, — its camaraderie, its artistic spirit, its
and they naturally appreciate American environment, the French point of viewt^-
requirements and conditions as the without being carried away by the ficti-
French school and teachers can never do. tious and misleading affectation of ar-
Secondly, even in the field of design tistic seriousness which in time seduces
the American teaching is now fully on the judgment of the most sensible Amer-
a par with the French, and must in the ican and makes him believe that the con-
future become increasingly well adapted tinued solution of French Ecole problems
to the special needs and conditions of is the one only path to architectural sal-
American practice, and, so far forth, bet- vation and the hope of future glory. It
ter for Americans than even the brilliant is a pleasant infatuation, from which it
French teaching. takes years to recover but it is an infat-

;
Thirdly, in the nature of things Ameri- uation contrary to reason, for it elevates
can architecture cannot and should not the atelier problem into a rank as discip-
continue to be dependent upon French line for American architects superior to
ideas, taste, or training. Ours is a strong the discipline of actual struggle with
and progressive art, capable of standing American problems under American
on its own feet and of developing its conditions. All that is fundamental,
own ideals, its own practitioners and its the ground-conceptions of art and logic
own training. The glamor of French that underlie the best French teaching,
artistic pre-eminence, real as that pre- an American graduate ought
intelligent
eminence has been and still is in many to master work in the atelier.
in a year’s
fields, has tended, in the judgment of It is in my judgment a sad waste of time
many to keep our art too long in leading and strength for American graduates to
strings, and — especially in architecture spend the better part of a year in trying
to hamper free and normal development to “make” the Ecole, reviewing elemen-
along the lines of American thought and tary subjects in which they were exam-
taste. a result much of our architec-
As ined four or five years agone; and then
ture, even when excellently planned and spending precious months on “analyti-
admirably and scientifically constructed, ques” and order-problems such as they
masquerades in a dress essentially for- have already had their fill of in the early
eign and exotic. It seems to me high years of their American schooling; at
time to break these leading-strings, and last, the end of two or three years
at
to develop our architecture, as our en- “making” the First Class, to begin on
gineers have developed their engineer- problems like those of their fourth year
ing, independently of any foreign prac- at the home school and finally return-
;
tice or foreign fashions. ing with their precious dipldmes to be-

Fourthly, for such Americans as can gin office work nine or ten years from
afford to devote three or four years to the time they first entered on their archi-
further professional studies, after gradu- tectural studies. The fruit is hardly
ating from a first-class American school worth the cost of its raising; le jeu ne
of architecture, two years of Parisian rant pas la chandelle.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS. 247
Nay, I would go further. I would ful realization of the great debt we owe
even question at the outset the necessity to the Ecole; with full appreciation of
or wisdom of going to Paris at all to the excellence of its methods, of its high
study, except as a part of a scheme of ideals, and of its admirable performance.
travel-study covering all the great archi- The minor fads which prevail in it from
tectural centers. If the student must time to time, the recipes and formulae
enter an atelier, let him do it for the pur- of this or that atelier, “spinning pro-
pose of broadening his culture by a cesses” and infallible systems for solving
year’s work under foreign masters and all problems, these do not disturb my ad-
according to foreign methods. Then let miration for its splendid achievements
him go to Rome and Northern Italy, the and for what is sound and true in its tra-
centers from which, in the early middle ditions and its ideals. They are only the
ages and again in the Renaissance, froth upon its deeper currents. But
flowed the streams of influence which I believe we have outgrown our
helped make the great architecture of dependence upon it, and that with
Western Europe. Let him visit Con- our present civilization, culture and
stantinople and seefor himself the educational resources, we shall pre-
grandest interior ever erected for relig- sent an astonishing spectacle to the
ious worship. Let him visit the Medit- world if we continue to send every
erranean countries, and the great medie- year scores of graduate students to lay
val cathedrals, or study the work of mod- on the Ecole shrine the offering of four
ern architects in Germany and England. or five of their best years. The tide that
A year thus spent after a year in Paris once rolled from America to the German
— —
two years in all would furnish a universities has dwindled to almost noth-
splendid education of the greatest possi- ing. I foresee a day in the near future
ble artistic and cultural value, broaden- when American graduates in architec-
ing and not narrowing, as the French ture will cease frequenting the courts
atelier training too often proves, and at and halls of the Paris Ecole. Nay, I
less than half the cost, in time, of the dare to forecast the coming of a day in
five or six years’ grind for the dip- the future, not too far distant, when
loma. I believe if all our young French students will come to America to
graduates would follow such a pro- study architecture, seeking fresh inspira-
gram our national architecture would tion, a new point of view, a new enthu-
rapidly develop a freshness, a freedom, siasm, in the study of an architecture as
a self-reliance and boldness of style and verile, as fresh and independent in its
expression which it now greatly lacks, ideas as the American people itself. The
and which dependence on Parisian sooner we emancipate our art from de-
models and training can never give it. pendence upon Paris the sooner will that
I have written this with full and grate- day come. A. D. F. Hamlin.
:
Architectural Expression in a New

Material
Practical and Ethical Problems of Design in Reinforced Concrete
The principlereinforcement by
of for instance, as the various surface tex-
means of wire mesh or light
steel rods, tures to be obtained by different methods
bars in truss form has given to concrete of finishing and by choice of aggregates,
a leading place among structural ma- limitations of form work and other
terials. It marks a departure in many points of relative ease or difficulty of ex-
essentialsfrom traditional construction, ecution.
and therefore must exert a like influence Third .
—
Study of the subject on such
upon design. For this reason it has be- lines as above will reveal the essentials
come a subject of absorbing interest in of concrete, in contrast to other mate-
the architectural world, as it presents rials and the traditional forms of archi-
new problems not only of structure, but tecture. But when we have arrived at
also of ornamental and, possibly, even this point we will know more of what
of stylistic expression. The many prac- not to do than of what to do. Having
tical advantages of concrete and the in- determined what to avoid, we will find
creasing scarcity of lumber assure it a the gate is opened upon original oppor-
prominent place in the architecture of tunities of surface treatment, as the in-
the future. crustation of tile,contrast of plain sur-
Quite a little work which has already face with color ornament and
been produced is suggestive of appro- wrought metal ;
motives of delight-
priate treatment of form and surface. ful promise, and in which some
Still, the bulk of concrete building so far successful work has already been
has been on purely commercial or engi- accomplished. But, bound as our
neering lines. We
are as yet feeling our design conceptions necessarily are to
way on the outskirts of a new field of forms and details handed down to us and
design. expressive for the most part of the con-
The questions that arise as to the structive meanings of other materials
proper range and limitations in expres- than concrete; and, in view of the fact
sion of structural concrete and surmise that this new construction is being in-
as to the lines of development likely to troduced for buildings of varied char-
be adopted divide themselves into some- acter and great size, some interesting
what the following lines of thought issues arise as- to rational design and
First . —
The characteristics of the con- composition. A
style that has marked
structive system and qualities of the ma- individuality rather than adaptability
terial and wherein these are distinctly at may be ill suited to the wide variation
variance with present-day or traditional of motives existing between different
form in current use; which form was classes of modern buildings. Those of
created in other materials and systems of small scale and simple composition pre-
stability. Deductions, following of ne- sent a problem of comparatively plain
cessity, as to artistic and consistent ex- and harmonious solution. More com-
pression in logical accord with construc- plex structure, on the other hand, intro-
tive meanings and not inappropriately duces decidedly more intricate questions
imitative. of design ethics. The wall and roof
Second —
Physical and mechanical de-
. motive of a two-story country dwelling
tailsand economics of construction must is a problem much more suggestive of
be considered as they may bear upon the artistic solution than a pier and girder
practical carrying into effect of the ideas and curtain-wall construction on a large
which the logic of architectural expres- scale. The necessity for considerable
sion leads us to attempt. Such matters, compromise with classicism and the lan-
;
guage of masonry will probably be rec- the intermediate phase between the lat-
ognized are to achieve much dig-
if we ter and the architecture of small jointed
nity of design with the latter variety of units built up on the static principles ot
building. We
will also probably con- column and lintel or arch.
clude that the best progress will be made In recent years a large number ct
by slow development rather than by rev- well-designed country houses have been
olutionary measures. executed in stucco laid over wire lath
or brick. Frequently merely the wall
THE LOGIC OF CONCRETE. surfaces are stuccoed; features, such as
Concrete is by no means a new build- columns, cornices, eaves, being in wood,
ing material, but not until recently did stone or brick, as the case may be. In
it occupy any but a secondary position. other examples, architectural members
The Romans were the most notable users and ornaments have been cast in ce-
of this material, though entirely as a ment; the composition and detail in such
useful substitute for more costly ma- designs is, however, invariably masonry
sonry or as a material for rough walls architecture executed in a substitute
which would be faced with stone or material. It must, at the same time, be
brick. The articulations natural to the admitted that there is more certainty of
lattermaterials would therefore be ex- producing beauty of form by this means
pressed the concrete was merely a back-
:
than by relying upon our present inex-
ing. perience for a more logical expression of
Stucco was sometimes used as a finish the material. But this is anticipating
for walls. This had been a quite fre- our arguments. The truth of what has
quent method in still earlier times, and been said just above is evident in the
was again later, in the Italian Renais- examples which have been selected for
sance,when architectural masonry detail illustration as typical of present design
was much imitated in this medium. The that makes use of stucco surface, but
same thing is done very frequently to- otherwise follows conventional construc-
day. tion and architecture. The cottage
In stucco over brick or rubble ma- shown in the first illustration pos-
sonry (which is a rough concrete) the sesses the simplicity, the plastic sug-
primary motives of concrete may be gestiveness of a genuine concrete
suggested but not fully expressed. The building, having roof and minor acces-
building is not entirely monolithic, sories in wood. The large house at Ros-
though it often approaches this, in im- lyn, L. I., reveals a composition of much
pression more than reality. Its walls, beauty and academic feeling. The walls
at least, are single masses instead of are larick, covered with stucco ;
the
being made up of cut and jointed small architectural features are cast in cement
units. Except, however, for dead the terrace wali is concrete, cement faced
weight support, the constructive office in forms. The design, however, is en-
of concrete is not expressed. Therefore tirely conceived in terms of stone; ce-
the meaning of lintels, arches and of all ment and stucco have been adopted as
members detached from the mass is not a substitute, evidently, not from choice.
of concrete, but of stone or wood. Even The stucco building, when it can
though these are superficially in cement, break away from being a replica ot
they retain the forms of the other ma- stonework executed in a cheaper mate-
terials in which they were originally rial, tends to develop a plasticity ot
created, because the actual construction treatment, a monolithic breadth and sur-
is upon the principles of those ma-
still face texture of its own. There is little
terials.However, the suggestive treat- distinction, as a matter of design, be-
ment of stuccoed walls and the imita- tween plastering mortar on walls of
tions of architectural forms in plastic brick, clay blocks or concrete, if the
cement or stucco furnish an introduc- latter is not part of a reinforced mono-
tion to the motives of structural con- lith. A solid concrete wall is scarcely
crete, architecturally considered. It is more than a form of rubble masonry,
FALLS,
GLENS
AT Company.)
RESIDENCE
Cement
Portland
LATH—
Atlas
WIRE’
of
ON
courtesy
STUCCO
(By
OF
EXAMPLE
AN
:
but one which the fineness of the ag- to be sure, accustomed us to much of
gregate makes it easier to render with this, particularly as to slender verticals.
a presentable surface. But the develop- But this is quite a reversal of the usual
ment of concrete construction has ad- conception of concrete, as massive and
vanced considerably beyond this. inert, which it is to be sure when used
Several methods are now in vogue in alone. So concrete must be considered
which concrete is used, with greater or from now on as a material with essen-
less completeness, as the structural ma- tially new functions and possibilities of
terial. First, there is the above-described expression.

stucco on brick or on metal lath over First of its characteristics as an archi-
frame. This cannot be classed as con- tectural material is its plasticity. Tech-
crete architecture, except in so far as it nical language adopts the term ‘‘pouring
implies some of the same motives to a into the forms,” which concisely implies
limited degree, having superficially the the impressionable nature of the me-
plasticity of cement. It is often attrac- dium, while it describes the actual
tive, but is contradictory, and therefore method of emplacement. Such material
must borrow and imitate whenever the calls naturally for moulded, flowing
simple value of surface seems insuffi- forms growing out of the body material,
cient and form is indulged in. in contrast to the principle of detach-
Then we have concrete block con- ment of forms and the putting together
struction, but this method possesses even of them in small units, which ideas gov-
less of the real characteristics of con- ern architectural construction and orna-
crete. It is, in fact, purely a work in ment in stone.
artificial stone. Very few attempts have Concrete structure is not merely plas-
been made to treat concrete blocks with tic and lending itself to treatment in
any artistic sense when it has been done, large masses it is monolithic.
;
This is
;
however, using large blocks finished to the second characteristic of general im-
closely imitate real stone and designing port, carrying with it the distinction we
all features just as for stone, it has been have just noted. The indication ot
shown to be not without scope. How- joints is of course illogical, because such
ever, it is unproductive of new thought would be merely a pretense of what does
in design, beyond the matter of finish to not actually exist.
imitate something else. Furthermore, in dealing logically with
Lastly, we have genuine concrete con- concrete we must revise many of our
struction. The French first developed most deeply seated notions regarding
the system of ciment arme. Ten years stability. Two motives are fundamen-
ago they were building structures of tally concerned with all architecture
considerable size of concrete, in which the one is the pier or column and lintel,
were embedded iron rods or mesh, so the other the arch, with its inferences of
disposed in walls, girders and other thrusts and balanced equipoise. Con-
structural members as to supply the ten- crete, to be sure, does not suppress these
sile strength that concrete lacks. Since elements of construction, but functional
then this principle has been worked out relations of the component parts are
with great precision of detail, both sci- altered by the fact that not only are the
entifically and commercially. Though base, shaft and cap fused in one, but
the science is still young, it is practical the lintel or the arch itself becomes
to apply it to the entire frame of a build- practically one uniform mass with the
—
ing columns, piers, roof, girders and pier by virtue of the interwoven rein-
forcement. In consequence, the mean-
beams, as well as walls.
One thing is at once strikingly ap- ing of many of the members of the con-
parent, namely, the much greater slen- ventional order, which has maintained
derness of the construction as compared its integrity from the days of Athens to
to masonry. Walls may be thinner and our own, disappears in monolithic con-
spans of girders longer than we are used struction. The capital may remain, at
to seeing. Steel frame construction has, least in the abstract some indication be-
;
RESIDENCE.
STOW
L.
W.
STUCCO—
IN
RENDERED
MOTIVES
MASONRY
ing announced of weight concentrated Arched or domed roofs and various

and supported. And the capital is al- forms of vaulting are practical possibili-
ways a spot proper to emphasize by the ties of reinforced concrete, though the
use of some ornament. Architrave and occasions that permit of ceilings of such
frieze have no separate identity, though, character and in durable materials are
if the expression of monolithic form is rare.
rightly interpreted. A
projecting cor- It will be seen from these tendencies
nice, of course, has perfect reason in ;
that logical form, as it may be expressed
the mouldings that should compose it, architecturally in concrete, makes for
however, modilions or brackets have no severity and simplicity. In all former
logical place. A
concrete arch, not be- styles the emphasis of joint lines has
ing composed of voussoirs and key block, been a favorite mode of expression. In
should not present a pretense of them by this new material plain surface must be
indicating imaginary joints. chamferA mostly depended upon. Conventional
moulding is about the extent of articula- form, as it has been handed down to us,
tion which should be allowed, though is permeated with the feeling of the cut-
the crown may be chosen with propriety ter’s tools. One sees this in the straight
as place
a enrichment, if this is
for lines and sharpness of mouldings and in
wanted for its value in a scheme of or- clear-cut carving. Concrete ornament
nament and if the convention of a should show evidences of modeling
wedged and functional key is avoided. rather than sculpturesque quality. Line
There is a novel slenderness and great has diminished in importance, surface
beauty of line in the arched forms to and color have gained. Mechanically, as
which reinforced concrete may be well as aesthetically, the elaborate. forms
adapted, particularly in bridge work. In of stone architecture, heavily projected
general construction the tendency is to and accurately finished, are contrary to
long spans and segmental or elliptical the nature of concrete and the methods
sections. It may be observed, in speaking used in its erection.
of the arch, that the fundamental dis- Since so much that has seemed posi-
tinction between arch and beam or lintel tively essential to design, at least for all
has really disappeared. Spanning an large problems where formal elaboration
opening horizontally does not necessarily is called for, denied the concrete de-
is
imply the principle of the beam, since signer he must evidently either veneer
we may have an arch of keyed stones the structure with other materials in the
with a flat soffit. The distinction arises same unrelated manner as is done with
in whether the member is a single unit a steel frame, or must seek other sources
of material or several units with radiat- of inspiration. A
motive prolific in op-
ing joints and, as a consequence, re- portunities is offered in the use of
quiring of its supports either a passive faience and tile. Pattern is the natural
vertical resistance or one which must form of enrichment for flat surface, and
also meet an outward thrust. With re- nothing is more consistently in harmony
inforced concrete all horizontal spans with the unmechanic and plastic, though
are the same in constructive system and, durable, surface of concrete than cera-
for that matter, the only principle of im- mic tile and faience. The tile may be
portance that differentiates a curved modeled in low relief, or, again, may be
form of span from a beam is that of the mosaic inlays of colored marbles or terra
strain for the particular loads,
line cottas in geometric patterns. The qual-
which, in turn, determines the curve ot ity of the concrete surface permits an
the arch, if it is to be other than semi- expression of the hand-made rather than
circular, and the necessary dimensions of the mechanically finished.
of an abutment. But such an arch may Some ideas which have already been
be more accurately defined as a curved developed along the lines of tile mosaic
truss; therefore the arch, as understood are shown in the accompanying illustra-
in masonry, does not exist in reinforced tions. Attention is particularly called to

concrete. the all-concrete house at South Orange,
ARCHITECTURAL EXPRESSION IN A NEW MATERIAL. 255
JAMAICA, Company.)
AT Cement
RESIDENCE
Portland
Atlas
of
CONCRETE—
courtesy
(By
REINFORCED
which will be referred to again. A house or veneering with thin slabs or tiles in
on the island of Jamaica, a photograph appropriate motives are destined to be
of which is also given, leans rather more leading characteristics of concrete de-
to derived architectural form, but is ap- sign. Recognized laws of ornament and
propriately designed for its setting, and, style will determine the relative value of
except perhaps in the colonnade, is a location and distribution or concentra-
logical statement of concrete form. tion; capitals, pilaster panels, spandrels,
ENTRANCE TO THE PONCE DE LEON.

St. Augustine, Fla. CarrSre & Hastings, Architects.
(Copyright by H. C. White Co.)
Color, of course, may

be indulged in tympana of arches are natural points for
without stint. To be sure, it is rather accent. As a general rule, such enrich-
fearful to think what may be in store for ment more effective when highly con-
is
us in the way of chromatic outbursts centrated upon certain central motives

should the speculative suburban builder of a design and allowed to contrast with
turn his attention to this subject. In expanses of plain surface. One of the
any event, polychromy and incrustation limitations of decoration of this type is
;
ARCHITECTURAL EXPRESSION IN A NEW MATERIAL. *$7
that it inclines to smallness of scale in the last few years. For suburban
thus suggesting its better adaptability houses, garages and other small build-
to the refinements of a small edifice than ings it has also made fair progress. In
to the monumental proportions of a the field of larger buildings the advance
building in the grand manner of the has been much slower. This has been
Italian or French tradition. In other due partly to architectural doubts and
words, it is more properly decoration partly to uncertainty as to whether the
than architecture in a monumental sense. practical advantages and cost saving
Fenestration assumes an important might not be offset by greater disadvan-
place in concrete design. In many com- tages and limitations. We think the bal-
positions there will be an obvious oppor- ance is swinging more and more in fa-
tunity to strike a contrasting note to vor of concrete as a practical method of
plain wall surface by the introduction of construction for an increasing variety of
richly ornamented metal frames and purposes. But, whether or not the ten-
mullions or sinuous tracery, if the latter tative efforts that have been made up to
would be in harmony with other motives date mark an experiment that will be
or style used. Wrought-iron balconies, abandoned before long, as far as large
gateways, lanterns will be valuable ac- constructions and their architectural re-
cessories. We believe, too, that ham- quirements are concerned, will depend
mered copper for certain purposes, such ultimately upon economic questions.
as copings and cornices, may be used not The most constant and obtrusive objec-
irrationally and certainly with beauty of tion is in the expense and difficulty of
effect. Of course, where metal is so form work where a design departs from
applied it should be acknowledged and plain surfaces and does not permit of
its characteristics emphasized, not dis- much repetition of the same units. This
guised. will no doubt enforce upon concrete de-
When a timber roof is used, eaves and sign a confinement to very simple treat-
carved wooden brackets can be made of ment, except in so far as it may combine
value. The typical treatment for an all- other materials with itself to supplement
concrete roof is a covering of flat hand- these restrictions.
made tile, laid with wide, and, if desired, The economic advantages which per-
irregular mortar joints. As such tile can tain to reinforced concrete are based
be made in soft and beautiful tones noth- upon the scientific use of concrete and
ing could be finer and pleasingly unme- steel, so united in a section as to obtain
chanical, particularly for domestic work. the greatest benefit from each. Steel is
The finish and texture and tone of vastly more expensive per pound or ton
concrete surfaces may be varied accord- than concrete; but, on the other hand,
ing to what seems best to harmonize its unit of tensile stress is 16,000 pounds
with the character of particular build- per square inch against about 50 pounds
ings and designs, as will be referred to for concrete. Therefore it is the most
more at length presently. economical material for tension and
Such are some of the motives, full of sheer members ;
while concrete, on the
imaginative promise, that are open to other hand, may be used with greater
concrete and that should prove, in the economy for compression, as its ratio to
problem of the small building, at any steel, as to compressive strength, is only
rate, an adequate compensation for the about one to thirty. Reinforced con-
forced abstinence from the architectural crete is designed upon this principle, and
formalities we have become accustomed it will readily be seen, even from a rudi-
to, but which are phrased so entirely in mentary statement of the matter, why
the language of stone. this system has gained ground rapidly
where the question of relative cost is
THE ECONOMICS OF CONCRETE. foremost and the construction simple.
Theuse of reinforced concrete in en- In the factory class of buildings it has
gineering works and for factory build- been proved to be but a small percentage
ings has increased at an enormous rate more costly, in some cases even, it is
5
claimed that it costs less than brick walls fewer the elements of plan and sec-
and “mill construction” floors- of heavy tion, the more constant the repetition of
timber. Also it possesses advantages of unit dimensions, the less will be the ex-
heavy load capacity, fire resistance and pense of concrete, owing to the simpli-
freedom from vibration that more than fication of form work and rapidity of
offset the slightly increased outlay. erection. The point which commands
For such reasons it would seem to be attention is that reinforced concrete is
merely a matter of a little more familiar- adaptable, constructively, to present com-
ity, standardization of formulae and mercial requirements for all but some
demonstration of reliability and system extreme types of buildings, and possesses
in execution to assure a much more some primary advantages in the question
widespread popularity, which will em- of cost. To offset this, stand the difficul-
brace buildings of miscellaneous charac- ties incidental to form work. Also, the
ter. No system of construction promises fact that concretework cannot be pushed
a greater degree of permanence. For a in freezing weather may often be a seri-
certain class of buildings this is not an ous drawback. The science is as yet in
advantage, since this construction can- a somewhat experimental stage. A ca-
not be taken down or altered with ease, lamitous series of failures, due to care-
as can be done with buildings put to- lessness or ignorance, has induced con-
gether in the usual manner. servatism. The greatest care and vigi-
The system adapts itself either to self- lance of superintendence is necessary.
supporting walls or curtain walls- carried Absolute regularity in proportioning the
by girders at each story, their load, ingredients, placing the reinforcement,
in turn, transmitted to columns —
the and in other details of execution must
method of the steel frame, with the dif- be observed, for such errors are quickly
ference that we do not necessarily have hidden and are difficult of correction if
to protect the members of the skeleton detected. The mixing and pouring of
with brick, tile and stone. The neces- concrete requires the minimum of skill,
sary covering of the metal tension bars but the maximum of care. Therefore
is done with one to three inches of con- every building in this construction should
crete below or outside them, as the case be superintended as systematically as the
may be. most important work of engineering.
As to exterior treatment, some sort of But with this responsibility realized and
surface finish must be given. Further accepted and reliability proved, a great
elaboration of detail depends so entirely obstacle to the use of concrete in im-
upon the type of building that compari- portant buildings will have been re-
son in cost could only be made in each moved. Large building operations, in
case; but, as a general proposition, the these days of close figuring of investment
architectural enrichment of a concrete return must adhere closely to methods
faqade should cost no more than one in that are precise and certain in results as
brick, stone and terra cotta of a corre- to cost, time of erection and practicabil-
sponding indulgence in design phrases ity of all details. Efficient system, cer-
and attainment of architectural effect. tainty and uniformity in meeting cus-
Besides, it is a perfectly simple matter tomary requirements can only be arrived
to face an exterior, or as much of it as at gradually by a new constructive sys-
we wish, with a veneer of masonry, contem. Examples of a great variety of
crete in such case simply taking the types of building are, however, already
place of the usual fireproof steel frame. to be found in different parts of the
Such a method does not advance archi- country.
tectural design in concrete, but it has The treatment of surface is one of the
been seized upon as a practical and easy most important matters concerned with
solution of the dilemma. the architectural possibilities of concrete.
The question, economically, lies prin- As laid up with care, but purely for util-
cipally in the relative costs of the two —
ity a rather wet mixture, well tamped
systems as constructive framework. The in forms of average regularity, being
Architects.
TILE-
Swartwout,
MIXTURE;
&
THE
Tracy
IN
AGGREGATES
Company.)
EXPOSING
Cement
INCRUSTATION.
SURFACE
Vulcanite
of
MOSAIC
WASHED
courtesy
(By
CONCRETE,
REINFORCED
OF J,
N.
RESIDENCE
Orange,
South
26 o THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
used —
a fairly smooth, but regular, sur- even texture and one agreeable to the
eye. Two quite opposite effects may be
face results, a film of mortar settling
against the sides of the mould. How- had one consists in brushing and wash-
:
ever, every irregularity and almost every ing away the cement skin, thus exposing
particles of aggregate in the other
joint of the boarding leaves an imprint. ;
Patches of exposed aggregate show here method a surface mixture of selected
DETAIL OF REINFORCE’D CONCRETE RESIDENCE AT SOUTH ORANGE, N. J.
(By courtesy of Vulcanite Cement Company.)
and there and variations in color occur material is applied to the face of the
in streaks and layers. In short, such a moulds, just ahead of the pouring of
surface is not merely dull and uninter- the concrete, and, on removal of the
esting, inconsequent irregularities are
its forms, the surface may be further fin-
objectionable. Several methods are in ished by washing or tooling.
vogue aiming at the production of an The first of these methods frankly ad-
mits and displays the material as con- ture, more nearly that of cut stone, will
crete. Some very delightful and varied be considered more desirable for many
effects may be obtained by using aggre- purposes. Such a finish is arrived at by
gate of graded sizes and mixing in a cer- the method known as mortar facing,
tain proportion of pebbles, marble though it is by no means limited to mor-
screenings, burned clay or broken brick, tar of the ordinary variety. The most
flecks of color thus giving an animated primitive fashion of applying is to
texture to the otherwise leaden and life- trowel on a mortar against the face of
less material. Brushing may be done to the form about an inch thick and for
greater or less depth, giving a more or the height of the layer about to be laid
less roughened surface, as desired. It is and to fill in behind and at once with
necessary to brush and wash the sur- the ordinary concrete, which, of course,
face while the concrete is still green, as firmly unites with it as the mortar is
otherwise the process would be too la- still soft. An improvement insuring
borious, in fact, would be precluded. greater accuracy is to form a slot by
Therefore the forms must be removed means of a sheet-iron plate specially de-
at about twenty-four hours after placing vised for the purpose, with angles to
the concrete. The necessity of remov- hold it vertically at a desired distance
ing the form work before the concrete from the face of the forms. The pre-
has thoroughly hardened considerably pared concrete for the facing is first
limits the practicability of this process. filled into the slot and immediately after-
Load-sustaining sections must be hard ward the backing is poured and tamped
before the supporting mould is removed down. Then the plate is raised, allow-
from underneath. Though, where this ing the two to be firmly bonded together
effect, rather than a smoother finish, is by ramming. When the forms are re-
wanted, it should be quite possible to at- moved the facing will require dressing
tain it in a measure, even when the con- and cleaning down, as, even though
crete is quite hard, by the use of acid the boards have been covered with oil
and the stone bush hammer. Sufficient and soap, the soft material will take the
of the mortar skin could be removed to impression of grain and joints and ef-
obliterate the impression of board vein- florescence may break out in spots. A
ings and layer marks, and at the same great variety of texture, and of color as
time expose some of the aggregates. well, may, of course, be achieved accord-
After this tool dressing the wall should ing to the aggregates selected glister- :
be brushed down with dilute acid, fol- ing marble, gray trap rock, yellow sand
lowed by water played on by a hose to and brick dust.
prevent the acid from penetrating. Lime- A cheaper method, but one not to be
stone is barred where acid cleaning fs recommended, since more permanent
done. finish is possible, consists in applying a
The brush-wash manner produces de- skim coat of mortar to the surface after
cidedly the most legitimate surface, the the building is erected and forms have
only proper finish, it might even be said, been removed.
where consistent concrete design and The two principal methods above de-
ornament is carried out. As a matter of scribed, respectively that of outspoken
fact, the method is best suited, for prac- concrete, aggregates showing in relief,
tical reasons, to buildings of small di- —
and the surfaced finish, displaying an
mensions, and artistically, to those of even, fine texture closely resembling that
simple wall composition. This finish of cut stone, though it may be coarser,
was successfully rendered in the inter- are destined, we think, to characterize
esting house at South Orange, N. J., two schools of design. Each is in its
shown in the illustrations, though the way legitimate, because in harmony with
photographs fail to reproduce the color its own set of ideas and adaptable to
quality. widely separated classes of buildings.

In the present transitional period, and As reverse forms must be made for all
quite possibly beyond it, a smoother tex- mouldings and projecting sections, and
THE GLOEKER BUILDING.

Office building type, showing dependence of design upon masonry conventions.
Pittsburgh, Pa.
(Photo by courtesy of The Cement Age.)
as economical erection is out of the however, when designed to bring out its
question where these variations are fre- own virtues and proper expression, great
quent and complicated, it will be under- opportunities exist for harmonious com-
stood why this least expensive and most binations with concrete.
commonplace form of enrichment for We have not progressed far enough
stone and wood becomes, with concrete, as yet with reinforced concrete for such
a costly and troublesome one. The diffi- motives to be carried out in practice
culty of mouldings is therefore out of with the routine accuracy of the preva-
proportion to the effect gained if we can lent modes of construction. There are
find a better employment for our efforts innumerable details in a modern build-
in direct and suitable form of expression. ing, all of which must be determined on
At the same time, mouldings cannot be paper alone with completeness and cer-
entirely dispensed with, and if simple titude, and the execution of which must
and of large profile, but not too massive be marked with equal precision. The
in projection, may come within the rea- handling of a building operation is re-
sonable scope of practice. Abrupt pro- quired to be first of all on a strictly
jections, as of balconies, are consistent commercial basis. Only after the accu-
in a material with notable cantilever mulation of much experience, therefore,
propensities. may we expect, for practical reasons
It is simple,on the contrary, to leave alone, to see concrete design attain half
recesses in the forms in which blocks of the measure of its possibilities, and up
other material may later be inserted. to the present time it has been mostly
Concrete being so restricted in respect to confined to architectural problems of
mouldings, it would appear rational to simple character and engineering ones of
introduce other materials for occasional comparatively little complication, such
emphasis of this kind where line and as factories. However, it is pushing out
shadow value may thus be given, which gradually into larger fields.
would otherwise be lacking from the
CONCRETE ETHICS IN RELATION TO
design, such materials, of course, to be
PRESENT ENVIRONMENT.
acknowledged without disguise. pro-A
gramme, for instance, that offers little Concrete, it would appear, should cer-
opportunity for relief of a monotonous tainly provide the long-hoped for me-
faqade by a fine roof or any other fea- dium for creative design, untrammeled
ture of projection from the flatness of by convention, as, on the contrary, all
the wall plane, might make effective use work must be which is confined to ma-
of copper for a rich cornice and parapet, terials that have been so exhaustively
the same material, or bronze, being re- worked over. Yet it cannot be said that
peated in the other details as the com- many designs of pronounced beauty have
position may suggest, so as to carry a as yet been executed. It must be re-
thread of the motive through the design. membered that progress in style forma-
Or, again, marble could be used for a tion is evolutional. Evolution, as we
more architectonic phrasing of the cen- know, never goes by leaps and bounds.
tres of interest an elaborate entrance,
:
Even when there is some radical change
moulded column bases, window frames in thought or habit, external form will
to distinguish the main story, etc. Still only conform by gradual elimination. A
more fitting for such purpose, it may be new material, revolutionary in certain
thought, is moulded terra cotta. Yet, constructive principles, must in the end
as cast to resemble and substitute for produce a complete system of design, a
stone mouldings and carvings-, it is, pronounced architectural style. How-
aestheticallyspeaking, wrong. In the ever, such a development may take a
same category of errors is the casting long time. Especially in this present
of large cornices, balustrades or such age, conception must wait on practica-
matters, copied after stone, in concrete bility and economy. The effective range
poured into sand moulds and afterwards of conceptive design is limited by the
secured in place. As to terra cotta, external and positive influences that de-
;
termine structural development and sense, the true but bald engineering fact.
architectural preferences at In
large. To explain by definite citation: The act-
other words, this problem should be con- ual frame of a Gothic church or a fif-
sidered not merely in the light of its teenth-century Florentine palace, to
own logic, but with the realization that name random examples, is such that a
results may only be arrived at in terms work of art was possible through the
of present needs and appreciations. agency of design that beautified while
Thus we may have convinced our- revealing the construction with entire
selves of the correctness of the thesis, frankness and no disguise. Such qual-
ity, however, is lacking from the skele-
namely, that the conventional form
handed down to us in the motives of ton method which dominates modern
articulated stone and timber architecture architecture. A twenty-five story build-
should be abandoned, root and branch, ing, with a steel frame of equidistant
because entirely without relation to mon- verticals and horizontal members, en-
olithic construction; yet further consid- cased merely in the minimum of practi-
eration may convince us that too much cal masonry and without pretense of any
radicalism is barren of good results and further constructive system than the
that we cannot break too suddenly with naked truth, is a monstrosity and a pub-
established ideas. The instinct of design lic offense. And yet many buildings of
must be relied upon chiefly to discover this size and class in no way offend or
the most promising roads to travel. oppress us by overbearing ugliness, and,

However, in such a matter knowledge at the same time, their usefulness is in
of conditions assists and gives precision no wise diminished, all because their
to instinctive feeling. faqades have been given some composi-
tion and proportion of form that satisfy
It is a first principle of architectural
expression that its form should articu- the needs of eye and imagination. Of
late structure; should be externally in
course the accent given to certain stories
harmony with the real construction, ex- or other divisions or features whereby a
pressing, not contradicting, it. Yet we design is achieved is not a reflection of
know that this theory must be compro- any corresponding variation in the real
mised with in all typically modern con- construction and little or none of rela-
structions. It cannot be adhered to tive plan values. Nor have the attached
pilasters, arches and other such matters
nowadays with the literalness of the days
of simple masonry and timber building.
any meaning above that of pure fiction
it is beyond doubt all make-believe. It
In small structures of two or three
residences mostly, we are still is foolish, though, to condemn such a
stories,
fortunate in having a simple problem in process of design, under the circum-
stances, provided the apparent construc-
this respect, but seldom in any other
It is not only the sky- tion as presented in the design is ra-
class of building.
scraper that is of skeleton construction, tional and consistent, its special accents
but churches, theatres, imposing hotels always such as convey impressions of a

and apartment houses are, most of them, construction that might logically be de-
of the same
type. veloped and similarly accented if the
Modern conditions, then, compel some walls were solid, or at least had greater
modifications of the simple law of the reality than that of a protective curtain.
However, we accept this anomaly so we
_
harmony of design. While architecture

will achieve its happiest results through should find no fault with the illusion,
following the line of least resistance merely as such, but only when it ceases
offered by construction, there should be to be an illusion of things real, of con-
the understanding that, though it may sistent meaning and of artistic value.
not contradict the construction in an ir- While it is particularly to masonry

rational or unnecessary manner, it may veneered steel construction that these
supplant the actual by an illusion of such questions of architectural virtue are per-
structural form as is in accord with and tinent, reinforced concrete design can-
in completion of, in an architectural not consider itself free from the neces-
sity of compromise with them. The column and girder framework. There-
same commercial system is at work de- fore, we do not think it is reasonable to
manding a reduction of the constructive expect that we should abolish at one
composition to the simplest form of stroke all accepted conventions of form.
skeleton consistent with the plan desired. Where, to retain them, would take us
The vogue of reinforced concrete has beyond the proper scope of our plastic
so far been mostly a commercial one, medium let us fall back on the old ma-
and has been influenced largely by terials, working out harmonious motives
the great bearing strength possessed by for their combination. This modified
the system in light sections and long point of view will better sustain a prop-
spans. As a consequence, the skeleton erly ordered evolution which may event-
frame in concrete offers no greater body ually work out a closer harmony be-
of material, and sometimes less, than the tween construction and outward form.
steel frame after the latter is encased in Architecture is full of small deceptions
its fireproofing. The same
hopelessly to cloak reality when this is crude and
monotonous repetition
of units is apt mechanical; though there should never
to be determined by forces quite be- be a line or bit of material without pur-
yond the control of the designer. There- pose and value in the expressive scheme
fore there will be the same necessity of of the design.
inventing some supplementary compo- We should remember that the orders
sition if buildings of this major class are and other primary motives have, by
to be done architecturally in concrete. their varied adaptability, become in a
True, the concrete building retains, in measure disassociated from their origins
any case, a closer bond between appear- and from narrow restriction to those oc-
ance and reality, because, while the older casions where their actual and apparent
type is a construction of two distinct functions are co-extensive. Architec-
materials without a natural co-ordina- ture has for a long time used them large-
tion of function, the other is of one sub- ly as convenient symbols or notes of in-
stance within and without. Supports, dication. The purist may say the indica-
floors, walls, roof, it is all one mass; the tion is one only of decadence not neces-
;
surface and the constructive material are sarily so when we
consider that our prob-
the same. Therefore a curtain wall is lems lie in the conditions of to-day, not
not so disunited from its framework, of yesterday.
and such fictional expression as it may The characteristics of concrete make
be inclined to indulge in need not and certain clear demands, which we attempt-
should not be as radical a departure from ed to define above, and it is clearly req-
fact as conditions make desirable in the uisite that features of stone or timber be
stone or brick and terra cotta clothing not imitated unless such quality as be-
of gaunt and rigid frames of steel. longs distinctly to either of these mate-
Weneed not, however, in one con- rials and to them alone be extracted; or
struction more than the other, consider unless we compromise the matter and
ourselves forced, because of any virtue veneer a concrete shell with jointed ma-
in absolute adherence to truth, to ex- sonry. Otherwise such proportions and
press outwardly the actual equality of profile must be used as will not give the
each vertical member and floor line; the impression of an inappropriate copy of
rudimentary features and monotony in forms that could be rationally constructed
all horror.
its Grouping of stories or only of built-up and jointed pieces.
bays and the use of all the conventional But we cannot get along entirely with-
architectural paraphernalia we may find out columns and entablatures, attached
of service, if modified in accord with orders and other familiar devices, if we
the new material all this is legitimate,
; are to give some architectural dignity to
whatever our material or constructive skeleton framed buildings of great area
system. It is the necessary sort of thing or height, whether the frame be a rein-
if we are still anxious to produce archi- forced concrete monolith or of riveted
tecture from the unpromising data of steel sections. Therefore, we think that
we need not have false pride, but that, considerations to other arguments in fa-
for an invasion of the domain of masonry vor of the motives of incrustation and the
design, we should use the smoother meth- use of architectural accents in other ma-
ods of finish that closely resemble the terials.
texture of dressed stone and in the form Such a course is better than a forced
of design phrases invented for stone, pro- straining after originality. We
should be
vided they may be rendered practically in satisfied if unnecessary imitation is
DETAIL OF THE MONOLITH BUILDING,

West 34th Street, New York.
(By courtesy of Architects’ and Builders’ Maâz-ne.)
the material and if not. introducing stone, avoided and if a little spontaneous
terra cotta, or metal with the evident thought and greater consistency of de-
purpose of meeting the requirements of tail be suggested here and there. We
decided and formal composition. As was should attempt then to so dissect and re-
pointed out above, the impracticability of compose old formulae as to infuse some
elaborate form work forces simplicity of of the plasticity and monocast feeling of
surface projections upon concrete, and, the material. There are opportunities
therefore, adds the weight of practical enough for the genius of design to assert
itself in a gradual transmutation of style either be in warm earth shades or the

without having recourse abruptly to an cool grey of blended black and white
absolute divorce from tradition. It is stone chips.
necessary though to divest ourselves of Some charming results are possible on
the conception of derived motives as such lines while expressive in a direct
complete and unchangeable. On the manner of the properties of the material
contrary, we should view them element- and radically independent of tradition
ally so as to discern whatever is in them and convention, though the character of
belonging to art at large and free from certain styles is almost unavoidably re-
the necessary implications of any one ma- flected to some degree. There is a
terial. praiseworthy simplicity and directness
In some problems of monolithic build- about such work that is refreshing after
ing, it is quite obvious and we may say the garish artificiality so often met with
has already been demonstrated, that con- and is something much needed for the
struction may be sufficiently and truth- healthfulness of present architecture.
fully stated and the material frankly ex- The plastic
opportunities of concrete
pressed, while quite in harmony with mean, too, the regaining of some of the
present appreciations of form. few A lost feeling of handicraft. The material
small houses of decided beauty and en- possesses an essential instinct for the
tire consistency as to the expression of hand-made in distinction to the machine-
the material have already been designed finished. It is naturally more readily in
and more in greater variety of motive domestic than in commercial or monu-
will surely follow. Thestructural make- mental work that this feeling may find a
up, however, is of the simplest. Low ready outlet, and the former alone is cer-
walls, a good roof, projecting wings and tainly a large field. To what extent con-
porches or recessed loggias provide ma- crete will invade the latter class of build-
terial for a sufficient composition and ings is as yet problematical. However,
study of proportion for the rest, textural
;
in the writer’s belief, the future will wit-
surface and a small amount of appropri- ness a successful effort at enlarging the
ate ornament is all that is wanted. The apparent limits of concrete expression
walls will usually be plain, but piers of to include such problems which an eco-
slight projection giving an arrangement nomically strong position promises to
of panels may occasionally be warranted. place squarely before the architecture
The reinforcing motive is scarcely de- of the future.
veloped in exterior expression except in When we turn from a rural setting
that the walls are thinner than concrete to city streets, from the simplicity and
walls could be otherwise but, as reveals
;
refinement, which it is, there above all,
may be the same as usual, there is no de- desirable to express, to the formality,
parture from the familiar on this ac- the pretentious size and multiplicity of
count. The floors may be of one con- units, characteristic of commercial or
struction or another without need for a semi-commercial building, we are face to
reflection in the design. The differen- face with quite a different design prob-
tiation from frame, brick and stone is lem. Reduction of composition to the
mainly in surface form and is achieved simplest terms means too barren a treat-
by falling back upon a severe though ap- ment for the scale, the repetitions and
propriate simplicity of design, practically lack of relief involved. Surface treat-
eliminating all mouldings and, in place of ment alone, however pleasing, will
elaboration of window framings, porches, not entirely answer. The tile-mosaic
balconies and other features with usual motive should not be used indiscrimi-
motives, making use of mosaic themes nately but with the discernment we
and by inlaying tile or other bits of color would show for something rare and del-
pattern. The surface treatment should icate, just as we would not care for
be the brush and wash method exposing flower gardens that covered the whole
the aggregates and producing a pleasing landscape. Wrought metal accessories
and broken tone of color which mav and enriched fenestration will be help-
ful. Still, what is required in the class distinctly monolithic and plastic in ex-
of composition we refer to, is form and pression : to Egypt and the Spanish
organic proportion. For such necessi- Missions of California. And just as
ties we shall certainly have to be de- these two are as opposite poles in feeling,
pendent, for a while at any rate, upon so are they both too foreign to our pres-
classic form, that is to say, upon the ent mode of thought and environment,
externals of the already developed archi- for it is to be artistic wisdom to repro-
tectural styles. duce them unless in their own climatic
Very few designs have as yet been surroundings. We
may look to them for
made, for buildings extensive
of size, hints and extract ideas that we can use,
that announce with any positiveness the if we
are clever enough, but literal re-
production is as ill advised as is the imi-
nature of concrete, particularly as ex-
pressed in reinforced construction. Most tation of other materials.
of the office buildings erected in the new

The foundations of useful inspira-
then, belong to eras that are
method have been faced with brick and tion,
stone. The few that have ventured to gone and with which we are not now
particularly in sympathy. While the
depend solely upon concrete have kept
pretty close to the precedents of ma- same is true to an extent of every style
of the past, yet our present ideas, our
.
sonry, not attempting a more direct ex-

pression of the individuality of concrete mode of life and mould of thought And
than to avoid an excessive pronounce- easy and fairly natural expression
ment of stone. The Gloeker building in through adaptions from the various off-
Pittsburg may be instanced. The Mon- shoots of the Renaissance.
olith building in New York shows, how-
The manifestation of Tart nouveau,
ever, a well studied effort to design de-
while having more force in the allied
ot plastic arts than in architecture, yet has
tail more conformable to the nature
concrete. essayed expression in the latter. Quite
A bold attempt to emphasize rein- independently of reinforced concrete
forced concrete characteristics was made suggestion it has created forms highly
in the Marlborough-Blenheim at
Atlan- imbued with the feeling of this material,
tic City. Though the result may be in though in the judgment of the sober
some respects bizarre, it is also success- minded, falling usually into inconsequent
log- excesses or trivialities. It would be in-
ful in presenting a forceful essay in
The Ponce de Leon Hotel teresting to seek out in what respects
ical design.
Augustine, built many years ago, this emancipated style may be expected
at St.
aspect. of to contribute to creative design in con-
is a beautiful rendering of one
—
concrete heavy walled construction crete.
The problem of the future as to con-
with brick, terra cotta and timber as ac-
cessories for the featuring of the de- crete —and in the latent originality of
this material is the chief hope of future
sign, concrete being a sort of back-
ground material. style —
is to develop the suggestions we
Even in the most individualistic work, may glean from the barbaric styles of
the past has been drawn upon freely for color and incrustation along new lines
minor motives at least. It has been usual and at the same time to create, consist-
delighted ently with structure and material, mo-
to seek precedent in styles that
incrustation and excelled in tile tives of form and line, both in concrete
in color
—
work, mosaic and stucco Persia, Ara- itself and in combinations with other ma-
Venice, that will save to us the classic
bia, Byzantium, and, we may. add,
terials,
sense of rhythm our inherited desire for
Yet Venice we can but feel is too fragile ;
unpoetic architecture that is dignified and grace-

a flower for the climate of this
age; and the others are not great archi- ful —
formal where required, beautiful
tectures. We
have also turned quite in any case.
H. Toler Booraem.
naturally to such other styles as were
The New University of California
I.
Among the American universities of his State; and among the institutions
there none which is growing much
is which are being wrought pre-eminently
more rapidly than is the University of under the influence of this larger out-
California, and there is none whose look, the University of California must
growth is more significant and promis- be counted as not the least important.
ing. This institution is the State uni- When a State assumes the responsi-
versity of California; but it has char- bility for the income and the welfare of
acteristics which distinguish it sharply a university, the consequence usually is
from the other State universities. Just that the institution so supported is
as the State of California claims to obliged to get along without private
be, and with justice, an imperial benefactions. The liberal millionaire
State, just as the city of San Fran- generally bestows his gifts upon institu-
cisco claims to have, and with jus- tions which cannot subsist or increase
tice, certain traits of a metropolitan without an endowment, and which be-
city, so the University of California, come, consequently, at once an evidence
situated across the bay from the city of and a memorial of individual generosity.
San Francisco, is destined to be some- Such, however, has not been the case
thing more than a provincial college. with the University of California. It
No one who has considered candidly the owes much to the State, but it also owes
differences in social, moral and intel- much to the benefactions of well-to-do
lectual outlook between the Californian Californians and for this reason it be-
;
and the inhabitant either of the Middle comes peculiarly representative. It is

West or of the Eastern States, can doubt neither merely an official institution and
;
that California will develop in the course its efficiency and standing are not im-
of time a society and a civilization differ- paired by the perfunctory service which
ing in certain essential respects from State institutions often command, and
that of the rest of the country; and it is the meager rations on which they are
extremely probable that the most char- obliged to subsist. Neither is it an in-
acteristic expression of California’s pe- stitution which is less representative, be-
culiar phase of Americanism will be cause it is too much the issue of the gen-
found in the intellectual sphere. This erous aspirations of one man. It com-
prophecy can hardly be justified by any bines the authority which is derived
actual achievement; but it exists in the from its official allegiance to the State,
minds of the enlightened Californians with the freedom and flexibility which
as a living aspiration. They believe in are contributed by its affiliation with
the future of their State in the way that Californians of wealth and intelligence.
is quite impossible for the Nebraskan It has the advantage of a strong and
or the New Yorker; and they are justi- opulent competitor in the Leland Stan-
fied in this belief, because the bounda- ford, Jr., University; but it is not han-
ries of California are not arbitrary, be- dicapped in this competition by the want
cause traditions are unique, and be-
its of friends as liberal, if not as plethoric,
cause, with its mountains and its coast, as the Stanford family. It subsists, so
its mineral and its agricultural wealth, far as American universities go, upon a
its industrial and its commercial possi- unique combination of private and
and its peculiar advantages as a
bilities, public support. The smallest taxpayer
place in which to live, its statehood is may be interested in it, because it is
something more than a legal expres- partly maintained by State appropria-
sion. So the Californian is constantly tions, while at the same time many
preparing and working for a future wealthy benefactors have already
which shall justify the imperial promise scratched their names on its memorial
THE NEW UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 271
Architect.
Howard,
CALIFORNIA.
Galen
John
OF
UNIVERSITY
THE
OF
BUILDINGS
NEW
THE
OF
PLAN
GROUP
REVISED
Cal.
Berkeley,
tablets. happy mixture of official

If this the past should be a guide rather than
and backing can be continued
unofficial a handicap. But this comment, what-
indefinitely, it should in the end give the ever its general truth, is in the present
university a standing as unique as is instance beside the mark. The directors
the source of its income and property. of the university were, as I have said,
Doubtless the divided nature of its sup- anticipating and preparing for a future
port also has its rougher aspect and its of a scope and a significance out of all
less agreeable consequences. Doubtless keeping with its modest achievements;
it brings in its train some of the disad- and under such conditions their freedom
vantages as well as some of the advan- from any specific architectural allegiance
tages of both the official and the un- was on the whole a palpable advantage.
official universities. But whatever these They could found a local tradition more
disadvantages, they are not too high a appropriate than that of collegiate Gothic
price to pay for the enlarged opportu- or Colonial and they could embody this
;
nities and promise which the university tradition in a plan which would be all
obtains from the peculiarly representa- the more adequate, because it was not
tive nature of its support. necessary to preserve existing buildings
The new architectural plan of the on their sites, or to consider specific
University of California can hardly be styles. The adequacy, the integrity and
understood except in reference to the the propriety of this plan would, if it
foregoing considerations. This plan has were well conceived, be proportionate to
been prepared under the influence of the the extent from which its designers were
conditions and the ideas which I have emancipated from conditions which
been attempting vaguely to describe. Its were, after all, irrelevant, in view of the
builders and designers have, from the much more magnificent promise of the
beginning been imbued with the idea university’s future. No doubt an East-
that they were planning a university ern university, such as Harvard or
which was to be the most important Princeton, may anticipate a future of
single intellectual influence in the lives much greater amplitude than its past,
of an ever-increasing number of Cali- while at the same time seeking to pre-
fornians. They wanted the university, serve all that was valuable in its local
in its architectural expression, to be tradition. But Californians are united,
worthy of its great future; and in this much more than are the inhabitants of
aspiration they were sustained not only any Eastern State, by the future they are
by the State authorities, but by many building; and the really formative influ-
individual Californians, of whom the ence in that future is not a tradition so
most conspicuous was Mrs. George much as an adequate and fruitful idea.
Hearst. In thus building for the fu-
II.
ture the directors of the university had
at once the advantage and the disadvan- It was under the influence of con-
tage of being without any architectural siderations of this kind that the plan for
monuments which were worth preserv- the greater University of California was
ing. The existing buildings, whether wrought. In 1901 the first steps were
because of individual merit or because taken towards the architectural foun-
they pointed towards an admirable tradi- dation of the new university. The idea
tion, did not deserve perpetuation. The was that such a university must receive
university could build for the future, an architectural embodiment which
unhandicapped by the past. would really symbolize the larger aspi-
There are many people who will be- rations of its friends and its own increas-
lieve that the absence of an honorable ing intellectual authority ;
and under
architectural tradition was more of a the influence of this idea there was in-
disadvantage than an advantage, par- stituted, with the assistance of Mrs.
ticularly in the case of an institution George Hearst, an international compe-
like a university which lives so much tition. The object of this competition
upon tradition. To such an institution was not so much to secure the designs
Architect.
Howard,
Galen
John
6
;

incumbent was required to feel and to
of a series of individual buildings, the its
money for which had already been pro- realize. architect of the new Uni-
The
vided. What the overseers of the university of California had to be able, not
versity wanted was a general plan which merely to design a group of buildings,
would take advantage of the superb but to participate in the task of convert-
site at Berkeley, and which would pro-
ing a small university of limited re-
vide an appropriate place for every im- sources and purposes, into one of the
portant building that during the next greatest and most adequate educational
institutions in the United States. It was
several generations the university was
likely to need. All these buildings in part an intellectually and socially
were to be subordinated in their location constructive task to which he was

and their design to one comprehensive called and the fulfilment of such a task
;
it scarcely need be said, an un-

architectural scheme, which was. to be requires,
prepared after full consideration of usual combination of such qualities as
every relevant aesthetic and practical tenacity, courage, patience, flexibility and
consideration. intelligence. Mr. Howard has proved
It will be remembered that the com- his ability to devote himself with disin-
petition was won by a brenchman, M. terested enthusiasm to the fulfilment of
Emile Benard, a very brilliant architec- an idea. Little by little he abandoned a
tural designer; and the plans which lucrative practice and an enviable posi-
secured for him the award were not the tion in New York in order properly to
least brilliant of his achievements. They perform his work in California and he ;
were, however, very much more in the ended by establishing his residence in
nature of preliminary sketches than fin- Berkeley, where he undertook not only
ished drawings. They had been pre- to plan and design the new buildings, but
pared without the benefit of a visit to to organizie an architectural department
Berkeley, and, besides, they were drawn in the university. He has become the
on the very small scale of fifty feet to the representative in the counsels of the uni-
inch. At a later date M. Benard paid a versity of the plastic arts in their relation
visit to Berkeley and drew up a revised to the higher education, and he has con-
scheme, in which were embodied many sistently proclaimed the importance of
important modifications of his original aesthetic training as an element in the
drawings and some decided improve- consummate educational process. All
ments; and it is this scheme which has these additional tasks are a natural de-
formed the basis of the plan according velopment of the fundamental work to
to which the greater university is now which he was called, of designing in
being constructed. detail the buildings of the new univer-
A preliminary plan, however, one is sity, for the great architectural plan
thing, and its actual under
execution, could never be loyally and intelligently
conditions imposed by time, money and realized without a gradual increase of
a complex set of practical conditions, architectural interest and understanding"
quite another. It was neither possible nor on the part of the alumni, the friends
desirable that M. Benard should remain and the overseers of the university.
at Berkeley to undertake or even to It is, however, Mr. Howard’s primary
start the more difficult work of car- work with which we are here chiefly
rying out his own plans and in ;
concerned and that work in itself was
;
his place the university was for- a sufficient test of Mr. Howard’s abili-
tunate enough to secure the services ties and his patient and loyal devotion to
of one of the few American architects his task. M. Benard’s plan remained,,
to whom such a task could be safely en- even after the modifications, a sketch
trusted —
Mr. John Galen Howard. and the gradual fitting of a preliminary
sketch to a complex set of practical con-
The position required something more
than architectural training, experience ditions, without any impairment of the
and because it was something

ability, original architectural idea is, as every
more than an architectural idea which architect knows, the most trying part of
THE NEW UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 2 75
CALIFORNIA.
OF
UNIVERSITY
SOUTHEAST—
THE
FROM
DETAIL
HALL,
CALIFORNIA
CALIFORNIA HALL— LOBBY OF THE EXECUTIVE OFFICES.
CALIFORNIA HALL, TOWER HALL AND STAIRWAYS— UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Berkeley, Cal. John Galen Howard, Architect.
the work. As a matter of fact, it was and forming a central line of cleavage
soon found that M. Benard's plan had from one end of the grounds to the other.
to be followed more in the spirit than in Two hardly less important axes, run-
the letter. The salient characteristics of ning north and south, cross the main
CALIFORNIA HALL, MAIN ENTRANCE— UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

his scheme have been described in the esplanade at aconsiderable distance

following terms It is “composed upon
:
apart. The more westerly of these lines
a main avenue or esplanade, running determines the centre of a great court,
nearly east and west across the grounds which has received variously the names,
in the direction of their greatest length, Fines Arts Square, Library Square and
the like, according, as in one sketch or was maintained throughout the entire
another, the museum or the library filled length of the garden, which
botanical
the place of honor and gave the court was shown filled to an average depth
as
its special character. The more easterly of ten feet. By these means virtually a
axis opens up a long vista towards the single magnificent slope at a very easy
south, which is terminated by the ath- inclination, held from the entrance at
lethic field and the gymnasium, quite at Oxford street to the end of the espla-
the southern boundary of the grounds. nade.”
The various academic buildings are The which would
architectural effect
grouped upon these threes axes, in ac- have been by means of the
obtained
cordance with well-recognized principles Benard plan might well have been mag-
of formal architectural composition, yet nificent, but its expense was prohibitive
in such a manner as to give great variety and its drawbacks serious. Mr. Howard
of aspect. The buildings are of various has sought to preserve the advantages of
sizes, of different scale, of diversified the plan, while at the same time avoid-
outline, while the tendency of the archi- ing its difficulties, by running the main
tectural treatment is nevertheless con- esplanade along a somewhat different
sistent in its generally classic char- line. This line does not depart from the
acter.” same general direction, but it has the
Such was the general composition great merit of preserving the entire mid-
which Mr. Howard was asked to execute dle portion of the grounds at approxi-
when he assumed charge of the imme- mately their present grade. It requires
diate architectural future of the univer- a much smaller amount of filling and
sity, and the salient features of this grading than does the line proposed by
scheme he has found no reason to mod- M. Benard because it corresponds with
ify. The plan, in accordance with which the natural central line of drainage, and
thenew buildings of the university are its establishment has revealed the possi-
now being erected, includes an esplan- bility of retaining many minor beauties
ade, running in a general direction from of the site from the beginning to the
the west to the east, and two cross axes end. It will be useless to trace this line
running, of course, in the opposite direc- in detail from one end of the grounds
tion. This plan has, nevertheless, been to the other, because it would require
profoundly changed, if not in its outlines, either a visit to the site of the university
at least in its application to the grounds. or a detailed topographical map in order
The Benard scheme demanded a drastic to appreciate its advantages but an ex-
;
and extremely expensive remodeling of amination of the illustration of the

the site of the university. The main model which accompanies this article will
axis, for instance, crossed a broad, shal- disclose how naturally and snugly the
low amphitheatre of hills, beyond the plan has been fitted to the configuration
crown of which the land falls away of the ground. That site naturally di-
sharply and irregularly. In order to get vides itself into four parts. Of these the
the esplanade safely across these hills, central portion is by far the largest and
an immense amount of filling, grading most important, lending itself readily, as
and cutting would have to be under- it does, to the construction of a num-
taken, and certain of the natural beauties ber of monumental buildings, properly
of the site destroyed. In M. Benard’s grouped along a salient line. The land
plan these difficulties were met by a bold to the west forms a natural approach to
device, which is described by Mr. How- that group, separating slightly from the
ard in the following words “The crown
: town and giving it the seclusion which
of the hill was in that design lowered is appropriate to a university surrounded
by an average depth of twelve feet, and bv a modern American suburb. The
the succeeding declivity was crossed by hills to the east afford a majestic natural
a broad causeway or bridge, lifted above emphasis to the climax of the composi-
the adjoining levels to a height of seven- tion. Finally, to the south, just aside
teen feet. The grade line of the bridge from the path of learning, yet closely
Architect.
Howard,
Galen
John
28o THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
have an exceedingly fine architectural

effect,and where abundant room will be
provided for subsequent growth. The
humanities group of buildings, including
belles-lettres, languages, history, juris-
prudence and the like, would be arranged
immediately about the library. On the
opposite side of the main esplanade, thus
serving as the architectural balance of
the library, is the museum ;
and if the
museum is devoted to natural history
and ethnology, as well as to art, the
buildings occupied by those branches
would be grouped around the museum as
a centre. Inasmuch, however, as these
and other buildings, the library excepted,
only exist in the realm of project, their
location cannot be absolutely determined
by Mr. Howard’s plan any more than by
that of M. Benard’s. Certain logical and
convenient arrangements can be sug-
gested but the final decision can only
;
be made when the means are available

SOME OF THE SPLENDID TREES ON THE for construction. So far, the only build-
UNIVERSITY GROUNDS. ings actually erected are California Hall,
which serves as an administration build-
joined thereto and playing its own part
ing and as a group of lecture rooms and ;
in relation to the essential task of the
the Mining Building, funds for the erec-
university, lie the fields to be devoted to
tion of which were provided by Mrs.
athletics. In short, the plan, in its relation
to the grounds, is summed up by Mr.
Howard in the following terms, borrowed
from domestic architecture “The house,
:
consisting of the most important aca-

demic building, has its forecourts and
garden to the west, its secluded retreat
to the east and its play-ground to the
south.”
'
III.
Another respect in which Mr. Howard

has been obliged to modify the Benard
plan radically is in the location of the
various buildings. The sites selected for
the buildings should obviously be deter-
mined rather by considerations of con-
venience than by strictly architectural
reasons. It makes no difference to the
effectiveness of an architectural scheme,
in case a building situated in a particular
spot is called a library rather than a mu-
seum, provided it adequately occupies its
site. The library, consequently, has been
shifted from its position in the Benard
plan to a more central location, midway HEARST MEMORIAL BUILDING— AN
INTERIOR COURT.
between the two cross axes, where it will University of California.
George Hearst. These two buildings, a decision none the less remains a mat-
while of the utmost practical value in the ter for explanation and discussion, while
work of the university, do not occupy at the same time the complexion of the
important places in the architectural whole question is gravely modified by
scheme. The Greek Theatre has also the peculiar character which Mr. How-
been partly completed, owing to the lib- ard has bestowed upon such examples of
erality of Mr. William R. Hearst; but the style as have already been erected.
the Greek Theatre occupies a secluded The bearings of this question demand
site back of the main group of buildings, some consideration preliminary to an
so that its construction does not help the account of the buildings already erected.
imagination towards a projected realiza- It has been stated that under the Be-
tion of the whole scheme. The library nard plan the buildings were to be “of
will probably be the first building of various sizes, of different scale, of diver-
salient architectural importance to be sified outline, while the tendency of the
built, and as soon as it and its com- architectural treatment remains, never-
panion, the museum, are completed, the theless, consistent in its generally classic
plan will take visible shape and its archi- character” and this description remains
;
tectural and practical advantages more as true of the plan after Mr. Howard’s
fully realized. In its present form this modifications as before. The most sig-
plan has cost its creator an amount of nificant matter for controversy is sug-
detailed architectural study, of patient gested by the description of the build-
and exhaustive investigation into practi- ings as consistent in their generally
cal conditions, and of imaginative archi- classic character. A certain phase of
tectural invention and anticipation which opinion in California has been inclined
is almost unique in American architect- to question the advisability of erecting a
ural practice. group of buildings, consistently classic
The buildings already completed, few in design, to provide a habitation and
as they are, have, however, set the note an architectural symbol for the most
and established the style. This note and representative Californian institution of
style must be maintained unless the en- learning. Californians, as I have al-
tire plan is to be thrown away and a new ready remarked, are justifiably proud of
beginning made and as nothing of the
;
their State, and are very much attached
kind will happen during the present gen- to its peculiar local characteristics. The
eration, it may be assumed that the style patriotic conscience of a New Yorker
will become too well established there- may be satisfied in case he can discover
after to be disturbed. That a certain in a building or in a painting some slight
style, related fundamentally to the classic infusion of an American condition or
tradition in architecture, has been adopt- point of view. He looks forward to the
ed for the buildings of the University of foundation, not of a local metropolitan
California is a matter of prime archi- architectural tradition, but one which
tectural interest, not only for the archi- shall have certain national characteris-
tectural future of California, but for the tics. But the Californian is not satisfied
future of collegiate architecture in all with such anticipations of a national art
the Pacific States. No doubt the adop- or literature. To satisfy their existing
tion of such a style was practically im- demands, local art, architecture and lit-
plied when a French architect was erature must rather be Californian than
awarded the prize in the original com- national ;
and this demand has already
petition. No doubt it was in a sense had a considerable effect upon architec-
implied when the decision was reached ture in California. They want buildings
to submit the future building of the adapted to the Californian landscape,
university to the restrictions of a single appropriate to the peculiar character of
plan, because such a plan necessarily Californian trees and foliage, and some-
brings with it the formal arrangement how expressive of Californian ways of
of a group of monumental classic build- living and point of view. How can such
ings. The extreme importance of such a demand as this be reconciled with the
erection by their most representative ventual and ecclesiastical style to the

State university of a group of buildings needs of modern museums, libraries,
consistently classic in character? laboratories and lecture rooms must nec-
The attempts which have been made essarily be a forced attempt. It must
by Californian architects to satisfy the end either in the mutilation of the style
demand forarchitectural forms
local or in the sacrifice of certain essential
have looked in two directions. The practical requirements. The plan of a
more successful of these two experi- library, museum or a lecture room can
ments consists of a type of picturesque with difficulty be adapted to the forms
shingled suburban and country house, of Mission architecture. All of them
which a peculiar and legitimate result
is demand an amount of light and a dis-
of Californian ways of living and of tribution of the floor space which results
Californian building methods and ma- naturally in a different sort of design;
terials. Obviously, however, such build- and as a matter of fact, we understand
ings as these are of no use to an archi- that certain of the buildings erected for
tect who is designing a group of monu- these purposes at Palo Alto are very
mental collegiate buildings. The other inconvenient places in which to work.
essay in the direction of a Californian Nor isthis all. Another series of diffi-
architectural style has consisted in the cultieshave to be faced in case any at-
imitation of the old Mission buildings ;
tempt is made to plan a number of Mis-
and this experiment has been responsi- sion buildings in such a relation, one to
ble for a truly appalling number of another, as will make either for con-
flimsy and fantastic plaster copies of the venience or for unity of architectural
sober conventual buildings of the early effect. The Mission style, like other
Franciscan friars. It is, however, conventual and ecclesiastical styles,
hardly fair to measure the permanent lends itself admirably to the grouping of
value of the Mission style as an appro- a few buildings around a court or en-
priate element in Californian architec- closure and if a modern American uni-
;
ture by the frivolous and exasperating versity were made up of a collection of

popular version thereof and as a matter
;
colleges, every one of which preserved
of fact, it is not necessary to do so. its pedagogical and architectural au-
Stanford University offers an example tonomy, each of these colleges could be
of the application of the Mission style to planned and designed along the lines of
a group of collegiate buildings and this;
one of the old Missions. But an Amer-
attempt to give a local character to the ican university is a very different thing.
buildings of a great Californian univer- It consists of one big college, divided
sity was projected at least by one of the for convenience into a number of differ-
greatest of American architects. bet-A ent departments. The buildings in which
ter example could not be desired of the the work of these several departments is
possibilities for this purpose of the forms performed should, as far as possible, be
used in the early conventual and ec- grouped according to one comprehensive
clesiastical buildings and after an in-
;
and coherent plan. Such a plan would
spection of the issue of this experiment, demand not merely many buildings, but
we do not believe there can be any doubt buildings of many different sizes, ex-
as to the verdict. Both from the posures, aspects and heights and the ;
aesthetic and the practical point of view, attempt to adapt the Mission style to the
the Mission style is very badly adapted exigencies of such a plan would tax the
to the requirements of a modern Amer- greatest architect beyond his power.
ican university, be it situated in Califor- The fact is, of course, that the rude
nia or on Morningside Heights. but charming archaism of the old Mis-
This verdict is founded on a suffi- sions is wholly out of keeping with the
ciently obvious group of considerations. needs of modern American building;
The old Missions were, of course, used and the idea of using them as the point
for conventual and ecclesiastical pur- of departure for contemporary Califor-
poses and the attempt to adapt a con-
;
nian architecture is merely an evidence
Architect.
Howard,
Galen
John
CALIFORNIA.
OF
UNIVERSITY
FRONT—
SOUTH
BUILDING,
MINING
MEMORIAL
HEARST
Cal.
Berkeley,
;
of architectural immaturity. Califor- it was originally entangled. The great

nians are, as I have said, tied one to purpose has been to make every build-
another by the future they are in the act ing which was erected the best possible
of building. Their attachment to the Mis- expression of existing needs and condi-
sions, and to the life and intellectual out- tions ;
and if these buildings embodied
look therein embodied, is not historical an architectural tradition or are ar-
it is wholly sentimental and literary. ranged in reference to a greater archi-
The one way to impart a local charac- tectural future, that is because the needs
teristic to their architecture is to make of the present cannot be satisfied except
it embody local and contemporary needs by means of such ties and anticipations.
and conditions. To be sure, it may em- The truth is, as has already been sug-
body local and contemporary needs and gested, that the adoption of a consistently
conditions without any defiance of the classical architectural tradition was ne-
past, and with apparent regard for the cessitated when the Benard plan was
future but in any event the claims of the
; selected. A
collection of monumental
present are paramount. The traditions of buildings cannot be effectively grouped
the past, from which assistance is asked, around two spacious courts or along an
must be appropriate and the future,
;
esplanade unless they are designed in
which is to be built, must be the natural conformity with the classic architectural
outgrowth of existing needs and ideals. tradition ;
and the management of the
The official architectural plans of the university, when it made that selection,
University of California are character- was well advised from every point of
ized at once by fidelity to an appropriate view. It was a decision which made
architectural tradition, by a confident both for practical efficiency and for the
and aspiring outlook towards a larger architectural education of the students
but not too remote future, and, above all, and of the community and it was a de-
;
by a paramount solicitude for the actual cision which promised the best aesthetic
needs of the university. When the com- results. It can be completely justified
petition was originally held, and when as the outcome of a sound conception of
the Benard plan was adopted, it was, of the architectural future of California.
course, entirely possible that the plans The classic architectural ideal and
might have miscarried. Through the forms, so far from being inappropriate
attempt to realize too much of its mag- to a Californian university, are peculiar-
nificent prospects at the present time, the ly well adapted to the Californian land-
university might have tied itself to a scape and to the Californian intellectual
grandiose and rigid architectural scheme, and moral tradition. California is more
upon which much money would have closely allied to Latin civilization than is
been spent for years, only, perhaps, to any other part of the American republic.
be wasted in the end. But the men who It was settled by people of Spanish de-
have since been responsible for the arch- scent and while the tie which connects
itectural direction of the university have California with the missions and the
skilfully avoided the pitfalls into which friars is merely literary and sentimental,
they might have been betrayed by the there exists a much more significant con-
adoption of a big architectural scheme. nection with the social tradition repre-
The plan has been modified in such a sented by the early Mexican inhabitants.
way that its gradual realization does not The American conquerors actually in-
require an expensive re-formation of the herited little from the people they dis-
university site or a rigid distribution of possessed, but after a prolonged occu-
the university buildings. At the same pation of the Californian country, they
time, while being made flexible, with re- have tended to exhibit some characteris-
gard to the future, it has also been eman- tics which are more Latin than they are
cipated from an embarrassing allegiance Anglo-Saxon. Under the influence of
to a narrow or a rigid architectural tra- the Californian open-air life and really
dition. The plan has been stripped of temperate climate, they are gayer so-
the merely French accessories, with which cially, more expansive and much more
willing to spend time in giving pleasure ment; and in this respect the site of the
to themselves and to other people. All University of California at Berkeley
this is making for a livelier use of the is no exception to the general rule. It
intelligence and for a more genuine and is, perhaps, more heavily wooded than is
fruitful interest in the arts, and it is this the typical Californian landscape and ;
characteristic which allies them with the it contains an unusual variety of natural
Latin peoples. It does not tie them incident but it is peculiarly adapted to
;
specifically to the Mexicans or to the just the kind of development which the
Spaniards, but it does tie them to the architectural plan of the university pro-
—
Latin tradition to the tradition which poses. That plan, when it is carried out,
makes for a socialized rather than merely will not impair those natural beauties,
an individualized art, and for an inno- but will merely give them a more posi-
cent and well-tempered love of beautiful tive emphasis. The scale of the buildings
things. In the course of time the Cali- is fitted to the scale of the countryside
fornians should be able to give a more and of the trees. Their white walls and
genuine and a more idiomatic expres- tiled roofs will look particularly well in
sion to the Latin or the classic tradition the Californian sunshine and atmos-
in art and architecture than will their phere. Their lay-out will take advan-
fellow countrymen further east. The tage of the actual shape of ground, and
classic tradition in stylenecessarily
is will lead naturally to the most interest-
an among a peo-
artificial thing, except ing points of view. A
pervading sense of
ple who are socially expansive, and who beautiful natural surroundings will be
without any sense of mutilation can sub- retained,in spite of the fact that one
ordinate themselves to acceptable con- may be walking through the squares
ventions of social expression and com- and the streets of a veritable city of
munication. learning.
It should be added, also, that the Cali-
IV.
fornian landscape, in the settled neigh-
borhoods, is peculiarly adapted to a The writer, then, has no sympathy
classic type of building. The whole with those Californians who
object on
country lying between the Sierras and the score of propriety to the use for the
the sea, except that near the highest university of a consistently classical
ridges of the coast range, is composed of group of buildings. Such a plan might,
extremely simple elements. It is not as I have admitted, gone astray, but
rough, broken, rocky and unkempt. On if so, it would have gone astray only
the contrary, it has comparatively few because it was misapplied. An intelli-

plains and levels, and those which do gent and skillful use of the classical ar-
exist are usually gentle in ascent, while chitectural tradition and forms was pre-
at the same time being firm and bold cisely what was needed, and the exist-
hoth in outline and modelling. A
landing architectural direction of the uni-
scape of this kind demands a type of versity has made such a use of the tra-
buildings which has been simplified in dition, which was accepted, and of the
the classic spirit, and which reaches its forms, which were adopted. The whole
effect by the economical but spirited use program and method of procedure have
of the essential architectural means and been dictated by sound reasoning and
•elements. The typical Californian appropriate ideas. Neither is this a
countryside, indeed, seems peculiarly small merit. In planning the architectural
adapted to the habitation of a highly civ- future of a great university, everything
ilized human sociiety. It can be con- depends upon the adoption of a well-
verted to the uses of such a society not considered policy, and one has only to
merely without any mutilation of its pe- turn over in one’s mind the list of the
culiar beauties, but with a positive en- American universities in order to realize
hancement thereof. It lends itself by what a small number of them have
its contours, its levels, its foliage and ever adopted a policy of this kind.
its climate to formal architectural treat- A university cannot, like a public
building, be erected in a few years, and sance. It has been taken to mean a
as the outcome of an over-rigid archi- very simple, economical and even realis-
tectural idea. It must be allowed to tic method of design. In fact Mr. How-
grow, just as a human being must be ard in his application of the classic tra-
allowed to grow, but it should be guided clitions has reduced it to its essentials,
in its growth by proper and adequate He has freed it from any mannerism,
formative influences and that is what
;
and has made it equivalent to a com-
HEARST MEMORIAL MINING BUILDING, DETAIL OF SOUTH FRONT— UNIVERSITY OF

CALIFORNIA.
is being done in the case of the Univer- pletely formed, strongly simplified de-
sity of California. sign, expressive at once of vitality and
The buildings which Mr. Howard has repose. Ornament of all kinds has been
already erected embody admirably the used not merely with discretion, but al-
spirit of the plan. They are designed in most with parsimony, yet the effect is
the classic tradition, but that phrase has not austere because the essentials of
been interpreted in its broadest sense. the designs have been so well handled.
The classic tradition has not been inter- In both California Hall and the Mining
preted to mean either modern French or Building one is immediately impressed
Colonial orders, or the Italian Renais- by the great dignity of their treatment,
PROPOSED HALLS OP LAW AND OP PHILOSOPHY, WITH CALIFORNIA HALL (ALREADY

Berkeley, Cal. UNIVERSITY OP
and their effect of dignity is due in part where in the country. The architect
to the fact that their design has been was exceptionally fortunate to obtain a
worthily as well as skillfully planned. stone as white, as durable, and as inter-
Mr. Howard has never forgotten that esting in texture and color as is this
buildings erected for a university should granite, and he has used it in a manner
constitute a part, perhaps the most im- which brings out all of its good quali-
portant part, of its means of aesthetic ties. The stone is laid in alternate
training. They should constitute not courses of large and small blocks, there-
merely a gracious influence in the lives by giving an interesting pattern to the
of the students, but one that is inform- walls of the building and a certain ele-
ing and elevating; and if the University gance to its effect, a quality which is
of California continues to build in the very difficult to obtain with such a mate-
spirit and with the success characteristic rial as granite. The stone also has the
of its beginning, there will be few uni- advantage of cutting extremely well, so
versities in the country whose aspect and that what little detail the architect has
appearance will lend a more effective used is sharply and effectively worked.
assistance to their essential task. The way in which this detail has been
California Hall was the first of the designed and rendered is indeed pecu-
new buildings to be completed. Its liarly worth attention. The manage-
lower floor is used for lecture rooms, ment of the face of the building is an
and the second floor for the offices of the extraordinary example of strong and re-
university. It is constructed of a white fined design, and so is the treatment of
greyish granite, which is very much the the window frames. When confronted
best building stone to be found on the by such a structure as this one is pos-
Pacific coast, and which is, indeed, one sessed by a sense of exhilaration. It has
of the very best stones to be found anybody, it has breadth, and it has refine-
COMPLETED AND ILLUSTRATED HEREIN) ON THE LEFT OF THE PICTURE.

CALIFORNIA. John Galen Howard, Architect.
ment. admirable effect has not been
Its idea. It looks rather heavily rendered,
imposed upon its frame, and it does not in as much as the court is situated rather
disguise its function, but is the direct within than without the building. But
expression of the substance and the life if it is lacking in elegance, it is not lack-
of the building. ing either in dignity or propriety.

The treatment of the interior is more About the Greek theatre, which is in
severe than that of the exterior. The use without being actually completed, it
rooms and the halls on the lower floor is scarcely time to write in detail. The
have been designed for use and for use money provided for its erection was suf-
only. The structural beams show where ficient only to build the amphitheatre and
they must, and the walls have merely the screen. But the amphitheatre has
been painted a dull, warm yellow. The been left unfinished in rough concrete,
severity of this treatment is, perhaps, a the colonnade with which it is to be
little uncompromising, but on the upper crowned has been omitted, and many
floor the aspect of things becomes more essential parts of the architectural de-
gracious. The middle part of this floor sign are not as yet even indicated in the
is used as a central hall leading to the present appearance of the structure.
offices on the several sides. It is lighted The day will come when this theatre,
from above and the space so lighted has both because of the peculiar beauty and
been treated as a sort of a court, enclosed propriety of its location and because of
by a row of columns. This arrangement the arduous study which has been de-
not only makes a very good use of the voted to its design, will demand the most
available space, but it affords a chance exhaustive consideration from all disin-
for an appropriate and interesting archi- terested students of architecture, but in
tectural effect. The effect itself, we justice to the architect such consideration
should say, is not quite so happy as the should be postponed until the design is
7
really carried out. In the meantime it and function, the Hearst Memorial
its
may be premised that the theatre from Mining Building is the most important
the practical standpoint has been a bril- structure hitherto erected for the Greater
liant success. Its plan provides for the University. It was the first of the new
gathering and dispersal of large num- buildings to be planned, and the idea of
bers of spectators conveniently and rap- erecting such a building to the memory
idly. Moreover, those spectators, wher- of her husband was the idea, which in
ever seated in the spacious amphitheatre, Mrs. Hearst’s mind blossomed into the
can distinctly hear the words of a plan now being carried out for the
speaker on the platform, and even when new university and in this instance
;
that speaker is not unduly raising his the personal motive was happily allied to
voice. The symphony concerts which an idea of peculiar local and historical
are given every winter can be heard, so propriety. Modern California originated
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY—UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

it is stated, as well as in the best enclosed in the mining industry; and it is abso-
auditorium. All this not only testifies to lutely appropriate that its State univer-
the skill of the architect, but it opens an sity should first of all rear a building
interesting vista for the future of open- which is not only a memorial to one of
air performances in California. It sug- the pioneer miners, but which also is the
gests once again that the Californian, be- most carefully planned and completely
cause of the resemblance of the dry cli- equipped building in the world for the
mate, to the clear atmosphere of his State study of technical mining processes.
to that of Greece, will have an opportun- In the plan and design of such a
ity of reviving certain interesting aspects building the architect could learn little
of classical life such as is possessed by of value from his predecessors. He was
the residents of no other part of Amer- not building a familiar type, such as a
ica and very few parts of Europe. hospital or a library, and consequently
Both because of its size, its situation he was obliged in collaborating with the
;
head of the Mining Department, Profes- the corner stone was he described
laid,
sor Christy, to make what was substan- his purpose in thefollowing terms:
tially a novel plan. Inasmuch, however, “The exterior treatment is of extremely
as they were working largely in the simple, dignified character, based upon
dark, and as a future generation might the classic tradition, but strongly influ-
have either different needs or better enced by the naif and charming work
ways of meeting the old ones, the plan of the Spanish Fathers in California, and
was made extremely elastic. The main like that work depending largely for its
structure was built, as far as possible, effect upon the careful proportioning of
as a mere shell whose interior partitions its voids and solids and upon its low
could be torn out, readjusted or rebuilt roofs of heavy terra cotta tile overhang-
without impairing the strength or hurt- ing broad unornamented surfaces of
ing the appearance of the whole edifice. wall. The aim has been to give expres-
All the chimneys, for instance, most sub- sion to the character of a college of min-
ject to wear and tear, are planned inde- ing engineering as distinguished from
pendent of the structure proper. Any or one of art, of letters, or of natural sci-
all of these chimneys can be torn down ence. The expression of belles lettres in
to the foundations without any injury architecture demands a more purely
to the building or its equipment. classic character than that of scientific
•
The dominating idea in the plan of studies. Such a building as a library,
the building was, in the words of its for instance, may without inconsistency
architect, “to keep the administrative and rejoice in all the sumptuous glories of
more public parts of the building in the Roman architecture or the Renaissance
front or south portion. Of these the the tradition of the world leads one
most important artistically is the great naturally enough in this direction. But
memorial vestibule museum. It occu- the architect conceives that such deli-
pies the centre of the south faqade, and cate and highly organized motives find
is lighted not only by the three great little place in a mining building, which
arches, but also three low domes in the demands a treatment, while no less beau-
roof. From this vestibule rise to right tiful, much more primitive, less elab-
and left the grand staircases, which lead orately developed in the matter of detail,
to the laboratories and the drafting less influenced by the extreme classic
rooms. Within everything is workaday, tradition either as a canon of propor-
substantial and convenient, but totally tion or as an architectonic scheme. The
devoid of ornament. It is a mining profession of mining has to do with the
building first, last and all the time. Yet very body and bone of Earth its process;
the building is intended to take on a is a ruthless assault upon the bowels of
progressively more civilized aspect and a of the world, a contest with the crudest
more monumental beauty, as one passes and most rudimentary forces. There is
from the workshops in the rear towards about it something essentially element-
the public portions in the front and it
;
ary, something primordial and its ex-
;
sounds its highest note of dignity and pression in architecture must, to be true,
impressiveness in the great museum ves- have something of the rude, the Cyclo-
tibule, where the memorial motive is pean. The emotion roused must be a
most clearly yet still reservedly an- sense of power rather than of grace.
nounced.” Even the scale of materials, the blocks
It is not often that an American archi- of stone of which the walls are built,
tect is able or willing to express himself should be bolder and more strongly
emphatically and candidly in respect to masculine than that of any other struc-
his own work but Mr. Howard has done
;
ture likely to find a place in a great uni-
precisely this in relation to the Hearst versity. To produce a design for a min-
Memorial Mining Building. Assur- ing building which shall in all sincerity
edly the transcription of his own express its purpose and at the same time
words will constitute the most helpful shall harmonize with future buildings
commentary on the design of the build- quite as sincere in the expression of their
ing. Writing almost six years ago, when —
purposes purposes in almost every case
THE TEMPORARY QUARTERS OF THE’ ARCHITECTURAL SCHOOL AT THE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
THE NE IV UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 293
of greater amenity — this has been the which might almost be called archaic
aim of the architect in approaching his were it not that it is quickened by the
task in its artistic phase. If in its treat- modern
breath of life.”
ment he shall have secured a true out- None can read the foregoing quota-
ward and visible expression of the in- tions without getting a vivid sense of
ward and spiritual organism of the the earnest intensity, of the absolute
building, and if at the same time he personal dedication which the architect
shall have succeeded in throwing over it has bestowed upon the work and their
;
a degree of charm which shall make it reading will explain many things about
seem a kind, bluff brother amid a bevy the building which at first glimpse are
of lovely sisters, he will feel that his ef- not easy to understand. The building is
forts have not been wholly in vain.” much that the architect has sought to
Such were the ideas dominating the make it. It is above all organically and
architect’s mind while the building was strongly conceived, and most carefully
being planned. Now let us hear his own and elaborately wrought. Its simplicity
comments upon his completed work. In has become austere, its expression of
his address, delivered when the building power primitive and robust without be-
was dedicated in August, 1907, he re- ing too emphatic. It gives the effect of be-
stated his purpose in the following ing both a memorial and a workshop, of
words “We have sought to secure
:
being both a monument and a laboratory.
beauty, not by easy masquerade and put- It can be conceived as perfectly har-
ting on of architectural stuff, but by or- monious with a group of buildings de-
ganic composition working from within signed in the classic spirit, while at the
out, and letting the heart of the thing same time embodying in itself such a
speak we have in all frankness chosen
;
transfigured version of the classic ideal
character rather than mere prettiness as that many ministers of that faith would
the end to be reached, sure that the high- not recognize the allegiance. It has been
est beauty is to be derived from organi- the result consequently of an extraor-
cally right foundations, not from any dinarily complicated set of conditions,
amount of surface scorings or plaster- purposes and ideas, and it cannot be
ings. If then the building is of an un- wholly justified or appreciated until all
usual aspect, it is because the problem of the conditions are fulfilled —
until, that
—
was an unusual one the expression of is, it is properly approached, properly
a new thought or an old thought in a planted and properly surrounded with its
new light, or the first synthesis of a lot neighboring buildings. In the mean-
of old thoughts, must necessarily be new time its novel appearance will make
and fresh. If the expression be true, no many architectural observers doubtful.
matter how strange it may seem at first, The writer, too, has his doubts about
in the end it must be seen to be inevit- —
one feature of the building about the
able. propriety, viz., of placing such a roof
“Useful we have determinedly labored upon such a faqade as that pierced by
to make this building; beautiful, we the three great arches. The character
have sought inspiration at the purest of the roof and the way it is connected
founts of art to render it. with the walls impair to his sense the
“Our dearest wish has been that it beauty of the building without contribut-
should be able to brave these times and ing anything essential to its character.
the times to come with a front modest, However that may be, the building em-
yet frank —
simple, clean, sterling, per- phatically constitutes both beauty and
manent —beautiful in its own sincere, character, and the writer does not doubt
assured and reticent way, but devoid of that fifty years from now it will consti-
anything remotely suggestive of over- tute one of the buildings erected by the
doing in the way of ornament or pom- present generation of American archi-
pous grouping of its parts its poetic — tects which will have worn best, and
message stripped of verbiage classic to — which, in the opinion of that day, will
the core, yet classic of that primitive type best deserve indefinite perpetuation.
Herbert Croly.
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Architecture in Philadelphia and a Coming
Chance
If Boston, as it is said, be a “State of people have but little artistic instinct
Mind,” it has, nevertheless, bodily as- innate in them, let those among us who
pects which impress the casual visitor. have use every chance to foster it (par-
Indeed, the famous mentality may not ticularly in the public schools) —
that our
at first touch be noticeable. The sweep- future politicians and ward bosses may
ing spaces of the Common and one or some day give us the city beautiful. And
—
two well-set buildings the Public Li- if. not a matter of noblesse oblige, the
brary and the State House, for instance making of a city beautiful will in the
—linger in the memory of the travel- end pay for itself in the standing such
ler. New York has its towering, cloud- a city will have in the public estimation.
swept masses giving it distinction its — In these days of steam, our cities usu-
open spaces as one ascends Broadway; ally grow in the flat and least picturesque
the stage setting wherein it plays its of spots. The most charming of the old
part impresses the most hurried towns are those which climb about hill-
stranger. Washington, too, in spite of —
tops' built when the walled city, easy
the disfigurements upon its fair face, is of defence, was a commercial necessity.
nevertheless fair. Parks and avenues For these Nature has done much. Per-
and public buildings give an impression haps the coming days of aerial naviga-
of distinction which lingers in the mind. tion will again make hill-tops the fav-
Distinction is the word. That “civic per- orite sites.
sonality” which makes Florence, sleeping What little Nature has done for Phil-
beside the Arno, a delightful memory. adelphia, man has quite nullified. In the
Toledo, grey and stern upon her jagged laying out of his town William Penn
rocks Rouen, with her spires tip-toeing
;
showed the effects of his training and
topeep over the surrounding hills; Dur- his lack of imagination. True, he
ham, spreading below her cathedral- —
planned five open squares a central one
—
crowned cliffs these have distinction. at the intersection of the two wide
Man or Nature, or both, have given them streets of his town, and four outlying
an outward form which abides in the —
ones and perhaps he should not be
mind; the quality of personality is there. blamed for not foreseeing that streets,
And this quality of civic individuality wide when bordered by two-storied
is worth cultivating. It should be a case dwellings, seem very narrow when
of noblesse oblige; one should wish his flanked by eight, ten or sixteen-story
city to have a character of its own if only buildings. Yet Oglethorpe in his plan
for the satisfaction of feeling that it was for the city of Savannah gave really
not like the common run of towns. wide streets, alternating with narrow,
Would that we could foster the spirit of and with large open spaces at the junc-
beauty to such an extent that it would tion of the former, making a delightfully
be the general desire that this character —
“roomy” city a plan unfortunately not
should be an artistic one. Those of our continued by his near-sighted successors
cities which have character owe it usu- of late years.
ally to the purely commercial side of Set between two rivers on nearly level
their affairs. The smoky, and not unim- ground, her open spaces few and unim-
pressive stretches of Pittsburg, or the pressive, all of her streets narrow and of
skyscrapers of New York are of this monotonous rectangularity her good
;
class. But if rightly handled purely buildings quite overpowered by masses of

commercial things can have artistic commonplace or ugly structures, Phila-
worth, as may be seen in some of the delphia lacks compelling power. Even
English and German docks. Since our the roar of Chicago’s double-decked rush
lingers in the memory more pleasingly;

for if we must be modern and ugly, let us
square of the five planned by Penn is
ungainly in mass and poor in detail: a
—
be completely so. The one place in Phil- distorted reminiscence of the stately pa-
adelphia which remains in the mind’s eye villions of the Louvre. The tower, ad-
is the section of Broad Street, the city’s mired by the uninitiated for its height,
most important thoroughfare, just south simply has that much more space in
of the City Hall. Here high buildings which to be bad. The unfortunate
frame in a view of the tower of this change in material in the upper
building and in the afternoon light, with stories —an abrupt transition from the
clouds of steam swirling past flecking the white of stone to the dark grey of
buildings with shadows, the effect is not —
metal is fittingly climaxed by a colos-
unimpressive. Again, these high build- sal statue of Penn, which now for many
ings seen from a hill in Fairmount Park years has stood as an emblem of mis-
give picturesque masses, looming like placed hero-worship and entire lack of
some great castle beyond the wooded hills taste. When Philadelphia’s re-birth into
and gleaming river. But otherwise there the world of art shall arrive, the first sign
is no effective place in the city. One does will be the removal of that disfigurement.
not expect a Place de la Concorde nor a The fame of William Penn needs no such
Piazza di San Pietro in America (though vulgar blazonment.
we will some day have their equal in Facing the City Hall the Broad Street
Washington, and perhaps elsewhere), Station, of an unrelieved and unpleasant
but there is not a place in Philadelphia red, lifts pseudo-Gothic towers and pin-
which compares in architectural interest nacles to the sky the detail, particularly
;
with Copley Square, Madison Square, the in the interior, is of a kind to make the
East and South Batteries in Charleston judicious weep.Facing it is the costly
or Jackson Square (the old Place des Masonic Temple (when will cost cease
Armes) in New Orleans. And effective to be the popular criterion of artistic
places should be had. We should sacri- merit?) of a supposedly Norman type,
fice (if sacrifice it be) some of our com- the rather stately lines marred by a tower
mercial welfare for the sake of beauty; with most preposterous chopped corners
place our public buildings and churches and over-hanging pinnacles. On another
amid worthy settings. It is urged by some side of the square is the tall Betz Build-
that such things are not democratic, that ing, of a bastard Richardsonian type; it
they smack of kingship or church domi- needs no other comment.The completed
nance. But we are too democratic. The new Wanamaker Building
section of the
freedom of the individual enables each by Mr. Burnham on a fourth side, is the
owner to flaunt his inalienable right to only pleasing thing in the square. lit- A
build as ugly as he pleases the law takes
;
tle farther north on Broad Street is the
care that his building shall not endanger Academy of the Fine Arts, a venerable in-
the public, but allows him to corrupt our stitution housed in a building also costly,
taste a thing of very serious danger in
;
whose faqade in the Victorian Gothic, or
the life of the nation. By some the beauty something else, is weird and strange. It
of Paris is held up to scorn as the re- is only surpassed by the Library of the
sult of the heavy hand of the tyrant; yet University of Pennsylvania, the “fortified
many of the most charming of the open greenhouse,” than which nothing more
spaces in the Italian towns were estab- grotesque could be imagined.
lished by democracies. In those days even However, these buildings and others
ward bosses seem to have had a sense of less importance in the debasement of
of beauty. public taste are relics of the low-water
Philadelphia, in spite of present effort mark in American architecture for —
and some isolated buildings of interest is them Philadelphia is “more to be pitied
in its total effect depressing. Bad taste than blamed,” as the melodramas put it.
is in evidence everywhere. The huge But another structure of much more re-
and costly City Hall, completely filling up cent date testifies to the still degraded
up a small square,— the original central state of the public art-standards, the
ARCHITECTURE IN PHILADELPHIA.
popularly-admired Smith Memorial in the Schuylkill, spanned by ugly bridges

Fairmount Park. and bordered by filthy coal and freight
This Park is a beautiful stretch of roll- yards drags its discouraged length to-
ing country lying on both sides of the ward the Delaware, an eyesore, and, to
PENNSYLVANIA R. R.— BROAD STREET STATION, CITY HALL SQUARE.

Philadelphia, Pa. Frank Furness, Architect.
Schuylkill River somewhat above the one who has looked upon the Seine, a
city; narrowing strips extending down lasting reproach. It was in Fairmount
toward the centre as far as Spring Gar- Park that the Centennial was held (do
den Street, where are situated the old wa- you know what B. C. stands for in Phil-
ter works and reservoir. Below this point adelphia?) and its chief building, Me-
MEMORIAL HALL, FAIRMOUNT PARK.

Harry J. Schwartzman, Architect.
Philadelphia, Pa. THE MASONIC TEMPLE— CITY HALL SQUARE.

ARCHITECTURE IN PHILADELPHIA. 299
morial Hall, remains a dignified and re-

; In a recent
talk, Mr. C. Howard
poseful piece of pseudo-classic design. Walker noted the fact that the things
Yet even here the trail of the serpent is we taste are carefully subjected to law;
seen, for in recent years the simple lines that steps are taken to save our sense
of the low dome have been marred by a of smell from disagreeable odors; that
golden Liberty Bell, surmounted by some Chicago has even a society for the sup-
symbolic figure, let us hope, not Art, on pression of noise but that our sight, the
;
such a pedestal. sense that man would part with last, is

Near this building rises the Smith continually and everlastingly offended,
—
Memorial a monumental entrance hun- and we take no steps to relieve matters.
dreds of yards from the real beginning Too true. And we have no thought of
of the drive, on either side of which it the debasement of taste in the coming
THE SMITH MEMORIAL ENTRANCE, FAIRMOUNT PARK.

Philadelphia, Pa. j. h. Windrim, Architect.
abuts, and erected to the memory of generations. Our eyes have grown cal-
certain personages well known in the lous, and the artist who keeps our senses
Civil War, who seem to be placed there alive to beauty is more often laughed
to glorify Mr. Smith. This monument at than revered as a saviour. For the
is absolutely lacking in taste. Curved future of American art, let us form so-
exedra-like wings are pierced by large cieties for the destruction of buildings
arches, curved in plan two slender
;
which otherwise will retard our artistic
Doric columns rise from this too-high growth through numberless years.
first stage, supporting large bronze The buildings of the Colonial period
generals and the lack of harmony be-
;
are among the most interesting in Phila-
tween these slender vertical members delphia. Before all, of course, comes
and the heavy horizontal masses below Independence Hall, recently carefully
is exceptionally awkward. restored. The view of this, seen across
—
3 °° THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
Independence Square, is perhaps the soirs carefully cut to represent stone

most distinctive note in the city. Un- vulgar beyond measure the kind of—
fortunately, the square is surrounded by thing that no large store could afford
a miscellaneous collection of business to have in its place. Surely this relic is
buildings, forming a setting not at all worthy of a better setting.
worthy of the most important historical One of the early buildings of interest
monument in the United States. And is the Old Sweed’s Church, in the south-
the front of the building, set rather close eastern section of the city. Originally
to Chestnut street, has facing it a row its graveyard swept down to the banks
of buildings whose diversity is only sur- of the Delaware to-day it is closely

;
passed by their ugliness. Another sign hemmed in by factories and train-sheds.

of the artistic regeneration of the city Much of its charm must have vanished
INDEPENDENCE HALL, CHESTNUT STREET, BETWEEN 5TH AND 6TH STREETS.

Philadelphia, Pa. Andrew Hamilton, Architect.
will be the removal of these buildings, as they came. The building is very
even though on costly ground, and the small, built of imported bricks a quaint ;
establishment in their place of a park belfry surmounts its small entrance

which will give a proper approach to tower, and to the south is an interesting
this almost sacred structure. The in- arched porch. The interior is extremely
terior has been carefully restored, but simple, having a plaster vault and a
even here one sees a fearful example of gallery.
public bad taste. The Liberty Bell Two other Colonial buildings of
—
stands in a large case, the framing of which the city may be proud are Christ
the glass sides being of carved (or tor- Church and St. Peter’s Church. Christ
tured) wood, forming, at the top, arches Church, built in 1727, is a fairly rich
where the thirteen voussoirs bearing the example of the Colonial church of which
names of the States alternate with vous- St. Philip’s, Charleston, is perhaps the
most beautiful example. Of a fine tone and churches of this period which are
of red brick, it stands in a narrow yard, not uninteresting.
the rear wall of the chancel rising from Of modern buildings, Philadelphia has
the sidewalk the western face, with many of the rank.
; first Unfortunately,
the tower on the central axis, has modern they are so scattered that they are quite
business buildings rising within a few swallowed up in the general run of
feet of it. The present entrance is from mediocre and bad stuff. Perhaps the
the yard through a door in the north most important is the completed portion
side. The interior is of the usual type, of the Museum of Arts and Sciences of
with its awkward morsels of entablature the University of Pennsylvania, by
between column and arch, Palladian- Messrs. Cope, Day and Eyre. The part
motive chancel window and high pulpit. already built will probably be still more
The pews, unfortunately, have been charming when the whole composition is
modernized, and the modern stained completed. It is,generally speaking, in
glass windows are not particularly har- the Lombard Romanesque style, the
monious. “Seven Churches” at Bologna having
St. Peter’s Church, though of a less evidently suggested wall and column
MAIN BUILDING, GIRARD COLLEGE, GIRARD AVENUE.

T. U. Walter, Architect.
ornate type, is, on the whole, more pleas- treatment. But the style has been han-
ing. It has retained its large graveyard, dled in no straight-laced archaeological
dotted with fine trees and its massive
; manner, but with a sympathy and free-
tower and simple spire, as seen from the dom that is entirely captivating. It is
northwest, are wholly charming. The most emphatically the kind of building
interior is as pleasing as its brown ex- that must be lived with to be fully ap-
terior. The original pews have been preciated.
kept, adding much to the old-time effect, The completed portion shows a small
and the placing of the reading-desk at court, open toward the street, partially
the end opposite the chancel is an in- screened by a high terrace and well-
teresting and unusual feature. composed steps and gateway. The pro-
The main building of Girard College jecting wings are terminated by small
is a fine example of the period a really pavilions, while from the central mass
;
splendid temple of marble, which has, projects a bold entrance pavilion, its
of course, no relation to its interior. hooded white marble doorway reached
Philadelphia boasts of a few old banks by steps ascending from either side.
STREETS.
17TH
AND
16TH
BETWEEN
STREET,
GARDEN
SPRING
MINT.
S.
U.
THE
3 °4 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
GYMNASIUM, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Philadelphia, Pa. Frank Miles Day & Brother, Architects.
LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Philadelphia, Pa. Cope & Stewardson, Architects.
THE BIG “QUAD”— DORMITORIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Cope & Stewardson, Architects.
MUSEUM OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, THE’ ENTRANCE FEATURE— UNIVERSITY OF

PENNSYLVANIA.
Cope & Stewardson, \
Philadelphia, Pa. Frank Miles Day & Brother,

|
Associated Architects.
Wilson Eyre, )
8
The brickwork has been handled in an and a considerable difference in level

exceptionally clever manner. The ef- between the “Big Quad” and “The Tri-
fect of long Roman brick is obtained by angle” is used in a very effective man-
joining two ordinary bricks with a touch ner. The style chosen is a free adapta-
of red mortar, and carrying about this a tion of the early English Renaissance,
very wide grayish-yellow mortar joint. the material being a pinkish brick, with
The columns and mouldings are of a good deal of white stone with much
moulded brick bands are formed of
;
clever carved work. The choice of this
vei tically or diagonally set bricks, and style has been adversely criticized; but
spots of interest result from the use of setting aside the question of the beauty
varicolored marbles set in patterns of or fitness of this rather than some other
great charm and variety. The use of style, it must be admitted that the build-
white marble for capital, capstones and ings are very effective. It would be in-
cartouches is masterly in its reserve, teresting if the critics would come for-
and the carving on the cartouches of ward and tell us what would be the
great beauty. The glare of the white logical style for the dormitories of an
marble has been removed by the use of American university.
a yellow stain (perhaps excusable in a Horticultural Hall, by Mr. Day, is a
land where ready-made antiques are so straightforward piece of design, inter-
numerous), and even the walks and esting in its use of color; a richly
pavements are made harmonious with a painted frieze under the wide projecting
dull red tint. roof is as an oasis in the drab desert of
If any adverse criticism of this build- the city. On Seventeenth street rises an
ing could be made it would perhaps be interesting Baptist church, of a general
of the windows. Having to light a Romanesque type, by Mr. Seeler. Its
museum, they are filled with large sheets position, on the corner of two narrow
of glass, whose plain surfaces form an streets, with incongruous surroundings,
unpleasing contrast with the rich tex- injures the effect very decidedly. In-
ture of the walls. And this opens the ternally it is a harmonious mass of
wide field of discussion as to the rela- golden-brown and red-gold tones the
tion of style to function —
a difficult and scheme is that of a dome on pendentives,
;
purely modern problem. Across a street with galleries under three of the sup-
from and at right angles to the Museum porting arches.
rises the University Gymnasium, by Mr. The new United States Mint, on Spring
Day. It is of red brick, with creamy Garden street, by
Messrs. Aiken and
terra-cotta string courses, etc. —
in the Taylor, a restrained piece of classic
is
Tudor style a symmetrical building,

;
Renaissance design (what does one call
well placed upon terraces, and equally a building that is neither Roman nor
effective from the street fronts and from Renaissance, and yet much of both?).
Franklin Field, where it forms an im- Near the City Hall is being completed
posing end to the banks of seats on the a very refined, classic white marble
other three sides of the athletic field. A structure by Messrs. McKim, Mead &
recently erected dial on the faqade White, which one is surprised to learn
toward the field, where the numerals is neither a church nor a library, but a
proper to a clock are replaced by the bank for the Girard Trust Company:
twelve letters of the word Pennsylvania, a throwing away of a splendid chance to
is in doubtful taste. further the cause of logical design.
A few blocks further west are the Near by, on Chestnut street, by Messrs.
dormitories, by Messrs. Cope and Stew- Price & McLanahan, is an interesting
ardson. The site might be defined as store-front, in the detail of which the
being composed of a square with a right- influence of the University Museum is
angled triangle placed against one side. felt, though the proportion of voids to
The long masses of buildings which out- solids is, from the nature of the build-
line these two geometrical forms are ing, unpleasant. The Lyric Theatre,
broken in a most interesting manner, with a classic faqade and a too-classic
interior, thenew Elks building, and the the general aspect. And, particularly in
St. James Hotel, the last two of the the newer portions of the city, blocks of
French school, are worthy of note. houses are being built by the score,
As Philadelphia is called the City of which for cheap pretentiousness and be-
Homes, an extended review of her resi- numbing ugliness have rarely been
dences might be expected. But, if it equalled. Here is a field of labor for the
may be so stated, the most interesting philanthropist and the artist with an eye
THE PHILADELPHIA PARKWAY, AS PLANNED FOR THE FAIRMOUNT PARK ART

ASSOCIATION— BIRD’S-EYE VIEW.
Horace Trumbauer, \
C. C. Zantzinger, ( Associated Architects.

Paul P. Cret, )
of the city’s residences are outside of it, to the future city beautiful: let them
and an examination of the many and look to the housing of the small rent-
beautiful suburbs would lead us too far payer. Living in such a dwelling must
afield. In the city proper, though there be as fatal to the development of a sense
are several residences of interest, they of beauty as the contemplation of the
have hardly any appreciable effect on aforementioned Smith Memorial.
3°8 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
Returning to the subject of the

gen-
eral impressiongiven by the city, it must
again be stated that Philadelphia lacks
effectiveness. Of buildings men-
the
tioned, only St. the Mint and
Peter’s,
the Gymnasium of the University of
Pennsylvania have any kind of a set-
ting. Placed upon narrow streets,
hemmed by unrelated structures, they
in
cannot but fail of effect. Comparing our
cities with those of mediaeval Italy, for
example, we feel that the people of
those almost Dark Ages were far ahead
of our “enlightened” citizens; there
every public building has its proper
setting. We, instead of crying out upon
such things as are done to-day, merely
shrug and say: “Too bad, but anything
else is quite impracticable.” Where is
the Peter the Hermit who will arouse us
to a crusade against the unsightliness of
our cities? But Philadelphia is to have
a chance. Fairmount Park, before men-
tioned, lacks any adequate approach
from the centre of the city. So build-
ings are now being demolished to make
way for a great boulevard which shall
open a spacious drive from the City
Hall to the nearest point of the park,
at Spring Garden street. It is proposed
to have an imposing entrance to the
park, the possible placing of an art gal-
lery upon the high reservoir site being
an interesting feature of the scheme.
The boulevard is to be planted with trees
and ornamented with fountains and
statues. But as yet the most important
thing has not been done. No restric-
tions have been placed upon the build-
ings which will line this great thorough-
fare. And there Philadelphia has the
chance to make or mar her artistic repu-
tation. Should some limit of height,
some restrictions as to color and style
be imposed, there is a chance of having
a vista which will rival the Champs
Elysees or the new Mall in Washington.
One can picture such a street, lined with
stately buildings, where the uniform
cornice line is pleasingly broken here
THE PHILADELPHIA PARKWAY, AS and there with well-placed tower or
PLANNED FOR THE FAIRMOUNT dome, where the color is varied enough
PARK ART ASSOCIATION— PLAN. to save it from monotony while har-
Horace Trumbauer,
C. C. Zantzinger,
)
1 Associated Architects.
monious enough to preserve the effect
Paul P. Cret,, ^
of general uniformity. In such a street.
! !
in such a vista which would impress the as it may perhaps materialize. Here
visitor, the city would have a money a cloud-kissing apartment house, there
asset of very real value, an advertise- a modest two-story Colonial build-
ment surpassing any other she could put ing; on one side a pink granite bank, on
forward. And all at no extra cost the other an art nouveau store flaunting
Simply by restricting the property by : its gaily colored terra-cotta monstrosi-
sacrificing the vagaries of Tom, Dick ties in the face of the world. And at
and Harry to the aesthetic welfare of the end, William Penn, on his five-
the rest of the citizens. hundred-foot pedestal.
But perhaps the idealist has no place Heaven help Philadelphia in her judg-
in this modern world of ours. And we ment in this matter
can see, in our mind’s eye, this parkway Huger Elliott.
hjiEfiniSU,:' :m.
-A'arjsr
• "BtfSSt
STUDY FOR THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER EMBANKMENTS AND ADJACENT PARKS AND
AVENUES.
Philadelphia, Pa. Architects: C. C. Zantzinger, t
C. L.Borie, Jr., S
Last Ban*.
Architect: Paul P. Cret, West Bank.
The Larkin Building in Buffalo
This business building, the architec- the great hall, are the same windows that
tural creation of Mr. Frank Lloyd show in Figs. 1 and 2 between the butt-
Wright of Chicago, is reproduced in resses, and they correspond with the ar-
many excellent photographs, some of rangement of the south front, as in Fig.
which will be shown in this article and 1— note the four stories of broad win-
others in the March number of the dows flanked by narrower ones, which
Architectural Record. From among are seen within and without alike. One
them I select Fig. i as the most capable relation between exterior and interior is
of giving a general idea of the design. seen in this —the square brick piers
The plan given in Fig. 8 shows the pur- which divide what we here call the nave
pose of each member of the building, from the galleries at each side a long —
and the scale can be estimated as to the double row of them are on the same
heights, on the basis afforded by the axes as the buttress-like piers crowned
steps of the entrance doorways, checked by globes and human sculpture, in Figs.
by the height of the doorway (seen in 1 and 2.
Fig. i) themselves, and by comparison In Fig. 3 there are partly seen the large
with the plan. It is not safe to utilize and at the right hand
galleries, at the left
the courses of brick in this way, because of the central skylighted nave. These
their height is uncertain the bricks may
;
halls are of only moderate height one —
be of unusual dimension or laid with un- story of windows to each, as seen in Fig.
usually wide joints. The nearest tower- 4, which gives the interior of the fourth
like mass in Fig. i — that against which story, south side. Each one, as well as
the telegraph pole is seen relieved —
is the floor of the high nave, is filled rather
about 90 feet high. The broader mass closely with desk-tables, at which are
behind it would be, then, about no feet seen seated clerks fully occupied in their
high, and this appears to be the highest employ. In this view, we are looking
level of the walls. A perspective eastward, the wondow on the left and
draughtsman can easily determine the in face of us are those seen from out-
relative proportions, as width compared doors in Fig. 1, and the central nave is
to height, etc., but this front may be north of us, on our right.
taken, in the absence of any figure di- The western end of the building is
mensions on the plan, roughly as 90 to very closely like the east front but the ;
95 feet in width, not, of course, includ- northern side as shown in Fig. 2 is

ing the north wing seen in Fig. 2. masked by projecting masses of building
That front shown in Fig 1 is called which include a great vestibule with en-
in this paper the east front. The longer trance doorways to east and west. In
side, showing in the same picture seven the northeast detail view, Fig. 5, the
windowed bays divided by square butt- doorway at the head of the steps where a
ress-piers, is called here the south flank. young man is standing is one of those
It is possible to gain some knowl- two entrances it has the firm name on
;
edge of the character of the building by the large fan-light, and is probably the
means of photos of the interior. Twenty working entrance. The plan shows a
excellent interior views are found in the similar doorway at the west of this one,
collection above mentioned, and Fig. 3 and opposite to it. The houses of the
shows how the building has a nave and town and a church crowd the site rather
aisles —the nave shown in the illustra- closely on the northern side.
tions having windows at the ends, and a The square towers at either end and
skylight overhead; each aisle is divided flanking the entrance in Fig. 5 are about
up into four lofts or stories of 16 to 17 18 feet in horizontal dimension. That
feet each, in the clear. The broad end one seen in Fig 5 has the overplus of
windows, seen in Fig. 3 at the end of water very skilfully treated as a cascade
with a sculptural setting. The two one from the traditional styles and
outer towers, seen in Fig. i, have schools feels a shock of surprise, and this
small doorways, with steps of approach. a surprise which is the reverse of pleas-
These are ventilator and stairway tow- ant. Few who have seen the
persons
ers, and that with the fountain contains great monuments
of the past, or adequate
also a staircase. photographs of them; who have loved
In tracing the analysis of this build- them and have tried to surprise their
fig. 1. LARKIN OFFICE’ BUILDING— REAR.

Buffalo, N. Y. Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect.
ing through of photographs,

all this pile secret of artistic charm, will fail to pro-
and in setting down,
as above, its nounce this monument, as seen in Fig.
scheme, we have also partly prepared i, an extremely ugly building. It is, in
ourselves to judge of it as a work of fact,a monster of awkwardness, if we
architecture. The lover of architecture look at its lines and masses alone. It is
who looks, perhaps for the first time, at only capable of interesting that student
a building so entirely removed as this who is quite aware that the architects of
THE LARKIN BUILDING. 313
the modern world during fifty years of time have filled our cities with such an
struggle have failed to make anything array of feeble school studies, based
—
of the old system the system of follow- upon plans good in themselves but
ing the ancient styles with the avowed powerless to suggest an architectural
purpose of developing some one of them treatment of the whole, that he will have
and going on to other things. none of that pseudo style.
For such a task, the as yet unper- Admitting, then, that the chase of the
formed duty of making comely a hard Neo-Classic, of the Gothic, of the French
working and economical building, the de- Romanesque, has come to nothing, that
signer might feel that Roman colonnad- we are as far as we were in 1850 from a
ing was out of the question, as extrava- living style of architecture, and even
53 •
r jJ
in
liliii s
i
FIG. 2. LARKIN OFFICE BUILDING— FRONT.

gant in cost and waste of space, and the from anything which is worthy to be
frankly arcuated styles of the Middle called architecture at all, when a large
Ages unavailable for similar or equally mass of the work of a period is taken
cogent reasons. He might find his together, we shall find that the building
only available suggestion from old we are considering puts on a new aspect.
times in the seventeenth century Ital- Do we find in this building none of
ian, and the eighteenth century French those familiar motives those accepted —
palaces — which depended upon
in styles details which are architecture for us ? It
fenestration. And then he might well is because the designer of this building
say that he was tired of seeing imi- was determined to furnish nothing which
tations of those monuments ;
that the his practical requirements did not call
popular and successful architects of the for. Is there no visible proof? It is be-
;
cause a flat roof is just as easy to make and because it seems a feeble thing to do
tight and durable, with modern ap- — break up the arrangement of win-
to
pliances of building, and because a dows merely for the sake of pretty pro-
swarm of skylights and other utili- portions. Are the grouped rooms and
tarian openings are better and more closets of utility arranged, even at the
easily accommodated in and upon expense of the building, by thrusting
a flat roof. As are no
there forward their crude masses to mask and
chimneys, giving an opportunity for an distort, what might have been the effect
agreeable breaking of the masonry into of the main structure, all as seen in Fig.
the sky and the sky into the masonry? 2 ? That is because this is to be an eco-
It is because there are no separate fires, nomical, working building, the offices of
each fire requiring its own flue, and that a great business house, and because it
fig. 4. LARKIN BUILDING— FOURTH STORY GALLERY.

flue carried well above all obstructions. was thought well to be resolute in the
There probably one fire, and one only,
is chosen way and not to pretend to build
in the building; moreover, that one fire a monument of architecture when a
is driven by a forced draught and re- working structure was desired.
quires no tall chimney shaft to make it It is,indeed, quite certain that in New
burn. Is there no system of fenestra- York the newly erected business build-
tion— the windows, and therewith the ing at the corner of Wall Street and
doors, showing in pretty groups or in Broadway, shown in Fig. 7, is more
long-drawn sequence carefully balancing nearly like what a business building
one another? That is because the build- ought to be than the elaborated and deli-
ing consists of five equal stories, used for cately detailed skyscrapers around. It
similar purposes divided generally into is certain that nothing is gained to archi-
—
;
long, unbroken halls lofts, in short tecture by trying to make a business

building architectural in the good old fine art and active mercantile pursuits
sense. The fine arts have nothing to do are mutually exclusive. If you are to
with the hustle and bustle of daily bread- enjoy a work of art you must have lei-
FIG. 5. LARKIN OFFICE BUILDING— DETAIL OF ENTRANCE.

winning operations. Those are hostile sure and a quiet mind ;

if you are to
influences, as Ruskin pointed out much produce a work of art you must have
more than half a century ago or it ;
might peace and a single mind. In neither case
be urged with still greater force that will it do to have hanging over you the
peremptory calls of the money-making lightand shade, the production of grace-

organization —not one paymaster, who fuland simple combinations of light and
might perhaps forget his utilitarian re- shade was their chief aim. A thought
quirements in the light of design and the in architecture is generally a thought in
joy of creation; but the commercial enlight and shade.
terprise which can have no enthusiasm When the great buildings of the world
and no care for finer things than com- were designed everything else which was
merce. capable of design received it; and all de-
We are left, then, with our sympathies sign in pure form, as in sculpture, in re-
enlisted in Mr. Wright’s behalf, to con- lief modeling, in grouping and massing,
sider what else might have been done, is design in light and shade. The simple
FIG. b. LARKIN OFFICE BUILDING— REAR.

had the architect felt that he could not requirements of every-day life were met
bear to turn out a building so ungainly, by the maker of vessels and utensils with
so awkward in grouping, so clumsy in as free and as successful a method of
its parts and in its main mass. Reject- designing as the requirements of state
ing all that older styles have to offer us and of religion; and he worked in form
in the way of construction and in the principally, that is, in light and shade.
way of detail, we may still ask, How did Earthen vessels and metal utensils were
the designers work when men knew how gracefully designed. And all this not
to design? What, apart at least from because the maker cared greatly to pro-
the unconscious following of the style duce a decorative object, for he also was
accepted during this period was their dimly conscious of the fact that it was
main object? They sought for light and hardly worth while to waste design on
shade. The interesting treatment of a working tool, but because it was in-
evitable that a man who did fine things

on a Monday would do comelv
still
things on a Tuesday. How can you
make a clumsy and an awkward thing if
you have made graceful ones for forty-
eight hours on end ? It is a blessed trait
of our nature that good habits as well as
bad habits may be formed and will stick.
And so the designs of a good time for
architectural art are sure to be good de-
signs, that is, to have such forms that
the light and shade upon them would be
lovely. The design before us could not
have been made by any able man at a
time when there prevailed a worthy style
of design in the world around him.
One may try, comparing these seven
or eight
may try
views
of the exterior one —
the experiment of famili-
arity to see whether with longer
acquaintance the building is less ugly
than it seems at the first look. Ruskin
tells the story of his having been led
astray by the theory of Use and Wont
— by the notion that our liking for cer-
tainforms and colors is the result of fa-
miliarity,and nothing else, and he says
that he kept a skull on his mantelpiece
for months, but found it just as ugly
when the months had passed. And
so it is in all probability with this
exterior. If we are to consider it as a
piece of abstract form, as a thing which
is itself ugly or the reverse, the opinion
will remain fixed that nothing uglier

could exist among objects that were
found perfect in condition, cared for,
and showing the signs of human thought
and purpose. We should see in a moment
that where such qualities as those are
found to exist, the building cannot be
wholly contemptible. That it is wholly
repellant as a work of human artisan-
ship which might have been a work of
art and is not —
so much is probably the
verdict of most persons who care for the
fine art of architecture.
Light and shade have been mentioned
above as the chief elements in our art,
and one of the ways in which light and
shade are used continually in architec-
tural design is in the way of moldings.
What a molding ? What are moldings ?
is
It is, they are, a modulation of the sur-
FIG. NO. 1 WALL STREET face following continuous lines, straight

7. BUILDING.
New York City. and curved. Moldings are an abandon-
Barnett, Haynes & Barnett, Architects. ment of plane and uniform surface for a
—
broken and generally rounded surface, the building and supported on corbels
as along an edge, and a group of mold- or on a little arcade. But it is evident
ings consists of an alternation of pro- that the first principle laid down by the
jecting and retreating forms, mainly of designer for his own guidance was this
curved surface and of small dimension, — toavoid everything that would look
although these are broken, interspersed like merely architectural adornment,
a
here and there by narrow strips of flat to add nothing to the building for the
and uniform surface, which we call fil- sake of architectural effect. He would
lets. Moldings do not weaken the wall repel the idea of a projecting cornice as
where the window jamb, the door jamb, readily as he would the full classical en-
the horizontal cornice or sill course is tablature for the top of one of these
modified by their interposition. Sup- square towers, which would be no better
pose, for instance, that one who lived working elements of the building if they
opposite this Larkin Building were to were so adorned. Either you must add
have his way for a month, and were to to a building something which is un-
utilize his time in making the building necessary, and which nothing but exist-
less clumsy in his eyes —
would he not ing tradition even suggests to you, or
begin by molding those square corners you must have a bare, sharp-edged pile
which are thrust upon us so sharply in of blocks —
a group of parallelopipedons
all the exterior views, working those like this. The designer seems to have
corners into upright beads and coves, de- said that even the rounding off of the
veloping, perhaps, in an angle shaft with coping shall be eschewed. He has de-
capital and base? This, of course, is termined that the square corner, the
not an essential feature. To insert it right angle, the straight edge, the sharp
would be to give, perhaps, too nearly arris, the firm vertical and horizontal
mediaeval a look to the design. Suppose lines,unbroken, unmodified, uncompro-
that the corners of one of those tower- mizing in their geometrical precision
like masses were molded to such an ex- that these and these only shall be the
tent that eight inches on each side of the features of his building. But as that
arris, everywhere, were to be reduced to characteristic of the building prevents it
a series of soft surfaces, concave and from having any delicate light and shade,
convex, parallel one to another, and car- therefore it stands condemned in the eyes
ried up from a little above the base to a of any person who looks at the building
little below the coping? They may be asking for beauty of effect.
cast in brick, two or three separate pat- There is, however, mass. There is the
terns of molded brick sufficing for the possibility of proportion, the proportion
whole composition. These moldings of the smaller to the greater, and the pos-
must either stop or return and there are
;
sibility of fitting one to another firmly
very interesting ways of arranging for and with grace. There is the propor-
either. They may stop against the stone tion obtainable by the horizontal distri-
coping or belt course itself or they may
;
bution, the alternating of curtain walls
have a piece of cast brick or of terra- with towers, of projecting and receding
cotta or of cut stone, in the mass of which masses and there is the possibility
;
the stop of the groups of moldings may of vertically succeeding masses, the
be against a splay or a concave or a con- parts which serve for a kind of
vex curved surface. basement at either end, and those tow-
Moldings are important and valuable, ers and buttresses which rise above
and the designer who rejects them alto- them. There is even a possibility of
—
gether handicaps himself and yet there contrast between walls filled with win-
are even better things than moldings. dows and the massive blank space of the
The horizontal bands in a building like wall which rests upon the piers between
this would be interesting if they were the windows.
molded and yet they would be more in-
;
If, now, we seek to take up a sympa-
teresting still if they were carried out thetic position, to consider the building
in some greater projection in the face of as perhaps the architect himself consid-
ered it, there are to notice the care given been studied with care. Here is an ex-
to the plan and disposition of the halls cellent arrangement of large windows,
and rooms, the care which has evidently raised high toward the ceiling, broad and
resulted in a successful utilitarian build- low and shaped as they ought to be for
ing. Construction which is the simplest utilitarian results. It is clear that there is
and most obvious, and which cannot go nothing to burn about the building; it
astray because everything is reduced to is as fireproof as such a building can be
the post and lintel workmanship which

;
made. And while everything has been
is faultless, simple and straightforward carried out with a view to practical util-
brickwork piers and walls fairly and
;
ity, there has been also some attempt to
smoothly built; slabs and beams of stone adorn, to beautify. But we have already
which have been planed and dressed in seen reason to think that this attempt has
the mill and left with sharp arrises ;
a failed. See for the attempt and for the
view down the central hall as seen in failure, in Fig. 8, that curious base ar-
Fig. 3, which is impressive because of ranged beneath the brick piers on the
che straightforwardness and simplicity of right; it is the Attic base reduced to its
everything, and because of the clear day- simplest form, the familiar old Attic
light which fills all parts of the hall; the base, with its rounded moldings turned
evidences which the pictures multiply back into the square-edged bands which
of a minute prevision in the way of office those moldings were in their origin. And
furniture, safes and cupboards for filing those square moldings are put in, the
papers, tables and chairs of metal and larger below and the smaller above, with
solid wood, all of the simplest conceiv- the evident purpose of serving as orna-
able forms the electric bulbs set in racks
;
ment. Accepting this, let the eye now
at a convenient height above tables and take in the curious square block decora-
counters, which racks, though of incon- tion of the same pier in its upper part,
ceivable ugliness, have yet the character higher than the door and between the
—
of simple utility all these things unite great doorway of the entrance where the
to make a building which no one can fail firm name is painted on the glass, and the
to accept. The iron railing which en- small staircase doorway on the right. Is
closes the site comes nearer to being this a serious attempt to create a new
really a design than the larger details, system of design? May we assume that
generally; for in this a true economy the inevitable squareness of the brick-
and a sagacious utility take the place of built pier, allmolded and specially cast
a sense of form. Our standard is lower, brick being rejected, satisfies the de-
when we consider some hundreds of signer so well that he gladly makes
running feet of fencing. everything else, his sculptured ornaments
And so in the exterior it is allow- and his bronze fittings, as square as the
able to the student to feel that a masses of brickwork ? Look, then, at the
square brick shaft is as fit to contain a system of metal frames in which the elec-
winding staircase or an elevator as a tric globes are suspended. From this
round or octagonal cut stone shaft cost- picture go back to Fig. 3 and study
ing five times the money ;
that those straight-edged and sharp-cornered
windows are not absolutely neces- groups of ornament at the tops of the
sary when there can be a sky- great piers, and directly below the sky-
light : and that where there are no light see those square ornaments which
windows, and no breaking up for win- are clearly nothing but ornaments. Fig.
dows without necessity, the result is in- 4 shows two groups of those extraordi-
evitable —the result that there will be —
nary connections those terminals of the
no pierced parapet nor any modifying of great supporting piers at the end of the
the uppermost story to replace in a wav high nave opposite the one shown in
the cornice which, of course, such a Fig. 3. It is unnecessary to describe the
building does not require. Here is a design of these strange masses of square-
well-thought-out design, every detail of edged patterning; no human designer
construction and all the appliances have could make anything graceful or even
anything effective out of such elements however. You turn from the florid fa-
as those. Taking all this accumulation cade to the plain brick gable wall or rear
of strange, sharp-edged solids, offering with a sense of relief, but it is merely
—
no modulation of surface nothing but an instantaneous pleasure which you feel
sharp contrast and checkered black and in escaping from something painful. If
—
white and the wonder will grow upon we are to look at the building a second
you more and more, how such a costly, time, and that with renewed pleasure,
careful, thoughtful, well-planned build- we must have something else and, where
;
ing should be made up of such incon- delicate play of light and shade is denied
gruous parts, leading to such a hopeless us, as here, variety of color pattern
result. would be an admirable expedient. It is
One cannothelp liking broad surfaces not necessary to expatiate on this view
of brickwork, and yet those very
fair of the case, for any one who has ever
masses of brickwork may be so much made patterns in mosaic or has enjoyed
more interesting; they may be invested the patterns that others have made for
with color. There is the third chance for him will see what a pleasure this building
the designer After light and shade
! might have been to the designer and to
have escaped him, or have been rejected, the student, had its grimness of aspect
deliberately, and when the artistic use been modified by color patterns. Even
of mass and proportion are out of the the simple stripes found in the wall of
question, he has still at his disposal that New York apartment house which
the and charm of color, and
interest faces on Fourth Avenue and East Sixty-
this exterior calls for it loudly. The eighth Street, three horizontal courses
careful brickwork, even as it is, has a of dark brown brick, one of scarlet brick,
certain momentary pleasure to offer and so on, in alternation, even that is
those of us who feel dissatisfied with beautiful. More elaborate, more effect-
the flimsy character and the inappropri- ive combinations might be made, where
ate ornament of the buildings around. —
colored bonds pass through cut across
Such a pleasure lasts but an instant, — groups of moldings.
Russell Sturgis.
0
PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION BUILDING— VIEW OF FRONT.
Milwaukee, Wis. H. J. Esser, Architect.
PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION BUILDING— REAR VIEW, SHOWING THE GREAT

POWER STACKS.
The Building of the Public Service
Corporation of Milwaukee
The Public Service Building of the of the city, immediately adjoining the
Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Union Depot, and very near the most
Company has a peculiar interest because important steamer and passenger dock.
many different purposes to which
of the Although only four stories high, it is of
it is put. Below its roof is conducted steel construction but if at some future
:
practically every kind of business di- time it will pay to enlarge the building,
rectly or remotely involved by the work the frame is strong enough to carry a
of a large public service corporation. number of additional stories.
1 he president and general manager of In the basement is installed not only
the Milwaukee Electric Railway and all the machinery needed for the build-
Light Co., Mr. John I. Beggs, decided ing itself, but also all the boilers that
that his company could conduct the supply the Milwaukee Central Heating
greater part of its business with as Company with its steam, as well as the
much economy from one centrally sit- extensive storeroom of the sales depart-
uated building; and he believed, also, ment. On the first floor are located the
that the habitation of such a building main entrance, the sales and exhibit
would help make
the company more
to rooms of the lighting department, the
important in the public eye. He decided, interurban waiting room and the exten-
consequently, on the erection of a struc- sive car sheds of the company’s inter-
ture containing space for every depart- urban system. On the second floor are
ment of the company’s business, and the offices of the accounting and trans-
that this structure should be designed portation departments, the latter having
to make an adequate impression on access to the train shed by a convenient
the public. To this end he called special stairway. The club rooms and
to his assistance an architect, Mr. the auditorium are also on this floor.
H. J. Esser; and
the building, as it Their object give the employees
is to
stands, is the result of the co-operation opportunities recreation and study
for
of these two gentlemen. Under its roof under wholesome physical and moral
are carried on a greater variety of occu- conditions. Space has been provided for
pations than in any other building in the a reading room, with a library, billiard
country. It contains a waiting room, a and pool rooms, bowling alleys, a dining
train shed, a power house and rooms for room, lavatories and kitchen. gym- A
every different department of the com- nasium is also contemplated on the top
pany’s auditing and essential business. floor. The auditorium, while it is rented
Nor is this planned, also, to
all. It is for conventions and similar purposes, is
contain a large auditorium, reading and primarily intended as a hall in which the
club rooms for the entertainment of the men can meet and hear talks on various
company’s employees and a gymnasium. phases of their work.
Thus it has its social, in addition to its Onthe third floor are the offices of
business, purposes, it is in its way a the construction, rolling stock, power
club house and a theatre, as well as an plant, claim and lighting departments,
office building and a power house and ; as well as the hospital. The latter con-
it performs all these services in a very tains operatingand other similar rooms,
efficient manner. in which injured people can be expediti-
The structure covers the area of one ously and properly cared for. On the
whole and a good-sized one
city block, fourth floor are the offices of the presi-
at being bounded by Sycamore,
that, dent and his chief clerk, the directors’
Everett, Second and Third streets. Its room and the printing office. The illus-
location is central, being only one block trations give some idea as to the com-
from Grand avenue, the business centre pleteness of the finish in every respect.
PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION BUILDING. 325
BILLIARD ROOM FOR THE COMPANY’S EMPLOYEES.
THE AUDITORIUM— MILWAUKEE’ PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION BUILDING.

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RESIDENCE OF SIGNOR CELESTINO PIVA.

Washington Square West, New York City. J. H. Freedlander, Architect.
NOTES ^COMMENTS
this year particularly attractive in its ar-
TWENTY-THIRD In the annual ex- is
the Archi- rangement and manufacture) but would

ANNUAL hibition of it
tectural League of New not be a valuable addition to give the public

EXHIBITION right on the exhibits themselves, what might
York which closed on
OF THE ARCHI- the Fine
Feb. 22 d at be called a detailed annotation of the build-
TECTURAL Arts Building in West ing or subject portrayed and thereby im-
LEAGUE 57th Street, New York, mediately invite its interest in such a way
OF NEW YORK it was apparent to the that it will carry away from the exhibition
critical observer of architectural exhibitions

a definite notion of something which has at-
tracted its notice there? To cite an instance,
that the architects are realizing the neces-
if they would make would it not have been highly instructive
sity of their cooperation
architecture more popular. In this exhibition and interesting to the hundreds of people
there was a noticeable lack of the elaborate
who no doubt gazed on Mr. Herter’s deco-
feats of draughtsmanship, large plans,
elab- rative painting, “The Attributes of the
scale details and working drawings Arts,” which occupied the position of honor
orate
over which the ambitious draughtsman was
in the Vanderbilt gallery, to have been able
wont to pore in previous years, for new to read the purpose of that work, a refer-
ence to the figures of the composition and
“tricks of indication” in drawing and color.
the conditions under and for which it was
To him the showing must have been,
he painted? We think that such a ready refer-
to a certain degree, a disappointment, for
ence to and description of subjects could be
found instead that a large portion of the
wall space had been given up to the allied extended to advantage to a majority at
arts of design. In the architectural section least if not to all the exhibits. We can
think of no device which would act more
of the galleries he found a predominance
of
small plans, mere diagrams in black and powerfully to stimulate popular interest in
white and numerous charming “photographic the work of the architect and the artist,
bits” of the work exhibited. The range of the
nor any method by which the layman would
subjects illustrated was perhaps as wide as be more swiftly led to alter his point of view
of architecture and art from ignorant adula-
in former years but there was noticable
a
scarcity of large undertakings. The exhibits tion to intelligent interest and reason limited
of many of the older firms were missing only by the capacity of his training and by
and many new names were in evidence to his intelligence. At any rate the suggestion
fill the gaps. Suburban and country work would seem worth trying; experience would
predominated more than ever and competi- readily determine its value or its worthless-
tive designs were comparatively few; the ness.
architectural schools and Beaux Arts So- An added reason for imparting to the ob-'
ciety exibited fewer drawings than ever. We server (who is too often merely a superficial
will not catalogue here the subjects ex- spectator) information that really informs,
most of them are already fairly is the remarks that one hears at such ex-
hibited;
familiar to the readers of the architectural hibitions and the blank expressions on the
journals which illustrated in their pages the faces that one sees. A great many of these
majority of them. It is more to the general people do not understand sufficiently what
character of the exhibition that we would they are looking at and consequently see lit-
tle to hold their attention. If the architects
cah attention.
The hanging committee is to be congratu- and artists would enlighten these people they
lated on the general result of its efforts, al- must afford them a stronger hold on the
though we should like to see them carry subject by some sort of popular instruction,
further the idea of interesting the non-pro- and how could they seemingly better accom-
fessional. It is perfectly natural for such a plish such instruction than by making their
committee to desire to supplement the ex- exhibitions illuminating in a way that every
hibits by additional information in the form inte’ligent person can successfully try to
of a detailed catalogue (which, by the

way, understand.
—

The “Architectural dull and cheerless brownstone front; and the
HOW TO Record’’ has frequently architect’s success should encourage others
illustrated different to spare the owner the cost of a recon-
REFRESH A types of English base- structed front whenever such expense is not
feROWNSTONE ment houses which are necessary.
FRONT replacing the old brown
lhe restoration of the
stone fronts on the res-
idential streets of New Governor’s Room in
A the New York City
York; but it sometimes happens that the
owner ofone of these old houses seeks to COLONIAL Hall, through the lib-
make it look somewhat more cheerful with- RESTORATION erality and public
And the spirit of Mrs. Russell
out entirely doing away with it.
Sage, is both in itself
achievement of such a result is perhaps as
and in its suggestion,
difficult a task for the architect as is the
a gratifying thing, The only possible objec-
design of an entirely new fagade. We are
glad, consequently, of an opportunity to il-
tion —since the constitution of the committee
of the Art Commission which is to supervise
lustrate a case in which an old brown stone
the work seems to insure artistic and faith-
front has been refreshed with conspicuous
success. The accompanying photograph
ful execution —is that it is a pity that an
individual should have had to do what the
shows not only the reformed fagade, which is rich city of New York might so fittingly
situated on Washington Square West, but
have done. It is not a wholly satisfactory
also on its left, a surviving brownstone front
answer that there were no funds available
identical with the one which has been dis-
for exactly this work; but, since there were
placed. The reader can, consequently, meas- no funds, it is good to find an individual
ure very accurately the improvement in ap-
willing to do it, and to do it fully and gen-
pearance, which the architect, Mr. J. H.
erously. The particular form which this ex-
Freedlander, has brought about, and he can
pression of public spirit has taken is rather
immediately detect the means, which have novel; but it is so widely approved that we
been used for this purpose. The old stoop
may hope it may have many imitators, if
at right angles with the entrance has been
their expenditures be similarly safeguarded.
replaced by brick stairs parallel to the line
The room, in its artistic excellence and in
of the building, enclosed by a simple iron
its historical significance, is of more
railing and leading to a spacious porch. A than
local municipal interest. As perhaps the
new brick door-frame has been constructed most important apartment in the beautiful
on this porch, somewhat beyond the line of
old city hall, it has suffered various tribula-
the house thus emphasizing the entrance and
tions at the hands of would-be “improvers,”
affording a larger enclosed vestibule. A lit-
until little vestige of its original simplicity
tle balcony has been placed outside the win-
which writers of the time could justly call
dows on the first floor; and these windows
have been cut down to the floor level, so as
—
most elegant remained. But now the dis-
covery of the plans of its own architect, and
to give access to the balcony and at the
the fact that the committee is composed of
same time to stamp with greater importance Robert W. DeForrest, Frank D. Millet,
the drawing room within. The old, large Arnold W. Brunner, Walter Cook, and John
window panes on every story have been re- B. Pine, make certain a wise use of Mrs.
placed by small ones. The old, heavy mould-
Sage’s gift.
ings around the openings have been torn off,
and a simple square recess substituted.
Every window, except those of the top A BEGINNING In its January notes,
The Architectural Rec-
floor, has its little window box, and the open- OF THE
ings on this floor have been reduced in size, ord made a plea for
HUDSON’S nationalizing the Pali-
so as to mark their relative unimportance. WEST BANK
Finally the old ugly galvanized iron cornice sades park opportunity
has been removed and the front terminates
PARK on the Hudson River
in a sort of a tiled hat brim. It should be
OPPORTUNITY atop the Palisades,
added that the surface of the brownstone opposite the northern
has received a good rubbing, which has im- end of the City of New York. The New York
proved its appearance, while at the same Herald of February 12th gives us the fol-
time the joints in the masonry have been lowing news item:
penciled. These changes in detail have Prompt action was taken in the Senate today
upon the bill recently reported favorably from com-
given the owner of the house a smart and mittee, which authorized the acceptance of the site
attractive modern dwelling in place of a of old Fort Lee, in New Jersey. The old fort was
used by the Continental army in the Revolutionary mended by
War, and marks the beginning of the Palisades. the board, the cost of it amount-
The donor of the two and one-quarter acres of ing in round numbers
to $1,648,000; very
land which comprise the site is modest, and has not much of the land for the Mall already pur-
permitted his name to be made known, the negotia-
tions being conducted by a firm of New York at- —
chased and now, we believe, cleared; the
torneys. Secretary of War Taft recommended that post office about completed; the site for the
the site be accepted by the government. It is ex-
pected that the tract will be added to other land in public library definitely accepted; the work-
the vicinity of the Palisades, and be used as a park. ing drawings for the court house approved
This is a good beginning, for with its his- (May, 1906) and the preliminary plans for
toric memories Fort Lee is a worthy en- the city hall approved (March, 1906). Illus-
trance gate to the entire region north over trations and descriptions of these structures
which in Revolutionary days ran a mili- and of the post office are included in the
tary road which must have been assidiously supplement. The story is an interesting and
patroled by videttes and sentries in de- encouraging record of accomplishment.
fence of the natural fortification formed by
the cliff which protected the American army Although as this is
encamped in the country inland. The scene written the awards
centers about Tappan where Andre was PRIZES FOR have not been an-
hanged and the tavern where he was im- ARTISTIC nounced, there can be
prisoned. The old Dutch house bearing the cordial commendation
date 1700 in black bricks, where Washington
WORK of the plan of the
had his headquarters, still stands in good Metropolitan Improve-
condition. This old road loses itself at the ment League of Boston
little hamlet of “Palisades,” on the hill above to award prizes for that local work of the
the western terminus of “Dobbs Ferry,” year which is best in architecture, sculpture,
known as Sneden’s Landing, where there is mural decoration in public buildings, street
located a stone block-house the scene of at fixtures, festival decorations, and artistic ad-
least one encounter with the British and vertising. The prizes are to be gold, silver
which recently was used as a studio by the and bronze medals, and honorable mentions.
sculptor, Tonetti. Their award is to be the occasion of a ban-
Lower, by the river, are the remains of quet, which may become, it is suggested, an
old earthworks, for this passageway of the annual March civic festival. The spirit of
Hudson is the first above Fort Lee where an —
the thing is almost mediaeval redolent of
army might well cross, with the possible ex- the Renaissance, though recently revived
ception of a similar pass between Yonkers in Paris, Brussels, Buenos Ayres and other
and Alpine. places. It wakes to conscious realization
The little seed sown by us in these col- that popular feeling that wherever a beauti-
umns and taking visible form in this pro- ful thing is created for the public to be-
posed reservation may some day grow so —
hold even though the ownership be private
that future generations may praise our fore- there something is added to the common
thought in the possession of a beautiful wealth. It is well to make public recogni-
breathing spot when the great city shall tion of this. In some European capitals, the
stretch along the base of the hill to the community’s gratitude for a beautiful house
west of the Palisades and across the river is expressed in a remission of taxes. This
to the east. May the good work go on. award of medals is a degree finer, because
above pecuniary consideration. Socially,
The too, the plan is good, since its tendency must
expert commis-
sion which is supervis- be slightly to modify the envious bitterness
PROGRESS ing the execution of toward wealth.
IN “the Group Plan” for The discussions which
CLEVELAND the public buildings of THE have been called forth
the city of Cleveland, by the revision of the
has issued a second
FOUNDATION Building Code of New
edition of its original OF TALL York City have natur-
elaborate report “with supplement indicating
BUILDINGS ally turned to a very
the progress of the improvements.” The considerable extent
commission is composed of Daniel H. Burn- upon the problem of the
ham, John M. Carr&re and Arnold W. Brun- skyscraper. With the erection of a num-
ner. The second edition comes not quite four ber of buildings over twenty-five stories high
years after the first. It reports all of the that problem has assumed a more acute
land required for the sites of the court- phase in New York than in any city in the
house and city hall purchased, as recom- country; and many proposals have been
33 ° THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
made looking in the direction of a limita- usually erected on very expensive land. The
tion inthe height of buildings. Among carrying out of such a proposal would un-
these proposals that of the Revision Com- doubtedly mean a discrimination in favor of
mission was one of the most novel and in- property-owners, whose land had already
genious. It did not apparently seek abso- been improved with tall buildings; and it
lutely to limit the height of buildings; but would for a time at least decrease the value
it did seek to make the owner pay for the of unimproved property in the same neigh-
privilege of building high by means of a borhoods. Mr. Flagg, consequently, would
proportionate sacrifice of his ground area. not depart entirely from the policy hitherto
A very tall building, that is, would necessar- adopted by the city. He would permit the
ily be separated from its neighbors by larger erection of buildings to any desired height;
courts than a lower one, and such a method but he would safeguard this permission with
of limitation undoubtedly seems at first conditions, which would prevent it from be-
glance to be reasonable. coming harmful to abutting property or dan-
It has not, however, been received with gerous to the public interest.
very much favor. All the property-owners, The sort of regulation which Mr. Flagg
real estate speculators and building contrac- proposes would permit the property-owner
tors interested in the construction of sky- to adopt one of two courses. In case he
scrapers have protested against it, and to wishes to erect a sky-scraper, be must either
allappearances their opposition will prevail. buy so much land that he can almost com-
Public opinion is negligent and indifferent in pletely surround tower with a lower
his
such matters; and consequently the much building. Or else in case his
tower actually
more aggressive body of opinion, which is adjoins other people’s property he must pay
the result of private interest usually has its this adjoining property owner for the right
—
own way particularly when the supposed to build his towering structure —
a payment
representatives of the public interest are a which would be equivalent to purchasing his
group of men, no more intelligent, well-in- neighbor’s privilege of erecting a building
formed or disinterested than the New York over a certain height. The effect of such
Board of Aldermen. An American legisla- regulation would be to permit the erection
tive council almost always acts in accord- of a few lofty towers in every block sur-
ance with, the wishes and opinions of an ag- rounded by buildings of a much lower, al-
gressive private and special interest, unless though still considerable height; and an ef-
an equally aggressive body of public opin- fect of this kind would combine more eco-
ion compels them to consider the public in- nomic advantages with fewer disadvantages
terest as well; and hitherto no such body of and public dangers than would any other
public opinion has been formed in relation form of regulation, always assuming, of
to the limitation of sky-scrapers. It is very course, that the towers are constructed and
probable, consequently, that the current at- finished with absolutely fireproof materials.
tempts to establish such a limitation will No doubt the regulation, proposed by Mr.
fail —
as all previous attempts have failed. Flagg would deprive property owners of op-
The height of sky-scrapers will continue to portunities which they now enjoy, but such
be regulated only by business conditions, un- a deprivation would only be a legal recog-
til some striking disaster will suddenly and nition of disabilities imposed by economic
sensationally expose the public dangers in- conditions. At the present time a property
curred by the lack of any regulation. owner can ostensibly erect a building of any
When the time comes, however, as it as- height upon a lot of any size; but his legal
suredly will, for some effective regu'ation, it liberty in this respect is confined by certain
is possible that such regulation will assume a obvious economic conditions. The value of
form advocated by Mr. Ernest Flagg. Mr. any sky-scraper he erects is very much di-
Flagg by no means approves of the limitation minished by a failure absolutely to secure
proposed by the commission, who prepared good light and air for the offices in the build-
the revised version of the New York Building ing. The owners of the first twenty-story
Code. The effect of the proposed ordinance buildings erected in New York began to real-
would undoubtedly be the same as that of ize this truth, when they were forced to ac-
a rigid limitation of the height of buildings. quire abutting property at a high value in
Under such a provision there would be a order to prevent the erection thereon of
level in relation to every possible site, higher buildings as tall as theirs; and at the pres-
than which it would not pay to build. This ent time no prudent capitalist will erect a
level would vary in different cases; but the building even twenty stories high without
general effect would be to lower by several protecting himself against subsequent inter-
stories the height to which buildings are ference. Much more is this the case when
the proposed building is twenty-five, thirty ity even by lovers of good architecture pro-
or thirty-five stories high. Whenever such vided all the new buildings, low or high,
towers have been planned, they have always erected in these districts are thoroughly fire-
been surrounded either by streets or by pri- proofed; and providing the street layout is
vate property under the same ownership. It made adequate to the stress of traffic cre-
is this practice which Mr. Flagg proposes ated by such a dense business population.
to recognize legally, and such a course
would merely bestow a definite legal form Under the alluring
upon a practical condition from which no title,“The Gentle Art
property owner can escape. He might es- of Disfiguring Old
cape from it by buying a whole block and MISTAKEN Churches,’’ J. Cleveland
then covering as much of the area as he ‘IMPROVEMENT’ Cady contributed to a
could with a thirty-five story building; but recent “Outlook” an
the purchase of a whole block in the busi- article, made emphatic
ness districts of Manhattan has now become b y concrete stories,
almost an impossible task even for insurance that showed the architectural injury too
companies. Individuals or corporations who often wrought in “smarting up” the churches
own whole blocks should, however, be legally of old villages. And he adds, this “ill-
prevented from covering the area with a treatment of ancient churches is by no
building over a certain height; and in other means confined to rural communities.” His
cases the proposed regulation would, as we protest is one of which there was need of
have explained, merely define a prevailing utterance, but it isn’t easy to see how the
business practice. danger can be warded off. Education is a
There is also an architectural aspect of the slow process, where there is need of haste,
matter which should not be ignored. From and at best it is not over thorough. He
an exclusively architectural point of view, points out the danger, in a peaceful little
the sky-scraper will doubtless always remain Colonial church, of the big memorial win-
an excrescence, not because it is twenty-five dow that the richest farmer puts behind the
stories high, but because its height is wholly pulpit — “loud and inharmonious in color,
out of proportion to width of the street on frivolous in design, completely out of scale,
which it is situated. One can imagine the and in conflict with the refined and restful
creation of a magnificent architectural ef- feeling of the admirable old church.” Some-
fect in case twenty-five story buildings, well times the pulpit itself is the subject of at-
designed for their purpose, were situated at tack; and he tells of one village church of
certain points around the Place de la Con- which a loyal brother said, with pride: “Not
corde in Paris; except in rare instances our long ago our Endeavor Band raised money
sky-scrapers will never obtain the propriety and bought some transparent paper imi-
and scale which they might have when sit- tating stained glass and put it on the old
uated on very wide streets or spacious window panes, and it seems just like the
squares, and as a matter of fact, streets real thing — don’t it now? You used to look
broad enough to give them scale, would be through them and see only the blue sky,
too broad for practical convenience. In this and apple boughs, and restless birds mak-
sense the sky-scraper must always remain —
ing their nests, but now .” Again, it is a
architecturally heretical; but if our masters tower or ceiling that is done over, or an
will have them, they would, under Mr. incongruous addition that is made to the
Flagg’s proposed regulation, appear most —
structure all very evil things indeed, to be
assuredly to their very best advantage. A regretted and talked against, and which it
block of buildings from twelve to fifteen would be well to have the family religious
stories high with here and there a thirty- papers take up, since they might reach the
story tower breaking through the sky line proper persons.
would certainly present a picturesque ap- When colored glass
pearance, and afford many attractive oppor- first became a factor
tunities to the architect. A city in which in the decorative arts
such spectacles were numerous would not be DOMESTIC of this country, for a
a beautiful city; but it might be extraordi- GLASS time it was exten-
narily impressive; and there can be little sively employed in do-
doubt that in the course of the next twenty mestic embellishments,
years the Borough of Manhattan in the City but after a while it
of New York will in its central portions as- ceased to be used in the finer houses, and
sume such an appearance. And this con- all because it fell out of the hands of artists
summation can be anticipated with equanim- into those of commercial men, who had but
—
one aim in view: the making of money. pose an artist will make a window for less
The sins they committed with colored glass than a painting, or will devote his time to
in the name of art were indeed startling, and an art which is not, as yet, fully appre-
soon relegated the use of the material to ciated in highest manifestation.
cheap flats and corner saloons. It is hard The two windows illustrated were designed
to believe that this perversion can last for- by Miss Violet Oakley, and all the painted
ever and that colored glass will not once portions are the direct work of her brush.
again take its place in the higher forms of The themes portrayed are Shakespearian,
domestic decorations. At one time it looked the first being from the Tempest: Act I.,
very much as if ecclesiastical glass would —
Scene II. Ferdinand listening to the song of
fall into the same state of deterioration and the invisible Ariel
degradation, but happily a vigorous protest Fer. Where should this music be? i’ the air or the
earth?
and a determined resistance from a number It sounds no more: and, sure, it waits upon
of earnest and conscientious architects Some god o’ the island. Sitting on a bank,
from the Weeping again the king my father’s wreck,
stemmed the tide, and rescued it This music crept by me upon the waters,
maelstrom of commercialism, bad taste and Allaying both their fury and my passion
secularization. This, together with a greater
With its sweet air: thence I have follow’d it,
Or it hath drawn me rather. But ’tis gone.
knowledge of the principles of Christian art No, it begins again.
among the people, the realization on the with Prospero and Miranda in the back-
part of building committees that the glaz- ground, the latter exclaiming:
ing of a church should be left in the hands Mir. What is’t? a spirit?
of the architect, as much as any other detail Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir.
It carries a brave form. But ’tis a spirit.
in the architectural scheme, and that works
Pros. No, wench; it eats and sleeps and hath such
of art are not sold by the square foot, has senses
in these later years largely banished the
As we have. such. This gallant which thou seest
Was in the wreck; and, but he’s something
mere trader and his “art glass” from the stain’d
field of eeclesiology. He can no longer, at With grief that’s beauty’s canker, thou mightst
call him
the behest of some ignorant donor, invade A goodly person: he hath lost his fellows
a church building, remove mullions at will, And strays about to find ’em.
Mir. I might call him
and place in the window openings a highly A thing divine, for nothing natural
colored, badly drawn and devotionless glass I ever saw so noble.
picture. The second window is from Hamlet, that

There no reason why domestic glass
is memorable scene in Act III., where the
should not be restored to its proper place in guilty King and Queen flee, after witnessing
the decorative arts, if architects will only the catastrophe of the play, which
tragic
lend a hand, and insist that when colored Hamlet caused to be acted before them, in
glass is used, it must be of the best in de- order to “catch the conscience of the King.”
sign and quality, and at a price which will Ham. He poisons him i’ the garden for his estate.
permit artists of ability to give their time His name’s Gonzago: the story is extant, and
written in very choice Italian: you shall see
to the study of glass as a medium of artistic anon how the murderer gets the love of Gon-
expression. Then, and not until then, will zago’s wife.
good windows be made, and domestic glass The composition of these windows is all
be a delight to all lovers of color. that could be desired; the dramatic situation
It is true that from time to time windows illustrated has been handled in a most mas-
have been created, and placed in public terly and decorative manner, which at once
buildings or private residences, that are in- commends itself to the connoisseur, while
deed works of art, but they are few in num- the arrangement of the accessory ornamenta-
ber and have produced no appreciable tions cannot help but receive a like com-
diminution in the output of the garish and mendation from the decorator. The color
commonplace products of commercial es- beauty of the windows is indescribable; so
tablishments, and have in no way directed subtle is the scheme of coloration, to be
the trend from mediocrity to the artistic understood it must be seen. Every piece
and beautiful. It is within the power and of glass has been carefully selected, not only
province of the architects to bring about this for its color but for its motion; every lead
change, and windows like the two which line has been given a thoughtful considera-
have recently been placed in a country house tion; and every part has been governed by
near Philadelphia, and are here illustrated, a strict adherence to a pure mosaic motive;
should stimulate them to make the effort. while the glass painting is indeed glass paint-
They must keep in mind, however, that a ing and not an imitation of painting on can-
good window, like a good oil painting, com- vas. The very faults in drawing, which are
mands a high price, and it is absurd to sup- apparent here and there, but add another
—
beauty, and, in a way, emphasize the decor- Club of which the applicants are members,
rative character of the windows. and applications from individual members

Surely the day of domestic glass, having being approved by the permanent secretary.
an artistic value, has not passed away, as Candidates for the above scholarship would
long as there are artists of Miss Oakley’s do well to review carefully those subjects in
genius to design and paint windows, and as- which they are to be examined.
sociations of artists and craftsmen to con- Class B. Two scholarships for special stu-
struct and interpret in glass the artist’s dents, each for one year, will be awarded
thoughts, for these beautiful windows cannot upon the result of a competition in archi-
help to call forth orders from cultivated tectural design, on a program prepared by
people, so that Miss Oakley and other artists the Architectural Department of Harvard
may be induced to adventure into the field University. The competition in the various
of domestic colored glass work. cities will be conducted by the League
0. C. through the organizations affiliated with it,
and will be judged by the Professor of Archi-
tecture of Harvard University and a Boston
UNIVERSITY Harvard University
architect selected by the League. Provision
SCHOLARSHIPS offers to members of
will be made for individual members of the
OF THE the Architectural
League of America League.
ARCHITECT" Candidates for the above should notify the
three scholarships in
URAL LEAGUE architecture. These Chairman of the Committee on University
OF AMERICA scholarships are di- Scholarships by April 1st of their intention
FOR 1908-1909 vided into two classes to take part in the competition. This com-
petition will be opened by a preliminary
Class A. One scholarship which is restricted
sketch to be made on Saturday, May 2d.
to those who can pass the entrance exami-
One week will be allowed for making the
nations of Harvard College. Class B. Two
final drawings. Directions regarding the
scholarships for special students for which
conditions under which these drawings are
there is no examination, but a competition
to be made, their size and manner of send-
in architectural design to select the holders.
ing them will be issued later. These scholar-
Class. A. This scholarship to regular
ships entitle their holders to free tuition in
students is for one year with the pos-
reappointment a second
for
Harvard University during the periods stated
sibility of
above, the cost of such tuition otherwise be-
year, conditioned upon the record of
In ing $150 per year.
the students made at the University.
It is hoped that a large number of men
order to pass the examination candidates
will avail themselves of the splendid oppor-
should be graduates of a good high school or
tunity presented by the above. Further in-
have an equivalent preparation. In June
formation may be had from the Chairman.
Harvard University holds examinations for
The Architectural League of America also
admission in the principal cities of this
has a foreign traveling scholarship, for in-
country. The entrance examinations for this
formation regarding which apply to Pro-
year are held from June 22d to June 27th in-
fessor Percy Ash, Chairman, Committee on
clusive. These regular entrance examina-
Traveling Scholarship, George Washington
tions will be taken by Class A candidates
University, Washington, D. C.
and the scholarships will be awarded to the
student who passes with the highest stand-
ing. For a list of the subjects of the ex- It is proposed to
amination, the places of same for this year,
A COMPETITION erect at East Walpole,
and for other information regarding admis- FOR Mass., in connection
pamphlet with the F. W. Bird
sion to Harvard College write for LOW-COST
to Mr. J. G. Hart, Secretary, Cambridge, & Son’s paper mills, a
Mass. This officer will, upon request, also
DWELLING group of low-cost one-
send copies of recent examination papers. HOUSES family cottages, similar
Each club secretary will also have a copy in construction to ex-
of the above pamphlet regarding admission. periments which the Bird concern has al-
Applications for such examinations should ready made with its products, as an exterior
be sent to that officer of Harvard University covering. A competition will be conducted
by April 1st, and by this date the Chairman for the purpose of selecting designs for such
of the Department of Architecture, Harvard structures, the cost of which is not to ex-
University, should receive applications for ceed three thousand dollars.
the scholarship, such application being ap- The competition will be conducted under
proved by the Secretary of the Architectural rules of the American Institute of Architects.
haue doneuathino jbuf m rare of

mho art ignorant off what thou art
TJ22T'
-
aHSS&k • >"
ushere should Hus musiclbp-i

an
[some god ff Hi’islandaws
air or thearthtsure it tuaiirs t
us no raortat business*'
ob a hair pmohe|d-~* on their sustaining jar meats uolb a blemish

fresher than be If ore mmmmm Safely in harbour is the IKiuos Ship
STAINED GLASS WINDOW, PORTRAYING FERDINAND LISTENING TO THE SONG

OF THE INVISIBLE ARIEL.
Tempest: Act I, Scene II.
(Copyright by Violet Oakley, 1907.)
STAINED GLASS WINDOW, SUBJECT: SCENE FROM HAMLET, ACT. III., IN

WHICH THE GUILTY KING AND QUEEN FLEE, AFTER WITNESSING
THE TRAGIC CATASTROPHE OF THE PLAY WHICH HAMLET CAUSED TO
BE ACTED BEFORE THEM.
(Copyright by Violet Oakley, 1907.)
Professor Francis W. Chandler, of the Mass- sionand a new boulevard can be purchased.
achusetts Institute of Technology at Bos- The whole makes a remarkable story of ad-
ton, Mass., will receive competitive drawings vance.
on or before April 1, 1908, in accordance
with a program which is being distributed In regard to the im-
to all architects by F. W. Bird & Son. With provement of the build-
Professor Chandler, Mr. Charles Collens, of IMPROVING ings and grounds of
Allen & Collens, architects, acts as judge small stations, by rail-
in the competition.
SMALL
road corporations that
STATIONS are not likely to au-
The growth of mu- thorize expenditures
nicipal improvement for sentiment only,
ideals in Baltimore Joseph T. Richards is quoted as presenting
BALTIMORE’S makes a significant the railroad’s viewpoint in a recent address
ADVANCE chronicle. With the —
as follows the significance of the statement
great fire, there was a being that the speaker is the general en-
suddenly awakened gineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad: “Many
wish on
the part of years ago,” said he, “the managers of the
the people that the catastrophe might be Pennsylvania road were convinced that im-
changed into an opportunity for a better provements about suburban stations which
city plan in the burned district. No plan could be made on the ground, where there
was in readiness; but a hastily appointed was property surrounding the station, were
local commission did the best it could, pro- equally important with the station itself,
posing the widening and changing of many and, in fact, it has been held by many citi-
streets. Its recommendations were carried zens as well as railroad managers that the
out. Following this accomplishment, came station property was of first importance.
the engagement of the Olmsteds, through the ... was found that the towns with sta-
It
efforts of the Municipal Art Society, to make tions having beautiful surroundings were
a park plan. A very elaborate report, look- growing more rapidly than others, and in
ing far into the future, was outlined. But taking up the subject with property owners
step by step, and with remarkable pro- at the neglected stations, it was mutually
gress, these recommendations are being agreed that the company and the property
realized. And now has come the wish for owners should co-operate, and wherever
a civic centre, such as other cities are de- there was a disposition on the part of prop-
veloping. Tentative plans were made by erty owners to build houses the railroad would
local men, and then an expert commission —
build a station not necessarily an expensive
—
from outside composed of Messrs. Carr6re, building, but with attractive surroundings
Brunner, and Olmsted— was called in to pass of lawn, shrubbery and flowers, providing a
upon it. Ground has been selected east of considerable area of ground for the pur-
the city hall, and it is proposed to purchase pose. While all was not done in a year, the
it at once, put it in proper condition, and policy was continued and the manager of
then group around it the five new public this road has declared that if he could add
buildings which are going to be needed in a half dozen new houses to a town it would
the near future. These are an annex to the pay the interest on $5,000 or $6,000 ex-
city hall, a new police headquarters, a new pended for station purposes, if applied under
central police station, a state building and what we would call civic betterments.” This
a new polytechnic institute. Each building is an interesting and helpful presentation of
will have to be financed separately when its the economic argument.
turn comes, just as it would have to be
whatever its location; but this plan makes IN RE ILLINOIS ATHLETIC ASSOCIA-
possible a grouping and a cumulative effect. TION.
As a recent court decision has considerably The building which is shown on page 222
increased the revenues of the park board, of the March issue is not, as it is there
which are mainly derived from a street rail- stated, of the Chicago Athletic Association,
road tax, it is proposed that the income but of the Illinois Athletic Association. The
shall be used to pay the fixed charges on a recent addition to the Chicago Athletic Club
big loan, with which the civic centre prop- was published in the February issue of this
erty and certain property for park exten- year.
Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N Y. ; Act of Congress of March 3d, 1879.
Vol. XXIII. No. 5. MAY, 1908. Whole No 116
:THE :ARCHlTEeTVRAL ;
RECORD
•£. ;o n'
SI
•
• J
S
Page
THE BUILDING OF CINCINNATI 337
Illustrated. Montgomery Schuyler.
.
THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS WHAT ITS ARCHITECTURAL
TEACHING MEANS 367
/.
Paul Cret.
SOME RECENT WAREHOUSES 373
Illustrated. Russell Sturgis.
THE NEW YORK CITY HALL: A PIECE OF ARCHITECTURAL
HISTORY 387
Montgomery Schuyler.
SOME BUSINESS BUILDINGS IN ST. LOUIS 391
Illustrated William Herbert. ;
AN ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTOR: LORENZO 01 MARIANO... 397

Illustrated. Alfred H. Gumaer.
NOTES AND COMMENTS 111 ustrated *
409
An Architectural Comparison— Lessons from Crosby
Hall—Another Boston Vision— Mayor McClellan on
City Beauty— Playground Progress-R. A. Cram on
City Building— Plans for Columbus, Ohio— State
Pair Plans— Discussion of City Planning— New York
Art Commission— A Departure in Church Decora-
tion-Modern Baths and Bath Houses— Academy
Architecture.
PUBLISHED BY
President, Clinton W. Sweet Treasurer, P. W. Dodge
; Vice Pres & TT l _
W. Desmond
_
Genl. Mgr /H. Secretary, F. T. Miller
,
4-
’
- THE;-' '
T— -1
TWENTY-
FIVE
CENTS' ARCH lTECTV.RAL rRECORI> CO v TWENTY-
/FIVE ;
; : new: YORK-:. •
•
;
: V. .GENTS’

WESTERN OFFICE: 841 MONADNOCK BLDG., CHICAGO, ILL.
”
Cbe
3U*d)itrctuval Itrrmii
Vol. XXIII MAY, 1908. No. 5.
The Building of Cincinnati

Cincinnati is both fortunately placed ment” ran its course before the advent
and fortunately named. It may well of a free and fearless press. Otherwise
have seemed to the first man who looked to what disclosures and denunciations
upon its site with a speculative eye, the would such a press have treated “Boss
predestinated seat of a great It did city. George” and his “real estate deal.”
seem so to, very likely, the first
observer None of his other operations in land,
of that kind, no other than the “Cincin- however, was so farsighted as this one
natus of the West,” as Byron calls him. at Round Bottom, or could have been,
For it was no other than George Wash- unless, indeed, it had occurred to him to
ington who, in his explorations of the invest at “Fort Duquesne” and wait to
Ohio, saw “Round Bottom” and quite see what would happen to it after it had
possibly foresaw something like Cincin- been renamed for William Pitt.
nati, so far as any human prevision of Meanwhile the place, of which the
imagination could at that time have fore- original name was “Losantiville,” may
seen the expansion of the West. Curious, be said to have been named after the
even as this sketch is begun, the news- greatest of the Cincinnatians. The fort
papers tell us that the “pre-emption” of that preceded or accompanied the origi-
the Pater Patriae is about to be brought nal settlement was certainly so named.
into court with some other of his spec- 1 here is, however, no proof that
he ever
ulative purchases in the Ohio Valley by set foot on the site of Cincinnati. Al-
his surviving legal representatives. As though the fort that was built upon it
a speculator in real estate it may be said was named after him, about the location
of Washington as in politics it was said of that fort hangs a local legend. The
of Burke, that he was “wise too soon.” legend is that original settlement and
He saw too far ahead to “realize” dur- army post were at North Bend, sixteen
ing his lifetime. The “carrying miles away. The Lotharian command-
charges” of his investments in the Val- ing officer of the post had cast lawless
ley of the Ohio, even of such of them as eyes upon the wife of a farmer, and to
came to him in the form of military escape his unwelcome attentions, unwel-
bounties, would have been more than he come, at least to the husbandman, the
could bear, but for that lucky Custis husbandman shifted settlement to his
marriage with which his Virginia neigh- where Cincinnati now stands. Not thus
bor twitted him, the Custis marriage, to be balked, the military Lotharian dis-
with its consequences in the location ot covered good professional reasons for
the Federal City on the banks of the Po- shifting also the site of the fort. Hence
tomac, where it would so inevitably en- “Fort Washington”; hence, perhaps, ul-
hance the value of the Custis estate. It timately Cincinnati. It is not the most
was well for Washington that this latter dignified genesis of a great city, but
enterprise in “promotion and develop- there are others as queer or queerer. A
Copyright, 1908, by '*
Tin Architectural Record Company. All rights reserved.
Entered May 22. 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N Y., Act of Congress of March 0 .
1
, 1879.
4
Architect,
Latrobe,
H.
Benjamin
(1817).
HOUSE
BAUM
THE
1.—
NO.
Ohio.
Cincinnati,
THE BUILDING OF CINCINNATI. 339
monument in the city, built of stone, but the earliest on the “beautiful river” un-
in imitationof a blockhouse, bears a less Pittsburg at its source be older.
bronze tablet setting forth that it occu- Pittsburg to be sure was incorporated
pies what was the centre of the stockade as a village in 1794, but not as a city un-
about the fort. There is a dearth, til 1816, whereas the municipal corpor-
as in American settlements is apt to ation of Cincinnati dates from 1814. Be

be the case, either of documents or of that as it may, as the country back of it
tradition, about the actual origin of the was opened up to settlement, Cincinnati
place, and no evidence that I have been throve and increased. It must have had
able to come upon that among the actual its twenty odd thousands in 1827, when
NO. 2. — JEWISH TEMPLE.

Cincinnati, Ohio. James K. Wilson, Architect.
founders were any of the retired Revo- poor Mrs. Trollope was tempted to set up
who had beaten their
lutionary officers a “fancy store” in it and, failing utterly,
swords into plough shares, whether ac- took her revenge by writing the “Do-
tual members of the Society of the Cin- mestic Manners of the Americans.”
cinnati or not. But the name neverthe- Doubtless the Cincinnatians of the third
less would serve at least to date the set- decade of the nineteenth century were
tlement pretty nearly, as within the last a rough lot, and the impression they
two decades of the eighteenth century, made on the authoress was such as they
and it sufficiently appears that the ear- were bound to make on an English lady.
liest settlers were Jerseymen and the ear- One who now candidly rereads the “Do-
liest settlement in 1788, making it thus mestic Manners of the Americans” finds
:
no warrant for taxing the authoress with its bloody coxcomb. Here is the pass-
pnkindness. But candid American age, from the “American Notes”
readers for a British book on America Cincinnati is a beautiful city; cheerful,
thriving, and animated. I have not often seen
were eighty years ago almost impossi-
a place that commends itself so favorably and
ble to find. American readers were too pleasantly to a stranger at the first glance as
provincial and too skinless to be fair. On this does: with its clean houses of red and
white, its well-paved roads and footways of
the other hand, our succeeding British bright tile. Nor does it become less prepos-
censor, whose “American Notes” raised sessing on a closer acquaintance. The streets
NO. 3.— K. K. BENE ISRAEL TEMPLE, AVONDALE.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Tietig & Lee, Architects.
are broad and airy, the shops extremely good,

a storm of objurgation to which the re- the private residences remarkable for their
ception of the “Domestic Manners” was elegance and neatness. There is something
a zephyr, Charles Dickens, to wit, who of invention and fancy in the varying styles of
these latter erections, which, after the dull
visited Cincinnati some fifteen years af- company of the steamboat, is perfectly de-
ter Mrs. Trollope had shaken its mud lightful as conveying an assurance that there
are such qualities still in existence. The dis-
from her substantial British bottines, position to ornament these pretty villas and
Charles Dickens, in 1842. had something render them attractive, leads to the culture of
trees and flowers, and the laying-out of well-
to say about Cincinnati which ought to kept gardens, the sight of which, to those who
have been balm to its green wounds and walk about the streets is inexpressibly re-
freshing and agreeable. I was quite charmed tation of the whiskey-guzzling, tobacco-
with the appearance of the town, and its ad-
joining suburb of Mount Auburn; from which ruminant Cincinnatians of 1827. Much,
the city, lying in an amphitheatre of hills, doubtless, depends upon the point of
forms a picture of remarkable beauty, and is
seen to great advantage. . . The society
.
view. Dickens was not a disappointed
with which I mingled was intelligent, courte- shopkeeper, but a picturesque tourist.
ous, and agreeable. The inhabitants of Cin- But much also must be ascribed to a
cinnati are proud of their city, as one of the
most interesting in America; and with good real change in the subject of the picture.
NO. 4.— SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ MEMORIAL HALL.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Hannaford & Sons, Architects.
reason; for beautiful and thriving as it is now, The had ripened.

crudities But there
and containing as it does a population of fifty
thousand souls, but two and fifty years have is one piece of evidence that in
at least
passed away since the ground on which it stands the Cincinnati of 1827 there was a re-
(bought at that time for a few dollars) was a
finement incompatible with the notion
wild wood, and its citizens were but a handful
of dwellers in scattered log huts upon the riv- that the “Domestic Manners” the En-
er’s shore. glish critic depicted were all-pervading,
This is a very different picture, in just as the architectural relics of colo-
1842, from poor Mrs. Trollope’s presen- nial Annapolis or colonial Charleston
tellunmistakably the story of the social do so, and long before any other Ameri-
amenities of those who inhabited them can architect had done so as to anticipate
that story is told by the house which the Greek revival which did not really set
Martin Baum built in Cincinnati in 1817, in as a fashion for some years after his
and for which he was well inspired to death. The Baum house (the Taft
choose for his architect Benjamin H. house, as it now is, the Longworth house
Latrobe, then fulfilling the last year ot as it has been modernly known in Cincin-
his service as architect of the Capitol nati) exemplifies this preference. It has
at Washington (Illustration No. 1). It the air. it will be seen, of a country seat,
NO. 6.— MUSIC HALL.

is quite unmistakably Latrobe’s, to rather than of a town house, recalling the

those who know the work
he that “seats” of the Virginian and Maryland
was doing in Baltimore and elsewhere magnates of its period in its lateral ex-
in those years,and who remember his in- tension and in its vertical restriction, as
sistence, in design as well as in words, well as in the amplitude of its grounds.
upon “simplicity” as the first of archi- It might very well have been the abode of
tectural qualities. It was this preference the original “Cincinnatus of the West” if
that induced him to revert from the Ren- he had chosen the banks of the Ohio in-
aissance to the models of classical Athe- stead of those of the Potomac. It has
nian antiquity as soon as he was able to in fact the air of having been built for
THE BUILDING OF CINCINNATI.
NO. 7— CHAMBER OP COMMERCE.

Cincinnati, Ohio. H. H. Richardson, Architect.
the “Patroon” of Cincinnati, which in classical proportions. On the other hand,

virtue of his acquisition of land Wash- the sacrifice of classicality to practicality
ington virtually was. The reduction ot in the attic of the central block, attic ap-
the portico to a porch shows a willing- parently required for servants’ quarters
ness to sacrifice to practicality, of which or other subordinate uses and lighted
NO. 8.— Y. M. C. A. BUILDING.

Cincinnati, Ohio. James W. McLaughlin, Architect.
the results are architecturally rather un- from its own “ox-eyes,” ignoring the re-
fortunate. A tetrastyle “order” seems to quirement of some dividing member be-
be indicated, or if not that, a distyle of tween it and its substructure, is archi-
much less attenuated columns, even with tecturally effective, waiving convention
pedestals, if necessary to bring them into and precedent, which Latrobe always
NO. 9— SINTON HOTEL.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Frank M. Andrews, Architect.
took a pleasure in waiving, provided uted by that zealous and busy Greek re-
there was anything to be gained by the vivalist Isaiah Rogers, who made the
waiver. The central block is signalized, home of his maturity in Cincinnati, and
the “composition” is attained. It is only died there in 1869. His specialties, one
a pity that the porch should be so ex- may say, were porticoed or colonnaded
crescential. public buildings and hotels of solid
NO. 10— CITIZENS’ NATIONAL BANK.

There are other things in Cincinnati granite.These marked his career west-
of those politically formative but archi- ward from Boston, where the Custom
tecturally still colonial years, though House, done in collaboration with the
none so interesting as this relic. The Government Architect, Ammi B. Young,
next manifestations of an Interest in stands for an example of one and the
architecture were those of the Greek re- Tremont House stood, until it was sup-
vival, now become a fashion, and the planted by a skyscraper as an example
most noteworthy of them were contrib- of the other, through New York, which
NO. 11— TRACTION BUILDING.

Cincinnati, Ohio. D. H. Burnham & Co., Architects.
NO. 13.— TEXTILE BUILDING.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Gustav W. Drach, Architect.
he endowed with the old Custom House one to the other of the bordering streets.
in Wall Street, and the Astor House in On the whole, Cincinnati is less for-
Broadway, to Cincinnati, where in one tunate in relics of this period than
genre he remodeled the Court House and New York and Boston, where the works
NO. 14.— PUGH BUILDING.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Dittoe & Wisenall, Architects.
in the other built theBurnet House. The of Rogers still continue to praise him
former was destroyed by a mob in 1884. and to hold their own very well in the
The latter still stands, though shorn of competition of subsequent fashions. For
some of its architectural pretensions by the architectural history of every Amer-
the shifting of the main entrance from ican town that counts its century of dura-
tion is curiously like the history of every Mr. James K. Wilson has been dead for
other. Its builders have taken up their some years. On the first visit to Cincin-
styles not out of conviction but as fol- nati of the present commentator, a visit
lowers of the fashion, and when the which he regrets to have to own is fur-
fashion gives signs of change, they rush ther away now than that of Dickens was
headlong, with an air of devil take the then, the attention of the sensitive
hindmost which is almost equally comic stranger was at once compelled to cer-
and pathetic, after the new fashion, ready tain commercial buildings which were
to drop that with equal precipitation very far from the “regular thing” in the
NO. 15.— BALDWIN PIANO FACTORY.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Elzner & Anderson, Architects.
when that in turn threatens to be sup- business building of those days. To

planted. one who was in the habit of admiring
In Cincinnati, as elsewhere, after the Mr. Leopold Eidlitz’s Continental Bank
Greek revival, the Gothic revival. Cin- and American Exchange Bank in New
cinnati was rather exceptionally fortu- York, as refreshing departures from the
nate in its Gothic revival. The “move- regular thing there, these Cincinnatian
ment” began about as early as elsewhere buildings appealed with peculiar force,
and lasted rather longer. In addition to since they were evidently motived by a
producing a number of rational and re- like admiration. They were in the same
spectable and attractive buildings, it style, which the detail designated as
gave his opportunity to an architect of German Gothic, and even in the same
a talent for which one might without material of olive sandstone. They were
much perversion employ a more preten- marked by the same careful proportion-
tious name. One may say so now, since ing of the stories, the same expanse and
emphasis of the terminal piers, and the ness not only of the sculptural monu-
same studied grouping of the openings, ment itself, but of all the surrounding
multiplied in the upper story into an ar- buildings. The only one of the sur-
cade. The detail was as well studied as rounding buildings in which full advan-
the composition, and they were in Cin- tage has been taken of the detachment
cinnati as in New York very welcome is the Carew building, which very suit-
objects. No longer visible in either case, ably furnishes a background for the
the New York examples having long since fountain and terminates the vista of the
been superseded by skyscrapers, the Cin- 'oasis, page 386. Another relic of the Vic-
cinnatian examples demolished or al- torian Gothic revival is the Music Hall
tered beyond recognition. The more the (No. 6), which suffers much from the
pity in each case, for the Cincinnatian lack of some such detachment and fore-
buildings were by no means copies or ground as a like reservation with that of
servile imitations, but had an independ- Fountain Square would have supplied to
ent interest. In the business quarter of it. It is forced forward to the sidewalk, so
Cincinnati, the only work of Mr. Wil- that it is difficult to get the general view
son’s that remains is, I think, the Jewish for which it was designed. It can be
Temple (No. 2), which, like the Temple dated with considerable confidence, from
Fmanu-El in Fifth Avenue, derives its its own architectural evidence, as one
chief architectural interest from the of the buildings which were inspired, on
combination of Saracenic and Gothic mo- both sides of the Atlantic, by Sir Gilbert
tives and from the clever adaptation of Scott’s essay in secular Gothic in the
Oriental detail, although there is little Midland Station in Fondon. It is a
specific resemblance, and although the real composition, and is highly com-
New York example is, of course, on a mendable for its comparative quietude
much more elaborate and costly scale, as in a style in which it seems from so many
well as of much more artistic importance. extant examples that keeping quiet was
The convention that the architecture of the most difficult thing for a designer
.a synagogue should be Orientalized has to do.
its uses at least in marking the structure Hike every other American town, Cin-
for identification. That advantage is put cinnati, after its little futile dalliance
in a clear light when we remark a later with “Queen Anne,” submitted to its
synagogue in Cincinnati (No. 3), ot phase of Richardsonian Romanesque as
which the general architectural scheme tne next stage of its architectural evolu-
and the technical “style” are indistin- tion. To call it evolution were, of course,
guishable from those of a Soldiers’ and to insult the memory of Darwin, since
Sailors’ Memorial Hall (No. 4). It is evolution implies a direction and a prog-
not clear why either of these edifices, so ress, which things are incompatible with
diverse in purpose should follow that jumping from one fashion to another
scheme and that style, nor, if so, which. without visible motive. We
can no more
But it is in the suburbs, as we shall see, call such changes of fashion evolutionary
that the most characteristic and success- in architecture than in millinery. But at
ful of the remaining works of this Gothic least Cincinnati was very lucky in its
revivalist are to be found. chief example of the Richardsonian Ro-
Nevertheless, the commercial quarter manesque. It had the advantage of having
of Cincinnati has its architectural inter- it done by Richardson himself, and the
-est. The reservation of “Fountain Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce (No.

Square” was such a tribute to private 7) is one of the most characteristic and
munificence, the munificence of Mr. most creditable of his works. It is a
Probasco, whose gift to the city the most instructive example of his talent for
fountain was, as hardly any other Amer- simplification. A big, light room, with
ican municipality had the grace to make the substructure and the superstructure
at that time. Such a tribute is not so obviously subordinate and dependent,
common even now. Cincinnati gets the that was the conception that he wrought
^benefit of it in the enhanced effective- out in his vigorous, masculine way, so
Architect.
McLaughlin,
W.
James
PARK.
EDE’N
MUSEUM,
ART
1G.-
NO.
Ohio
Cincinnati,
NO. 18.— BRANCH LIBRARY, WALNUT HILLS.

Cincinnati, Ohio. McLaughlin & Gilmore, Architects.
NO. 17— DEUTSCHES ALTENHEIM.

NO. 19.— FIRST CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

NO. 20.— AVONDALE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

that the wayfaring man cannot possibly Citizens’ National Bank (No. 10) are
err therein.. It might have been even susceptible of construction in actual ma-
more effective if practical considerations sonry. The widening of the terminal
had allowed him to dispense with the piers, especially great and especially
subordinate story or in fact double storv grateful in the case of the latter building
above the great hall, and to set his para- is therefore quite plausible, while it would
pet-story and his dormers directly above be at least wasteful in the case of a steel
the chamber which is in effect the build- skeleton veneered with masonry. The
ing. But it is immensely effective as it hotel looks a good deal like a good many
is, and much is sacrificed to the simplic- others, but the bank has real distinction.
ity of the scheme. How many archi- When we come, however, upon such an
tects would have had the courage to unmistakable example of the skeleton
make nothing, in such a building, of the construction as the Traction building
entrance, which is here but one opening (No. 11 ) we come upon the pretence of
of many, and hardly signalized at all in a construction which would manifestly be
treatment above its fellows, by no means impracticable. Of course, this is a crit-
allowed to assert itself to the extent of icism which “runs at large” and is not
coming into any competition with the tali to be imputed to the designers of these
arcades, enclosed between their solid particular buildings, although to the de-
flanking turrets, of which the expanse signer of the stereotyped pattern of sky-
and the solidity are so skilfully empha- scraper we may apply what was said ol
sized by the treatment. And how sim- the mob of gentlemen who wrote with
plifying and unifying the great wedge ot ease pentameter couplets more or less in
roof, which the jutting dormers relieve the manner of Pope, that one no more
without weakening. We no longer do admires a man for being able to write
Provencal Romanesque, it is true, and them than for being able to write his
Richardson’s technical “style” is obso- own name. The Ingalls building (No.
lete. But his personal style is not obso- 12) is apparently, in the photograph, an
lete. His constant quest for simplicity exemplification of the same truth.
and repose, for “Quiet,” as he used to In fact, however, it is constructed
roll it out in his orotund way, and his of ferro-concrete, veneered with marble
constant insistence on those qualities, and terra-cotta, and is a pioneer in the
have not ceased and will not cease to of- application of that made of construction
fer their lessons to his successors, in to the skyscraper. The unaffected ugli-
whatever of the historical styles they may ness and bare utilitarianism, for instance,
be working, or even though they should of the Textile building (No. 13), which
come to work in a style that they are to is plainly and, so to say, avowedly incon-
make historical. Meanwhile, the Cin- structible in masonry, become rather dig-
cinnati Chamber ofCommerce is a most nified in comparison with the pretension
valuable municipal possession. of the more “architecturesque” sky-
The Richardsonian fashion passed scrapers, though to be sure, the cornice
away, all the same, and was succeeded projecting above the eighth story of the
as elsewhere, leaving in its wake not only Textile Building is as manifest as it is
the master’s piece, which comes so near a futile sacrifice to the graces. One pre-
being his masterpiece, but such moderate fers straightforward
that cage, the
and agreeable and unpretentious exam- Pugh Building (No. 14) with which the
ples as the building of the Y. M. C. A. advertisements plastered over its flank
(No. 8). First the elevator building are not in the least incongruous. But a
with real walls, and then the skeleton ot much more grateful object than any ot
the skyscraper, were destined to succeed these skyscrapers is the Baldwin Factory
it for commercial purposes. As is apt (No. 15), which carries no ornament
to be the case, the former is architectur- that can be said to be incongruous with
ally more attractive than the latter. its utilitarian purpose, and yet the de-
Whatever the fact may be, it is evident sign of which, it is quite evident, has re-
that the Sinton Hotel (No. 9) and the ceived successful architectural consider-
ation. After the skeletons, the wearied urbs. Already in Dickens’s time, as we
eye reposes upon it with much satisfac- have seen, the opportunity had been suf-
tion. ficiently improved to attract his admira-
But it is not in the citv proper tion. But with the outward expansion
that one is to look for the most attrac- of Cincinnati it has been improved much
tive building of Cincinnati. Now, as in more thoroughly and extensively. Now
Dickens’s time, it is the “amphitheatre there is scarcely a city, even Bos-
NO. 22.— SCHOENBERGER RESIDENCE, CLIFTON.

Cincinnati, Ohio. James K. Wilson, Architect.
of hills” that makes the charm of the ton, of which the suburbs are so impor-
city, a charm that, I think, no other tant to the general effect. One has not
American city precisely possesses in the seen Cincinnati until, like the Psalmist
same degree. The upper of the two ter- in Zion, he has gone around about her,
races on which the city proper is built marked well her bulwarks and consid-
swings around it to form this amphithe- ered her palaces. It is in the ring of
atre,and indicates itself as a ring of sub- suburbs that the best not only of the
NO. 24.— PETER G. THOMPSON RESIDENCE ON COLLEGE HILL.

Cincinnati, Ohio.
James Gamble Rogers, Architect.
NO. 23.— FRANK PERIN RESIDENCE, CLIFTON.

Architects.
Anderson,
&
Elzner
HANNA.
MISS
OP
RESIDETNCE
25.
NO.
Ohio,
Cincinnati,
Architects.
Anderson,
&
Elzner
AULT.
A.
L.
MR.
OF
RESIDENCE
26.
NO.
Ohio.
Cincinnati,
NO. 27— RESIDENCE OP MR. GEO. HOADLEY, JR.

NO. 28.— HAZEN RESIDENCE, AVONDALE.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Werner & Adkins, Architects.
NO. 29.— RESIDENCE OF MRS. HUGH SMYTHE.

X \
NO. 30—RESIDENCE OF MR. C. W. BELL.

domestic building but of the church parish church in England. very much A
building and even of the institutional more elaborated Gothic is seen in the
building, of all, in fact, except of the mortuary chapel in Spring Grove, one
strictly commercial building is to be of the most noteworthy of the works of
sought and found. Not, as a rule, Mr. James K. Wilson (No. 21). Un-
“palaces,” but of a more appropriate fortunately it lacks the logic of its origi-
suburbanity, the “villas” and the “well- nal in an important point. vault the A
kept gardens” of 1842, but far better thrust of which the actual flying but-
done as well as far more numerous. tresses would really abut is inconceivable.
Even the churches, one notes with pleas- But if we waive that infelicity, what
ure, even the “institutions” paretake of specimen have we in America of as high-
this character of suburbanity. One may ly developed or as ornate Gothic in min-
NO. 31.— DREWEY RESIDENCE.

be allowed to hold the opinion that the iature which is more successful than
Museum in Eden Park (No. 16) is a more this ? It is a gem in its kind. The kind, in-
appropriate edifice for its site and func- deed, one of which we have few suc-
is
tion than it would be if it were built just cessful examples. The late Mr. R. M.
now and submitted to the rigid symme- Upjohn’s gates of Greenwood is the only
try and the pompous ornamentation of other one which occurs to me at the
the present fashion, while the ‘‘comfort- moment, and a very successful example
able bourgeoisie” of the Deutsches Alt- it doubtless is. But it will be agreed
enheim (No. 17) as well as the recall of that the Cincinnatian example loses
the German Renaissance in its treat- nothing in comparison with that in
ment, will be recognized as eminently Brooklyn, nay, that it loses nothing
suitable. The best of the churches also, by comparison with any of the works in
such a studiously unpretentious and pic- its own kind of the revived Gothic in
turesque group as that of Church of the Victorian England.
New Jerusalem (No. 19), have a char- An equally successful piece of Gothic
acter not only suburban but rural, and in quite another kind, by the same artist,
hark back to the prototype of a country is the Shoenberger house at Clifton (No.
22). And here an equal success means Cincinnati is not palatial, one example of
a superior achievement, seeing that the a “villa” in the Italian sense as well as
dwelling is at once so much more diffi- in the Italian style. This is the Thomp-
cult and so much less precedented than son residence on College Hill (No. 24).
the memorial chapel. There are a hun- This is much more in the regular way of
dred Gothic precedents for the Dexter the most modern of our palatial country
Chapel, from the Sainte Chapelle down- seats. It has even, along with an abun-
wards. Even to reproduce one of them, dance of foreign precedents, one specific
even to reproduce one of them as nearly precedent, if not prototype, on this side
as Sir Gilbert Scott reproduced the of the Atlantic, in the garden front of
Sainte Chapelle in the Exeter college the late Richard Morris Hunt’s design
chapel, Anglicizing it in the reproduc- for the “Marble House” in Newport.
tion, requires, it is true, a nice feeling This it follows in the scheme of a re-
for detail and a nice sense of scale. If cessed centre about equal in extent to
the result be successful, it is a "schol- that of the two flanking and projecting
arly” piece of architecture. And the wings, in the concealed and balustraded
Dexter chapel is all the more a scholarly roof, in the classic style and even in the
and academic success because it has not material. If we take this, which prob-
(at least to the present reviewer’s knowl- ably we have no authority for doing, as
edge, it has not) any single and particu- a re-study of that, we shall have to give
lar prototype, any specific "model.” But the palm to the Western example, to ad-
there is, there can be, no particular pre- mit that the later artist has been the more
edent for a country house set on a hill, successful, whether more happily in-
as in this instance, so as to command spired, or, which for the spectator comes
the vista of the valley below, and to the same thing, luckier in his practical
in L’Enfant’s excellent phrase, ‘‘to pre- conditions. There cannot be much ques-
serve reciprocity of sight” between it- tion that the changes are all improve-
self and the most interesting points of ments. It was an improvement to double
the landscape. The problem, in fact, the pilasters at the angles of the wings
puts the designer on his own resources and to leave out the intermediate pilas-
and enforces upon him an original com- ter of what we are assuming as the
position, by the overwhelming improb- “original” substituting in each story a
ability that he can find a composition single central opening for the two open-
ready made that will fit his conditions. ings. It was an improvement to increase
This is a very different problem from a from four to five the openings of the re-
street front or even from a single aisled cessed centre, so as to enable the con-
Gothic chapel which in its composition is struction of a hexastyle instead of a pen-
so abundantly precedented and it is cor-
;
tastyle order, and it was an improvement
respondingly more arduous. It is not to substitute the engaged Ionic columns
much inthe way of the architecture for the Corinthian pilasters. Given the
fashionable to-day, the training of classic scheme the architect of the
whose practitioners furnishes them with Cincinnati house is to be congratulated
very few facilities for solving it, and on the scholarly and exemplary execu-
who, we may assume, would accordingly tion of the same. One must be rather a
evade it. But they must agree that, in fanatical romanticist to prefer to this
the Shoenberger house of a generation garden front that of the Hanna resi-
standing it has been met and overcome, dence, for example, though not to main-
and they cannot withhold his meed of ap- tain that this latter would be more
plause from the architect who solved it eligible than the other were as well
if it
so successfully. Some of the same praise done. But, on the other hand, romanti-
is due to the animated picturesqueness cism isagain vindicated by the appro-
of the Perin residence in the same sub- priateness, for a house overlooking and,
urb of Clifton (No. 23). indeed, “beetling” over the river from a
There is one “palatial” exception to cliff, of the design of the Ault residence
the rule that the domestic building of (No. 26). Between this and the clas-
sic garden front we may admit that the view. All traditional architecture is
question is one of that taste about which abandoned or forgotten, as completely as
there is no disputing. if the builder had never heard of it. But
Of course the prototypes of the resi- his work is none the worse for that, and
dential building of Cincinnati and its is, perhaps, all the more exemplary.
suburbs are no more than those of any Reverting to the “regular thing” one
other American city, confined to the naturally finds in frequency examples of
Gothic and the classic. There is the the Colonial, of which we have space
“Italian villa” according to the more for but one or two. No. 30 is designated
usual and less accurate American accept- as Colonial, indeed, only by the projected
ation of the term than that which ap- and pedimented porte-cochere. Without
plies to so costly and pretentious an ex- that, it would be as nondescript as our
ample of the real thing at the garden last example, merely a comfortable
front of the Thompson residence, an ac- mansion, without the successful study
ceptation in which the pretension of composition and adjustment of detail
reaches no further than the making of that go to make the other nondescript
a sensible and comfortable abode. This a work of architectural art. And the
version lends itself with special facility porch, which is the only ‘‘architectur-
to walls covered with stucco, or to the esque” feature is unfortunately here as
newer fangled construction in solid con- excrescential as in the really Colonial
crete, in either of which, indeed, the house with which we began. It has, to
square belvidera and the absence of be sure, a reason for being, in that it is
mouldings are apt to be the only re- a porte-cochere, and its restriction has a
maining badges of the style. A success- practical usefulness in reducing to the
ful Cincinnatian example is the Hoadly minimum the darkening of the windows
house in the Grandin road (No. 27). which is the practical objection to the
The chateau of the French Renaissance application of the classic portico to a
in a reduced state has furnished another modern dwelling. But upon the whole
type which has been found eligible. it seems that the house would be better
Though involving much more of elabora- if the porch were away, and there were
tion than the Americanized villa and a substituted for it a shelter which merely
negotiable example of this is shown in enclosed the front door, in which case,
the Hazen house at Avondale (No. 28), it is true, we should probably not be talk-
though the purist might wish that the ing about the house at all. No. 31, on the
architect had chosen some other and other hand, is a very favorable example.
more congruous form of gare-post than By its treatment and its appropriateness
the square brick pier surmounted with to its surroundings it tends to justify the
a stone ball which he has been accus- choice of its style. Here the portico
tomed to identify with the British Han- really “belongs,” and is successfully in-
overian from Queen Anne to the last of corporated into the rectangular mansion
the Georges. But, as usual in domestic the baldness of which it successfully re-
architecture, one turns with particular lieves, without overpowering it, while the
interest to the vernacular work which harmless necessary porte-cochere is kept
does not profess adherence to any his- in its place, and duly subordinated. One
torical style, nor propose to itself any could not well find a better model for a
particular prototype, to the house which mansion of this size and kind than the
is straightforwardly made out of its Colonial. Given a scale and surround-
own elements and requirements, which ings which suggest and justify a “seat,”
is of no style and which yet has style. and it is as much in place at the begin-
Such a house is the pretty and unpre- ning of the twentieth century as it was
tending bungalow (if we must find a at the beginning of the nineteenth, and
type for it) (No. 29), with its lower on the banks of the Ohio as on those of
story of brick and its upper of plaster, the Charles, the Hudson, the Potomac,
with its spreading roof of tile and its or the Ashley.
verandah on the side that commands the Montgomery Schuyler.
The Ecole Des Beaux Arts: What Its
Architectural Teaching Means
The poor Ecole des Beaux Arts has who ask for it the only thing a school
been the cause of a great deal of writing can give —
a method of work. It makes
in America in the past few years. Criti- no effort to bring people to its classes;
cisms, complaints, denunciations are it prints no advertisements, no circulars
heard everywhere. an architect, too

If filled with promises. Its purpose is not
skillful for his competitors, wins a com- to defend nor to promulgate any special
petition, it is the fault of the Ecole. That theories. The right to teach is the
the Renaissance, happening in the fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries, super-
right of every one at the Ecole pro-
vided, only, he can obtain a sufficient
—
seded Gothic, which was old and no number of followers. And he may teach
more in harmony with the new ideas of what he pleases. A
newcomer may open
men of this period, is the fault of an atelier to teach Oceanian or Roman-
the Ecole. That the generation of ar- esque, or be a fanatic in Art Nouveau
tists of the three following centuries —
or Tudor the Ecole does not object.
were so much in error as to keep on in His pupils have selected him, and are
this way, following out the spirit of the following him because they want him,
Renaissance, is the fault of the Ecole. and only so long as they want him. It
What difference does it make if these is the most liberal organization I know.
artists did create masterpieces ? What dif- It was an American who said, some
ference does it make if they did have no years ago, to one of the professors of
prejudices, and that, though they were the school “What differentiates your
:
nearer the spirit of the thirteenth cen- school from those I saw in Italy, in
tury than we are, and still had the same England and in Austria, is its complete
skilled workmen (which we have not), liberalism, the way in which a pupil
they nevertheless broke away from the here is treated as a man— as a man who
old forms of their own free will. They has the right to select his own master,
were wrong, every one of them or so — to choose his own artistic way.”
it has been decided by the critics, who Fifty years ago, at the time of the
without a doubt alone have a sane judg- reaction in favor of the Middle Ages,
ment, the true artistic method, and, I due mostly to the deep researches of
hope, the way of using both of them. Lassus, Viollet le Due and others, in-
Meanwhile the Ecole which is the fluential people tried to diminish this
pretext for all the noise, looks calmly liberty by creating a regular course
over the river that reflects the Louvre, in esthetics, with examinations that —
the water- jet in the courtyard of the is, to impose on all students a certain
Murier springs serenely from its ivy- appreciation of beauty. The professor
covered basin, and Poussin and Puget selected for this chair was Viollet le
stand calmly oblivious on either side of Due — whoseideas on modern architec-

the entrance gates. Amid these almost ture, while excellent for a few, were
cloistral surroundings the students go to very bad for the majority. As the pu-
spend a few years of a new life, laugh, pils of the Beaux Arts are between
become enthusiastic and start in every twenty and thirty years of age, they are
direction to try in many different coun- no longer schoolboys and the most of ;
tries to put into lasting form their aspi- them have the necessary culture to ad-
rations and personal qualities —high, it mire what is worth admiring without
may be, or vulgar, ingenious or com- being told when to admire. There was
monplace. a sort of revolution, the Government
The critics accuse the Ecole does not
;
gave way, and only those who wanted to,
answer. Its function is to give to those took the examination in esthetics. Since
—
then every course, apart from the scien- city of Washington, and inspired some
tific and technical courses, optional
is southern buildings.
and the student does not have to sub- Mr. Barney seems to wonder that the
scribe blindly to any formulae. importation was made without a protest
To discuss the methods of the Ecole from the general public. “If anyone had
is, then, a task as endless as the one of attempted to import the railroad system
the Danaids. The professors are many, from France, or the banking system, the
and when one dies or retires his place is thing would not have passed so easily.
taken by a younger man with very dif- Is it not, then, time to stop and con-
ferent ideas. The principles of the sider?” he asks. Yes, but the importa-
Ecole are really those of contemporary tion of French architecture came about
French architecture. The professors because there was a need for it. There
are nothing more than architects follow- would be no point in importing the
ing honestly their profession, with vary- French railroad system, when the Amer-
ing success. The only point in common ican system, which developed simulta-
between them is devotion to their art neously with it, is perfectly adjusted to
—
and to their teaching which is not for American needs and ideas. But in ar-
them a profession. chitecture there is something more in
As for the pupils, their object in life France than inAmerica. The simple
is not, as my contemporary, Mr. Barney fact that it has been brought in without
believes,* to obtain the Prix de Rome. a single protest from the general public,
It is to become more proficient in their as Mr. Barney recognizes, is proof
profession. But those who obtain the enough that the general public could not
Prix de Rome (who are said with some get along without it.
disdain to have simply proved that they At the same time the United States
are past masters in scholastic theories was importing formal architecture from
and able to teach them to others) are France, they were borrowing domestic
first of all architects, some of whom
have built in France buildings whose
architecture from England —
which is a
new proof of what is somewhat compul-
perfection of study, care in construction sory, that in these importations a nation
and perfect adaptation to modern needs goes in different ways to different coun-
have made them the types of Nineteenth tries to bring back what it wants.
Century Architecture. It is remarkable to one who does not
We are too near to give recognition to satisfy himself with a superficial study
men like Fabrouste, Due, Coquart or of art to see how a power greater than
Vaudremer; or, rather, most writers on the reason of the individual seems to
art have not the necessary clearness of
mind to appreciate what makes an archi-
regulate these transactions to see how —
in the Sixteenth century France bor-
tectural work a masterpiece, but are rowed from Italy what it needed to re-
largely influenced by the opinions of
other people, which they simply adopt as
—
juvenate its art and that without abdi-
cating the smallest portion of her na-
true. That is of small importance papers tional originality; for I do not believe
;
do not prevail against monuments, and that anyone conversant with these ques-
artistic criticism is the most ridiculous tions can find a similarity between the
thing to read fifty years afterward. French Renaissance and the Italian
That there is a French influence in other than in mere detail or ornamenta-
modern American architecture is true tion.
beyond a doubt. The influence does not At the origin of every art there is a for-
date back for the last decade, as Mr.
Barney has said, but has been apparent
—
eign influence no art is national from
its beginning. I would be ashamed to
for thirty years at least —
to say nothing write so evident a truth if I had had no
of the first influence, too rapidly opportunity to read monthly dissertations
checked, which produced the plan of the in which it seems to be ignored. The
See Mr. Barney’s article in the November, 1907, Greek architecture was borrowed, the
issue.
Roman architecture, the Gothic —but that
: —
THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS. 369
takes nothing from their glory, which is of design is not all that is requisite to
to have assimilated heterogeneous ele- the professional man, but it is essential
ments and to have wrought them into to him in order to make himself clear.
a harmonious whole. The more important the subject the
In my window this winter I had some more is felt the need of design. But
tulip bulbs from which I was expecting even in a cottage, where a little taste, a
an abundant bloom of flowers with the little common sense, a little originality
first March sun. The green stems came and a sense of the picturesque are
up, but when they reached their full de- enough to create a charming piece of
velopment, the buds did not open. Like a work, these same qualities, unless ac-
poor gardener I had forgotten to let the companied by the science of design, re-
bulbs stay in the shade to delay their sult only in disorder, lack of dignity and
opening and give the roots time to ac- in a building which is practically bad.
complish their work underground, in or- —
This quality of clearness the science
der that the plant might later on have of harmonious results necessary to de-
the necessary strength to bloom. I ask my —
sign where could it be better studied
contemporary not to do as I did. Remem- than in France? Where could be found
ber that from having broken too soon a group of men of equal culture and
the artistic intercourse with Europe, with the same willingness to give up
American architects killed Colonial arch- their time, where could be shown so
itecture which was so full of promise. complete a set of representative buildings
They are at work again, accumulating as in Paris ? no modern program
There is
material from France, England and that has not there an excellent transla-
Italy. The assimilation is going on, the tion. Other cities have more beautiful
—
bloom cannot be far off but you must work, or a more complete ensemble of
be patient. Fifty years for the forma- monuments of a certain period, but
tion of an art does not correspond to Paris can show types of all periods
five years in the life of a man and he
;
which includes the best existing group
does not show very strong personality of modern buildings, theatres, railroad
when he is but five years old. stations, markets, prisons, libraries and
And neither Mr. Barney nor I can museums.
change these laws, which are deeper than The Ecole develops in an admirable
the human will. Nobody imposed French way the study of design, respect for the
architecture on the United States. It program and the research of a special
was of their own free will that hun- character proper for each kind of build-
dreds of Americans went to Paris and ing. It is as a result of this that in
that thousands more took their inspira- merely looking at a building designed
tion from the ideas they brought back. under such principles, one knows imme-
Were all these men fools? diately its purpose, simply because its
What were they looking for in France ? plan and elevation correspond to its
and what did they bring back? Docu- needs, and it is executed throughout
ments* would have answered the purpose with a respect for artistic truth. The
— besides which the importation of comparison of architecture to-day in the
United States with that of twenty years
forms comes as largely from Italy and
England as from France. Then it must ago shows clearly to every fair-minded
have been something more. It was man the salutary results achieved by
-
composition and design. The methods French training for American students.
now in use all over the United States in The greater part of my contempo-
the universities, by means of which rary’s paper was devoted to ridiculing
those who have something to say are en- the method by which design is taught.
abled to say it clearly, are those of It will seem strange to the reader that
the Ecole. It is there that the real such childish methods as he describes
French influence is found. The science should result in the beautiful work they
*In the architectural sense of anything from
have admired. Here is the reason for
which one can “crib.” this contradiction
6
37 °
He speaks of the danger to American by his companions in Paris, in saying

students of getting in Paris simply for- tnere is such a series of formulae. In
mulae devoid of sense, and a stock of the school problems there is such a con-
atelier slang instead of French methods stant change that it would soon outgrow
of thought. He adds, “Discredit has been any set of formulae. One may notice
thrown on the Ecole des Beaux-Arts by in the book of competitions for the Prix
such men who, through ignorance, did de Rome, which dates as far back as
not catch the spirit of tiie wonderful I 797> a change every ten years corre-
training.” It is too true. It is regretta- sponding to the change in the art of the
ble that Mr. Barney, so far-seeing in period.
that, did not stop there, without going It is not the Ecole which creates the
on to give so striking a demonstration architecture of Europe. It is the archi-

that the spirit of the training had been tects. The students are only pupils fol-
for him a dead letter; and that exter- lowing the impulse given by the masters.
nal appearances alone and not purpose A great mistake in America has been to
and significance was all that he had take as types the work of students.
brought back from his foreign travel. Whereas the French are more critical
This is not a reproach. The duration and have realized so thoroughly the im-
of his trip and the way he made it, at maturity of such work that they apply
an age, as well, when the habit of the term “school architecture” to all
thought is crystallized and not easily productions which have good qualities
modified, made it impossible for him to but are undeveloped. It is fair to say
see anything but superficial customs. that no man produces an architectural

He had then to come back deceived, work that is representative of himself
man to be sat-
and, not being the sort of before he is forty. The complexity of
with this empty food, he felt it his
isfied architectural study is responsible for
duty to proclaim the failure of French this, and it is only when the different
methods —
when it was really the failure parts of the profession have been mas-
of his own attempt to assimilate them. tered that real work can be accom-
Where he saw a “meaningless per- plished.
formance” in the spinning of lines, cir- “The students in the school are
cles and grey tones which were to be- taught to plan too much with their eyes.”
come a plan, he could not see that it was says Mr. Barney. Others are planning
the work of the brain directing it. He too much with figures, and of the two
was looking at the movement of the excesses I prefer for young men the
fingers,believing in good faith that in first. Practical requirements will soon
this all the methods of design.
were Of enough cut the wings of his dreams, but
course, he asked the reason ;
and as it something will remain. It is necessary
is sometimes difficult to tell why we do at one period of every man’s life that he
one thing more than another, on account shall believe that the object of architec-
of the complication of things that deter- ture is to produce beautiful things.
mines our choice, he was answered with Those who, during their youth, had only
one of those ready-made sentences, the in mind four-foot lightwells instead of
sort of professional slang that the stu- Boboli gardens will not in the end do
dents of the Ecole, or some of them, like better architecture — even for lightwells.
to use, because they are short and There are other sweeping accusations
often avoid long explanations. These in Mr. Barney’s paper. One of these is
Mr. Barney promoted to the rank of the elasticity of the School programs. I
canon, of magic formulae, permitting have often seen in the United States
anyone, professional or layman, to des- and elsewhere competition programs of
sign, “while you wait,” anything from fiftyor a hundred pages, which one had
a bishop’s residence to a railroad station to study for three weeks before starting
in a Chinese town. to design. Now, if one admits that a
Mycontemporary is witty enough not student can learn how to design by do-
to take offense at the joke played on him ing one problem a year, let him have
a :
THE ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS. 371
such programs — with all survey inform- plan is not to make a picture. “You
ation, climatic changes, cost of building must understand by a beautiful plan,”
and so on. on the other hand, one
If, writes Guadet, ‘‘a plan which allows and
believes necessary to have designed
it is is apt to give beautiful things, beautiful
much in order to design well, in the interiors and beautiful facades. Yes,
same way that one must have painted a there are beautiful plans —
I find the ex-
great deal to be a painter and that three pression perfectly legitimate but in the —
studies from life, ever so careful and same way as there are beautiful books,
complete, do not accomplish that, the beautiful by what you can read in
objection is of no value. them.” Th'is is quite different from what
He objects more than once to the Mr. Barney states to be the beautiful
phraseology used by the Patrons in the plan in the Ecole. Whom
are we to be-
ateliers, which I am afraid he did not lieve? The superficial observer, or the
fully understand. For instance, a state- man who has been teaching thirty years
ment he takes exception to I discover to in this school?
be no more nor less than that the situa- Further on (page 134) Guadet sums
tion of a building should have a large up the principles of design as he taught
influence on the way it is —
planned them, and as the others Pascal, Dau- —
principle certainly true, if not very met, Laloux taught them to us
startling. “1. You must be faithful to your
If these formulae or means of ex- program, be familiar with it; and also
pression were not in sympathy with Mr. see correctly what is the character to be
Barney’s way of thinking and he was kept in the building.
going to Paris to study the methods of “2. The ground, location or climate
the School, he should have looked for can modify absolutely the expression of
these methods at the lectures or in the a program.
book of the only man who has authority “3. All architectural composition
to give them out in the name of the must be constructible. Every inconstruc-
School. Instead of noting without un- tible scheme is absurd. Every scheme
derstanding them the sentences which of construction more difficult or compli-
occur in the ateliers (that every intelli- cated than necessary is mediocre or bad.
gent student knows to be only a sort of “4. Truth is the first requirement
cloak covering either results or experi- of architecture. Every architectural
ments) and processes in presentation of untruth is inexcusable. If in some
plan, which have no importance to any- cases one of these untruths is over-
—
one but the newcomer why did he not looked on account of the ingenuity and
read Guadet’s book, “The Elements and ability shown in the building, the im-
Theory of Architecture,” which is the pression given, nevertheless, is of an in-
only authorized document on the mod- ferior art.
ern teaching in the Ecole in the last “5. Effective strength is not suffi-
fifty years. By simply reading the cient — it must also be apparent.
chapter entitled “General Principles,” he “6. Designs
proceed by necessary
would have seen that there is no need for sacrifices. A
design must be good first
complicated words to express what we of all, but it must also be beautiful. You
have all been looking for in the Ecole, must compose then with a view both to
and the truths we have taken for a basis. the utility and beauty of the building.
It would have been fairer, in writing of And, as an element of beauty, you will
the Ecole, to have taken quotations from try to obtain character by variety.”
such a book, instead of relying on per- This is what I think to be the teaching
sonal impressions, which are subject to of the Ecole, and I believe that Ameri-
the same suspicion as memoirs to the can architecture has made for progress
historian. He would have found that in following it.
what we try to do in making a beautiful Paul Cret.
•
Some Recent Warehouses

The warehouses which we have to from the category; but it is evident that
consider in the present article are free the writer of those lineswas too hasty;
from the unarchitectural treatment in- he ought to have remembered that there
volved in wholly concealing the steel is “an architectural ordonnance” which
construction as of girders and posts. We is not pseudo-Roman, or neo-classic in
had occasion, in the article on this sub- any of its forms.

ject published in the May number for Thus, in the instance before us, Fig.
1906, to dwell upon that misfortune — 1, the basement, although requiring win-
that hindrance to every designer who dows as broad as those of the upper
longs for realistic treatment of his work stories, is yet made to look massive and
— the fact “that we are not allowed to like a basement wall by the simple pro-
show our iron constructural elements.” cess of keeping down the height of the
And yet, if there is no case now before windows so much that each pier of solid
us of complete concealment of the ma- masonry puts on a peculiar air of solid-
terial, there comes up continually the ity —
an appearance which it would not
question as to lintels built of small ma- present if those windows were high, if
terial, and this not arranged as a flat the piers were long. Then comes the
arch or in any other constructural man- main wall of the building, including
ner. Six rows of bricks, with their cross four stories, and this is broken up into
or vertical joints all in place, constituting four piers of much greater thickness
just so much solution of continuity, can than the panels between window and
never be supposed a good lintel they will
;
window in vertical series. Those piers
never make up a strong-looking bar to are so modified by offsets at the jamb
carry and resist cross breakage. or reveal of each that they are made to
In other respects the buildings before look massive by their very isolation.
us are logical enough. Where excep- The spectator is made to see at once that
tions to this statement occur, it will be a very considerable mass of brickwork
our business to find them out. is carried up in unbroken form for the
The Chicago warehouse of Parke, whole height ofthis window-pierced

Davis & Co. is interesting to the student wall, staying the whole structure, carry-
of industrial art because of the simple ing the ends (one feels it) of girders
manner in which an architectural treat- which support the floors, and accounting
ment is obtained. be asked just
It is to sufficiently for the permanent solidity of
here how far it is the duty of the de- the front. The very fact that the wall
signer of such warehouses to seek for which forms a panel between the win-
architectural treatment at all. The build- dow below and the window above is
ing mentioned above is shown in Fig. 1. made thinner by a foot at least than
In a paper of this series, published these piers goes to give solidity to the
January, 1905, now to be found on page piers by the simple means of contrast.
67 of Vol. 17 of the Record, there occur The piers are really only twelve inches
the following words in relation to yet thicker than those panels, but that twelve
another Chicago factory: “There is cer- inches is made to look like something
tainly no affectation of architectural very serious indeed by the setting out of
ordonnance, with entablatures and all the the reveals in such a fashion that we
rest of it.” Evidently the writer of these have the appearance of three pilasters,
words was thinking of that kind of or- one set against the face of another, and
donnance which is most in favor, the at- the consequent appearance of much firm-
tempted revival of neo-Roman design in ness in the union of those adjacent parts.
some of its forms. If all architectural This has taken longer to explain than
ordonnance were of that kind this Parke- it took the artist to conceive it. The
Davis warehouse would be excluded thought is not very remote nor very sur-
FIG. 1. PARKE, DAVIS & CO’S. WAREHOUSE.

Chicago, 111. Hill & Woltersdorf, Architects.
SOME RECENT WAREHOUSES.
prising, butit is carried out here in an of yet one more full story. The decision
adequate fashion the needed appearance
;
has been reached easily and naturally to
of weight and permanence in the wall make of that additional piece of wall
piers with many and very large win- an attic in the architectural sense, that
dows, and reduced thereby to. a series of is, a wall built evidently upon the main
FIG. 2. WASHINGTON PARK WAREHOUSE.

Chicago, 111. Argyle E. Robinson, Architect.
relatively slender piers has been ob- wall of the building and designed on
tained. somewhat different lines. Standing upon
Upon this wall, fifty-five feet high or that sixth floor we are so near the sky
thereabout, there has to be raised still and so much raised above the roofs of
another wall sufficiently high to allow neighboring buildings that the full al-
SOME RECENT WAREHOUSES. 377
lowance of window space may not be and the use in this front of a metallic
essential. It has been thought that a lintel upon which bricks may be set with
little more solid brickwork, a little less their joints horizontal, as if in a contin-
unbroken glass, may have been appro- ual wall surface. It is to be accepted,
priate. Advantage has been taken of we have to admit, that devices not allow-
this fact to break up this new story, this ing of complete appreciation by a spec-
attic, into larger and smaller piers, al- tator who stands in the street, have been
ternating with six windows of more or- employed to make this front coherent.
dinary width. The short piers, then, Is that a legitimate proceeding? Are we
may be treated as simple pillars carrying warranted — speaking as architects — in
a continuous epistyle. And the way in leaving a piece of wall, made up of ten
FIG. 4. REAR UPPER PORTION OF THE NEW SCRIBNER PUBLISHING HOUSE.

New York. Ernest Flagg, Architect.
which this pilastrata, as it may be called, or twelve horizontal courses of bricks,

has been set upon the simpler wall below as the only apparent means of spanning
is wholly successful in its simpler pro- a window twelve feet wide in the clear
portions. This long and low detail of between the uprights? If your eye is
the front is emphasized, then, by the low caught by the joints of the brickwork
gable of the roof, extremely well echoed all is lost; the appearance of solidity is
and enforced by the broken line below gone. We cannot, in the beginning of
its cornice, which sits so strongly upon the twentieth century, accept as per-
the double slope of the roof surfaces. manent work an apparent brick lintel
If, now, the constructional character which does not acknowledge its method
of the front be considered, the student of holding together. It may be that after
has to accept in advance the existence two or three decades have passed the
FIG. 5. THE CARTER & HOLMES WAREHOUSE.

Chicago, 111. Nimmons & Fellows, Architects.
world will have learned to expect a rolled which has, therefore, few and small win-
iron lintel-beam, and to look with com- dows and relatively vast spaces of brick
placency upon a wall of brick and mor- walling. In such an exterior as this the
tar as if it were a homogeneous mass, in architect is compelled to take his nearly
which certain openings have been cut, cubical mass, his parallelopipedon, and
but until that time comes we shall ask apply ornament to it. It is quite imprac-
FIG. G. THE CARTER & HOLMES WAREHOUSE— DETAIL.

Chicago, 111. Nimmons & Fellows, Architects.
for the radiating joints of the brick arch ticable to give it architectural treatment
or the definite solid bearing of the stone in the ordinary sense of the word. Fen-
lintel. Grant the homogeneity of the estration there cannot be, or at least
structure and here is an admirable front. none which will account for the general
Another building in Chicago is frankly treatment of the exterior. To put six
utilitarian, a warehouse which is de- windows and a wide doorway beneath
voted entirely to fireproof storage, and the vast superincumbent mass is a prob-
lem attractive enough in the solution, and Texier, and again in the Journal of Hel-
one is left wishing that the chance had lenic Studies. So wide is the range of
been taken to insist upon the action of possible adornment in architecture that
the piers and flat arches and lintels be- to come back in the twentieth century
low in carrying the superincumbent to the patterns of the fourth century be-
mass. fore our era is perfectly legitimate and
The Washington Park fireproof ware- natural; and the fact that the methods
house is the design of Mr. Argyle E. are different, that we build up with hard
Robinson. He has treated the flat sur- blocks of baked clay while our prede-
face nearly as a designer of rock-cut cessors scooped and cut and chiselled out
tomb fronts would have proceeded in of native rock, is really indifferent.
Asia Minor about three hundred years Common oblong bricks allow of just such
FIG. 7. WELCH BROS.’ MOTOR CAR CO.

Milwaukee, Wis. H. 0 . Hengels, Architect.
B. C. If we turn over the folios of patterns as those frets and meanders,

Benndorf and Niemann, or Petersen and zigzags and checkers which the early
Von Luschan, and consider the tombs in Levantine rejoiced in.
Phrygia and Caria, we shall find broad We must approach a building like this
surfaces of rock which have been dressed one shown in Fig. 2, without too strong
and hammered and smoothed to a suffi- an architectural leaning. We
must ac-
cient uniformity, and that they have been cept it as a huge square-edged block of
cut with incised patterns or by incisions solid material which the artist has been
which produced a pattern in relief. The obliged to treat with patterns in slight
same designs and others like them are to
be found in Vols. Ill and IV of Perrot
relief —patterns which have no architec-
tural character in the ordinary sense.
and Chipiez, and again in the folio of One would be glad to see this motive of
design carried much further. It would ago, when the American Institute of
be well if some one having the ability Architects was a New York society,
shown by the design before us were to small in membership, without affiliations
show more daring, and were to invest in other cities, I read a paper before it
the exterior of his building with patterns when my turn had come to entertain the
more elaborate and not simpler than members present at a meeting. I re-
those of the early men. member that Richard Morris Hunt was
Our next example is of New York, in the chair, and that he made sounds
the fourteen-story building belonging to and gestures of evident approval when
Charles Scribner’s Sons, publishers and I insisted strongly upon the crying need
booksellers, and housing their printing there was of taking a common veranda,
and manufacturing plant. It is with an ordinary shed supported on square
FIG. 8. WELCH BROS.' MOTOR CO.— DETAIL.

Milwaukee. Wis. H. C. Hengels, Architect.
some pleasure that one looks at the rear posts, a common brick wall resting upon
of the building, seen in Fig. 4. There a lintel course which, in its turn, was
are the necessary conditions fairly met. carried by light iron columns, and mak-
Story after story of open lofts filled with ing a design of those things. We
were
daylight from windows made as large as to approach design, I thought, not as a
practicable, allowing of piers only just study of Roman grandeur, with its es-
sufficient to carry the wall to the top, sential features taken away or carica-
and to take the ends of necessary beams tured, but from artistic work upon un-
and girders. We shall have to come to pretending structures whose naked util-
that and approach that problem of how ity might be raised into something finer
to make the needed thing architectural as opportunity might serve. It pleases
before the twentieth-century style will me, after so many years, to see the truth
have become a living entity. Many years of that scheme of architectural develop-
ment —
its importance, its need, the ob- over, the cornice beneath them has too
—
vious common sense of it recognized, strong a resemblance to the ordinary ap-
so far as in the twentieth century it is pendage of thin galvanized iron punched
accepted. We
have not yet begun to into shape. This, however, does not con-
build buildings of high cost and great cern us just now, for it is the fenestra-
pretension on those lines, but that will tion only which has been suggested by
come in its turn. the natural, the inevitable arrangement
Meantime, if any one wishes to see of the windows in the rear. The de-
just what the speaker in 1865 or 1866 signer has restorted to the obvious and
had in mind, and what the first and most always happy device of enclosing his
FIG. 9. THE CUPPLES WAREHOUSE’.

St. Louis, Mo. E’ames & Young, Architects.
obvious result of such designing is sure lantern-like wall of windows between

to be, let him look at Fig. 3, in which two more massive vertical members, up-
the Forty-third street front of Scribner’s right towers, as it were, of walling car-
building is shown. It is unfortunate that ried up with windows of only ordinary
no better picture could be got. The rel- size pierced in their front. Between
ativelynarrow street, and the conditions these relatively firm and massive towers
of the roofs on the opposite side of it, there comes the great screen of glass,
were such as to prohibit a more success- broken only by piers as slender as those
ful view. One cannot but deprecate the seen in Fig. 4. The small details are not
scraps of ornamental frontal which seem sufficiently made out in the photograph
to furnish the attic at either end. More- to claim very close attention.
—
SOME RECENT WAREHOUSES.
The Carter & Holmes building, in —

most appropriate to the purpose no one
Chicago, is shown in Fig. 5, and the could hope to make a design of a roof
treatment of the front reminds one im- sloping in one direction only. Our habits
mediately of that other Chicago ware- and the traditions of our youth are such
FIG. 10. THE CUPPLES WAREHOUSE.

St. Louis, Mo. Eames & Young, Architects.
house which is shown 1. It is a

in Fig. that we must have a roof either flat, like
statement of the facts about the roof a terrace, or one with two slopes at least,
that it is a double-pitched roof, of slight and the two-slope roof is associated at
slope, or else it is an assertion and a sug- once with all our best memories of fine
gestion of such a roof as being the one building in the past. The Carter &
—
Holmes building is the design of George is of but little effect upon the general
L. Harvey, of Chicago; it is very simple design of the exterior, nor is there else-
in conception —
making but little pretense where anything to be seen of similarly
to architectural effect; but the essentials, delicate treatment. On the other hand,
the obvious necessities of the case are the varied color of the bricks emphasizes
well met the corner towers, made up
; that peculiarity already discussed in con-
of plain brick walls, pierced with simple nection with the building shown in Fig.
windows, having segmental heads, en- 1, according to which parallel rows of
close the broad, lantern-like faqade which twenty-four bricks and half bricks, al-
the proper lighting of the lofts seems to ternately, are assumed to be a sufficient
make necessary. structure for a continued lintel; those
So far this building has seemed to the rows of bricks, with all their joints hori-
inquirer a factory building of the plainest zontal, having no ostensible means of
kind, but there must be a word said of support or of strengthening beyond the
the scraps of delicate sculpture which mere tenacity of the mortar. It may be
adorn it. This feature also seems to repeated that this is a solecism which
meet an ancient requirement, an eager must remain an insufferable violation of
demand, of my own. I used to think that good building until the time comes when
sculpture should really be denied the we accept the unseen cast-iron lintel or
architects for a term of years, in order rolled beam as a legitimate, because an
that they might learn to long for it, and understood, means of building with
that then, when its use was restored to square-headed openings.
them, it should be on condition of mak- Apart from this, the building is inter-
—
ing it as good even as delicate— as the esting; the proportions are pleasant, the
means at hand made possible. Now, in pilasters carrying the entablature, as it
Fig. 6, it will be seen that the quasi- may be called, with which the building
heraldic sculpture of the square tablet, is finished at the top, are very effective;
repeated again and again above the cor- the contrast of solids and openings is not
bels and the cipher, are worked with ill made up.
minute care and not without some ex- In St. Louis there are, within the busi-
pression of heraldic propriety. The ex- ness quarter, a number of buildings
act purpose of the massive corbels does which seem to be known as the Cupples
not appear. If they were lower in the Warehouses. Those of which we pre-
—
wall twelve feet instead of twenty sent photographs are of the design of
—
above the sidewalk they might be Messrs. Eames & Young. Thus, in Fig.
thought to be a provision for an awning. 9, the warehouse which fills the picture
There is other and similarly successful is seen to be made up of three blocks of
sculpture connected with the doorways, buildings, standing side by side, with
above which are carved the firm name narrow streets between them; and Fig.
Carter &
Holmes. 10 shows another of the very similar
Figs. 7 and 8 illustrate partly a build- warehouses. In this last-named example,
ing in Milwaukee, Wis., the work of the frank presentation of the fire-escape
H. C. Hengels, of the same city. The reared against the front of the corner
large detail, Fig. 8, explains the checker tower (as we have already called that
of dark and light bricks with which the vertical feature by means of which the
wall is adorned in a rather effective way, windowed wall is framed and held to-
and shows also the very delicate batter gether) is well worthy of attention. It
or inward slope to the sides of the door- is a dream which every realistic designer
piece itself. This batter is emphasized must have enjoyed during recent years
by the verticality of the window frame — the dream of making the necessary
immediately adjoining on each and side, fire-escape an inherent part of the de-
that contrast existing, it was a good sign. And yet one thinks of but one or
thought which kept the inward slope al- two instances in which a really architec-
most imperceptible and made the effect tural treatment has been given to it.
reserved and severe. The whole detail This cannot be said to exist to the full
SOME RECENT WAREHOUSES
in the case before us, because the iron these fire-escapes from the third, the
ladders and balconies might be removed fourth, the fifth or the sixth story. In
from the face to which they now cling Fig. 9 that is seen to be possible and, ;
and might be put elsewhere about the moreover, the spiral form of the iron
building without change of its character. ladder in this instance is assuredly less
PARKE, DAVIS & CO.’S WAREHOUSE— DETAIL OF FIG. 1.
Chicago, 111. Hill & Woltersdorf, Architects.
If not an afterthought, they are at least restless —

more nearly architectural —
appended because the law made it nec- than the vexatious succession of parallel
essary to put them somewhere. Those ladders.
who are interested in the problem of fire- Our present purpose is, however, to
escapes may also try to solve the prob- insist upon the generally pleasing dispo-
lem of how the frightened inmate takes sition of the openings in Fig. io; and
7
the effective result of it in a building pile of brickwork, with its effect of

kept severely plain and not even resort- mouldings got by mere breaks in square
ing to novel experiments in the way of alternations of bricklaying, and a pro-
design. Nowhere is there a more sedate portioning of openings and solids almost
piece of fenestration than in this severe classical in its restraint.
Russell Sturgis.
SCENE IN A FORMAL GARDEN IN MASSACHUSETTS.

: :
The New York City Hall

A Piece of Architectural History
Without any dispute, the New York teenth century should have been able
City Hall was at the time of its erection to produce a work which had so little
the most successful piece of civic archi- in common with the traditions of his
tecture in New York, or, for that mat- calling at that place and time. And in-
ter, in the United States. It had only deed, it is to be noted that the architec-
one predecessor that was or is entitled tural traditions, such as they were, were,
to much
architectural consideration, and not, properly speaking, traditions of Mc-
that the Boston State House, which
is Comb’s calling. They were traditions of
preceded it only by a decade, the “hub the carpenter’s craft, not of the mason’s.
of the solar system” having been com- And McComb was a mason and not a
pleted in 1798, and the “Hall of the carpenter.
City of New York,” as it was officially The obstinate tradition is that the
known at its beginning, having been be- author of the City Hall was a French-
gun in 1803. It was not the laurels of man named Mangin.
Buffinch, however, but of some Phila- Here are some gleanings from the
delphia builder, unknown to present old city directories that seem pertinent.
fame, that induced New York to spend Longworth’s Directory for 1803, the
the municipal money so freely. The year in which the City Hall was begun,
report of the building committee of the exhibits these entries
Board of Aldermen, in September, 1803,
McComb, jun., John, builder, Robinson.
advocating the use of marble for three Mangin, Joseph F., city surveyor, 301 Green-
of the fronts, sets forth that, “seeing wich.
that as a commercial city we claim a These entries are repeated in 1804.
superior standing, * * * we cer- In 1805 we find
tainly ought, in this pleasing state of
McCornb, jun., John, builder, upper end Wash-
things, to possess at least one public ington,
building which shall vie with the many
while Mangin’s name does not appear.
now erected in Philadelphia and else-
—
where” and marble the three fronts In 1807 and 1808 we find
McComb, Bowery
accordingly were, whereas, Buffinch and jun., John, builder, Hill,
Boston were restricted to brick and while Mangin’s name is still absent.
sparing sandstone. Meanwhile, one Jones had started a new
John McComb is the architect “of “mercantile” directory, in opposition to
record” of the City Hall there is no
;
Ihe established Longworth, and classi-
question about that. The cornerstone fied his entries by occupations. Jones
still bears incisions to that effect. The
appears to have issued but one number
prize of $350, offered by the Aldermen,
(1805-06) and in this, under the head-
was won by the design submitted in his ing of “Masons, Bricklayers, Plasterers
name, and his appointment as architect and Stone Cutters,” we find
followed. In these latter years maga-
McComb, John, builder and mason, Bowery,
zine articles have been written for the
above Spring.
purpose of celebrating him, and telling
all that was known about him, all based In 1810, we find McComb for the first
upon the assumption that he was the time, with his “jun” dropped and blos-
real, as well as the putative, author of somed out into an architect, viz.
the building. And yet there was against McComb, John, architect, Bowery Hill,
that assumption not only antecedent im- and Mangin reappears as under:
probability but an obstinate tradition.
Margin, Joseph, city surveyor, 24 Anthony.
The improbability was that a New York
mechanic of the first decade of the nine- The next year (1811), “Eliot &
: :
Crissy” took their turn at sailing the ously enough it is to John McComb that
Longworth monopoly, and they give us I owe my opportunity. I am hoisting
McComb, John, architect, bowery hill. him with his own petard. Just a few
Mangin, Joseph, city surveyor, 60 warren. weeks ago an Evening Post reporter
The same entries, except that Mangin exhumed the diary which he kept, and
gets his middle “F.‘,” appear in Long- in it is this entry, under date of May 27,
worth’s for that year, the year the City (1803) :
Hall was occupied, though not alto- This day the masons began to work regularly.
gether completed, and the last year that This day a communication was published in the
Evening Post, respecting the laying of the
has any interest for us “in this connec- corner stone.
tion.”
Note that the City Surveyor was
And here is another entry under date
of June 2
necessarily a technically educated man,
possibly the only one in the New York Another communication in the Evening Post
about the manner Mr. Mangin was treated in
of that day. To this day the common not having his name published as the principal
British architect describes himself as architect.
“architect and surveyor.” As a tech- Upon this hint, nothing was more ob-
nically educated man it is as conceivable vious than to go to the Astor Library and
that Mangin could have designed such look up the files of the Evening Post for
a construction as the circular marble 1803. It may be thought that that course
staircase of the City Hall as it is incon- was indicated even without reference
ceivable that that structure could have to McComb’s “pointer.” But nobody
been devised by a “builder and mason” will think so who has had occasion to
with the ordinary equipment of his look up the old files of New York news-
craft. And, as a scientifically educated papers upon matters of local history. I
Frenchman, Mangin may very well have remember once getting the date of the
had knowledge of the prevailing French laying of the corner stone of the what is
architecture of the period, which had now the Old Custom House and was
not much in common beyond its “clas- then the new Merchants’ Exchange (out
sic” original with the British Georgian, of Philip Hone’s diary), and then look-
with the precedents of which alone the ing up the newspapers of that date in
New York carpenter of that day, to say the hope of finding authentic evidence
nothing of the “builder and mason,” of the name of the architect. Not one
may be presumed to have been familiar. of the able journals so much as men-
St. John’s Chapel in St. John’s Park is tioned the event! In fact, before James
another of the putative works of John Gordon Bennett, no New York news-
McComb. Whoever designed it, it is paper seems to have found it necessary
in the straitest of the British
sect to keep a reporter at all. Any refer-
Georgian of period,
its some years ences to matters of local interest were
posterior to that of the City Hall. It confined, as in this case, to “communi-
is on the face of it inconceivable that the cations.” The diarist, it seems, did not
designer who did the one did the other, keep his diary up-to-date day by day,
and highly improbable that a “builder but wrote it up afterwards at longer in-
and mason” did either. The architec- tervals, and so confused his dates. His
ture strongly intimates that one was “May 27” should be June 2, on which
done by an architecturally educated day, sure enough, the Evening Post
Frenchman, and the other by a carpen- had, not a “communication,” but an edi-
ter of colonial training, who also, in torial paragraph, as follows
virtue of that training, was by no means
NEW CITY HALL. It would be much to be
an architecturally uneducated man. lamented that the erection of this mag-
in
So the matter has stood for a good nificent. edifice, anv differences among the mem-
bers of the Corporation, or any private par-
many years, with nothing but presump- tialities or prejudices, should be permitted to
tive evidence to go upon. Now I have obtain which should have an unfortunate effect
the satisfaction of producing what may upon the building itself. We hope we shall
not incur the imputation of impertinence to a
fairly be called positive evidence. Curi- very great degree, if we venture to say, that in
— :
THE NEW YORK CITY HALL. 389
an edificeof this magnitude and importance, it trived the next day to have it laid in the
requires the constant superintendence of an foundation of the building, not far from the
architect of science, from the laying of the corner-stone:
corner stone to the turning of the key. VII ID MAI A. D. MDCCCIII
Justis Nepotibus
“Innuendo,” as the lawyers say, that Hanc aedem invenit Mangin, alter tulit honores.
Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves
the nominal architect, whose name the
Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes
corner stone bore, was not “an architect Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves
of science,” and was not to be trusted Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves.
And when the resistless hand of time shall
with the “constant superintendence” of have laid low the immense fabric, our de-
the building. There is also an apparent scendants, in finding the stone, will also find
the brass, and thus render to the artist who
innuendo that “an architect of science” planned it, the justice he had a right to expect
had been concerned with the design, from his contemporaries. An old Italian
and that it was a mistake to suppose proverb says
e meglio tardo che mai.
that his services could be dispensed with JUSTICE.
during the execution. But this para-
graph, though it indicates that McComb
One notes with pain
a slip in our
ancient friend’s scholarship. Virgil's
was not the designer, does not indicate
lines are not a “distich,” but a quatrain.
who was. That was reserved for June
2” of the diary), when an Indeed, that recondite reference to the
4 (the “June “Sic vos non vobis” I was about myself
ostensible “communication” appeared
with an editorial introduction
to make when I discovered with pleas-
ure that my esteemed predecessor in
It iswith extreme regret that we have to
record transaction so illiberal as the one
a
vindication had anticipated me in it.
which forms the subject of the following com- Whoever he was, he was a good fellow
munication. We should have given it a place and a hater of injustice.
sooner, but we wished first to make some en-
quiries into the correctness of the facts, and Now it seems to me that the case is
we should now have suppressed it, had we not complete, and that we may take it for
satisfactory reasons to believe it is founded in
too much truth. proven that John McComb was not the
designer of the City Hall, and that
For the Evening Post.
Mr. Editor: As one — of the spectators of the Joseph F. Mangin was. The “sheet of
parade of last Thursday, I had observed that brass” of “Justice’s” fancy is con-
the French architect, Mr. Mangin, the real verted, for “posterity,” into the file of
author of the plan of the New City Hall, did
not appear, and that Mr. Macomb alone, was the Evening Post’s “aere perennius.”
carrying it in ceremony. The embarrassment in For, observe that McComb is not only
his countenance, which indeed was not unbe-
coming, reminded me of that charming line of “charged with knowledge” that he was
Virgil strutting in borrowed plumage, but that
Miratur novas frondes et non sua poma
. . .
All this, however. I explained in my own way.

the knowledge is proven against him by
The real author, said I, should be here; but he the evidence of his own diary. It was
may be sick, or absent, and I thought no more said to his face that Mangin was the
of the matter. However, when afterwards, on
reading the inscription on the corner-stone, I architect he himself pretended to be.
found that the author was not to be found He did nothing about it; he said noth-
among the large list of persons concerned in the
planning and erection of the edifice, who are ing. The inference is irresistible. He
thus to be handed down to posterity, I grew a had nothing to say. Of course there
little out of humour. Now, said I to myself, it
is strange that the name of him who invented
were many witnesses who could have
the plan should be the only one missing; surely been summoned at that time to determine
there must be a mistake; the stone is large the question if he had ventured to raise
enough, and such an injustice to a man of
talents can never have been designed. The it, and so he did not venture to raise it.
modesty of Mr. Macomb himself must, I think, No wonder that he looked sheepish, as
be put to a severe test thus to be held up as
the only projector of the edifice. Thus reason- “Justice” intimates that he did, walking
ing, I walked along reflecting how the omission as sole “architect” in the procession
could be repaired. The stone was laid down.
There was no altering the inscription. I then at the laying of the corner stone, espe-
recollected the famous distich of Virgil, on an cially if Mangin happened to be among
occasion somewhat similar, when Bathyllus, a
very indifferent poet of that age, attributed to
the crowd that was looking on. The
himself certain verses of the Mantuan Bard. I situation was like that which Dickens
immediately went home and set to work and immortalized, when young Martin Chuz-
on a strong sheet of brass I engraved the fol-
lowing lines, with some alterations, and con- zlewit returned from America just in
: —
time to find Seth Pecksniff on the plat- Comb aspired, on the strength of Man-
form brandishing young Martin’s plans gin’s work, to still greater heights. After
for the grammar school Latrobe had been forced out of the place
“This is my building, my grammar school. I of architect of the Capitol, the President
invented it. I did it all. He has only put four (Monroe) said to Mr. Harrison Gray
windows in, the villain, and spoilt it.” . . .
Otis, of Boston, who visited him to urge
“Lord bless you, sir!” cried Mark, “what’s
the use. Some architects are clever at making the claims of the Bostonian Bulfinch:
foundations, and some architects are clever at “Sir, we are looking to him, but Mr.
building on ’em when they’re made. But it’ll
all come right in the end, sir; it’ll all come Latrobe is a great loss, and it will re-
right!” quire two persons to supply his place,
“And in the meantime,” began Martin
and we think, also, of a Mr. Macomb
“In the meantime” the children of this (architect of the City Hall, New
world are wiser in their generation than York).”
the children of light. Poor Mangin has Doubtless McComb was a capable ad-
waited a hundred and five years for this ministrator; very likely better than the
vindication in the eyes of posterity “architect of science” would have been.
which “Justice” tried to secure to him in In fact, his seizure of Mangin’s laurels
1803, while McComb went on flourish- indicates him as a better “business man”
ing “in his generation” by reason of his than that artist. But he was not the
astute annexation of poor Mangin's pro- architect of the New York City Hall.
fessional reputation. He had already Now that the case is made so clear, it
been the putative architect of “Govern- seems to behoove the City of New York
ment House” (was this not that cupolaed to “do something.” The approaching
structure at “Whitehall,” or South centenary of the official occupation of
Ferry, which one need not be so very the City Hall seems to invite such a do-
old aNew Yorker to remember before it ing. To efface the name of John Mc-
was demolished?) and a few years after Comb, and substitute the name of Joseph
he was to become the putative architect Mangin, from the inscription on the
of St. John’s Church, possibly the real cornerstone would be only justice. But
architect. At any rate, whoever did it it would be harsh justice, now that the
was quite certainly not the architect of one isas helpless as the other. And Mc-
the City Hall, but some designer nour- Comb really deserves a place, though
ished on Sir William Chambers and “The not the place he occupies, in the history
British Vitruvius.” There were, neces- of the building. Perhaps the claims of
sarily, a certain number of New Yorkers abstract justice would be best practically
who knew the facts about the City Hall. served by a compliance with the sugges-
But none of them, excepting poor Man- tion of our concrete “Justice” of 1803.
gin, had any strong interest in un- Perhaps the best thing to do would be
masking McComb. Very likely Mangin to affix to the building, as part of the
was not a combative person. Quite exercises of the centenary, a bronze
possibly McComb found some means of tablet, the literal “sheet of brass” of our
quieting him. Anyhow, the story came ancient friend, leaving out the sarcastic
to be forgotten, or to survive only in lines of the “Mantuan Bard,” but un-
the nebulous shape of the obstinate tra- mistakably importing that Joseph F.
dition to which I began by referring. Mangin was the “architect,” in the sense
Nay, fourteen years after the laying of of being the designer of the City Hall,
the cornerstone and the exposure by with possibly the addition of the pro-
“Justice” in the Evening Post, we verb, either in the Italian of our ancient
find, on the authority of Mr. Glenn and learned friend, or in the vernacular
Brown’s history of the Capitol, that Mc- version of “Better late than never.”
Montgomery Schuyler.
„ Some Business Buildings in St. Louis
In the United States at the present substantial base, a long shaft and a deco-
time undoubtedly the consummation rated capital and this convention was an
;
most to be desired in all varieties of improvement upon designs which de-

urban building is the establishment of pended for their effects chiefly upon the
some appropriate convention. No gen- horizontal grouping of the stories. It
eral improvement in design is possible as emphasized, rather than disguised, the
long as every ambitious architect, just fact that a sky-scraper is substantially a
insofar as he is energetic and enterpris- tower. On the other hand, the conven-
ing, seeks chiefly to attain reputation by tion of the columnized sky-scraper also
his great originality. The conscious pur- had its disadvantages. It tempted archi-
suit of architectural originality may add tects to make the base of their tower
to the American architectural stock some look strong by resting the superstructure
few buildings of high individual interest on heavy arches; and these arches not
and excellence, but it is none the less only belied the structure of a sky-
in its general results both wasteful and scraper, but were frequently both incon-
sterile. The few good buildings are venient in use and clumsy in effect.
paid for by a multitude of frenzied or Then the comparison of the topmost di-
feeble examples of architectural design. vision to the capital of a column per-
The more gifted architects must needs suaded many an architect to waste large
lack sense of responsibility towards their sums of money on overloading these
less-gifted brethren; and the latter are crowning members with decorated de-
deprived of the advantages of helpful tail which, no matter how large it was
leadership. Neither the one nor the in scale, could never be effective from
other is in a position to take for granted the street. For this reason the analogy
as much as he should and to take ;
of the column needed to be modified so
a great deal for granted is one indispen- as to express more frankly what a sky-
sable condition of economical and pro- scraper was, both in structure and func-
gressive human achievement. tion.
Fortunately, American architects are Such a modification has been taking
reaching a position which allows them place of late years and Messrs. D. H.
;
little by little to take more and better Burnham & Co., of Chicago, have had a
things for granted. In almost every great deal to do with the process. The
class of urban building certain appro- triple division of the faqade has been
priate conventions are obtaining some retained, but the whole front is treated
degree of authority. It is scarcely nec- frankly as a screen, every story of which
essary to say that these conventions are is devoted to substantially similar pur-
not by any means finished examples of poses. The lowest member is not em-
architectural manners but at least a
;
phasized or strengthening, except when
building, in order to claim attention, is such emphasis is a natural expression of
no longer obliged, figuratively speaking, the use to which these stories are put,
to slap a man in the face. And this as, for instance, when a bank requires an
statement is perhaps more true of sky- exceptionally high ceiling for its main
scrapers than it is of any other class of office. Neither is any attempt made to
urban building. For many years there render the topmost member interesting
has not only been a distinguishable con- by means of ineffectual ornament. Cer-
vention which has partly determined the tain simple devices are sometimes used
design of these buildings, but this con- in order to deepen the shadows on these
vention has been gradually improved. remote stories but decorative detail is
;
In its earliest phase it consisted in de- reduced to a minimum. As the result of

signing tall buildings somewhat after the such modifications the shaft of the col-
analogy of the classic column with a — umn becomes much less sharply distin-
;
SOME BUSINESS BUILDINGS IN ST. LOUIS. 395
guished from other members, and the

its Moreover, the design of both of these
effect of whole front takes on a
the buildings is frankly monotonous and util-
strong tendency to monotony. But mo- itarian. The architects have not wasted
notony of this kind does not necessarily their client’s money on ornamentation,
result in a dull and uninteresting faqade. which adds nothing at all to the earning
The sky-scrapers reproduced herewith power and practical availability of the
and designed by Messrs. Eames & structure. The crowning member of the
Wright Building is somewhat more elab-
Young, of St. Louis, bear a very inter-
esting relation to the convention the orately treated than is the corresponding
modification of which we have been member of the Liggett Building; but the
briefly tracing. They are, all of them, ornamentation has been discreetly ap-
influenced by the convention; but they plied, and is scarcely intended to be seen
from the street. It does not serve to
are influenced in different ways and to
a different effect. They illustrate ad- distinguish the two buildings in any rad-
mirably the fact that an architect may ical way, and the point of most import-
accept an appropriate convention and yet ance is the better effect of the uniformly
find abundant room within its limits for square windows of the Wright Building.
free movement. These three sky-scrap- In fact, improvements of treatment could
ers are conventionalized yet they are all
;
not be carried much further than in
different, and their differences are worth the latter structure. The effect of the
careful description and analysis. Wright Building is, however, more im-
The best point of departure for this pressive and interesting, largely because,
description will be the Liggett Building. in the long central division of the faqade,
This sky-scraper, which is seventeen its vertical lines are continuous and its
stories high, is divided horizontally into horizontal lines broken, whereas in the
three parts by two plain courses of ma- Liggett Building both have been treated
sonry but the horizontal divisions count
;
alike. The faqade of the latter still looks
for little in the total effect. In looking like a wall, pierced with openings,
at the facade one gets chiefly a sense of whereas in the case of the latter the
a certain mass and height, pierced by a faqade looks, as it should, more like a
certain number of monotonous openings frame than a wall. The structure is not,
and neither the darker color of the low- of course, expressed with entire frank-
est division nor the simple ornamenta- ness, but it is disguised only to a slight
tion of crowning member serve or are extent, and its more interesting effect
intended to serve as particularly em- depends largely upon the fact that it
phatic marks of distinction. The integ- seems in a way to rejoice in its own
rity of the mass of the building is pre- towering height.
served by this monotonous treatment, The Wright Building may also be
which is precisely expressive of the in- very favorably compared with the
ternal arrangement of and its function “Frisco” Building, designed by the same
as a collection of offices, all of which are architects. Here again the architects
substantially similar to one another. In have in general remained faithful to a
the design of this building, however, the wholesome convention. There is a simi-
vertical dimension is emphasized just as lar division of the faqade into three hori-
little is the horizontal dimension.
as zontal members. There is the same
One has only to place the Liggett next frankly monotonous treatment of the
to the Wright Building in order to ap- openings, and the same emphasis of the
preciate how much more interesting a vertical lines. The effect of the “Frisco”
sky-scraper becomes because of the em- Building is, however, not at all as good,
phatic treatment of its vertical dimen- because certain not very successful at-
sion. The Wright Building is a few tempts have been made at composition
stories taller than the other, and its and ornament. The piers on the three
frontage on both streets is somewhat corners have been strengthened, which
bigger. But the relation of the height in itself is a justifiable device to give the
to the street frontages is about the same. two faqades firmer lateral boundaries.
;
Less approval can, however, be bestowed the comparatively modest height of

upon the treatment of the entrance. A twelve stories, and its longer front is
feature has been made of the chief means much longer than usual. The relation
of access to the building by arching the between this frontage and the height is
opening, by strengthening the support- such that the building might well have
ing piers as far up as the tenth story, and looked better in case some balance had
by making a recess, with narrower win- been preserved between- the horizontal
dows, of the space between these piers. and vertical lines, and a design whose
In appearance, however, the effect of horizontal dimensions had been empha-
this treatment is to weaken both the sized would have been better adapted to
member, which the architects desired to ornamental treatment.
emphasize, and the whole faqade. Such Whatever criticisms, however, one may
a method of emphasizing the entrances make in detail, St. Louis is to be con-
is ineffectual, because the strengthened gratulated on the acquisition of sky-
division is lost in the general monotony scrapers such as those illustrated here-
of the faqade, while the faqade itself with. They constitute, together with
loses thereby its integrity. other bulidings designed by other archi-
In another respect, also, the “Frisco” tects, an indication that St. Louis is
Building is less successful than the participating in the general improve-
Wright Building. The former is more ment in the design of business build-
ornamented, but the ornament has been ings which has been noticeable of late
less successfully used. It can scarcely years. One can scarcely say that the
be said that the “Frisco” Building is period of rapid construction which has
over-ornamented, for the architects have just closed has been distinguished by as
been in their most liberal moments very many brilliant individual architectural
discreet in its employment but the ad-
;
performances as the period which fin-
ditional detail does not add to the in- ished with the panic of 1893. But if
terest of the building. The terra-cotta exceptional individual performances have
ornament with which the vertical piers been less conspicuous the general aver-
are crowned is merely an annoyance age has been higher. There have been
and the same is true of the more elabo- a large proportion of buildings erected
rate treatment of the cornice and its ap- whose design shows intelligence, experi-
parent supports. The pieces of terra ence and conscientious attention to de-
cotta placed immediately below each win- tail. American commercial architecture
dow opening are less objectionable, but has of late years been given a wholesome
would have been better absent. The in- direction. It has been determined by
stant one places the “Frisco” Building currents of architectural ideas which are
next to the Wright Building one gets a both more general and more relevant
most lively impression of the latter’s su- than those which formerly obtained and ;
periority in appearance and the superi-

;
if our architecture is ever to obtain na-
ority is due mostly to its comparative tional characteristics this is the only road
simplicity and its freedom from irrele- whereby such a goal can be achieved.
vant composition and detail. In case the Its national character must be slowly
owners of the “Frisco” Building espe- and laboriously constructed in obedience
cially demanded from their architects a to certain comprehensive and strictly per-
larger supply of ornamental detail, the tinent ideas ;
and this process must be
latter could have altered the general de- consciously continued until these ideas
sign of the building in order satisfactor- obtain the force of an authoritative tra-
ily to meet this demand. The propor- dition. Buildings such as those illus-
tions of the “Frisco” Building are not trated herewith have the great merit of
such as to demand conformity to the contributing to the formation of such a
convention which usually determines the tradition.
design of tall buildings. It attains only William Herbert.
—
An Architectural Sculptor
Lorenzo di Mariano, called II Marrina had in the mean time gained
the patron-
(Marina), was the last great master of age of the family when
Piccolomini
the Sienese school of sculpture. He they were powerful politically and en-
closes the hundred years’ period inau- thusiastic in erecting memorials to their
gurated by Jacobo della Quercia, one of family, zealously beautifying the cities
the conspicuous leaders of the Renais- with which their name was associated.
sance movement and the sculptor whose It was they who commissioned him,
works brought more renown to the in 1504, to decorate a chapel in the
school of Siena than did those of any church of San Francesco, connected with
other of its members. In 1266, when the Francisqan Monastery, originally
Niccola Pisano came to Siena, at the located just outside the city limits,
invitation of Fra Melano, the Cistercian, though now, while beyond the wall, the
to erect a new pulpit in the cathedral, he ground upon which it stands is included
not only founded the Sienese school of within the city’s boundaries. It was in
sculpture, but he sowed the seed of that honor of the of Aeneas Sylvius
first visit
classic revival which ultimately resulted Piccolomini to Siena, after his elevation
in the entire revolution of the plastic arts. to the Papacy as Pope Pius II., that this
With Della Quercia, whose date is about was brought about. The Pope was, dur-
a century later (1374), the golden age ing this visit, the guest of the Franciscan
of the school was ushered in, and II monks at this monastery, and in order to
Marrina, born a century later still accommodate his numerous visitors who
(1476), marked the end of the school’s thronged to San Francesco the gate of
activity. the city leading to the monastery was
The father of Marrina was a Sienese ordered to be kept open throughout the
goldsmith, and it is more than likely that night. To commemorate this event, the
Lorenzo received his earliest artistic monastery has from that time been in-
training in his father’s shop. The gold- cluded within the city limits, and the
smith’s craft serving him, as it‘ did so gate has remained open.
many of the sculptors and painters of The decoration of this chapel in San
the Italian Renaissance, as a threshold Francesco, which Marrina did for the
to the more serious and monumental arts. Piccolomini, included an altar and graf-
In any case we find in all his work the fiti for the pavement, but unfortunately
delight in the delicately decorated mould- the whole chapel has been modernized
ing, the facility in arabesque and the within the last few years through the
deep undercutting of reliefs all remi-
;
munificence of a lady of the Saracini
niscent of the technique of the metal- family, and the only work of Mariano’s
worker. which remains is the pavement in which
Lorenzo, at the age of fourteen, that are represented the cardinal virtues
is, in 1490, entered the school of sculp- Justice, Temperance, Prudence and Fort-
ture of the Opera del Duomo, where he itude but even these have suffered much
;
studied under Giovanni di Stefano, who by restoration. The chapel is dedicated

was then head master there, and whose to San Andrea, and belonged to the
best work, a statue of St. Ansano, is in nephews of Pope Pius II., the Todeschini
the small baptistery of the Cathedral of Piccolomini and the Piccolomini d’Ara-
Siena. gona.
In 1506, sixteen years after his en- The architectural note struck in
trance into the Opera as a student, Mar- this first commission was to continue
rina, in his turn, attained to the position throughout Marrina’s career. All of his
of capo maestro, formerly held by his works which we know of, with the ex-
teacher, and master. Besides this, he ception of some terra-cotta figures, are
39§ THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
REREDOS IN THE FONTEGIUSTA AT SIENA, THE MASTERPIECE OF IL MARRINA.

(From Bode.)
AN ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTOR. 399
DETAIL FROM THE RE'REDOS BY IL MARRINA IN THE FONTEGIUSTA— SIENA.

primarily decorative or architectural, It was also from the Piccolomini fam-

though in one of these he has introduced ily that Marrina received the commission
a pictorial relief in which he gives evi- for the entrance to the library of the
dence that his grasp of that branch of Cathedral of Siena, which Cardinal
his art was far in advance of that of his Francesco Piccolomini, afterwards Pius
contemporaries. III., erected to the memory of his uncle,
In 1508, if the archives are to be cred- Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini* — Pope
Pius
ited, Mariano had a commission from the II. This building contains the great
Piccolomini to carve the capitals for the missals used in the choir of the cathedral
columns in the court of the palace, outside. The lower part of the wall is
known for many years as Palazzo Tode- wainscoted, above which is a slanting
schini Piccolomini, but which later, when shelf; upon this the great tomes lie, not
it became the property of the govern- crowded together as ordinary books are,
ment, was renamed the Palazzo del Gov- but lying on their sides in luxury, with
erno. At the present time it contains the space between to be opened out and dis-
state archives of the city, one of the most play themselves in all their grandeur.
complete collections of the sort in Italy Above the shelf the walls are decorated
and of invaluable assistance in compiling by Pinturicchio with scenes from the life
the political and
art history of Siena. of Aeneas Sylvius as scholar, cardinal
The design of the palace is attributed and Pope.
to Pietro Paolo Porrina, of Casole, and The entrance to this room, which is
is similar in character to the early Re- the part of the work allotted to Marrina.
naissance palaces of Florence, particu- is on the north wall of the cathedral and
larly that of the Rucellai, in which the occupies almost the entire width of the
idea of the fortress and the dwell- fifth bay, counting from the western
ing are so successfully combined in fagade. The composition is divided into
one building. The documents men- two one side containing the en-
parts,
tion, beside the capitals, other sculp- trance the other an altar over
doors,
tured ornament, which perhaps refers which has been placed a bas-relief of
to the coats of arms above the en- St. John the Evangelist, the authorship
trance on the long fagade and another of which is uncertain. The remainder
at the corner of the building. It may of the work, however, is by Mariano,
even go so far as to include the cornice and shows that he was in no way inferior
at the top. All of this work is bold and in this decorative sculpture to the best
strong, and unlike any other perform- Florentine masters of this period.
ance of Marrina’s, for in every example The two bays of the composition are
of his work, except in this, there is that treated with arches supported by pil-
tendency toward delicacy and elaborate- asters decorated with symmetrical ara-
ness which, as has been stated above, in- besques. These symmetrical arabesques,
dicates his early training as a goldsmith. which Mariano always used, are much
That sort of treatment in this case, where more formal in their treatment than those
the architecture is strong and bold, employing the elaborate rinceau, in which
would, however, have been quite inap- the figures of birds and animals are dis-
propriate, though an artist of less posed in all conceivable positions, such,
breadth might not have realized it. for example, as those which one finds in
The type of the capitals is that modi- the church of Santa Maria Miracoli, at
fied Corinthian capital which was so Venice.
often used by the early Florentine archi- —
The two entablatures one above the
tects. In this case the disk on the mid- pilasters, the other above the arches
dle of each side of the abacus is re- crowning the composition and supported
placed by the crescent of the Piccolomini —
on stunted pilasters are both elaborately
and the two rows of leaves, are sepa- ornamented, particularly the friezes,
rated by a sort of subordinate astragal which are decorated with griffins and
mould, placed directly above the first horses carrying genii, or putti, on
row of leaves. their backs. The lunettes contain the
AN ARCHITECTURAL SCULPTOR, 401
DETAIL FROM THE REREDOS OF THE FONTEGIUSTA AT SIENA.

8
;
arms of Pius II., which were afterwards curs in the capitals of the pilasters as in
adopted by Pins III. These are sur- the Palazzo del Governo.
rounded by wreaths of fruit and flowers, Practically, every surface of the com-
suggestive of della Robbia, and supposition is decorated, and there is much
ported by two nude children. In one discretion and refinement shown in the
COLUMN CAPITAL FROM THE PALAZZO PICCOLOMINI, SIENA.
spandrel the shield is surmounted by the treatment, not only in regard to scale,
cardinal’s hat, with its cords and tassels but also in the height of the relief. The
in the other by the papal crown and keys. lunettes, being in the deepest shadow,
The frieze over the door is decorated are treated in the boldest relief. The
with crescents, the device of the Picco- architecture is well composed and pro-
lomini, and this same emblem also oc- portioned, and the employment of the
panels of colored marbles around the Imperiale, in which the Florentines were
door opening, in order to increase its im- defeated by the Sienese, allied with the
portance, is ingenious and effective. The Neapolitans, under the leadership of Al-
bronze gates which close the library are fonso, Duke of Calabria. The date which
the work of Antonio Ormanni. this work bears is 1517.
BRACKET FROM THE PALAZZO PICCOLOMINI, SIENA.
The masterpiece of Lorenzo di Mari- The reredos consists of two free-

ano is the reredos of the main altar in standing columns, raised on pedestals
the church of Santa Marla, in Portico, and supporting an entablature sur-
at Siena, called Fontegiusta, which was mounted by a pediment. Inside this
frame is an arch, the upper part of which
built 1479 by Francesco Fideli and
in
Giacomo di Giovanni, of Como, as a is occupied by a relief representing the
thank-offering for the victory of Poggio Resurrection ;
the sarcophagus, from
ENTRANCE TO THE BAPTISTRY IN THE CATHEDRAL OF SIENA.

SIENA.
OF
CATHEDRAL
THE
IN
LIBRARY
PICCOLOMINI
THE
TO
ENTRANCE
which the figure of Christ rises, with the whole composition together, and harmon-
two columns supporting it, forming a ize agreeably with the lines of the arch
frame which occupies the lower part of above.
the arch opening. The contrast between the heavy and
Here, as in the library entrance, the relaxed form of Christ and the delicate
architecture is elaborately decorated. but vigorous figures of the angels is
The caps of the columns are of the bell wonderfully done one feels the weight
;
type, in which putti and

dragons, of the one and the activity and strength
modeled in the full round, exhibiting the of the other.
greatest skill and mastery of the tech- It is an interesting comment on what
nique of the sculptor’s and modeler’s art, perhaps might be called the artistic hu-
are substituted for the scrolls and leaves mility of the period that a man with so
of the Corinthian capital. much ability for figure sculpture should,
The large frieze is carved with griffins so far as we know, have devoted
himself
and winged cherub heads, connected by mainly to decorative In our day
work.
delicate scroll lines, symmetrically ar- the decorative side is generally thought
ranged about a central vase filled with to be beneath the consideration of the
fruit, from which two serpents protrude sculptor and left to be carried out from
their heads. the drawings of the architect by the
The tympanum framed by the pedi- modeler, generally a foreigner, whose
ment contains the sacred monogram de- standing in the community and whose at-
signed and adopted by S. Bernardino, titude toward his work is rather that of
the great Sienese preacher as his sym- the mechanic than of the artist. It reminds
bol, supported by two flying figures. one of a remark made by a foreign mu-
All of the small mouldings are elabo- sician regarding our orchestras “The :
rately decorated, and the carving is exe- orchestras are composed of foreigners,”
cuted with the greatest delicacy. This he said “the Americans are all concert
;
is not the case, however, with the an- soloists.”

themions which are placed at the apex The spandrels contain draped figures,
and on either side of the pediment. These carved in lower relief than those beneath
are so out of scale and keeping with the the arch.
rest of the design one wonders
that There a story regarding this master-
is
whether they might not have been a piece of Mariano whichtells how the
later addition. The pilasters back of the fame of its beauty, having reached the
columns and the panels on either side of Pope, caused him so to desire to see it
these are filled with arabesque, again that he ordered it taken down, packed
symmetrical, in which the putti griffins on mules’ backs and brought down to
and serpents reappear. Rome, where it was set up in order that
The relief occupying the upper part his wish might be gratified. There are
of the space framed by the arch consists two versions of the tale, one in which
of four figures: Christ throwing off the Julius II. is the Pope, the other in which
.
:
inertia of death, rising or rather gentlv Leo X. figures as the pontiff. Doubtless
lifted from the tomb by three angels there is no truth in either version, yet
—two kneeling, one on either side, this does not in any way decrease the
and each holding an arm, while the value of the story, for, true or untrue, it
third behind gently supports the re- eloquently sets forth the great beauty of
laxed body. The introduction of the the Fontegiusta which inspired it and
fourth figure into the semicircular caused those who knew Mariano’s work
space usually filled by the more simple never to question its authenticity.
arrangement of three, shows Marrina to The Marsili reredos in the church of
have been a master who did not fear to S. Martino, at Siena, was done in 1522.
set himself difficult tasks. This fourth It resembles in composition the Fonte-
figure, however, in his hands proves an giusta, though
it is far less elaborate.
advantage instead of a detriment; the The columns are replaced by pilasters

lines of its outspread wings bring the decorated with arabesques, and the space
TERRA COTTA FIGURE, SANTA CATERINA, BY IL MARRINA, NOW IN THE CONTRADA

CHURCH OF THE DRAGON.
”
inside the arch is filled by a painting treatment of the carving with which it
instead of being occupied by a relief, as is enriched.
is the case in the earlier work. The There seems to be no work of Mar-
same motives, however, occur in the dec- rina located outside of Siena, with the
oration, the sacred monogram of S. Ber- exception of a Madonna, which Muntz
nardino, the griffins and the symmetrical speaks of as being in the Louvre.
arabesques. In one respect it differs Mariano worked in terra-cotta as well
from the Fontegiusta, in which the ped- as in marble,, and did in this medium for
estals under the columns are raised upon the convent del Paradiso, now sup-
a base the same height as the altar, while —
pressed a Santa Caterina to be placed
in the Marsili reredos the pedestals rest above the door and an Annunciation, a
on the floor and the altar is between “ nostra donna with an angel. The three-
them. quarter figure of Santa Caterina is now
To same period belongs a reredos
this in the Contrada Church of the Dragon,
in S.Girolamo, which frames a Ma- and represents the saint in the Domin-
donna by Matteo da Siena. ican habit, bearing on her hands the stig-
The entrance to the chapel of San mata.
Giovanni, in the cathedral, has been at- This concludes the list of Marrina’s
tributed in part to Mariano, though works, and it comprises both the items
there is little reason for believing that which are believed to be authentic and
this is so. The carving lacks all the those which are doubtful. It is hardly
snap and vigor of his work, and the orn- likely that it is complete, for it seems
ament has none of the delicacy and feel- incredible that there are not many ex-
ing or proportion which one finds in the amples entirely lost to us.
entrance to the library, only a few feet Regarding his private life, there is lit-
away. The entire work has never been tle information, except that he married,
attributed to Mariano, for one of the in 1507, Elizabeth, daughter of Ser Ja-
pedestals under the columns has always cobo Bertini. His sons which she bore
been held to be a Roman altar and the him did not become sculptors, but seem
other Federighi’s copy of it. It is quite to have returned to the craft of their
possible that the entire work may be grandfather, the goldsmith. In 1534 he
his also. died.
Another disputed work of Marrina’s Lorenzo di Mariano was the last great
is the marble seat on the left side of the Sienese master of sculpture. The history
Loggia dei Nobili. The only reason for of the school ends with him, but his
this attribution is a document in the talent, at least, brought distinction and
archives which states that he received the glory to the last days of the school, which
commission for the work. The bench, had its first inspiration from Niccola the
though, which is now there was evidently Pisan, and which produced in its great-
not done by Mariano, for there is not est period the master Jacobo della
the slightest evidence of his hand in the Quercia.
Alfred H. Gumaer.
NOTES ^COMMENTS
On Fifth Avenue, in ever, very much more because in itself it de-
New York, just north served to be liked. It possessed distinction,
AN ARCHI- 52d Street, are lo- elegance, dignity and even repose. It was
of
cated side by side two pleasant in the color and texture of its stone,
TEXTURAL strong and free in treatment, discreet and
houses which fairly in-
COMPARISON vite comparison one refined in its ornamentation. The possession
with another. The first of these qualities was the more remarkable,
of these houses, situa- because the phase of French Renaissance
ted on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue architecture, from which its style was de-
and 52d Street, was designed about twenty- rived, has a tendency to enfeeblement from
five years ago for Mr. William K. Vanderbilt excessive elaboration, and the fagade of
by Mr. Richard Morris Hunt. The adjoining the Vanderbilt house on 52d Street does not
house was built only two years ago for Mr. wholly escape this fault. But the frontage
W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., from plans by Messrs. on Fifth Avenue possesses a combination of
McKim, Mead & White. They invite com- refinement, simplicity and strength, which to
parison with each other, because of the the present day has remained very unusual
changes in the temper of American archi- in American domestic architecture.
tectural design, which have taken place in Its combination of refinement, simplicity
the interval between the erection of these and strength was all the more remarkable,
houses, and which receive a neat illustration considering that its designer had not es-
in the character of the two dwellings. caped an unnecessary archaism of treatment.

The point of comparison does not, however, An excessive fidelity to certain accidental
consist in any consideration of the relative features of the earlier buildings, from which
merit of the two houses, considered apart they borrowed their forms, was characteris-
from their juxtaposition one with another. tic of much of the work of this period; and
It depends upon the fact that the later house in many cases this literal reproduction of the
was designed in something the same style models resulted under the new conditions in
as its earlier neighbor, precisely because a comparatively feeble architectural effect.
they were to be situated side by side; and But in the case of Mr. Vanderbilt’s house,
the point which they illustrate is the differ- Mr. Hunt reproduced some of the best traits
ent treatment which this style received from of early French Renaissance design; and his
Mr. Hunt over almost a generation ago from success is so conspicuous that the archaism
that which it has recently received at the of some of the details must be allowed to
hands of Messrs. McKim Mead & White. pass. The little balcony at the level of the
The early W. K. Vanderbilt house has al- second floor on the northeast corner of the
ways been popular with New Yorkers. One building is a mere affectation with as little
frequently heard it asserted by people of aesthetic value as it has practical use; and
some architectural discrimination that they the same statement is almost as true of the
preferred it to any residence in New York; tower, which is fitted into an angle of the
and most assuredly it has well deserved its Fifth Avenue frontage. The tower may add
popularity. Not only was it the beginning something to the picturesque effect of the
of better things in American residential de- building; but the interest of the design does
sign, but the beginning it made was an ex- not consist in its picturesque quality. It
traordinarily good beginning. The twin consists, as we have said, in its combination
houses built for Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt on the of simplicity, strength and refinement; and
block to the south stand for the culmination from this point of view, the tower diminishes
of the old New York brownstone residence. rather than emphasizes the architectural in-
The W. K. Vanderbilt house was one of the terest of the fagade. In spite of these and
first signs of emancipation from a discred- other archaic details there is nothing quaint
ited convention; and its popularity was part- about the dominant impression produced by
ly owing to this fact. It was liked, how- the Fifth Avenue frontage. It is an example.
on the whole, of most excellent manners — of the height of the junior house, it was neces-
dignity, self-possession and repose, and sary to alter the proportions of the frontage.
manners of this kind are demanded by its The junior house is entered at the street
situation on fashionable Fifth Avenue. level, instead of by a low stoop, the height
The adjoining house to the north has, as of the first story has been made smaller;
we have said, been only recently completed and its cornice line higher than that of the
from plans by Messrs. McKim, Mead & senior house. It should be added, how-
White; and the two buildings are, of course, ever, that no great discrepancy is noticeable.
intended to harmonize. The material used in Inasmuch as one house had to be a story
THE W. K. VANDERBILT RESIDENCE.

52d St. and 5th Ave., New York. (Photo by J. H. Symmons.) R. M. Hunt, Architect.
both houses is as near as possible the same; higher than the other, the architects have
and both of them are examples of French been very successful in keeping the lines of
Renaissance. Nevertheless, in spite of these the junior house substantially harmonious
similarities the two buildings produce an ex- with those of its predecessor. The difference
tremely different effect; a little of this dif- in effect between the two houses is only to
ference of effect may be due to differences in a small extent due to variations in plan. Its
plan. The newer building contains five origin must be traced rather to a difference
stories, as compared to only four in its ear- in temper in handling the French Renais-
lier neighbor; and in order to get these five sance style from which both were derived.
stories in, without any noticeable increase in The junior building belongs to a later phase
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
senior building the entrance, with its compli-
of French Renaissance architecture than its
neighbor. The archaistic towers, balconies mentary treatment on the upper part of the
fagade, has an emphasis corresponding to its
and niches have been abandoned. The or-
essential importance; and what is still more
namentation has assumed later characteris-
effective the wall space is not to the same
tics; and one gets the sense which may be The senior
The inter- extent broken up by openings.
illusory that there is more of it.
building derives its strength most of all
esting result is, however, that these changes unbroken mason-
from ample stretches of
which are in certain respects an improve-
its
THE W. K. VANDERBILT, JR., RESIDENCE, SHOWING THE

OLDER HOUSE ON THE LEFT.
52d Street and 5th Avenue, New York.
McKim, Mead & White, Architects.
(Photo by J. H. Symmons.)
ment, have not on the whole improved the ry, which the fagade contains, and a better
It has all the illustration could not be desired of the ad-
effect of the junior building.
refinement of its predecessor; but it is lack- vantage which an architect gains from not
ing in strength. It looks weak beside Mr. being obliged to pierce his walls with too
Hunt’s more archaic design; and it is not many windows. "While it was not the fault
difficult to trace the comparative strength of
of the architects that the walls of the junior
In the building had to be pierced by a comparatively
the latter to an intelligible source.
large number of openings, it is a pity that ness showed the most liberal desire to
they could not by some expedient meet
have the views of the aesthetes and the
anti-
avoided the weakness which by comparison, quarians, and gave extension after extension
diminishes the effect of the newer building. of time to enable the deplorers
With any other neighbor the junior Van- of their
vandalism to save the old building by pro-
derbilt house would not have made
an im- viding the bank with another site
“equally
pression of this kind, but in order to hold as good.”
its “Royalty” was interested. Con-
own against its older relative, every sacri- sequently snobbery was keenly interested.
fice should have been made to
give it sim- But after the British public had been re-
plicity and strength. peatedly and appealingly asked how
much
it would be sorry to see
the monument go,
it appeared that the British
public would not
Now
that Crosby Hall be sorry $300,000 worth, which would have
is not only doomed to been an efficacious sorrow.
LESSONS demolition but in proc- “They order these matters better in
FROM ess thereof, it may be France. In France a building analogous
in structive
CROSBY HALL to consider to Crosby Hall would long ago
have been
the unavailing efforts put under public guardianship as a
for
“monu-
preservation.
its ment historique.” Nay, while the agitation
There is no question of against the demolition of Crosby Hall
the historical or architectural interest of was
going on in London, the progress of the
the building, or at least of that part of it
works for the preservation of the Tour St.
forty or fifty feet back from Bishopsgate
Jacques carried on under public auspices was
Street, known as the banqueting hall.
The carefully noted in the press of Paris.
front has been modernized and spoiled in the We
even order these matters better in America.
modernization. But the banqueting hall is Fiaunce s Tavern occupies a site more or
a most interesting relic, and a good example less analogous to that of Crosby Hall.
of English fifteenth century Gothic, It is
67 feet a century and a quarter only since the event
long and 38 high, and much resembling
one that gives it fame took place. Yet we
of the smaller college halls at have
Oxford or managed to restore Fraunce’s Tavern. It is
Cambridge. A great many American tour-
quite safe to say that if we had a building
ists know it. For it is not so many years in lower New York comparatively
ago that it fell into the hands of an enter- as in-
teresting as Crosby Hall in the City of Lon-
prising and enlightened publican who, having
don, we should find means of keeping it and
subjected it to “restoration” in the most that we should not allow the want of $3bo,-
approved manner of the Victorian Gothic, 000 to stand in the way of its preservation.
opened it for “restauration.” It had its uses And yet, most curiously, some
of the British
for the business men of “the City,” and be- jeremiads over
the demolition ascribe the
came a little Mecca for the American tour- public indifference to the spread of “utili-
ist to resort to for a British
luncheon. The tarianism” and “godlessness” in public edu-
house of the richest London merchant of his cation, America exemplifying the one and
time, and that time long enough ago
to en- France the other, when it is quite certain
able it to have served as the residence
of that neither in America nor in France would
the Duke of Gloucester, not yet Richard III.,
such a thing have been allowed to come
and to have been celebrated by Shakespeare,’ about.
it was necessarily an object
of interest to Meanwhile, it is gratifying to learn that
the tourist, after the Tower and Westminster
the material of the historic house, though in
Abbey, which were senior to it, and St. its present condition only junk, has
Paul’s, which it antedated by two
been
hundred carefully marked and stored so as to be
years. There are older churches and “col- available for re-erection. A reverend Briton
lege fanes” and even country seats
in Eng- makes an appeal to the public for pecuniary
land, but as a “first-class city residence”
of aid to set it up again in Chelsea in conjunc-
its period Crosby Hall was unique. tion with the “Hall of Residence” of a kind
Surely one would suppose that there would
of British University Settlement. But Amer-
have been enough of the historic spirit in ica should not suffer this. Crosby Hall
England to save it. There was an immense should be re-erected on or near the Lake
g'ush of “appeals” in the newspapers
and Front in Chicago. Only think what a satis-
from societies and individuals which made faction it would be for the hospitab’e Chi-
an impression partly comic and partly pa- cagoan gently to lead to it the British tourist
thetic. The bank which had bought the declaiming against the “utilitarianism” of
premises because it needed them in its busi- Chicago.
Though Boston’s Met- The presentation a

ropolitanImprovement few weeks ago of a
ANOTHER Commission is not to
MAYOR bronze medal to Mayor
BOSTON report until the end of McClellan McClellan of New York,
VISION
the year, the fact that on by the American group
it is making studies CITY BEAUTY of the Societe des Ar-
preparatory to a report chitectes Diplomes par
has done much — as le Gouvernement de
—
such conditions always do to increase the France, for his work in behalf of the beauti-
general interest in a physical remodeling of fying of the city, was a notable event. It
the city and to invite the bringing forward was threatened by two dangers, however. On
of various projects. Among the more notable the one hand, there was a likelihood that it
of such plans is one recently brought out by would be too much overlooked or made light
Stephen Child, a landscape architect. Tak- of, in spite of the rather distinguished com-
ing the State House as a center, his plan pany; on the other, that it would be taken
has to do with the area that would be swept too seriously, for New York is not yet a
by a radius extending from the State House model of civic beauty. But Mayor McClellan
to the further shore of the Charles River, himself saved the day, accepting the medal
opposite Charlesbank, if this radius were with a speech so graceful, so nicely balanced
conceived as slowly turned to the east until between earnestness and lightness, so
its further terminus touched City Hall charged with good sense pleasantly put, that
Square in Charlestown. The interest of his the scoffers were silent, and with all the din-
suggestion lies largely in the facts that it ners of New York this one was not over-
deals with a portion of the city which espe- looked. In part, he said: “The mediaeval
cially needs redeeming, that his plan sup- ascetic and the seventeenth century puritan
plements and completes the magnificent de- tried to convince mankind that beauty and
velopment now going forward above the new righteousness were antipathetic. But his
dam at Craigie bridge, that it concerns itself wholesome natural common sense forbade
with a section where striking topographical mankind to be convinced. We may and
conditions make practicable very handsome doubtless do respect the excellent but un-
effects, and with a section in which property attractive woman while the beautiful saint
values are, on the whole, relatively low. receives our warmest admiration. Where
From the State House, and hence from the Lucas Cranach and Wolgemuth may have
Boston Common connections, Mr. Child’s frightened an occasional backslider into
scheme supposes a monumental tree-shaded righteousness, Gentile Bellini and Titian
avenue, 200 feet wide, leading directly north- called hundreds of sinners to repentance. As
ward, passing down the slope of Beacon with women and angels, and saints and pic-
Hill and crossing the lower Charles River tures, so with cities. Our fellow-citizen sits
basin by a substantial bridge. The beautiful him down to sleep the summer day upon a
north faqade and dome of the State House bench in City Hall Park. If he awakes facing
would crown its upper end, circular plazas the north you know that he will slouch
would emphasize the river intersection, and away a better man for having looked upon
across the river would be, on a new site, the that little gem of the Colonial — our City
North Station. A tunnel would connect this Hall. But he awakes facing the South,
if
with the South Station, while scenically there and gazes upon the Post Office, can you
would be offered “a fitting and dignified en- blame him if he goes away with homicide in
trance to our city for the thousands of trav- his heart? Venice lived a thousand years.
elers and commuters entering the city from During her last two centuries of life she was
the north and an opportunity of seeing and only kept alive by the love and devotion of
appreciating our noble State House.” Be- her children. Do you suppose that they
yond the station, the avenue would cross would have felt for their mother as they
some freight tracks by a viaduct and then did, had she been the architectural ancestress
divide into two less pretentious avenues, one of Hoboken or Jersey City? Something more
going to Sullivan Square and the other to is needed to 'make the happy city than health
Bunker Hill. New public buildings, as City and wealth and wisdom. The citizen may
Hall and Court House, are ranged along the feel a just satisfaction in the thought that
river, on the Boston side, and there are in his city the death rate is low, the streets
promenades on either bank, while trans- clean, and the water pure. He may be snugly
verse or diagonal avenues that knit the complaisant in knowing that rents are high,
whole plat together promise a very sump- food dear, and bankers and brewers rich.
tuous effect. He may beat his breast with pride at the
thought of the wisdom of his town, that all successful example of DeWitt Clinton Park,
her people are clever, her schools excellent, which contains both playgrounds and chil-
and her newspapers omniscient. The city- dren’s gardens, is strongly in favor when-
healthy, the city wealthy, and the city wise ever possible of uniting playgrounds and
may excite all these emotions, but it is the children’s gardens, thus bringing together
city beautiful that compels and retains the two of the most healthful branches of educa-
love of her people.” tion and recreation, which would be mutually
helpful. . Like all reformers, and like all
. .
The might of the really practical people, we are pursuing

playground movement, ideals. We
think it would be a valuable re-
which has recently form builders of tenement houses could be
if
PLAYGROUND •grown so rapidly in the compelled to make playgrounds on roofs.”
PROGRESS United States, is well This is an idea for model tenements at least.
brought out in an arti-
cle prepared for Chari- The Fairmount Park
ties and The Commons R. A. CRAM Art Association of Phil-
by Henry S. Curtis, who is secretary of the adelphia has published
America. He ON in two forms
illustrated
Playground Association of
notes that in the month of November, which
CITY —in a small pamphlet
must certainly have been an off month for BUILDING containing the proceed-
that sort of effort, a million dollars was ings of the thirty-sixth
spent for playground sites. If only that av- annual meeting, and
erage were maintained, it would make a separately in a large and handsome pamphlet
notable record, for, as Mr. Curtis says, ‘‘this — the report of the local commission em-
is a new bill for the United States.”
But if ployed by the Association to study the en-
the November total was so high, the average trance of the Philadelphia Parkway into
for the year is probably more than a million Fairmount Park, and an address delivered
a month. Says Mr. Curtis: ‘‘There was a by Ralph Adams Cram when the report
time, and not so long ago either, when only was submitted. The subject of the address
a favored few could go to school. Now the was the “Architectural Development of
chance is open to all, and whether the child Cities,” and to the general purposes of re-
wishes it or not, to school he goes. And now view it is rather better adapted than is the
we say that not only must every child go report. The latter, in explaining a com-
to school, but every child must have a
promise plan that involves a slight variation
chance to play as well. Yes, a chance to from that on the city map, has to do with
—
play not as we see play in the streets and technical considerations that arose from
purely local conditions. These must be ex-
alleys, but in playgrounds fitted up with
proper apparatus and supervised by trained ceedingly interesting in Philadelphia, and are
instructors.” The Playground Association of full of suggestions if one knows the ground,
America is working to have every city in the but are not easily summarized for the gen-
United States authorize the drawing of a eral public. Mr. Cram’s address was intro-
playground plan, under which no city child ductory. He noted that our cities, and
shall be more than half a mile from a play- some of those of Europe, “were laid out and
ground. As the basis of this plan it is try- built up at a period when the instinct for
ing to induce every city to make an inventory beauty was dead, deader than it ever had
of all possible sites— parks and other public been before in the history of civilization.”
But it was, he thought, “an eloquent com-
grounds, abandoned cemeteries, marshes or
ponds that might be filled in, or vacant mentary on the practical value of beauty that
spaces that might be purchased. In this its loss should have meant the building of
connection, it is interesting to note that cities that are not only unbeautiful, but also
the playground committee of the New York impractical.” As in some of the foreign
Municipal Art Society (Harold A. Caparn, cities, so “with us the tide has turned, and
chairman) has issued a report which empha- the first evidence of the awakening of a civic
sizes among other things the need of devel- sense was shown by the development of the
oping playgrounds with artistic consideration. park idea.” With all its merits, he notes
“The buildings,” it says, “should be of as that this was “a very narrow way of looking
good design and material as possible, and at things, now fortunately being discarded
there should be at least a fringe around the in favor of a broader and more inclusive
whole of trees, shrubs, and grass, which view of the necessity of cities and the duties
should be kept in as good order as any of the of citizens.” Reviewing some of the work
other parks. This committee, judging by the done and planned, he says: “Let us note
that all these great American schemes for and instructive example of what parks can
municipal development, while possessing an be ina scientifically developed city. The
essentially aesthetic quality, are actually pri- argument with which the park plan is pre-
marily utilitarian.” He strongly urges that sented is full of suggestion. The third sec-
—
cities be given the right as Philadelphia has tion is devoted to the State and Civic Centers,
—
been to take land on either side of an which it is proposed to develop around the
improvement and to place restrictions on Capitol. This is a very elaborate project,
whatever may be built there. ‘‘If you have but not too elaborate for the great State of
a street a mile long,” he says, “and fifty, Ohio to authorize as a setting for its Capitol.
eighty, or one hundred feet wide, and then The plan contemplates a long mall, crowned
allow all kinds of snaggle-toothed buildings, at one end by the State House, crossing the
ranging in height from one to twenty sto- straightened and nobly embanked river by
ries, to impose their erratic skyline on your monumental bridges, and terminating in a
great street, you have destroyed all the great armory beyond. An interesting feature
glory thereof. . The citizen, as an indi-
. .
is the use made of tall commercial buildings.
vidual, must be made to understand that, The present Capitol park abuts on High
when he is building on such a street, he is Street, the principal business street of Co-
not acting solely for himself, but rather as lumbus. The mall has to begin at High
a part of a thing that is far greater than he Street, but on it —
opposite a corner of the
—
is of the community as a whole, the civi- Capitol park— is
a new skyscraper. The
Commission frankly accepts this, proposes
lized society of which he forms one small,
component part.” the private erection of a similar one on the
opposite corner, and in its scheme treats
The report on the im- these as pylons to mark the beginning of the
provement of the city of mall. Back of the State House, it arranges
PLANS FOR. Columbus, Ohio, which a civic center, with City Hall, Post Office,
was recently submitted etc. The illustrations in the report include
COLUMBUS, pictures of pertinent foreign work, as well as
' to the local Board of
OHIO Public Service by a diagrams, perspectives, and photographs to
commission composed of illustrate the Columbus plans. The photo-
Austin W. Lord, of New graphs of natural scenery around Columbus,
York, Chairman; Albert Kelsey, of Philadel-
showing the selected park sites, reveal a
quiet and romantic beauty the existence of
phia; Charles N. Lowrie, of New York;
Charles Mulford Robinson, of Rochester, Sec-
which most visitors to the city, or travelers
through mid-Ohio, would not have suspected.
retary, and H. A. MacNeil, of New York, has
Three streams come into Columbus, and the
been handsomely published, with many illus-
trations. The Commission has been at work Commission makes full use of these water-
courses in developing parks and parkways.
for a year, and the report is the most elab-
The report has been well received, and while
orate that has been issued in several months.
it is not expected that a great deal will be
Opening with a brief introductory chapter
done at once, it furnishes a plan for the city
on the interesting history of the movement
to work toward through a long series of
in Columbus which led to the appointment
years. If in another generation or so the
of the Commission, the report proper is di-
State of Ohio has not a convenient, beauti-
vided into three discussions. The first deals
ful, well planned and imposing capital city,
with general suggestions, for the improve-
—
ment of the city as a whole with the street
the reason will not be that the people have
not been told how to get it.
plan, with the problems of transportation,
with street utilities, with the planning of the
suburbs, etc. The second deals with the There has been pub-
park system, plans for which are worked out lished the drawing
most completely, both as to the various units showing a bird’s eye
STATE, FAIR
and as to their connection. As Columbus now view of the permanent
PLANS grounds of the New
has very little in the way of parks, and not
only needs much, but is conscious of the need, York
State Fair at
it was possible for the Commission
to make a Syracuse, as they will
look if the plans of
park plan that should be a model for an in-
dustrial community. It considers the social Green and Wicks, architects, of Buffalo, are
requirements of every section of the popula- adopted. These are the premiated designs,
tion as well as the aesthetic effects. If this
and are interesting as raising a State fair to
quite the spectacular ambitiousness of an
plan should be carried out in its entirety,
Columbus would present a very interesting —
exposition an ambitiousness that really is
—

not unreasonable, once the location be per- The February maga-
manently fixed. In fact, that condition zine number of “Chari-
granted, the construction and landscape work DISCUSSION ties and The Com-
can be made of substantial character; and OF CITY mons” was made a big
the State fair might by degrees go even be- special number de-
yond the temporary exposition as regards PLANNING
voted Lo city planning.
impressiveness. The plans of Green and It was put in editorial
Wicks promise three great pictures: The charge of a man who
Empire State Court, 500 by 700 feet in size is active in this work, and was profusely
and bounded on one side by the main en- illustrated. It was the first copy of a maga-
trance to the grounds; the Horticultural zine in the United States to be especially de-
Court, which is separated from it by a peri- voted to this subject, though in Germany
style 500 feet long, opposite the main en- there is a monthly which deals with nothing
trances to the Empire State Court; and a else. The editor, to avoid any special plead-
parallelogram bordered by various harmo- ing, divided his articles into two main
nious structures that is suggestive of the groups: One, on the theory of city planning,
Mall under construction at Cleveland. The the articles in that group describing the
Horticultural Court, it should be explained, benefits of a good city plan from various
while cut off from the vast Empire State points of view; the other, on the practice of
Court by a straight peristyle, has the Arts, city planning, the articles therein describing
Horticultural and Women’s buildings grouped work undertaken during the preceding
around it in an exact semi-circle; so that —
twelve months a very remarkable record.
the three courts are entirely distinct in the Not one of the articles is by a man who
pictures they will offer. The race track is himself has professionally done any city
put where it does not force itself upon any planning, except the foreword by the editor,
of these compositions. The detail that would which is brief and strictly impersonal. It
seem most to invite criticism is the size of will be seen that if the articles thus lost
the Empire State Court. Entering the fair something in experienced statement, the
grounds and beholding at once this great number as a whole gained strength by the
space, the visitor might feel pretty lonesome absolute disinterestedness of the testimony.
— but in one day last year there were 60,000 And perhaps there was no loss at all, for
admissions, and if the fair is developed on each article was authoritative, coming in
the grandiose scale these plans propose there the first group from an expert in the par-
can be no question that the attendance would ticular aspect of municipal development
mount up prodigiously. In this connection it which was taken as his special point of view,
is interesting to think what would be the and in the second group from a prominent
educational and artistic influence of har- resident of the city described. Thus, under
moniously and beautifully developed State the head of the theory of city planning, the
fairs. Would they not do for the smaller relation of the plan to the problems of trans-
communities in each State something like portation was described by George E. Hooker,
what the Chicago fair did for the nation secretary of the City Club of Chicago and
with this difference, that their lesson would formerly secretary to the special street rail-
be reiterated year after year? If anything way commission of the Chicago City Coun-
of that sort were the effect, what might we cil; that on the street as a basic factor was
not look for in the better planning of towns by Andrew Wright Crawford, of Philadel-
and locating of pubilc buildings? The words phia, and that on the civic centre by Syl-
of Governor Hughes to the Legislature, in —
vester Baxter, of Boston neither of whom
reference to the plans, are worth repeating, needs introduction here. The neighborhood
for their good sense, broad outlook and centre as a feature was described by Dwight
aesthetic appreciation. He said: “I recom- F. Davis, member of the public library and
mended last year that plans should be made public bath commissions of St. Louis. The
for the comprehensive and adequate develop- connection of the parks and the city plan
ment of the State Fair in a manner which was described by Henry A. Barker, of Provi-
would avoid haphazard or ill considered im- dence, who is the father of the Metropolitan
provements merely designed to meet tem- Park movement there. “The Workingman
porary exigencies. The development, of and the City Plan” was the subject of Ben-
course, must be gradual, and without extrav- jamin C.Marsh, executive secretary of the
agance. But by making substantial progress Committee on Congestion of Population in
each year, so that what is done will fit into New York. These are not all the articles,
a suitable, general plan, economy will be but they are enough to show the compre-
promoted and the result will be worthy of hensiveness of the review and the wide-
the State.” spread source and authority of the testimony.
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 4i 7
The reports of the donors, who accepted his dicta without at-
Municipal Art Commis- tempting interference. On the outside a
NEW YORK sion of New York porch in harmony with the severe simplicity
are always interesting, of this Puritan meeting-house has taken the
ART place of the old storm house; and within a
but they are so late in
COMMISSION coming out that their series of memorial windows, portraying
significance is in the scenes in the history of the Puritan church
tendencies which they or representing pictorially certain fundamen-
reveal rather than in their antiquated record tal Puritan principles, give to the audi-
of facts. The current report, for example, torium a beauty and even a Puritan atmos-
came from the printer in January, 1908. It phere which with all its former plainness
is dated October 9, 1907, and it is “for the and homeliness it did not have. Of the
year ending December 31, 1906.” But if one windows, “The Outlook” says editorially:
is willing to overlook the element of time, “In two respects they are, so far as we
which in swift New York one always hesi- know, unique. One harmonious and com-
tates to do, the report, with its many foreign prehensive plan has been adopted, and
illustrationsand several foreign plans, is in- while the donor of any window is at liberty
teresting enough. At the very outset it is to select from this plan the design which
curiously notable that popular usage, so pleases him, no donor is permitted to form
prone to abbreviate official titles, has in this his own design. As a consequence, the whole
case gone for definiteness to the opposite church will be pictorially a unit. And all
extreme. The body reporting is simply the the pictures are human, not ecclesiastical;
“Art Commission,” not, as one has to call and modern, not ancient; no one of them
it, the Municipal Art Commission of New goes back of the early English Puritan age,
York. It is stated that the number of pro- the age of Cromwell, Hampden, and Mil-
jects submitted to the Commission in 1906 ton.” In a recent address before the men
was 132, involving approximately $27,000, UUO of the church, Mr. Lamb is quoted as say-
of expenditure. To make sure that so vast ing that underlying his scheme was an ac-
an amount of money for public work will be ceptance of the “universal recognition that
expended with artistic consideration year in the modern church was not meeting modern
and year out, instead of carelessly, is full needs.” To meet them, he thought, it must
justification for the Commission’s existence. become modern in its architecture and its
In the summary of the years from 1898 to symbolism. Ecclesiastical symbolism meant
1906, inclusive, it is interesting to observe very little to the man of to-day. To abolish
the rapid growth of the number of projects all symbolism and give plain walls and plain
submitted, the last year having much the windows was little better, for mere negation
greatest number. And the growth is marked, attracts no one. We need, he said, a sym-
it is further encouraging to note, in the bolism which appeals to modern life and
items: “On request of the Mayor or Board brings a message to which the modern man
of Aldermen” —
showing an increasing defer- will listen. The speaker instanced the win-
ence for the Commission’s opinion; and dow representing John Hampden appealing
in “approved” —
suggesting an artistic im- for the Bill of Rights, and that representing
provement in the projects submitted. The John Milton pleading for the liberty of the
first year as many were disapproved as were press, the one bringing the message of po-
approved; the last year the disapprovals litical liberty, the other of liberty of the
were slightly less than a third as many as press.

the approved.
While it is generally
The artistic decora- MODERN supposed that the Amer-
tion of plain old Ply- ican people are perhaps
Church in
BATHS the farthest advanced
mouth
DEPARTURE Brooklyn was a haz- AND BATH in the sanitation of the
IN CHURCH ardous, not to say in- HOUSES* home, we are compelled
congruous, experiment. to alter this view some-
DECORATION what when we read the
That it has been ac-
complished success- facts of modern sanitation applied to the
fully, without the least incongruity, and Bath and the Bath House as set forth by
with a satisfactorily artistic result speaks Mr. William Paul Gerhard in an extremely
well for the good taste and talent of Fred-
Modern Baths and Bath Houses, by Wm. Paul
erick S. Lamb, to whom it was entrusted; Gerhard,C. E., New York: John Wiley & Sons.
and for the board of trustees and individual London: Chapman & Hall, Limited. 1908.
9
interesting volume under the above caption. cellarand placed in charge of the janitor.
It appears that a report made to the Ameri- This suggestion seems to us to contain a
can Medical Association in 1887 showed that possible solution of the problem to better the
eighteen large cities in the United States physical, moral and intellectual condition of
contained no free public baths whatever and the “great unwashed” and is worthy of seri-
only about one-quarter of the residences were ous consideration in the revision of the New
supplied with bathtubs. “The need of cheap York building code which is now under way.
and plain public baths for the masses and for Mr. Gerhard’s book is profusely illustrated
the working people of both sexes is,” says with many interesting plans, containing
the author, “therefore, apparently just as much valuable information for architects,
urgent here as it is in Europe.” In fact, and by numerous photographs which, in con-
the need would seem to be even greater in nection with the descriptive text, should ap-
our large cities than in some equally popu- peal to the non-professional reader. Espe-
lous centers of Europe. The numerous large cially interesting reading is the appendix of
and splendid Public Bath Houses which have the book, which is a series of extracts from
recently been erected in many of the large the writings of travelers, explorers and sci-
Germany and England prove our own
cities of entists on the art of bathing, in various
backwardness in this respect. The Public European countries, in many cases translated
Baths at Hannover in the northern part of the into English by the author, who also gives
Empire and one of similar extent and appoint- much valuable information gathered from his
ment at Miinchen in Southern Germany rival own experience as a sanitary engineer. He
some of the Baths of the Romans, in their gives interesting details of sanitary devices
careful planning and their sumptuousness. and a complete specification for a municipal
“In 1904 only thirty-four cities in the bath house. An extended bibliography adds
United States had more or less adequate pro- to the value of the work.
vision for bathing for the people,” says the
author. “It is very seldom, indeed, that
tenement houses have any baths; even the
so-called ‘model’ tenement houses do not pro- issue of this interesting
vide bathing facilities.” We have, it is true, architectural and art
the floating river and sea baths, but these ACADEMY catalogue has just come
not only fail to provide for proper cleansing, to hand. In the variety
ARCHITECTURE of the matter presented
but are available for only a part of the year
and are often expensive to reach on account it will have an unusual
of their distance from the homes of those interest for American
who would use them. This form of bath is architects and sculptors alike. It is a selec-
clearly inadequate for the needs of the great tion from the English, French and Scotch ar-
public, which requires more of the type of chitectural societies, which do not follow the
People’s Baths of which some admirable ex- American custom of issuing individual cata-
amples have lately been built in New York, logues. To our professional readers this fact
Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, to men- is no doubt familiar and has been for many
tion only a few instances. In the equipment years; but there is in this publication much
of these People’s Baths, Mr. Gerhard makes that Avill also interest the art-loving public
a strong plea for the use of the shower or who like to keep in touch with recent and
rain bath as being the most suitable fixture prospective foreign building operations and
hygienically for public bathing, providing the works of sculpture. Of the latter there is
proper conditions for cleansing the body with reproduced a very representative collection of
the least consumption of water and as afford- contemporary English, French and German
ing much the greatest capacity of use. figure and monumental work. The suburban
It
has been demonstrated that one shower or houses illustrated should also interest Ameri-
rain bath will do in a given time the work of cans as they suggest an interesting com-
four bathtubs with less danger of getting parison between the suburban house work of
out of order. He also Avisely suggests that our own architects and contemporary work
tenement houses, especially those in New in England and on the Continent.
York, might be provided to advantage with
such rain baths in some suitable place in the Edited by Alex. Koch, architect, London. U. S.:
M. A. Vinson. Cleveland, Ohio.
Copyright, 1908, by ‘The Architectural Record Company.’* All rights reserved.
Vol. XXIII. No. 6. JUNE, 1908. Whole No. 117.
IIPiilBi
';t t
1ST
,C T-&:
Page
OUR SUBURBAN ARCHITECTURE 419
THE MODEST COUNTRY HOME 423

Illustrated.
TREATING THE GROUNDS ABOUT THE SUBURBAN HOUSE 433

Illustrated. Harold A. Caparn.
DECORATING AND FURNISHING THE INEXPENSIVE COUNTRY
HOME 445
Illustrated.
THE KITCHEN AND ITS DEPENDENT SERVICES— 1 4S3

Illustrated. Katharine C. Budd.
RECENT SUBURBAN HOUSES 477
Illustrated by plans, exterior and interior views.
NOTES AND COMMENTS 503
Automobiles and Suburban House Sites- An English
Paper On Town Planning— Competition For Cottage
Houses— Plans For Roanoke— Wanted: Recutting,
Not Patches— Advertisement Protests— A Valuable
Publication— National Architecture and Building
Exposition.
PUBLISHED BY
President, Clinton W. Sweet Treasurer. F. W. Dodge
Vice-Pres &~l
Geul. Mgr., /H. W. Desmond Secretary, F. T. Miller
11-15 EAST 24TH STREET, MANHATTAN
Subscription (Yearly) S3. 00 Published Monthly
TWENTY- TWENTY-
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WESTERN OFFICE: 84 MONADNOCK BLDG., CHICAGO, ILL. 1

HI) e
Jlfftlitfftural lirrm&
Vol. XXIII JUNE, 1908. No. 6.
Our Suburban Architecture

There no denying the fact that the
is to excel in extent or equal in magnifi-
standard American architecture is
of cence ;
expense, not to say economy,
raised from year to year, and there is was not their object, so long as they
no department of that architecture were enabled to make the splendid im-
which shows this constant improvement pression which they considered an in-
to a greater extent than does the de- dispensable part of their position in life.
sign of our suburban houses. This de- So rapid has been the commercial de-
sign, to a large extent, has not devel- velopment of the United States in the
oped from its early beginnings which our last decade that the progress of its arch-
ancestors borrowed or brought across itecture has been unable to keep pace
the sea with them from England, France with conditions, and especially notice-
and elsewhere. On the contrary, it has able is this backwardness in our urban
preferred to strike out for itself on new architecture, which was not so fortu-
lines, seeking inspiration under new con- nate in its emancipation from customs
ditions of life and environment, begin- and forms which were no more to find
ning with extreme crudeness of concep- favor, as was our suburban architecture
tion in form and in plan and gradually which stands to-day as a consequence, as
developing these rude beginnings in har- perhaps the only substantial accomplish-
mony with the rapid growth of our comment for which we can claim any meas-
mercial wealth. As commerce increased ure of credit. But even suburban archi-
in volume it brought in its wake, as was tecture has failed to progress fast
the case in Roman military conquest, a enough to keep apace of the require-
pomp and a luxury that was practically ments and faithfully reflect present na-
unknown elsewhere. Merchants pros- tional tendencies. This statement is
pered, grew rich and sought an interest- made, however, with all due allowance
ing and diverting way in which to ex- for what has been accomplished in this
press their prosperity and enjoy their field in some instances in widely scat-
gain. Their newly found wealth led tered localities. We speak of the aver-
them into luxurious ways, increasing the age standard of performance.
'number of their material wants and tend- Improvement in suburban architecture
ing in general to make their daily life has come about to some extent, despite
more complex. Such conditions the ar- what we might call its indigenous de-
chitectand the artist were called upon velopment, through the training which
to meet and such tendencies they must Americans have obtained in Europe.
express in the houses which they were This training has not meant merely the
called upon to design for these com- importation into our architecture of for-
merce loving people who demanded eign forms and tradition, it has acted, in
something grand, something new, some- some instances, in quite the opposite
thing which others would not be likely way of establishing in its possessors a
Copyright, 1908, by ’< The Architectural Record Company.” All rights reserved.
Entered May 22, 1902, as second-class matter, Post Office at New York, N Y., Act of Congress of March 3d, 189*.
4
new standard and in giving them new to accomplish progress it is necessary

inspiration and artistic hope. While our for them to break away completely from
domestic architecture has thus obtained all tradition and the basic principles of
some real inspiration from contact with humanism They feel a need
in their art.
tradition, our public and commercial art to strike outon new lines and force their
has been affected very differently and to work to grow along the lines of mathe-
a large extent detrimentally, and it is matical reasoning rather than in accord-
coming to depend for its salvation more ance with the gentler, though perhaps
and more upon the very commercial less course of natural selection.
exact,
conditions which called it into being. Much our architecture bears this
of
Commerce introduced and made steel stamp of artistic reasoning in which the
available for building purposes the steel
;
French have led the artistic world for
skeleton at once came into use ma- ;
many generations. Our foreign-trained
chinery has developed and been greatly architects have brought this influence to
cheapened; the result has been a renas- the United States with them, and the in-
cence of concrete and tile. Commerce fluence which is spreading through their
has made vast inroads into our timber works is at present recognized as the
supply, which, imperfectly protected, is most potent force in our artistic devel-
rapidly bringing the American people opment, and one which is both beneficial
face to face with a wood famine which, and detrimental in its effect upon our
as far as we can at present judge, con- architecture. Now, in a sense, the
crete and tile will help to alleviate more adoption of much of this architecture
than any other materials. Thus com- raisonnee expresses the wastefulness
merce destroys a building material and of American conditions of life, the
circumstances enable it to provide a ready love of cheap, tawdry display and nov-
substitute;
it destroys while it con- elty at any cost. We do not mean to
serves, but the far seeing men of the assert that French art is responsible for
nation fully realize that the present pro- its American version ;
we refer herein
cess cannot go on indefinitely, for there only to the effect of its influence, not to
must come a time when the waste will the art itself.
come to seriously overbalance what can The condition of our suburban archi-
be conserved. Such wise individual's tecture before the advent of the English
are beginning to recognize the fact that and French influence was, of course,
our economic salvation lies in a policy of such that in its abject, artistic poverty
protection and conservation, not so much any extraneous influence was welcomed,
in a production of always something new and it is not to be gainsaid, furnished
and much better than what we at present a certain amount of new inspiration upon
possess, but in a judicious guarding and which it was free to grow according to
application to our needs of what we its own needs and inclinations. True,
have, a sort of higher development of we had the Colonial. But what have
the present immature stage rather than we done to continue its development ?
a seeking after new and virgin fields of When we speak of American suburban
endeavor. architecture we do not, of course, mean
This economic condition is, to a cer- to assert thatEurope has not contributed
tain extent, reflected in our architecture, its share of wholesome influence to its
and, perhaps it is not an exaggeration foundation. What we do mean to say
to say, in all architecture, which, in this is that the American method of proce-
sense faithfully reflects social and eco- dure, the point of view from which its
nomic tendencies the world over. Just problems are attacked, is still largely
as society feels that it has seen every- foreign. Its forms may be some of them
thing, heard everything, done every- of French importation, but they are just
thing, so our architects are apt to show their origin to England
as likely to
feel that everything in the field of or Germany, to Belgium or Holland.
architecture and art has been said, These forms, regardless of their origin,
seen and done, and that in order are arranged, expanded or compressed
OUR SUBURBAN ARCHITECTURE. 421
into combinations to satisfy certain pro- couragement for the future of American
cesses of reasoning. In short, they are architecture.
regimented and reasoned into an archi- Whether this success has been
tectural mass. When one speaks of su- achieved, as some of its authors insist,
burban architecture being regimentea by getting at what they call the funda-
one refers chiefly to methods of plan- mental principles of all design and art;
ning, the importance of establishing by eschewing absolutely the forms in
axes in plan and the general symmetri- which architecture has found its expres-
cal idea which is peculiar to French for- sion in other lands at other times, and
mal design. The application of formal by composing new designs out of the nat-
design to country architecture is, of ural forms which are indigenous with
course, limited by the more impermanent the site and conditions, whether this has
character of the buildings; but, at the been their method of procedure does not
same time, their greater latitude of ex- particularly interest the public nor does
tent invites formality. it especially concern their contemporary
But while the attitude of our archi- professional brethren. After all, who
towards their design problems may can analyze the course of reasoning, if,
1
tects
still be, to a large extent, an unreason- indeed, one may call it reasoning, by
able one for American conditions, yet which a beautiful design, a work of art,
there is noticeable in widely scattered has been achieved. The explanation of
sections of the country an earnest at- a work of design can be but speculative,
tempt to alter this attitude to a more and such an explanation is valuable in
frank acknowledgment not so much of proportion as it is suggestive and in-
our artistic independence of the old structive. Leaving out of consideration
world, and its artistic tradition, but of then the mental process which has pro-
the necessity of looking native conditions duced what is admirable in the work to
squarely in the face and in adopting which is referred above, it is the result
from foreign performances what is ap- alone which interests the spectator.
propriate to and consistent with these Nor can one agree today with those
conditions, and most important, perhaps, who persistently maintain, in matters of
of adopting that which gives promise art, that beauty and truth are synony-
of offering American architecture sug- mous, for those who are guided by this
gestions for future development and principle soon reach the position where
growth. The frankness in design to these two qualities refuse to co-oper-
which we make reference above has been ate and compromise is inevitable. Even
confined thus far almost entirely to our if they fail to realize the nature of the
suburban architecture which has conse- difficulty and cause, they instinctively
its
quently acquired something of artistic make mutual concessions between con-

merit. flicting forces. The development of art
In the March issue of the Archi- and especially of architecture has ever /
tectural Record there were shown a been a history of compromise between

large number of suburban houses ex- what, on the one hand seemed the most
hibiting, in some degree, the kind of obvious and straightforward thing to do,
artistic striving to which we allude. and on the other of certain practical
Many of these designs, no doubt, con- limitations and forceful economies which
tain much for which the architectural could not be disregarded with impunity.
fraternity, as a whole, would hesitate to No, beauty in art is not truth nor vice
stand sponsor, but the general basis of versa; in fact, the case might be more
the work cannot fail to commend itself emphatically stated by saying that in art
to architects and the result to the pros- the end attained justifies the means, if
pective builders of homes. It may not truth figures prominently as a determin-
be possible to acclaim, as invariably ing factor so much the better, but its
beautiful, the products of such labor, absence should not, in the mind of the
but the measure of success which has beholder, effect his verdict as to the
already crowned its efforts offers en- quality of the result.
ARCHITECT.
JONES,
W.
SULLIVAN
OF
HOUSE
1.
FIG.
Y.
N.
Park,
Mawr
Bryn
:
The Modest Country Home

Perhaps there is no sort of habitation roomy chambers which his domestic es-
about which there exists a greater curi- tablishment requires, he permits his
osity in the minds of the great American house to be divided up into a greater
middle class than one finds to-day in re- number of smaller rooms, none of which
gard to the suburban or the country is adequate to serve, with any measure
house which can be obtained at a of success, the purposes for which it
moderate expenditure. It is one of might, under other conditions, be in-
the most popular topics of the tended. Acordingly, one encounters par-
pictorial magazines. Even the daily lorsand libraries, sitting rooms and dens
newspapers have touched upon the allsqueezed into the meagre compass of
subject to some extent. While such a space of twenty-five by thirty-five feet
a ready response to the popular demand or less, a mere piece of affectation. The
for information about home-building is prospective owner of such a house could
gratifying, one cannot but reach the con- do nothing better than to take to heart
clusion that the greater portion of the those lines of Shakespeare in Polonius’
effort to meet that demand fails utterly advice to his son
of serving a useful purpose. One can-
not deny that the subject, as presented
in these popular journals, is interesting
“But this above all, — to thine own self
be true”
and affords considerable entertainment,
having won many ardent adherents but ;
It is a lack of honesty to himself
neither can one escape the conviction and to his family that is responsible for
that, before the intelligent building the often ridiculous miniature mansions
public will be in position to acquire which are depicted in so many of
substantial ideas of the conditions which our small suburban houses. He must
confront the individual who contem- not only be honest with himself and his
plates building his family a suburban friends, but with his experts, whom, of
or country home, he will be compelled course, it is useless to try to deceive. In
to unlearn much that he has gathered stating his conditions he must be willing
from such sources that it will, in fact,
;
to acknowledge and state his real re-
become necessary for him to place quirements without being unduly influ-
himself in the humiliating position enced by considerations which, in real-
of one who, while he has a definite ity, have no bearing on his case. It can
and important part to play in the profit such an individual little to attempt
transaction of building, must never- to model his needs after pictures of Cali-
theless be content to place himself at fornian bungalows or New England
the mercy of expert advice on many farm houses. Such a course is as foreign
matters which popular fiction has led to his training as the result is to his
him to believe are within his province. needs, and the result surely is not diffi-
Lack of honesty, to which such discus- cult to detect in the abortive attempts at
sions generally fail even to allude, is one composite designs which are so per-
of the most obvious drawbacks to a sistently familiar to suburbanites.
higher standard of planning and design- A
force which is responsible for much
ing in our modest country houses. The of this influence thus far, so detrimental
owner would have .his house planned to the standard of our suburban design,
and designed as though he were build- is the popular but dangerous tendency
ing chiefly to afford his friends an in- which assumes that there exists a
teresting and diverting place in which short cut to all popularly imparted at
to hold social intercourse. His real pur- a very small outlay in time and in
pose, namely, to provide a comfortable money. The doctrine which one
home for his family is forced into the hears preached so much in commerce:
background, and in place of the few “Do it yourself with our directions, and
save time and expense” has very seri- quence, regarded by the prospective
ously invaded the territory of American owner as obstacles to be overcome,
architecture and has led the public to rather than as the legitimate agen-
assume an attitude in relation to matters cies through which alone he is enabled
of architecture with which it has no to get the maximum result for his
right to concern itself. money. And the smaller the house
The building public has, as a conse- and the less expensive the more bane-
quence, lost the advantages of its posi- ful seems to be the effect of the own-
tion by virtue of failing to perform its er’s attempt to do most of his own de-
proper functions. signing and to exercise personal super-
Instead of studying its part and acting vision over its construction. single A
it conscientiously and legitimately, it experience, however, is generally suffi-
FIG. 2. STUDIO OF MR. H. D. MURPHY.

Winchester, Mass. Robert C. Coit, Architect.
prefers, instead, and is encouraged in its cient to convince him of his error. He
course, to usurp the powers of technical then realizes that he is simply passing
and mechanical activities which, in its through a preliminary and experimental
hands, become the dangerous tools that stage which the architect and the builder
produce the comedies and tragedies of are able to experience by proper train-
our suburban architecture. According ing without the costly and disastrous
to therecommendations of much of this effects which are an amateur’s lot. As a
doctrine architects and builders are, to result, such an experiment generally
a client, merely expensive and dispensa- leaves him in a confirmed condition of
ble commodities, who are, in conse- disgust with everything that pertains to
THE MODEST COUNTRY HOME. 425
building. If he has the courage to seek rial are fairly representative of what
another domicile it is usually a ready- might be the quality of performance for
made affair that he chooses, preferring the modest suburban or country home.
to risk the chance of getting something Figure 1 is the home of Mr. Sullivan W.
ready-made which will admit of altering Jones, an architect, and is situated at
to suit his purpose rather than face again Bryn Mawr Park, New York. The de-
the unknown realm of ideas which his sign consists in a picturesque treatment
first experience has convinced him he is of gable roofs, in which the large rough
incapable of mastering. He is now stone chimney serves to relieve a possi-
helplessly at sea and glad enough to ble monotony. The house is absolutely
grasp at a straw to save himself. This devoid of ornament of any sort, and the
FIG. 3. COTTAGE ON ESTATE OF MRS. GEO. E. WOOD.

Salisbury, Conn. Mann & McNeill, Architects.
little play of amateur house-building has materials employed are inexpensive, but
been acted so many thousands of times characteristically and effectively used.
that it is really surprising that his kind It is to be observed how the architect has
continues to fail to see the light. But softened the penetrating effect of his
the bulk of current work shows only windows and made them mere deco-
too plainly that his successors are still rative spots in the walls by minutely
laboring under the same delusion. subdividing the panes of glass. The
To show that it is not impossible to strip of roof which runs across the front
do the thing properly on an inexpensive at the base of the main gable is effective
scale, we illustrate the following houses, in tying the chimney to the main mass
which for variety of design and mate- of the house. Figure 2 is the studio of
Mr. Herman Dudley Murphy, at Win- unexpected charm. An attractive fea-

chester, Massachusetts, an artist, who ture is the design of the porch-supports
has also paid considerable attention to ar- and roof, which gives the main gable
tistic picture frames. It is an extremely just sufficient flexibility of silhouette to
inexpensive structure, though more for- soften the inevitably hard roof lines.
mal in treatment man Fig. i. Here the It is seldom that a small suburban
attention directed chiefly to the walls,
is house depends very much for its effect
which are covered with plaster on a upon color and detail, but the next ex-
wire-lath foundation and interrupted at ample illustrated, Figure 4, a cottage
the corners by wooden posts which run on Oak Road at Tarrytown, New York,
to the eaves and are emphatically is an exception to this rule. For the
PI
|h| p~r— Iml IR
in mllm h|
FIG. 4. A COTTAGE ON OAK ROAD, TARRYTOWN, N. Y.

Ewing & Chappell, Architects.
stained. The garden is cleverly tied to first impression is of brilliant contrast

the studio by means of the picturesque between the clean white of the walls
lattice screen which shows on the left and the dark shingles. A second inspec-
of the picture. Figure 3 illustrates a tion reveals an unusual amount of
cottage on the estate of Mrs. George E. detail in the form of minute mouldings.
(Wood, at Salisbury, in Connecticut. In In Figure 5 we have a type of long, low
this cottage the architects, Messrs. gambrel-roofed house, which, at the
Mann & McNeill, have rendered the hands of a less skillful designer than
familiar type of small New England Mr. Wilson Eyre, its architect, might
farmhouse, but with sufficient modifica- have resulted in an uninteresting and
tion and interest of detail to give it an commonplace composition. The way in
which the overhang of the roof has been are given chiefly to show what different
supported aesthetically on wooden brack- impressions may be produced by a
ets introduces a feeling of grace, where change in the point of view. The limi-
the disagreeable effect of too much roof tations of photography are here appar-
for the size of the house would other- ent, proving that the only way to really
wise have been remarked. The placing know a house is to go and see it. The
and arrangement of roof employed in attractive natural setting of Mr. Kirby’s
the large dormer is especially worthy house, and the way in which the most
of note ;
it is also to be observed has been made of its advantages, deserve
that the architect felt the necessity of mention.
even more securely fixing this dormer, The next two illustrations, Figures 8
FIG. 5. HOUSE OF MR. E. A. CRENSHAW.

Chestnut Hill, Pa. Wilson Eyre, Architect.
which he has accomplished by breaking and 9, illustrate a very different prob-

out the gabled hood over the entrance lem in suburban house-designing. In
and butting its ridge against the wall of this case the architects, Messrs. Hill &
the dormer under the windows. The James, were required to design a house
floored stone terrace, which presumably on a restricted treeless plot situated on
is used as a veranda, deserves notice for a slope. Figure 8 shows how advantage
its appropriate and sufficient handling. has been taken of the falling grade to
Figures 6 and 7, like Figure 1, illustrate accommodate a basement and an ex-
the home of an architect, Mr. Henry V. tension,making the house, in that part,
Kirby, situated at South Orange, in four stories in height. To compensate
New Jersey. Two views of this house for the lack of a natural background,
FIG. 8. THE ANGIER HOUSE.

Quincy, Mass. Hill & James, Architects.
FIG. 9. THE" ANGIER HOUSE.

Quincy, Mass. Hill & James, Architects.
FIG. 10. SEASIDE COTTAGE OF MR. E. M. BLUNT.

Marshfield, Mass. Thomas Atkinson, Architect.
FIG. 11. SEASIDE COTTAGE OF MR. E. M. BLUNT.

Marshfield, Mass. Thomas Atkinson, Architect.
the architects have found it necessary the least expensive of all, while it is also
to provide the greatest amount of va- the least permanent, being without a
riety in the silhouette of the roofs and cellar and of the lightest stud-frame
to attract attention at the same time to construction, without interior wall fin-
the plain cement wall surfaces, whose ish. It is a seaside cottage, situated at
only visible adornments are the massive Marshfield, in Massachusetts, not in-
projecting second-story window sills, all tended for occupancy all the year round.
the other sills being architecturally neg- The grounds, being in an unfinished
ligible. This problem of the barren re- state, cannot be fairly considered in re-
stricted site, which is apt to occur with lation to the house. In fact, the house
increasing frequency, presents the max- itself is not a home in the sense of a
A BROOKLINE HOUSE FINISHED IN PLASTER.

Brookline, Mass. W. G. Rantoul, Architect.
imum of difficulty to the designer. The permanent domicile, but it has been in-
house must be equally well designed troduced here because it contains sug-
from all points of the compass on ac- gestions of what may be done by a com-
count of its exposed position, while it petent designer, who has but a little
can rely on little or no help from its money with which to obtain a pleasing
surroundings. effect, a task which, it need not be
Our last example, shown in Figures pointed out, presents peculiar difficul-
10 and 11, is different again from any ties and requires frankness in the use of
of the other houses in this series. In materials, and which is so rarely appre-
the first place, it is, perhaps, by far ciated.
Architects.
would
steps
Hastings,
the
to
&
out
Brockie
carried
perhaps
and
concerned.
base
the is
MORRIS.
picture
along
H. the
planting
P.
as
MR.
far
more
OP as
little
place
HOUSE
A
the
trees.
complete
among
house
of
kind
right
the
of
Pa.
charm
Nova,
The
Villa
Treating the Grounds About the House
Mr. Howson Lott of Lonelyville, N. J., be content in it, to be unwilling to leave
orRye Neck, N. Y., rises at six thirty or it in the morning and glad to get back
seven oft a wintry morning, catches the to it in the evening, it must be imagined
seven forty-one or the eight eleven on and perfected not merely by an artisan,
the Delay, Linger and Wait, or the New but by an artist.
York, Long Island and Hudson River So our enlightened commuter has
Railroad, spends thirty to sixty minutes found out that whether he is going to lay
or more on the train, wiling away the out $5,000 or $50,000 on a house it is
time, it may be, as he peruses a satirical the safe and economical thing to pay
description of himself and his ways writ- someone who knows five per cent, or ten
ten at so much per line by a dyspeptic per cent, to show him how to do it. But
newspaper man in a ten by twelve flat the house is not the only thing for which
overlooking an inner court. Before his he braves the daily ordeal of trains, fer-
journey is ended he must cross the river ryboats and cars. There is the ground on
in an atrociously stuffy ferryboat or which it stands which he bought by the
take a car down town. His day’s work front foot or by the acre, but which in
done, he reverses the process, having any case ought to be not merely a place
spent probably from two to three hours to put the structure, but, in a sense, part
or' more of the day in traveling. Why of it. Since he has paid so much for the
does he do it? Because it is worth while. ground, he ought, as a mere matter of
He is willing, despite the ridicule of our getting a return on his investment, to
friend of the comic paper, to give up get the most possible out of it. It surely
a good deal in time and trouble to get seems absurd to pay a fancy price for a
fresh air to breathe, the sight of real luxury like a little bit of land and then to
grass and trees in summer or real white bestow so care or thought on it
little
snow in winter; to hear the singing of that it mere fraction of the re-
yields a
an occasional bird or see the whisking turn in use and beauty it ought to bring.
of a stray squirrel that has escaped the It is like buying a $2,500 piano so that
gun of the predaceous Italian, the small the children may practice their five-fin-
boy or the alleged sportsman; to raise ger exercises.
some flowers or vegetables or eggs him- Mr. Lott is an expansive and hospit-
self; and to feel a sense of liberty, to able man, and will be happy to take us
have a home big enough to live in with out to see his little place. So we run
a space around it, in which the air may the gauntlet of the cars, the ferries and
freely circulate and, above all, to have
;
the trains and accept his invitation to
an abode and a piece of the earth’s sur- dinner. He will take you round and
face that he may call his own. show you his trees and bushes, discuss
By this time Mr. Lott, contemplating the mosquito problem, and as you sit on
building himself a home, as a rule, has the veranda in the dusk considering one
got beyond the stage of simple faith in of his good cigars, he will, if you en-
the local carpenter or the books of Mr. courage him, tell you the history of his
Shoppell as aids to designing a house. experiences with the real estate man, the
He realizes that there is something more grader, the builder and all the rest of
to it than making the rooms of the requi- them. He is a little hazy about the
site size, making the structure sound functions of his architect, but gives him
and stable, installing the latest electrical lots of credit for the arrangement in the
and plumbing devices. A little dimly, butler’s pantry or the closets in the spare
perhaps, but still effectively he feels that bedroom, but is inclined to think
his house ought to be somehow an ex- he should have kept a sharper lookout
pression of himself, and that if he is to on the plasterers and tells you how much
—
better a job was done when some of it put down a cement walk, straight or
had to be taken out and he looked after curly as the case might be; smoothed
the repairs himself. His notions about off the surface, sowed some grass seed
the merits or demerits of the design are and let it go at that. Probably he left
somewhat vague, for Mr, Lott, excellent various and sundry old boards, bricks
fellow though he is, needs educating on or plaster six inches under the surface
this subject. Whether this education is so that the owner wonders in summer
to come through the public schools or time why those brown patches in the
from some other source is hard to tell lawn seem to have come to stay in spite
D A * M
. Wa
ZZZZ3
No. 1. No. 2a.
at present, but we shall have little senti- of the sprinkler’s going all day. Then
ment in our architecture until those who Mr. Lott got in some trees and bushes
pay for it get it in themselves. from the nurseryman, set them out here
If our commuter is hazy about his and there and sat back and contemplated
house, he is still more so about his lot. the result with satisfaction. All up and
He put his house thus and so because down the street his neighbors have been
because there seemed to be no reason doing about the same thing; a smooth
for putting it anywhere else; the house lawn, mostly badly shaped, if it is any-
built, he got in the local grader who thing but flat, some trees and miscellau-
TREATING THE GROUNDS ABOUT THE HOUSE. 435
eous bushes, probably including a Japan- plain that the first and most important
ese maple, a golden elder, a purple bar- question of all is the placing of the
berry, a chamaecyparis plumosa aurea, house, for on that all the rest must de-
and a Koster’s blue spruce. pend, the paths and roads, the turn-
Looking up and down the street the abouts, the getting-in of coal, the shape
scene is cheerful and American with low and size of the lawns and so on. It is
fences, or none at all, waving trees and safe to lay down the broad principle that
grass shorn within an inch of its life the house should not be put in the mid-
as far one can see.
as But it is all dle of the lot. This, on the average
rather futile and aimless. The house narrow and deep lot, will usually make
and the grounds as a rule do not really two largish pieces (front and rear) ap-
fit. The best part of the latter is dedi- proximately square, and two narrow
cated to the public. There is seldom any ones at the sides on the length of the
evidence of a definite scheme, a serious house. Take a lot about 50x120 feet,
No. 6a. No 7. No. 8.
attempt to unite the house and lot into as diagramed in No. i, the commonest in
a home. And it is really astonishing that Suburbania. Here nothing is very wide
with all our American sympathy for the or narrow or deep, or very anything; all
things that grow out of the ground and the pieces are as nearly alike as can be
leaf and flower, it does not yet seem and difficult to treat with individuality.
to have occurred to us that they can be But suppose we take the same house
combined into a scheme of decoration. and put it on the same lot, but pushed
Well, what are we going to do about it to within fifteen feet of the street and
it? Is it not “up to us,” hypercritical over to the right, leaving about six feet
folk to show what better can be done, and for a hedge and a path to the kitchen.
how? Suppose we consider the case gen- There will be a space in front of the
erally and discuss a few typical exam- house enough to separate it from the
ples of better treatment of the subur- street ;
a fence or hedge of some kind
ban lot. A little thought will make it can be put at A-B with perhaps an arch.
5
with roses cutting off the back part of will show the happy effect of leaving an
the lot from the front and giving a long old apple tree of a rambling habit to give
vista through foliage from C to D. an air to the garden by its free and un-
There is space for some interesting conventional growth and the sentiment
planting between the house and boun- attaching to it as a relic of former times
dary, and the back part of the lot can be and circumstances.
treated in a dozen different ways to make Here is a plan for a hundred-foot su-
a consistent whole and to utilize the burban lot made by adding a vacant lot
space to the best advantage. (No. ia.) to theone on which the house had been
A hundred-foot lot in Corning, N. Y., built.(No. 4.) This brought the house to
contains an old-fashioned and spreading one corner of the double lot, as the plan
kind of house up in one corner and within shows, and it was desired to screen the
A VIEW OF THE WOOD TRELLIS AND PLANTING OF THE LAYOUT SHOWN IN NO. 2, ON
PAGE 434.
ten feet of the street. (No. 2.) As part rear of the place by some kind of wall
of the veranda is more retired and or fence from A to B, and to provide
screened from the street, plenty of priv- for a flower garden. The simplest solu-
acy can be had for the after lunch cigar tion seemed to be to fence the flower
or the evening tete-a-tete, and the rest garden with a trellised wall or pergola,
of the lot cuts up admirably. There putting it where it would screen the rear
is a good lawn with shrubbery round it, to the best advantage. A small vegetable
the boundary on the right is a handsome garden was placed at the back and ar-
stone church with Boston ivy growing ranged to give a long vista from the
on it, and at the rear of the house is street through the flower and vegetable
a little formal flower garden enclosed gardens to the back of the lot. A small
with a pier and trellis fence with two outbuilding moved to C made an en-
entrances. The picture, on this page, closed court for the rear of the house
:
and the rest of the layout follows so rear of the lot, giving on a lawn that
as togive a small lawn in the front may be decorated with a boldness and
and a large secluded one at the back on a scale proportionate to its size, and
fringed with foliage for the use of the having the usefulness that comes from
owner. This is not necessarily an ideal beauty and privacy. This lawn is free
arrangement, but perhaps as good as can to the owner, but the other is free neither
be devised under our American custom to the public nor the owner.
of opening at least a part of the lot to the All these are schemes for dividing
street. flat or flattish pieces of ground. But when
Let us take a larger lot of similar the grades become steep the question be-
shape and from one to four or five acres. comes rapidly more complex and difficult
It is likely to be arranged in this kind to generalize about, as each place is a
ANOTHER ATTRACTIVE BIT OF PLANTING AND TRELLIS WORK.
of way: (No. 2a), assembling the house problem and a law unto itself. If a
and outbuildings and back regions in lot slopes rapidly down_to the street, or
the rear of the lot with a long drive to if the street has been cut through an ele-
reach them and a big bare lawn with vation so as to leave the lots high up, it
decorations inadequate or out of scale, is an excellent plan to put the house
dedicated to the public. But suppose a near the street with a terrace in front,
layout something like this. (No. 3.) Here supported by a wall on the street, then
the house and outbuildings are sufficient- the layout may be something like this
ly removed from the street with the Those sitting on the terrace or the front
space in front treated formally or in- veranda can see what is going on in the
formally, as the case may be, the dis- street, themselves unseen. Here is a
play front of the house towards the plan for such a lot with a little picture to
street, but the real front towards the show how the front retaining wall might
43 § THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
look. (Nos. 6 and 6a.) Another prob- cuse, N. Y., was arranged by the writer
lem too common and less easy of solution like thisThe houses were set as far
:
is when a street runs up or down a hill back as possible from the main street
and the houses fronting on it have neces- merely allowing space in the rear for
sarily one side high out of the ground the stables and service road. (No. 7.)
and the other buried in it. Of course The lots were originally on a steep slope,
such a state of things ought never to the grade of the side street being eigh-
arise, but it often does in this land of teen per cent. Now for purposes of
street planning on paper where it is as- comfortable living, the steep lot must be
sumed as a first principle that all streets cut into terraces in one form or another.
must run straight and at right angles. There must be points of rest for one can-
Here is an instance. (No. 5.) The not always be digging one’s heels into
ground falls rapidly from A to B and the ground to avoid sliding down hill.
HOUSE’ OF MR. THOMAS LAMONT.

Englewood, N. J. Mann & McNeill, Architects.
This house sets well on a gentle rise and is well united to the ground by the foliage frame
rising on both sides and merely opening to let the steps through. It will look even better
when the shrubbery at the base of the house is better grown. Even the tree in front which
cuts so large a piece out of the house adds much to the attractiveness of the picture.
gently from A to C. The house was Now terraces are nothing but steps on
designed to have one entrance from the a large scale. So on the highest step
porte-cochere a story lower than the were put the stables and service road.
front entrance at D. D is three feet be- On the next lower step the houses, the
low A, a difference in level which is con- round ended garden between them and
cealed by the planting. Most of the slope the two large square grass terraces in
is managed on the lawn E, while F was front of them. (Remember, gentle
made nearly level by cutting down near reader, that a terrace is not a sloping
the house and filling up along the alley. bank, but also and especially the flat
Not common, but still to be found here space on top of it.) Then two grass-
and there are two houses on adjoining walled terraces were made, not merely
lots treated as one. Such a case in Syra- to look well, but to furnish a stretch of
turf to walk upon, and to give a sense be clear that in a case like this, a modi-
of security and rest that a steep slope house
fication of but a single foot in the
never can. Between the two houses the grade would throw all the others out of
single approach road to serve them both gear. The houses are, unfortunately, as
rises at an eight per cent, grade. The different in design as they can be, but
final step,the riser of which is a retain- the effect is successful enough to justify
ing wall with a shrubbery covered bank the treatment.
above it leads down to the street. Such At Ithaca, N. Y., is a remarkable
is the general idea, though the whole instance of three neighbors having
arrangement is more complex for in-;
agreed to pool their interests and live
stance, the first step on which the barns and build their houses on a plan like,
stand was formed by excavating ten or as near as the writer can recollect, the
twelve feet and supporting the cut by sketch shown in No. 8.
ZANTZINGER HOUSE.
Germantown, Pa. Robson Perot, Architect.
The comfortable and home-like look of this enclosure, and the desire it excites to see what
is within makes one wish to see more such in suburban America, in spite of its exclusiveness.
retaining walls ;
but between them is a These three houses are similar in
high sloping bank, covered with forsy- general design and the propriety of
thia saspensa, which ought, by this time, the treatment is more obvious. These
to be a fine sight. The garden between joint stock arrangements of lots have
the houses is below its upper retaining many advantages. Each house gets the
wall and above its lower one, each wall benefit, as far as effect goes, of the ad-
being about three feet high at the high- joining property, there are fewer roads
est point, while the divided road ascends and paths necessary, and the general lay-
on both sides of it. Much care was spent out is simpler. Besides, it shows an in-
in determining the best level for the difference to that kind of popular ex-
houses, and in adjusting the various clusiveness which surrounds a lot on
grades to the best advantage, for it will the street or a lot in the cemetery, with
a barrier which secures neither privacy descends to the lower story and ascends
nor protection, but merely serves to to the upper ones. (No. 9.)
mark the boundary as were it to say The general plan arranges itself at-
to its “This is where you
neighbor : tractively along the upper part of the lot
step, my and I begin.” We don’t
friend, with many a device to make the hillside
put walls around our front yards, as practicable to live on: First, a big step or
they do in Europe, to get seclusion and platform is made on the side of the hill,
the use of the space for ourselves but ;
partly dug out and partly filled to ac-
we put up little fences that anyone can commodate the house and walled garden.
see through and over and which merely On the side of the latter nearest the ap-
HOUSE OF THOMAS E. BAIRD, JR.

Brockie & Hastings, Architects.
The hedge seems too close to the house or the house too close to the hedge. One feels that
an opening up to the centre with an accent in the shape of a pair of bays or other formal
plants in front of the masonry strips between the door and side windows would give this house
a centre which it partially lacks. Steps ascending the bank between a mass of shrubbery cov-
ering it would make a rich setting for the whole.
seem to assert separation from the neigh- proach road is a retaining wall seven
bors without real benefit. feet high above the garden, on the other
Within the last year or two a house side is another wall about as high be-
has been built at Stockbridge, Mass., on low it. Above the garden thick plant-
the top of a steep slope of six or eight ing will presently grow up and conceal
acres. The entrance to the house faces it from the street; on the other side one
the road, and the front (of the house) looks over a balustrade on to a deep
faces the prospect. The ground being valley and an extensive prospect. Not
so steep the front is much higher than only does the lot slope rapidly from the
the back, and the interior is ingeniously road, but the road itself has a grade of
arranged so that from the entrance one about eight per cent. The bank in front
;
of the house and garden and kitchen vita brevis! We have already consid-
yard is made by filling, and kept in place ered the first principles of arrangement
by grass. All along it for a depth of of our salient parts very cursorily, per-
about forty feet is shrubbery planting, haps, but to the extent of two or three
carried as far as the stable, to tie the thousand words and it would take many
;
whole plan together by a practically con- thousand more to give an idea of the
tinuous mass of foliage as a base to the immensely varied materials that nature
whole. The vegetable garden is placed and the nurserymen have put within our
on the most fertile and least steep part reach to express our feeling for texture,
of the grounds, and near enough to the form, color and size. But it may be
house for convenience. The corners are as well to g'ive a little advice as to the
cut to obviate the ugliness of an angle care and maintenance of one’s lot
obtruding into a sloping lawn. fenceA whether its layout is good or bad
for climbing roses encloses it on three whether it has a coherent and obvious
sides, and a grass walk runs all around scheme, made by some one who knew
with small fruits, blackberries, raspber- what he wanted, or whether it was done
ries, currants, gooseberries and apples in the usual way with the aimless and
and pears on cordons, with the central futile effect of the average suburban lot.
space for all the various and necessary It will be well to mention that the ill-
vegetables. Through the shrubbery and planned or unplanned lot costs as much
vegetable garden a broad grass walk or more trouble to take care of than the
runs from the back yard to the stable. well planned one. Most important is it
Now we may attempt to view a few to remember that the best way to keep
general conclusions from all these in- a place in good order is to make it so in
stances. On a level lot or one of mod- the beginning. This means thorough
erate slope, the most important principle cultivation over all surfaces excepting
is to get the masses or areas of ground the walks to a depth usually not less
arranged to the best advantage this ; than fifteen inches. “Don’t expect your
usually means that one of them is a good shrubs and plants and grass to grow if
deal larger than the others which should there is no soil for their roots to pene-
be subordinated in proportion to their trate for nourishment. Don’t turn the
uses or style of treatment, all of which sprinkler on those brown patches in the
depends, of course, on the location of the lawn, but dig them up and sow them
house. Then the treatment of the parts again. As likely as not you will find
may be formal or informal, according clay or builders’ litter or other detri-
to the predilections of the owner and mental stuff underneath. Replace it with
the nature of the ground. When the good soil.
ground is steep, the problem resolves it- “Prune deciduous shrubs and trees
self into that of establishing the masses when planted by cutting off about one-
at the best levels and getting up or down third of the tops. This is merely done
to them as easily and conveniently as to lessen the demand on the roots weak-
possible. There are, of course, two ways ened by transplanting. Don’t prune
of doing this, one by a “falling-off” place, afterwards, excepting to cut out dead or
a large step or retaining wall with small straggling shoots. Don’t on any account
steps for pedestrians, the other by a let the hired man slash your bushes into
“sliding-down” place, a slope from one ugly shapes of fungi or pumpkins all
level to another. The examples discussed alike, no matter what the variety, a
may give an idea how endless are the forsythia exists to grow like a forsythia
ways and means of using the two devices. and a spirea like a spirea and so on down
Of course, the chief means of decora- the list.” Besides, this so-called “prun-
tion of making the whole composition ing” cuts off most of the flowers, and
interesting is the foliage of trees and injures the bushes.
shrubs. Some readers will be asking Trees and shrubs are like other plants
why I do not them something about
tell food and
in their desire for cultivation,
this fascinating subject. But ars longa, water. Deciduous trees and shrubs all
like manure andto be watered in dry the wise commuter about the designing of
spells. “Treat your trees and shrubs, in it may be in season, for, although it is not
fact, like a farm or garden crop.” All possible to teach the art and mystery of
shrubs are better for mulching, i. e., landscape gardening, any more than of
spreading a layer of leaves, hay or straw anything else, in one lesson, the reader
with some manure over the roots. “If may be saved the perpetration of some
you have any rhododendrons, kalmias, or of the more common and obvious errors.
azaleas, keep them mulched all the year “Assuming then that your house is placed
round. Don’t take off twenty crops or so to advantage, don’t spoil the value of
with the lawn mower in one season and your spaces by cluttering them up with
expect your grass to go on producing things. Don’t put a round or starshaped
forever without fertilizing. You can bed of geraniums or cannas in the mid-
MRS. J. B. RUSSELL’S HOUSE.

Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. Mann & McNeill, Architects.
The narrow terrace on which this house stands is not adequate as a base. It should have
been made much wider, or omitted and the ground should have sloped gently away from
the house. The long line of veranda makes one wish for a long straight line of walk in front
of it (if there had to be a walk), or a curve better in line and grade. The two flower beds
in front and the rather futile planting below the veranda mar the general effect.
spread a layer of old stable manure over die of the front lawn. Don’t give way
the grass in the fall and rake it off in to the temptation to stick in a bush or
the spring, say about one two-horse tree wherever there seems to be a space
wagon load to every ioo square yards, or to put it. Always try to picture your
you can scatter about half a bushel of tree or bush, not as a scraggly pole or
wood ashes and 15 lbs. of bone meal in bundle of sticks as it comes from the
all toevery 100 square yards, in two or nursery, but as a large and rampant mass
three applications, beginning in the of foliage big enough to sit under or to
spring and renewed every three or four stop a gap eight or ten feet wide. If
weeks.” you prefer the popular informal style
“So much advice and warning about like most of your neighbors, remember
the upkeep of your lot.” A
few words to that in a general way, the lawn is a
picture and the frame is foliage, and so helianthus, bocconia, hollyhocks and so
be careful how you scatter bits of the forth at the back. In fact, what you do,
frame over the canvas. If you have a do thoroughly and positively, always
small lot, and want to have a flower trying to get a clear idea first of some
border round the back of it, make it definite scheme, next of what it will
wide enough, six or eight feet or more, look like when it is done.”
and have plenty of tall growing things, Harold A. Caparn.
EMERY HOUSE— DETAIL.

Elmhurst, 111. Chas. Burly Griffin, Architect.
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Decorating and Furnishing the Country
Home
When the house is finished construc- patterns of inexpensive wall papers, with
tively, the question arises as to wall dec- their touch of outdoors in flowered de-
oration. Perhaps the smooth white fin- signs, or subtle conventional figures? Or
ish or the rough sand, tinted or not, will perhaps we can spend a little more
suffice for a while, giving the home money and investigate the many dainty
builder, who as a rule spends more than fabrics that have been successfully used
originally intended, an opportunity to for several years and have much in the
think it all over very carefully. His wife way of durability and quiet simplicity to
perchance will be somewhat more impa- recommend them. There are canvas,
tient. She does not appreciate until the burlap, Japanese grass cloth and others
first winter sets in how much more im- too numerous to mention. Some of these
portant at the outset is the quality, dura- come specially prepared for sanitary re-
bility and putting on of the paper sheath- quirements and in a variety of colors.
ing, if the house is wood, or of the damp- Their textures also vary in roughness
and water-resisting protectives if the and delicacy. Many of these materials
building is brick, stone or concrete. The are of course not to be considered in the
bread-winner, however, who has to meet house of very modest expenditure where
the architect’s certificates, and who per- suitable wall papers which are to be had
haps has had to pay a round premium for the various apartments, in a variety
at the monthly meeting of the Building of attractive designs and colors, must be
Loan Association for his money, is the used. The better stocked purse may,
real one who finally makes the decision. however, investigate and consider the
Let us assume that the house is almost claims of the woven materials which are
ready to be turned over to the owner, of greater cost than wall paper, namely,
the equipment so far has been satisfac- tapestry, burlap, colored buckram and
tory, and now for a final talk with “my colored cheviot, to give a typical list.
architect” as to its interior embellishment, Burlap may be got specially treated,
suitable furniture and wall decoration. tinted, and stenciled with decorative fig-
This may, on his advice, have been post- ures, if desired. In treating these goods
poned for a year or so to give the plaster for wall or ceiling covering the material
a chance to take a normal setting after is thoroughly shrunk and will not change
the heating apparatus has done a win- much when properly hung. The sizing
ter’s work, and it were well so. But on the back gives a firm body to the
now, having arrived at the proper time goods, preventing paste from interfering
for action, what shall be used? with the outside surface when rolled.
Shall stencil patterns, more or less Tapestrolea may be hung as readily
elaborate, be applied on our rough fin- and is durable and sanitary. It may be
ish? Shall we select of the numerous removed and rehung, if occasion requires
;
it, without material damage, and when leatherole, which are inexpensive water-
painted it may be washed down and the proof wall hangings, may also be con-
walls thoroughly cleaned. sidered to advantage as decorations.
Other fabrics of varying hues are fab- Sanitas is a washable wall covering in
rikona, burlap, crash, canvas, Hessian plain colors or designs, glazed or flat
moire and printed burlaps. Fabrikona finished, suitable for halls, dining-rooms,
wall coverings are woven fabrics of va- bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. It
rious surface effects, dyed a solid color, is claimed to be more economical than
or finished in a number of artistic designs paint, and tough enough to be a good

for special color and
textural effects. protection to the plaster against cracks
They are an aid to the simplicity and or accidental blows. It will stand well
sincerity of modern ideals in decoration, under extremes of temperature. Leath-
giving the surfaces which they cover the erole is an imported waterproof cloth
textural values of the old tapestries, having a heavy paper backing and deco-
without the disadvantage of being costly rated face. It is an exceptional cov-
works of art and requiring vast rooms ering for walls and screens and an
to properly exhibit them. Printed bur- effective substitute for leather in deco-
laps come in a number of artistic de- rative work. It is embossed in high
signs, and printed borders and friezes or low relief, and is made in a
burlaps with lustrous or with metallic variety of and designs, afford-
colors
surfaces crashes of dainty surface ef-
;
ing a range of several hundred ef-
fects and fabrics woven in stripes or
;
fects, capable of application to the sim-
figures, securing two-tone results, plest or the most elaborate interior
though dyed a solid color. Kordkona decoration. It furnishes a ready-made
is similar to fabrikona, but has other patterned groundwork, upon which can
colored threads interwoven in the plain be produced an endless variety of color
field. Crash is a special cotton cloth effects. Anaglypta, an imported wall
covering, a trifle more expensive than covering, is embossed by a special pro-
burlap and colored by pigments worked cess from plastic pulp. It furnishes a
into the fabric, which acquires as a re- patterned groundwork for a great vari-
sult a soft delicate texture. This material ety of color effects. One and a half
is to be had in a wide range of stock col- pounds of oil paint will cover a twelve-
ors, special shades being made to order. yard length, and unless a very dark shade
It is a plain weave and makes a durable is required that is sufficient to finish it.
wall covering, being almost as easily Every gradation of shade can be ob-
hung as paper. tained. A substantial relief decoration
Coverings such as sanitas, sanatile and once fixed on walls and ceiling may be
DECORATING AND FURNISHING THE COUNTRY HOME. 447
entirelychanged in appearance by simply leather screens and wall-panels, examples

redecorating the fabric, thus saving the of the Spanish, Florentine and Venetian
expense of new material. schools, where he has an inclination for
Pantasote is a substitute for leather the “antique,” a little money and a fairly
for upholstery purposes. It consists of permanent abode.
two fabrics united firmly together with With all the hurry and rush of the
an intermediate coating of gum, the sur- present day it is a great thing to come
face coated with pantasote and embossed, in to where a feeling of restfulness is
giving it a finish resembling hide leather. apparent. Most every one grows tired
It can be finished in a great variety of of extremes, and when the pendulum of
colors, or with high-relief embossing, “style” swings back in itsjcourse to the
either decorated or plain, for all pur- simple forms, there is a distinct sense of
poses which leather can serve. Shade relief to the eye. The American people
and curtain material consists of a great demand change, but let us take “the
variety of printed and woven fabrics of gifts the gods provide” and enjoy the
different textures and qualities coated “simple life pose” while it lasts. veryA
in the same manner as the upholstery charming expression of the true inward
goods. The coverings can be washed or meaning of this simplicity in furniture
cleaned and are durable, water- and and house furnishing comes to us in the
germ-proof. For shade and curtain pur- movement which aims to restore the
poses it is a very durable material, fairly craftsman to his former position of
inexpensive, and easily kept clean. honor as the collaborator of the artist.
Leather also has its advantage as a If one could obliterate the earlier per-
covering for doors, furniture and par- formances of this revival and “start
ticularly forwalls and ceilings where fresh,” these furnishings would mean
the nature of the material lends itself all that it is meant they should. At any
well to filling any shaped space, thus rate they may prove a sign-post toward
avoiding unnecessary jointing, which simplicity, and where we can make its
on opening might impair decorative products" parts of our homes the weed-
effects. The leather surface may be ing process has at any rate begun.
finished in illuminated oil colors laid on For those who can start from the be-
lacquer over leaf, and acquire additional ginning, we find fabrics for the walls in
beauty by age, time blending and deep- a kind of canvas and burlap of charm-
ening the color tones. The leather used ing colorings to harmonize with almost
should be of the most perfect tannage, any color scheme in mind, fabrics which
and applied by skilled artisans. The dis- usually have a texture of burlaps, but
criminating connoisseur can, if he de- also come in a loose basket weave, a
sires, make, in a portion of his home in sort of Japanese grass cloth which is a
A RICH FIRST FLOOR FRIEZE.
SOME ENGLISH DESIGNS.

FAIRY TALES AND NURSERY RHYMES.
(Designs reproduced by courtesy of the Emden Company.)
MOTHER GOOSE PICTURES. MONTHS OF THE YEAR.
FARMLAND SCENES. SPANISH RURAL SCENE.
OLD TIMERS, YET ALWAYS NEW.

(Designs reproduced by courtesy of Jos. P. McHugh & Co.)
A BOLD THOUGH QUIET FRIEZE FOR THE DEN.
Wistaria and Lattice. Wild Wistaria.

MORE BEDROOM DESIGNS.
A HOLLAND SCENE FOR THE DINING-ROOM.

& Sons
(Designs reproduced by courtesy of the M. H. Birge Co.)
BABES IN “DUTCHLAND.”
A DINING-ROOM MOTIF.
“BABES IN TOYLAND.
(Designs reproduced by courtesy of the Robert Graves Co.)
woven grass and gives beautiful effects linen in a variety of color combinations,
of light. The color scheme may be car- nearly always of a conventionalized
ried out in window draperies and doors, flower design. If silk is desired there
for the latter of which canvas is used a are plain and block printed mandarin
good deal. There are the cool gray silks, madras cloth, scrim, crepe and
greens, the woodland greens and all the many others.
colors of changing autumn, the russet The house is now at the point where
browns, the yellow browns, and the color the decorator has departed. Even be-
of ripe wheat, as well as many bluish fore this the question of new furniture
tones. They are ornamented with has been discussed. The housewife in
designs in applique or couching-drawn her shopping around town has seen many
work or darned work of a contrasting stores and sources of supply both from
but harmonious shade. Then, too, linen within and without. She has kept her
velours come, where a rich, velvety sur- eye on the advertisements in the maga-
face is desired, in the same wide range zines and probably has a little library of
of shadings, and loose woven flax-can- catalogues. These are mentally and
vas for window hangings, which serve to physically marked, ever with an eye to
keep the world out and the cosiness in. price, for she wishes, as a trader (and
This last is used also for upholstery and all women have a natural gift that way),
chair cushions, as well as a heavier to obtain the best she can for the ex-
grade known as heavy flax canvas, penditure appropriated for her needs.
which also is excellent for scarfs for Perchance she has been a member of
buffets or tables. For scarfs and table some woman’s club and listened wisely
linens a homespun linen is available. to the talks on Arts and Crafts given
This is made in the natural color, a by some of the pioneers of that move-
warm brownish gray. For this same ment, for we are still in the days of such
purpose comes a hand- woven linen 15 things, though moving rapidly forward.
inches wide (the right width for run- In many cities there are exhibitions more
ners), and Flemish linen, which is a finer or less permanent of these bodies, Wom-
weave. There are colored linens and en’s Exchanges and the like. So has
bloom linens used almost altogether for she been acquiring an education in good
appliqued designs. A material called taste and she longs for good things.
blue and white farm is admirably adapt- These are not hard to obtain, though, of
ed for a blue and white room where course, hand work and special designs
quaintness is desired, for it is quite like cost more than machine made articles in
the old-time bedspreads of our grand- quantity, repeated again and again,
mothers’ weaving. What is called a though often from excellent material with
casement fabric comes in block printed good finish on well designed lines or pat-
DINING-ROOM FRIEZES.
>r
IS*
BEDROOM SUGGESTIONS.
(Designs reproduced by courtesy of the Alfred Peats Co.)
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INEXPENSIVE
SOME
:
terns. The manufacturers, it is only fair ing of waterproofing finish), willow

to say,keep a very close watch on the green, weathered gray, to a brown
market and every commercial possibility (dark nut color), sealing wax red
is closely scrutinized. Good ideas are (sumac red with black markings),
sought with avidity and even the be- smoked black (showing the grain
rated business man takes many chances in deep brown) ;
also waterproof
in keeping just a little ahead of his mar- furniture of willow Madeira style, in
ket with new tryers. So, if one knows which the foregoing stains are used as
what to buy, the whole gamut of supply, well as Indian yellow, Delft blue and
let us say in New York, and most cities ebony. The seat cushions to chairs and
down in the size of this
are but a scaling settees are made of floss and are very
place, may
be taken into consideration, comfortable and durable. The furniture
running from the Society of Craftsmen known as the Mission style is now de-
and its affiliated individual workers to servedly much in vogue. There are chairs
the various furnishing departments of of all descriptions for varying needs, but
the great commercial emporiums. To all built with an idea of use and com-
buy through the first source means of fort. Tables of a most attractive mul-
course a more limited choice and a more titude of shapes and sizes, furnishings
plentifully stocked purse than if one has for dining rooms, bedrooms, living
to limit time and money to the needs of rooms in fact, to fill nearly all wants.
;
the every-day suburbanite. Without dep- Many of the shapes are quaint, and
recating in any sense the department much is shown in their con-
ingenuity
store, where the discriminating may find ceptions. There are many articles named
good values for their outlays, the quest for the various colleges, where undoubt-
is perhaps more satisfactorily accom- edly its substantial qualities, as well as
plished in the “shop” or special store, itsprogressive ones, make it in demand.
where there is not too great a rush of What is known as Craftsman furniture
customers or demands made upon the is made of oak. The wood is treated
efficient salesmen. These shops are rather with an acid to fume it, then a light
well distributed over the city and are surface tint (to the making of which
fitted up in some cases with a unique- much time has been given) is ap-
ness of arrangement quite in keeping plied. The result is an autumn leaf
with their individual product. This is color not quite brown and yet not quite
speaking now not of the retailer, but of —
green a sort of autumn-leaf wood fin-
the manufacturer who sells direct. ish. It is developed into two shades,
So in the market, we find articles in one of which has a gray and silvery
American ash in the following finishes sheen and the other more of a brown,
The natural wood (protected by a coat- with a greenish cast. Then, finally a
Hall Rack. Nest of Tables.

Double Seat.
ORIGINAL “MISSION” DESIGNS.
(Designs reproduced by courtesy of Jos. P. McHugh & Co.)
Good Cheer Cabinet. Magazine Rack. Desk with Brass Trim.

Cedar Chest. Double-Chair Table.
Folding-Chair Table. Umbrella Stand.
SOME EXCELLENT DESIGNS.
FOR EARLY SUPPERS
LITTLE FURNITORE FOR LITTLE FOLKS.

(Designs reproduced by courtesy of the Craftsman.)
;
wood luster is added. The designs are first peep of sun on a winter’s morning.
strong and simple of structural form. Give him, of course, a comfortable
As in the Mission furniture, the range chair. If he doesn’t want to read, have
of objects and shapes and sizes is wide. your room at least so that when he
It would be hard, indeed, to be unable leaves he does so with a realization of
to suit one’s taste. how good a decorator is his helpmate,
There are good types which may be who has arranged sets of china in the
found in various conditions of soundness glass-front closets and the crystalline
of manufacture and genuineness of fin- specimens of the glassblower’s art. Per-
ish. Each place has its own little touch chance she has also arranged some
here and there, even though it may move specimens of modern pottery on the
on conservative lines, or have such a mantel. Teco-ware, Rookwood, Zanes-
plant that “commercial stock” has to be ville, or some Japanese art which she
carried along with the higher class de- has picked up at V’s or at some
signs and more individualistic treatment. auction. The is all right if she
latter
Now as our house-builder knows has a discriminating eye.
where to go for wall coverings and fur- Not less important than the dining
niture and what is in the market, let room is the nursery. The children may
him think a little of selections his ma-
;
be young and only ready for the house
terial he knows next comes color and
;
and the kindergarten therein, which their
its adaptation. Rooms with plenty of mother has arranged for them. The
sunlight may be on the blue end of the room is upstairs and gets the first peep
chromatic scale and in rooms where the
;
of the morning sun and the song of the
sun comes seldom, if, indeed, there be birds without. The wallpapers are full
any such in the country, rich reds, of stories of seasons out of doors, or
oranges and yellows. Grays in a pro- they show in simply drawn friezes spon-
fusion of multi shades, toned with a taneous pictures of child life here and
basic color, are good on the neutral abroad, similar to the illustrations which
zone. Hall, smoking rooms, dens, may we give herewith. In the room is
run from Persian combinations of the —
charming little furniture cribs or beds
turbulent East to the placid monotone or chairs — different sizes, for growth
of the Puritan. all plain, but ready for use. In nooks
The dining room should receive at- and corners are little desks or tables and
tention first, for next to the kitchen it cupboards, and looking within we may
is the beginning of the day. The man see the whole paraphernalia of child life.
of the house arises to go forth to battle. It were good to be here, the most im-
He knows what he is to meet. So let portant room in the house, where is
him come into a room that receives the ever apparent the mother’s hand.
;
DECORATING AND FURNISHING THE COUNTRY HOME. 4^1
Now the babes are away at school or frames hung on the sight line. Have a
out in the open, and household chores piano in the living room, a plain, simple
are for the matron. Perhaps a few design, harmonizing with the color
neighbors have been in the night before, scheme. Save your money for the key-
in the snuggery-den, low-ceiled and in board quality, and when on a summer
dark wood, with plenty of warm color, night you hear the beautiful song of the
couches, tabarets, and these quiet pieces Evening Star don’t let it be disturbed by
of furniture, which look innocent enough a clash with the quality of the “deco-
from without, but conceal a wealth of rative motif” of the instrument. Per-
good cheer in their interiors. Bottles haps you can afford an organ, and can
and glasses and cedar boxes, with the install it as part of the scheme. You will
entrancing smell of the Havana. The never regret it, and if you do just play
room is fitted, too, with hammered or have played Arthur Sullivan’s Lost
brass or copper work, trays and boxes Chord, and the initial cost will all dis-
and other things nearer the floor appear in your own satisfied feelings. In
and madam sees that all is made well fact, make your home a harmony just
for her lord’s homecoming. Out into as skillfully as music is composed.
the living room, with its provisions for We have already been in the nursery.
all the family, its Morris chairs, its di- The other bedrooms are in quiet tones
vans, davenports or settees, its big open —pinks and greens, blues and soft
fireplace, good all the year round, its yellows ;
northern exposures in reds
bookcases, dwarf-built in, or sectional, again, counterpanes of the beds to
the pictures on the wall, with long, low match, and curtains and draperies,
too. No overloading with furniture that become a catch-all. If trunks are

—the bed, a couple of chairs, a there keep them in order. Store care-
bureau or chiffonier, and the washstand fully any extra or unused furniture and
daintily arranged unless you can have maintain an open space for the children
and running water in the room.
fixtures on rainy days.
Yet up another flight and we find the No housewife needs to be told very
minor rooms for the older children and much about her ideals. As a rule they
help. Keep all this in harmony. Don’t are far ahead of her purse, and so let
make this floor a furniture hospital. us ask her if she does not agree with
Have a few good pictures, warm rugs us in making the keynote of the fur-
on the floor or rag carpet, matting, if nishings of the country house : Simple
you cannot afford these others, with appropriateness, everything to its use
something by the bed for bare feet. If and place, the house and its belongings
you have an unfinished attic do not let for all.
Orange, N. J. RESIDENCE JOHN HOPPIN.

A narrow inadequate terrace with too steep a slope.
The Kitchen and Its Dependent Services.
I.
(With Sketches by the Author.)

Miss Jane Addams, in a recent lec- meals may be conveniently prepared in
ture on immigration, described the first the well-planned kitchen of a private
impressions of a poor old Italian woman, car or of a yacht, but, except in travel-
who failed to appreciate American “im- ing, such cramped quarters will never
provements,” as displayed in Chicago become general here, although a cook
tenements, and refused to use her range who has once become accustomed to
because it was molto brutto (very compact arrangements prefers them.
ugly). Although too polite to mention A French, Italian or German house-
it, foreigners of higher rank object to wife would be horrified to see the
the ugliness and wastefulness of our amount of coal or gas wasted here (not
domestic arrangements. Few Ameri- to speak of the food supplies!) Because
can tourists ever have a chance to in- when Bridget piles on fuel, coal is
spect the French or Italian home kitchen cheap and wages high, we shut our eyes,
where a handful of charcoal in the toy- knowing that a protest from her mis-
like stove suffices for the cooking of an tress may mean a sudden exodus with
ample meal, hirst kindled after early impertinent remarks about stinginess,
mass, for the cup of black coffee which, etc.
with a bit of bread serves to ward off The average income in America is
hunger till noon, it is allowed to die out not large, but in Europe it would go
until time for the elaborate midday four or five times as far as it does here,
meal. Maria or Pia cooks for all in a and the living in general would be bet-
mere closet, reaching fire, sink, shelves, ter. Great leakage occurs in the kitch-
food, without moving more than four en, where time, strength and unneces-
or five feet. We are beginning to ap- sary amounts of expensive supplies are
preciate the fact that space should be wasted. We talk of the “Simple Life”
—
saved that less exertion, fewer steps, — there would be more time for higher
are required in a small room. Perfect things if we cut out the useless. In
doing this, we must not forget to the end of me month, for I don’t feel at
provide lavishly of the essential; while home in a bit of a place like this,” she
cutting down the size of the kitchen to sniffed haughtily. But before long her
save steps, let us plan carefully a con- mistress perceived that Mary realized
venient place for each necessary utensil. how much less fatiguing was the work,
Servants, especially in the country, are and that even with increased entertain-
becoming more difficult to obtain,; their ing and less outside assistance than of
old, she was less tired at bedtime. Later,
both mistress and maids acknowledged
to the gratified architect that the house-
keeping ran with magical ease. But no
one knew how much care had been taken
to secure this result.
In olden times the blacks were quar-
tered by themselves away from the great
house, free to laugh, sing and make
merry. No one wanted them near, and
a few extra steps counted for little when
labor was cheap. Nowadays, we are
apt to forget that every servant needs
a quiet, cool little sitting-room, apart
from the kitchen, a place wherein to eat
in peace, to read or rest in when tired, to
receive visitors in comfort. The class of
servants we are anxious to engage de-
mands this as a right. When we consider
the needs of our hirelings from their
standpoint, as carefully as from our own.
over. The stove lids are depressed, so that

nothing can slide off when the train is in
motion.
wages are rising. When, therefore, a

good one is found, it is well to aid her
with obtainable appliances to econ-
all
omize her strength, to make her con-
tented; the mistress has less care with
one or two well-trained maids, than
with three or four inefficient, unwilling
ones.
Will a properly arranged kitchen be
appreciated by the average servant?
Will expensive fixtures be properly
cared for? It has been proved by expe-
rience, that after her usual cast-iron the problem of domestic service will be
prejudices have been overcome, a girl simplified.
likes a room that is conveniently and It is mostimportant to provide a
economically planned. A
friend, who through draught, and plenty of light
recently moved from a mansion which, (sunlight, if possible) in the planning of
in Revolutionary times, was the “Gov- a kitchen. No hard and fast rules can
ernor’s House,” with a regiment of be laid down for the arrangement of
slaves to serve in the vast underground fixtures, etc., as no two housekeepers
kitchen, found her cook greatly dissatis- agree in their ideas. For instance, one
fied with the culinary department of the insists that the light for washing dishes
new home. “I think I’ll be leavin’ ye’s at shall fall from the left, and that the drip
THE KITCHEN. 465
The kitchenette is extensively used in studios and summer cottages by people who have
kept house abroad. A French maid, accustomed to a limited space, finds little difficulty in
turning out a good meal from a kitchenette six feet square. A copper pantry sink set in
a wide counter shelf, covered with zinc soldered to a high back; a gas stove with portable
oven, a refrigerator, bread box and a few shelves complete the simple equipment.
shelf shall be on that side — the next many otherwise well-planned kitchens do
wants two sinks side by side, the light in we find it? That “ventilating flue over
front and drain boards on either hand. the kitchen range” is rarely large enough
All these trifles must be considered be- to carry up the sudden volume of hot air
fore a perfect plan can be finished. and odors that arise when a large meal
When dishes must be washed thousands is in preparation. When the chimney is
of times, a few hundred unnecessary planned, the flue should be specified to
movements are worth saving. The short- be of size amply large for emergencies.
est paths from the range to the dining-
Too much draught can be checked by
table, from the table to the pantry sink;
"
the best methods of serving hot things ) l>
piping hot, and cold dishes icy cold the

;
stowing away of all supplies, the cleans-

ing, the “making fair and clean” — must
all be considered, and the relations of
dining room and kitchen to pantry, cel-
lar, cold room, store room, servants’ hall
entrances, etc., and the disposition of
all fixtures, sinks, range, etc., arranged
with common sense.
If a mistress were obliged to work in
her own kitchen, to dish up elaborate
dinners when the thermometer outside
stood at over eighty, she would soon
Small refrigerators are to be had for the

pantry. The ice box slides out when it is nec-
essary to fill it.
- • . - « ' - „ -
A-K '•I
ice 0,14 %
CtHa.Miei
1
*
•J 7 »
4
learn the importance of ventilation. closing the register, but on sultry days
“Why did you leave Mrs. X. ?” was asked allthe heated air in the hood over a red
of a cook who had faithfully served the hot stove cannot be drawn up through a
X. family for nearly a year. “Because 4" x 8" flue.
the kitchen was so unbearably hot when For convenience in planning a small
warm weather came that I got sick. house, one chimney is often made to
There was no way of getting a draught.” contain the flues of all fireplaces. A
This complaint is common therefore, in
;
may well be placed in the cor-
fireplace
planning a house, the architect should ner of a living room where the walls
insist that the service wing must have its keep off draughts and tend to bring
due share of fresh air, unblanketed by nearer to the cottager his longed-for
the main building. The securing of a “cosy corner.” Being a good rule, it
cross draught seems easy, but in how —
works both ways, a situation that
THE KITCHEN. 467
makes the parlor fire comfortable in win- graceful skyline and an artistic group-
ter, will make
the kitchen fire unbearable ing of windows, his proportions must
in July. Place the kitchen range away be good, his mouldings fine but all this
;
from a corner, unless there is the best of counts for little with the unfortunate
ventilation. mistress thereof if she finds the domestic
A sheltered vestibule should be pro- arrangements inconvenient; if there are
vided next the kitchen in which trades no suitable places for teacups and plat-
people can be received. No tidy maid ters, if the stairs are dangerous and
wants butchers and bakers tracking mud the cook roasts with the dinner on every
on her clean floor. A porch enclosed in —
warm day if the ice box is next the
The ventilation of a kitchen must be carefully attended to. A hood over the range con-
nected with a large flue running up next the smoke flue must be provided to carry up hot air.
netting is desirable for use on warm range and the sink is in the dark, with
days. such discomfort, the difficulty of keep-
The pantry should be well lighted and ing efficient help is increased ten fold.
situated, if so that the maid,
possible, The requirements of each family be-
while at work, can see guests entering ing different a general rule for the plan-
the front entrance. No maid should an- ning of the service end of the house can-
swer the door directly from the kitchen, not be given, new problems must con-
as smells are sure to surge out into the- stantly be solved in the small house, the
;
hall unless there are two doors. difficulty is greatest.A good solution is
No kitchen can be successful unless found in the planon page 483, where the
the arrangement has been well thought windows are placed to give the utmost
out beforehand; mechanics cannot do ventilation and light, where the range,
their work without these careful draw- protected from draughts, is yet not stuf-
ings and details, which should not be be- fily stowed away, but one small dresser
low the attention of the architect. He is, and a store closet opening outside are in-
of course, expected to give his client a sufficient closet space, even if all the pots
7
468 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD
and pans are hung (as they should be) hard wood, concrete, rubber tiles, cork,
in full view; and three times as much and tiles, but each has some defect: the
shelf room is needed in the pantry, finish of a wooden floor soon wears off
though with three doors, little wall space under constant scrubbing, when the bare
is left for it. With this exception, this wood wiil absorb grease and show foot
plan is an admirable one. The plan
really prints the popular red tiles are very hard
;
on page 481 is open to the same objec- and cold under tired feet; ditto the at-
tion, the arrangement is otherwise excel- tractive unglazed white tiles. Taylorite
lent; the way the hall touches the pantry and similar compositions have been tried
is good in both the back stairs are con-
;
with success in kitchens, hospitals, etc.
venient, though they would be better They are elastic, warm under foot, and
without winders, which are particularly not too expensive. Though these can-
dangerous for women who must carry not be made in a very good white ( as the
loads down them. The plan on page 479 basis is sawdust), a cheerful yellow looks
is rather better as to ventilation, but there invitingly clean. It is laid half an inch
is only one small dresser and no closet thick over an under flooring of wood
(except that for the refrigerator), and (which may be an old flooring). Neat
the walls are broken by doors and win- borders of stripes of the different colors
dows, and the tidy disposal of utensils can be added without greatly increasing
would be puzzling. I11 a larger plan the cost, and it may be turned up to form
(page 487) a very small fraction of the a neat base. This flooring needs an oc-
cubic contents is devoted to the servants ;
casional bath of oil to keep it in order.
the pantry links the dining room and In Italy a popular cheap floor is made of
kitchen properly and the arrangement of small bits of bright stones laid in cement
wide counter shelves with cupboards be- and polished. Over there, weeks are de-
low and dressers over is practical. No voted to the patient rubbing of marble
porch of any kind is provided for the or composition floors; here it is finished
servants. In a country house, it is cer- in a few hours by a time saving ma-
tainly desirable to give them some kind chine. Kitchen and laundry floors, as
of a breathing spot out of doors. well as hearths, may be laid in carefully
Akitchen should have a high wains- finished concrete.
coting of white glazed tile (in fine If wood is used, “flat grain” should
houses the walls are faced with glazed never be specified, as it soon splinters
brick). If a cheap substitute is desired, badly. The boards should be very nar-
Keene's cement on wire lath may be row, of “comb grain,” thoroughly sea-
used. It must be well laid, with a third soned, tightly driven together (in order
coat of finest quality, troweled to a that unsightly cracks do not appear
smooth finish, and divided to imitate tiles later), and w ell
r
blind nailed to the
into six-inch squares with a light line underflooring.
made by a V
jointer. Several coats of Floors of cork are excellent, being
good enamel paint will be necessary after very soft and warm, cleanly and durable.
the cement is dry. But the color of cork is rather dark
White glazed surfaces are best, they and the price high. Still more attract-
are easily kept in order and inspiringly ive the pretty interlocked rubber tiling
is
clean. It is a pity that the price of glazed which also is expensive.
brick and tiles precludes their being em- If the edges near the wall cannot be
ployed for a wainscoting in the cheaper turned up, they should be covered with
kitchens. We
may hope for their more a small quarter round moulding, as dust
general use in a few years. invariably collects in sharp angles. It
In specifying materials for the proper would be well if all kitchen and laundry
finish of a kitchen floor, one is again floors could be arranged to slope gently
tempted to make demands on the purse of to an outlet so that they could be flushed
the owner a good floor saves trouble
;
easily.
later. A
list of materials begins with Windows should be as large as possi-
the cheap North Carolina pine, includes ble, arranged for a cross draught. To
THE KITCHEN.
exclude insects they should be covered as it was several years ago, as it soon
outside with fine copper netting. Wire grows dull in a warm, moist atmosphere.
screens are a hindrance to the closing of Hardware should be plain and strong,
outside blinds, but a new arrangement with white porcelain or glass knobs.
for operating outside blinds from the in- Special patent fastenings are to be had
side works successfully. Two chains, for closet doors, for windows, etc. The
Excellent meals are prepared in primitive kitchens. The bright copper saucepans hang
under the smoke-blackened vaulting. A handful of charcoal in the square hole in the brick
platform serves for the cooking.
passing through the window frame, trim should be plain without dust catch-
move a strong arm attached to the blind ing mouldings.
outside. This is done with the sash Disastrous fires frequently result from
closed. the carelessness of the man who, smell-
Nickel for fittings is not as popular ing escaping gas, seeks to find the leak
;
with a taper. After a thorough search, I was once consulted by an owner who
the smell disappears and he retires to complained that the supply of hot water
bed, to be awakened in the middle of the in his bath room was insufficient. A
night by an alarm of fire. The tiny leak plumber removed five unnecessary sharp
that caused the mischief is illumined bends which had been put in to keep the
by his taper not noticing the little blue
;
lines from being seen on the basement
flame he walks away, leaving it burning ceiling, and there was no further trouble
under a beam. After smouldering for about hot water. In the best work of
hours, it suddenly bursts into an in- but
this kind, the pipes are nickel-plated,
extinguishable mass of flame. The the majority of owners are content with
proper way to find a gas leak is to coat a neat coating of easily renewed alumi-
the suspected pipe with strong soap num paint.
suds (just as one would a leaky bicycle In city plumbing regulations, the sizes
tire) when the smallest leak will at once and quality of pipes are carefully speci-
blow a bubble full of gas. fied and enforced by the inspectors
As the main supply pipes of the in the country, unfortunately, light
house are often fastened on the kitchen weight pipe of small size is often substi-
ceiling, care should be taken to see that tuted by unscrupulous workmen to save
they are set in workmanlike fashion, in expense and trouble, causing constant
straight rows. It is not worth while to annoyance to the tenants later. Supply
sacrifice the proper working of the hot pipes should be exposed for easy excess
water lines in the rest of the house to in case of need. If concealed in the
avoid running these through the kitchen. wall, they should be enclosed in a pocket
THE KITCHEN. 471
with movable cover. Needless to say, no cient a hot water heater may be used in
crevices should be left for mice to enter. addition water may be partly
The
Hot water in the house of moder- heated by the waste heat from the range
ate size is generally supplied from the and then pass down to a gas heater in
kitchen boiler. Where a fire is constant- the cellar to be raised to any desired
ly kept up, and there are but two bath temperature. The same scheme may be
rooms, this answers the purpose, but a used in winter with a boiler connected
hot water heater is better. Hot water with the furnace and heated by a coil in
pipes should be installed with a pipe re- the fire box. Galvanized boilers are in
turning to the boiler to insure a constant general use on account of their
circulation of water. As soon as the low price, but copper ones are much
faucet is turned hot water flows without more durable; the life of a galvanized
The doors in front may be opened for broiling or roasting in the open fire.
waiting for the tepid water in the pipes boiler is only six years. Where space is
to run off. Where the supply must come at a premium, a horizontal boiler may be
from the kitchen range the boiler may placed over the range, but is not advisa-
be covered with a “jacket” consisting of ble, being uncomfortably hot overhead.
a layer one and one-half inches thick, of In the country, far from a gas house,
hair, felt, or asbestos covered with can- an oil stove may be used to advantage in
vas painted white, which retains the heat addition to the coal range. They have
for hours after the range is out. This been greatly improved of late, the flame
may be purchased at plumbers’ supply burns blue without odor, and the reserve
houses. supply of oil is in a reservoir at a safe
Where a boiler is found to be insuffi- distance. They are both cleanly and con-
venient. For these and for gas stoves but good in style, as well as excellent
we find a large variety of economical bak- from a practical standpoint. At first
ing and steaming ovens, convenient toast- these were made for hotels only, but now
ers, broilers, etc. one can find small sizes, with single oven,
The familiar cast iron range for coal is for family use.
commonly used, on account of its mod- All ranges are made with plate warm-
erate price. It is still cast with many ers for keeping food hot. Some of the
dust catching mouldings and projec- newer ones are adapted to the use of
tions, and designed in the worst possible both coal and gas, the gas being at one
taste. Astudy of some of the artistic end or above. Gas is more convenient in
Gas stove for small kitchen.
old fire backs used behind the open fires

long ago reveals the degradation of mod- its ovens above to obviate the necessity
ern taste; even cast iron may be artistic for stooping. Ovens cannot be raised
if treated with due regard for its limita- when heavier fuel is used, but with gas
tions. The addition of ornate pieces of or electricity there is no sense in follow-
nickel is inexcusable, but must be done to ing antiquated methods.
please the potentate of the culinary de- An oven indicator, a clock like appa-
partment, who likes “tasty” stoves. The ratus that fits into the oven door, is some-
•French have long used stoves of wrought times used to test the temperature when
iron with bands and rods of brass, plain baking. A spring expanded or loosened
;
THE KITCHEN. 4 73
by the heat moves the hand on the face been supplied for family use. This con-
pointing to numbers from I to XII. It is sists of a large galvanized pail to be filled
inexpensive. with boiling suds, into which a perfor-

An old-fashioned iron sink has one ated basket of dishes can be plunged
advantage over its modern white rival; by turning a crank attached to the handle
it cannot be chipped and marred by of this basket, a current of water is
heavy pots clumsily handled by a care- forced through, cleansing the contents
less servant; but it is liable to rust if thoroughly. The basket is lifted out,
not kept clean and oiled. A
galvanized rinsed with clear hot water, and left to
iron sink is very difficult to clean and dry as in the large machines. There is
generally looks grimy. In some sections no danger of chipping if ordinary care is
of the country soapstone sinks are used. used.
These are cheap, cleanly and practical, Much time has been expended of late
but ugly. A
sink of the cream-colored years in the designing of convenient
pottery, though less expensive than white, portable dressers, but it is much better
is attractive and easy to clean. White to have dressers built in with the house,
sinks are well worth the difference in as the waste space over and behind col-
price, if they can be treated with reason- lects dust.
able care. High backs of porcelain or Glass or brass rods over the range and
enamelled iron in which the faucets can at the sides hold all the potsand pans in
be inserted should be specified to match constant use ;
should be hung in full
all
the sinks. sight. Mrs. Roosevelt ordered this done

Where space is at a premium and in the White House. A
place should be
laundry work done in the
must be provided in the dresser for glass jars to
kitchen, a cheap combination fixture contain cereals, etc.
may be had with movable white en- A washing machine, which blows a
amelled sink and drip board set over two stream of steam and boiling water
white enamelled tubs. Galvanized iron through the clothes, removing the dirt
wash tub covers can now be found and stains as no amount of scrubbing
to replace the unsanitary wooden covers. can do, electric irons, and a good mangle
Covers for tubs should not have hinges. should be, and probably soon will be, as
They should be taken off and set aside common as is now the clothes wringer.
while washing is in progress. Laundry chutes from the top of the
Faucets are being constantly im- house and a small lift to the linen room
proved that old-fashioned washer which
;
are now provided in city houses.
suddenly melted away at unexpected mo- We have not yet reached the stage
ments, allowing an uninterrupted stream when, like our French friends, we send
of boiling water to escape, is out of ex- our linen to be cleansed at a common
istence now. laundry. This simplifies one problem in
Shelves should be carefully planned the home life. But in America, the sav-
over the sink and elsewhere, to hold bot- ing is generally at the expense of our
tles, soap, etc; hooks under hold mops handsome linen, which is rotted by chem-
and the various small cleaners. Shelves icals or frayed and torn by machinery.
of convenient sizes are to be found in The mere man who recently published
porcelain and glass at plumbers’ supply anonymously in London a book on the
houses. A
cheap substitute is a wooden “Domestic Blunders of Women,” de-
shelf with a covering of plate glass, voted several pages to a feeling recital
which may be cut by any glazier from of her foolish proceedings in connection
scrap glass. with the cooking of a chop, saying in
A rubber tube with shampoo sprinkler conclusion: “The chop is like the rib
to attach to the hot water faucet is ex- —
from which she sprang the root of all
cellent for rinsing dishes left on the drain evil. The chop is typical; a woman al-
board. Dish-washing machines are now ways begins a thing from the wrong
in general use in hotels and other large end she never thinks that cooking is
;
establishments; a small size has recently absolutely the last stage of the chop,
and that she has not the most elementary pearance rather like a large stove. The
knowledge of any other stage” and so— finest refrigerators are covered entirely
on in amusingly embittered fashion. Mr. with milk-white glass, with air spaces
Mere Man does not know for how much between the inner and outer walls for the
discomfort the home refrigerator is often circulation of air.
responsible. While any decent butcher The putting in of ice from the outside
is ostentatiously careful of his cold room is not all it is supposed to be while, the-
;
(paying at once for any neglect in spoiled oretically, the idea is fine, in practice it
meats), mylady frequently neglects her generally proves a nuisance, unless very
refrigerator, until her family sickens carefully planned. The door of the re-
with diphtheria or typhoid from the frigerator must be directly opposite the
spoiled messes cook has carelessly left to outer door so that it can swing out con-
impart germs to the fresh butter and veniently. The outside door is difficult to
milk. fasten, being generally behind the re-
For a cheap cold room a new round frigerator. If the maid is waiting for
refrigerator is to be found, made entirely the iceman, with door ready opened, all
of metal with aluminum finish, in ap- goes well, but if he is obliged to wait.
THE KITCHEN. 475
there is trouble. If he is provided with bitterest days of winter great slabs are
a key (which he is supposed to leave in a delivered at private houses, and this
certain place), some day he forgets and in citieswhere good markets, a square
carries it off, then there is nothing to or two away, and a telephone in the pan-
prevent his returning at night, if he is try, provide extra supplies in case of
dishonest, and entering the house. a sudden emergency. In the country,
The rage for non-conducting linings of course, a private ice house, filled when
has reached such a pass that we find that somewhat expensive commodity may
some refrigerators furnished with walls, be had for the carting, is attached to
composed of two air spaces, enclosed in most houses of above the average size.
two thicknesses of wood, three of sheath- In the parish house of many modern
ing, besides felt, mineral wool, and a churches, a kitchen is fitted up for so-
porcelain lining !Architects are careful cial occasions, for cooking lessons, etc.
to plan a place for this very important An electric outfit is the ideal one for this
adjunct to the kitchen, conveniently at purpose, but in most locations the cost of
hand, but carefully protected from the
heat of the range. Manufacturers will
make special designs to order, but the
variety in stock is now so great that it
The arrangement of an ice box built to fit in

a certain space is shown above. The ice is
put in from the outside. A current of dry,
cold air passes constantly over and around the
food. The large door is in the kitchen and a
secondary one in the pantry.
is possible to find one to fit almost any electricity precludes the use of it, and
desired space. Near the refrigerator gas must be substituted. In a general
should be a safe where vegetables and way these kitchens are similar to those
fruits can be stored, and where hot food designed for family use. If lessons are
can be left to cool until ready to set in given a row of small stoves are provided,
the refrigerator. Sometimes in the coun- with dressers and racks to hold the sets
try, where it is necessary to keep large of plates and pans.
quantites of meat, etc., a “cold room” s ;
It would be interesting to go into an
planned. Aconvenient and economical old-fashioned kitchen and see what a lot
way of making one is to line a large of junk could be thrown away by fol-
closet with galvanized iron, soldered air- lowing Wm. Morris’ rule, to leave only
tight, with window and door made double the useful and beautiful. Ancient kitchen
to exclude heat. Chill cans (cylinders six utensils were really works of art, which
feet high, open top and bottom) when we cannot hope to imitate now, but, by
filled with ice keep the air evenly cold. we can avoid tasteless
careful selection,
In no other country is ice used as uni- ornamentation and bad colors. Some
versally as in America. Even in the kitchens are ornamented with stenciling
in color ;
for a household
instance, in white with its porcelain fittings, gleam-
where blue Canton china used, a sim-
is ing with the nickel and copper of simple,
ple blue border like the lines on the edge well-chosen hardware and utensils is suf-
of the plates is used, but this is unnec- ficiently attractive without other decora-
essary. A
modern kitchen, radiantly tions.
Katharine C. Budd.
Where electricity is cheap,

it is used in the ideal kitchen. Ovens, broilers, stoves and
saucepans are be found, as well as the familiar chafing dish and tea kettle.
to A com-
plete outfit occupies little space.
RECENT
SUBURBAN HOUSES
ILLUSTRATED
THEIR PLANNING
DESIGNING AND
INTERIOR DECORATION
ARCHITECT.
ZIEGLER,
A.
C.
OF
HOUSE
Pa,
Germantown,
Architects.
Ziegler,
&
Okie
Duhring,
HOUSE.
PLUMER’S
DAVENPORT
MR.
Pa.
Germantown,
RECENT SUBURBAN HOUSES. 481
Plan of First Floor.

MR. DAVENPORT PLUMER’S HOUSE.
Germantown, Pa. Duhring, Okie & Ziegler, Architects.
Architects.
be
to
as
Ziegler,
procurable
&
Okie
easily
Duhring,
so
there
is
which
stone,
cost.
moderate
Germantown
of
of
houses
built
in
available
Philadelphia,
of
vicinity
the
in
bouse
suburban
Typical
Plan of Second Floor.
Plan of First Floor.

PLANS OF HOUSE SHOWN ON OPPOSITE PAGE.
Duhring, Okie & Ziegler, Architects.
ILLUSTRATION.
PREVIOUS
THE
IN
SHOWN
TYPE
THE
OF
VARIANT
A
PAGE.
OPPOSITE
ON
SHOWN
HOUSE
OF
Kitchen
PLANS
Architect.
Griffin,
Burly
Walter
APPROACH.
DRIVEWAY
HOUSE—
EMBRY
111.
Elmhurst,
Architect.
Griffin,
Burly
BEDC?cb~\
J Walter
5ELp?pp^-
HOUSE.
EMERY
111.
Elmhurst,
Architect.
Coit,
C.
Robt.
MURPHY.
D.
H.
MR.
OF
HOUSE
Mass.
Winchester,
HOUSE OF MR. H. D. MURPHY.

Winchester, Mass. Robt. C. Coit, Architect.
APPROACH.
GAVITT—
AND
WHEELER
MISSES
THE
OF
HOUSE
RECENT SUBURBAN HOUSES. 49 1
HOUSE OF THE MISSES WHEELER AND GAVITT.

East Gloucester, Mass. Cleveland & Godfrey, Architects.
ARCHITECT.
HERING,
C.
OSWALD
OF
HOUSE
Y.
N.
Manor,
Pelham
O
o
fa
w
fa
<*-<
o
0 ARCHITECT.
c3
fa
HERING,
C.
OSWALD
OF
HOUSE
Y.
N.
Manor,
Pelham
LIVING HALL, STAIRCASE AND FIREPLACE NOOK.
A COMPOSITION OF LIVING ROOM AND STAIRCASE, IN WHICH THE KEYNOTE IS A

FRANKNESS IN THE USE OF WOOD.
HALL WITH STAIRCASE CONCEALED.
STAIRCASE AND FIREPLACE EFFECTIVELY COMBINED IN A COSY SEAT.

AN UPSTAIRS LIBRARY.
A RECEPTION ROOM IN WOOD,

A SPACIOUS STUDIO INEXPENSIVELY CONSTRUCTED.
A QUIET LIBRARY.
A COLONIAL DINING ROOM.

5 °° THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
THE’ SPACE ABOVE THE FIREPLACE IS DECORATIVELY TREATED WITH CHINA SHELVES.
A DINING ROOM WITH SIMPLE DARK COLOR SCHEME.

A DINING ROOM ADMIRABLY FURNISHET).

Architects.
Chappell,
&
E’wing
WOOD.
KING
ARTHUR
MR.
OF
RESIDENCE
HOUSE,”
“PENLLYN
Y.
N.
Ardsley-on-Hudson,
NOTES ^COMMENTS
In the development of in America. It means the planning of model
AUTOMOBILES suburban tracts, i t new towns, of the scientific planning of the
would be interesting to unconstructed suburbs of old towns. As
AND know — if accurate sta- such, the economy resulting from such work
SUBURBAN tistics could be disin- is properly emphasized. It saves the tax-
HOUSE SITES interestedly given — payers from frequent calls to affect "expen-
whether the automobile sive slum-clearances, to widen at prodigious
has affected the popu- cost narrow and inconvenient thoroughfares,
larity of hill top sites. Has the home site with to buy at excessive prices land for schools,
a noble view, with the four winds of heaven public buildings, and open spaces. In a
blowing upon it, and with the city’s noise word, it merely seeks to apply the lessons
and smoke and lights lying far below, lately learned from past mistakes to the future
lost some of its popularity because the strain development of cities. It embodies no mere
on automobile engine or battery is rather sentimental desire for beautiful surround-
more obvious than on horseflesh? Or has ings, fine architecture and spacious streets
the effect been just the reverse, since the —though includes all these desirable
it
very powerful machine climbs over the hill things — but of practical and vital import-
is
at a faster rate than the horses did? Per- ance to the health and well-being of living
haps the hill top is as readily finding pur- men and of the great bulk of the citizens
chasers as ever, but is finding a different to come.” Considering the health point of
kind of purchasers. Perhaps it has lost some view alone, the paper continues: “Model
of its charm for those who had a single cities and suburbs are no day-dream possi-
plodding horse and now own an auto of low bilities; they are already in existence, and
power, while it may have gained in favor from them we get the following figures:
—
with the very rich who busy and unaccus- Whereas the average death rate for the
—
tomed to delays had chafed at the weari- United Kingdom is 16 per 1,000, at Port Sun-
ness of horses in hill climbing; but love the light it is only 8.6. In congested and unsan-
birdlike flight of a great machine as it itary slums the death rate runs up to 40,
triumphs over obstacles of topography. If and we are allowing new slums to grow up
there has been such change, it will nearly where we might have had other Port Sun-
concern architects, for they will have to delights. Or, to take another test, the Bourne-
sign large and pretentious houses for ele- ville schoolboy is on the average four inches
vated sites. The Rhenish castle will not fur- taller than the Birmingham schoolboy, and
nish an appropriate model, the Swiss chalet measures three inches more round the
won’t do, and the suburban frame house chest.” 1
looks scarcely secure and warm enough for

such a position. And what about the gar- The Chamber of Com-
den? Are sumptuous terraces and balus- COMPETITION merce Rochester is
in
trades to come into favor? conducting a “competi-
FOR tion for plans for cot-
An editorial in the COTTAGE tage houses.” The com-
Oxford (England) Trib- HOUSES petition closes July 1,
AN ENGLISH une on “Town Plan- and is for the best de-
PAPER. ning,” being based on signs for single houses
ON TOWN a report issued by the to cost respectively $1,500, $1,250 and $1,000.
PLANNING English Garden City Six hundred dollars are offered in prizes, this
association, discusses aggregate sum being broken into three prizes
the subject with more for each type of house; while honorable
enlightenment and interest than one can mentions are to be given to the designs that
usually look for in newspaper consideration are fourth and fifth in the order of merit
of the subject. In Europe, it may be pre- for each. The houses must be suitable for a
mised, town planning does not mean that town or city lot not less than 40 by 100 feet.
city remodeling to which we give the name No restriction is put upon the style or mate-
rials; but it required that the plans shall
is of Patterson Avenue, and the opening up of
be complete —includingbathroom, with three a space of suitable size and agreeable pro-
fixtures; sewer, water and gas connections; portions at their conjunction. These changes
heating arrangements, etc. The drawings would provide three hundred-foot avenues,
must be accompanied by complete building running from the heart of the city south,
specifications, and a bona fide signed bid of east and west. Aesthetically, “they would
a reliable builder (giving his address) to —
give accent to the city plan an indispen-
construct the completed houses in the differ- sable factor” —
and relieve the present monot-
ent classes in groups of ten on the same ony of uniformly narrow streets. They would
tract of land for the prices named. The also perform most valuable traffic service.
chief considerations in making the awards (2) The grouping of public and semi-public
are to be convenient interior arrangement, buildings on Jefferson Street or in the neigh-
economical construction and tasteful appear- —
borhood of Market Square alternative plans
ance; and the competition grows out of re- for this being offered. (3) A more attractive
alization of an urgent need for inexpensive surface development of the streets, and the
•cottage houses for workingmen, to take care establishment of main country thoroughfares
of the city’s rapid growth in population. of approach. (4) The preservation of such
'The chamber reserves the right to publish natural landscape features of the neighbor-
the plans; and if good designs are secured hood as are most available and beautiful, as
the matter may become of much more than a basis for a system of parks and parkways.
local importance, since the need is one com- As a method of carrying out the recommen-
mon to all the smaller cities. The compe- dations, Mr. Nolen proposes a long-term loan
tition applies, of course, as the size of the of a million dollars, and “an enactment that
lot shows, mainly to suburban construction. would permit the city to include in its pur-
chases, when necessary, the adjacent prop-
erty, reselling the same with profit, under
The Women’s Civic
proper restrictions.”
Betterment Club of Ro-
PLANS anoke, Va., has beauti-
FOR fully published and The latter statistics
“presented to the city and others of similar
ROANOKE of Roanoke” the report
WANTED :
import, transferred to
of John Nolen, of Cam- RECUTTING, charts and photographs
bridge, on the city’s re- NOT which those who ran
modeling. The very thorough and handsome PATCHES could read, were a
way in which it is issued almost overshadows prominent feature of
at first glance the matter contained. For, the Congestion of Pop-
while it has become a fairly common thing ulation exhibit in New York in March. There
for cities, small and great, to secure expert are some who think that civic improvement
reports on their possibilities of improvement, has not made the progress that all the writ-
the plans for the smaller places are too ing about it would suggest. Perhaps that
—
often inadequately published the money be- is true, though in this as in many other
ing all used up in the employment of the things the distance traveled is not as accu-
expert. There can be no question that the rate a measure of progress as is the resist-
method of presenting the report to the public ance overcome. At all events, it will mean
is hardly less important, as far as the ac- a great impetus to the town planning move-
complishment of results is concerned, than ment if social workers and philanthropists
is the matter itself; and the Roanoke women take it up as the artists and architects have
are certainly to be congratulated on their done. Dr. Adler, at the Congestion Confer-
courage, their enterprise, and the resulting ence, said that “the purchase on a grand
popular convincingness of the report which scale of land consecrated to the erection of
they have secured. dwellings for the poorer class, and with the
As to the report itself, Mr. Nolen has made understanding that the rent should not
a conscientious study, and while he asserts amount, say, to more than 4 or 5 per cent, on
that his plan does not pretend to be a com- the original investment, would be an act of
plete guide, yet he lays down a program veritable statesmanship.” He believed that
which, if carried out, will make Roanoke while the well-to-do might help, he “looked
a very attractive place in which to live or to the very wealthy to set the pace by a su-
visit. Four main suggestions stand out in preme benefaction,” and thought the golden
particular. These are: (1) The improvement —
opportunity was offered now when the
of the city plan by the widening of Jefferson bridges and tubes are connecting Manhattan
Street and Tazewell Avenue, the extension with Long Island and New Jersey, and are
making- large tracts of comparatively low and ten others who are hardly less well
nell,
priced land accessible for such development. known, is addressed to the editor of the
The, City Club has already taken up the sub- London “Times.” Stating that “last night
ject of factory removal to the suburbs with an illuminated advertisement appeared, for
various manufacturers; but as Mr. Robinson the first time, on the Shot Tower, between
pointed out, again in a paper at the Confer- Charing Cross and Waterloo bridges,” and
ence, that question is largely economic and that “absolutely disfigured” the city, the
it
must be solved in an economic way. The letter asked the aid of the “Times” as all —
factories will move out of lower New York, letters from indignant Englishmen do in —
for example, not primarily because the own- having it removed. Following this, Crane,
ers of them are sorry for the crowding of Pennell, Sidney Lee, Captain Hemphill who —
the poor and for the strap-hanging on the is deputy chairman of the London County
subway; but because superior transportation —

Council and eleven others addressed a letter
facilities are there offered to them for the “To the London County Council and certain
handling of their freight, because rents are Societies interested in Architecture, Archae-
lower, and because the efficiency of their ology and the Defense of the Picturesque.”
labor is increased through the greater health- It said: “The plague of flashing electric
fulness and contentment of employees. It light advertisements and sky signs in our
is sheer nonsense to try to relieve congestion cities at night is on the increase, and seri-
in the East Side of New York simply by ously threatens the beauty and impressive-
tearing down tenements and creating open ness of London, destroying architectural
spaces. That, as the paper stated, may lower scale and dignity, and vulgarizing some of
the density of population per acre while the most striking and interesting spots of
actually increasing it per building. The chil- our metropolis. The chief offenders in
. . .
dren may have improved opportunities for this way are a few large, well known firms,
play, but is it not “at the cost of a little less and it becomes a question vital, not only to
space in which to sleep?” The question sug- artists, but to everyone who values the ar-
gests one reason that we do not get on chitectural beauty and artistic aspects of
faster in alleviating modern urban condi- London, how long we are going to tolerate
tions. In trying to adapt the ancient and these insults to the eye?” The letter closed
outgrown city form to new and tremendously with an appeal for united action to restrain
insistent municipal requirements, too many the abuses of advertising. Of course, the
persons who take only a narrow view have society for checking such abuses had acted
their way. There must be a playground, also, addressing a memorial to the County
there must be a small park, there must be Council, and its secretary writing a letter
a bathhouse and a civic center all excel-— which was published in the “Times,” “Stand-
lent things, indeed, but at best only patches ard,” “Telegraph,” etc. The memorial which
on an old-fashioned garment. The garment was enclosed in the letter referred specifi-
needs to be entirely replanned and recut to cally to the advertisement on the Shot Tower,
be brought down to date. When a truly and continues: “The duty of fostering taste
—
comprehensive view is taken and the more and respect for picturesque effect is generally
diverse and numerous the various agencies recognized, and in London, especially, great
are that give attention to these matters, the and costly additions have been made by
sooner such a view will be possible we may — corporate, or private, munificence, to the
expect something radical. And when we grace and dignity of out-of-door scenes. We
have that there will be mighty progress. In submit respectfully that the advantage
the suburbs the opportunity is all before us gained by this outlay is, to a large extent,
and it would be strange short-sightedness nullified by the parallel growth in scale
now to let them grow up in the old way. and volume of advertising disfigurement. The
view from the bridges on the Thames Em-
The English Society bankment would, if Ft were not spoilt, give
for Checking Abuses of delight to thousands every hour, without im-
ADVERTISE= Public Advertising has posing any charge upon the rates. In its
published a river London possesses a people’s park,
MENT in leaflet
which costs absolutely nothing to create or
some letters that make
PROTESTS an incomplete, but in- maintain. Yet the charm is destroyed, at
teresting, story. It is any rate for the seeing eye, by the multipli-
one that has suggestion cation of vivid signs, which dominate and
for this side of the water. The first letter, degrade the whole. We
would ask the
which bears date of Dec. 7, and is signed by County Council, on distinct grounds of utility,
Walter Crane, William Strang, Joseph Pen- to take steps to restore, for the intelligent
5°6 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.
enjoyment of the public, the quiet dignity Under the title, “A
and beauty of the great highway.” Letters Holiday Study of Cities
then follow from the President and Council A and Ports,” Robert S.
of the Royal Academy and from the Council VALUABLE Peabody has written,
of the Society of Arts. On Jan. 7, a letter and the Boston Society
was written to Sir Thomas Lipton himself, PUBLICATION cf Architects has pub-
whose firm it seems was the offending ad- lished, what the author
vertiser. The letter, in part, says that, “If modestly describes as
you think it well to dismantle the apparatus “notes of travel, offered to the Commission
on your tower, you will have, as a set-off on the Improvement of Metropolitan Boston
to the sacrifice (which we know would be by one of its members.” The result is a val-
very serious) the appreciative gratitude of a uable contribution to municipal aesthetics
very large class of people, for whose judg- and to the general theory of city planning.
ment and motives you entertain, we are In this paragraph it is possible to give only
sure, no ordinary respect. They include men a statement of the points covered. Follow-
and women of every class. For them the ing a brief Introduction, there is a chapter
river is a thing of beauty. The barges and on Waterways, Canals and Canalized Rivers,
bridges and mudbanks make up, at every one on Railroads and Transit Facilities, on
point, a picture that gives them pleasure of Docks, on Commerce, and one on City Plan-
the best kind. Every Academy exhibition ning. Then come chapters on individual
shows what the artists think and feel about cities— as Rotterdam and Amsterdam; Ant-
it, and the paintings please only because the werp; Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin; Man-
subject of them pleases. You will under- chester, Liverpool and London; Paris. The
stand at once their reason for seeing with final chapters are, “American Ports” and
pain features multiply, which, just because “How Would Germany Develop a Port Like
they are inconsistent with the quiet dignity Boston?” The text is informal and conver-
of the scene, destroy the charm.” The letter sational, though filled with valuable data,
is acknowledged next day by the secretary and is profusely illustrated. The author de-
of Sir Thomas, who writes that Lipton is en clares in his introduction that his study has
route to India; but that the matter will be been “hasty” and that his notes are “cursory
taken up wth him as quickly as possible. and probably not perfectly exact in detail.”
The pertinent suggestion of all this is that However that may be, they are very full of
influence counts, in correcting nuisances even suggestion and instruction.
more than in some other things; and that
while it is all very nice and proper for ladies,
and well meaning gentlemen whose claim to During the week of
NATIONAL September 14-19 there
fame is that they write such protests, to
undertake to turn back the advertising tidal
ARCHI- will be held at Madison
wave, the way to put limits to it is for the TECTURE AND Square Garden, in New
York, a national expo-
leaders of the city’s art and letters, and BUILDING
—
especially of its architecture for the men
EXPOSITION
sition in which will be
brought together under
whose names are known, whose opinions are
the same roof and for
universally respected, and who have done
—
things to come out flatly and make a stand.
the benefit of the
tually dependent
building public the
interests of architect,
mu-
In the smaller cities this applies as much
artist, building material firm, manufacturer
as it does in New York. The big men, not
and contractor, and, in fact, all the interests
so much because they do not care as because
which are involved in designing, construct-
they are very busy, leave protesting to the
—
little fellows who, for the most part, beat
ing, equipping and embellishing buildings
and their surroundings. Here all these va-
the air. If they try to reach the principal
rious agencies will exhibit and demonstrate
advertisers, the office boy stops them; while
what is best and most approved in their
the leading architect, the great lawyer, the
men who have given proof of the worth- several lines. Here also architects will be
well represented by drawings, photographs
whileness of their views, could walk right
and models of their best work exhibited
into the private office and get a respectful
in their own way. The idea is a new one in
hearing.
execution, but hardly in conception. The
notion of bringing together the several
In the April issue an illustration on page agencies that operate in building activities
304 of the University of Pennsylvania’s has existed in this country for many years
Biological Laboratory Building was errone- in the minds of the more farsighted mem-
ously entitled the university library. bers of the professions and the trades, but.
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 50 7
the timidity of the rank and file of these and artistic building matters and acted on
interested bodies has steadily prevented any the results of
their realization, the sooner
concerted action that would ensure the suc- would they be able to cease complaining of
cess of such a venture. One has heard on the unsympathetic public.
occasions when success and cooperation As for the second objection, namely, that
seemed not far distant that “after all it is it is impossible to bring together the agency
useless to try to educate the public in mat- that creates with the one that supplies the
ters pertaining to building and architecture, material in which is created, on the score of
the economic conditions of our time are not —
incompatibility that is, one of the baneful
favorable;” or, “you cannot bring together results of modern commercial tendencies
the antagonistic faiths of commerce and which have so effectively estranged the
art, they will never agree.” To the first of artist from the artisan, to the detriment of
these objections the faithful have continued their mutual efficiency and progress. But
to answer that the public cares not for there is coming to us a realization that art
building and architecture not because it is and commerce are not antagonistic and that
obstinate but because it has had no oppor- the cultured public is far from indifferent to
tunity to see these absorbing subjects fairly, either. Such expositions as the one which
instructively and attractively presented; is the occasion of these remarks cannot fail
and that the sooner the building and archi- to strengthen our belief in a growing public
tectural and artistic interests realized the interest in the works and products of artist
true state of the public mind on technical and manufacturer.
'
R
MR. E. DAVIES’ HOUSE.

Chestnut Hill, Pa. Edgar Seeler, Architect.
Architects.
SITE.
Godfrey,
PICTURESQUE
&
Cleveland
ITS
TO
SUITED
ADMIRABLY
491.)
HOUSE
and
A
490
pages
GAVITT.—
also
AND
(See
WHEELER
MISSES
THE
OP
HOUSE
Mass
“GANGMOOR,”
Gloucester,
East

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'

THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD CO.

11-15 East 24.TH St., New York

841 Monadnock Building, Chicago

THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

January- June, 1908.

Kitchen and Its Dependent Services, The. Katharine C. Budd 463

A Painter of Interior Decoration: Charles

tural Expression in a New Material. H. Toler Booraem 249

torium. Herbert Croly 223

Vol. XXIII. No. i. JANUARY, 1908 Whole No. 112

s'. '~!-r 'V*

THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT AND THE AMERICAN PUBLIC : THE

THE CEILINGS IN THE GALLERIA DEGLI UFFIZI, FLORENCE . 39

NOTES AND COMMENTS. Illustrated . 59

Subscription (Yearly) $3.09 Published Monthly

OFFICE OF PUBLICATION: No. II EAST 24th STREET, NEW YORK CITY

The American Architect and the American

tain architect designed your building canvas. A

Copyright, 1907, by “The Architectural Record Company.” All rights reserved.

2 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

Building but small as is the lettering,

the hands of a crazy assassin. The me-

recognition to which his work had en- or of the man commemorated ;

THE McKINLEY MONUMENT— PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT delivering his address

In a modern city, especially an Ameri- erty. Let it be a monument of but one

impeachable, and for all to see one that

A NATIONAL EMBLEM OF LIBERTY. 7

nection with wars or persons. It is easy thesis of Hellenism, creations of an art

GERASA (DJE’RASH) — THE COLONY ARCH (SYRIA).

IO THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

PATARA (LYCIA) CITY ARCH.

made of it the Pompeii of Africa. The guarding the southern borderland of

ATTALEIA (AD ALIA), ARCH OF HADRIAN (ASIA MINOR).

AOSTA (PIEDMONT), COLONY ARCH OF AUGUSTUS.

H THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

capital or metropolis of a province by great historic wrong done a century ear-

i8 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

In 209 A. D. under Septimius Severus, What were these symbolic works of

with the arch. universal empire by Assyria, Persia and

ARCH OF THE SERGII (COLONY ARCH) AT POLA IN ISTRIA.

ATHENS, COLONY ARCH OF HADRIAN.

the genius of the Parisian people. He Longchamps (Longus Campus) founded

22 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

*&?•'* ‘ .»•<> J vtj&sg: 1,

fe||S pp f5r^A £*$»*!

THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE BEFORE THE TRANSFORMATION.

THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE AFTER THE TRANSFORMATION.

working people of Paris. manner, with some suggestion of the

THE PLACE DE LA CONCORDE. The Avenue de TObservatoire shows

30 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

Second Empire was CONCLUSION.

tion in the Service d’Architecture. He from distant sources. He completely re-

Paris, France. SQUARE LOUIS XVI.

Paris, France. SQUARE SAINT JACQUES.

Paris, France. SAINTE CLOTILDE.

•genius, and hands were clean. He was

DECORATIVE CEILING OF THE UFFIZI GALLERIES.

40 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

DBCORATIVE CEILING OF THE UFFIZI GALLERIES.

&?•' ‘ .»•<> J vtj&sg: 1,

fe||S pp f5r^A £$»!